{Monarch 3}

Kyle didn’t like it here inside this ancient tree filled with flowers and grasses. The unbelievable diameter of it made his head spin. He also wasn’t sure how he felt about a tree with multiple floors and residences. No cool rope bridges and ladders. No highly flammable thatch huts in the branches—where even were the branches? How big were they? How high were they from Mon3’s “ground” if there was one—

“Breathe, Progeny,” Iuo muttered beside him. The snake man looked equally itchy in this environment. “A day—maybe two—is all we’ll need in here.”

Tumu shuffled through the grass to add, “Tree caissons cause a sickness that often affects the claustrophobic this way. For as vast and mighty a tree this is, you’re still inside it.”

“The opposite sensation to agoraphobia,” Xelan contributed his two cents. “You’ll get used to it within the hour.”

Pablo offered, “I have some anxiety and motion sickness remedies. If you’d like?”

The powerful aroma of flowers—akin to lilies and roses—hit Kyle like a truck, dizzying him. “Yeah. Please.”

“I’ll take some,” Iuo got in line. The snake man’s muscles rolled unsteadily with him as he walked in bipedal form across the spongy “ground.” Kyle sympathized.

Tameka gawked at the ceiling—wherever it was. “It’s beautiful.”

Kyle chuffed. Sure, and the resulting vertigo nearly killed him.

Sagan and Korac went through the conduit last, discretely opened and closed far from civilization. Everyone wore a hood or wrap to hide their pricey features. Kyle borrowed a gray one from Devis which matched his favorite carbon fiber jumpsuit. Tameka wrapped her hair back in a yellow bandanna that looked autumnal with her red cropped jacket and black tactical pants. Xelan and Korac both braided their hair back to make it shorter. With opaque black goggles, Wingmaster got by. But not Korac. That conspicuous son of a bitch hid his white hair under the hood of his expensive custom-made combat coat. Pablo wasn’t a named fugitive, but he didn’t want to stand out, so he borrowed a fedora from Korac. It just needed a feather in it. Tumu wore—gasp—Tritan robes over his compression suit. Hard to hide an alien that couldn’t compress less than seven feet. No one owned clothes big enough to disguise him. The Seamswalker built a hood into her tunic top that fell to the knees of her leggings.

Gazing out at the place with her eyes hidden behind blue-tinted glasses, Sagan asked, “Is this like the one from Nox’s Verse? With the hive?”

Xelan glanced at her and spared a look for Korac who answered, “It’s the very same.” He pointed further into the tree. “The lights on the horizon are where the hive was.”

“Now it’s the Queen’s Fare. A hideout Razor established not long after Umbra tried to kill the queen.” Xelan waved for them to start walking, with Tameka at his side.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Kyle loved when the group ruminated aloud about the celebrity Verses. It totally didn’t make him think about Silence and her place in all this. He clicked his tongue and kicked a rock.

“Hey, that queen survived, right? Is she still around?” Sagan asked perfectly reasonable questions.

Tameka asked better ones. “What were you doing around that time, Tumu?”

Korac crooked a brow at the Tritan. Iuo and Xelan went over some aspect of entering the “establishment,” leaving Tumu to fend for himself.

Curious, Kyle almost peeked into Tumu’s memory, but there wasn’t a way without alerting him to the invasion. The last time Kyle tried to plunder that treasure trove, it led to a stern sit down and talking to with Kyle apologizing to Lamassau in the end.

Tritan memories were off limits.

“Well, first. She did survive, and she still rules somewhere on this planet. Second, I was already demoted to Eminent and assigned the case of Gait’s missing children. May I answer anymore of your intrusive questions?” Tritans applied sarcasm extra thick to their deep voices, leaving little room for more teasing.

Pablo was undeterred, much to Kyle’s amusement. “Now that you ask, can I get a physiology lesson when we return? I need to understand the location of your major organs and blood vessels. You know? For science.”

Xelan, still walking ahead of them, barked out a laugh without turning back.

Tumu sighed, incredulous.

Iuo patted the big man on the back. “Be grateful they know you’re one of the good ones, Tumu.”

Korac changed the subject. “Speaking of vital points, how confident are we that they don’t frisk for weapons here?”

The Lamia said, “They never checked me, but I’m prince charming.”

Kyle made a disgusted sound. “You’re the Porn Baron. The only weapons they think you’d carry are bedroom toys.”

Sagan snickered. Tameka rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue.

They walked the rest of the way in silence. The crowd grew thicker as they drew closer to the wooden carving of what Kyle suspected was a hive. No bouncer at the front, and the place was packed. People from all across the Vast Collective—Caprents, Luks, Dwarves, Icari, Lamias, and drones. No queens, though.

Kyle frowned and asked, “Why don’t we ever see Mon3 queens outside?”

Iuo volunteered, “They’re busy sustaining the hive.”

The crowd migrated between the bar, restaurant, and dance floor. Lounged in pairs or larger groups. The polished wood surfaces reflected surrounding faces like mirrors.

Classy.

Xelan ordered, “Split up. Blend in. Remember, we think the factory is beneath, but we aren’t sure how to access it. Speak into the earpieces if you get a bite.”

Everyone followed, dividing into smaller chunks. Pablo went with Tumu. The couples opted to stick together. Tameka and Xelan. Korac and Sagan. That left Kyle with Iuo. They fist bumped. The A-Team.

Opting for the burlesque show in the back of the establishment, they both got some drinks and sat in the thick of the crowd. The ladies on stage danced with their elbows and knees bent backward. Pasties and transparent skirts. It was… eye-opening.

After about five minutes of it, Kyle tugged his ear at Iuo, who discretely scanned the crowd.

Go time.

Kyle opened his ability and brushed the people nearest him with it. Memories carried a flavor that he tested. Tasted. Bounty hunters to their right. Closer to the stage were some mercenaries. Icari in the back, they—

He grit his teeth and clenched his fists.

“What’s wrong?” Iuo whispered into his earpiece.

It was hard to share information on serial rapists in the middle of a show without someone picking up on it.

Kyle shook his head and promised himself to kill the shit out of them before leaving.

Another cluster of peeps hid on the balcony. When he scanned their memories, Kyle smiled. “Got us some contenders.”

Iuo nodded upward. “The three drones?”

“Oh, yeah. They’re who we’re looking for. No doubt.” As he stared into the hive plant hidden in their memories, Kyle spoke into the Shadow channel. “We got some bites, and some vermin that need exterminating.”

Without irony, but probably with a grin, Xelan responded, “I got you.”