Chapter Eighteen

Gage hooked his hand over his ankle as Tuton, the wrecker from Lower Loki, explained what was going to happen to the Cannonball III. The people of Lower Loki had so few luxury items that they were taking everything Gage had aboard his ship. They were paying for it, and as far as they were concerned, they were getting a discount, but Gage was essentially being given a whack of cash and a kick on the bum.

Tuton was lending him a Helocarrier to pilot as long as he was on Io, but he could not sell Gage a new spaceship because they were only a wrecking outfit, not a spaceship dealer or manufacturer. In space, Gage had believed that there was going to be somewhere on Io where he could get a new ship, but it turned out that a lot of things got wrecked on Io, but not a lot of things turned around and left Io. In short, no one sold spaceships on Io. There had once been a dealership on Io, but like many things, the whole outfit had been swallowed when the moon was squeezed like a grape by Jupiter’s gravity and the tectonic plates moved like the tides of Earth’s oceans. The dealership had gone under and no one thought it was worthwhile to rebuild.

Doing a little math in his head, Gage realized they were more stranded on Io than he had previously thought they would be. The use of the helocarrier was a generous gift from the wreckers and Gage was expected to inform them where they could pick it up when he left Io.

Tuton believed that Gage would have no problems leaving Io when he wanted to go. What he had to do was simple from Tuton’s perspective. All he needed to do was get on a recycling ship that was on its way to any of the other major moons. Once Gage was on Ganymede or Callisto, he could buy another ship with the whack of cash he’d been given (primarily for Iona’s clothes, which were worth a lot more to the people of Io than the Cannonball III).

Before leaving the wreckers’, Gage spent quite a bit of time with Tuton learning more about the helocarrier. It wasn’t that he needed more instruction to pilot it. He could do that blindfolded and juggling. The problem was that there were vast distances between settlements on Io and if he crashed or had technical difficulty, it might spell death for Iona, Leviticus, and himself. He was learning how to maintain the engine and the rupter inside.

“If you’ve ever been to Callisto,” Tuton was saying, “that is the home of the helocarrier business. Harrison Fox is there designing helocarriers. He’s a pioneer. He’s never been afraid to go somewhere remote to start a business.”

Iona heard that name and came forward. “I know him.”

“No, you don’t,” Tuton said, pushing his shaggy ponytail over his shoulder. “He lives on Callisto and designs the finest helocarriers in the universe.”

Iona stamped her foot, annoyed at being discarded. “I said I know him. I worked at Excalibur Helocarriers last year in his elite showroom. He wasn’t my boss, but he was my boss’s boss’s boss and I’ve met him a number of times. It was always a huge deal when he was inspecting the showroom. He’s the whole reason why I was hired.”

“What?” Gage wondered.

“The story is legendary. He bought a model at Sleeping Beauty Inc. He fell in love with her, set her free, and married her. His company buys the contracts of Sleeping Beauty Inc. models to give them an opportunity to improve their resume so they can get jobs working…” Iona slowed down, almost stopping herself in mid-sentence, “in the real world without selling themselves anymore.”

Gage stood up and tapped a wrench against this thigh. “They were trying to get you to quit being a model?”

Iona nodded.

“How many times did they buy you?”

“Over and over. I’m sorry. I’m just now remembering that Harrison said something about getting me a different job in the company. That if I was interested in something like that, I should message him when my contract was over.”

“Iona, what can I pay you to get you to take that offer?” Gage said desperately.

She turned the entire effect of her honey eyes on him. Her anger was bubbling up and making her eyes seem yellower than the warm brown. “You can’t afford me,” she said hotly before she stormed out of the shop.

Gage watched her go but didn’t follow her. If she wanted to be outside in all that stink, that was her business.

“Those were her panties?” Tuton said, sticking a thumb out after her. “I’m going to sleep with a pair of them on my face tonight.”

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“Don’t tell me stuff like that,” Gage said, as he turned his attention back to the engine of the helocarrier.

“I’ll still be able to sell them afterward,” the old nut chuckled.

***

The helocarrier Gage received from the wreckers had the words Danger Zone on the side of the nose. Gage loaded Leviticus, Iona, and himself with no luggage on the helocarrier and made a dumb joke about how they were flying in the danger zone, but neither of them laughed.

“Okay,” he said, securing his aviator shades on his face. “We’re going to start by flying to Volund. There’s a Sleeping Beauty Inc. location there. We need to report the loss of the Cannonball III and see if they have transports available for us and what kind. I also need to bank with them and you probably need to as well, Iona.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly from the back, having refused to sit in the front with Gage.

“Lucky for you,” Gage said, now speaking to Leviticus and giving him a flick on the arm. “We’re going in the same direction as Benediction’s Tranquility Mansion. If you can wait for us to get our crap together in Volund I can take you or you can go on your own if you’re proactive enough to get your own ride.”

“Is it just me, or does this seem like the kind of place where you could be chloroformed and have your organs harvested just for walking around alone?” Leviticus wondered.

“You didn’t get that vibe on Europa?” Gage asked sardonically.

“Europa is not a safe place, but it’s dangerous in a different way. I saw Olivine there. Just a glimpse of her as she went into the VIP viewing room. I didn’t want to tell you I saw her, but I think it’s better that you know.”

“Why do you think we left Europa in such a hurry and there were guards making sure I didn’t board?”

“So you saw her… or rather she saw you,” Leviticus said, barely loud enough for Gage to hear. Gage couldn’t see Leviticus’ face as he was piloting the carrier, but he suddenly shot out a hand and touched Gage’s hand on the steering column. “I’ll call you brother from now on,” he said before taking his hand back.

Gage huffed. In truth, Gage only had a vague idea of what would have happened to him if he had eaten the food and passed out. If Leviticus had been seen as an acceptable replacement for Gage and caught by Olivine, Gage had a very good idea of what would have happened to him. The thoughts made his teeth ache because that was the feeling that rippled through your body long after you were electrocuted. However, even knowing what he knew, if Leviticus had not been waiting outside his ship when Gage had been ready to leave Europa, Gage would not have stayed to make sure Leviticus was okay. He would have hoped that Leviticus was smart enough to avoid Olivine and smart enough to get himself to safety.

“You don’t have to be so grateful that I saved you,” Gage said. “If you weren’t there, I wouldn’t have.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Leviticus said, staring out the window. “I know that. But you could have refused to take me with you when it was time to go. Instead, you offered me a ride. You could have left me on Europa with those beat-up guards.”

“You would have sidestepped them and gotten away,” Gage offered.

“I don’t know how far I would have gotten if her guards woke up and told her there were two of us. She knows me because I was given to Raylynn, but she also knows there are supposed to be ten of us. I heard a rumor once that she was trying to collect us. That she liked you so much, she wanted the whole set.”

“Do you know where Vangelis is right now?” Gage asked.

“He’s the concubine of Silver Ashley in Nimbus City on Venus.”

“That was the last I’d heard of him too, but that might change at any moment. How old is Silver Ashley anyway?”

“Old. We should look up information on her when we get to Benediction’s mansion.”

“Do you think he’ll welcome us?” Gage asked skeptically.

“Yeah. He needs to hear about Apostate and now I think he needs to hear about Olivine.”

“Don’t you think there’s a big chance he won’t want to see us at all because of his whole black skin and green hair to hide who he really is and us showing up will reveal exactly who he is? We should send him a message from Sleeping Beauty Inc. before we head on out there. It could be that we only need to tell him those two facts and he’ll be happy to see us go. We shouldn’t screw up his cover.”

“Okay,” Leviticus agreed.

“Let’s go over the locations of the rest of us and see if either of us knows anything more than the other,” Gage suggested.

In that fashion, they went over the last known locations of the last three: Ziggurat, Invocation, and Omega.

“Does that girl know your name is Theology?” Leviticus wondered.

“Honestly, I’ve gone by Gage since the moment I was set free. I know I told you one sweaty night when we were teens I was going to change my name as soon as I was free. The thing that’s the most astonishing is that the rest of you haven’t adopted a slew of other aliases. As if you’re still going by Leviticus!”

“I’m not,” he said emotionlessly. “I’ve done exactly what you’ve said and changed my name a thousand times. I don’t do it to hide because I’m afraid of my past coming back to bite me. I do it because sometimes I can’t stand myself and giving myself a new name feels like being born again.”

“Maybe I should try that,” Gage said, giving his face a scratch.

“If Olivine saw you then she’s not going to rest until she has a cuff around you. You were her favorite toy. She’s probably never found anyone she enjoys torturing as much as you since you were the first one she tortured. The first cut is the deepest, and all that.”

Gage glanced back to check on Iona. She had flopped on her side on the backseat of the helocarrier, having discarded one of her shoulder restraints. Tears had pooled on her nose bridge and her eyes looked dead ahead of her until they closed painfully.

Gage worried for her. What demons was she facing?