By the time I got a clean bill of health, I figured the best thing for me to do was go take a shower. Afterwards, I put on the clothes—the softest pair of boxer briefs I had ever encountered, a white linen shirt and pants—that I'd found among the attire that had been waiting for all three of us.

  Emerald was done with her exam and Quasar was just finishing with hers when I returned to the living area. Smiling, Lorai tapped the screen between herself and Zar. “Everything checks out,” she told her. “You’re in perfect health. Nothing to worry about with regard to your ordeal. Physically, anyway. I’m sure the whole thing must have been really challenging to experience.”

  “It wasn’t that bad,” Quasar answered. “I’ve actually been through worse.”

  “Really?” Lorai asked. “That’s so sad.” She actually looked like she was ready to cry.

  “Jackson,” Emerald said from her seat on the sofa, off to the right of the autodoc. She held up a generic data slab. “Lorai brought us a menu.”

  Lorai looked over her shoulder at me, giving me a smile that melted through me. “I thought you and the ladies might be hungry. Rita said you barely had a chance to eat after you arrived. Just some quish from a street vendor.”

  “I…yeah. That’s true. I’m famished.” The words came out awkwardly, my face heating up, not so much from embarrassment but anger at myself for acting like an immature idiot. “Thank you for the menu.”

  “You’re welcome.” She stood and pulled out her slab. “I have some more patients to see. I’m really happy all of you are unhurt. The whole thing is just so tragic.” She shook her head in sad disbelief. “I’ll be back in a few hours to check on you.” She smiled at me as she walked past, touching my shoulder. “If you need anything, just press any of the call buttons located throughout the suite.”

  Words failed me, so I nodded. She beamed back and left the suite, the door sliding closed behind her.

  Emerald immediately burst out in laughter. “Oh, Ben, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold that in,” she said between guffaws. “Your little puppy dog crush is so adorable.”

  “I don’t have a crush,” I replied, walking over to her. “Can I see the menu?” I held my hand out for it.

  “No crush?” Quasar said. “You could have fooled me. Lorai seemed to like you, too. And you with two wives already." She smirked. I made a disgruntled sound, and her eyes widened. "Was that a growl?"

  "Sounded like a growl to me," Emerald said, handing me the menu, which I busied myself perusing. "You know, Lorai is very pretty, but I don’t get the sense there’s much upstairs.”

  “Why? Because she’s kind and compassionate instead of cynical and crazy?” I shot back, which only made her laugh harder. I looked to Quasar. “I can’t believe you said you’re my wife too. What were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t. Give me a break. I just came out of surgery and could barely form a sentence. But there are worse fates than having me as a wife, you know.”

  “Yeah, at least you help dilute Em.”

  Emerald blew a raspberry at me as Shaq scrambled across the floor and jumped onto the arm of the sofa, landing near her elbow. “Now what?” he buzzed, bringing us back to the meat of the situation.

  I gave out another weary sigh and looked at Zar. “You have full access now to Gia’s neural link?”

  She nodded. “Unrestricted."

  “And AI Gia is linked through it?”

  “She says she’s here.”

  “Does she know about Druck?”

  “She was listening in when Emerald broke the news to me.”

  “Gia, you told me you weren’t going to be in her head all the time,” I said, knowing she'd hear me.

  Quasar smiled. “She says I can shut down the connection any time I want. She told me how. I appreciate your concern, Ben, but I’ve got it under control.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “Well, we’re almost literally across the street from Mushari, so that’s good. And we have a menu, which is also good. I just need some time to eat and recover some of my chaos energy.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Quasar said.

  “Eating?”

  “Taking too much time. Sedaya knows we’re here. Maybe the Gilded thinks he killed you, maybe not. But you’ve slipped the noose so many times I doubt Sedaya will take any chances. Unless somebody finds your corpse, he'll think you’re still alive.”

  “And Lyke can transit here at any moment,” I said.

  “If she isn’t here already,” Quasar agreed.

  “She let us escape before. Or at least, she didn’t try very hard to stop us. If she’s using us to hunt down Prince Hiro for her, it doesn’t make sense to interfere with us now.”

  “I heard a lot of assumptions in that statement,” Emerald said. “You know what that makes you and me.” She gave me a pointed look, her eyebrows raised.

  “I think we’d know if Dominator had come to Bushara,” I said.

  “This planet isn’t like Windfall,” Quasar argued. “She can’t just show up and start blasting everything. I mean, she could, but that would ruin the secrecy Sedaya’s been trying to maintain. If she’s here, she may come for you directly.”

  “All the more reason to eat,” I said. “I wouldn’t mind a chance to go head-to-head with her, but I need to be at full strength to have a shot at winning.”

  “All the more reason to get what we came for and get out. She isn’t the mission right now. Finding Hiro is.”

  “I’m low on juice,” I said. “I won’t be able to protect us if more Guilded come after us.”

  “I get that. But we escaped Persephon without using much sigiltech. We don’t need it to succeed.”

  “I might have agreed with you before Sedaya’s goon dropped the ocean on us.”

  “All we need to do is infiltrate Mushari and get to the mainframe. Gia can use the neural link to make a local connection to the datastore and work on breaking in. If we do it right, we can be in and out in under an hour. And while the odds there are Gilded working for Mushari aren’t zero, I’d say they aren’t very high. Remember, Mushari didn’t build the blueburn for Sedaya. He built it for whomever has Hiro right now.”

  “Good point,” I agreed. “But they have to know we’re targeting Mushari. Legrond got the same list of companies from the brokers on Windfall that we did.” I smiled. “I wonder if he’s here. I owe him for not killing him then.”

  My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, accepting the comm from Head Case. “Hey, Matt.”

  “Ben!” Matt said. “Are you okay? Leo just sent me the news stream from North Lapul’s waterfront. What the hell happened?”

  “You just saw that now?” I asked.

  “I’m manning the pilot station waiting to hear from you, not watching the news. Why didn’t you contact me?”

  “I said I would be in touch if there was an emergency. There was nothing you could have done at that moment, and we’re fine now.”

  “Druck isn’t fine,” Emerald said.

  “What happened to Druck?” Matt asked.

  “Turncoat,” she sing-songed. “Greedy little shit.”

  “No way,” Matt said. “He wouldn’t do that.”

  “He did,” I replied.

  “Damn. You think you know a guy. I thought the wave was some natural disaster. But I guess not.”

  “No. Sedaya’s Guilded are here. We killed two of them, but there’s at least another one. Probably more.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “In the hospital downtown. PD picked us up from the aftermath and brought us here. They don’t know who we are. Junto managed to get the neural link installed while all hell was breaking loose so we’re moving forward with our plan, minus one.”

  “Ben,” Quasar said, getting my attention. “Gia says she’s working on tracking down Mushari employees who will meet our needs.”

  “Copy that,” I replied. “Matt, don’t worry about us. Other than Druck, we’re all okay. I’ll let you know when we need you.”

  “Okay,” he agreed. “Just don’t be too much of a hero. If you need backup, we're here.”

  “I know. I’ll be in touch. Ben out.” I hung up on him. “Quasar, can Gia get some better street clothes sent up here?”

  She froze for a moment before nodding. “She’ll take care of it.”

  “Great. I’ll order us some food. I might not have time to wait for it to digest, but I’m still starving. I have to eat.”

  “I’m going to hop in the shower,” Emerald said. “Zar, are you coming?”

  “What?” Quasar gasped.

  “Well, we are married, after all.” Emerald laughed. “I’m just kidding.” She paused and raised a suggestive eyebrow. “Or am I?”

  “Go away,” Quasar snapped, waving her off.

  I could still hear her laughter through the bathroom door after she closed it.

  CHAPTER 22

  Trays of food were spread across the floor of the living room within the hour, proving once again that North Lapul General was no ordinary hospital. Delicacies from all over the Spiral were presented in their traditional dishes, pots, platters, and plates. The intermingling smells made my stomach growl.

  Quasar and Emerald sat across from me, legs crossed, larger trays resting on their laps, plenty of food on each. The hospital had provided the same linen clothes to them as they had to me, and Emerald had already remarked on the soft comfort of her underwear. I hoped to wear mine back to Head Case so I could feed it to Asshole.

  I’d already downed seconds of nearly everything when there was a knock on the door. “Who is it?” I shouted, rather than getting up to answer it.

  “It’s Lorai. A courier brought a package for you.”

  “Ooh, your new girlfriend is here,” Emerald teased.

  “Wife number three incoming,” Quasar added, joining the fun.

  My face warmed up as I shouted for Lorai to come in.

  She held a large shopping bag in each hand as she stepped into the suite, breathing deeply to capture the smell of the food. “What, did you order one of everything?” she asked.

  “Two of everything, actually,” Emerald replied. “Jackson is a serious eater. I think he’s already downed at least twenty thousand calories on his own.”

  “Oh, my,” Lorai said, looking at me while I reddened even more. “How do you stay so thin?”

  “I work out,” I replied, wanting to dig a hole and hide in it as soon as the lame answer left my lips. “And I have a fast metabolism,” I added, trying to save myself from my revealing cringe.

  “There’s more than enough for one more, if you’re hungry,” Emerald said.

  My heart pounded faster in response to the suggestion. “I’m sure she doesn’t have time to eat with us.” Maybe I did have a crush on her. But only part of me wanted her to stay. We had work to do.

  “Jackson is right,” Lorai replied, leaving me more relieved than disappointed. “I still have rounds to do, but thank you for the offer. I imagine you’ll be discharged before my next shift, so if I don’t see you again, it was nice meeting you all. I’m sorry again for what happened to you. Lapul is usually such a calm city.”

  “I bet it is. Do you know how many casualties there are?” I asked.

  “We don’t have a final count yet. Over twelve hundred so far.”

  My blood ran cold, my appetite vanishing in an instant. Even Lorai suddenly didn’t seem that appealing. “Thank you for everything, Lorai. We appreciate it.”

  “You’re welcome. I’d recommend that you enjoy your food, but it looks like you already are.” She smiled sweetly. “Take care of yourselves. Bye.”

  I watched her as she moved all the way out the door, attention shifting to the others as soon as she was gone. Shaq came out from under the sofa, hopping up onto my shoulder. “Twelve hundred people,” I said softly.

  “Ben, I warned you about blaming yourself,” Quasar replied.

  “I know. Maybe they aren’t dead because of us, but they’re still dead because we came here. And here we are, eating and joking around like it’s no big deal. Has all of this turned us into cold-hearted bastards?”

  “What do you want us to do?” Emerald asked. “Bury our heads in our pillows and shed tears?”

  “This is war,” Quasar added. “There are going to be casualties. There’s going to be collateral damage. We can’t avoid it, as much as we might want to.”

  “That doesn’t make it suck any less.”

  “You can let it tear you apart, or you can use it as motivation. I’m choosing the latter.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” I took a deep breath, refocusing my attention on the mission. I stood and started going through the bags. The clothes were mostly similar. Dark colors for nighttime wear, rather than the bright hues we had worn upon arrival. Each of our outfits included a light jacket as both an accent piece and cover for shoulder holsters we found tucked into the bottoms of the bags and wrapped in tissue paper. Gia had also bought us new, more stylish maglock footwear. Apparently, Shelton’s had something for every occasion.

  “Wow, this stuff is nice,” Emerald said, jumping up to claim her outfit. She took it and vanished into the bathroom to change.

  I handed Quasar her clothes, which she took to the bedroom, leaving me in the living area to swap my duds. I felt like a classic Spanish matador after putting on a pair of slim-fitting, ultralight black pants and a red silk shirt, a faux leather jacket, white scarf, black gloves and boots with a snakeskin texture. The shoulder harness was adjustable, and I took a minute to adjust it for my blaster.

  “Looking good,” Shaq buzzed.

  “Thanks, bud,” I replied with half a smile.

  Emerald emerged from the bathroom, stunning in a fitted cabled dress with high slits for mobility, a leather jacket that matched mine and steel-tipped boots.

  “Ben, you look so dapper," she said, walking up to me and straightening the collar of my jacket, patting one side when she was satisfied with how it looked. "It’s like Gia knew exactly what we needed to wear if we were going out to a fancy club.”

  “That’s because we are going out to a fancy club,” Quasar said, exiting the bedroom. Her pantsuit was a more subdued deep purple, her jacket velvet instead of leather. It suited her perfectly. “Gia tracked three Mushari employees with high-level building access to one nearby.”

  “Thousands of people died on the waterfront a few hours ago, and they went out clubbing?”

  Quasar shrugged. “People deal with tragedy in different ways. It’s not for us to judge.”

  “Just to get the job done,” I agreed. “Can she get us past the bouncer?” My phone shook on the sofa. I picked it up, impressed by the arrival of three VIP passes for some place called the Dare Devil. “Respect,” I added, using her favorite compliment. “Is there anything Gia can’t do?”

  “Yeah, hack into Mushari’s mainframe without being there,” Quasar answered. “Or exist outside her own mainframe.”

  “Right. She’s been so helpful, I nearly forgot the real Gia is gone.” Another death still on my conscience. I shifted my scarf. “Shaq, can you sneak in under this?”

  “Mmmhmm,” he replied, jumping from the arm of the sofa to my shoulder and squeezing in tight around the back of my neck. I smoothed down the edges, making sure he was completely covered.

  “We go get the badges and use them to access the datastore inside Mushari’s HQ,” I said. “Gia will do the rest. Once we’ve got what we came for, we just need to find somewhere for Matt to pick us up, which shouldn’t be too hard. Any questions?”

  Emerald raised her hand.

  “Yes?”

  “Can we stick around long enough for a slow dance?” She batted her eyebrows.

  “No,” I replied.

  “How about a drink?”

  “If you don’t mind being left behind. But you'll miss all the action.”

  “Raincheck on the dance and the drink, then?”

  “Maybe once the Spiral is safe from Sedaya.”

  “Okay, but you have to wear that outfit.”

  “Fine, if I still have it,” I agreed. And I was still alive. “Clock’s ticking. Let’s go.”

  Exiting the suite felt like walking from one universe into another. The outside corridor remained sterile and cold, with its white walls and gray tile. I hurried toward the elevator at the far end, eager to resume forward momentum.

  “Excuse me,” someone said behind us as we reached the elevator, just before I tapped the call button. I hit it before turning around.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  “You’re the group in sixty-six ninety, yes?” the nurse asked. He sat at a small station opposite the elevator bank. A slab propped up on the desk in front of him. The station had escaped my earlier notice since it was empty when we processed into the hospital.

  “That’s right,” I replied, stepping up to him. “We planned to discharge. Can we do that here, or do we need to go to the main lobby?”

  “First, you can’t discharge until your medical reports are signed off by the supervising doctor,” he answered. “And with everything that happened today, Doctor Kiegel hasn’t had time to put his signature to your paperwork…” He tapped on his slab. “...though I see you’ve got clean bills of health.”

  “Maybe you can give him a shout and get it expedited?” I asked. “There’s no reason for us to stay here any longer.”

  His face when he looked up at me suggested I was incredibly wrong about that. “You don’t have any identification. You don’t have a slab, pad, or other method of paying your way outside the hospital. You—”

  “That’s not true,” Emerald said. “Where do you think we got these clothes?”