The door to the parlor flew open, and a thin man covered head-to-toe in holographic ink and wearing only a thong pranced out, a pair of long sticks in his hands. The tattoos seemed to leap off his skin, dragon heads that appeared to breathe fire and wolves that snapped and snarled. I had never seen anything like it, and I nearly stopped to admire the work.

  Quasar didn’t let me, grabbing my arm and tugging me forward. “Stop acting like such a tourist,” she chided.

  "But I look like a tourist." She scowled at me and thrust me ahead of her.

  The PD officers had nearly reached us. Behind us, the tattooed man stepped between them, raising his two sticks in front of his mouth and exhaling. The ends of the sticks lit on fire, stopping the officers in their tracks. The crowds around us paused to watch, some of them cheering. We reached the shop and crossed the threshold, immediately greeted by a pair of women with tattooed arms and a bald, heavyset man in jeans and a leather vest.

  “Get them to the back,” he growled. “Hurry.” He shook his head and mumbled. “I can’t believe I let Gia talk me into this.”

  The two women led us to a door at the back of the shop, funneling us down a hallway and into a back storage room. One went to a shelf against the wall and pulled down one of the books. The shelf shifted aside, revealing a steel door behind it like a scene straight from a spy thriller.

  “Quickly,” the taller of the two women said, waving us through.

  We hurried past her. She ducked in behind us, closing the hidden door once we were on the other side. Looking around, I saw we were in what appeared to be an operating room of some kind, obviously illegal judging by its location in the shop.

  “That was close,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen PD come at anyone so hard before. It’s all good, though. Junto will grease the wheels a little and they’ll disappear.” She turned to face me. “So, you’re the infamous Benjamin Murdock. A little shorter than I expected but I love the beard.”

  “Thanks,” I said, absently rubbing it. “And you are?”

  “Arcine. Junto’s wife.” She put her finger to her lips to keep us quiet, then leaned against the door to listen. “He’s talking to them now.” We waited in silence until she smiled and straightened up. “That’s that. It didn’t take much convincing. I thought they wanted you because of who you are, not because they found a couple of stiffs on the tram. You’ll have to tell us all about that. In any case, today’s your lucky day.”

  “Is it?” I asked. “PD doesn’t care why you’d be protecting a couple of newlyweds and their friends? Or how we know you?”

  She shrugged. “If those stiffs are nobodies, the amount they care about the nature of the passengers’ demise is less than the amount Junto just paid them off with, I’m sure. Now, which one of you is getting the implant?”

  CHAPTER 18

  Arcine put Quasar flat on the operating table with an IV in her arm. She was almost fully sedated, by the time Junto made his way into the secret room, the second woman right behind him. Given more time to look at the trio, I assumed the other woman was their daughter. The almost-naked guy with the tattoos could have been a boyfriend or maybe Junto’s son.

  “You Murdock?” Junto asked, eyes swinging straight toward me.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  He grunted and turned to Quasar. “You aren’t getting the link?”

  “No.”

  “Why not? Too scared?”

  “I had brain cancer six weeks ago. We didn’t think it would be a good idea.”

  He grunted again. “You kill those passengers on the tram?”

  “Personally, no.”

  He glanced at Druck and Emerald, then pointed at her. “You did it, right?”

  “One of them,” she admitted. “How’d you know.”

  “You got the eyes of a killer. Hard eyes. Like you’ve seen a lot of things you wish you could unsee.”

  “You aren’t wrong.”

  He looked at Druck again. “You didn’t do the other one.”

  “How do you know?” Druck questioned.

  “You don’t got killer eyes.” He returned his attention to Quasar. “Don’t matter. PD ain’t smart enough to guess you’re responsible just because you were there. They were hoping maybe you saw something.” He started laughing, the chuckle quickly turning into a wheeze. “Morons. Did you see anything out of the ordinary, by the way?”

  “Not at all,” I replied. “Can we get on with the procedure? We’re in a rush.”

  “You wanna rush me, you go right ahead. But don’t cry to me when she dies.”

  “Maybe go as fast as you can without killing her.”

  “Arcy, is she under?” Junto asked.

  “Just about,” she replied. “Give her another minute or two.”

  He grunted a third time, waddled over to a sink and started washing his hands. “Still can’t quite believe Gia called me out of the blue and asked me to help you out.” He laughed loudly. “Guess I shouldn’t say asked. I ain’t doing her any favors. She’s paying real well for me to do this job and keep my mouth shut.” He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Good thing for you too. Two hundred million? Never heard of a bounty so big before.”

  “How much is she paying you?” I asked.

  “You mean she didn’t tell you?”

  “No.”

  He laughed harder. “I figure only way a woman’s going to pay that much to help a man out is if they’re sleeping together. But I guess you two need to work on your communication. You ain’t a bad looking guy, but I can’t for the life of me understand why a woman like her would want a guy like you.”

  “What?” I said, surprised by the remark.

  Emerald cracked up. “Him? With Gia?” As if that were so impossible. “You’ve got it all wrong, Brutus. The only partners they are is partners in crime.”

  “Emerald!” I snapped while Junto laughed so hard he had to stop washing his hands.

  “Why are you offended, Ben?” she asked. “Do you want to be seen as Gia’s boy-toy?”

  “I’m not offended. But the less these people know about us or why we’re here, the better.”

  “You got the right of it, Murdock,” Junto agreed, turning off the flow of water. Arcine handed him a fresh towel to dry his hands off, and then helped him put on a pair of sterile gloves. “What kind of crimes are you two committing together, then?”

  “She didn’t pay you enough to not ask questions?”

  “She explicitly told me not to ask questions. I’m just a curious sort.”

  “Are you loyal to the Hegemony?” I asked. “To the Empress?”

  “Of course,” Arcine said. “Why would you even ask that?”

  “So no matter who she elects to control Nobukkian territories, you’ll support it?”

  “The Empress has always made wise choices before. Why wouldn’t we support her decision?”

  “Where’s the device?” Junto asked, approaching the operating table. Arcine had already laid out a tray of instruments for him. She had placed the neural link in a sterile bath and saline solution to keep it clean, and she picked up the vial now, setting it in a holder on the tray.

  “Here it is.”

  “Vitals are good,” the daughter said. “She’s completely under and ready for implantation.”

  “You’re sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked, remembering what Gia had told me about his experience.

  “A human brain isn’t that much different from a daiku brain,” he said. “Just a little bigger. The tricky part is getting the power supply hooked up, but it’s no problem.”

  My attention shifted to his hands. Thick and meaty, I didn’t see how he could do any kind of delicate work with them. Then again, the tools on the tray had delicate tips. It’s not like he was going to touch Zar’s brain directly.

  “Y’all are welcome to observe,” he continued. “Or wait outside as you prefer.”

  “I’ll wait outside,” Druck said. “I’m not good with exposed inner organs.”

  “The incision’s only about an eighth of an inch across,” Junto said. “You won’t see anything past my hands.”

  “I’ll be outside,” he repeated, opening the steel door, which made the bookshelf slide away.

  “Emerald?” I asked.

  “I’m with you,” she replied.

  Junto picked up a scalpel from the tray. “Here goes nothing.”

  “How long does this operation take?” I asked.

  “About twenty minutes,” he replied, placing the scalpel against Quasar’s flesh, just above the ear.

  “She has a comm implant in that area too,” I said. “It’s not functional anymore.”

  “If I come across it, I’ll pull it out.”

  He started the operation, cutting open her skin, adding suction to clear the blood before using a laser to cut a small hole in her skull. Five minutes later, he removed her embedded comm, holding it up to the light.

  “Looks like somebody blasted it with an EMP,” he said, tossing it onto the floor and continuing his work. He started whistling one of Gia’s older hits, You Taste Like Candy, as he finished accessing Quasar’s brain. Using a pair of fine tweezers, he lifted the neural link from the bath and manipulated it into the right orientation with a second pair of tweezers. His movements were stable, deft, and confident, which made me more confident he knew what he was doing.

  A thud from the other side of the door gave him sudden pause, and captured my attention as well. I whirled toward it, activating my construct and shifting my hands subconsciously.

  Another thud, and I leaned my ear against the door just in time to hear a muffled cry. My comm badge beeped before Druck’s panicked voice rippled through it.

  “Boss. Help.”

  CHAPTER 19

  “Druck! What’s happening?” I shouted, hoping he could hear me through the door as I grabbed the handle.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Junto asked, taking his eyes off Quasar to glare at me.

  “I’m going out there,” I replied sharply. “Druck?”

  “Like hell you are. This place is hidden for a reason. If there’s trouble on the other side, and that trouble gets in here, your girl on the table is as good as dead. You get me, Murdock?”

  “I get you,” I replied. “And if I were anyone else I might be willing to keep this door closed to protect her, you, and your family. But I don’t need to let Druck die to keep you safe, because I’m not anyone else.” I motioned toward Emerald. “And neither is she.”

  Junto turned his head to look at me as I yanked the door open, the bookshelf sliding automatically away in response. The first thing I saw was Druck slumped against the wall opposite the entrance, the shelves surrounding him broken, their contents spilled onto the floor. The thin, tattooed man was on the ground too, blood pouring from the back of his head, his eyes open and glassy.

  The man at the threshold was dressed head-to-toe in black. His outfit instantly reminded me of the assassin that had attacked Gia and me in her apartment. I pushed in the direction of the entrance to the back room. If he was from Planetary Defense, he would be thrown clear out of the parlor. If he was an archon, it would probably knock him on his ass. If he were Gilded…

  He stood his ground against the push, hands out, lip curled slightly from the effort.

  Gilded, then.

  I grunted as I increased the intensity of the push, breaking through the man's counter-push and throwing him backward. He vanished from sight, but I heard him crash through one of the kiosks selling food or souvenirs along the waterfront pathway.

  “Check on Druck!” I shouted to Emerald, reaching down and opening my pants pocket. “Shaq, I need you, bud.” He climbed out of the pocket and hopped to the floor. “I’ll distract, you bite.”

  “Mmmhmm,” Shaq agreed, dashing through the doorway and out of sight.

  I stepped into the doorway and saw the Gilded immediately. Still near the tattoo parlor, he was getting back to his feet, plenty visible to the bystanders on the pathway behind him. Damn it, I couldn’t afford to attack him and have these people recognize me. It was bad enough PD already wanted to question us about the archons on the tram. Once they decided I was more than just a honeymooner, Planetary Defense and the Royal Guard would be on their way. Worse, we wouldn’t stand a chance of getting close to Mushari.

  With that in mind, when the Gilded pushed again I didn’t try to defend myself. The force hit me like a ton of bricks, throwing me into the back room where I would have slammed into Druck if he had still been against the wall. I wasn’t sure if he was awake or if Emerald had moved him somewhere to tend his injuries. The pain of crashing into cement relegated the thought to secondary importance as I grunted and fell onto my hands and knees. Once PD got wind of what was happening here, they would be on the way back no matter what. We had to be gone before they arrived.

  I had to end this fight. Fast. And as inconspicuous as possible.

  The Gilded pushed me a second time, shoving me back into the wall and pinning me there. I didn’t fight it by pushing back. I understood this playbook because I had seen Lyke use it. Because I had used it myself. Push was such an easy sigil to master, so useful it was easy to fall in love with and become fixated on. I had done the same thing, and only experience had taught me not to depend so much on a single approach.

  With that in mind, I pulled.

  The Gilded didn’t expect the maneuver, and he didn’t even realize what was happening before he was airborne, flying at me like a cannonball. The distance used more energy than I would have liked, but I made up for it when I activated enhance. The Gilded, caught off guard, dropped his original push and tried to push himself away to stop his forward momentum. That worked in my favor too. Countering my pull, he managed to slow himself down, landing just in front of me.

  My fist met his jaw with a sharp crack, the blow so powerful his bones shattered beneath it, his neck twisting and breaking as he flipped head over heels backward before flopping belly down on the floor. I'd hit him so hard my knuckles were shattered by the impact, though I knew restore would put me back together in short order.

  Shaq rushed through the doorway and climbed onto the Gilded, biting him before he had a chance to move again, though I suspected he was already dead.

  Back against the wall, I exhaled in relief. “Emerald, is Druck okay?”

  Glancing to my right, I froze, my heart stuttering, when I saw her lying so still on the floor I feared he'd killed her.

  “I’m fine, Boss,” Druck replied. Before I knew what was happening, he grabbed my arm and pulled it behind my back, turning me and swinging his combat knife against my throat. “Sorry, Ben. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent as part of your crew. But two hundred million? I like you a lot, but I like that much electro a lot more.”

  “You son of a bitch,” Shaq buzzed, crouching on top of the dead Gilded, ready to pounce.

  “I wouldn’t,” Druck said to him. “You can’t bite me before I drag this blade through his throat. Restore can’t put his head back on.”

  “Druck,” I whispered, my chest tightening. His betrayal hit me hard, adrenaline jacking my heart into a rhythmic pounding. Of all the current members of my crew, I had trusted him the least. But I still never thought he would choose the electro over us. Especially after Kill Spree. “Damn you. You called the Gilded here, didn’t you?”

  “I guess Matt isn’t the only Sherlock around here,” Druck answered.

  “What happens now?”

  “We all just sit tight. Reinforcements will be here soon.”

  “But the bounty is through the Royal Guard. Not Sedaya. Why would you give me up to him?”

  “I went through the Royal Guard. But we both know who’s in charge of them. I’ll get my money one way or another.”

  I would have laughed if the movement of my throat wouldn’t have dug the knife's edge into it. “You know who you’re dealing with, and you really think you’ll get the electro? Come on, Emil. You’re throwing away your family for greed.”

  “Greed? This is more than greed. With two hundred million electro, I can buy an island somewhere, and live like a king. I can have all the women I want waiting on me hand and foot, day and night. And I’ll be famous for being the one who finally caught Benjamin Murdock.”

  “And when the Spiral is engulfed in all-out war, what use will all of that be to you then?”

  “I’ll find a planet far away from all of that. Hell, maybe I’ll convert the electro to gold and go back to Earth. That should be far enough away from the fighting.”

  “You’re delusional if you think you can escape it. You’re sacrificing the entire Hegemony for your own selfish desires.”

  “I know you’ve got the magic, Ben. But get off your high horse. Since when are you the savior of humankind? Like we were guaranteed to find Hiro and make things right before all hell broke loose. We both know the odds of that were small at best.”

  “If we don’t believe we’ll succeed, then I guarantee we won’t. I believe we can do it. Not me alone, all of us together. We’ve made it this far.”

  While Druck and I were talking, Shaq was moving, creeping slowly past the dead Gilded to get a better angle of attack on Druck. All he had to do was latch onto Druck’s hand and bite him before the traitor could slice all the way through my neck, though if the damage were that bad, I doubted I would be able to recover before his reinforcements arrived.

  “After everything you’ve seen since you got here, you still have a positive attitude,” Druck said. “That’s why I can’t help liking you, despite all the adversity you're facing. Well, that and you’re going to make me rich.”

  More movement in the doorway drew my attention. A woman, dressed similarly to the dead Gilded on the floor, stepped into the room. Shaq whirled on her, ready to strike, only to be pushed into the wall and held in place. I could imagine he was getting sick and tired of that happening to him. So was I.

  “Benjamin Murdock,” she said, smiling at me. Short and heavy, with a plain round face and acne covered skin, she didn’t look imposing at all. But Sedaya hadn’t chosen his archons for their looks or athleticism. All they needed was the right genetics and aptitude with sigils. “You’re coming with me.”