She glanced sharply at me. “You’re working for House von Hasenberg?”
I didn’t have to fake the sly grin. “No.”
She relaxed, and I filed that information away. She stared into the fire for a long minute. “I think you should walk away, Fenix. This isn’t something you want to poke into. Leave House politics to the Houses. They can take care of themselves.”
“I would if I could,” I said softly. It came out far more bitterly than I had intended.
Nadia’s expression turned hard. “If you need help . . .” She trailed off, leaving the offer open.
“You don’t know how much that means to me,” I said, “but I am okay. And a job is a job. This isn’t the first I time I’ve stuck my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“Ten thousand credits and you forget where you heard anything I tell you,” she said. “And don’t darken my door for a few weeks while the heat dies down.”
It was a ridiculous amount of money, but I wasn’t in a position to bargain. I brought up my communication menu and sent a message to myself. It caused my avatar to look distant, as if I was communicating with an actual client. “Deal,” I agreed a few minutes later. “Client insists on half up front, half after you deliver.”
Nadia shook her head. “Your client must be stupid or desperate.”
“Who says they can’t be both?” I asked with a smile. “Do we have an agreement?”
“We will when I see some credits.”
I pulled up my menu and transferred five thousand credits to her account. My own account was funded from untraceable currency, preventing anyone from following a paper trail back to my real identity.
Nadia waited until the transfer was completed, then she said, “The rumor is that the Silva Syndicate was paid to knock off Ferdinand, but either the hit payment didn’t go through or they got greedy and grabbed him instead. There was a sketchy rumor about a ransom, but the Syndicate is too smart to take on a High House directly. If I had to guess, they’re planning to break him for information, or bury him in the deepest hole they can find.”
I froze and let the rage burn through my system. When I was sure I could keep my voice neutral, I asked, “How reliable are these rumors?”
“Silva was definitely responsible. The rest is merely speculation. They are playing this one very close and it’s only thanks to a few well-connected friends that I know as much as I do.”
“Do any of these friends have a line on where I might find one of the Syndicate’s ships? Or one of the Silvas?”
Nadia frowned at me. “You are walking a dangerous road, my friend. I hope you know what you are doing.”
“So do I.”
She inclined her head. “I might know someone who knows something, but that information will be very expensive.”
“My client is aware that such information is valuable,” I said. To underscore the point, I sent her the second half of her payment.
“I will ask around. If I hear anything, I’ll be in touch.”
“A pleasure, as always. Stay safe,” I said.
“You as well.”
I raised my hand in farewell, then transported out to a location just off the main street. I checked my security settings, then ran an additional scan to ensure Nadia hadn’t bugged me. Everything came back clean.
I logged out, just to be extra safe, then logged in with the same account. As long as I was here, I needed to check my virtual safe house and ask my contacts there for information, too. Some of them had dealt with Silva in the past.
“HIVE, transport home,” I said.
“Transporting to saved location 192z.168b7.1h4m.”
Much like Nadia’s bar and home, my home was not on the standard HIVE map. I loaded into a completely black space, and any attempt at shedding light would fail. This was the first level of protection.
“I am Fenix. I rose from the ashes. Allow me to enter and find comfort,” I said. The passphrase was specific to me and coded to my avatar’s voice and cadence.
A silver door appeared. I tapped out my entry pattern, and the scene changed to a cozy living room with a wall of books and soft, plush furniture. Windows looked out into a green forest, with sunbeams dancing through the leaves. It was meant to be as comforting as possible because this was a digital safe space, both for the people I’d already rescued and for those who had decided to stay where they were and support others with shared information.
This network wasn’t nearly as broad as my anonymous contacts, but each person in it was fully vetted and trusted, and many of them held important positions. For some, it was too dangerous to send messages even to anonymous accounts, so we left “physical” messages on a note board. I quickly checked the existing messages but none pertained to the attack and none required my immediate attention.
I reached out and grabbed an empty notecard. A voice prompt came up, and I said, “Ferdinand has reportedly been taken by Silva. I need any information you can find about the attack or the Syndicate. Time is of the essence.”
My words were transcribed onto the card. You could write in HIVE, but it was slow and messy, so most written text was actually dictated. I added a large red exclamation mark and tacked the note to the board. It wasn’t the fastest communication method, but eventually everyone would see it.
I’d done as much as I could, so I logged out of HIVE. The projectors in the room turned off and the lights slowly brightened back to normal.
I sat down and rubbed my forehead. If Nadia’s information was correct, then the Syndicate had my brother. I agreed that they wouldn’t try to ransom him, which explained why no one had been in contact. And it meant I had a very narrow slice of time to rescue him before they broke him in a way that couldn’t be fixed.
With that in mind, I reconnected my secure Internet connection and started looking for information on any of the Silva ships. Because they were all in constant contact, I just needed to find one of them, it didn’t matter which. I’d love to find the one with Ferdinand aboard, but the possibility was too small to count on.
I lost track of time until the suite computer broke my concentration. A short, sharp chime sounded three times before falling silent. Because my com was cut off from wireless communication and my terminal was connected to a private network, important messages were routed through my suite computer. I’d just received three emergency messages.
I disconnected from my fruitless search for the Syndicate and reconnected to the House network. The messages were from my siblings, addressed to me directly, and flagged as emergency. That was never a good sign.
The first two, from Hannah and Catarina, urged me to check the news as soon as possible. But it was the third message, from Benedict, that chilled me. He’d kept it short and sweet: Father plans to put you under house confinement. If you want to flee, go now.
Chapter 6
I paused just long enough to check the news, then ran for my closet. Someone had done a remarkably good job of painting me as a traitor, one who worked with House Rockhurst to betray Ferdinand and House von Hasenberg.
Even if Father didn’t believe the story—and I hoped he wouldn’t—he would be furious about my meeting with Evelyn Rockhurst. And despite my preference for electronic sleuthing, eventually I’d run into a lead I’d need to track down the old-fashioned way. I couldn’t find Ferdinand if I was locked in my suite.