They nodded to us but didn’t speak.

  “Escorts?” Meg asked, confused.

  “They’ll help you make sure you don’t wander anywhere Carl doesn’t want you to be,” Mae explained. “I’m sure you know he’s a very private individual.”

  “Honestly, Mae,” I said. “I didn’t expect we’d be staying very long.”

  “Let me tell you something about Carl you might not know,” Mae replied. “He isn’t one to rush into any decisions. He agreed to meet with you because he’s intrigued by the idea of putting his stamp on something he enjoys, but he also refuses to be seen as a loser. Do you understand?”

  “Not entirely,” I admitted.

  “You will, I assure you.” She motioned to the glass tower behind her. “We’ll enter the observation tower and descend into the guest wing of the residence. Kine and Malo will show you to your rooms. They’ll bring you to Carl when he’s ready to meet with you.”

  “I thought we’d be meeting right away,” I said.

  “Then you thought wrong,” she countered. “Just because Carl isn’t making a splash in the wider universe, that doesn’t mean he has nothing better to do with his time than chat with a hop racer. He’ll send for you when he’s ready. If that’s a problem, you can always get back on your ship and go.” She smiled devilishly at that. I had tipped my hand too soon by telling her we didn’t have any fuel left to hop again.

  “I can think of a lot worse places to stay in the meantime,” I said, returning her grin. “We’ll be happy to wait for as long as Mister Usari requires.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Mae said. “This way.”

  Kine and Malo turned aside to let Mae move between them. They flanked Meg and me as we trailed behind Usari’s assistant, sticking tight on our shoulders.

  “Have you worked for Mister Usari for a long time?” Meg asked Malo as we walked to the tower. He didn't answer. “Mae, are your people not allowed to talk to us or something?” she questioned.

  “They’re escorts, not social partners, Miss Gillyfin. Their job is to keep an eye on you.”

  “Wouldn’t cameras be more efficient at that?” I asked.

  “Perhaps, but that would be the opposite of the personal privacy Carl craves, wouldn’t it?”

  “What if we need something? Will they get it for us?”

  “They’ll see that the appropriate team member is informed.”

  I glanced at Meg and shrugged. The setup was weird, but we didn’t really expect someone like Usari to be normal.

  The tower doors opened ahead of us as we approached. Crossing the threshold, we stepped onto an etched glass floor with a transparent spiral staircase in the center, stretching both up toward the top of the tower nearly a hundred feet above and down into the home. Mae crossed it without batting an eye while Meg and I lagged behind, our attention drawn to the floor’s design.

  “Molecular structures,” Meg said, recognizing the shapes. “That’s water. Oxygen. Sulphur.” She quickly lost track of our path, wandering across the floor to look at the structures represented there. She didn’t make it far. Malo shifted in front of her, letting Meg bump into her chest to stop her from going too far off course. She looked up at her escort and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. Science gets me excited.”

  She returned to where I had joined Mae to wait before leading us down the staircase. We passed through three feet of solid rock before reaching excavated space on the first subterranean floor of the property. The natural stone ceiling was nearly fifteen feet high, the cement floor below it lined with fine carpeting, except at the base of the stairs.

  “Please remove your boots,” Mae said, slipping out of her sandals. The rest of us did the same before she brought us down a long corridor flanked by ornate sliding wood doors. “Each suite is outfitted with its own food assembler,” she explained while we walked. “If you’re hungry, feel free to eat as much as you desire. There’s also a bar in every room, fully stocked with the finest spirits the Spiral has to offer. All natural, not assembled.”

  “Wow,” Meg said.

  “There’s full hypernet access and an extensive collection of streams within the network’s datastore. If you’d like to go swimming, the heated pool is just down this hallway here.” She pointed to a double door at the end of the hall. “The gym is adjacent.”

  “This is like being at a resort,” Meg said excitedly.

  I didn’t share her enthusiasm. “I’m not much of a swimmer,” I sassed, waving my empty sleeve at her. “And I gave up lifting weights. I know you said Mister Usari will meet with us when he has time. But I’m getting the impression that won’t be today, and maybe not even tomorrow.”

  “I can’t tell you when he’ll be available, Mister Hondo. I just don’t know. But it is fair to assume it might be as long as a week from now.”

  “A week before he’ll speak to us at all?”

  “It could also be an hour. Again, I just don’t know.”

  “But you’re his personal assistant. You don’t have his calendar handy?”

  “He doesn’t keep a calendar. His activities are at his whim, not prescribed. That’s how he prefers it.”

  “I see. Is there anything we can do to expedite the process?”

  She smiled condescendingly at me. “I’m afraid not. In the meantime, I’m sure you’ll be more than comfortable here.”

  “I’m not questioning that. This place looks great. But can you please just do me a favor and stress to Mister Usari that the next big hop race is in six days, and we’d really like to register for it? I’m confident we can win that one, but only if we can get some work on the ship done before then. I’d also love to have his name on my racer by the time we hit the starting line.”

  “I will relay your time constraints to Carl,” she said. “But you must understand that's all I can do.”

  “Thank you, Mae. I appreciate whatever you can do to expedite things.”

  She stopped at a pair of doors flanking the hallway, close to the pool. “These are your rooms. You’re welcome to help yourselves to anything inside. Again, if you need anything, tell your escorts and they’ll arrange it. Again, welcome to Cicana and the Usari estate, Mister Hondo and Miss Gillyfin. I will be back the moment Carl asks to meet with you.”

  Kine and Malo opened their respective doors and waved Meg and me through. We both paused at our thresholds, looking back at one another.

  “Uh, possibly an odd request,” I said. “But can we stay in the same room? Or does Mister Usari not allow that?”

  Meg’s face flushed at my suggestion, reddening more when Mae grinned mischievously. “I see. My apologies. I should have realized from the fact that you came together in a one-seat hop racer that you were more than a pilot and mechanic. Of course you can share a suite, but we do have a larger room we can provide if—”

  “No, this one is fine,” I said as Meg crossed to my side. “As you’ve already seen, we don’t need a lot of space.” I forced a laugh. Meg joined in after a slight delay. Mae laughed too, as Kine and Malo took up positions flanking our door.

  “You kids have fun, I’ll be in touch soon.”

  The door slid closed in front of my face, cutting us off from the hallway. Meg and I glanced at one another, each of us wearing similar expressions.

  Were we guests? Or prisoners?

  CHAPTER 36

  Meg, Shaq, and I spent our initial time in the guest suite wandering from room to room, both to explore the layout and to search for signs of cameras or other recording devices. Simple but well-appointed, the space consisted of an open living area with a sofa and loveseat, a hypernet terminal, and a huge transparent display currently displaying the view of the landscape as if we were at the top of the glass tower. Only a long counter serving as the bar separated the kitchen from the living space. Behind it, a late-model assembler waited to take our food orders. Looking to the rear of the suite, a bedroom and bathroom were situated through separate doors, though the bedroom also had a connecting door to the lavatory. We also had access to one of the window bubbles overlooking the sea that I had spotted on our descent, which let in plenty of light and provided an incredible view.

  We reconvened in the living area with none of us discovering anything out of the ordinary about the room or the various vents and outlets that lined the walls. There was no apparent surveillance equipment to be found, which stood to reason when considering Usari’s stated desire for privacy but seemed strange in light of the total lack of security surrounding our arrival. While Mae had posted Kine and Malo at our door, they hadn’t bothered to check us for weapons or other contraband, like Shaq or the comm badge pinned inside my coat.

  There didn’t seem to be any concern that we might not be above board or any thought that we had come to harm the wealthy recluse. Maybe because Usari was so reclusive, no one normally had any reason to want to harm him. Or maybe it was because he had no intention to see us in the first place. Might he have already guessed who we were and was simply stalling for time? If he tied us up for a few days, we would have zero chanceI of getting Prince Hiro back to Atlas, transit or not. Assuming we ever found him in the first place.

  I tapped on my comm badge. “Matt, do you copy?” I had already pinged him before we landed, but I wanted to both test the relay from Starbright that was supposed to bolster the transmission from underground to get it up to Head Case, and give him an update on our status.

  “I copy,” Matt replied. “Loud and clear. The relay’s working great. What’s your sitrep?” He laughed. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “Usari’s willing to meet with us,” I replied, “but Mae refused to give us any kind of timeline on when that might take place. It could be minutes from now. It could be days.”

  “Bro, we don’t have days.”

  “I know. I think I lit a little bit of a fire under her, but that remains to be seen. I figure we should give it at least twelve hours, and then we’ll come up with another plan.”

  “There’s always our Plan B, if you think that would be more effective,” he offered.

  “I don’t. Not yet, anyway. I just wanted to let you know we’re both fine and not to worry about the delay.”

  “Copy that. Twelve hours seems reasonable. There’s still no indication we’ve been spotted.”

  “Great. I’ll let you know as soon as I can if anything changes.”

  “You’d better. Matt out.”

  The comms disconnected. Shaq slipped out from the pouch in the sling and climbed to my shoulder to perch. “Let me guess,” he buzzed. “Time to eat?”

  “Not you, too,” I replied as he hummed with laughter. “Though I am actually a little hungry after using sigils to transfer to Starbright.”

  “You’re impossible,” Meg said.

  “In all seriousness, we need to figure out what to do if we’re held up here too long. And I don’t mean go swimming.”

  “Right. Well, problem one is pretty obvious, I think.”

  I nodded. “Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum.”

  “Who?”

  “Nevermind. Our two escorts.”

  “I can handle them,” Shaq said.

  “Yeah, but can you handle them without killing them, bud?” I asked.

  He shook his head adorably. “No. Sorry.”

  “Let’s table that option for now. We can try disabling them, but we’d need to know how often they report back to Mae or anyone else. Or if they report back at all.”

  “That might be tough since they don’t speak,” Meg said. “I bet they have neurals.”

  “I bet you’re right.”

  “We don’t both need to ditch them though. Only one of us has to break free. Well, you. Maybe I can create a diversion and you can slip away without them knowing you’re gone?”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “I don’t know.” She pursed her lips and tapped on her chin with her fingers. “All I need to do is get their eyes facing away from the door for a few seconds, right? Maybe if I went out into the hallway naked or something.”

  “No offense, but I honestly don’t think that would get anyone’s attention but mine.” I added the last part to make her feel better. “Not that you aren’t cute, but they definitely seem too stoic to fall for something like that.”

  “You think I’m cute?” Meg asked, blushing.

  “How could I not?” I replied. “But that’s not really my point.”

  “I know. But thank you for the compliment. You’re probably right.” She went back into thinking mode. “What do you think they’d do if I attacked them?”

  “Kill you,” I replied. “Or toss you in their brig or dungeon, or maybe lock you in a separate room? Or lock us both in here and then try to kill us. Which would lead to us killing them, which is what we’re trying to avoid.”

  “They’d think they have both of us in here,” she said slyly. “But you would be long gone.”

  “Then they might kill you and start searching for me, and that definitely wouldn’t put me on Usari’s good side.”

  “True.” She sighed. “I’m out of ideas.”

  “After two?”

  “You contributed zero so far, Captain. What do you have?”

  I thought about the problem, shrugging when I couldn’t immediately come up with anything.

  “See, it’s not so easy,” Meg said.

  “Ben,” Shaq buzzed. “Window.”

  I looked at the transparent spherical protrusion. “What about it?”

  “Go out through the window,” he elaborated, his tone suggesting I was being more than a little daft.

  “Good thinking, bud,” I replied, crossing the living area to it. I glanced out, looking down at a hundred-foot wave as it crashed against the cliff face before revealing huge, jagged rocks below. “It might be a little risky, especially without shoes.”

  “For you?” Shaq asked.

  “Don’t forget, I need to maintain enough energy to transit from here to Atlas without risking paralysis of my other arm. Or any other part of me for that matter. That’s an option if it comes down to it, but let’s see if we can come up with something better. We probably have some time, and if we don’t that means Usari will see us before we need to break out of here.”

  “Let’s assume you make it out,” Meg said. “You go through the window and make your way down to another room and exit there. How do you find Usari from that point? How do you even know where you’re going as you walk through the property? That’s problem number two.”

  “Yeah. I know someone who might be able to help us with that problem,” I replied, again tapping the comm badge. “Gia, are you there?”

  “I’m here, Ben,” she replied. Her constant remote presence on Head Case had initially been unnerving, but lately turned out to be a benefit. I only wished the real Gia were still with us.

  “How does Usari’s network security look?”

  “I wondered when you would ask. It’s very similar to Mushari’s. Perhaps not coincidentally. I have high-level access to basic datastreams, but I can’t penetrate his primary mainframe.”

  “Can you get us a map of his property?”

  “Not currently. I can work on it.”

  “Thank you, but make sure you don’t get caught.”

  “The good thing about being me is that if I am caught, no one will believe it’s me.”

  “Be careful anyway. Ben out.” I disconnected the comms, frowning at Meg. “That might be a dead end.”

  “We have time,” she replied hopefully.

  “Too much time,” I agreed.

  “Problem three,” Meg continued. “Even if Gia gets you a map, you have no idea what Usari’s security detail looks like. I’m willing to bet the two outside are combat trained. How many others are there, and what kind of defenses do they have?”

  “I’m not that worried about the defenses. Shaq and I can handle them.”

  “Mmmmhmmm,” Shaq agreed.

  “Except you’re trying not to overuse your magic,” Meg reminded me.

  “I don’t see how we’d get a look at the defenses ahead of time. Maybe Gia can do it? You should have brought it up before I disconnected.” I reached for the comm badge again.

  A knock on the door made me drop my hand back to my side. Shaq scurried down across my chest and into the sling pouch, slipping out of sight just before the door opened.

  Mae’s smile looked more predatory than inviting. “Mister Hondo. Miss Gillyfin. I have excellent news. Mister Usari will see you now.”

  CHAPTER 37

  “That was fast,” I said to Mae, disturbed that Usari suddenly seemed almost too eager to meet with me on such unexpectedly short notice. Meg and I hadn't even had time to finish formulating our alternative plan. I had hoped mentioning the hop race would get us in to see him within a day or two, not within minutes. “You made it sound like we would be waiting here to see him for up to a week.”

  “When I informed Carl of your time limitation, and that you’d arrived in Katana’s racer, he was most intrigued,” Mae replied. “He really wants to hear the story of…” She lowered her voice to mimic Usari… ”how you pried that brat’s pride and joy out of his slimy fingers.”

  “I’d be happy to tell him,” I said with a smile. “I can appreciate Mister Usari’s opinion.”

  “See. You two already have something in common,” Mae laughed. “Come along.”

  Meg and I followed Mae out of the suite. Of course, Kine and Malo came with us, so close behind Meg and me that I could feel Kine’s breath on the back of my neck. I hoped he wouldn’t notice the glow of my veins beneath the makeup and the high collar of my coat.

  Mae took us to an elevator not far from the spiral staircase, pausing in front of a slab attached to a pedestal. She let it scan her retina and unlock the controls before calling the cab to our current floor.

  “This place is huge,” Meg said, keenly watching Mae’s fingers on the control slab as she programmed it to go down to the seventh underground level of the property. Meg might have captured all of the keypresses, but she couldn’t replicate Mae’s eye.