Proxy

CHAPTER 04

JETH’S HEAD SWAM IN THE SUDDEN SURGE OF ADRENALINE, but then a cool focus came over him, the thrill of the unexpected sharpening his senses. “Someone’s coming. How soon?”

“Need another minute at least,” Danforth answered.

Acting on instinct, Jeth left the comm open as he pulled the collapsible wrench out of his boot and expanded it to full size. He held his breath and approached the edge of the hallway. Only two types of people would be coming this way right now: guards or servants. He hoped for the latter. A servant would likely be easier to take by surprise, knock unconscious, and hide until the job was done.

Jeth listened to the footsteps, determining they were coming from the left, the same way he had entered. He turned and put his back to the wall. Sweat dampened his palms, and he wished he were holding a stunner instead of a wrench. If he hit the person too hard, he could do permanent damage. Too little and he might have a fight on his hands.

Tap, tap, tap.

The person reached the juncture where the two hallways met. Jeth held his breath, tightening his grip on the wrench. A figure stepped into view. Jeth raised his hand, aiming for where neck met skull.

But he froze at the sight of brown hair hanging in ringlets. The girl in the silkwater dress from earlier swung to face him, her large amber eyes widening in surprise.

Hit her! A voice screamed in his head.

He couldn’t. He might hurt her. Might kill her with a blow like that.

“What are you—” she began, but Jeth grabbed her before she could finish. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pinning her. She was tiny, easy to overpower. He felt her lungs expand for a scream, and he clapped his hand over her mouth.

“Door’s open, Longshot,” Danforth spoke through the comm. “You got things under control down there?”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” Jeth said, glad he’d left the comm open. To say he had his hands full as he dragged the girl down the hallway would be an understatement. Although to his surprise she wasn’t really struggling. A small, weird part of him was almost disappointed that she didn’t fight. He must’ve misjudged the spunk he’d detected in her earlier.

He shoved her through the now open door into a narrow entryway that dead-ended before an elevator.

“I’m going to lower my hand from your mouth,” Jeth said, in his most menacing voice, “but if you so much as squeak, I’ll brain you. Got it?” He waved the wrench before her eyes with his other hand.

She nodded.

Jeth let go of her mouth, and holding her with one arm, he reached back and grabbed the counterfeit invitation out of the control panel. A second later, the door slid closed, sealing them in the small foyer before the elevator.

“Who are you talking to?” Danforth asked.

“Nobody. A minor inconvenience. Someone from the party. I’m bringing her up with me.”

“All right, but hurry up,” Danforth said. “You’ve got two minutes before we have to switch off the security loop.”

Jeth ignored him as he pushed the girl forward, then spun her around with her back to the elevator door. He pointed the wrench at her. “Stay still.”

She nodded again, although he thought he detected that impishness from before in her eyes. She didn’t look frightened at all. He supposed to a wealthy aristocrat this might seem like a new and exciting game. He might’ve been inclined to feel the same if it hadn’t been for this being Lizzie’s first job.

Jeth shifted to the right, standing in front of the elevator’s control panel. He keyed in the passcode he’d been given and then leaned his right eye toward the retinal scanner. He held perfectly still, experience telling him that if there was too much movement, the scanner would detect the contact lens. Within seconds the access light turned green and the elevator door opened.

The girl stepped inside with no prompting from Jeth. He followed after her. The door closed automatically, and the elevator began to move upward. This was one of the emperor’s private elevators, and it had only one destination—the very top of the tower.

“Face the wall and don’t move,” Jeth said, pointing the wrench at the girl again. She turned around, then stood with her arms hanging loose at her sides. Disconcerted by her compliance, Jeth stooped and grabbed the hem of her silkwater dress, on the alert for any sudden movements.

“What are you doing?” the girl asked, alarmed as he tore off a strip of fabric.

Jeth regretted destroying something so valuable, but it wasn’t like he could steal the dress. Well, he could, but he wouldn’t.

“Got to have some way to keep you contained,” he said, standing up. “What were you doing down that hallway anyway?”

She tapped her foot. “I was following you, to my misfortune it seems.”

“So it would. Put your hands behind your back.”

“Is this really necessary?” she said, doing it anyway.

“Maybe not, but I’m not willing to bet you’ll keep playing nice.” He pulled her wrists together and then wound the torn fabric around them, tying the knot as tight as he could. Silkwater was delicate, but surprisingly strong, enough to be used in this manner.

“Why not?” she said, turning to face him as he finished. “I’ve done everything you’ve ordered so far.”

Jeth shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because you’re rich?”

She narrowed her eyes on him. “Are you saying rich people can’t be trusted?”

“As a general rule, yes.”

“Oh, but I suppose thieves can?”

Jeth tapped the head of the wrench against his open palm. “Who said anything about thieves?”

“You don’t expect me to believe you’re a maintenance man in disguise, do you?”

“No, but I could be an assassin or a terrorist.”

The girl shook her head, her ringlets bouncing a little. “I don’t think so. If you’re anything other than a thief, I’d go with prostitute sent to be the emperor’s after-party dessert.”

Jeth wrinkled his nose, deciding it was time to change the subject. “You got a name?”

She hesitated, no doubt questioning the wisdom of sharing such information with someone in the middle of breaking into the emperor’s personal bedchambers.

“I could make one up for you, if you’d like,” Jeth offered. “I think ‘Trouble’ would fit nicely.”

“My name is Aileen.”

Jeth grinned. It suited her. He supposed if things were to go wrong on this job, at least trouble came with a pretty face.

“And what’s yours?”

Jeth cocked his head to the side. “You can call me whatever you like.”

“Hmmm, very well. I’ll go with ‘Peacock.’”

Jeth made a choking noise and was about to argue, when Danforth’s voice intruded, “I hate to bust up the romantic tension, but you really ought to focus on the task at hand. The elevator’s almost there.”

“Right,” Jeth said. “Where’s Little Hawk?”

“Stepped into the back for a minute. More trouble with that relay.”

“Oh,” Jeth said, ignoring Aileen’s curious look about his conversation with a person she couldn’t see or hear.

Seconds later they reached the top floor and the door swished open. Jeth motioned for Aileen to go first.

She smiled and walked past him, as unconcerned as ever. He stepped out after her and surveyed the suite, momentarily overwhelmed by the decadence. There was a wraparound sofa as big as a bed, a fireplace as big as a bathroom, and an in-floor water feature big enough to swim in.

And this was just the first room.

“That way.” Jeth pointed to a set of double doors in the distance. Aileen headed for them without a second glance. Jeth followed her into the bedroom. The same level of decadence continued on in here, but the glass vault across from the bed drew all his attention. It was big enough to enclose a dozen men, and at its center, set atop a wooden pedestal engraved in the likeness of two rearing dragons, was the Grakkian Ruby, the so-called Heart of the Universe. It glowed red beneath the display lights. The sight of that glow jogged Jeth’s memory. He needed something to cover his hands before he picked it up.

He turned to Aileen and then motioned to the bed. “Sit down and stay there. And don’t bother trying to escape. My crew has the elevators locked down. There’s nowhere to go.”

This wasn’t even close to true, but Aileen couldn’t know it. Besides, as she sat down on the bed, she gave no indication that running was on her mind. Instead, she seemed enthralled by the situation unfolding before her.

Jeth grabbed one of the half dozen pillows lying across the top of the bed. He yanked off the pillowcase and then turned back to the vault, stopping before the door.

The only indication that there was a door in that seamless glass facade came from the small control panel on the right. It was similar to the one on the elevator, and for a moment Jeth marveled at how stupid the emperor was to keep something so important in such a relatively unprotected place. True, the glass was shatterproof, but the lack of physical monitoring was a serious weakness. Nobody was guarding the door, and there wasn’t a single security camera in the bedchamber or even the elevators. The emperor insisted on his complete privacy, disregarding any risks.

Then again, Jeth supposed a man in his position was probably arrogant enough to believe there were no risks, that he was so well insulated from the outside that he was perfectly safe in here. If so, he was a fool. Someone inside the emperor’s inner circle was also firmly in Hammer’s pocket.

Of course, Jeth thought as he entered the passcode, the ruby wasn’t exceptionally valuable in a monetary sense. He had no idea why Hammer wanted it. Most of its worth stemmed from its religious importance to the people of this planet. They believed the ruby was some sort of holy relic that would bestow wisdom and good fortune on anyone exposed to it—hence the reason for the glass vault in the emperor’s bedchamber. All nonsense, Jeth knew; religious propaganda designed to control an uneducated and superstitious populace.

The retinal scanner began to flash, and he stood in front of it, holding still once more.

“I’m through,” Jeth said when the door opened. He glanced behind him to make sure Aileen was still behaving herself. She watched him with a bemused expression from where she sat perched on the end of the emperor’s ridiculous bed.

“Excellent,” Danforth said. “We’re in the homestretch.”

Jeth didn’t reply as he stepped inside, a shiver running over his skin at the drop in temperature. The air had a sharp taste and smell, the kind he associated with hospitals and science laboratories. Plush carpet shifted against his feet like deep sand.

Jeth stopped before the pedestal and covered his right hand with the pillowcase. The ruby was coated with a chemical agent that would make the stone and anything that had touched it, skin or clothing, light up like a fireworks show on the infrared display of the security cameras.

He hesitated. “You sure I can just take this? There’s not some kind of pressure alarm waiting to sound?”

“I’m sure,” Danforth said. “All the security is on the door.”

Jeth frowned. Not because he didn’t believe Danforth but because he’d noticed something odd about the ruby.

It wasn’t a ruby.

He’d seen enough rubies in his life to know it. The fist-sized stone was more or less the right color, and it had been cut to look like a ruby, its surface faceted and shape diamond, but the insides gave it away. If Jeth hadn’t known any better, he would’ve thought it was some kind of red-hued amber. Small, branchlike things hung suspended inside it like insects caught in fossilized sap he remembered from the pictures in his old science textbook.

“What the—” Jeth broke off as something far more troubling than a counterfeit ruby grabbed his attention—a voice screaming over the comm.

“Help, Jeth! Help. Hel—”

The sound abruptly cut off as the comm link went dead. But Jeth had recognized the voice easily. Lizzie. Panic rose up inside him like a flood, drowning him in fear.

“Liz—Little Hawk? What is it? What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

For several long, terrible moments no one answered.

Then finally, Danforth’s voice came over the line. “Nothing’s wrong, Longshot. We’re fine. Everything’s fine here.”

“Where’s Little Hawk?”

“She’s fine.”

“Bullshit,” Jeth said, panting from fear and frustration. “Put her on the line.”

Danforth let out a long, heavy sigh. “I’m really sorry about this. I really am. But I can’t let you talk to her right now. Somehow she found out what I’ve been doing and was making such a fuss, I had to shut her up.”

Bile climbed Jeth’s throat as his brain provided an interpretation of Danforth’s words—shut her up. A vision of his baby sister lying sprawled in the passenger’s seat of the truck with half her face blown off and blood and brain matter spattered on the window beside her swam before the eye of his imagination. There were plenty of weapons in the truck, after all.

Why had he let her come down to the planet? Why had he left her alone?

Jeth cleared his throat and his voice came out breathless. “What have you been doing?”

“Well, let’s just say I have no intention of letting you hand that ruby over to Hammer. It’s priceless, worth far more than he would ever pay any of us.”

“You’re going to double-cross Hammer?” It didn’t make sense. No one betrayed Hammer. The price for getting caught was too high. It wasn’t death that Hammer would inflict on Danforth but a kind of living death, one that would last as many years as his body had left to it. Danforth knew the consequences as well as Jeth. And while money was a strong motivator, he didn’t think it would be enough for Danforth to risk becoming one of Hammer’s Guard. There had to be more to it.

Then Jeth remembered the blood. Burner blood. An Odyssey addiction. Hammer had banned the substance, but there were plenty of other crime lords in the universe who hadn’t. And turning over a prize like the Grakkian Ruby might be enough for Danforth to buy his way into the good graces of one of Hammer’s rivals.

Jeth shook his head, still struggling with disbelief. “But how are you doing this? You didn’t know you were going to come on this job.”

“Do you really think something like a replacement tech would keep me away from this prize?”

A chill skidded down Jeth’s spine. If Danforth had done something to harm their last tech, just to take his place on this job, what else would he do?

“But don’t worry,” Danforth was saying. “Your sister is fine. I only shut her inside one of the barrels. She’s perfectly safe. For now.”

Jeth swallowed. “What do you want from me?”

“Simple. Finish the job.”

Jeth bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. His mind spun as he tried to think of a way out. “Don’t go through with this. It’s not too late. I’ll make sure Liz doesn’t say anything. We’ll finish the job and turn the stone over to Hammer.”

“No.” A chilling certainty colored Danforth’s voice. “Hammer doesn’t win. Not this time. I’m done with him owning me. I’ll do what I want with my life, my body.”

My body. Jeth wondered if Hammer had found out about the Odyssey. Such an infraction might be something Hammer would forgive, at least once. But there would be consequences—like banishment to the coal mines on Gallant Prime. Such an environment should’ve made it easier for Danforth to quit the drug, but he hadn’t.

“Come on,” Jeth pressed. “This is your last chance, and you know it.”

“No,” Danforth said again. “Finish your part now or I’ll kill her.”

Icy daggers seemed to prick Jeth’s skin from his neck to the tops of his feet. He believed Danforth completely. Odyssey users were prone to violent outbursts and wild manic frenzies. And Jeth understood that no matter how rational Danforth sounded, he was no longer a sane man. They said Odyssey liquefied the brain. Sometimes slowly and sometimes all at once.

Jeth drew a breath, unwilling to give up without a fight. “I might be all the way up here, but the rest of the crew can still get to you.”

“Ah, but you’re assuming I haven’t already taken care of them as well.”

“Impossible. You need their help.” Jeth knew with absolute certainty that Danforth wasn’t about to go down into the sewers. He might not know the meaning of the word soap, but he didn’t like to get his hands dirty.

“Now you’re assuming that I’m working alone.”

Another shiver went through Jeth, but he refused to believe the implication. “You’re bluffing.”

“Perhaps, but every second you delay, the risk of getting caught goes up. The fireworks won’t last forever, you know.”

“If I play along,” Jeth said, “how do I know you won’t hurt her afterward? How do I know you won’t leave me trapped up here?”

“You don’t. But Jeth, this really isn’t personal. I have little interest in you or your crew, but I will kill anyone who gets in the way.”

“I—” Jeth broke off as a click echoed behind him. He turned toward the sound, his jaw slackening at the sight that greeted him. Beautiful, rich Aileen stood across from him, wrists no longer bound, pointing the barrel of a Luke 357 at him. Her hands were steady, and her chilling aloofness was all the evidence he needed to know that this wasn’t the first time she’d held a gun on someone.

A sly, sensuous smile stretched across her lips, that devilish glint in her eyes. “Danforth isn’t lying. He’s not working alone.”