“Uh, yeah. Of course.” A lot must have gone down with the Mayir while I was away.
“They’ve been trying to normalize relations with other systems, one on one,” Lhiana said. “Palan. Amravadi. Rygond. And Jaalbar, of course. These hunting boondoggles are part of it.”
“There has to be some kind of system of justice here. Can we get a lawyer at least?”
“You really don’t know much about the Mayir, do you?” Lhiana asked.
“I know they suck,” TenSix piped in.
“There are no lawyers anymore,” Lhiana said. “No juries. No trials. From what I heard they’ve got some kind of Mayir tribunal. Three judges make the call. Behind closed doors.”
“That’s insane.”
“That’s the way it is.”
I slumped back in my chair. “I just don’t get why they snatched Kira. We were steering clear of the patrols.”
“You said it yourself,” Lhiana said. “They grabbed Kira’s parents. And the Marlington folks. They’re taking scientists.”
“Yeah, but how did they know Kira was a scientist?”
Lhiana just shrugged.
“I wonder if Biella and Thastus are in that detention center as well,” I said.
“Could be. Or maybe they got shipped off to Vortis. You know about that?”
“That’s the Mayir research facility, right?”
“More than a facility, gēgē. Vortis is like its own small city. They’ve got hundreds of scientists there. Maybe thousands.”
“Doing what?”
“No one knows.”
“Kira thought that whatever they’re doing up there is a fail. And that’s why offworld scientists are getting kidnapped.”
“Could be. Not my area of expertise.”
I stood up. I wasn’t getting anywhere with Lhiana. “What is your area of expertise?”
“Moxa. And pastries.”
I looked around at the back room filled with tech. “Somehow I think there’s more to you than that.”
Lhiana raised an eyebrow. “I’m a people person, what can I say? And you never told me how you got on with Caebach.”
“He said to come back later today.” I glanced down at Biella’s Aura. “In an hour, in fact.”
“An hour, huh? That will give you time to meet with my husband.”
“Your husband?” Lhiana didn’t strike me as the type of woman who would settle down with a man.
“Ex-husband actually. His name is Tadao.” She reached for Biella’s Aura. “Gimme.”
“What are you doing?”
“Putting in his location. I’ll call him, let him know you’re coming.”
“And who is this Tad guy exactly?”
“Tadao. I told you, he’s my ex. And he’s very handy.”
“Can he break Kira out of the detention center?”
“No.”
“What about send a secure message?” I asked.
“No, that’s not really his deal.”
“Then what is his deal?”
“Surveillance.”
“Surveillance?”
“Yeah, he’s got secret listening stations all over the city. He monitors Mayir communication, among other things. He also does mods on AuraViews. He can reset the lock and give you full access to Mrs. Lark’s Aura—seeing that you don’t have one of your own. That way you can keep it away from prying eyes.”
I had to admit that having a working Aura would be helpful. Especially one that could lock. “He’d do all that for me?”
“No, but he’d do it for me. He owes me.”
“Okay. It seems like I don’t have a lot of options.”
“That’s true. You don’t. But go now. You’re running out of time.”
16
Tadao lived in the northwest quadrant of town, about a half kilometer away from the detention center. The area was filled with old warehouses and industrial buildings, and the only people I saw were scavengers, picking their way down streets and alleys pushing wheeled carts laden with junk. A few of them eyed TenSix hungrily, but my glare—and my hand resting at my hip where a blaster might be hidden—was enough to quell any thoughts of robbery.
I checked Biella’s Aura and saw that we were only a few blocks away.
“I’m not picking up much life in this area,” TenSix said. “At least not much human-sized life. There is a large population of rodents in these buildings.”
“Thanks for sharing, TenSix.”
“My pleasure.”
We turned down a narrow alley between two tall black stone buildings. The space reminded me of a keyhole canyon I had explored with Kane back on Anglad in the Harpstan Badlands. The sunlight barely penetrated in, and what light did make it into the alley seemed to be absorbed by the buildings on either side of us.
“I detect a number of scanners in this alley,” TenSix said. “It appears we are being watched.”
A large hunk of stone—or maybe it was garbage—flaked off the building in front of us, maybe a dozen meters up. But after falling for a few seconds the object floated up over our heads.
“A drone,” TenSix announced.
“I see.”
The drone hovered down closer to us.
“It’s scanning us,” TenSix said.
“Damn right I’m scanning you!” A man’s voice emanated from the drone. He had an Ardovan accent.
“Are you Tadao?” I asked.
“What do you think? Follow.”
The drone dipped down to eye level and led us through a doorway at the end of the alley, and then into a maze of passages inside what looked to me like an abandoned warehouse. The air here was damp and had a moldy smell.
We followed the drone down a flight of stairs and then through a series of doors. Finally we entered a small square room whose walls were covered with draped cloth.
“C’mon, I don’t have all day,” I told the voice in the drone.
“You armed?”
“No.”
“What about the bot?”
“He’s not armed either,” I said. Of course I didn’t know whether or not TenSix had any defensive capability. I had never bothered to ask and the bot hadn’t volunteered the information.
“Hang on,” the voice in the drone said.
“Wha—?”
The entire room lurched and started moving.
“Relax,” the voice said. “You’re in a freight lift.”
“A freight lift that’s about to collapse—from the looks of it.”
“I doubt it.”
The compartment slowed and settled and then the doors opened with a soft whoosh. Standing in the hallway beyond was a tall man with a shaved head. He wore a loose tunic and had a VR band around his neck.
“So Lhi says you are in need of my assistance,” Tadao said as he motioned for us to follow him.
“How much did she tell you?” I wasn’t crazy about telling the
