Chapter 7 #2
Not many did. Only the original builders.
And Gus.
Seeing Caius’s sidelong look, Gus expanded. “They were left off the station blueprints.”
Gus had found that a lot had been left off those blueprints. Most people weren’t as curious or paranoid as her. They didn’t feel a relentless need to explore their surroundings until they knew every nook and cranny of their new home. Nor were they privy to the unheard voices of plants.
When Gus kept hearing murmurs that didn’t make sense, she knew she had to discover the reason. That search led her to a secret tunnel system more expansive than anyone on Titan would ever suspect. One that went well beyond the smuggler tunnels that were something of an open secret.
“Why would they do that?” Caius asked.
“Who knows?”
Whatever the reason, Gus was grateful. If not for this tunnel system, they would have had a much more difficult time escaping.
“They’ll have some idea of where we disappeared. You’re not afraid of them discovering your bolt hole?”
“No.”
Gus could have explained, but she didn’t feel like it.
This was already more conversation than she’d had in over a decade.
Their pursuers could search for as long as they wanted.
They wouldn’t discover their escape hatch.
By now, the stack of crates would have slid back into place, once again concealing the tunnel.
But, by some miracle, if their enemies did discover it, Gus and the other two would be long gone. Disappeared into the bowels of the station.
Sensing eyes on her, Gus looked up to find Caius staring. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Gus scowled but let it go. “We have a long way to go. Let me know if either of you needs to stop and rest.”
“Will do.” To Gus’s surprise, Caius didn’t fall back to walk with Anandra, sticking annoyingly to her side. He waited until she shot him a look to smile wide. “Where to next? I assume you have a plan.”
Gus did, but she didn’t know why he seemed so certain of that.
“I have a—friend.” Gus hesitated over the last word, finally settling on “friend” as the best, least suspicious option. “He’ll give us sanctuary until we can contact your people.”
He’d also help her find out what the hell was going on. Caius didn’t need to know that part though.
“And is this friend like you?”
Gus scowled at the Tuann. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Caius’s smile deepened into something approaching real humor. “I meant no harm. I simply wish to know if this friend is also a wanderer.”
Gus squinted but couldn’t detect any sign of a lie. “He’s human.”
“Ah,” Caius said lightly. “How intriguing.”
Gus didn’t like his tone or the way he seemed to be insinuating something.
“Why?” Gus asked, knowing she was playing into his hands and not caring.
“I was simply curious if there were other wanderers on this station.”
The emphasis he put on wanderers made it clear he meant something else.
“Not all wanderers congregate into enclaves,” Gus said defensively.
More often, they were solo travelers. Occasionally, they formed small groups. Enclaves were rare. Mostly because some of the Houses took issue with them. Usually, the more minor Houses that existed on the outskirts of the Tuann empire. Those without a planet or Mea’Ave to call their own.
Wanderer enclaves posed the most threat to them. They were competition for resources and a potential danger if the enclave ever decided to attack.
As a result, the minor Houses often conducted raids when they found an enclave in the vicinity.
“Of course not. It was a fleeting curiosity. Nothing more,” Caius purred.
Gus frowned, getting the feeling that he was humoring her but unable to point to why.
Done with this uncomfortable exchange, Gus quickened her step to leave him behind. “Keep an eye on the boy. We still have a long way to go.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when Caius finally fell back to walk with Anandra, leaving her to merciful silence at long last.
She missed her plants. When they said “I’m thirsty” or “my roots need tending” that’s exactly what they meant. None of this verbal jousting where you said one thing but meant something entirely else.
Gus and the other two pressed further into the forgotten parts of the station. Their footsteps echoing off walls covered in a patina of age and rust.
“This place is old,” Caius observed, staring into what might have once been Titan’s original control room. Before the original architects started adding to it like mad scientists determined to see how they far they could push the boundaries of physics.
“Yes,” Gus said with a quick glance at the equipment in the room.
Most of it was several decades old. Considered out of date and defunct even by a human’s standards. To a Tuann, it must seem positively prehistoric.
“The way they built this place is very odd,” Caius said.
It was. There was no arguing that.
“What do you suppose their intentions were?” Caius asked.
“I don’t know.”
And even if she did, she wouldn’t tell him. Titan was like her and her siblings. Full of secrets and loath to part with any of them.
“Can you hold out a little longer?” Gus asked Anandra, ignoring Caius’s bemusement. “It’s not much further.”
She was worried about the boy. Their destination required a rather long ascent up a less than trustworthy ladder. With how light-headed Anandra looked, that might be a problem.
They could take their chances in the station. It would certainly be easier and faster. But that brought its own host of potential problems. Gus was sure their enemies had people monitoring the cameras. They’d be noticed if they popped back onto the radar so close to where they disappeared.
Better to wait and re-enter on one of the upper levels where it would be easier to blend in with the crowd.
Anandra glanced at Caius first, waiting until he received the okay before nodding. “I can do it.”
Caius shot Gus a smile. “You heard him. He’s fine.”
“He better be. If he falls, he’s your responsibility.”
Gus wasn’t going to waste her energy on someone with no concept of their own limits.
Harsh. But, in Gus’s experience, that was life.
“Wait here,” Gus told the other two a couple hours later as they lingered on the periphery of deck sixteen.
The slums, as locals called it.
The roughest part of the station. Where homeless congregated in bays once meant for other things.
Those who could secure a room down here were usually connected in some way.
Either to the pirate clans that used Titan as a base of operations or the information guilds that had a strong presence on the station.
It was a dangerous, lawless place that most visitors tried to avoid.
If Gus had her preference, she wouldn’t have brought Anandra and Caius here, but desperation made for strange bedfellows.
Also, this was where her contact had chosen to set up shop.
Gus plunged into the teeming mass of people, careful to avoid the child pickpockets roaming freely in the halls. Feral things who would shiv you as soon as look at you.
Stopping at one of the transient stalls obstructing the pathway, Gus scanned their wares, choosing a bright red and orange woven jacket with a hood. The largest she could find. She swiped a pay chip over the stall’s scanner before making her way back to the other two.
“Put these on,” Gus ordered, handing Caius the jacket.
It wasn’t large enough, Gus realized unhappily a moment later when the arm and chest area strained around Caius’s overlarge muscles.
“What are they feeding you?” Gus muttered.
Who needed muscles that big?
No one. That’s who.
Caius arched an eyebrow. “Most women appreciate my physique.”
Gus barely held back her snort. “Next time you need saving, perhaps you should go find one of them then.”
For half a second, Gus debated handing over her cloak. But nope. She wasn’t the one who’d exercised so much that even the largest sized clothing available was unable to contain his bulging majesty. He could stay looking like an overstuffed sausage. People would just assume he was vain.
Caius drew a few strange looks as he and Anandra followed her onto the concourse. Most of the humans they passed were careful to give him a wide berth, but Gus noticed several young toughs along the wall eying him like fresh meat, trying to gage their odds of coming out the winner in a brawl.
After a moment, they shook their heads, moving off as they decided Caius was more trouble than he was worth.
“At least someone appreciates my muscles,” Caius purred next to her ear.
Gus shrugged him off. “More like, they’re leery of your possible affiliation.”
As small fish in a small pond, these boys survived by being careful about who they preyed upon. Due to Caius’s size and the way he moved—like someone aware of his surroundings—they probably assumed he belonged to one of the floor gangs or pirate clans.
If these boys knew the truth, that Caius was alone and injured, they wouldn’t have hesitated to accost them.
In fact, that might still happen.
Not wanting to chance it, Gus hurried Caius and Anandra along. Thankfully, no one stopped them or tried to pick a fight with Caius, allowing the rest of the journey to pass peacefully.
It wasn’t long before they reached their destination. A restaurant in a little visited corner of deck sixteen that operated out of one of the cargo bays.
Natalie’s was a staple of the slums. One of the few places to stay in business despite the rampant vandalism that was a daily part of life for most other businesses on the level.
For some reason, no one ever touched Natalie’s.
Gus had never been able to figure out why.
Though she suspected it might have something to do with Kevin, Kyle’s brother.
She’d heard whispers that he was a highly sought after art and jewel thief.
Any time there was a high profile heist in the Consortium, people on Titan blamed his crew.
The one thing she was certain of was that he had ties to Cronus, either the gang or its leader. Gus had never been able to ascertain which. That connection was likely the reason behind Natalie’s untouchable status. No one on station crossed that gang or its leader lightly.
“You brought us all the way up here for food?” Caius asked with a slight frown.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Gus said, moving toward the restaurant. “The food is just a bonus.”