CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

VESPER

D espite my best efforts, I only managed a few more snatches of sleep. Eventually, I slipped out of bed, took a shower, and got dressed. Kyrion was still snoozing, so I called for some food, and a servant brought several breakfast trays to our suite.

Thick, fluffy buttermilk pancakes served with a sweet but tart orange-cranberry syrup. Stewed apples sprinkled with cinnamon. Hearty oatmeal studded with blueberries and topped with slivers of toasted almonds. The food was delicious and filling, and I ate seconds and thirds of everything.

I checked my tablet, but neither Daichi nor Tivona had messaged with any new information. I also called up the sites for the Erzton gossipcasts, but to my surprise, Kyrion and I weren't mentioned. The gossipcasts' main focus was on the marriage mart, along with the attack at the House Collier mineral exchange. Leland was in several interviews, and he seemed to enjoy speaking to the reporters and spinning the story as an industrial accident still under investigation.

I drummed my fingers on the table. Esmina, Pollux, and their Serpens Corp mercenaries were the biggest, most immediate threat, especially given Esmina's desire to destroy House Collier. Ever since Esmina and Pollux had confronted me on Tropics 44, I'd had more questions than answers. Well, it was time to get those answers.

It was time to start playing offense instead of defense.

Footsteps sounded, and Kyrion strode into the sitting room. He too had showered and put on fresh clothes. He skimmed his hand across my back, then sat down across from me.

While he ate, I told him my plans. "I want to go to Asterin's workshop and see if I can figure out why Esmina and Pollux targeted the House Collier mineral exchange. Maybe I can find some clue to their ultimate plot and what they want with me."

Kyrion nodded. "Good idea. I'll ask Siya and Rigel if they have any leads on where Esmina and Pollux might be hiding. The mercenaries must have a base of operations somewhere on-planet, maybe even in the city."

He hesitated. "What do you want to do about the Zimmers?"

My heart plummeted into my stomach like a runaway elevator about to crash into the ground. "Esmina and Pollux are the most serious danger we're facing right now. I'll deal with my unwanted family later."

Kyrion's face softened with sympathy, and he squeezed my hand. "Meet me back here for lunch?"

I squeezed his hand back. "It's a date."

K yrion and I went our separate ways. Asterin had some business with Aldrich and Verona, so she gave me the code to her workshop and promised to meet me later. She also arranged a transport for me, complete with some House Collier guards.

The transport dropped me off in front of Asterin's workshop and returned to the estate, but the House Collier guards took up positions at the end of the street. More guards patrolled the shipping yard, mineral exchange, and public square. Too little, too late. Esmina and Pollux weren't stupid enough to return to the scene of their crime, and the mercenaries wouldn't show themselves until their next attack.

I just needed to figure out when and where that might be.

I entered the workshop, shut the door behind me, and turned on a terminal. Asterin had given me her password, so I accessed the House Collier servers and reviewed all the reports about Esmina and Pollux's attack. I looked at every photo, watched every video, and read through the interviews with the captured Serpens Corp mercenaries.

An hour later, I rocked back in my chair and massaged my throbbing temples. All this information, and I still didn't know any more than when I had started. I let out a tired, frustrated sigh and slowly spun my chair around, eyeing the shelves with their precise rows of hammers, laser cutters, and other tools. Asterin was as obsessively neat as I was messy. Even though this wasn't my workshop, I could still find anything I needed, thanks to the labels on every object.

My gaze locked onto the shelves filled with items Asterin had collected from the mines she'd worked in. An idea popped into my mind, and I spun my chair back to the terminal. Leland had compiled a list of every item the mercenaries had tried to steal from the House Collier mineral exchange. I pulled up a hologram of the list, then grabbed the corresponding stones from the shelves. I had always been a visual person, and laying the actual, physical items out on the table helped me see them much better than just scanning the list.

Aquamarine, blue diamond, chalcedony, indocolite, lapis lazuli, sapphire, sapphsidian, topaz, tourmaline, turquoise . . .

I put the samples in alphabetical order, hoping that would help me solve the mystery, but it didn't, so I rearranged the samples in reverse order. Still nothing. I tried several different variations, including size and weight, but no answers popped into my mind.

"Why did you want to steal these items?" I asked, the workshop walls soaking up my question. "Why these gemstones? Why not lunarium or something more valuable?"

A knock sounded, startling me. The door creaked open, and I spun around in my chair. "Asterin! I'm stuck on something, but maybe you can help me figure it out—"

My words died on my lips. Asterin wasn't standing in the workshop—Wendell Zimmer was.

"What are you doing here?"

He grimaced at my sharp tone. "Lord Aldrich, Lady Verona, and Lady Asterin are giving Beatrice a tour of the shipping yard and mineral exchange, so House Collier and House Zimmer can continue their negotiations about a potential alliance."

So that was the mysterious business Asterin had this morning. She was probably even more unhappy about the Zimmers being here than I was.

"They didn't need me for the negotiations, so I decided to go exploring. Lady Verona mentioned you were in Asterin's workshop. The door was unlocked, so I thought I would see if you needed some help." Wendell's gaze skittered away from mine, and he turned around in a slow circle, examining the workshop.

"A bit small, but the obsessive organization makes it feel much bigger than it truly is." A wry look flickered across his face. "My workshop isn't nearly this neat and tidy. The House Zimmer lab techs say it's a wonder I can find anything amid all the clutter."

"My Quill Corp workshop is a bit cluttered as well," I admitted.

Wendell gave me a small smile of commiseration, but it quickly wilted away. "Well, you look busy. Forgive me for interrupting. I'll leave you to your project."

He turned toward the door. I thought about my conversation with my unexpected family last night. Beatrice might have jettisoned me from House Zimmer like a piece of junk purged into the black void of space, but Wendell hadn't known about me. Neither had Zane. For that, they were blameless.

Once again, that tremulous spark of hope flickered in my heart, and for the first time, I decided to nurture it instead of squashing it.

"Actually, I could use some help," I said in a tentative voice. "If you have the time."

Wendell spun around, his face lighting up. "Really? Are you sure?"

I wasn't sure, not by a long shot, but I gestured for him to step over to the table. He listened while I explained everything that had happened during Esmina and Pollux's attack at the mineral exchange.

Wendell picked up one stone after another, hefting them in his hand before setting them back down. "The mercenaries certainly targeted an odd assortment of items. Most corporations don't care much about gemstones, since there is far more money to be made in iron, wood, coal, and the like."

"Exactly! I don't understand why professional mercenaries would try to steal these specific items. The gemstones are all readily available, and you could get them in any quantity you wanted, if you had enough credits."

Wendell stroked his chin, deep in thought. "Perhaps it's not the quantity that's important. Perhaps it's the quality or the wide assortment. Some of these gemstones are rare, if not all that valuable. Or perhaps it has something to do with the properties of the stones themselves . . ."

He threw out a few more theories that we debated back and forth. No answers presented themselves, but talking to Wendell was actually fun . He was a spelltech, someone capable of infusing psionic energy into weapons, so his magic was different from mine, but at heart, he was an engineer, an inventor, just like I was. I'd always wondered where that part of my personality had come from, why I'd always been so curious about how things worked. It was . . . nice to realize I'd inherited that piece of myself from Wendell.

"Perhaps if we run some simulations, an answer might present itself?" he suggested.

So that's what we did. We called up databases about each type of gemstone, but nothing obvious jumped out. Each stone could be used in a variety of ways, from making jewelry to being carved into statues to even providing glow-in-the-dark lights when crushed and mixed with the right chemicals.

After about an hour, Wendell sighed and looked up from the terminal at the table next to mine. "There are just too many variables. We need to know more about how the mercenaries wanted to use the gemstones. Do you remember anything else they said or did?"

"No. I didn't follow Esmina and Pollux into the mineral exchange, so I didn't hear any orders they might have given their mercenaries."

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to keep working until we figure it out." Wendell smiled at me, and I found myself smiling back.

The workshop door banged open, and Asterin stomped inside. She stopped, her gaze zipping back and forth between Wendell and me.

"Vesper, are you okay?" she asked in a sharp voice.

"I'm fine. Wendell was just trying to help me figure out why Esmina and Pollux tried to steal all these gemstones from the mineral exchange." I swept my hand out over the table. "Any ideas?"

Asterin shot Wendell another suspicious stare, but she stepped over to us. She picked up one stone after another, setting them all down in a precise row and rearranging them by color, putting the lightest piece of aquamarine first, all the way down to the darkest piece of sapphsidian.

My eyes narrowed. I hadn't noticed it before, but the gemstones were all some shade of blue. I peered at the list Leland had compiled. The mercenaries had tried to steal roughly equal amounts of every single stone on the table. Why would they need so many different blue stones?

Unless . . . you wanted to test every known blue stone for some reason.

My gaze locked onto the piece of sapphsidian, and a chill swept down my spine. "What if this is about the Techwave cannon? What if that's why Esmina and Pollux tried to capture me? Because they want me to fix the weapon?"

Asterin's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You think Esmina and Pollux figured out the Techwave cannon needs a stabilizing agent to keep it from overheating?"

I nodded, dread flooding my stomach, along with a sinking sense of certainty.

"But Esmina and Pollux don't appear to be working for General Orion Ocnus," Asterin pointed out. "Otherwise, they would be using Black Scarab troops instead of their own men. So who else could know about the Techwave cannon?"

"Even the Techwave is riddled with spies," Wendell replied. "Perhaps one of the Techies leaked the information to a corporation to score a hefty payday. New weapons are big business across the galaxy, and if a corporation managed to develop a weapon that could cut through psionic and other shields . . ."

All the color drained from Asterin's face. "Then Esmina and Pollux could use those weapons against House Collier."

The three of us fell silent, contemplating that horrible possibility.

Asterin frowned. "But why would Esmina and Pollux target you, Vesper? I thought Harkin Ocnus was the only one who knew you had figured out what was wrong with the cannon."

"Maybe I was wrong about that."

I thought back, remembering my fight with Harkin Ocnus on Tropics 33, inside the lunarium mine at the Regenwald Resort. I'd crowed to Harkin that I knew what was wrong with his design, and then I'd killed him a few minutes later. All the other Techwave soldiers had also been killed, along with their mechanized Black Scarab troops. So who else could have learned about my discovery?

"Maybe someone is just fishing for information," Asterin said. "The Techwave kidnapping you is common knowledge, thanks to the gossipcasts."

Someone, probably a Quill Corp guard, had leaked the information about my abduction to the gossipcasts, which had broadcast countless stories about it, along with my escape from Crownpoint with Kyrion. The information was out there, and if someone had gotten their hands on a Techwave cannon, then I was the main thing they needed to finish perfecting the design.

"Wait. Are you talking about that cannon?" Wendell pointed at a nearby table.

With everything that had happened yesterday, I'd forgotten I'd left the Techwave cannon in Asterin's workshop.

"Zane recovered a cannon just like that from Silas, the Techwaver who infiltrated the summer solstice ball, although I haven't had a chance to examine it yet," Wendell said.

He glanced back and forth between me and Asterin, clearly confused, so I filled him in on why the Techwave had kidnapped me. I skimmed over a lot of the details, though, including Harkin Ocnus brutally torturing me. I didn't want to spill my guts to a father I barely knew, especially since I wasn't sure if Wendell could be trusted. Esmina and Pollux weren't the only ones who could benefit from the Techwave cannon—it would also be a great asset to House Zimmer.

I told Wendell how the cannon kept overheating and frying itself. I also pulled out the weapon's magazine, popped off the clear outer casing, and showed him how the Techwave scientists had threaded tiny bits of lunarium onto the standard solar wiring to make the cannon much more powerful than similar weapons. I didn't mention I thought sapphsidian was the key to stabilizing it, though. He didn't need to know my theory, especially since I wasn't sure what he would do with the information.

Wendell examined the magazine. "How unusual! I've long thought lunarium could have other, more practical applications than being used in stormswords and other simple weapons, but this is ingenious. And this cannon is based on your design?"

I couldn't stop myself from preening at the admiration in his voice. "Yes, the cannon is based on my original design, although Harkin Ocnus and the other Techwave scientists changed several things and added the lunarium-filled magazine." My pride vanished. "I never intended for the cannon to be such a deadly, destructive weapon. I designed it to stun people, not cut through psionic shields and turn guts to goo."

"Unfortunately, as inventors, the only thing we have control over is our product design. What people do with that design is up to them, and even the most innocuous product can be used to hurt others." Wendell shook his head. "Plenty of people have done awful things with my inventions, especially since House Zimmer manufactures cameras and other recording equipment."

"You mean spy cameras," Asterin said in a wry voice.

Wendell shrugged. "Yes, spy cameras. At first, I made them so House Zimmer spies could keep an eye on our enemies, but the tech was so valuable that I started selling it to support my House. You can do lots of horrible things with something as simple as a camera. Eavesdropping on conversations, snapping unwanted pictures, secretly recording videos of people in compromising positions to use as blackmail or sell to the gossipcasts."

Wendell gestured at the stone samples arranged on the other table. "So your theory is Esmina and Pollux tried to steal all these stones because they think one of the gems is the key to stabilizing the lunarium magazine? Why focus on gemstones instead of something more obvious like iron, copper, silver, or gold? Or some plastic polymer?"

I shrugged. "Maybe Esmina and Pollux have lab rats who've been experimenting with the lunarium and solar wiring combination. Maybe they've already tried metals and plastic polymers and have decided to focus on gemstones next. Maybe Esmina's magic whispered it to her, or maybe it's just a blind guess. Maybe Esmina and Pollux just wanted to hurt the Colliers, and this was what they decided to steal."

Wendell studied the hand cannon again. While he was distracted, I sidled over, slid the chunk of sapphsidian off the other table, and slipped it into my pocket. Asterin raised her eyebrows at me in a silent question, and I shook my head. The fewer people who knew sapphsidian might be the key to fixing the Techwave cannons, the safer we would all be.

Wendell straightened up and rubbed his hands together. "Well, let's test the mercenaries' theory and see if any of these stones work. What do you say, Vesper?"

I froze, not sure how to respond or why my heart was suddenly pounding with a mix of worry, dread, and longing.

Wendell's eagerness dimmed like a solar light that had used up its charge. "That is, if you want to. I understand if you don't." He cleared his throat. "I've already taken up enough of your time. I should go check on Beatrice."

He forced a smile onto his face, then backed away and headed toward the workshop door.

"Wait!" I said.

Wendell stopped and looked at me. I wasn't sure what had prompted me to call out to him. Maybe it was that tremulous spark of hope still flickering in my chest. Despite my best efforts to keep my distance from Wendell, that spark was burning brighter and stronger than ever before and was threatening to flare up into an actual flame of forgiveness.

"I would like that," I said in a tentative voice. "To work on this. Together. With you."

Wendell perked up with fresh enthusiasm, and he rubbed his hands together again. "Then let's get started."

He went back over to the table, picked up the lunarium magazine, and placed it on the holoscreen. Several scans popped up, and Wendell flicked through the holograms, muttering to himself.

I had done those same things a thousand times before when I was working on a tricky design. My pounding heart slowed, soothed by the easy familiarity. Wendell turned to me, that eager look still on his face, and I found myself getting swept up in his contagious enthusiasm.

I still didn't know what kind of relationship I wanted to have with my father, but this was a start. I just hoped for once that I was putting my trust in the right person—and that Wendell wouldn't break my heart like Nerezza always had.