I stood quietly in the transport cargo bay, silently observing as Ryuuk tore the place apart.
“THEY CAN’T—HE WAS —WHY DID IT HAVE TO —” he shouted, slinging crates against the wall hard enough to bust open and scatter their contents across the room.
It had been like that for 15 straight minutes. None of what he was saying had made any sense, and though his words were completely incoherent at times, the emotion pouring out of him was mirrored in all our souls.
When I first returned from seeing Vomero off to the nearest Med Facility, I’d found all three of them, Ryuuk, Cash and Dick staring blankly at nothing, each lost in their own thoughts. The Malunite authorities had removed the bodies, not just Gramps but also three Syreni Vomero had killed trying to defend them both.
Then suddenly, Ryuuk had erupted. His anguish giving way to an untamable anger as he began trashing everything in the cargo bay. The three of us stood out of the way, knowing he had to get it out or it would eat him alive from the inside.
“HOW CAN THEY! WE HAVE TO— OR THEY WON’T, THEY HAVE TO—he was just...”
I could tell his anger was starting to give way to grief. Ryuuk slumped onto an overturned crate near a blood stain at the center of the room. I knew this was the spot where the old man died, that it was his blood smeared across that spot in the floor.
Ryuuk buried his head in his hands, and his shoulders began to shake with silent sobs. Images flashed in my mind of the old man’s body lying face down on the floor, a pool of blood seeping from the wound in the back of his head.
It happened so fast. I didn’t have time to react.
Vomero’s emotionless voice echoed in my mind as he described what happened as they loaded him into the Med Transport. As I thought of his recounting, I felt like I could see it play out in my mind all around me.
Owen stood over the opened containment unit demanding Vomero tell him where we had moved the Diadem. Vomero insisting that he had no idea why it was gone, that it should be there. With a nod from Owen, one of the guards put a blaster shot straight through the old man’s head from behind.
Glancing at the far wall, I saw the splatters, heard the scream of rage Vomero must have emitted as he rushed toward the guards and Owen. I knew he wouldn’t have hesitated in his anger. I could picture him stabbing first one, then a second guard with his poison spikes as another fired a shot into his side.
He told me that something they drugged him with when they ambushed him and knocked him out left him too disoriented to use any of his electric based abilities, but the spikes didn’t need focus.
I pictured the third and fourth guard trying to hold him down, but a spiked fist snaked free to catch one through the neck, a spark of electricity simultaneously frying the man’s brain. Seeing that the effects of his rage was clearing the fog in Vomero's head, Owen and the remaining three goons had chosen to retreat. I glanced at the wall near the bay door, another smear of blood here marked the spot Vomero had slid down the wall, exhausted and bleeding out from his wound.
“Skye...” Dick’s voice called me out of my imaginings. I looked at him confused, unsure of what he had been saying to me.
“What did they say about Vomero?” Dick repeated gently.
“He’ll survive,” I said. “But mentally, he seemed in a bad way. There was nothing he could do to stop them from...”
I glanced at Ryuuk, who hadn’t moved a muscle from where he still sat, head in hands. I left my statement hanging, unwilling to voice the obvious and set Ryuuk off again.
“He took out three afterward, nearly died. But I know he’ll blame himself.”
“I’m the one to blame, if anybody.”
I turned abruptly toward the door where Matthew stood. He was slumped over like the weight of the world was crushing down on him.
“Where the hell have you been, kid?” Cash said, though not with his usual gruff tone. He sounded genuinely concerned.
“I thought I was doing the right thing,” Matthew said, “giving them the crown. Maybe if I hadn’t, Owen would have just taken it and left.”
I shared a glance with Cash. We both knew that’s not how it would have went down.
“That’s not how it works,” Cash said. “People like Owen don’t leave loose ends. If the crown had been here, he’d have executed them both the moment it was in his hands. The only reason Vomero is alive is because Owen thought he knew where the crown was.”
“There’s no way he could have known,” Dick said. “By the time Koraf told us about Matthew’s deal, Owen had probably already taken them. They were just as clueless about the Diadem as he was.”
“So much for them being mind readers,” I said, darkly. “By now, Owen must realize the Malunites have it.”
“He won’t need to come after any more of us looking for it, then?” Matthew asked.
“No,” Cash said. “I imagine he’s done with us.”
Ryuuk stood up and placed the hat he had been holding back on his head. It had come off during his rampage.
“I’m not done with him, though,” Ryuuk said, menacingly.
Again, I shared a knowing look with Cash. Ryuuk wouldn’t leave this planet without avenging the old man’s death.
“Neither am I,” I said, and Cash nodded his agreement.
I turned to look at Dick who was leaning against an overturned crate with his arms crossed, staring at the floor.
“Dick...you’ve got your brother to worry about,” I said. “I think I speak for all of us in saying we wouldn’t blame you for taking the first transport out of here tomorrow.”
Dick reached in his pocket and pulled something out of it. It was a long silver chain with an intricately crafted silver pendant on it. The pendant was shaped like three concentric circles connected by the vines of a tree growing in the center.
“When he heard about my brother,” Dick said. “Gramps gave this to me. He said it was something his father made; he was a healer. He said it represented health of the mind, body, and soul.”
As he listed each one, he twirled each of the three concentric circles.
“He asked me to give it to my brother when I see him,” Dick said. “And I will...But not before I help send Owen back to whatever demon spawned him.”
After a long moment, Matthew broke the silence.
“How do we even find someone who is an expert of hiding in plain sight, though?” Matthew asked.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Owen might not be interested in us anymore, but we know for sure what he will be looking for,” I said.
“The Diadem,” Cash said, nodding.
“Yeah, well, we don’t exactly have that damn crown anymore to dangle as bait,” Dick pointed out.
“We could always take it back from the Malunites,” Ryuuk suggested. “Then we use it to draw Owen out.”
“As much as I’m sure you’d like to shoot or punch your way through the entire goddamn city right now, Ryuuk,” Cash commented, “I don’t think making an enemy of the Malunites would help us get to Owen any faster.”
“Well they’re not going to give it to us as a loner,” Dick added.
“They don’t have to,” I said. “In fact, we don’t actually need the Diadem in order to use it to find Owen.”
All eyes turned to me. Cash looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before speaking.
“You’re thinking we can third party it?” he asked, and I nodded.
“Well for those of us who aren’t used to doing this kind of thing for a living,” Ryuuk said, “Can someone explain what a third party is?”
“Right now, all of Owen’s focus will be on the Malunites because they possess the crown,” I explained. “That means while those two factions are fighting it out, we’re free to come in and catch Owen unawares and preoccupied.”
“All we have to do,” Cash said, “is keep our eye on the crown, same as Owen will be doing. We wait for him to make a move or let his guard down, and we take him out.”
“Sitting and waiting has never been my forte,” Dick said, “but I know you’re right. We can’t expect to unearth Owen on our own. He’s too good at hiding, and we’re at a disadvantage not having any contacts or way to go digging for him in the first place.”
“It’s settled then,” I said. “We’ll bide our time. I don’t think it will take long for him to make a move. He’ll want to act before the Malunites are able to secure it out of his reach. Hopefully, that will give Vomero a day or two to recover. I imagine he wants revenge as much as any of us.”
I motioned toward the lounge area as I made my way past Matthew toward the main room. As the others followed, I pulled five glasses from under the bar and poured us each a draft of the best whiskey we had in stock. It had been Gramps’ favorite. In fact, he had been the one to stock it on the ship back in Veridi.
“To Gramps,” I said, quietly, lifting my glass. The others each picked up a drink and raised it in homage to the old man.
“Damn, the old man really could pick a good draught of liquor,” Dick said appreciatively as we downed our drinks in a single gulp.
Ryuuk was the one exception. He looked deeply into his glass, which still rested on the bar top.
“His name was Paul,” Ryuuk said, solemnly. “Paul Edwards. He had a daughter and four grandsons that lived on Johtin. He had just been to visit them for his youngest grandson’s birthday when all this happened. He was so worried that someone would trace him back to his family. That’s why he refused to tell anyone his name.”
“He had so many interesting stories to tell,” Cash said. “It’s kind of hard to picture him as your run-of-the-mill doting father and grandfather. I was sure we’d find out one day he was some retired spy or rich recluse from one of the primary Pact Worlds.”
“Whatever he was,” Dick said, “he was never run-of-the-mill.”
We all nodded, and I refilled everyone’s glass, save Ryuuk’s, which was still untouched. I lifted my glass again.
“To Paul, then,” I said.
“To Paul,” they echoed.
* * *
Our first objective was to get rid of the transport. Now that both the Syreni and Malunites were so familiar with the vehicle, it wouldn’t prove very effective for our needs. Since our goal was to get revenge and then get the hell off of Kalo-Mahoi, it also seemed unlikely that we would need the transport anymore.
We needed something that blended in, something low profile. More importantly, however, we all preferred to secure some type of transport that wasn’t stained with the memories of so much death and near-death experiences.
Before selling the transport, we made sure to clean everything out we might need. The most poignant moment came when we cleaned out the luggage compartments. We had never bothered with these areas before besides retrieving our own things. As I unpacked Minerva’s baggage, I felt the weight of how many people we lost in the initial attack on the transport.
We never had the proper amount of time to think of all the shit we went through during that incident, and by the time we were able to catch our breath and reflect, so much more had happened that their deaths had seemed like a footnote in an encyclopedia of fucked up situations we were processing.
As I went through the bags one-by-one, I couldn’t help but look for clues to who each of these people were. Many of them I had only spoken a few words to; others I never knew at all. Most of all, I was looking for any indication that someone who had died on the transport had been responsible for sabotaging our route and killing the pilot. Nothing stood out. That was one more mystery we hadn’t had time to properly process.
Ryuuk cleaned out Gramps’ room at Alchemy. We let him handle it in solitude while Matthew, Dick, and I packed up the transport and Cash picked up Vomero from the Med Facility. He still had to retrieve his eye from The Hub, anyway.
Though we would likely still be staying at Alchemy for the time being, we all agreed it was best to have our things ready to go at a moment’s notice. We also booked our separate modes of passage off the planet. It had to look like we were leaving as expected.
With AL’s help, we located a broker who paid us a fair price for the vehicle, no questions asked. We then took those credits and discreetly traded it in for something more local. It was fast but able to carry six of us comfortably, even Cash’s larger frame. Our new ride was a hovercraft that could move easily between land, sea, and air travel, yet it was just old enough that it wouldn’t stand out or draw attention.
Vomero poured himself into setting up surveillance on Koraf’s place. He knew the Senior Councilman wouldn’t trust the Diadem to any facility other than his own. It also happened to be one of the heaviest guarded towers in the city.
The Med Facility treatments had healed his physical wounds quickly, but I could tell the psychological scars were going to take more time. I offered to talk about it with him if he ever needed to, but he thanked me and never said a word about it.
Within a week, we were getting ready for our faked “departure” and would need to relocate to a hideout off grid that Cash had secured. It was our final night at Alchemy, and we all gathered in the bar to make a show of saying goodbyes, just in case anyone was keeping tabs.
Unlike so many other times crowded around a table with quality drinks between us, the night’s gathering lacked our usual levity. It had been like that all week.
“So, what kinda’ fancy things does your new peeper do?” Ryuuk asked, pointing to his eye as he addressed Cash. I was starting to notice how his accent became thicker under certain circumstances. Tonight’s circumstance, which so far involved three specialty drinks from AL’s bar, certainly qualified as one.
“I’m not sure what the hell a peeper is, but this extremely expensive piece of bionic mastery is probably worth more now than a normal person’s yearly salary,” Cash said.
“I’m thinkin’ if you gotta point out how expensive it is, it prolly don’ do much,” Ryuuk slurred.
Cash rolled his eyes, including his “very expensive” bionic one.
“Well it does this, now,” he said, then paused for a second before his eye started projecting a holo-recording on the table in front of us. It was a scene of Ryuuk asking about his “fancy peeper.”
“Fascinating,” Vomero said, leaning close to stare into Cash’s eyes. It was the first time I’d heard him utter his favorite word since the night of the ball.
“If you’re going to gaze wondrously into my eyes like that, you could at least buy me a drink first,” Cash said.
Vomero paid him no mind.
“I assume it backs up what you’ve seen automatically,” Vomero said, “but how far back does it store the backlog?”
Cash shrugged.
“It could do two or three days, the doc said. But I can clear it manually whenever I want.”
“Cloud storage for the deleted footage?” Vomero inquired.
“An upgrade feature I might add later,” Cash said, shaking his head. “I’m not getting ripped off on some subscription service without checking my options.”
“Why not just spring for it now?” Matthew inquired. “I bet you’ve got the money now that we can access our Pact World funds.”
“It’s not all about money,” Cash explained. “It takes time to acclimate to new augments. You can’t just load up on a bunch of them and expect them all to work seamlessly.”
“You got something else,” I said, intuitively. “I know you can do more than one, so if you didn’t get the cloud storage, it must be something else.”
Cash smiled, probably the first genuine smile I’d seen on his face in days.
“Well, it does this too,” he said, and plucked his eye out of its socket and sat it on the table.
“Goddamn it!” Dick said leaning away from the table. “That’s disgusting, dude.”
“What in tarnation!” Ryuuk said, following his statement with a hiccup.
“Gross,” Matthew said, covering his mouth like he was holding back the urge to gag.
“On the table, really?” I asked.
As the eye lay on the table between us, Cash remotely controlled it to move around and record what it saw.
This time, Matthew bolted out of his chair and ran for the lavatory. Vomero leaned forward to peer closely at the eye.
“Very fascinating, indeed.”