Library

31. Nico

AmI cataloging the missions where I could have used this cloaking? Yes, with each sway of my fluke, I cut through the water, invisible to the surrounding area. After the first school of fish that ran right into me, I'm being even more mindful of my surroundings. And it's impressive how well the cloaking works when you're not trying to cloak two people at once. Letting this out among the citizens would be a disaster, but not letting the military have it? It's more than wrong; it's immoral. The war with the Vikings could be over and us victorious. Hell, I never would have wanted to do it, but kidnapping the Skyrothasian princess would have taken an hour. With no loss of life. The tech Eros has in his ramshackle dome leaves me in awe and is infuriating at the same time. As a nation, the tech we have is beyond the wildest dreams of even other paranormals. But the tech the security council has been hiding away from the rest of us is beyond belief. They're out of control.

What they need is real leadership. Atlas has more time as king, but we need someone with more control, plans. Like Castor. When he took over as CEO of Glyden mining, the company's profits soared. Castor can get things under control. I know he can.

Swimming in the darkness with only the illumination from the surrounding buildings reminds me of being on missions during the Viking skirmishes. It's quiet, no solos swooshing past, no chatter from others swimming nearby. I've got my own telepathic voice locked down. The aquaculture domes and pens are dark. All power going to the shields, I suppose.

I kick harder. I'm on my way to the largest of the orange domes. My surprise date at the Braesen dome is with someone who knows Governor Haden Moretti of Braesen all too well—his brother, Teneric Course. Teneric spent thirty years in the service and only retired after he lost half of his fluke in battle. I've known him for a long time. Over the years, I've heard him grumble under his breath enough about his brother. He's given me the impression that Braesen is far from the animal-loving, friendly dome they put on the show of being. When I lay out what we found, it will be the end of his commitment to his brother, that's for sure. Teneric has answers, and I'm going to get them.

A security solo turns the corner, a search light scanning with a slow pattern across its path, shining from the seabed up the sides of the domes on either side of the thoroughfare. The light shines on either side of the corridor. The cloaking device is good, but I know the tech on the helios and on the Centauri shimmers even more when a light shines on it. This tech is better, able to form around an organic shape. But what will it do if the solo shines its light right on me? I don't know.

I zip to the side and then slow and flatten myself next to the dome. I'm close to the sand and decorative rocks around this dome. My ass is a few feet away from the window glass. But unlike my mate, most citizens of the Veiled City don't like living on the seafloor. I wait until the solo's slow-moving light is gone before crossing the corridor closer to the seabed.

Then I continue my careful strokes, keeping any sand from dusting the ocean around me, and make my way the rest of the way to the Braesen dome. I'm not far away when the lights around the city pop on. My heart thuds. This means something. There's no way of knowing, but I'm hoping the curfew is lifted. When I get closer to the Braesen dome, a solo pops out of the first airlock, then another, through the clear glass. I can see a line of vehicles bobbing, waiting for the airlock. And in the distance, I can hear the chatter of other swimmers. The lockdown must be over. I need to get closer to confirm they're regular citizens and not military. But then lights start to pop on around me. I dart into an alley and wait; I give it a good ten minutes, long enough that I could have reasonably traveled from Glyden or somewhere else nearby.

The airlock for the Braesen dome is busy in the outgoing direction, with no one trying to get in. I'm standing in the lobby in no time.

A butterfly lands on my shoulder. It's blue, with glowing eyes, and unlike the last time we were here, this one is real. I guess it's pretty. But Eros's aversion is totally understandable. The eyes are unnaturally large.

Unlike last time, I don't know where I'm going. I take the lift up to the main lobby. There, in the middle of a standalone dome, is a reception table with three males standing behind it. One has a monkey sitting on his shoulder. The other two are wearing slings with small fuzzy animals inside.

"I'm here to see Teneric Course," I say. "Do you have an apartment number?"

The one holding the monkey's mouth turns to an o.

"Pascal? Are you going to answer him?" the one standing next to him asks.

"Ah, you're the second coming of Poseidon."

"No, I'm Nico Portsmouth, who would like to see Teneric Course. Do you have an apartment number?"

"You want to see Teneric?" Pascal, with the monkey, says.

"Yes, he wants the number. Are you going to look it up, or do you want me to do your job while you just stand and gawk at someone who probably knows how to kill you with his thumbnail?" the first one says.

"Um, right." Pascal's eyes go wide, and the monkey on his shoulder takes off for the branch of a tall tree behind them. "Now look at what you've done. You scared Buddy." Pascal lifts his tablet and smiles at me. "Yes, yes, Teneric lives here." He turns his tablet around and shows me a floor map of the 30th floor. "It's complex up there. You take the first left, then the next right, two more..."

I pivot and walk away. "Thank you," I throw over my shoulder, remembering what Annabelle would want me to.

"He didn't even listen to all of it... He's going to get lost."

"He's not going to get lost, Pascal."

"Yes, he is..." Their voices trail off as I make my way to the elevator. If I get lost in an apartment dome, I should never have been leading missions. I grab one of the communal robes, ditching the towel that I found on the lower levels. Most who come to visit a dome would have come in via solo and hence come directly to the lobby. The level I came in would have been more for those who live here.

The robe's bright pink and orange. While I don't care what I wear, this is a bit much even for me. Then again, Little Krill always tells me to look less intimidating. Wearing bright pink and orange, it's hard to be intimidating. And I'm wearing the colors Teneric will associate with a friend.

The elevator is mercifully empty when I get on and much faster than before. This one has the buttons to the lower level, as the other one did. I get off and take a right, followed by two more lefts. The fact that the apartments don't have numbers but rather names is not charming, and there is nothing that is going to convince me of that. Not even Annabelle.

I take the next left and then a right. I'm ten steps down the hallway when I realize I've made a wrong turn. I go back to the last turn and take a left. Down this hallway, the schematic had it to be two more lefts. And Pascal was wrong because I'm soon standing outside of an apartment that reads Purple Hippo. And I have to laugh because there has never been such a fitting name for an apartment for the old curmudgeon that he is. Hippos don't look dangerous until you're up close to one in their territory. So yes, it fits perfectly.

I knock, and the door opens immediately. "Commander. They said you were on the way up and that I should go find you because you were going to get lost. I didn't believe a word of it. I guess you are going to want to come in."

I nod once.

"Well then, get in here." He's older than I remember. His hair is thinning, and his face is more weathered than the last time I saw him. "You can stop staring anytime now. I'm old and broken, and you will be someday too. Now that you're a mated male, you're not going to go down in a blaze of glory. Crazy. I always assumed you would go out like a warrior."

"Yes, well . . ."

"You look fucking stupid in that robe." Teneric tosses me a black robe from the wall. I catch it and change into it. "Good, now I can look at your ugly face. Why are you here? The first person you go see after the curfew is lifted is my ass? I'm guessing this has something to do with my brother." Teneric shakes his head.

"Yes." I cinch the robe's belt tighter.

We haven't moved out of the entryway, and he's not asked me to come in any farther. No, he glares at me for a long time. I've found in my life that if you give people time to fill the silence, they usually do and they give you information that you need without asking.

But not Teneric; he just stares. "Get on with it. What do you want to know?"

"There is reason to believe that your brother was trying to gather information from tech locked in the security chamber of the Maelstrom lobby. That the breaking of the glass at the top of the dome was a diversion to access the lockers."

Teneric nods. "I wouldn't know anything about that."

"You weren't there, but it was Veneratia. Why weren't you at the Maelstrom?"

"Because my brother is a monster with a god complex." He shrugs and then arches his eyebrow at me.

His upward smirk lets me know he thought the same of me. And it was true, or at least true before Annabelle. Now I can feel it. I feel the change in my gut. "You're not partial to what your brother is doing?"

"I didn't say that. I said he was an ass with a god complex, like you."

I nod. "Right, god complex. That's a normal trait in a Dorian male."

"You would think. But—" He shakes his head, cutting himself off. He runs his hand over his face. "I've always liked you. You're a likable murdering ass. Whereas my brother lacks the likable portion. I can feel the change coming from the current. You and your mate have swept it in. It's a good change. So yes, I know about a lot of things. My brother asked me to be in the Maelstrom that day. Asked me to do a little thievery for him. And I told him to go take a trip to the bottom of the chasm wearing a lead collar. So what you're telling me isn't new. After I told him no, he didn't tell me any more of his plan, so I have no idea what it is or why he needed the blocks in the lockers. He told me there was supposed to be a leak as a distraction. I don't think he meant for the whole damn thing to come down or for anyone to die. Especially not our cousin, whom I'm guessing was who he got to do his dirty work for him. So he didn't get any of the information he was looking for, anyway. Really, Nico, I have no idea what he was looking for."

I nod. "What about the labs under this dome?"

"If I tell you I don't know what you're talking about, you're not going to believe me, are you?" He crosses his arms over his large barrel chest. "You know, I never noticed before, but you really look like your mother."

I tamp down my anger. "Did you know my mother?"

"Everyone knew your mother. She was beautiful, smart, and kind. There wasn't a merman who didn't want to be in her pod. Kind, even to someone like me."

I shake my head. He's trying to get me off the subject, and it's working. "Did you?"

"She wouldn't even have ever glanced at my sorry ass." Teneric never mated. Unlike his brother, he still carries his birth name. The Course family isn't the same sort of dynasty in the Braeden dome that the Drakoses are to Glyden.

"You liked her, though?"

"I did. She was a good mermaid. My brother liked her more, though."

My eyes narrow. I have to blink at a spot on the wall above him. "Did he?"

"But then he'd never leave Braesen. Haden loves being governor more than he ever loved any female. That's why it took him so long to mate . . . he had to find the right pod to make him a Braesen governor. And your mother was too smart for him. He knew he'd never be able to bend her to his will."

I wait for him to say more, to say he silenced her brilliance with death, but he doesn't. "And you know more, don't you?"

Teneric turns his head to the side, then back to me. "I'm old."

"And that's an excuse for what?"

"Change is hard." He crosses his arms over his chest.

"That I know." I let the silence surround him.

"Fuck," he growls. His eyes dart everywhere but to mine. He's thinking, and I wait. He shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest. "There are labs. Where generations of Braesen have tried to change the course of the mermaid birth rate. Just like those of the government, but unlike the government labs, they aren't bound by any moral code. I don't know much. I've never been down there. I was a military male my whole life. They test things how they want to." His chest deflates, and his hands drop. "You want change, but so does Haden. He wants... more power for Braesen. The last few times I've seen him, he's mumbled nonsense about there being one true king."

I arch my eyebrow at him.

"My brother was only looking for four blocks. The blocks of the governors of Stele, Glyden, Zaffiro, and the mate of the Koralli governor. Can I ask that when you kill me, you make it slow. I should feel the pain of my family's sins."

"I'm not killing you, Teneric." The thought turns my stomach—that's new.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.