CHAPTER TWELVE

VESPER

T he holoscreen finished scanning the temperature-shielding wristwatch. Asterin dug her fingers into the resulting holograms, enlarging each image. We looked at every single piece of the wristwatch, along with the accompanying schematics, and started tossing out ideas about what the Techwave might do with the climate-control tech.

Asterin might claim she wasn't an inventor or engineer, but she was just as smart, skilled, and insightful as any of the Quill Corp lab rats, and she came up with several theories I hadn't considered.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked. "We haven't figured anything out yet."

"I've missed this." I gestured at the shelves and machines. "Being in a lab and trying to figure out how to fix something. Especially since I haven't made much progress stopping the Techwave cannon from overheating."

My gaze zipped over to the cannon, which was lying on another table, then back down to the temperature-shielding watch. Silver flares of light glimmered around each device, and my mind started humming with ideas.

"Vesper? What are you thinking?" Asterin asked. "You have a really strange look on your face."

I stared at the Techwave cannon again. "Sometimes overheating isn't such a bad thing. Sometimes it can be quite useful."

Asterin also glanced over at the cannon, her forehead crinkling with confusion. She didn't understand, but I could see the possibilities.

Excitement coursed through me. "I need some solar wiring and a set of jeweler's tools."

A n hour later, I put down my tools and swept my hand out in a grand gesture. "May I present the new and improved House Rojillo wristwatch."

I'd added two new components to the original design: a small knob on the side and thin threads of solar wiring, which I'd painstakingly wrapped around the bits of lunarium and sapphsidian already embedded in the device. Basically, the watch looked as though I'd laid a silvery spiderweb over the holoscreen.

"Ready to test it?" I asked.

Asterin grinned. "You do the honors."

I picked up the watch, turned the knob, and pointed the holoscreen away from my body. The solar wiring flared to life, growing brighter and hotter, as did the pieces of lunarium, although the sapphsidian chips darkened, turning more black than blue.

"Come on," I muttered. "Come on . . ."

I turned the knob again and again, as though I was physically winding up the wristwatch . . .

Zing!

A tiny bolt of white electricity sizzled out of the device, zipped across the room, and slammed into a bin of nails, shooting hot sparks everywhere.

I pumped my fist in the air in triumph, then quickly spun the knob in the opposite direction. The light faded from the solar wiring, and the lunarium and sapphsidian returned to their normal hues.

Asterin clapped her hands, and I bowed to her applause.

"I can't believe you turned what was essentially a personal thermostat into a miniature shock baton," she said. "I would have never thought of that."

"Thanks, but the credit goes to Jorge Rojillo." I waved the wristwatch in the air. "Because I never would have thought to make something this small and compact."

Asterin started typing on a holoscreen. "Well, Lord Jorge isn't satisfied with the watch being small and compact. He's planning to scale up the device so it can be wrapped around individual trees and bushes in Promenade Park to help maintain each plant's desired temperature."

Several holograms appeared, flickering in midair. I set the watch aside and studied the images. "These are updated schematics. How did you get them?"

Asterin gave a modest shrug. "I planted a few lines of code in the House Rojillo servers when I broke into the R&D lab during the summer solstice ball. Now I automatically receive copies of every project Lord Jorge and his lab rats work on."

"How did you become such an accomplished spy?"

"Ah, that, I'm afraid, is a House Armas trade secret," she replied in a teasing tone.

I started to ask another question, but my stomach growled. We'd been working for hours, and the morning had sped by.

Asterin waved her hand, cutting off the holograms. "Let's get some lunch."

We left her workshop, went through an alley, and stepped out onto another street. From this angle, I could see the green dome of the antiques emporium, along with the shipping yard and the mineral exchange. An enormous square connected all three areas, and cobblestone paths crisscrossed every which way.

Several food carts had set up in the square, and the heady smells of sizzling meat and baking bread wafted through the crisp air. Dozens of people were waiting to place their orders, while even more folks were already sitting at chrome benches and tables that were nestled in between topiary trees like the ones on the Collier estate.

Asterin headed toward a cart with one of the longest lines. "This place has amazing shock bacon sandwiches."

"What, exactly, is shock bacon ?"

Her eyes glimmered with anticipation. "Bacon that's so blasted good it shocks your taste buds. I'll get you some different flavors to try. Why don't you find us some seats?"

"Thanks," I replied in a wary voice. "I'm sure my taste buds will love it, even if my arteries don't."

Asterin laughed and got in line. I wandered around the square. More than one cart was selling shock bacon, along with Magma s'mores and erupting apple pies. I didn't know if I was ready for such violent-sounding desserts, so I veered away from the carts and started looking for an empty table—

A figure stepped out from behind a topiary tree and headed toward the shipping yard entrance. Like everyone else, the person was wearing the emerald green of House Collier, including a long hooded cloak that covered their head. I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, but their smooth, confident stride was strangely familiar. I stopped and looked at the figure, but they entered the shipping yard and vanished.

Curious, I went over to the shipping yard entrance. All the workers must have been taking their lunch breaks, because the area was deserted. No machines or hoverpallets were moving, and the only sounds were the faint murmurs of conversation and sizzling of food from the square behind me.

A finger of unease tickled my spine. Why would someone enter a shipping yard when all the workers were gone? Was the person a spy like Asterin? Someone here to steal House Collier secrets?

I glanced back over my shoulder. Asterin was still in line, too far away for me to call out and get her attention, so I pulled my tablet out of my pocket and sent her a message. I waited, but Asterin was chatting with another woman, and she didn't reach for her own tablet. She must not have heard the alert. If the mysterious figure was up to something, then I was the only one who might be able to see what it was—and stop them.

I hesitated a moment longer, then shoved my tablet back into my pocket and slipped into the shipping yard.

Even though Asterin had shown it to me earlier, the shipping yard was much, much larger than I'd realized, and heavy machinery, stacks of metal rods, and hoverpallets stretched out in all directions. Searching for the intruder was like looking for a star in the proverbial galaxy, but maybe I could change that.

I stepped into an open space between two metal bins heaped high with coal. Then I stopped, reached for my seer magic, and looked around again. The hulking shapes of the machinery, rods, and hoverpallets remained the same, but I searched for the smallest speck of color or movement among all the dull gray metal—

There.

A bit of green fabric rippled low to the ground around a forklift, like a snake slithering deeper into the shipping yard. I yanked my stormsword off my belt and headed in that direction. Every instinct I had was whispering that I needed to follow this person, even if I had no idea who they were and what they were doing.

The sounds of conversation and frying food dimmed, then faded away altogether, and all I could hear were my own soft footsteps on the hard-packed dirt—

Gurp!

Up ahead, a muffled cry rang out, although it abruptly cut off. I hurried in that direction, then eased up to a pile of pipes and cautiously peered around the side.

The mysterious figure in the green cloak had gone through the shipping yard and was standing at a back entrance to the mineral exchange. The figure was clutching a sparking shock baton, and a guard wearing a House Collier uniform was twitching on the ground.

The intruder slipped their shock baton back onto their belt. Then they reached up and drew back the hood of their cloak, revealing their features. Wavy red hair, pale skin, green eyes, a straight nose, and a rounded chin.

Shock zinged through me just like the electricity still zipping through the unconscious guard's body. It was Esmina Reston.

My shock vanished, replaced by a rising sense of dread. What was the corporate mercenary doing here? Had she tracked Kyrion and me to Sygnustern? Had I foolishly followed her straight into a trap?

Esmina whirled around. Her eyes narrowed, and her gaze darted back and forth, as if sensing my lurking. I froze, not even daring to breathe. A cool breeze whistled past my face, ruffling my ponytail, and I silently cursed the unwanted motion.

Esmina's sharp, searching gaze passed right over me. Why hadn't she spotted me? Another breeze whistled past, making my gray cloak flap around my ankles. The dull fabric must be letting me blend in with the surrounding metal and machinery. I sent a silent thanks to whatever galactic gods might be listening that I'd worn the plain cloak instead of the green House Collier garment that had been in my suite.

Esmina touched her ear, talking to someone through a comms device. In the distance, a grinding vibration filled the air, quickly growing louder and louder, like a dentist's drill reverberating through my skull. What was that awful noise?

A small, nimble blitzer rose out of the chasm at the edge of the shipping yard, zipped over the stone wall, and landed close to the back of the mineral exchange. The instant the blitzer touched down, a door on the side slid back, and more than two dozen men wearing black polyplastic armor and carrying blasters erupted out of the dark depths. The men were all wearing helmets with black visors, so I couldn't see their faces, but their quick, precise movements reminded me of the corporate mercenaries Rowena Kent had employed at Kent Corp.

A final man hopped out of the transport. He was clutching a hand cannon, but unlike the rest of the mercenaries, he wasn't wearing a helmet, so I could clearly see his blond hair, brown eyes, ruddy skin, and square chin. Pollux Lamont.

Pollux and the other mercenaries headed straight for the mineral exchange. One of the mercenaries placed a small, round black device on the back door, then scurried away. Pollux hit a button on the holoscreen strapped to his left forearm, and the device exploded, taking the door along with it.

"Move! Move! Move!" Pollux yelled. "We have three minutes to get in and out!"

The mercenaries swarmed into the mineral exchange like a horde of killer bees. Pollux hurried in after them, but Esmina followed at a leisurely pace, as though she had all the time in the galaxy before someone came to investigate the explosion.

Esmina, Pollux, and their crew weren't here to capture me—they were here to rob the mineral exchange.

For a moment, my mind went completely blank, and I just stood there, gaping like a fish out of water. Then my brain sputtered back to life, and I stepped forward. I had to stop Esmina, Pollux, and their Serpens Corp mercenaries before they hurt anyone else—

Pew! Pew! Pew!

The high-pitched sounds of blaster fire erupted inside the building, and streaks of color shimmered through the clear glass walls.

Asterin! I yelled. Asterin, can you hear me?

Only a faint, buzzing silence filled my mind in return, and I didn't get any sense that Asterin had heard my telepathic call. Once again, despite my truebond with Kyrion, I couldn't tap into his power. Why? Why couldn't my magic just work ?

Anger shot through my body, but I tried again. Asterin! Asterin, can you hear me?

Still no response. A low, frustrated snarl spewed from my lips, but I forced myself to draw in a deep breath and let it out. Then I tried again, this time focusing on the person I had the best chance of reaching.

Kyrion! Thieves are breaking into the House Collier mineral exchange! I'm going to try to stop them!

I waited, but his voice didn't sound in my mind. Another snarl rose in my throat. Why couldn't I reach him?

A hot, stinging jolt of awareness shot through the bond and punched into my chest like an arrow. I gasped and staggered to the side, banging my shoulder against a metal bin.

Kyrion's voice didn't sound in my mind, but the sticky cobweb of him pulsed with icy fury. Kyrion had definitely heard me, but he was still miles away at the Collier estate.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

More blaster fire zinged through the mineral exchange, and surprised shouts rose in the distance. The workers eating lunch in the square must have finally noticed the sounds of the battle.

I took a few steps toward the blown-out door of the mineral exchange, then made myself stop. As much as I wanted to help the House Collier workers, I was no match for a swarm of mercenaries armed with blasters. Not to mention Esmina and Pollux and their psionic abilities. I might occasionally be impulsive, but I wasn't completely reckless.

So how could I stop the mercenaries? And I had to stop them. Esmina and Pollux showing up the day after Kyrion and I landed on Sygnustern could just be a coincidence . . . if I believed in such things. But I didn't. Not anymore. Not since my truebond with Kyrion had formed.

No, this attack had something to do with Kyrion and me. I was certain of it—just as I was certain that Siya would blame us for the mercenaries' appearance.

I spun away from the mineral exchange and looked out over the shipping yard. Even if I had been able to get a grip on Kyrion's telekinesis, the metal rods were all far too big and heavy to move. I wouldn't be able to pick up a single rod with my mind, much less throw it at the mercenaries. The same thing went for the machinery, especially since some of the cranes were bigger than the Dream World . . .

My gaze snagged on the crane closest to the mercenaries' blitzer, and my seer magic surged to life, outlining the machine in that familiar silver light. Relief rushed through my veins, morphing into a wave of determination. I might not be able to figure out how to fully use my truebond with Kyrion, but my own magic hadn't deserted me, and for once, I knew exactly what my power was trying to tell me.

I slid my stormsword back into its slot on my belt, then sprinted toward the crane.