Legrond held Lorai tight against his chest. Eyes moist with fear, she hung paralyzed in his grip, staring at me with uncertainty. I could almost see her thoughts through the wild look in her eyes. If I really was Benjamin Murdock, would I kill her to kill the enemy holding her? Or would I be her savior? Even as Lagrond swung his blaster my way and opened fire, I could tell she wasn’t sure of my intentions and that sent a shockwave of anger through me, aimed at Sedaya and his minions.

  A new hailstorm of energy filled the twenty-foot gap between us, sending Quasar and me diving toward two of the open doors along the hallway. My first thought as I tumbled into the room turned to Shaq, caught alone in the open.

  Except he wasn’t alone.

  Shouts rose up from the Niflin as the soft whooshing thud of additional blaster fire echoed through the hallway, too heavy in volume to be Emerald alone. Leaning out from my doorway, I saw that Legrond, still holding Lorai in front of him as a shield, had turned to face the adjacent passageway. The archon turned away too, one hand pointed down that corridor, the other aimed at Shaq. Her face was strained, her fear palpable. I had practiced with Kat and his team enough to know that a multi-directional assault at variable distances was one of the hardest attacks for an archon, Gilded or not, to counter.

  She was screwed, and she knew it.

  Screams echoed from down the side hallway while Shaq bounced away from the blasts aimed at him. With the archon completely distracted, Quasar and I leaned out of the doorways and opened fire on her, our rounds peppering her chest and side. She stumbled under the assault, continuing her attack until a headshot from Quasar finally killed her.

  CHAPTER 24

  Quasar and I emerged from cover, the gunfight with Legrond and his lackeys over. Shaq crouched a few feet away from Lorai, glaring up at Legrond. The merc leader was the last of the Niflin standing, the muzzle of his blaster pressed against Lorai's temple. “Please,” she begged. “Let me go.”

  He ignored her plea, his attention completely on Zar and me. Did that mean the archon had killed whoever had attacked them from the adjoining corridor ? Did that mean Emerald had…?

  “Heya, Boo,” Emerald said, nearly causing me to jump out of my skin when she came up behind me. She raised her blaster, adding it to our total firepower directed at the Niflin.

  “Geez, Em. Maybe you need a bell like Ixy.”

  “If you’re here, Emerald," Quasar asked, "who’s—?”

  “Our buddies from the elevator,” Emerald said. “I had to shake them and maybe kick them in the head a few times, but I got them up and told them you two had taken an employee hostage.”

  “We took her hostage?” I said.

  She shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it? They went that way while I circled back around to you.”

  I smiled at her, shaking my head, before returning my attention to Legrond. “You might as well let the nurse go, asshole. It’s the only way you might get out of this alive. And I know saving your own miserable hide is your top priority.”

  He glared at me, pressing the gun harder to Lorai’s temple, making her grimace. “Or I keep her hostage and walk right past you to the elevator.”

  “I guess you could try that,” I replied. “But I wonder if you could pull that trigger before Shaq can get his teeth into you. Or before I wrap her head with reflect and send the round back into your hand. Maybe both.”

  Legrond’s face twisted while he considered how eager he was to take the risk. Finally, he dropped his blaster and pushed Lorai away. She looked down the adjacent hallway, her face paling at whatever she saw there before she rushed toward me. I wrapped my free arm around her as she slammed almost hard enough into me to knock me off balance. Under better circumstances, it might have been a dream come true. Not so much here and now.

  “Please, don’t hurt me,” she cried, clutching two fistfuls of my jacket. “I won’t tell anyone you were here.”

  Hearing her words, Legrond started laughing. “You try so hard to play the hero, Murdock. And yet the whole Spiral believes you’re a villain. How does that feel?”

  “I just think about how satisfying it’ll be when I out the Empress for the fraud she is,” I replied. “That’s enough to keep it from bothering me in the slightest.” I lowered my head close to Lorai’s, the sweet smell of her hair filling my nostrils. I wouldn’t admit it, but it killed me that she was afraid of me. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe now,” I whispered, gently pushing her behind me while not taking my eyes off Legrond. "Zar, can you go see what PD's status is?” She hurried down the hallway and peeked around the corner into the adjacent hallway. “What are you doing here, Legrond?”

  “The same thing you are, I would imagine,” he replied. “Looking for Prince Hiro. When I caught wind of what happened on the waterfront, I knew you had to be involved. I’d hoped to take you by surprise, not be ambushed by you.” He chuckled sardonically. “It seems our paths are fated to intertwine.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Two days.”

  “Were you able to get into Mushari’s headquarters?”

  “Do I look like I could get into Mushari?” he replied, waving his hand over his Niflin face. “Honestly, it would have been easier to get the information I need if His Grace Duke Sedaya hadn’t assassinated Nobukku and his family. A simple request would have done the job. But then, we didn’t know someone planned to steal the prince out from under us. I assume you have a plan to get access to their records?”

  “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. And no, I’m not going to tell you what it is.”

  Quasar returned to where we were standing. “No survivors,” she announced, motioning to the archon. “She killed them all.”

  “I’ve never seen a sigil like the one she used,” I said, crossing to the archon and crouching beside her. Pulling up her shirt revealed gold sigils across her back. “Gilded.”

  “It’s a new sigil,” Legrond said. “David’s doing. Officially, she used energize. But he also called it the Palpatine. Do you like it?”

  “Not at all,” I replied.

  “He’s created a few others as well. It turns out, he doesn’t care much for pain.”

  “Where is Sedaya keeping him?” I asked.

  Legrond shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “I wonder. How do you feel about pain?” I asked, glaring back at him. “Emerald.”

  She smiled and approached Legrond. “Heya,” she said sweetly before driving her fist into his gut. He gasped and coughed into his breathing apparatus.

  “Where did you say David is?” I questioned.

  “Fine. He’s on Eviscerator with His Grace, of course. It’s hardly a secret worth being beaten over.”

  “Do you have any secrets worth being beaten over?” Emerald asked. “Because I'd love to pulverize your ugly face. I wonder how well you could breath that gas of yours with a broken nose."

  He smiled at her. “I’m sorry to disappoint you.” His eyes shifted back to me. “I know the truth about you, Murdock. I know you’re too nice to kill me in cold blood. So what now?”

  “I’m not done with you yet,” I replied. “How many Gilded are on Bushara?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Emerald?”

  “Gladly,” she said, raising her fist.

  “Wait,” he said, putting up his hands. “Murdock, I swear I don’t know. I might be one of His Grace’s most trusted mercenaries, but he doesn’t tell me everything. Believe it or not, I’m not even directly involved in the efforts to kill you. My job is to find the Prince.”

  “And what do you intend to do with him when you find him?” I asked.

  “He’s a threat to the plan. He needs to die. Those are Sedaya’s orders.”

  His change in reference didn’t miss my attention. “Don’t you mean, His Grace’s orders?”

  Legrond shrugged. “Do I?”

  “Are all Niflin so willing to flip sides, or just you?” Emerald asked.

  “I just said, I’m a mercenary. The outfit I belong to works for Duke Sedaya.” He motioned to the dead archon and the other Niflin on the floor. “After four interactions with you, that enterprise is looking a little…how should I say it? Cooked.”

  “Except I can only trust you about as far as I can throw you right now,” I said. “And in my current state, that isn’t very far. Plus, you were two seconds from killing Lorai. That really pissed me off."

  “I have no idea what’s going on here,” she said, looking around my shoulder and up at me. “Please, I don't want to die. Can I please just go now? I won’t tell anyone about any of this."

  "Zar, Em, keep the asshole covered," I said as I looked at Lorai. "I’m sorry you got mixed up in this. I hope you heard what Legrond said. I’m on the right side, trying to make things right for myself, my crew, the Spiral, and my home planet, Earth. I don’t want you to think of me as a monster.”

  She smiled meekly. “I don’t.” Her eyes told me she was lying. Telling me whatever she thought I wanted to hear so I would let her go. I’d never been looked at in quite that way before, especially by someone I wanted to believe in me. It crushed me.

  “You’re free to go,” I said. “But if anyone comes looking for us in the next hour, I’ll know who ratted us out. Do you understand?”

  She nodded, more fearful than before. Quasar stepped out of her path, allowing her to walk, and then run, away.

  “You do know she’s going to be on the line with PD by the time she reaches the elevator,” Legrond said.

  “Probably, but we won’t be here anymore. We’re leaving.”

  “So you’re taking me with you? We haven’t even discussed my fee yet.”

  “Like you said, you already lost to me four times. Add on the fact that I don’t trust you. Even if you implanted an explosive in your head and gave me the detonator, I still wouldn’t trust you. I’ve already been betrayed once today. I’m not interested in inviting round two. We’re leaving.” I motioned to Quasar and Emerald to move ahead of me. “You’re staying.”

  “I can kill him for you, Chief,” Emerald said. “Just say the word.”

  “We don’t kill people in cold blood,” I replied. “Even asscrabs like this one.” I stepped up to him and reached out, putting my hand on his neck. He watched me cautiously, but knew better than to resist if he wanted to survive. “Enjoy talking your way out of this one when PD arrives,” I said, activating calm. He opened his mouth to respond, working his mouth as silently as a fish before flopping on the floor.

  I turned around, losing my balance and nearly collapsing as a fresh wave of dizziness hit me. Quasar caught me before I landed on the floor beside Legrond. “Ben, we should abort. You’re in no condition to—”

  “No. We need to do this. I’ll be okay.” I looked down at my gut, sticking my fingers in the holes of my shirt. The wound beneath had healed, but I still looked much less dapper than I had twenty minutes ago. “Think anyone will notice this?”

  “Just button your jacket,” Emerald said. “You’ll be fine.”

  “In that case, let’s go check out the nightlife. It’s getting kind of boring around here.”

  CHAPTER 25

  We walked from the hospital to the Dare Devil, following a winding path that followed an artificial stream through exotic trees and colorful florals. Shaq, back under my scarf, started chittering excitedly when he recognized a baxalt tree, a twisted mess of branches heavy with sharp leaves that originated on the jagger homeworld. He tried explaining to me why they were significant to him, but my inability to decipher enough of his language to understand much of what he was saying made it difficult. A quick search of the hypernet on my phone taught me that jaggers would remove branches and leaves from the trees to build artistic homes within them. Looking at the pictures, some of them were as impressive and functional as any Earthian architectural marvel I'd ever seen.

  Our path carried us past a few PD officers along the way, regular on-foot patrol officers who seemed more interested in making small talk with pedestrians than watching out for wanted criminals. Probably because they didn’t need to. Like mechanical fireflies casting a red glow from their infrared vision, drones constantly drifted overhead, capturing faces and running them through the matching software, hunting for criminals and troublemakers. Our plasti-skin molds still held up enough to keep the machines from returning a strong enough facial match for PD to send someone to take a second look at us. Besides, even if PD knew about the casualties on the sixty-sixth floor of North Lapul General—which I didn't think they had heard about quite yet—the sheer volume of people out at night would make it difficult for them to pick us out of the crowd. Lorai would tell them who I was, but without my current face in the system, it would take them hours to find me.

  By then, we would be back on Head Case, high-tailing it to the next destination.

  My mental image of the Dare Devil turned out to be fairly accurate. I expected a dimly lit bar with plenty of flashing, colorful lights, holographic dancers, a large bar serving strange brews, and enough people to make Houdini feel claustrophobic. And that’s pretty much what I got, along with a loud Gia cover band making a racket at the front of the place. I cringed, wondering if I would ever be able to escape the awful music, not to mention the multitude of fans clad in all the outlandish lolliglot gear. Gia had been a friend, and her digital form remained a staunch ally, but her sound still sucked.

  Fortunately, we hadn’t come here to party, and we didn’t plan to stay. Flashing our VIP passes got us through the front door. Even better, they afforded us admission to the special lounge on the second floor, reserved for all the most important visitors. We took the stairs up. A pair of massive, hairy hothans—the only non-humans I had spotted in the place—stopped us at the top while a petite, flamboyant man floated down from a stepped dais to greet us.

  “Passes?” he asked, smiling warmly at us. I pulled out my phone and showed him our tickets. “Wonderful!" He clasped his hands beneath his chin and laughed in delight. "Welcome, welcome my lovelies.” He stepped between Emerald and me, forcing me to drop her hand. Even shorter than Em, he draped one arm around my hips, the other around her back, escorting us forward. “It is absolutely delightful to have you here." He beamed up at Emerald and me. "My name is Fraque, and I’ll be your VIP host for the evening. If you need anything, and I mean anything, simply ask and ye shall receive.”

  The club's upper level was a club within a club, a more spacious gathering with dozens of people on the dance floor instead of hundreds. Here, the house dancers were real flesh and blood, male and female, all of them dressed in skimpy outfits. They danced suggestively, some doing that twerky gyration Gia invented, some bumping and grinding more suggestively with partners. A few moved rhythmically with the music, while others flailed around without much rhythm or style.

  Servers created a constant flow of food and drink to the VIPs seated on the soft benches and chairs at tables clinging to the edges of the dance floor. I decided right away I wouldn’t hesitate to grab any hors-d’oeuvres that swung past.

  “Actually, Fraque,” Quasar said. “There is something we need. It’s kind of an odd request.”

  He stopped walking, turning his head to look up at her. “Believe me, tall, dark and delicious, there is no request I haven’t heard before. While we can’t accommodate anything illegal, we do our absolute best with anything else.”

  From the way he said it, I got the feeling they would fulfill illegal asks, just not over the table, and likely not without tacking on an exorbitant price.

  “It’s nothing like that,” Quasar continued. “We actually came here looking for someone.”

  “And you found me!” Fraque said, preening vivaciously. “Mission accomplished." He tittered with fake delight. “All jokes aside, is this a specific someone or an I-need-somebody-to uh, you know, kind of someone.”

  “Specific. Three people, actually. They all work for Mushari Technical.”

  “Zar,” I complained, having expected her to be a little more subtle. “Are you sure—”

  “They got here about an hour ago,” she continued. “I’d really love to talk to them, but picking them out of this crowd might take a while, and we’ve got a tight schedule to keep.”

  Fraque pursed his lips. “Hmmm, that is an unusual request. We don’t normally pick guests out of the crowd for other guests.” He rubbed his chin, considering the problem.

  “Don’t think too hard,” Quasar said. “We can pay.”

  “Oh, I have no doubt about that. You are in the VIP lounge, after all. But I am trying to determine how to fulfill your request without running afoul of our wonderful Planetary Defense. You said these people work for Mushari?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Are they residents of Bushara?”

  “As far as I know.”

  He rubbed his hands together. “That makes things a little less sticky, since I can try to match them with the public resident database.” His face twisted as he considered the problem.

  A server walked past with a tray of something that looked like cocktail wieners, and I grabbed three of them, drawing a momentarily surprised look from Fraque. He pulled out a small slab. “Pass me their pictures and half a million electro, and I’ll make it happen.”

  “Half a million?” I groaned, nearly spitting out a half-chewed weiner. It didn’t have a hot dog inside and tasted much worse than I expected. I forced myself to choke it down. I needed all the energy I could get.

  “It’s not your money,” Quasar told me. “Turn the slab; I’ve got a neural.”

  “Oh, of course,” Fraque said, adjusting the device so she could scan its identifier visually. “I should have guessed as much. My apologies.”