“What is Sashkur tech, anyway?” I asked. “And how useful is it if it can’t get us out of here? And why do you have it under your skin? And when you say protege, does that mean you want to put it under my skin, too?”

  “Geez. Machinegun Bennie. I’m trying to come up with a way out of here and you’re hitting me with all these query bombs.”

  “What am I supposed to do, just sit here and wait to be tortured?”

  “What would you be doing if I wasn’t in the cell next to yours?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “So do that.” I glared at him sharply enough that he offered at least an attempt at a comforting smile. “I’ll figure something out. I always do.”

  Maybe it was dumb, but I believed him. “You have access to lost tech, and that can’t get us out of this?”

  “It might. I’m not sure yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “I thought you were going to sit in the corner and mope or something?” he groused, a hint of amusement behind his rough tone. “Okay Bennie, lesson number one. The sigils draw on internal energy, your life force, to power them.”

  “Force?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Shit. Can I explain this without you consistently tying it back to Star Wars or some other Earthian media franchise? I can just walk to the other side of my cell and let them torture you.”

  “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “Why not? I like you, Bennie. Don’t get me wrong. And I think you can be useful. But this is a business relationship. And if there’s no return on investment, there’s no point wasting my time on it. Capiche?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m listening.”

  “Okay, so there are four elements to the tech. One, the catalyst. That’s the metal you saw in the pictures. Say, did you get any idea of the size of the sigils? Anything to use as reference?”

  “No. Do they come in different sizes?”

  “Oh yeah. Once upon a time, the Sashkur had starships with symbols etched into their hulls.”

  “If this is lost tech, how do you know about all of this?”

  “That’s a story I’m not diving into right now. Unless you want to be tortured?”

  “I’d rather not.”

  “So there are four elements. One, the catalyst.” He again held up his wrist. “I’ve got a two-inch wide band implanted over the muscle and bone, deep enough beneath the skin it doesn’t register on scans. Assuming someone knows what to scan for. Two, a power source. For embedded systems like mine, that means blood.”

  “What about other systems, like the starships you mentioned?”

  “They had a different energy source, and a different catalyst. But you don’t need to worry about those. There aren’t any left, and I guarantee nobody knows how to build another one.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “T-minus two hours, Bennie. Less, actually. We’ve been jawing for nearly twenty minutes already.” He patted his wrist. "For a sleeve like mine to work, the catalyst converts the blood at various levels of efficiency based on genetics. Don’t ask me how it works because I don’t know. It just works.”

  “Midichlorians?”

  “Midi-what?”

  “It’s what gives Jedi more or less control over the—”

  “Stop. Just…stop. Real life isn’t a movie.”

  “It’s more like a video game.”

  Keep sighed sharply. I was being a jerk. I knew it. But part of me still harbored a deep-seated resentment of everything he had already put Matt and me through. Could you blame me?

  “Three, a focus word.”

  I was going to ask him if abracadabra was one of them, but I managed to bite my tongue. I had a feeling one more interruption would convince him to leave me here to be tortured until I died.

  Keep smiled. “No smart-ass comment? You know, that kind of attitude doesn’t really suit you, Bennie. You’re more of an optimist than that.”

  “I’m not feeling very optimistic right now.”

  “Somewhat understandable. The focus word can really be anything, but the Sashkur trained archons on specific words.”

  “Archons? That’s what they called themselves?”

  “Yup. Why?”

  “Are you an archon?”

  “I’m using their device, so that’s technically an accurate statement.”

  “How did you become an archon?”

  Keep lifted his other arm and pulled back his shirt enough for me to see the Rolex dangling from that wrist. “Tick-tock, Bennie,” he said, tapping it.

  “The message on the slab included what must have been the focus words.”

  Keep’s mouth clamped shut, and he stared at me with a fresh wave of apprehension. “What?” he hissed.

  “The words were in there. Krthep. That’s the one I remember. Is that worse than bad?”

  “Yeah. It means they didn’t just find the symbols. They found a lot more than that.”

  I wrinkled my face, remembering the rest of the message on the slab. “If that’s worse, you probably don’t want to know the last bit I discovered.”

  “I think I already know the last bit. Someone’s training archons, aren’t they?”

  “It seems that way. But they don’t have the whole set. The message called it the Grimoire. Do they need the whole thing?”

  “If they want to maximize their power, they do. But access to a limited set of symbols is dangerous enough.”

  “I think I’m beginning to understand Sedaya’s plan. If he can create an army of archons, he’ll be able to overpower the Royal Guard and anyone loyal to the Empress. Which he’ll need to do if he wants any chance of overthrowing her and holding onto the crown.”

  Keep nodded. “Not bad, Bennie. I’m impressed. That explains why he wants the slab so badly. It seems we managed to intercept it before Nobukku passed it to him.”

  “But the job was to bring the slab back to Kasper, one of Nobukku’s planets. And it originated from one of Nobukku’s planets. Which means it should have already gone out to Sedaya and back. Or Sedaya sent the message to Nobukku and not the other way around.”

  “That wouldn’t explain why he wants it back so badly.”

  “Sure it would. If it fell into the wrong hands, it could be used to expose him to the Empress before his plans are complete. If we can put two and two together, I hope she can too.”

  “If he had seen the full Grimoire he would have made a copy or destroyed it. He wouldn’t have risked sending it back where it came from. I don’t think he’s seen it yet.”

  “Then how did you know he wanted it before you even knew what was on it?”

  “I didn’t. Not specifically. Every job on the dark exchange is listed using a key, which is supposed to be anonymous. Except if you know the identity of the individual who uses the key. Which no one is supposed to, but…” He shrugged.

  “So you know who posted the job.”

  “I know whose key posted the job. There’s a difference.”

  “Whose key?”

  “Duchess Dryka.”

  I stared at him, the puzzle I thought I was close to finishing collapsed back into a million pieces. “But you killed the courier. I thought you were on Duchess Dryka’s side.”

  “I am on her side. She’s the only reason I didn’t go back to Earth after I sold you the ship. I’ve watched the exchange for the last twenty years. I never saw a message from her before then.”

  “Was it a coincidence that it appeared around the same time you sold the ship and the Star?”

  “Bingo! It isn’t. Which made me worried that someone else had gotten hold of her key. And then I went to Kasper to monitor the delivery, maybe find my way back to her. I saw you in the spaceport. I marked you for the smugglers, through Alter. Not ideal, but at least that made sense. I watched everything unfold and followed the courier into the maintenance tunnels. Once I got the drop on him, I hit him up for the code word he should have known if he was really with her.”

  “He didn’t know it,” I guessed.

  “Exactamundo. He failed that test, so I put a few holes in him and went for the slab. I figured you would have high-tailed it out of there once the job was done, but then you snuck up behind me and badabing badaboom, the rest is history.”

  “Whoever put up the job knew you would recognize the key. They knew you would come.”

  “Possibly. Maybe they thought they would get the drop on me too. That part could have been a trap to put me down.”

  “But not Sedaya’s trap.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Do you have other enemies?”

  “Yeah, lots.”

  “Does the name Sucaath mean anything to you?”

  He wrinkled his face before shaking his head. “Nope. Never heard of it before. Bottom line, Bennie. There’s a third party involved in all of this. It could be the Duchess. Maybe she got sloppy and forgot to tell the courier the code word. Maybe she didn’t expect me to get involved. Or maybe it’s someone else pretending to be Dryka reeling me in. I don’t know. There’s a lot of what-ifs, and not a lot of answers. Whatever’s going down here, it’s big and ugly, and it’s only going to get worse.” He paused, a pained expression on his face, and I couldn’t help sympathizing with him. “Anyway, we’re off on a tangent. Four things, Bennie. A catalyst, a fuel source, a focus word, and last but not least, an instruction.”

  “The symbol.”

  “Bingo. The sigils are instructions. They tell the energy what to do. By combining sigils, you can create combined effects. Or, if you’re really good, you can combine sigil activation to create new effects.”

  “Like writing a program.”

  Keep shrugged. “Yeah, sure. If you say so. And in this case, size does matter. Larger symbols create a larger area of effect, but of course require more energy.”

  “So what can you do with your symbols?” I asked.

  Keep whispered something below his breath. The sigil on his wrist started to glow. An invisible force hit me, knocking me on my ass.

  “That,” he said.

  I looked up at him. I had to admit, when it wasn’t being used to kill me, the stuff was pretty amazing. “Not bad,” I replied, getting back to my feet. “Do you have other symbols on there?”

  “A few.”

  “What about the glove Sedaya’s guy used against us?”

  “It’s similar to the band, only external instead of internal. What color is it?”

  “Dark. Almost black.”

  “If it’s nearly black, it’s a hemolytic device. More charcoal to gray, it’s exotic.”

  “Exotic?”

  “Not exotic like a Lamborghini. Exotic as in an external power supply.”

  “Is that definition of exotic in the dictionary?”

  “Probably not, but that’s what we’re going with.”

  “And even with the… what did you call it? The sleeve? You still can’t get us out of here?”

  “Oh, I can get us out of these cells.”

  “What?” I hissed. “Then what the hell is with all the time’s running out. I’m thinking about how to get us out of here, blah, blah, blah?”

  “This ship doesn’t begin and end here, kid. And I don’t have the juice to break us out and get through the opposition without a nice long nap in between.”

  His statement brought something else to mind. Waking up in the back of the limo after my own nap. Keep had already been awake, but for how long?

  “You used the sleeve to teleport us from Earth to Caprum, didn’t you?”

  “Not exactly, but that’s a decent guess. If I could do that, surely I could teleport myself from this side of the bars to that side.” He pointed to the corridor. “Or into your cell.”

  “The car,” I guessed.

  “Bingo,” he replied. “We made the transit while you were sleeping.”

  “So Alter knows about the symbols, and what you can do?”

  “Nope. She never saw a thing. Anyway, we’ve still got a problem to solve.”

  “If Matt were here, you wouldn’t have a problem,” I said. “He could help you fight your way out. Alter too. Even Shaq or Quasar.”

  “Who?”

  “Two of our newer crew members. The point is I’m not a warrior. I can fly a starship pretty well, and I’m serviceable at hacking bad security. That’s about it. I can’t even get too worked up without risking becoming dizzy or passing out.” I stepped back, looking at the floor. “I’m the worst person you could have in this situation.”

  Keep didn’t say anything. I heard him reach into his pocket, and then a soft click. A moment later, the smoke from his cigarette began wafting into my face, forcing me to look up.

  “Does that mean our truce is over?” I asked.

  “Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt your pity party? I want winners on my team, kid. Individuals with confidence and moxy. Not self-defeated losers.”

  I glared at him, getting angry. “What did you call me?”

  “I called you a loser,” Keep replied calmly. “Or am I wrong about that?”

  “I’m not a loser.”

  “Then why are you giving up?”

  All of the fury flushed out of me in an instant, my shitty attitude flushing with it. “I never said I was giving up.”

  “Oh, boo-hoo,” Keep mocked in a high-pitched whine. “I’m only a good pilot. I don’t know kung-fu.” He took a drag of his cigarette. “You know how to use a gun, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then what the hell do you need kung-fu for?”

  I looked at him again and suddenly felt like I was five years old. I had grown up without a father. Was I turning Keep into a replacement? This wasn’t a time for male role-model issues. “I don’t want to let you down.”

  He dropped the cigarette and stamped it out. “You can’t let me down, Ben. Not as long as you do your best.”

  It was a sappy thing to say, and I didn’t know if he meant it or not, but damn, it worked. All of my previous anger morphed into sudden, staunch determination.

  “Is this the part where you tell me you’re really my father?” I asked.

  He smirked. “Nope. I never got involved with any women on Earth. But I still believe you’ve got a lot of potential. Are you ready to manifest some of it?”

  “Yeah. I’m ready. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  CHAPTER 4

  “Back up a few steps,” Keep said.

  I retreated to the far side of my cell. Keep held out his hands like a magician about to pull a rabbit out of a hat, his lips moving, voice inaudible. Two of the symbols on his wrists began to glow.

  The bars between us started to glow too, gaining a reddish-orange hue as the power of the Sashkur tech heated them. At the same time, the bars began pushing toward me, forceful pressure added to the excitement of the metal’s atomic structure. It only took a few seconds before the weakened bars bent out of shape, spread aside and allowed Keep to pass through.

  “That’s awesome,” I said as he approached.

  “Not bad,” he admitted with a smirk. “I can teach you.”

  “You said this is a business transaction. What’s the price?”

  “I train you as an archon and do my best to get your cancer removed. You help me take care of Sedaya and find Ninaya.”

  “Do you really think you can find someone else who can fix me?”

  “I wouldn’t waste time teaching you if I didn’t.” He put out his hand. “What do you say, Bennie?”

  I looked down at it, and then into his eyes. I wasn’t sure I wanted a metal band embedded under the skin of my wrist, but I couldn’t argue that the tech itself was amazing. To be honest, I wanted the cure more than the power. Helping him deal with Sedaya wasn’t in question at all. Even without Keep, if the Duke wanted something, I wanted to stop him from obtaining it.

  “It seems like a pretty good deal to me,” I replied, taking his hand and shaking. “You’re on.”

  “I knew you’d come around.” He turned away from me, toward the door of the cell. He whispered his focus words again, and the latch on the cell reacted similarly to the bars, melting and breaking apart within seconds.

  Just like that, we were free.

  Keep slumped slightly from the effort, his face becoming a little pale. “Damn. I’m more worn out than I thought I'd be. I could really go for more of those fries right now.”

  “I’ve got McRory’s fries programmed into Asshole,” I replied. “Once we get back to Head Case, you can have as many as you want.”

  “You named the assembler Asshole?” Keep asked.

  I shrugged. “It’s my ship.”

  He grinned. “It sure is. Shall we?”

  I followed Keep out of the cell and down the corridor toward the blast door that marked the entrance.

  “I’ll take care of the first guard,” he said. “I’ll need a bit more help after that.”

  “What do we do once we’re clear of the dungeon?” I asked.

  “We need to get out of here. Make a break for it.”

  “What about Sedaya?”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s here. We’re here. This might be our best chance to catch him by surprise.”

  “You want to confront him here, on his home turf?”

  “Why not? You said you wanted moxy.”

  “Moxy, kid. Not insanity.”

  “I’m tired of running away,” I replied. “I feel like that’s all I ever do, and to be honest it really hasn’t seemed to get me very far. Every time I evade one thing, I end up in something worse. We’re here. We should go after Sedaya. We should fight.”

  “I don’t have the strength. We need to escape now so we can fight later. So we actually stand a chance of winning, kid. We go after Sedaya now, we both die. And when we die, Matt will die. So will a lot of other innocent people. Capiche?”

  I nodded, tempering that determination a little. “How are we going to escape?”

  “Did they nab you on the ground or on a ship?”

  “Flippy.”

  “Then today’s our lucky day. We just need to get to the hangar.”

  “Flippy only has seating for one.”

  “I guess we’ll have to cozy up. I promise I won’t bite.”