Chelen City: Chapter Ten, Part Two

 Notes: Laying out the lies! And some post-coital snuggling, always nice.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Ten, Part Two

***

Chapter Ten, Part Two

 

“All right, let me get this straight.” They were sitting together in bed, a tray full of half-eaten snacks between them as Elanus explained where he was at with his investigations. He was also mentally weighing the odds of getting an elbow to the face if he swept the tray aside and pounced on Kieron—it had been a while, and they’d had a very trying day, so he figured he could probably manage to convince his lover he was being charmingly spontaneous rather than trying to distract him from the list of woes Elanus had just laid out.

Kieron’s eyes narrowed, and he raised a spoon from the tray in a slightly threatening way. Or, maybe not. “So,” he continued, uninterrupted, “you think the person who tried to kill Ryu and who orchestrated me going to therapy and probably the person who tried to get Ryu to kill you are all the same person.”

“Or lead back to the same person after going through intermediaries, yes.”

“And you’re not sure yet what this person’s motivations are.”

“I’m sure that their motivations are connected with Deysan.” And, very likely, the “rumors” Deysan had let fly about his magnificent AI technology before blasting himself off to Cloverleaf Station. “It’s got to be someone powerful, too. There have been a huge number of attempted incursions on the house security system, mostly digital but occasionally physical. My existing program took care of all of them,” Elanus added when Kieron scowled.

“What did I say about not including me in these plans?”

“You know these plans, though! You know the security system, you helped improve it!”

“I didn’t know it was actively being tested!”

“You didn’t ask!”

Ooh, that glare—it was deadly. Elanus hastened to restart their earlier line of conversation. “Fritz was one of the parties I thought could be behind things, and it never pays to dismiss him, but after the interview, I’m thinking he doesn’t have quite the breadth of interest to be the culprit.” He made a face. “He seems to really be embracing the prurient route. It’s disappointing—the man was one of the best lawyers on the planet.”

“Is his license still active?”

“Let me check.” Elanus activated his implant, sped through connections until he got to the correct governmental institution, dipped into records—“No. Not since last year.”

“That’s recent,” Kieron noted. “Any reasoning in there as to why? Does it correspond to the beginning of his show?”

“No. He’s been doing the show for three years now.”

“Hmm.” Kieron looked pensive. “Maybe someone is blackmailing him.”

“Why blackmail him into not practicing law, though?” Elanus asked. “It’s always nice to have a lawyer in your pocket. I should know, I have twenty-seven of them, and they’re wonderful.”

“Twenty-seven—what the hell do you need twen—no, stop distracting me.” He pointed the spoon at Elanus again. “Go on.”

“The invitation to the party is from Caria Jayde.”

“Deysan’s sponsor.”

“Yes, and a friend of mine for many years.” Former friend now. “She’s been influential in business and pleasure on Gania for well over a hundred of our years, and while Deysan’s ‘slip-up’ as she termed it was enough to set her back, she would never stay out of the limelight forever.”

“And she doesn’t like you because you brought down her protégé.”

“Apparently.”

Kieron sighed. “And of course we can’t tell her exactly what kind of filthy son of a bitch he was, because we can’t let on any information about the girls.”

“Exactly.”

“Great. And the last one is your ex.”

“Restaria is a lot more than that,” Elanus pointed out. “Xe’s a good candidate for the issues surrounding you, and your Traktan friends.” There was another snarl that Elanus needed to untangle. “Since xe’s in a position of power in the government. But every sort of access can be bought for the right price, and both Caria and Fritz have a lot of money.”

“And this is as narrow as you can make the list.”

“It’s as narrow as I dare, honestly. There are half a dozen other individuals I can think of who have the means to carry out at least some of the probes and attacks we’ve weathered, but the motivations don’t line up as well.”

“Huh.” Kieron picked up the invitation Elanus had brought home. “I assume we’re going to this, then.”

“I ought to, at least.”

“What did we just fight about?”

“It’s going to be very boring!” Elanus defended himself. “Forgive me for thinking you’d have more fun here with the girls!”

“I’d rather be making sure you’re keeping your brains inside your skull, thanks very much,” Kieron retorted. “Besides, I’m specifically invited. So I don’t actually need your permission to show up as your plus-one.”

“What would you do there on your own?” Elanus challenged. “Hold a knife to someone’s throat while you interrogate them about me? Kieron, in this society, you can’—”

“I’d do just enough to capture some attention before faking a mild mental breakdown and seeing who came to ‘rescue’ me from myself,” Kieron replied.

Oh.

“Yeah, oh.”

I really need to work on my emotional camouflage. “Yes, please come to the party with me,” Elanus finally said. “But we’re not taking Ryu this time. He can stay here and look after the girls.”

Kieron raised an eyebrow. “You think that’s a good idea?”

“He has no way of knowing how advanced they are, and we can warn them to play dumb,” Elanus assured him. “I’m not going to take a bodyguard to this damn party. Killing someone in a public setting like this would be a huge breach of protocol.”

“Assassination protocol. Such bullshit.”

“Learn to live with it, babe.” Or at least learn the protocols so I don’t get fined when you finally kill someone and it’s in an unsanctioned way. But that admonition could wait for later. “I understand Catie and Lizzie have a symphony ready for us,” he said, more than ready to change the subject. “Shall we go have a listen?”

“Not…” Kieron shoved the snacks aside. “Quite…” He grabbed Elanus by the collar of his robe and pulled his mouth down. “Yet,” he murmured against his lips before sealing them with a kiss.

Oh, yes. Good idea.