Chapter 16 #3
Renner frowned. “He says he can’t because people depend on him. I think he means the Minder Corps staff and ex-Jumpers he treats on the side.”
Soleil nodded like she’d expected the answer. “We’ll evac to the studio and decide from there.”
Fish, the shark-sharp girl from class, spoke over the earwire. “Crew got comms like us, but no spy eyes. They naughts to me ‘cept one low-frac cash-troller.”
She probably meant Helios, the ramper from the Canals who took freelance debt collection jobs when he wasn’t skulking around with conspirators. Not surprising she didn’t recognize the others.
Soleil tapped her earwire. “Good. All three of you, back to the aircar. I’m going up top.” She caught Renner’s eye. “Do the hauler now.”
She shrugged her hood forward and strode off south around the corner.
He lowered his own hood and leaned into the corner of the recess. The camo cloak over his coat did its job and picked up the pattern, hiding him from casual glances. The cold and annoying sleet made him wish he hadn’t left his gloves in Soleil’s flitter.
Out of caution, he powered down his percomp and earwire, then found the ground hauler with his talent.
He infiltrated tendrils of talent into its systems. The driver had left it fully powered, making his task a lot easier.
The conspirator crew had apparently been taking turns walking outside and sitting in the toasty hauler.
The simplest way to disable the vehicle would be to drain the energy storage, but he’d have to offload that much charge to the neighborhood grid and batteries, where the surge might set off alarms. Not to mention the lights under the road glass might halo, which would be visible in the pre-dawn shadows.
He probed the hauler’s systems until he found the one he’d hoped for. Using his talent, he diverted the power flow intended for the tread motivators and sent it to the environmental controls instead. His talent caused the diversion, so the hauler would roll normally as soon as he let it go.
He powered up and tapped his earwire. “Done. The three people in the hauler all have small power weapons.”
Since he was using his talent anyway, he drained the most powerful weapon’s charge and fed it through the solar collector system to the hauler’s batteries. He left the other two weapons alone. One drained beamer was bad luck. Three would be a memorable coincidence.
At three blocks away, the joyhouse was beyond his detailed detection limit, so he’d have to trust the others to take care of Haseem.
Instead, he felt around for closer life signatures.
The building he leaned against held a few people scattered throughout, but the only unlucky people outside were conspirators and Jumpers.
And one smaller signature, coming his way.
Fish, dressed in a too-big gray-and-brown coat, slipped into the building recess and snugged herself into the corner opposite him.
She took off her earwire and looked up at him. “I’m not a null.”
He raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“I feel you, here.” She pointed to her chest. “Sifter, me. Secret, like you. Like Haseem. Like Arco.” Her chin tilted toward the street. “Crew has sifter, two rampers, shielder, and a teke. Jumpers don’t know how to fight them.”
A hard choice for a twelve-year-old. Help her friends or keep her talent secret. He lived that choice every day.
He tapped his earwire and spoke aloud so she could hear what he said to the Jumpers. “Fish is with me. She remembered that the cash-troller glides with a minder crew. Aren’t shy about using their talents.”
“We brought stunners.” Soleil’s tone beeped twice, signaling a private conversation. “Send Fish back to the aircar, or the other kids will come looking for her.”
He sank into a crouch, putting him closer to Fish’s eye level, and pulled off his own earwire. “The Jumpers have stunners. They flatline minder talents for a while. Have you been tested?”
Central Galactic Concordance law required all citizens to be tested for minder talents at ages twelve and seventeen at a CPS Testing Center. His unique talent hadn’t registered at all, but that was because he’d glitched their equipment during the tests. Even back then, the CPS scared him.
Fish frowned. “Yah. They said I’m null.” Resentment threaded through her tone.
“Good. Stay null next time, too. The CPS sucks slime.” He thought back to the various sifters Davidro had acquired. “Read up on human neurochem. That’s how the Academy trains sifters for the Minder Corps.”
He put his earwire back on and motioned to Fish to do the same. “Your rrōpu will worry.” In Ridderth slang, it meant unrelated people who looked after each other like family.
A moment later, Soleil’s tone demanded attention. “A window just opened, and we’re taking it. Crew just sent two for breakfast. Fourth is headed to the hauler to get warm. Gamma team is green-go for the south exit.”
The edge of his talent said someone was moving steadily toward them. Too slow to be anything but on foot. And familiar. Shukra, the conspirator who had first endorsed Be’un’s plan.
He stood up and caught Fish’s eye. “Jet now. Trouble coming.” He pointed up the street to the north. “Trained sifter and empath. She’ll feel you if you can’t contain.”
Fish’s narrow-eyed look said he was in for probing questions later, but she did as he ordered and took off toward the south and disappeared.
His hope that Shukra would walk on by was dashed when she crossed the street directly toward his location. Her only powered weapon was a shockstick.
She slowed as she approached his doorway. “Chalio. I know you’re there. Let’s talk.”
“About what?” He stayed where he was and delicately flicked the power off in her percomp, and for good measure, in her earwire. Flatlining them would be too obvious.
She edged closer to the recess. “Be’un hoped you’d come back.”
The problem with being telepath-immune was that he couldn’t feel it when minders tried to assault him. But it was even odds that’s what was putting the sound of effort in Shukra’s voice.
“We all hoped, actually.” Her voice definitely sounded strained.
He was about to tell her to sod off when Soleil’s tone sounded in his earwire. “Keep her talking for a minute.”
“Yeah. Right.” He stretched the moment, trying to think of what to say. “Why does Be’un want me?”
Shukra eased into view. “Your fire. Your talent, whatever it is. I’ve never come across anything like it.” The expensive snow hood kept her head and face dry, but couldn’t improve the obscuring weather. “Can I come under?”
He shrugged one shoulder.
She stepped forward, only to slip and stumble into him. She grabbed onto his shoulder.
He shrugged her off, then crossed his arms and glared at her. Telepaths thought they were so fucking clever.
She backed away with a jerk. “Bee was right. You’re dangerous.”
A flash of insight hit him, and the rage monster stirred in his core. “You used Lunesti as bait to get me.”
A flush arose in her face. “You didn’t tell us you work for journalists.” She huffed with righteous condemnation.
“So?”
When she didn’t answer, he nearly gave himself a headache trying not to roll his eyes. “If that’s a sample of your crew’s competence, I’m lucky to be out.”
“We are not a crew!” Outrage twisted her face.
How did Charrascos have the patience to talk with people like this every day? “Fine. Tell your charity or láng qún society or whatever you’re calling yourselves that no means no. That goes for both Lunesti and me.”
“I didn’t want to have to do it this way.” She tapped her earwire and subvocalized a few words. Before she realized it wasn’t working, he punched her jaw with a fast uppercut. Her head thumped hard on the wall, and her eyes fluttered. He lunged forward to catch her before she fell.
Soleil spoke in his earwire. “Chatting isn’t your ace, I see.”
“No.” He subvocalized because he could. Another skill he’d regained after getting free of the motherfucking collar and the hideous layers of scars it created. “If we’re done, I’m leaving her here. She won’t freeze.”
“Two questions. Will the crew’s failed assault bring trouble to the studio?”
“Not that I know of.” He deeply appreciated that she hadn’t asked for details. Better that they all thought it was an ad hoc crew recruiting for a solo heist.
“Second question. Can you leave town for a while?”
“As a matter of fact, I’m going off planet with Charrascos for a couple of ten-days.” He’d lost track of time, but it was still morning, and the shuttle didn’t leave until the afternoon. “Is Haseem safe?”
“He just took off. Come on up. Don’t forget to fix the hauler.”
“Debt owed.” He didn’t know how he’d pay, but he would.
“Debt canceled. He’s our friend, too. Keep Arco safe and come back to class.” A stutter tone signaled the end of the conversation.
He lowered Shukra’s inert body until she was on the ground, slumped in the recessed doorway. In his former life, she’d be dead. It felt good to have the choice to leave her alive, even though she and the others were sodding, zift-for-brains amateurs.
Pulling his hood down to cover his face, he headed north as he withdrew his talent from the crew’s ground hauler.
He hiked northwest toward the building where Soleil had parked on the roof.
Reaching under his hood, he reattached his personal earwire in his free ear, then powered his percomp and synced it to the net.
Messages from Charrascos’s security team came flooding in. Tapio had decided to leave early. They needed Brenner now. Charrascos was draggy and out of it, but still going. She needed all the protection she could get.
Despite the slick footing, he launched into a run as he pinged Soleil on her secure net.
“Jumpers all know how to fly, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Do you know someone with a ship who can get me up to the Mabingion Space Station in the next two hours?”