Chapter 4
CHAPTER
FOUR
RISK
Snow crunches under my boots as I walk from my bike to the place where Fault prepares the carcass.
His movements have changed since I first arrived. He’s slower. He doesn’t want to spook me.
Fault is the scariest of us. But that’s just because he’s big… bigger than any other Sian man I’ve heard of, let alone met.
Most of the women at Margot’s are terrified of him. Half of the men, too.
But I’m not.
“You didn’t need to come,” he says, not irritated, just stating fact.
“I know.”
It’s Kilo’s day off, so our patrol area and Fault’s have shifted together to fill the gap. And if an incursion pops up, I always like to come out. It gives me an excuse to check in on him.
“How are things in your sector?”
“Quiet.” He ties the cavrinskh together. Not much of it is left, so I doubt he’ll take it to Trench.
“Arc found a new Earth flick I think you’d like. Humans in space, thinking they have a chance against a bunch of bugs.”
“They win, of course,” he says, picking up a handful of snow and scrubbing it on his suit leg. “The hero gets the girl and they save the universe?”
“Something like that.”
“Send it over. I’ll put it on the list.”
I don’t know if he ever watches them, but I’ll keep sending them.
“Has anyone taken any big bites out of you lately?”
He makes a show of looking at his hands. The missing finger wasn’t from a bite, but the chunk out of the side of his palm was from a beak.
“Nothing permanent for a while.”
“Do you need anything?”
“No, this one was by itself.” He looks at the cavrinskh. “And it’s all wrapped up.”
“And that’s not what I was asking.”
“I know. But the answer’s the same.”
“You should put in for a bondmate… might be nice to have someone you like asking these kinds of questions.”
His jaw flexes and mine does too.
“Oh.” Drift has told him he can’t.
Sometimes I don’t have to ask a question to get an answer. Sometimes knowing by accident is worse.
Fault knows what I know. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t ever seem happy to see me.
But Drift and I disagree on a lot of things, and isolating Fault is one of them.
“Seen anything strange since the crash?” I change the topic, looking out at the peaks of the inner caldera.
Fault watches me. “Kind of.”
“Want to share?”
He doesn’t. But he will anyway.
“It has not escaped my notice that Arc isn’t making his usual rounds. Is he injured?”
“No. We just finally found a reason to convince him to stay home.”
“Must be a real temptation.” He glances in the direction of our outpost. “I would bet I’m not the only one who’s noticed… in case that’s something you three want to get ahead of.”
“And what do you think we need to get ahead of?”
“I don’t know, and Drift wouldn’t want me to know, but… make sure he does know what it is.”
“Kimba’s aware.”
Nodding, he lifts the cavrinskh up like it’s no heavier than a pillow and heads for his bike.
“You should come to the next meeting.”
He pauses and looks back at me over his shoulder.
“You know I can’t. And you know why, too.” Turning to face me, he says, “Don’t make trouble where none exists… or Drift might exile you from them as well.”
“If Arc hasn’t been kicked out yet, there’s nothing I can do to make that happen.”
He grimaces. “There’s nothing any of you can do.”
Because Drift isn’t scared of Fault’s size… he’s scared of where Fault came from.
But Fault’s kept our secrets for years. I won’t ever betray his.
He leaves me, standing alone in the middle of Kilo’s sector, looking after him. It hasn’t been long enough for most of the brothers to notice Arc’s broken his routine. But Fault is right. They will.
Getting on my own bike and heading back to our outpost, I don’t know what he’ll decide to do when I mention it.
He doesn’t want to be away from her. None of us do.
But, we are going to have to find a balance when she’s decided to stay.
I don’t know if Shock’s seen that future yet, but I know, more certainly than I have known anything in my life, she’s meant to be here with us.
Chrys and Shock aren’t back yet when I pull into the garage, and Arc doesn’t need to hear my thoughts, so I don’t leave the garage once my bike is put away and the fuel cells are safely stowed in their charging stations.
Our outpost has something the others don’t…
because we don’t have thermal pools or conduits, the lowest level of the outpost is big enough for a fabrication shop.
In my down time, I use working here as an excuse to wait for Arc to get back.
From the workbench, I can see the door that opens into the caldera.
Today… Today I have something different in mind.
Pulling down pipes and setting up the torch, I lay out the structure before I start to weld. I don’t need to measure… the dimensions come to mind at will.
I’ll work until the others are back, and then I’ll force Arc to hear my thoughts again and see how well, or poorly, he takes them.
ARC
I don’t like that they’re not back yet.
I don’t like that I don’t know how long it should take for them to get back.
They’re probably completely within the reasonable timeline… but not knowing makes me want to crawl out of my skin.
I need a distraction, and Risk has chosen to stay downstairs, so there’s only one readily available.
Pulling the next delivery out of the drone drop, I dial the number for Drift’s CSS contact.
The Continental Security Service doesn’t bother us most of the time, but we do fall under their purview as far as the governing bodies are concerned, so some sort of a liaison was necessary.
My brief interactions with him have never been… bad, but I’ve also never voluntarily spent time around him when I might be subject to his unfiltered thoughts.
Let’s hope that isn’t a problem.
When the call connects, Riann doesn’t look at me. “What can I help the brotherhood with this time?”
I can’t hear his thoughts through the comm—that is its own kind of blessing—but I’ve heard them enough in the past to know he’s not annoyed by my call. He’s just tired of the other parts of his job.
Bureaucracy is only amusing to a specific set of people; he isn’t one of them.
Honestly, dealing with us seems to be a perk, not a punishment.
“You’re headed to Calisan tomorrow.” It’s not a question. Kimba wouldn’t get something like that wrong.
“That was the plan.” He scowls at something and then I hear the sound of typing on a different screen.
“I’ll tag along, if you don’t mind.” And then, because this isn’t a question either, “Or even if you do.”
This time, he does look at me. Eyes narrowed, he says, “It’s not really in your jurisdiction.”
It doesn’t feel like an argument so much as a reminder.
“Whatever is going on, it has something to do with us and with the Shadow Zone. If you want me to go on my own…”
I’m not serious, but he doesn’t know that.
“No.” Riann squares his shoulders and grimaces. “Meet me at my office tomorrow morning. I’ll send the time and address.”
“I’ll be there.”
“And come in civilian clothing. It’s a quiet town, full of quiet people. They’ll take one look at you and run screaming for the safety of their homes.”
“I can do that.” Margot has an unspoken rule that we shouldn’t come in our suits, so I do have other clothes. “Anything else?”
“I don’t suppose I can get you to leave your guns at home?”
“No chance.”
“It was worth asking.” He huffs a laugh, shaking his head. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
When he disconnects, I immediately call Drift to let him know and when he answers, I wonder if he knows Kilo is lounging on the couch behind him, eating borelon clusters straight out of the box.
The fact that he doesn’t bring up Chrys tells me he might.
“It does mean I may miss the meeting.” The next one is the day after tomorrow, and if we run into problems, I don’t want anyone to expect me.
“Understood.”
When he hangs up, I finish unpacking the latest and last—for now—order… something I could not do while on a call with either of them.
The chocolate would be fine… the other boxes would not.
I may have gone a little overboard. One sucks, one vibrates, one has a pump to make it bigger if needed. One might as well be an exact replica of Risk’s. I chuckle as I gather up the boxes and take them to my room—to her room.
And once I’ve set them on the table beside the bed and put the bottle of cleaner in the bathroom… I don’t have anything else to do.
But there is a small mountain of clothes to fold and that will have to occupy me for the moment.