Chapter 12
Renner surreptitiously moved his shoulders in slow circles, trying to release the tension.
On the city’s architectural design plans, the Arazak business district’s elevated, five-meter-wide covered walkways probably looked like an elegant solution to protect pedestrians from ground and air traffic.
In real life, it felt like scurrying through a giant rodent habitat. He hoped her visit to her journalist colleagues would be quick.
He’d expected Charrascos to flame him for how rudely he’d handled Olavskaya’s probing. In his experience, polymaths thought they were the fucking universe’s gift to an ungrateful galaxy.
Instead, she’d pulled him aside to apologize for putting him in that position. She believed Olavskaya had belatedly become worried that she’d revealed too much to people who could be vulnerable to telepathic probes.
It made him feel doubly guilty for not telling her he’d recently recovered a memory fragment from before the accident.
She’d been laughing, surrounded by people, the center of their attention.
After thinking about it, he realized the Ridderth street location and his vantage point meant he’d been stalking her.
Davidro only sent him out alone for kill jobs.
If he told her, she’d terminate his contract, which would ruin his plans. Even though she talked to people everywhere she went and made him feel things he didn’t have words for, she was worth keeping alive. Her work had a good chance of inflicting serious, long-lasting damage to the CPS.
Walking with her now toward the offices of the local media company, he kept his talent primed and his eyes on their surroundings. Even in her long shapeless coat and the enveloping gray scarf that hid her currently shock-white, spiked hair, she drew attention. Or his, at least.
Tōn Ko paced a couple of meters behind, taking advantage of his height to look for trouble ahead.
After leaving the professor’s flat, Brenner ordered N’Dwama to pilot the flitter to a restaurant. Once they’d eaten lunch, he’d left her there with the flitter while he and the rest of the team walked Charrascos to her nearby destination.
Charrascos had attributed Olavskaya’s parting comment about sifters to a forecaster’s trick of using oblique language to nudge their chess pieces, otherwise known as all other humans. The whole team heard it through their security monitors.
Renner, on the other hand, had years of experience working with a flawed genius of a forecaster in Davidro’s circus.
He took the words at face value and decided to keep any sifters — including N’Dwama — away from Charrascos until he sourced some emergency jets of inhib.
And make her start wearing flexin armor underwear like it was her personal, all-hours devotion to the gods of security.
Minan’s voice came through his earwire. “Target is in the middle of the block, north side, beyond the gold sculpture. Top level is the roof. Ground level has a single door, no windows. Lots of security tech. Flitter landed on the roof ten minutes ago. Quiet for a retail district, but maybe it picks up at night.”
He tapped his earwire and subvocalized. “Hang on.”
Stepping closer to Charrascos, he caught her eye. “Do we have confirmation and codes for your visit?”
“Yes.” She slowed to a stop and squinted up at him. “Would you have enough time to work your security clearance magic if I want to stop there afterward?” She tilted her head toward a corner building.
The display on the outdoor occupant registry listed multiple names. The third one down was XRAC, the volunteer crisis response organization.
She pulled her scarf forward to shade her eyes from the sun. “I don’t have a contact yet, but it’s on our way, and the sign indicates they’re open to the public.”
He stopped himself from reflexively nodding his agreement, like he would have done to keep the peace with his old boss. Adapting his instincts for a new one was still a work in progress. It was gratifying that Charrascos actually listened when he expressed his opinion.
He tapped his earwire, but spoke aloud so Charrascos could hear, since she didn’t usually monitor their closed security net. “Minan, check out the gray half-dome at the Y2C intersection. Exits, security, layout, dieven. Target is third floor, XRAC.”
Minan laughed. “Good thing I know a little Dutch. I’ll be sure to check for thieves.”
He hadn’t known the language. “In Ridderth, dieven means anyone twisty or out of place. We’ll check in after the meeting.”
“Copy.”
He was amazed at how quickly the others had begun to act as a team. Maybe because, unlike him, they were trained professionals. It also helped that their protectee wasn’t an asshole. They all had war stories of the other kind.
The lift responded to Charrascos’s guest key code and took them up to the roof, which was mostly occupied by a heavily fortified flitter stacker. The door to the lifts looked shielded enough to withstand a military wide-array beamer.
In the media company’s lobby, bold decorations couldn’t hide the obvious purpose of the space as a defensive containment zone. He made a mental note to ask Charrascos if all media companies had hardened perimeters.
She greeted her contact, then toured the various offices and introduced herself. Fortunately, the few people who looked past her magnetic presence to notice her entourage dismissed him quickly in favor of admiring handsome Tōn Ko’s broad shoulders and tight leggings.
She talked shop, congratulated journalists on scoops, genially accepted praise for her more well-known stories, and promised to convey messages to her famous colleague, Tapio.
By the end of the forty-five-minute visit, she’d met everyone in the organization, down to the techs and guards. They looked sad to see her go.
Back outside on the giant rat raceway, she headed to a bench to sit and pull out her tablet. “Give me a minute.”
He kept watch while Tōn Ko pinged Minan for her report on their possible next stop.
Tōn Ko tapped his earwire and waited until Charrascos looked up. “Minan says it’s clear. She saw the professor and another woman walk in thirty minutes ago.”
Charrascos nodded. “No wonder I don’t have a ping from her yet.” She folded her tablet and stood, then tapped her own earwire. “Minan, did the other woman look like she’d bite my head off if I walked in unannounced?”
Minan chuckled. “I don’t know about that, but they both looked relaxed and cheerful.”
Charrascos tapped her earwire, then turned to Brenner. “I’d like to go, if you say it’s okay.”
He twitched a corner of his mouth. “It’s your head.”
Her wide grin said he’d just opened himself up for even more teasing from her, but he’d survive.
Following Minan’s instructions, they descended to street level and made their way to the building’s wide, transparent front doors.
Minan got up from the bench where she’d been seemingly engrossed in reading. “I didn’t see the professor leave, but she could have gone up top. The dome opens for flitter traffic.”
The building’s lobby didn’t have the usual automated kiosk. Instead, it had a desk, behind which sat a golden-skinned woman with frizzy brown hair. She glanced at them when they entered, but hunched over her horizontal display as they passed, clearly discouraging any interaction.
Minan glanced without turning her head as she led them to the lifts and used the wallcomp to call a capsule.
The lift let them out on the third floor. Minan walked confidently across the hall to a set of wide frosted-glass doors that glided open. Beyond was a lobby area. They all followed her lead and walked in.
A half-wall that displayed the charity’s name and logo appeared to serve as both a reception counter and a corral. The visitor side’s furniture had banks of chairs that looked like they’d been sourced from an old medical clinic waiting area.
On the other side of the wall, two men stood at the continuous counter, focused on a single large display with an opaque back.
The shorter one, pale as winter snow and looking absurdly young, looked at Charrascos. “I’m so sorry, but we’re closed.” His warm words oozed sympathetic apology.
Minan darted a glance at the still-open glass doors, but said nothing.
Charrascos nodded respectfully and pulled her scarf back. A lock of her white hair drooped over her forehead. “I had an appointment with a woman here. Professor Olavskaya.”
Renner hid his amusement at her ability to lie with the truth. She must have been around sifters.
The taller man in gray swiped fingers on the display. “Are you here for the emergency board meeting?” The accent sounded Latin.
As Charrascos started to respond, the interior door behind the two men irised open.
A tall woman didn’t wait for the doors to finish opening before thrusting her head and shoulders through.
“What’s the frellin’ holdu…” Her sharp words cut off when her eyes landed on Tōn Ko, then the rest of their party. “We’re closed.”
In his earwire, Minan’s voice whispered. “Three strikes. Dieven. Recommend retreat.”
Renner made a split-second decision and stepped closer to Charrascos. “Excuse me, but Dr. Bitehead wants you to come now.” He lifted his wrist briefly to indicate his percomp.
Charrascos froze for a microsecond, then threw her hands up in exasperation. “Oh, of course.” She waved imperiously toward the people behind the counter. “No, that’s not my meeting. I’ll reschedule.”
She spun on her heel and marched through the glass doors toward the lift.
“The galaxy apparently spins at the exalted one’s whim.
” Her fingers stabbed irritably at the lift controls.
“We mere mortals must pay proper respect to majesty and money.” Her sarcastic litany continued under her breath as she crossed her arms and glared at the lift doors.
Tōn Ko caught up to them. Minan drifted right and subtly waved a thumb.