Chapter 17 #2
But when we step into the lift, I punch the button for the hundredth floor instead of the garage and she glances at me with quirked brows.
“We’re going to talk to a friend… it’s easier to just take the train instead of going all the way down to the car, driving half way across the city and then coming all the way back up.” I tug her closer. “And you’ll get to see the city from the top.”
“Okay, sounds fun.” She unzips the back of the fuzzy creature at her side and puts the new medication inside it with a jumble of other things.
The one hundredth floor of this building—like all of the buildings throughout the whole city, except the transit tower—is dedicated to the sky trains. When I lead Chrys through the waiting areas to the train that has just pulled into the west side terminal, she asks, “Do we need to buy a ticket?”
“No, they’re operated by the city. Passengers ride free.”
“The longer I’m here, the less it feels like you guys have money. Everything feels free.”
“It’s not, but I get it.”
I take her to one of the sets of seats that looks out the window instead of straight ahead and she hums a happy little sound as we pull away from the building.
“It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights.” But she sits closer to me than she might normally and I’m not mad about it.
“Shock showed me some of the art before. But this definitely gives you a great view of it.”
“They just finished that flower garden that looks like a zurgle,” I tell her, pointing down to it. “I think Kissu would agree they could have chosen a more handsome model if they’d only asked him.”
She laughs and drops her head to my shoulder, “He probably would.”
The train takes us through four buildings before I stand and help her up too. Once we step inside of the building that houses Riann’s office, she shuffles a little closer.
The station is almost empty. It does give a sort of ghostly feel to it. As soon as we cross into Riann’s office, I know she hates it.
White.
Lifeless.
Boring.
“Welcome back,” he says to me before turning to Chrys. “And you must be the woman who fell out of the sky.”
“That’s me,” she says with a little wave. “I’m Chrys.”
“Riann.” He dips his head. “It is very nice to meet you, dajzha.”
“Did you just move in?”
He blinks at her for a moment and then looks around the room with her. “Ah, no. But I try to be here as little as possible. Leaving it like this helps give me incentive to leave whenever I can.”
“Okay.”
Riann looks at me, brow ridges quirked in confusion before he looks back at her. “You don’t like that answer.”
“I don’t like your office,” she says with an apologetic smile.
“I don’t either.”
I look at the floor and make sure I’m not going to laugh before I say, “We came to ask if you’d found anything new?”
He has, but telling me won’t be easy this time either.
“I’ve confirmed with Noa that the escape pod was not original to the ship, but he can’t, or won’t tell me any more about it.” He glances at Chrys, as if distracted. “You really do love color, don’t you?”
“How could you tell?” She looks down at herself.
“There’s something you should see.”
He closes out of his work and motions for us to follow him.
Three CSS officers greet him as he walks us back through the halls. One woman and two men… all of them have propositioned him at one point or another.
“I need a break,” Riann tells us. “So you came at a perfect time.”
Back on the train, he looks out at the city.
“My mother was an artist,” he explains to Chrys as the train skims between buildings.
“I wasn’t lucky enough to know her, but my father took me to a place where I can see her any time I want.
I dragged him with me every chance I could get, and he found every excuse to let me. ”
Riann smiles out at the city. “Her work was a little too big to keep at home. All I have is a broken piece of something she never finished, but I think you’re going to love this.”
He leads us off the train and into a building I’ve never visited. It’s mostly residential units, but what he wants to show us is at the very top.
“I still come here once a week.” Riann leads us to an archway labeled ‘Gallery for the Saints.’ “It never fails to clear my head.”
Paintings of glowing beings line walls that curve away, but he ignores them, going directly to a pair of doors carved from ahrenstone.
They glow as the light behind them catches in the hollow pockets inside, and Chrys murmurs appreciatively at the sparkle, but they aren’t what he brought us here to see.
The room is empty when he ushers us in, and Chrys’ eyes go wide as she walks toward the vibrantly glowing window.
“Holy crap.”
Glass painted on glass. The window has a dozen different shades of a dozen more colors. It makes sense here, in a place meant for worship.
Swirling depictions of the saints cast those colors across the floor.
“I’ve been told to stop looking into the wreck,” Riann says quietly while Chrys walks closer, marveling at the work as it casts prisms across her. “They’ve concluded it’s a terrible accident and that is all.”
“Despite Chrys?”
“Chrys is a nightmare in our system. Women should not be able to be abducted from Earth. It puts all three of our treaties in jeopardy. If the humans think we’ll take them without contract or consent, or if the governing board loses its travel permissions through the portals…
” He shudders and doesn’t mention the third problem… whatever it is.
“In all of our records, Chrys came here with the Agency. Her paperwork has been backfilled. Her fees have been paid. I’ve seen documents signed by her.”
Even if I didn’t know, I could guess. “They took her signature from work documents, didn’t they?”
“Yes.” He takes a deep breath and watches Chrys appreciate his mother’s work. “Something is wrong and I want to tell you more, but I can’t. The only reason I can tell you what I have, here, is because you could figure it out on your own if you’d taken the time to look.”
“I appreciate the information you can give me.” I don’t like any of it. “I know you could have told me to get lost instead.”
He glances at Chrys. “Honestly, Mary might bring it up the next time they talk, so you might want to make sure she’s aware.”
“I will.”
“Good. Something is wrong,” he says again, like he can’t get it out of his head. “Something that’s going to be more trouble than the Company. I can feel it… I just can’t prove it.”
CHRYS
Back in the car, I feel Risk’s struggle mix with my own. I feel when he decides not to fight it.
He drags me into his lap and kisses me, and I can’t find it in myself to scold him.
We’re supposed to be taking a break.
But kissing him feels right.
It feels perfect.
It would be so easy to get lost here with him, drowning in the delight of his lips and the satisfaction in our bond.
He holds my face, keeping me close and holding me back at the same time. “I need a minute,” he says. “Just to breathe.”
It’s a horrible idea, but, “We could go to Margot’s.”
“We could,” he takes another deep breath and laughs as he lets it go. “But we’d never leave.”
“Shock and Arc would come get us eventually.”
“And then they’d be stuck too.” He draws his thumb along my lip. “Margot would wind up kicking us out. Can you imagine the four of us standing in the parking lot, holding our clothes against us, kicked out of Margot’s?”
I smile against his lips. “You’re right. Too dangerous. Better not chance it.”
But what I mean is, let’s go do our last errand so we can go home.
And I think he knows it. He gets me back in my seat, but before we go, he asks for my bag.
Carefully unzipping the frankenbunny’s back and getting the bottle out, he cracks it open, breaking the safety seal.
When he pours them out onto his palm, they’re a pale pink disc. “They don’t look like the one I took before.”
“They’re not. This time, it’s exactly what they said it was going to be.”
“Okay. I guess we’ll find out how well they work tomorrow.”
He nods instead of telling me we’ll be fine. I don’t love that, but he doesn’t tell me it’s going to go poorly either as he pulls out of the parking garage.
Less than five minutes later we’ve parked again and walk into the zurgle cafe hand in hand.
The same woman who waited on Mary and me last time is working today.
“Hello again!” She looks past us both and then scowls. “I was hoping you’d have a friend for me to meet.”
“Not this time. I would definitely call ahead before I just dropped by with a lion.” I laugh as I stop at the counter, looking at the case of pre-bagged zurgle treats.
“Did you find out how old he is?” Paisley leans on the counter and honestly… She sounds stressed.
Something about how pushy she sounds makes me lie. “No. Still a mystery.”
Zurgles swarm around Risk, sniffing and crawling up him soliciting pets, and he gives in to their demands.
“Can I get a bag of those ones?” I ask, pointing without touching the glass. They look the biggest, and they’re shaped like cute Earth fish.
She pulls the bag from the case, watching Risk like she’s never seen zurgles react like that.
“Is something wrong?” I look at him too.
“No, I’m just wondering how I’m going to keep all of them from trying to go home with you. They like him.”
I hum an agreement, smiling. When she looks at me funny I ask, “Is there a reason they shouldn’t like him?”
“They probably smell Kissu.” Risk plucks a tiny pink one from his shoulders and snuggles it before telling it, “I have to go now, go play.”
There are some reluctant chirps among the purring, but they do as they’re told, after they each get one last bit of love. Scattering into the cafe, they disappear under tables, up into the catwalks overhead and off to beds, content.
The waitress looks concerned, but she rings up the treats and takes the payment Risk transfers and tells us to have a good day.
“That was weird,” I whisper, even though we’re outside and half way back to the car.
“It was.”
I’m glad I’m right about that, not just being paranoid.