“It’s getting late,” Eva said, looking to Pink for confirmation. “Would we be able to stay overnight somewhere? Rest up, start fresh in the morning, kind of thing?”
Gromira paused as if conferring with someone silently. “As honored guests, we would be delighted to extend to you the hospitality of local accommodations,” Gromira said slowly. “I will have Watcher Rakyra deliver you to an appropriate location.”
“Perfecto.” Eva snuggled up to Vakar as they began their descent. His scents were still suppressed, but he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his palps twitching as if in surprise.
Or concern, maybe. If the xana knew they were a couple, it could be dangerous for both of them. But different species treated the various stages of mating and relationships in different ways, so she had no way of knowing whether they’d realize it was a potential piece of leverage in their case.
Also, she didn’t give a shit; she really needed a damn hug. Because once they got to the hotel or whatever it was, she was going to call her mother, and that was going to be a bigger pain than any poison spores.
Chapter 13
Loca Como Una Chiva
The local accommodations were astonishingly beautiful, housed as they were in one of the skyscraper-trees. The lobby, for lack of a better word, was a wide-open space whose ceiling was four stories up, decorated in the same vivid reds and greens and golds that proliferated elsewhere. They were arranged into shapes like leaf patterns, light and shadows playing on each other like in the home-trees of Rilia, somehow both geometric and organic in a way that blended seamlessly. There were also representations of different Attuned etched into the gold lines that served as boundaries between colors, visible when the light hit them from different angles.
As a concession to the tourists, while the walls and ceilings and floors were translucent, technology had been added to render them blurry, frosted, so light would pass through but the guests could retain some semblance of privacy. It was unnerving to look up and see so many shadows milling around, dark spots against the bright colors, like a mold or contagion spreading across what should have been pure and unmarked.
A few lights were also present, some similar to the ones they’d had at the Communal Center in Rilia: tubes or large clear vessels filled with creatures that glowed softly, including a massive central pillar with so many of them that it lit most of the room. But apparently that wasn’t enough, because mechanical lights had been added in other places—subtle, hidden, so as not to disrupt the effect created by the natural ones.
Eva was reminded of her fish, swimming around in their tank back on La Sirena Negra. At least these bioluminescent critters were useful for more than looking pretty. Maybe she could invest in a glowing fish or two . . .
Watcher Rakyra conferred briefly with a xana who was apparently in charge, and who then escorted them, amid constant waves of psychic deference and friendliness, to a private room on a floor high enough to make Eva’s ears pop more than once on the way up. Multiple hammocks hung from the ceiling, presumably serving double duty as beds and chairs, though there was also a small piece of furniture like a couch. A holovid station was set up discreetly in one corner, while the bathing and toilet facilities were in another corner behind clear partitions that Eva hoped could be made opaque for privacy. Enough people had seen her bare ass today, and she was very interested in the oblong thing that might be a tub. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a real bath instead of a sonic shower.
Probably the last time you visited your mom, her sullen head-voice supplied.
Thanks for reminding me to call her, Eva thought back, but she was just arguing with herself and frankly it was tiring. She groaned loud enough to cause someone in the next room over to startle.
“You said it,” Pink said. “You sure you want to do this here instead of back on the ship?”
“We can’t be sure we’d ever get back off the ship,” Eva said. “Let’s go to comms.” She allowed herself a deeply satisfying scowl after maintaining a pleasant expression for so long, then summoned her isohelmet and set it to private mode, darkening it to avoid lip-reading software. Pink and Vakar followed suit.
Vakar spoke first. “I have already penetrated some of their security systems,” he said, “but their networking methods are highly dependent on their own innate physiologies, which complicates the situation.”
“And I tried to volunteer for doctor duties back in Rilia,” Pink said. “They assured me they didn’t need any help. I can try again at another center, but the way things are locked down here, it’ll probably be more of the same.”
“I doubt I’ll be able to chat anyone up now, with Watchers up my ass everywhere we go.” Eva sighed again. No plan survived contact with the enemy, as the saying went. And speaking of enemies . . .
“My mom is here,” Eva added without further preamble.
“She’s what?” Pink asked.
“Why?” Vakar asked simultaneously.
“Did you mention anything about this to her?” Pink asked.
Eva racked her brain, pacing in a tight circle. “I don’t think so,” she said finally. “And we didn’t get the info from her that led us here, not really. That came from poking around at all the random places Josh went before he disappeared.”
“I would also note that we have only arrived earlier this cycle,” Vakar said. “She would have had to depart at roughly the same time we did in order to arrive concurrently.”
None of it made sense. Her mother was a lot of things, including overbearing, but somehow sniffing out what Eva was up to enough to track her here was some next-level shit. She was a fucking bank auditor, not a Wraith.
Except she was working for BOFA now, she’d said. Doing what, exactly?
“I wonder if she’s here for work,” Eva said slowly. “She was going on a business trip . . . Maybe it actually is a coincidence?”
“God works in mysterious ways,” Pink said. “But that’s a hell of a coincidence.”
“I’m going to call her,” Eva said. “See if I can’t get an answer without blowing our mission.”
Vakar rested a hand on Eva’s shoulder. “That seems prudent,” he said. “But be cautious.”
Eva almost snapped that she was always cautious, but that would be a lie, so she took his hand and squeezed it instead.
“Well, as long as we’re here, I’m taking a bath,” Pink said, stretching her arms all the way up.
“Me next,” Eva said.
They all deactivated their helmets, Eva plopping down on the couch with a sigh after Pink got up. Vakar joined her, and she leaned her head against his shoulder.
Sue and Min had taken their Pod Pals out of their storage containers, which was itself a physics-defying feat since the capsules were way too small to fit what had come out of them. Each robot was about the same size as Mala, and moved with a fluidity that suggested they were extremely high quality.
Min’s Pal resembled a large caterpillar or other insect larva, a buttery yellow with multiple segments and small legs, its sides adorned with circular markings that looked like eyes. It inched along the floor, raising itself up occasionally as if to get a better look around, its tiny forehead stalks wiggling like it was sniffing the air or using some other sense beyond human perception.