Page 87 of Only Cold Depths
“Vesper, are you okay?” she asked in a sharp voice.
“I’m fine. Wendell was just trying to help me figure out why Esmina and Pollux tried to steal all these gemstones from the mineral exchange.” I swept my hand out over the table. “Any ideas?”
Asterin shot Wendell another suspicious stare, but she stepped over to us. She picked up one stone after another, setting them all down in a precise row and rearranging them by color, putting the lightest piece of aquamarine first, all the way down to the darkest piece of sapphsidian.
My eyes narrowed. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the gemstones were all some shade of blue. I peered at the list Leland had compiled. The mercenaries had tried to steal roughly equal amounts of every single stone on the table. Why would they need so many different blue stones?
Unless . . . you wanted to testeveryknown blue stone for some reason.
My gaze locked onto the piece of sapphsidian, and a chill swept down my spine. “What if this is about the Techwave cannon? What if that’s why Esmina and Pollux tried to capture me? Because they want me to fix the weapon?”
Asterin’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You think Esmina and Pollux figured out the Techwave cannon needs a stabilizing agent to keep it from overheating?”
I nodded, dread flooding my stomach, along with a sinking sense of certainty.
“But Esmina and Pollux don’t appear to be working for General Orion Ocnus,” Asterin pointed out. “Otherwise, they would be using Black Scarab troops instead of their own men. So who else could know about the Techwave cannon?”
“Even the Techwave is riddled with spies,” Wendell replied. “Perhaps one of the Techies leaked the information to a corporation to score a hefty payday. New weapons are big business across the galaxy, and if a corporation managed to develop a weapon that could cut through psionic and other shields . . .”
All the color drained from Asterin’s face. “Then Esmina and Pollux could use those weapons against House Collier.”
The three of us fell silent, contemplating that horrible possibility.
Asterin frowned. “But why would Esmina and Pollux target you, Vesper? I thought Harkin Ocnus was the only one who knew you had figured out what was wrong with the cannon.”
“Maybe I was wrong about that.”
I thought back, remembering my fight with Harkin Ocnus on Tropics 33, inside the lunarium mine at the Regenwald Resort. I’d crowed to Harkin that I knew what was wrong with his design, and then I’d killed him a few minutes later. All the other Techwave soldiers had also been killed, along with their mechanized Black Scarab troops. So who else could have learned about my discovery?
“Maybe someone is just fishing for information,” Asterin said. “The Techwave kidnapping you is common knowledge, thanks to the gossipcasts.”
Someone, probably a Quill Corp guard, had leaked the information about my abduction to the gossipcasts, which had broadcast countless stories about it, along with my escape from Crownpoint with Kyrion. The information was out there, and if someone had gotten their hands on a Techwave cannon, then I was the main thing they needed to finish perfecting the design.
“Wait. Are you talking aboutthatcannon?” Wendell pointed at a nearby table.
With everything that had happened yesterday, I’d forgotten I’d left the Techwave cannon in Asterin’s workshop.
“Zane recovered a cannon just like that from Silas, the Techwaver who infiltrated the summer solstice ball, although I haven’t had a chance to examine it yet,” Wendell said.
He glanced back and forth between me and Asterin, clearly confused, so I filled him in on why the Techwave had kidnapped me. I skimmed over a lot of the details, though, including Harkin Ocnus brutally torturing me. I didn’t want to spill my guts to a father I barely knew, especially since I wasn’t sure if Wendell could be trusted. Esmina and Pollux weren’t the only ones who could benefit from the Techwave cannon—it would also be a great asset to House Zimmer.
I told Wendell how the cannon kept overheating and frying itself. I also pulled out the weapon’s magazine, popped off the clear outer casing, and showed him how the Techwave scientists had threaded tiny bits of lunarium onto the standard solar wiring to make the cannon much more powerful than similar weapons. I didn’t mention I thought sapphsidian was the key to stabilizing it, though. He didn’t need to know my theory, especially since I wasn’t sure what he would do with the information.
Wendell examined the magazine. “How unusual! I’ve long thought lunarium could have other, more practical applications than being used in stormswords and other simple weapons, but this is ingenious. And this cannon is based on your design?”
I couldn’t stop myself from preening at the admiration in his voice. “Yes, the cannon is based on my original design, although Harkin Ocnus and the other Techwave scientists changed several things and added the lunarium-filled magazine.” My pride vanished. “I never intended for the cannon to be such a deadly, destructive weapon. I designed it to stun people, not cut through psionic shields and turn guts to goo.”
“Unfortunately, as inventors, the only thing we have control over is our product design. What people do with that design is up to them, and even the most innocuous product can be used to hurt others.” Wendell shook his head. “Plenty of people have done awful things with my inventions, especially since House Zimmer manufactures cameras and other recording equipment.”
“You mean spy cameras,” Asterin said in a wry voice.
Wendell shrugged. “Yes, spy cameras. At first, I made them so House Zimmer spies could keep an eye on our enemies, but the tech was so valuable that I started selling it to support my House. You can do lots of horrible things with something as simple as a camera. Eavesdropping on conversations, snapping unwanted pictures, secretly recording videos of people in compromising positions to use as blackmail or sell to the gossipcasts.”
Wendell gestured at the stone samples arranged on the other table. “So your theory is Esmina and Pollux tried to steal all these stones because they think one of the gems is the key to stabilizing the lunarium magazine? Why focus on gemstones instead of something more obvious like iron, copper, silver, or gold? Or some plastic polymer?”
I shrugged. “Maybe Esmina and Pollux have lab rats who’ve been experimenting with the lunarium and solar wiring combination. Maybe they’ve already tried metals and plastic polymers and have decided to focus on gemstones next. Maybe Esmina’s magic whispered it to her, or maybe it’s just a blind guess. Maybe Esmina and Pollux just wanted to hurt the Colliers, and this was what they decided to steal.”
Wendell studied the hand cannon again. While he was distracted, I sidled over, slid the chunk of sapphsidian off the other table, and slipped it into my pocket. Asterin raised her eyebrows at me in a silent question, and I shook my head. The fewer people who knew sapphsidian might be the key to fixing the Techwave cannons, the safer we would all be.
