Page 86 of Throwing Fire

I thought so. I’m gonna need a cold shower before I meet the rats. “I’ll pack plenty of rope.” And lube.

“Do you think you could do it so I’m upside down? Or at least so my head’s down?”

And her ass is up. I have a very vivid mental image that makes me shift in my chair again. “You’re killin’ me.”

Another giggle. “We’re going to do the brands before we go, right?”

“Yeah, I want you wearin’ my mark by the time we hit the beach.”

“Really?” Kez looks at me. When I nod, she glows. Fuck, her happiness is so simple. I have to keep my eyes on that prize. Whatever else is going on, whatever I have to do in the short-term to keep us safe, my priority over the long-term is Kez’s happiness.

CHAPTER 32

Kez lands us in Tiv thirty minutes later.

After we’ve circled ‘round and ‘round the motives for everyone and their fucking clone to want to kill her. And gotten no closer to identifying anyone other than Jaxon.

I let her handle the landing. With the ground berths still closed in the aftermath of our crash, we dock at the tether, two klicks away from the city. Tether landings are not overly technical. And it’s good practice for Kez, who still struggles a little with landings. She does a fine job with this one.

Once we’re hooked into our berth, I flip the display over to a local feed. Pick up our messages. The first one is from Acker, asking us to plex him as soon as we land.

I stare at the message for a moment. Innocuous black Uni characters against the viewie’s background of sky and clouds. But they feel ominous. Why the change of plans? He and Tee were supposed to meet us. I expected them to be waiting at the tether.

With a sigh, I tap the interface to return the call.

Acker’s face immediately appears in the pane. “I have a pointy problem.”

My neck and shoulders unknot. Hearing that he’s got a problem he can’t deal with on his own should make me tense. Instead, I relax. Pointy problems I can deal with. Betrayal from the only man I’ve liked well enough to call brother in a decade? That would fucking sting. “Whaddo you need?” I ask.

“You, and Lightfoot, if you will come. I need you in the Deeps. With everything you have. I know your questions for Java are urgent, but this is a problem that will not wait.”

I nod. Maybe this is a ruse. Maybe it’s a trap. But my gut says Acker’s in trouble. And you never say no to a brother in trouble. “On the way,” I tell him.

“I will meet you at the tether exit. The streets are not safe for either of us.”

“See you in ten.”

Kez, attuned to me in every way, is already tapping commands into the ship interface. Plexing our change of plans back to base, reconfiguring the ship for an extended stay at the tether, and paying the berthing fee. While she does, I climb out of my chair and head towards theInfinity’sstorage holds. There are five of them, but the smallest hold’s my destination. At the moment, it looks like just another empty hold – gridded floor, empty mag-brackets set into the plain walls – and that’s all anyone would see on a scan.

When I give the ship a series of commands, panels in the ceiling fold back. A double accordion drops slowly to the floor. When the panels reach the floor, they rotate into racks and lock, revealing my own personal armory. I take a pair of bags off the bottom rack and load them. Acker said to bring everything I’ve got; I take that literally. Body armor. Pulse grenades. PBEx. White phos smoke grenades. EMP bombs. Two portable surveillance scanners. A handful of tinglers. A plasma cannon which I liberated and recharged. If I’d known the fucking thing wasn’t loaded when Ma Quack leveled it at me, I’da been nicer to her. And a shitload of knives, most of which I’ve made myself. A pair of katanas don’t go in the bags. They go across my back in a harness that lets me draw them over my shoulders.Any tether security guard stupid enough to question me gets to meet them, up close and personal.

Kez joins me while I’m still loading up. She helps me clear the racks and shoulders one of the bags after I seal it closed. “Do you think it’s the Ojos?”

“That’d be my guess.” But I’m reserving judgment until I’m face to face with Acker. Could be a trap, in which case the Ojos are the least of his fucking worries.

She takes my hand and together we walk back through the cargo holds and exit through the ship’s proboscis, a flexible plaz tube that connects the ship with the tether’s funnel. Exiting through the proboscis circumvents the passenger debarkation lounge, and that layer of tether security. I got no illusions we’ll get out of the port without bumping into some sort of security, but it’ll be crew security, which is often more relaxed than security for the walking cargo.

When we reach the airlock at the bottom of the proboscis, we find it locked, red lights blinking around the circular portal. Looks like the funnel grav-lift is busy. Probably pressed into service moving cargo down the tether, since the ground berths are still closed. We wait side-by-side, and I slant a glance at Kez. Still wearing her genSkin pants and steel-toed boots. Baby blues shadowed and set deep in their rings of khol. Arms wrapped from wrists to elbow in genSkin and the shiny threads that are her weapon of choice. Carrying half my arsenal over her shoulder. “What kinda message you sendin’ now, kitten?”

“Stop fucking hunting me.” Kez adjusts the bag. “What kind of message are you sending? Between that—” She nods at my Biosteel vest, which is unquestionably body armor. “—and yourswords.”

I shrug. “Don’t want the rats to think I’ve gone soft.”

“Yeah.” She snorts. “You’re good.”

“Until we’re sure what’s what, kitten, you don’t turn your back on any of them.”

Kez’s grin tightens into a frown. “But Acker said?—”

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