Page 77 of Xerxes Ascendant
“Do you realise my boss has your boss all tied up right now?” Kyle asked casually. “And not in the kinky way, just in case you were wondering. Like, yes, that’s ourusualstyle, but it kindagot thrown out of the window when this prick murdered tens of thousands of Xerxians for his own convenience.”
“That’s defamation and slander,” the secretary said promptly.
“That’s bullshit,” Kyle shot back, equally as sickly sweet. “But all that matters right now is the knife we have to the good mayor’s throat – and your co-operation.”
“I...I need proof that he’s alive.” For the first time, the woman on the other end of the call sounded uncertain. Even with everything she would have seen and handled as Mackenroth’s secretary, Akira doubted her employer had been taken hostage before.
“Send in the men you have outside this office,” said Kyle, pushing himself up to a seated position and training his eyes on the door. “But slowly, and without any fingers on triggers.”
By the stars, he was good at giving directions. The Dominant in him was likely the source of that calm and attractive confidence, but Kyle was proving remarkably adept at adjusting to the unexpected, including Akira’s suggestion that they become impromptu kidnappers. It would have been impossible to escape the Rise undetected, but with the mayor as leverage, they could have their path cleared for them.
At least, that was the plan.
The door cracked. Akira snatched up the old knife again so he could dutifully hold it up to Mackenroth’s throat as described, and he felt the gratification of a vehement flinch from the man in his arms. A man he’d hoped to never find himself pressed against ever again.
The six guards from before filed cautiously into the office. Their guns were not only undrawn but were missing from their holsters entirely. Clearly, some bright spark had realised that handing over projectile weapons to a pair of hostage-takers armed with only a knife would be a terrible idea.
“Now,” Kyle said breezily from the desk. He hopped off it and brushed his hands together as if they’d been dirtied by the fine, polished wood that was worth more credits than he’d ever make in his life, and Akira tried to hold back his laugh. “As you can see, our sad excuse for a mayor is still alive. And if you want him to stay that way, you’re going to radio down to Ms. Defamation-and-Slander and tell her to turn off the building’s anti-grav suspension thingy. She has sixty seconds to comply or we start cutting pieces off your boss.”
Without taking his eyes from them, the lead guard brought his mouth to his shoulder and muttered into the radio pinned to his jacket. The rune carved on its surface flared to life, but it was a full fifty-eight seconds after Kyle’s pronouncement that the building juddered around them and the view through the window evidenced a gradual descent.
“Acceptable,” said Kyle scathingly. “And now, all of you nice gentlemen are going to face that wall with your hands behind your head.”
They didn’t move, at least not until Akira squeezed Mackenroth’s injured arm and drew a pained grunt from the man who signed their paychecks. And then all six burly men were lined up at Kyle’s direction with their noses pressed to the wall and their radios smashed beneath their boots. His boyfriend looked darkly pleased with his handiwork.
“Such good boys,” he cooed at them, sharing an amused glance with Akira when one of them gave a full-bodied shiver. “If you want more of that, you can find us at House Epsilon on Level E. Half price for your first session.”
And with that audacious statement, he led the way from the room, offering the usual spectacular view from behind.
Akira shoved a reluctant Benedict Mackenroth through the door, yanking it closed after them and catching up to Kyle a short way down the corridor where he was reactivating the stasisrune. If any of the guards moved from their position in the office, they’d be locked into place – at least, if Kyle managed to align the edges of the plate they’d cracked to disable it in the first place.
“What the hell was that?” Akira demanded.
“Marketing opportunity,” Kyle said promptly. His tongue returned to where it had been peeking out from the side of his mouth as he concentrated on reforming the rune’s original shape across the circuit board. Wires dangled haphazardly from where they’d yanked it out of the wall earlier. “They already know who we are, Master, so we might as well try to get clients out of it.”
Akira fixed him with a scathing glare, the effect of which was lost on the perpetually unfazed man before him. “I’m talking about the unauthorised discount, you absolute pest.”
“Meh,” he said. “They didn’t shoot us, so they deserve it.”
Akira barely held in his exasperation. “Not shooting usis hardly a baseline-”
Red and blue light flashed down the corridor, reflected by all the chrome and glass that adorned the walls and ceiling. The Xerxian police had arrived.
“How helpful of them to announce themselves,” said Kyle with a grin. “Should I have added ‘train police officers not to be incompetent dicks’ to my list of mayoral decrees?”
“You can’t blame them, Kyle,” Akira chided, amused. “They’re used to responding topropercrimes. Like Lowers who use surface elevators, and educators who teach critical thinking.”
He could feel Mackenroth fuming under his hands as he guided him down the corridor.
“I am worried that the secretary didn’t seem to be writing what I said down,” mused Kyle, inspecting his bleeding arm and frowning. Akira gave his captive a hard and entirely unnecessaryshove. “What if she missed the part about mandatory cat snuggles?”
Then his boyfriend brightened in that delightful way of his, for he was incapable of being down for long. “I guess we’ll just have to come back here and remind her,” he said cheerfully. “After all, it’s apparently not hard to come and go from the Rise as we please.”
“Mmph!” protested the mayor. They both ignored him.
Then he tried to veer to the right when they turned left, and Akira enjoyed dragging him back to heel. Confusion lit Mackenroth’s gaze, warring with fury and a deep-seated embarrassment at being trussed up and marched through his own office building.
Kyle clicked his tongue. “He thinks we’re stupid,” he commented idly to Akira as they continued to move swiftly through the deserted corridors. “He actually believes we’re going to leave via the suspension connection point, doesn’t he?”
