Quaint Escapes for Traitorous Bastards: Ch. 6, Part 1

 Notes: Let's delve deeper into the day-to-day, shall we?

Title: Quaint Escapes for Traitorous Bastards: Ch. 6, Part 1

 

***

 

Chapter Six, Part One

 

Photo by Shawn Rain

A Brief Education

 

The next morning seem to come far too quickly, but at least this time Hiram was awake and downstairs when the knock on his door sounded. He was wearing a loose pair of colorful trousers he’d gotten when he was pretending to be a jongleur—one of the many side quests on his misspent youth—and a thick, fluffy cardigan in the brightest shade of gray imaginable on the top half, like a spun cloud had been shaped into a torso with some oversized sleeves popped on. It was still early enough that he could get away with the thickness of it due to the morning chill. Put a cup of tea in his hand and a rabbit across his lap, and Hiram couldn’t get much more comfortable. In fact…

“Come in,” he called out, unwilling to shift Knight from where he was resting. A moment later the door cracked open, pale light coming in with it. Then it opened enough to admit a person, and Letty stepped into the house. She was hesitant for a few seconds, but when Hiram did nothing but look at her expectantly, she got some more of her proud bearing back.

“Good morning,” he said pleasantly. “Would you care for a cup of tea?” He only had the one other cup right now, but it would do in a pinch for a few children. Speaking of… “You didn’t come alone, did you?”

“No,” Letty said with a little smile. “Most of my brothers and sisters are at school today, so I brought the ones who aren’t.” She turned and made a hand-waving motion, and then an older boy—about fourteen, likely, and lanky like a colt—and a little child no more than three came inside. “Mam’s got the baby at home, and Da’s visiting the shops today,” and the look on her face told Hiram exactly which “shop” he was going to be visiting, “so I brought Jem and Rickie with me.”

“Ah.” Hiram looked the pair over. They couldn’t be more different—Jem was every inch a teenage boy, scruffy, faintly unwashed, and with a sulky expression on his face that said he’d far rather be sleeping in than helping some vagabond at the edge of town, while Rickie was a round-faced little lad with flaxen curls and enormous hazel eyes. He had a stuffy of indeterminate species in his hands, and he wasn’t wearing any shoes. “Welcome, gentlemen.”

“What now?” Jem asked, then winced as Letty hit him on the arm.

“There’s hot water on the stove if you’d care to make yourself some tea,” Hiram said. “Just one cup until my order gets here later in the week, but there should be enough for you to refill it several times. Take all the space you need for preparing your meals for today, and other than that…” He gestured down at Knight. “Well, I would get up but I rather think he wouldn’t like it.”

“He does look very cozy,” Letty agreed with a grin.

“Can’t believe you didn’t want to eat him,” Jem said, then got another smack for it. “Ow, what? He’s huge! We could have had stew meat for a week!”

His sister’s glare had him cowing a moment later. “Knight has been behind some of our best morphs for five years,” Letty snapped. “And he never eats the babies, and he guards the other bunnies in the hutch! If any rabbit deserves a happy retirement, it’s him!”

“But I’m hungry!”

“Then eat,” Hiram interjected, and the siblings looked at him abashedly. “You did bring food, yes?”

Letty nodded. “Plenty, thank you.”

“Good. Take your time and eat your fill, and then if you’d be so kind as to get started on the hutch first, I would appreciate it.”

Letty nodded again, but Jem looked suspicious. “What’re you going to be doing all day, then?”

“Jem!”

“Making tonics,” Hiram said, refusing to take the bait. “Writing out labels for when my jars arrive. Folding envelopes to hold medicines for my clients. Sitting here with my feet up and a bunny in my lap. Whatever I want, really.” He smiled. “If you expect me to keep anything like a regular schedule, you’re going to find yourself disappointed. I…” He frowned. “Where has the little one gone?” Not upstairs, Hiram had a charm of dissuasion on the banister, and not down into the cellar…

“Oh, many heavens,” Letty sighed. “Jem, will you—”

“I’ll find him.” The boy darted outside, and Letty came closer to the chair, her eyes on Knight.

“Sorry about that. Rickie is very much a wanderer; he never stays in one place for more than a minute if he can help it. Mam’s despaired of him staying seated at school for long enough to learn his letters, even with Master Surrus keeping an eye on things.”

Ah, someone new. “Master Surrus is the town’s schoolmaster, then?”

“Yes, sir. Avery Surrus. You probably didn’t meet him on market day,” she said blithely as she reached out and ran a tender hand over Knight’s back. “He doesn’t leave home much if he’s not teaching. Always has his head in a book.”

My kind of person. “What does he look like?”

“Oh, old. I mean, not as old as you, but—” She slapped a hand over her mouth as her cheeks went pink. “I mean—”

Hiram laughed. Everything was old to a girl of fifteen, he knew. Misha had been the same way, even though he’d been a decade younger back then. You’re so old, Uncle Xerome, hurry up!

“I think he’s in his thirties,” Letty said once she’d gotten over the worst of her embarrassment. “He wasn’t born here, but he’s been our teacher for the past decade or so. He’s only really friends with Master Spindlestep, but he’s kind to everyone. Not in the best of health—he gets sick it seems like every month—but he’d a good teacher. We didn’t even have a town school before he got here, and now everyone my age and down knows how to spell and do math and say all the prayers in the original Elvish and everything.”

A friend to Master Spindlestep… Hiram’s mind went back to the man who’d walked so lightly into the tailor’s shop, and who’d startled so badly to learn that he and his friend weren’t alone. Brilliant blue eyes in a face that could have been carved from ivory, thick brown curls obscuring his forehead, and a bone-deep wariness in every line of his body. “Interesting.”

“Found him!” Jem called from outside. A moment later Rickie toddled back in, a beaming smile on his cherubic face. “Look sharp for him, I’m getting started on the hutch!” There was a moment’s silence, then— “Bring food!”

“You look sharp for him!” Letty shouted back. “It’s like having a dragon in the house,” she added with the air of someone who was used to cooking for a lot of people. “Mam can never keep him and Pom full. Pom’s twelve,” she added. “He won’t get excused from school until he’s thirteen. Mayor’s rules.”

Hiram was surprised. “I didn’t think your mayor was such a stickler for things like education,” he ventured.

“Oh, not this mayor, sir,” Letty explained as she headed to the stove, pulling several pieces of wood from the stack and fanning the flame before laying them inside. “The former mayor was a knight of Theophrastus. He believed very firmly in educating everyone, not just the lords and the like. Mayor Hurst tried to rescind the law, but the people like it so much they didn’t listen to him. Then he tried to fine people for sending their children to school and almost got his house burned down as a result, so he stopped after that.”

“Good on you,” Hiram said brightly. “A good education is invaluable.”

Letty shrugged as she took a satchel off her shoulder and began to pull vegetables from it. “Da thinks it’s a waste of time to educate us girls, but he’s the one leaving me with control of the stall on market day. Wouldn’t do much good there if I didn’t know how to handle my sums. Still, I wish…”

“What do you wish?”

She shook her head. “Nothing, sir.”

 

…

 

Outside, a small body slipped through the rotten slats of the garden wall and trotted fearlessly into the forest. His sister thought his brother was watching him; his brother assumed his sister was doing it, and Hiram didn’t know any better.

He wandered through the dappled sunlight, happy and aimless as only a child who preferred their own company could be. It was nice out here in the woods, far away from the loudness of his parents and siblings. The new house was better, but Master Hiram made him feel shy. Better to be outside where no one could see him.

He followed tree roots and animal paths, briefly paused to dunk himself in a small creek that had a school of tiny dancing fish playing in it, and then finally found the edge of the forest. He was beginning to get tired and wanted a place to sit down, and found a nice tree stump—not too tall—and pulled himself up onto it. He nestled right up next to the pretty cat lady already sitting there, then reached for one of her paws. When he pressed on it, silvery, razor-sharp claws shot out the ends of her toes.

“Ooh,” Rickie whispered.

“Child…”

He looked up at the smooth, elegant face of the cat lady. “Yes?”

She smiled at him, showing her fanged teeth. “Do you like riddles?”

 

Delayed Colony post--because BODIES, omg

 Hi Darlins,

 So I just got out of Urgent Care with a broken toe, which of all the bones to break is probably the best but still isn't pleasant, and now I'm icing and wondering how the next few weeks of intense physical activity I'd planned is going to pan out, so...I'm sorry. No Colony today. I'll have Quaint Escapes up on Thursday, but I'm just schlumping it today because meh. MEH! It was the last freaking move I did in my jiu jitsu class, naturally it had to happen right then! MEH! At least I pulled that sucker straight instead of leaving it bent at an odd angle, but still. Very uncomfortable.

So yeah. I'm sorry, but stories have been subsumed by irritation today :/ 

Quaint Escapes for Traitorous Bastards: Ch. 5, Pt. 2

 Notes: Let's bring some things together, shall we? Remember, this is light fiction, cozy fantasy, I'm not going to get all dark and depressing on you...or will I? Muhuhahahaaaaa...

Title: Quaint Escapes for Traitorous Bastards: Ch. 5, Pt. 2 

***

Chapter Five, Part Two

Photo by Roman Manshin
 

A Wise Purchase

 

Hiram didn’t like giving money to this odious man. He didn’t like the gleam that came into the brute’s eyes as he all but snatched the slips out of Hiram’s grasp, a gleam that meant every copper bit those slips could be broken out into were going to go to drink and nothing else. He loathed the fact that Letty’s father was taking advantage of everyone around him via the threat of violence, especially his own child. It was almost enough to make him want to renege on the deal—which he technically hadn’t made in the first place—but...

If the man made him sick to his stomach, then seeing the sheer relief in Letty’s eyes as her father took the money and left without another word was something of an antidote. And when the first thing she did was open Knight’s cage and let the enormous rabbit gingerly hop out to where Hiram could see him…well. That cleared the rest of his unease up immediately and replaced it with determination.

“Oh, my darling,” he murmured as he got down on one knee in front of the rabbit. Knight had clearly taken some damage; he had makeshift bandages around right back leg that were partially soaked through, and his left ear was missing a good chunk of the top of it. Bandaging that hadn’t been as successful, and the ragged edge was dark brown and painful-looking. “Poor sweet thing, we’ll take care of you now,” Hiram said. He’d never gotten the hang of speaking to animals as anything other than intelligent beings, the result of accidentally insulting one too many shapeshifters and getting hung from his ankles in a tree for over a day before he was rescued.

“He kept kicking the plaster off,” Letty said, finally regaining her voice now that the deal was done. “I figured if you wanted him, you wouldn’t care if he looked his best or not, though.” She was trying to sound as confident now as she had before, but now that she’d achieved her ends, it was clear that the veneer was wearing thin. She sounded more like a desperate young woman instead of a confident salesperson, as if she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Her shoulders were hunching as though in expectation of a blow, and her eyes kept darting from side to side like she was looking for an escape route that didn’t exist.

And why wouldn’t she be nervous? On the surface, she’d just conned a man she’d only met once before into buying a rabbit he’d expressly said he wasn’t interested in for a ridiculous sum of money, now bargained up to her services for over a month. Was she wondering what “services” might entail? Was she thinking about where she might need to hide from a beating or what she could use to beat him back before he, gods forbid, put his hands on her for other reasons?

Absolutely not. Even if Hiram had ever been interested in women in such a way, which he hadn’t, Letty was so young and so deeply in his personal power at the moment that she would be incredibly off-limits. He could say that to her, and he would, but the best way to prove his good intentions to her was through showing her that he meant her no harm.

Not to mention, he had his suspicions about her ability to get him to do what he wanted, and if he was right…

“If you’d be so kind as to draw a cup of water from the bucket by the stove,” Hiram asked calmly as he walked back into his house. Knight hopped after him and Letty followed last, carefully closing the door behind her. “And then refill the bucket, actually, that would be quite helpful. I need to rinse this gentleman’s ear off before I can properly assess treating it.”

“Oh, right—yes. Of course.” She headed for the kitchen nook while Hiram darted back upstairs to get the satchel that held his healing aids. Of course, he could treat the wounds with magic, but with Imperial Messengers putting up flyers that would have every magic-sniffer this side of the empire searching for him and Letty here to witness any remarkably quick recoveries Knight might have, he was better off doing things the old-fashioned way. Hopefully that would suffice for the big bunny.

Hiram came back downstairs to find a cup of water waiting for him on the table by the chair and Letty kneeling with Knight, sniffling a bit as she stroked the back of his neck. When she saw him coming she dashed the tears from her eyes and got to her feet. “I’m off to get more water, I won’t be a moment. Well in the back, yes?”

“Yes,” he confirmed, and she was gone in a flash. Hiram sighed, then sat down in his elaborate armchair and held out a hand to Knight. “Come here, pet.”

Knight immediately hopped over. Clever boy. Well-trained, at least. “Good,” Hiram said in a soothing tone as he reached into his satchel for some of the powdered ariat root he kept on hand. Ariat was an all-purpose healing agent, simultaneously good against infection and at encouraging healthy regeneration. It was blindingly expensive, but the conditions in Lollop just might be good enough for him to grow an ariat plant. He had the seeds, carefully harvested from the Imperial gardens two nights before he made his escape, so they’d still be good to plant.

Hmm…speaking of planting…

Knight pushed his big, blunt bunny face against Hiram’s shin, and he promptly forgot everything else in favor of petting the rabbit’s incredibly soft fur. “Poor dear pet,” he said. “We’ll get you feeling right again.” He mixed the dried herbs with the water, stirring with his finger as the ariat root plumped up until it felt more like mud in there than liquid. Then he scooped some out into his hand and very gently smoothed it over the wounds on Knight’s ear.

The rabbit flinched away, but Hiram held the back of his neck fast as he worked. “Just a bit more,” he crooned. “Just enough so that it dries fast, my dear. That’s it…good…” Once it dried, the mixture wouldn’t let go until the natural scab beneath it did unless Knight went for a swim between now and then. “Aren’t you brave? Yes, you are. Now, if you’d be so kind as to turn so I can handle the wounds in your leg…” He reoriented the rabbit so that he was facing the other way, then carefully removed the bandages on his leg.

Oof. There was visible muscle and fat there, and one of the tendons looked shredded. No wonder Letty’s father had thought Knight was good for nothing but stew at this point; he would never be able to run again, that was for certain. But he was still worthy of healing, and being given the chance to live as long a life as a rabbit like this could. That choice was never a choice. Too many close calls—and some devastating losses—had taught Hiram early in his life that the healing arts were as much a necessity for him to excel at as magic was, because he was chronically incapable of giving up on his companions. That was the whole reason he’d continued to study herbology—certainly not out of any misplaced allegiance to his first teachers.

His family could, should, and probably was rotting in some god’s hell right now, but Hiram could still muster a  tiny bit of gratitude when it came to learning his crafts. Nothing motivated you to improve yourself like the promise of a better situation on the other side.

You can be that promise for Letty if she lets you.

First things first, though. Knight. Hmm, some of this would have to be stitched up or he wouldn’t heal as well as he could. Hiram lowered himself down to the floor beside the rabbit and eased Knight over onto his side. “I’ll make this go as quick as I can,” he promised him as he rooted around in his satchel. Contact numbing gel—he’d wrestled a giant squid for that stuff, it had better still be potent—and needle and thread…the thread was made from a phoenix’s feathers, and would naturally dissipate over time instead of needing to be cut out later. Finally, the ariat root.

Knight kicked a few times as Hiram applied the gel, but the subsequent cessation of pain was enough to relax him completely. Hiram was vaguely aware of Letty reentering the house, but his attention was focused on Knight now. He threaded his slender bronze needle, then began the tedious work of stitching the wound together—deep level first, then superficial. He trimmed a bit of fur here and there to make the stitches flush, but by the time he was done Hiram was quite satisfied with the work. He stroked the big rabbit’s head with his clean hand as he applied the ariat paste.

“You’re a very good lad,” he told him. “And I’ll make sure you’re taken care of here, all right? No more battles with foxes for you.”

“Thank you.”

Hiram looked up to see Letty sitting on the floor across from him, a good five feet away. She’d lost some of her rigid demeanor, and her eyes were soft as she looked at Knight. “You’re welcome,” Hiram replied. “Although a bit of warning would have been appreciated,” he couldn’t help but add.

Letty flushed. “I couldn’t get away to ask you first,” she said apologetically. “The fox came during the night, and I thought Da would sleep through morning check and I could get him here without him yelling me down the road, but he was up early to piss, and he saw me. The second he laid eyes on Knight…I thought he’d wring his neck right there. Truly, I—”

Hiram held up a hand. “I’m not sad you brought him here. I wish I’d had the chance to be consulted, but I understand why you couldn’t. And truly, he is a magnificent rabbit.”

“I know you didn’t want a pet, but…you were my last hope, sir.”

That was a status Hiram was well-acquainted with. “What’s done is done,” he said, petting Knight a few more times before packing up his satchel. “And now, let’s talk about your responsibilities for the coming weeks.” He didn’t miss how Letty stiffened again, and went on matter-of-factly, “There’s a lot of garden to clear out there. I’m afraid the weeds have had their way with it completely since the owner of this place passed away, and I’d like help with that, as well as building out the beds for what I intend to plant. If you’ve any skill at building rabbit hutches, I could use help with that too.” He smiled charmingly. “I’m a bit hopeless when it comes to projects like that.”

Letty gave him a tentative smile. “I…could, yes, I’m good at that. If I got some of my siblings to come help, we could have a new hutch built out for you before the week is over.”

“There’s no rush,” Hiram said, and he watched her face sag a bit. She wants to get her siblings out of there too. “But given that I’d like you to look at the chicken coop and the lean-to for Mule next, perhaps some help would be good,” he amended. “Bring whoever you think your family can spare. And here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the single gold slip he’d held in reserve, then handed it to her. “I’m a terrible cook. If you’d be so good as to buy enough food for myself, you, and whoever you bring along while you’re working and see to its preparation while you’re here, I’d appreciate it.”

“Sir.” Her lip trembled for a moment as she stared at the slip. “You’ve already paid so much money, I can’t—”

“We both know that money won’t go to things your family needs,” Hiram said. “But I won’t have you coming here hungry and going home starving, either. I can afford this much.” And far more, but you don’t need to know that.

“You’re…I can get a lot of food for this much, sir.”

“Good.” He smiled. “I’m sure you and your siblings eat a lot, and as for me?” He patted his stomach. “I’m as hungry as a horse. Now, if you’d please stop calling me sir, I’d appreciate it. Master Emblic is fine.” Hiram would be better, but he knew she wouldn’t be comfortable with that yet.

“Yes, si—Master Emblic.”

“Good. Now. I’ve got things to do here today,” like child-proofing my house, “so take the rest of the time you owe me to go to the market and get the food you think you’ll need for the week. You can store it here.” He pointed to the pantry. “I’ve got a bit, but you’ll definitely need to supplement it. Then we’ll start our new arrangement in two days, after Lares.” Lares was the weekly day of rest in this part of the empire, one day after Soltur, which was when they celebrated it in the north.

“Yes, Master Emblic.” Letty got to her feet, glanced from Knight to Hiram and back again, then lifted her chin and said, “I’ll be the best helper you’ve ever had. Just wait, I promise I’ll make it worth your while.” Then she turned and walked out of the house at a brisk pace, her natural confidence finally reasserting itself now that she was reassured he wasn’t keen to diminish her.

Hiram watched her go, his fingers buried in Knight’s soft fur. Somehow, he was confident she would end up being worth every bit. At the very least, he wouldn’t be bored in the coming weeks, and he had someone new to ask about the ins and outs of town now.

First things first, though—to make sure no one accidentally wandered upstairs…

 

Hadrian's Colony: Interlude: Elanus

 Notes: We're cooking now, darlins. Be careful, the kitchen might burst into flames.

Title: Hadrian's Colony: Interlude: Elanus

***

Interlude: Elanus

 

Photo by Praveen Sundarajan 

 

Elanus liked this part of the plan. Naturally, he did—this was the part of the plan where he got to be center stage. Kieron might bitch about “risk/reward” and “statistical likelihood of you annoying someone into shooting you” but honestly, his sweetheart needed to have more faith in him. No one could hold attention like Elanus could when he was in the mood for it, and wow was he in the mood to be on everyone’s mind and monopolizing their eyes right now.

The other part of the plan, the one where Kieron used Catie’s admittedly brilliant cloaking technology to sneak back into the base after Bobby shot Carlisle with an emetic that was messy enough to make anyone want to put her away for a while rather than deal with all that, that part he didn’t care for. It was so risky for Kieron. Catie’s tech was good, the best, undeniably—Elanus would know, since he’d overseen the manufacture of it all himself—but there were a lot of bodies in that compound. If someone so much as bumped into Kieron at the wrong time, his cover would be gone; he’d be in the middle of enemy territory without backup other than Bobby, who Kieron had already expressly said was to retreat after delivering the shot to Carlisle.

Of course he hadn’t, because Bobby loved Kieron to the point of exhaustion and Elanus could understand that. But he was playing it very safe, staying hidden and well out of sight. And with Elanus not wanting to risk Catie by getting her too close to the compound, the best option was to waltz in and hold their eyes firmly on him while Kieron figured out how to get Carlisle out.

And stars, this would have been so much easier if they could have just said “fuck it” or if she could have had the good sense to die before messing up her son’s mind beyond all belief, but Elanus could handle complications. He could, better than most people in fact. And it all started with the Swarm.

The Swarm was not, in fact, something he just made up off the top of his head right before swanning out there into the open, thank you very much, Kieron. It was the culmination of years of tinkering, a subtle, mobile self-defense system that he’d designed for the anti-assassination market and never got around to putting out as Catie’s original systems took up more and more of his focus.

The Swarm, which he was able to mobilize with some of the leftover parts from Bobby’s creation and a massive algorithmic download by the girls, was an AI-directed, piecemeal shield made of over a thousand moving parts that only disengaged from his body when they needed to block an attack. On him, it looked like he was wearing a particularly glittery shirt, but the pieces working in concert could deflect everything from energy weapons to old-fashioned bullets to chemical attacks. The pieces were astonishingly mobile, and with a few modifications from Bobby’s code—thanks for the beta test, baby boy—Elanus felt confident he could stand up to whatever these idiots could throw at him for the time it took to get Carlisle out.

First things first, to meet and greet. He walked along the dirt path, ignoring the pain in his leg to keep his gait steady—no way was he giving up that weakness while they were watching. Once he got within visual range of the base, he tapped into the signal that had hunted them down earlier. “Good afternoon, folks,” Elanus said genially. “I hope you were serious when you said you wanted to negotiate, because if you made me waste my time walking in this fucking mud puddle of a planet you call home just so you could bitch and moan like a bunch of babies, I’ll give my orbital team the go-ahead to burn you out regardless of whoever you’re holding hostage.”

There was a moment of silence before a response came through. “Oh, we see you perfectly clearly, Mr. Desfontaines.”

Elanus smirked. “Oh good, you know who I am. Saves us so much time and trouble, doesn’t it?”

“We sure do know it. And we know if you were serious about bombing us, you’d have done it already, but you’re whipped. Carlisle’s boy’s got you locked down tight, doesn’t he?”

“Mm, sometimes he does,” Elanus said with a wink. “But it’s all completely consensual, I promise you. I’d never let a boy lock me up otherwise.”

“We don’t need to listen to your disgusting homosexual agenda, you—”

“Oh, like you know anything about agendas, homosexual and otherwise,” Elanus snapped right back. “You people have got to be the worst team I’ve ever seen when it comes to executing a goddamn plan. How long have you been on this planet, and you’re still having your movements controlled by the weather, of all things? If you had your own orbital station, you wouldn’t be in this mess. Better yet, if you had a habitat dome that extended into the upper atmosphere, you could launch from the ground any time you wanted instead of waiting for the wind to be right, my god. It’s embarrassing to watch you stumble around so chaotically. I can help you change that, though.”

“We want cloaking technology.”

“You don’t need cloaking technology,” Elanus said in a long-suffering voice. “The last thing you need is cloaking technology if you actually want this colony to be a viable place to live instead of a place you sit and wait and die of boredom in for months at a time. You need infrastructure, you need raw materials and the technology to work them, you need the building blocks of an actual civilization, not to live on the Fringe and putter around like the universe’s most incompetent pirates.

“When’s the last time you actually took another ship in space, hmm? It’s probably been years. And mercenary work is thin on the ground right now with so much Central System aggression turning inward, isn’t it? Nobody’s reaching out—everyone is trying to consolidate their own position in space, except for you people. There are times to buck the trend, gentlemen, but right now isn’t one of them.”

There was a longer pause, and when Trapper came back on he sounded a bit hoarse, like he’d been shouting. “The hell you know anything about our situation, Desfontaines! And the hell you’ve got the things you’re talking about for trade. I know you’ve got cloaking tech, I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and that’s the price for Carlisle. All the rest of it is nothing but smoke, pretty words to try and distract us from the fact that we’ve got the upper hand here. So fuck you and take this seriously.”

“Oh, I do take you seriously,” Elanus assured him as he glanced at the readout screen his implant was projecting across his right-side vision. There was Kieron’s tracking marker…he’d been immobile for the past two minutes, but now he was moving again. Very, very slowly. Shit. Elanus needed to drag this out. “I do, I promise, but I’ve also got to be honest with you. The cloaking technology you’re referring to is intensely proprietary. I’m talking billions of credits here; I’m staking my companies’ fortunes on it, in fact.”

“I thought you were the AI ship guy,” someone else’s voice cut in. There was a tussle on the other side of the connection, and Elanus bit back a grin.

“I’m that too,” he said. “But that ended up being so messy, so many people fighting over the tech and the kidnapping incident and spending all that time on the Fringe when I should have been on Gania and let me tell you, it left me soured on the whole thing. No, I’ve set that aside for now in favor of metamaterials, and the cloaking technology is the peak of my process thus far.”

“Then that’s what we want.”

“I understand that, but what I’m telling you is that what you want is not going to happen in the way in which you want it, got it?”

“…what?”

“I’m saying that—”

The marker stopped, then seemed to shake a little. “What the fuck was that?” someone screamed over the com.

Ah. Kieron must be using his Swarm. Which meant Elanus needed to get the fuck out of the way before—

He didn’t even hear the shot before it burst into atoms five feet in front of him, the interlinked shield using a proprietary blend of quantum flavordynamics to keep all forms of blowback from touching him. Elanus stared at the conflagration and grinned. “It worked!” he crowed.

“You weren’t sure it would work?” Kieron snapped.

“Worry about yourself, baby,” Elanus replied as he broke into a job back toward Catie. “Or do I need to be worried about you too?”

“We’re fine, I just need to—oh, shit.”

The com cut off abruptly.

“Kieron?” Nothing. “Kieron?”

Nothing but silence.