Chapter 15 #2
After the threats she’d just made, Gus didn’t trust them not to try to kill her once they got her away from the station.
They probably wouldn’t succeed if they came at her face-to-face, but if they decided to blow up the ship with her and their person inside, there would be little she could do to save herself.
Cronus frowned. “That’s suicide.”
“Send the location. I’ll take it from there,” Gus said, already making plans.
Cronus’s lackeys stood firm, not giving way as Gus moved toward them.
“Are we going to have a problem?” Gus asked.
And here she’d thought they’d cleared up their issues.
Cronus made a frustrated face and waved her people off. “You should know—wizards arrived on station an hour ago.”
“Your information is out of date,” Gus informed her.
The Tuann had been on Titan for days now.
“I don’t think so. These wizards had the Phoenix with them.”
Kira.
“Are you sure?”
Gus doubted her sister would have wanted to be recognized. She would have tried to disguise her movements if possible.
Cronus’s smile was difficult to read. “Oh, yeah. Me and that woman go way back. Some of my people saw her getting into a bar fight with some pirates in Cat Three.”
“Which clan were the pirates from?” Gus asked.
Kira couldn’t already be on the trail of Belladonna, could she?
“We didn’t recognize the clan. Probably a group of upstarts. They won’t last long if they’re picking fights with the Phoenix though.”
Gus felt a headache coming on.
The likelihood of it being Belladonna was good. Kira’s tendency for being in the exact wrong place at the exact right time was a well-known phenomenon among the forty-three.
“Then I guess I’d better hurry,” Gus said.
Leaving the restaurant behind, Gus noticed that the slum’s residents, apparently deciding the danger had passed, had emerged from their hiding places to resume business as usual.
Brave of them. Though Gus supposed she couldn’t fault them for their assumptions.
Now that she and Cronus had come to an agreement, the chances of fallout spilling onto them were far less.
Skirting a few of the food carts in the process of setting up shop, Gus accessed her scroll.
“Brooks,” Gus said and waited.
A moment later, he answered. “What do you want?”
“I have a job for you.”
Silence.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass. I’m in the middle of something.”
Gus looked down at the scroll around her wrist, unsurprised to find that Brooks had disabled the video feature from his end.
“The accountant has betrayed us,” she declared.
There was a curse.
“That slimy bastard. I told you he was going to be a problem.”
Yes, he had. Gus thought she’d had a grasp on Kyle’s weaknesses and could control him. Her mistake.
All water under the bridge now.
A set of youths passed Gus, paying her a little too much attention. She stopped to eye them, not looking away until they were out of sight. Only then did she start walking again.
“This thing you’re in the middle of. It wouldn’t happen to have something to do with a group impersonating Belladonna, would it?”
There was a pause.
“Nothing gets past you, does it?” Brooks drawled.
The corners of Gus’s lips tilted upward. She knew it. “Do you know where their hideout is?”
“Vaguely. I should know more soon. They’ve got something big in the works. Word is we’re heading back to home base after.”
Gus fought a sense of disappointment. She’d hoped for better news. Perhaps she’d been a little hasty in spurning Cronus’s offer.
A second later, she shook off that thought. Her reasons for turning Kyle’s mom down were sound.
“Activate your beacon,” Gus ordered, spotting one of the hidden entrances to the secret tunnel system up ahead.
“You finally making a move?” Brooks teased.
“They took something from me. I want it back.”
Brooks didn’t need to know that something was an actual person. Or that “they” were in fact her siblings. He had his instructions. That should be enough.
“You should know there’s a troublesome presence on Titan,” Brooks drawled.
“Are you referring to the Phoenix?”
“You’ve heard, then,” Brooks said with some surprise.
Kind of hard not to. She had a feeling that before the day was through news would have worked its way through every information guild on Titan. Kira’s hopes of anonymity were fast vanishing.
“Did you also hear about her companions?”
Gus got a cagey look on her face. “I may have.”
“Funny, isn’t it? Kind of makes you wonder who exactly the Phoenix really is.”
Gus didn’t have to wonder. She already knew so much more than she ever wanted to. None of which she could share. Not without painting more of a target on her back than was already there.
“I’ll be waiting for your notification,” she said, changing the subject.
“Of course. I’ll send word once we’re on the move. See you soon, boss.”
Gus stared down at the scroll in aggravation as he hung up. “He knows I hate being called that.”
No matter how many times she corrected him, he insisted on using that title. As if he knew something no one else did.
Taking one last look at the corridors behind her to make sure no one was watching, Gus disappeared into the secret tunnels.