Ariadne Read online

  “About what?” I ask.

  “Drex shrugs. “About what’s happened on this ship. It’s hit him hard. Harder than you realise.”

  “So, he’s the sensitive type, huh? Sensitive enough to run off on his own when staying with everyone here is the most sensible solution? Unless he’s got something to hide that is.”

  Drex says nothing.

  “Boyd could be in cahoots with that thing Pirella saw following us,” Klund says.

  Drex runs a stressed hand over his face. “He’ll be back. I know him. He probably needs some time alone to get his head together.”

  “Time is something we don’t have,” I reply. “Do you know where he might’ve gone?”

  “Boyd liked to hang out in Hydroponics, the lowest deck,” Drex answers. “In the viewing portals. Plastiglass bubbles like the curved window of the Hospitality Suite, and large enough for a person to sit inside unnoticed.”

  “Then we should go find him,” Hewlis says, visibly trying to calm himself.

  I shake my head with irritation. “No. First I want to go and check on Glaxtinian’s cabin. We’ll visit Hydroponics afterwards. And when we find Boyd, he’ll have some explaining to do.”

  I hold up my gun. “Anyone of you who ignores me again, won’t live to regret it okay? Final warning.”

  The gun has a sobering effect on everyone. I guess that any one of them would be keen to get their hands on it. Or on the gun I gave to Xev.

  We make our way to Glaxtinian’s cabin. Drex leads everybody in tight formation with me and Xev taking up the rear.

  I become aware of Pirella and Velez hissing at one another in a whispered argument. Pirella tries to step forward, but she is held back by the chef.

  “I should never have trusted you!” Pirella spits, her thin arms flailing at the chef. “We wouldn’t be in this goddamn mess and… Denny wouldn’t be dead.”

  “I’ve told you to keep your mouth shut!” Velez replies, easily sweeping aside the younger girl.

  “It was you who got inside Denny’s head,” Pirella continues. “You who made him—”

  Velez punches Pirella in the face and she crumbles to the corridor floor as a jumble of arms and legs. Velez raises her fist again but stops in mid-motion when Xev violently jabs his gun into her neck.

  “Don’t you dare say anything!” the chef warns Pirella.

  “If Velez tries to move, shoot her,” I say coldly.

  Xev twists the barrel of the gun and smiles. “Will do, boss.”

  I pull the sobbing girl to her feet. “What in space is going on between you two?” I ask her, realising I’ve been remiss in not investigating their relationship further. I blame the sudden appearance of the body-blank in Hospitality and my constant battle with Ariadne. Something was going on between them. Something involving Pirella’s dead boyfriend, Denny. Was it a petty domestic dispute or something more sinister?

  “She knows,” Pirella says, pointing at Velez.

  Xev swaps a glance with me. “Knows what?”

  Pirella’s eyes are adamant and sparkle from behind a barrage of tears. “She’s… she’s Neo-Dawn!”

  “She’s what?” Hewlis says to a shocked-looking Velez. “The terrorist gang that has been causing the Company trouble these last few months?”

  I also know the name. Strategist Stranng warned me about them before I arrived upon the Ariadne. Neo-Dawn was responsible for the deaths of some important Company VIPs and other crimes.

  “Of course not,” Velez replies. “Look at me. I’m a chef. Not a fucking terrorist. The girl is just jealous.”

  Rooba appears at my shoulder. “Jealous of what, honey?”

  “Her boyfriend Denny doubled up… if you know what I mean?” The chef replies with a leer. “Sometimes men want a real woman.” She turns her attention to Pirella. “Not a mewling child.”

  “That’s not true!” Pirella screams, lurching towards the chef. I easily hold her back.

  Velez looks smug. “I think you know it is.”

  “Denny wouldn’t. He just wouldn’t!” Pirella shouts.

  “He’s a man,” the chef replies with a sneer. “And he was my lover long before he met you.”

  “No!”

  “If you’re going to play adult games,” Velez says, “you need to grow up.”

  “Tell me everything,” I say to Pirella, focusing her attention away from the chef. “Tell me about Denny, how you met. Tell me about Velez and Neo-Dawn.”

  Pirella wipes her eyes. “I met Denny about two months ago at one of Daddy’s functions,” she says, the words spilling from her in a torrent. “A handsome waiter who couldn’t stop looking at me. We fell in love. That’s when I found out what he stood for. Against the Company and their tyranny. He told me about Velez, and others like her, who were resisting. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but Denny explained to me what the Company was doing. Showed me stuff. Horrific things. And soon, I too, wanted to make a difference.”

  I hear Xev chuckle.

  “Why’s he laughing?” Pirella asks.

  “Ignore him. What happened next?”

  “I began to question everything in my life. To argue with Daddy’s friends. Questioning them. But Denny said that wasn’t enough. That I was talking to the wrong people. That’s when he convinced me to come aboard this ship. He said that someone from a family as important as mine, making a protest in front of all those Company VIPs, would make a real difference.”

  I take in the information with no reaction, but it sounds to me like the girl was specifically targeted. “What kind of protest?”

  “Once everyone had arrived at the party, I was to give a speech from Neo-Dawn, telling them who I was and why I was there—about what the Company is doing. How they run things. The deaths. The lies they tell about the Colony Worlds. The genetic experimentation. Everything.”

  “You traitorous little bitch!” Velez shouts.

  I nod to Xev who pistol-whips the chef, giving her a bloodied lip.

  “And I take it this speech was being recorded?”

  Pirella nods. “Denny was going to broadcast what I was saying down to the planet, live on the dark-streams. To let people know there was resistance to the Company.”

  “Just a protest?” I’m confused. From what Stranng told me about Neo-Dawn, a passive protest doesn’t sound right.

  Pirella points at Velez. “It was her plan. I didn’t like her, but Danny convinced me it was the right thing to do.”

  “You didn’t suspect Denny might’ve been lying to you?”

  Pirella’s face hardens. “No! Why would he do that? He loved me. Despite what Velez says.”

  I turn to face the chef. “That’s not the full story, is it?” I bark.

  Velez licks at the line of blood pooling on her cut lip. “What the girl is saying is true. Apart from one thing… I’m not Neo-Dawn. Neither was Denny. We just spun her that story to get her to do what we wanted. Like I said, he was my lover. We hatched the plan together.”

  “No,” Pirella whispers.

  Klund takes an involuntary step backwards from the chef, like he’s moving away from an unpleasant smell.

  “If you’re not Neo-Dawn, what reason could you have to do such a thing?” I ask.

  “That’s simple,” Velez replies. “Revenge. Your wafer told you that I was demoted, but it didn’t tell you why. It was that dried up old hag, Glaxtinian. She made a fool of me at one of her fancy VIP parties. She was drunk. No doubt on the same brand of brandy that your friend Xev pilfered from her cabin. Glaxtinian called me out of the galley and rebuked me in front of everyone. Said I was overrated. Said a lot of bad things. But I’m no walkover and gave as good as I got. The jumped-up cow didn’t like ‘staff’ talking back to her and used her influence in the Company to punish and demote me.”

  “Glaxtinian?” I say. “Did you have anything to do with her death? Or the gassing of the ship?”

  Velez shakes her head. “I wish I’d been the one to shoot the bitch in the gut
. Hell, I might’ve even done it if I’d had the chance. But… it wasn’t me. The plan was to shame her and all the VIPs on a live stream. To bring her down a peg or two. To give her a dose of her own medicine. The gassing changed all that. We were just as much victims as everyone else.”

  The chef’s neck is twitching more than it has done before. It’s a revelation, one that could end her career and her life. I wish I could read her, but Ariadne is broadcasting too loudly on the empathic spectrum for me to judge the truth of her words. But empathy isn’t my only skill. “That’s not all, is it?”

  “You don’t think fooling one of their own to denounce Glaxtinian and the rest of the Company VIP cronies, would’ve been a sweet revenge for what she did to me?” Velez says with incredulity.

  “Was that the full plan, Pirella?” I ask the still sobbing girl, whose delicate fingers are wrapped around her amber necklace.

  She nods.

  “What kind of half-assed idea is that?” Xev says with incredulity. “You risked everything to get this girl aboard only to give a damn speech? Then what? Once the Company realised what she did, she’d be arrested and interrogated. You saw how easily she broke down just now. She would’ve given you up in a heartbeat. Both of you.”

  “As long as Glaxtinian went down with me, I wouldn’t give a damn!” Velez replies.

  I believe her. I can’t sense her resentment, but it’s plastered all over her face.

  “But that wasn’t the plan,” Velez continues. “Me and Denny made arrangements to be a long way away when that happened. We were gonna leave the Company and set up a whole new life with one of its rivals.”

  “The Company does hate to be shamed,” Hewlis says, nodding. “If Velez and Denny managed to broadcast such a speech, careers would be ended—over and done with.”

  I agree with the engineer, but it doesn’t feel right. “Xev hit it on the head. That’s a hell of a lot of trouble to go to for just a shaming.”

  “Simple payback,” Velez says, a pleased sneer crossing her face. “With a patsy in place to take all the blame. Denny targeted Pirella specifically.”

  “No!” Pirella shouts. “No way.”

  I place a calming hand on the girl’s shoulder.

  “We were after someone like her for a while,” Velez says, the hate in her voice rising. “A rich brat. A son or daughter of a VIP with enough Company clout to aid our cause. Pirella Qelline was the third and easiest target Denny tried his little act on. And she fell for it, like the stupid, stuck-up little rich girl she is.”

  The girl shakes her head vehemently. “Denny loved me.”

  Pirella is distraught. And, I believe, no liar. It seems very clear to me that she was duped by Denny and Velez. “You should’ve told me this earlier.”

  “Velez threatened to kill me if I didn’t keep quiet.”

  “The Skilled always get to the bottom of things, sooner or later. Or don’t you remember me telling you that?”

  “Now what?” Velez says bullishly. “You know how we fooled the girl, what we were up to. But we never got the chance to go through with it. You’re just wasting time. Time we don’t have.”

  “Well this is a turn-up,” says Xev. “Vatic has captured a fucking terrorist cell. And who’s his goddamn right-hand man? It’s that good, old, reliable bastard, Xev Tranth. Shit, I might just get my damn career back.” He screws his gun into Velez’s cheek, making her wince.

  “I told you, we are not Neo-Dawn,” she says. “That was just a line to spin to the girl. And we did nothing. You haven’t got anything on us.”

  “When Vatic gets us out of this mess, the Company will be looking for someone to blame,” Xev says with more than a little glee. “You think they are not gonna dump on you from high? Neo-Dawn or not? You’re done and fucked, Velez. Conspiracy to act against the Company. And witnessed. You want me to kill her now?”

  I allow his question to hang in the air for a few seconds, but if I wanted the chef to sweat, she isn’t obliging.

  “No, but keep an eye on her,” I say finally.

  WE MAKE our way towards Glaxtinian’s cabin. The revelation of Velez’s plan hanging in the air like a sickly shroud. And yet, I’m sure I’m missing something. Velez was going to a lot of trouble just to name and shame Glaxtinian.

  Rooba walks with Pirella, one long, slim, red arm draped around her trembling shoulders. Klund lopes next to them, seemingly lost in his own thoughts while Drex and Hewlis lead the way.

  Xev drops back to talk to me again, keeping his gun trained on Velez and the rest of the troupe. “Thanks for the vote of support,” he says with his mangled smile. “We make a good team.”

  “This chummy act of yours is really starting to grate,” I whisper, my voice a low growl.

  “Hey! That’s no way to talk to your partner.”

  “Partner? Don’t make me laugh.”

  “You don’t trust me?” he says, waving the gun. “Then why give me this? Maybe I shot Glaxtinian in the fucking gut?”

  “You didn’t.”

  “How can you know that?”

  “For starters, you’ve not shot me. The person or persons behind what’s going on here wouldn’t waste a second in eliminating me. I’m the biggest threat to them. To what’s going down here.”

  “Maybe I’m playing a waiting game? I’m still a clever fucker, despite appearances.”

  “Cut the crap, Xev. I don’t know what happened to you since the war, but you ain’t the Xev I left behind. You’re a mess. Washed up. I don’t need no empathy to tell me that.”

  The smile stretching at the tight, ruined skin of Xev’s face fades to be replaced with a twist of anger. “I survived, but no thanks to you. When I needed your help, where the hell were you? I sent you message after fucking message but got nothing back.”

  “You asked me for help?” I’m shocked. I’m the last person I’d expect him to contact. I’m a Skilled and Xev hated all of us.

  “I told you… I was on the wrong side of the coup and desperate. I needed all the fucking help I could get.”

  “You obviously made it, or you wouldn’t be here.”

  “With no help from you. That came from elsewhere. You didn’t receive any of my communications?”

  A quick shake of my head. “After the war, and especially after the coup, I wasn’t interested in the Company… or in anything for that matter. I found the slowest colony ship and put myself aboard and into hibernation.”

  “You did what?” Xev splutters. “I thought you looked like you’ve just come out of a faulty hibernation pod. What in fuck did you do that for?”

  “I was tired of taking sides. Weary. I just wanted to get away and do a bit of farming.”

  “Vatic? A farmer? I’ve never heard anything so fucking ridiculous. You were a goddamn war hero. An Honorary member of the Second Executive! All you had to do was keep your head down, toe the line and you were made for fucking life. Why would you throw that away?”

  “What I did in the war…”

  “You did what you had to do!” Xev spits. “We all did. Do or fucking die. There’s no guilt in that. What makes you think you’re so goddamn different?”

  “I killed… I killed millions.”

  Xev shrugs. “Like I said, you did what you had to do. And once you’ve killed one enemy soldier, what difference does a few more make? It was them or us. And we won, thanks to unfeeling bastards like yourself.”

  “A few more? I’m a monster. And you know it.”

  “What the hell has happened to you? It’s not like Vatic to come over all emotional. And you sure were one unfeeling prick.”

  “It’s you I’m wondering about,” I reply. “I thought you hated me and all the Skilled. What changed?”

  “That’s simple. I have one to thank for my freedom.”

  “A Skilled came to your rescue?”

  “Sure. I wasn’t a fan of your breed. You were cold but by space you were effective. And you’re surprisingly honourable under all that arrogance. It
was a favour repaid.”

  “That’s quite some favour. What did you do, save their life?”

  “Don’t play dumb, Vatic. You know who it was. Your old partner, Esta.”

  The mention of that name sends cold slivers of ice through me. I feel a sudden anger, a rage almost. “What? I’ll never forget that you ordered me to kill her!”

  Xev’s mangled face twists into an expression of confusion. “But you didn’t kill her, did you? If you had, I wouldn’t be here. It was Esta who got me off. Her debt repaid.”

  I can hear Xev’s words, but they are not properly penetrating my brain. “What?”

  “The war was ending,” Xev says. “Don’t you remember? Esta was a valuable double agent. Your partner. And then came the orders to terminate her. You didn’t want to do it. Hell, I didn’t want to either. It was a political decision and a bad one. She’d been a great asset and still was. So, I warned her. Let her know what the Company was up to. When you came back after your last mission together and told me she was dead, I didn’t ask any questions. I assumed you were spinning me a line. You Skilled were always thick with one another.”

  “No,” I state adamantly. “I shot her. I will never forget it. I can’t forget it.”

  “Then how am I here? How am I alive? Not due to any help from you that’s for sure. I was scheduled for a fucking execution. Me! Xev Tranth! After everything I did for the Company in the war. I was incensed, angry and, I’ll admit it. I was afraid. On the morning I was due to be unceremoniously dumped out of the nearest airlock, I received a last-minute reprieve. Afterwards, came a four-word message.”

  We are now even.

  “It was signed E.”

  “No! I watched Esta die!” I shout, stumbling and coming to rest against the corridor wall. “There was no way she survived.”

  Xev waves everyone to stop, bringing his head next to mine, while keeping the buzz-gun pointed at the entourage and particularly at Velez. Hewlis gives me a concerned look, while the chef sneers. The other faces are just blurs.

  “I’ve replayed her death again and again in my mind,” I whisper, my voice a thin croak. “I shot her.”