“Maximus got us nowhere,” he said. “They won’t do anything but laugh at us.”
“Yeah, I recall,” Titus growled.
“And Odditor is being unreasonable.”
Thorne crossed her arms.
“So what are you thinking to do about it?”
“Bernstein gave us leads for potential allies. Two of those are dead ends right now, so I’m exploring a different option.”
From her seat by the window Zelda looked over at him, frowning. Then her brow relaxed as she seemed to figure out what he was thinking. Kaiden saw this, gave her a nod.
It’s our next best chance.
“Thorne’s not going to like it,” Zelda said.
“I’m not going to like what?” She looked between them, waiting for an answer, then stopped abruptly. Realization dawned on her face and she laughed in disbelief.
“Really, Kaiden? Really? I already told you—”
“The Syndicate doesn’t exist. Yeah, I remember.”
“So why do you want to waste our time on this? Chasing rumors instead of coming up with something real?”
“Because Maximus was a dead end. Because Odditor’s crazy. Because I have a feeling about this one, and because we’ve tried everything else.” His voice was coming out angrier than he would have preferred, but damn it, he was fed up with dead ends. They needed to make real progress.
He forced the anger from his words as he continued.
“It’s time we thought for ourselves instead of blindly following what we’ve been told to do. Bernstein suggested potential allies but they haven’t worked out. Maybe that’s on him, maybe that’s on us, but it doesn’t matter. The end result has been the same. So, I say it’s time we make our own way.”
“Hell yes!” Titus said, striding forward and loading up for a big high five. “That’s what I’m talking about, man!”
Thorne frowned all the more, shaking her head slightly.
“I guess there’re some mistakes you have to make on your own. But fine, whatever. You want to waste time chasing rumors, then go for it. In the meantime, I’ll be working on an actual, actionable plan. A concrete way forward.”
“Why Boyd City, though?” Titus asked. “Why do you think The Syndicate’s there?”
“Aside from it being a hub of piracy and criminal activity? Because we have an old friend there,” Kaiden said, calling the NPC to mind.
“Marty,” Zelda said, rising from her seat, excitement in her eyes now. Not the excitement that said she thought his plan might work, but just enough that maybe, maybe she was entertaining the idea. Saw some value in it.
“At this point, he owes me,” Kaiden said. “I fought in his arena and sold him our loot from the freighter raid at a disgustingly discounted rate.”
“Excuse me?” Thorne asked. “You did what for this man? Who even is he?”
“Uh, yeah…” Forgot she didn’t know about all that.
“It’s a long story,” Kaiden said. “We’ll catch you up on the way there, but Marty’s almost a friend at this point, I guess. At the very least, he’s been reliable.”
“And you think he has information on some supposedly extremely secretive criminal organization that pulls the strings behind the scenes all across the universe? This Marty must be a pretty notable criminal.”
Titus gave an enthusiastic nod.
“He runs a theatre.”
Thorne cocked an eyebrow at that, seeming to have no idea what to make of it.
“Marty’s a good thought,” Zelda said, the excitement in her eyes changed now. It’d gone from raw potential to focused energy. She was driven now, deep in thought and speaking as ideas occurred to her. “There’s a chance he’ll know something about The Syndicate. At the very least, he might be able to tell us it’s all fake.”
“There’s also a chance it’s real and I can convince him to tell me about it.” Kaiden pulled up his character sheet for a moment. “After all, my status with Nassau’s criminal underground is ‘favored.’ Combine that with a negative one hundred and eighty points of prestige with the Warden Corps and I bet I’ve a fair bit of influence in the back alleys of Boyd City.”
“It’s a start,” Zelda said with a nod. “But I don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket. Even if The Syndicate does exist, I’m worried Marty’s not enough of a big shot to know much about them.”
Kaiden frowned at that.
“You and Titus should go to Boyd City. Take the Borrelly. Even with our fake transponder the Veritas II will likely draw too much attention. There’s no reason to risk getting ID’d and having everyone know we’re flying as the Andronicus now.” Zelda spoke faster as she gained confidence. “Thorne and I will take the Veritas II and head to a less populated spot. To Jonduu, the ice planet with the turen archival facility on it.”
“Right!” Kaiden said, a smile building as the memories came back to him. They’d gone there looking for information on Jax’s guild. Wow. It felt so long ago now. That’d been, what? Their first week in-game? So much had changed since then.
Kaiden let the smile spill across his features.
So much had changed, and if they had any say in it, so much more was still going to change.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Marty Macmara!” Kaiden said, smirking and stretching his arms wide as he led Titus into Nassau’s ‘finest theatre.’ “I see the old place is looking dreadful as ever.”
“Excuse me, sirs,” the lean-framed and sharp-featured Marty retorted, offense plastered across his face. “How dare you visit my respected establishment unannounced and spewing insults! There’s no finer theatre on this planet.”
“There are no other theatres on this planet,” Kaiden said.
Marty adjusted his worn-out suit and smiled.
“It would seem my point stands, then.”
The same overdone red cushions and stained loungers decorated the lobby of the theatre. The holograms on the wall flicked between ads for two different shows, and Kaiden was pretty sure they were the same two shows as every other time he’d visited. Something was off, though. It took him a moment to realize exactly what.
Lou, Marty’s ever-present sidekick,
