Matt steps back and his mouth opens wide. No sound leaves it as his hands scrabble at his face, desperately trying to wipe away what’s left of his bodyguard. His fear is so vibrant that I can feel it from all the way up here.
“What… did he think was going to happen?” I wonder aloud as I get out of my seat and join Noland in leaning on the railing. “They’re basically ‘war crimes’ the organization. Is he just that stupid that he thought he’d be able to control them?”
Gisela walks up next to me and leans down. She opens her mouth and tries to speak, then frowns when she’s still silenced. A few quick scribbles later, she pushes a piece of paper at me. One that Noland leans around my shoulder to see.
‘Matt has a lot of powerful people behind him. Including some people from HuSt–but not the ones that are here today.’
“So he was gambling on everyone in HuSt sharing the same opinion as his connections?” Noland laughs and shakes his head. “Wow, he’s even dumber than I thought. Anyone who does five minutes of research knows HuSt doesn’t work like that. But–and to be clear, I don’t want to give him any credit at all–he isn’t this stupid. He has an ulterior motive.”
I snort and roll my eyes. “No shit. He’s the one that threw this party–getting all these influential people together for no real reason other than to announce something people already know about. If there wasn’t something sinister going on in the background I’d be surprised.”
And the Preservation did bring along someone with memory erasing magic. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if this entire thing was orchestrated by the Preservation manipulating Matt into doing their bidding with promises of class coin-based wealth and power. Still… that leaves one massive unanswered question.
If they’re powerful enough to have this much of an influence, what’s the point of a private party with everyone who already knows how this turns out? Sure, Matt’s angling for something more, but he could’ve easily done that from behind closed doors. Hell, it’s probably way easier to do behind closed doors.
Actually… what if everything’s already said and done? What if Mmatt’s already signed a deal, and this party is a big part of it? Why does HuSt have to sign off on the deal if they’re blacklisted by basically everything, but the resort didn’t even know about it until Gisela told us?
My mind wanders to a thousand different possibilities. None of them are good in the slightest. But all the absolute worst ones center in on one single question: why is HuSt here? What influence do they have that I don’t know about? Something tells me that if I find the answer to that question, I’ll have the answer to everything.
Noland gently elbows me in the arm. “Matt’s done already. Less than two minutes, and it doesn’t look like either side is leaving on bad terms. If that isn’t a bad omen, I don’t know what is.”
I nod in agreement. “Ursula said she worked for them before she got her Class Coin. As… a private military contractor, I think? Does HuSt still do that?”
“They do. It’s all the real power they have left. But they don’t officially broadcast it; they’re basically supplying countries without military power of their own with a military.” Noland continues with a growing grimace. “Oh, this could be bad, Shelby. This could be really, really bad. Do you know what this could be?”
“Bad?”
He narrows his eyes at me in a withering glare. “It could be a merger. Not just between Matt’s companies and the Preservation, but between HuSt and some countries as well.”
I blink in surprise. “What countries? Who would even do that?”
Gisela tugs on my dress to get my attention, then taps her notebook. ‘South America and Southeast Asia were horribly destroyed by the apocalypse. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were trying to unite these countries under the Preservation’s banner.’
“That’s what I thought, too.” Noland mutters. “But it doesn’t answer the question of why the hell Matt’s throwing a party. There’s got to be something we’re missing. And–shit, we’re out of time. If we want to talk to HuSt without anyone interrupting, now’s our last and only chance. Shelby.”
“On it.”
Three relocation coins fill my palm. A snap of my wrist sends them spinning down to the next floor as HuSt start to leave the stage. The woman who looks permanently pissed twitches and glares at my coins as they clatter to the ground, and she grabs the other two by their shoulders to keep them from leaving.
“The hell are you doing–oh, you three again.” Taka sighs as I relocate all of us to the coins. “Whaddaya want? We’ve got important business to attend to, and none of it involves your sorry asses.”
Gisela raises a hand to her chest and tries to speak. Taka snorts in amusement, but the angry woman takes a step forward with a fist tingling with magic. With eyes widening in fear, Gisela stumbles backwards and almost trips over her own feet.
“Yeah, bitch, you won’t.” Angry hisses through clenched teeth. “If you’ve got something to say, be strong enough to say it with your own goddamn mouth. Or else you’re as useless as the dipshit we’re not allowed to kill today.”
“So if we can talk, you’ll listen to us?” I ask.
Angry’s eyes narrow as she locks onto mine. It feels like she’s staring deep into my soul, and whatever she sees, it only makes the fire in her eyes burn brighter.
“Who the actual f–”
Noland clears his throat. “She’s one of us.”
“One of us?” Angry demands, and finally seems to register that Noland’s there. “Oh, shit, it’s you! The mass-murderer! Are you still working with that ex-soldier that holds a serious grudge? Did she finally die? When do I get to kill her?”
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“Nope, she’s perfectly fine; in fact, she nuked a storm just a few weeks ago.” Noland says proudly. “And, for your information, she’s the one that’s going to kill you. We just haven't set a date for it yet.”
“Nice! Make sure to tell me when it is so I can mark it off on my calendar. I wouldn’t want to double book something like that!”
Angry’s laugh fills the stadium. I’ve heard crazy people talk before, but this is much scarier. Because she sounds like she’s in perfect control of herself. She wants to fight Ursula to the death in her right mind. And she just killed someone three minutes ago. Note to self; don’t get involved with her any more than I have to. Or anyone else in HuSt.
“We’ll all come watch you die, Ava. Hell, we’ll make it a day off so everyone can come watch!” Taka grins and wrings his hands together. “The resort’s best against our most medium member. I’ll make a killing taking bets.”
Ava snarls and smacks Taka on the back of the head. He laughs and tries to shake it off, but I can see just how unfocused his eyes are. Ava must have one hell of a body-focused class to do that much with barely any magic.
“Enough. They’re here for a reason.” The bored woman, who by process of elimination must be Zeze, says in a tired monotone. “The sooner they say it, the sooner we can leave. So shut up and let them talk.”
“Fine, fine.” Taka grumbles. “Your time’s so goddamn precious, why the hell did you volunteer to come anyway?”
Zeze ignores him and locks eyes with Gisela. “I’m going to let you talk because you write so slow it's annoying. Don’t be boring.”
Whispers of magic brush against my ears. I instinctively raise a hand to brush them away, and feel soft strands of cottony material flow through my fingers. Zeze blinks slowly and stares straight into my eyes with obvious suspicion.
“Are you hypersensitive?”
Hyper…sensitive? I narrow my eyes and lower my hand, unsure if she’s talking about magic or something else. “Was that magic, or was it some kind of actual, physical thing?”
Zeze frowns. “You’re hypersensitive. That’s annoying.”
“Can you… elaborate a little?”
“No.”
Well, screw me then, I guess. I put up my awareness and ready myself to protect Gisela from whatever HuSt decide to do to her when she eventually pisses them off. She opens her mouth and quietly mumbles a few vowel sounds to make sure she can talk, nods to herself, and subtly clenches her fists.
“What do you get out of this?”
Taka’s eyebrows jump for the ceiling. “Excuse me?”
“Yeah, the hell are you talking about?” Ava reiterates with a snarl. “You’re here now, dumbass. If you haven't been able to figure that out, I can’t solve that kind of mental damage. But I can make it a hell of a lot worse if you want.”
Gisela winces ever so slightly. “No, thank you. I… well… let me reiterate. If the deal goes through, the Preservation gets near total control over coin distribution and the laws surrounding it. Doesn’t that go against the absolute personal freedom that your organization finds so precious? What if the Preservation decides that it doesn’t want you around any more?”
Ava snorts in amusement. “Well, dumbass, that’s why there’s a party in the first place. We’re here to test the waters with a chunk of influential people from all around the world, seeing how they’ll take to being crushed underfoot by a tyrant they choose themselves.”
There’s something weird in Ava’s tone. It’s almost… subdued. Not like the raging fury and excitement when she brought up Ursula, or the violence she showed towards Matt’s group. Now that she’s talking about the Preservation and this supposed agreement… it’s like she’s holding back.
The nagging start of a very bad idea worms its way into my mind.
Noland clears his throat. “So this entire party’s just to see who is for you, and who’s against you. What happens to the people who’re against you? Because I’ve got a funny feeling it has something to do with why we’re on an isolated mini-island flying in the sky.”
Zeze sighs in annoyance. “Don’t beat around the bush. Just say we’re here to blackmail or kill the idiots who’re against us.”
“Fine.” Noland shrugs and subtly puts himself between me, Gisela, and the HuSt members. “The only reason for this party is to make sure nobody can stop you. All your real allies aren’t even here; only your staunch enemies and the people who’re undecided. Is this even the first party like this?”
“Nope!” Taka opens his mouth wide and licks his lips, revealing that his molars have been replaced with diamonds. “Matt did such a good job hiding the bloodstains, but now the little bitch wants out! Thinks he did his part, and now that we’re inviting guests that remind him of his own people, he begs us to look for a new venue!”
He turns to Gisela and smiles. “So, miss Garza, what’ll it be? Stand with the wave of the future, or get crushed and battered in the undertow?”
“You’re got the threats of a much scarier man.” I say without really thinking. “You do realize that you’re talking to people who actively don’t want you succeeding with this, right?”
“Yeah, but Noland doesn’t care.” Ava smashes her fist against his chest. His suit doesn’t even rustle. “Dumbass has the entire world eating from the palm of his hand, and they don’t even know it. One word from this asshole and any country in the world could die overnight just from taking something away.”
Just from taking it away? I stare at Noland’s back and try to imagine what the hell he could have a literal worldwide monopoly on. Now that I’m actually thinking about it… that’s got to be the reason he can bankroll the resort so easily. Is it the same reason as the Preservation? Did March make, like, all the buildings in the world to help with the repair efforts?
“Aw, I can see your friend here wracking her brain trying to make sense of it.” Ava grins and pushes Noland to the side. “Here’s a little hint for you; think of something so unbelievably necessary for everyday life now that you’d probably die without it. Now imagine how the hell anyone could’ve developed that shit. Then you’ve got your answer!”
She goes to pat my shoulder, but I step away just out of her reach. A quick laugh spits in my face, and the three of them walk away like they own the entire world.
“Hey! I still have… questions…” Gisela trails off, then grimaces as they speed up. “Bastards. They think they’ve already won, but they still need so many people’s permission to get their little law pushed through. Well, I’m going to do everything I can to stop them.”
“Good on you.” Noland sighs. “It’s going to be hard to keep you alive, but you paid us, so–”
I blink slowly as Ava’s words start to make connections in my mind that I hadn’t even thought about before. Gisela and Noland’s conversation bleeds away into background noise as I find myself remembering every little aspect of my daily life from before I got my class coin; eating, sleeping, working, traveling–hell, even just watching TV. Shit that should’ve been impossible, or at least unbelievably unsafe thanks to the apocalypse turning electronics into monsters.
Yet, somehow, we could. Still can, in fact. Because of the technology that staved off the apocalypse. Because of the air filters that somehow made it safe-ish to have indoor appliances. I never made the connection, because there was never a connection to be made.
Noland owns something huge. And he’s going to tell me about it before I put myself in any more danger.