Rogue Pursuit: A Space Opera Adventure (Shades of Starlight Book 1), page 8
The pie-shaped room radiated outward from the hall, narrow at the door and wide at the window. Shades of green from spring to grass to forest swirled across the walls.
The window extended floor-to-ceiling and curved upward at an angle. She estimated each sphere contained three levels of rooms, and theirs was at the bottom of one, since they had clear views of the river below and the sphere under theirs, and the window bulged out at the top.
On the wall across from the bed, a giant vid-board played more wormhole graphics.
Tai shut off the screen. “We should wait until later to visit his room. If I’m caught committing a crime here, I’m never leaving Amber territory.”
“Good point. They’d revoke my license.”
She didn’t want to wait. Now that she knew Kel had been here, she wanted to find him.
On the other hand, more time was good. She still hadn’t figured out how to escape the cop who would drag Kel back to the Confed in cuffs or how to hide the intel that implicated her.
She moved to the balcony, made from the same glass as the window to give the impression of floating. City lights twinkled everywhere, from other skyscrapers to boats on the river. Holo-ads projected images high in the sky, and hovercars zipped along in neat lines.
Tai joined her. “So… down there at the desk. And that guy at the wormhole station. You’re a frighteningly good liar. It makes me wonder what else you’re lying about. To me, for example.”
Her heart faltered for one beat. “What would I have to lie to you about?”
“I don’t know.” His intense gaze threatened to slice through her, exposing her heart and her secrets. “You tell me.”
She suppressed the urge to shift or squirm. “I do have one thing.” She stared him straight in the eye, face sober. “I truly love this outfit.”
He sniffed and blinked. “Nice try. Next time make it believable.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t suppose I can borrow a weapon?”
“To search a room?”
“You never know.”
“Don’t you trust me? I’m hurt.” He clasped a hand to his chest as he disappeared into the bathroom without handing over a weapon.
As soon as the door closed behind him, she lunged for the room’s in-building comm system and called Kel’s room. She let it beep until she heard the sink shut off in the bathroom and finally disconnected. Still no answer. Maybe Tai was right, and Kel had left. If so, what was she going to do?
When Tai emerged, he pulled out his comp-pad. First, he hacked into the security cameras. Once their hallway and the hallway outside Kel’s room were empty of people, he set the cameras to repeat the image. He gave her a pair of gloves and tugged his on, too.
“Tie your hair back. Don’t want to leave a trace.”
She did, and saluted.
Did they teach this in police officer training? He was nineteen, which meant he couldn’t have been a cop for more than three years, and he had a surprisingly large skill set—piloting, hacking, and breaking and entering.
Tai’s device made short work of Kel’s lock, and they slipped inside.
The room had the same layout as theirs but in shades of medium blue. They were in the middle of a sphere now, with the window bulging out at the center. The bed had been made, covered in a crisp navy duvet, but an old paperback book, a couple shirts, and a pair of shoes remained. The belongings made it appear Kel might return any second.
Now what? What had he learned? What danger had he wanted to tell her about? And why had he left? Better question, the only one that mattered—what was she going to do?
If Kel was in trouble, and she’d been the one person he trusted, she owed him to find out what happened. That was on top of needing to find him, and his intel, before the Confed did. But now she had no idea where to go, leaving her in the dark, same as Tai.
She opened her mouth, and Tai covered it with his hand. He produced yet another device from yet another pocket she envied.
Tai crossed the room silently and removed listening devices from inside a light fixture, behind the night table, and beneath the bed frame. He attached one to his comp-pad.
A few seconds later, he said, “It’s safe now. These are being monitored from within the hotel. Don’t want to shut them off or whoever planted them might come check, so I set up an audio blanket to trick them.”
“Is he tracking his own room?” Was Kel here, waiting to see who came for him?
“No, these aren’t Confed tech. I don’t recognize the design.”
Tai began a methodical search, checking behind, under, and inside every surface, quickly, efficiently, leaving everything exactly how he found it. His thoroughness and care made her afraid to touch anything.
She rifled through clothes in the wooden wardrobe, which smelled like she remembered from months ago—the unique laundry soap from Kel’s home world and the caramel candy he always chewed.
She didn’t find anything, and it appeared from Tai’s frown that he didn’t, either.
But then he moved to the bathroom and immediately called for her.
Praying she wouldn’t find Kel dead in the shower, she rushed in. Skidded to a stop and relaxed when she saw Tai studying the mirror.
Symbols had been drawn on the shiny surface in what appeared to be shampoo. A small, empty bottle sat near the sink. Tai frowned at the markings and scanned them with his comp-pad.
He wouldn’t find anything. And she didn’t need a scanner. Because they were Network code. She pressed her lips together and struggled to act as confused as Tai.
In the top left corner, the symbols revealed a date nine days in the future, assuming Kel had used standard Ruby Prime timekeeping.
Three shapes formed a triangle beneath that—the one for the Ruby Confederation, the one for the Cobalt Republic, and the one for the Amber Alliance.
The symbol below that was the one that meant the highest possible level of danger.
The room spun around her. She steadied herself on the counter. Then tried to turn the move into a casual lean.
Tai growled and slapped his comp-pad against his palm. “Nothing. Who did he leave it for? And what does it mean?”
She shook her head while answering him in her mind: Kel left it for her. And it meant in nine days, all three empires faced catastrophe.
A whisper of voices came from outside the door. She froze. Tai did too. Their gazes locked in the mirror.
Kel? But the two voices, one male and one female, didn’t sound like him.
They rushed into the main room.
The lock clicked.
Tai’s gaze raked the room.
She pointed at the wardrobe.
He shook his head and pointed up, clambered onto the bed and lifted a panel out of the ceiling. She hurried over, hiking up her dress. Tai gave her a boost, assisted by the planet’s lighter gravity, and she dragged herself into a tight crawl space, legs tangling in her long skirt.
Tai climbed in beside her before she had cleared the opening, pressing her into the wall. He tugged the grate shut behind him.
Tai pressed against her from shoulder to hip to thigh to knee. Her other side jammed against the metal wall. Her breaths came in wheezes. Too loud.
Why wasn’t there enough air? She gulped and clenched a fist in her skirt. The strain of trying to stay calm sent tremors through her.
Her movement rattled the grate beneath her as the door opened.
8
Through the door, Tai had recognized the voice. The figures who entered the room confirmed his fear.
His mother had come.
Not good.
He’d known she would send agents after Kel, but she rarely did field work anymore and he hadn’t expected the agent to be her.
Her dark hair was tied back, and she wore a maid’s outfit—black pants, a gray shirt, and an apron around her waist—and pushed an anti-grav cart loaded with supplies. The agent with her was dressed in a gray porter’s uniform, but Tai couldn’t see his face.
As Tai had done, they scanned the room, but he’d already removed the listening devices. And left them in a pile on the dresser. Shades.
His mom inspected them. “Someone else has been here.”
“Who set them in the first place? Agent Drake?”
Tai recognized the voice. Agent McCombs. An ambitious man halfway between his age and his mom’s, who didn’t like Tai, and hoped his mom would retire soon so he could take the boss’s job before Tai was experienced enough to claim it.
“These are hybrid tech, cobbled together from different parts. But someone disabled them.”
“Drake?”
His mom shook her head. “Probably long gone. Could’ve been local authorities. Or a third party. Hard to say.”
Tai exhaled slowly. She didn’t suspect him. Yet.
Agent McCombs ran a scanner over the devices. “No prints.” He continued methodically around the room. “None anywhere.”
Perrin shuddered, rattling the grate. Tai nudged her with his elbow. Her breathing grew louder. Great. She was claustrophobic. He wiggled until he could free an arm from where it was pinned between them and placed his hand on her shoulder.
He ended up with his leg bent under him at an uncomfortable angle, but didn’t have room to move. This crawl space hadn’t been intended for more than one person. Probably not even one.
“Any idea what this means?” McCombs’s voice drew Tai back to the room below. The man held up a book.
Tai’s mom flipped through the pages, scanned it, ran it through the software Tai had used, and like Tai, found nothing. “If it’s code, it’s nothing we’ve used or encountered.”
“Could he have left it for another conspirator?”
His mom contemplated it. “Could just be a book. Agent Drake enjoyed reading. Some people do, you know.”
McCombs ducked his head.
Score one for Mom.
McCombs moved to the bathroom. “In here.”
Tai lost sight of his mom, but assumed she ran a scan, same as he had. “Nothing in the database. Send an image to HQ and see if they can decipher it.”
She returned to the bedroom and continued her search. “Maybe I should’ve accepted my son’s offer to help. He might know.”
Tai froze.
“You did what you had to do, Reiko.” McCombs’s no-nonsense voice sounded too pleased about what she’d had to do.
Don’t say my name. Tai clenched his core muscles and remained motionless.
“You can’t treat Tai any different from the rest.”
Shades. Tai knew he didn’t like McCombs.
Perrin shifted beside him, not so panicked from the tight space that she missed the action below. She was smart. Besides the fact that there were unlikely to be two people named Tai connected to this case, Tai shared his mom’s eyes and facial structure.
“You don’t really think he helped, do you?” McCombs sounded gleeful at the thought as he rejoined Tai’s mom. Tai had no doubt the man would celebrate if he learned Tai had been involved.
“He’s my son. Of course not.” His mom was quick in her defense. “But Kel was his friend. He’s too close to this.”
“How’d he take it?”
I didn’t throw things and yell like you would’ve done. Tai scowled at the agent even though the man couldn’t see him.
“Better than expected. He wasn’t happy, but he’s a good agent. Follows orders. Said he’d take a break at our cabin until the IA hearing. Spend some time alone. I think the hardest part was realizing his friend lied to him.”
Tai’s midsection grew a cramp to match the one in his leg. His current situation was a textbook example of not following orders.
“Some of the guys… I know you believe him. But some of us wonder if—”
“I’m aware, Agent.” Her voice was sharp. “The other reason I benched him was to satisfy the doubters. And to make sure he wasn’t around for the gossip. I’m protecting him as well as the rest of us.”
Would she say that about her other agents, who weren’t related to her? He was nineteen years old. He could handle office gossip.
His mom completed her search of the dresser and returned the drawers to normal. Her shoulders lifted in a slight sigh. “I should check on him when we’re done here.”
Time to see if his routing system worked. He’d planted his personal comm at the cabin. If his mom called, the system should transmit the message to him and direct his reply through the cabin so it would appear like he was where he’d said he’d be.
He was a terrible son and employee. His mom believed in him, defended him, cared about him, and here he was, defying her and the Agency. The Agency he would lead one day.
At this point, it had become obvious the agents below were using the same search method Tai had. McCombs finished the walls, light fixtures, and bathroom. His mom had examined all the furniture except the bed.
Perrin’s shaking had lessened as the scenario playing out below distracted her. Her fingers remained clenched tight, but her bright eyes watched the agents.
Tai was going to have to explain himself.
Tai’s mom moved to the bed but paused. Angled her head to study it.
He and Perrin had rumpled the cover in their climb. It wouldn’t take a spy to spot the grate above.
His mom climbed onto the bed. Through the gaps in the grate, he saw every detail of her face. Could she see in? His hand tightened on Perrin’s shoulder.
With a loud crack, the door burst open.
Tai blinked, and Perrin flinched.
The agents spun toward the door. McCombs’s hand reached for the back of his waistband, where he no doubt concealed a weapon. Tai’s mom leaped off the bed and shook her head at him.
A hotel guard strode in, tall and broad, in a crisp white uniform.
“Who are you, and what is it you are doing?” His voice echoed through the room.
Tai’s mom opted for a wide-eyed gaze. “The guest in this room, he was calling and asking for us to be retrieving something for him.” She shifted into a speech pattern and accent that matched the Amber guard’s voice perfectly. “The porter,” she nodded toward McCombs, “he was alerting me that the room was needing to be cleaned.”
As always, Tai couldn’t help but be impressed by how easy this came to her.
The guard stepped toward them. “Why would a porter and a maid be disabling the hall cameras and setting a perimeter alert?”
Tai’s mom spread her hands. “I am not knowing what it is you are talking about.”
“And those?” He nodded to the pile of disabled listening devices.
The man showed too much insight for a simple hotel guard. And Tai’s mom was the best. She never would’ve been caught unaware by anyone with so little training.
“Those were being here when we arrived. I am not knowing what they are for.”
Tai studied the man more carefully. The uniform pants fell an inch too short. Same with the sleeves. And the tie was a fraction crooked. Like the man had dressed in a hurry, in someone else’s clothes, and done the best he could. He also carried a shock pistol, which Tai was reasonably certain wasn’t allowed for non-military anywhere in the Alliance. He stood with more confidence and alertness than the average hotel guard, as well.
Tai’s best guess? An agent of the ICA, the Amber intelligence group.
Which meant, somehow, all three governments were now onto Kel.
His cramped leg twitched, and he swallowed a hiss.
The guard stepped closer to his mom. “I am wanting to see your key.”
She produced one, prepared as always.
“Why is there evidence of a lock breaker being used on the door?”
“I am not knowing what that is.”
If Tai hadn’t known his mom was lying, he would’ve been sold. She lied like it was second nature, became someone else so often he sometimes forgot the real her.
The Amber agent set his jaw and crossed his arms. “Where were you saying the occupant is?”
“He was not telling us.”
“Was he saying when he was returning?”
“His things are being here. Why would he not be coming back?”
“Are you being aware the Ruby Confederation has issued a warrant for the man’s arrest?”
Tai became more convinced of the man’s identity. The Confed certainly didn’t share intel with hotel guards in the Amber Alliance.
“I believe he was leaving a way to reach him. I might be having it here.”
From this angle, Tai spotted the moment his mom prepared to make her move. She reached toward her apron pocket slowly with two fingers like she planned to pull out a card, but instead withdrew a percussive grenade.
He moved Perrin’s hands to her ears, hoping she’d keep them there, and plugged his as his mom released the bomb.
His fingers weren’t enough to completely block the grenade’s sound waves. A high-pitched whine spiked through his skull. His mom and McCombs must’ve come prepared with special ear plugs. They didn’t blink. The tone could barely be heard but vibrated at a frequency that incapacitated a person in seconds.
The Amber agent dropped to his knees, grasping his head. The warning had given Tai a chance to protect himself, but the grenade still left him with ringing ears and a massive headache.
His mom yanked two bags from the maid cart and tossed one to McCombs. Standard-issue jet wings. They slung them onto their backs and dove out the window.
The Amber agent managed to press something on his belt before he slumped to the floor. Had he called for backup? Soon the room might swarm with more Amber personnel.
Tai pressed a hand to his temple and pushed hard before kicking open the grate and dropping to the bed. He caught Perrin, who tumbled out in a flash of leg she might’ve been embarrassed about except she seemed too happy to be free as she gulped air.
“We have to move.” He helped her off the bed. “Now.”
She stepped toward the door.
Scuffling sounds already came from the hall outside.
“Not that way.” He pointed to the window.
She blinked a few times, her eyes cleared, and she nodded.
