44. Eros

"Hello?"I lift my block from my pocket, expecting it to be Sunshine. The last twelve hours have been exhausting. At one point during the siege, Atlas pulled me aside and said my debt to the Dorian government has been paid back twice over. I'm free. Free from being an agent. I never have to pick up a trident again. It's more than I ever thought possible. And it's all due to Sunshine. I'm free.

"Eros?" It's my sister. "Did you have them bring me back?"

"What?" I look at Holter. We're in an omada on the way to the temporary Maelstrom, an old financial dome near where the new Maelstrom is being built. "Marina," I whisper to Holter. Nico's in a medical transport, since he has a little flesh wound to his arm. "Marina? Are you there?" I'm glad to hear her voice, but I don't want to deal with this right now.

But it's just sobbing. I hold it up for Holter to listen.

"Marina? Are you back in the city?"

"Yes, but why? Why would you do this to me?" The line goes dead. Yeah, that went just about as well as I imagined it would.

"She's taking that as well as you expected." Holter dives deeper to avoid traffic. There's a hell of a lot of people out.

"Yes." We had to get her back. With the possibility of deep fakes, there would be no way to know whether she truly wanted to be there or not. And we still don't know why Tristan Bellucci was paying the Kraken, what he owed them money for, but he most certainly used my sister as payment.

I glance over at Holter. He really saved the day back at the Braesen main dome. He was the one who recognized the explosives. Without Holter, the Braesen dome would have come down, destroying evidence and thousands of lives.

Inside, the governor's loyal guards fought, but they were no match for us. Before Haden took his own life, he admitted to bringing the Maelstrom down. He yelled about how with a drug developed by their scientists they've raised the chances of Braesen mermaids having a female by twenty percent. When he saw Nico, Haden even screamed about how he'd had Elandra and Liora Torvid set up to poison Annabelle. And that if anyone was the second coming of Poseidon, it was him, not Nico.

Atlas has placed Fero Stourch in charge of the podlets. He's not to take any more to land. I'll never forget it; Atlas was almost in tears as he walked around the geminae pod chamber. The conversation he had with Fero was intense.

"How many?"

"There's forty here."

"Mermaids?" he asked.

"No, there have never been any born with tails. Only legs, even in water. Just like these." He motioned to the pods, where you could see the females wiggling their legs.

"How many?"

"Forty, Your Majesty."

"No, how many over the years? How many have you taken to land? Hundreds?"

"One thousand five hundred and two. That I've taken."

"One thousand five hundred," Atlas repeated.

"And two."

"And two." Atlas scratched his head. "And you take them where?"

"To land as soon as they're born. I have contacts with several hagissa. They get humans to adopt them."

"And you take money for that." Atlas stepped closer to Fero.

"Only enough to pay the Kraken a fair rate for transport. Never any more."

Holter turns the corner to the temporary Maelstrom. "Holy shit." The entire thoroughfare is newly decorated with the colors of the ten domes shining in pillars. The Braesen colors are tattered and dangling from a pillar. The old financial building is covered in the Dorian flag. This is going to take a long time to get through. I'm not sure how I feel about someone having torn down the Braesen colors. Their leadership is tainted, but does that mean all of Braesen should pay?

"Let's get our statements recorded and get home to Sunshine."

Holter nods and pilots into the closest docking dome.