Lila put the notebook away again and pulled out a palm-sized crimson bag, unfurling the strings carefully so that the contents would not drop onto the hardwood floor.
Alex’s mark tumbled into her fingers, nothing more than a small silver coin. Her mother had all the paperwork in a safety deposit box on the property. That and Alex’s name on the Bullstow slave registry condemned her to her fate. The coin was commemorative. The coin was meaningless.
It meant something to Lila and Alex, though.
Lila had never admitted to her friend that she owned it, that her mother had given it to her as a present on the same day that she had become the chief of security. It had spoiled Lila’s promotion ceremony, the happiest day, the day she felt the most freedom from her mother.
Perhaps the chairwoman had wanted to ruin it. She had been very plain in her words after she handed over the coin. “Even in your duties as chief, remember that friends, family, and slaves are not any less of a threat than your worst enemy.”
Family.
A mother could be a threat and an enemy as well.
Lila dropped the coin back into the velvet bag and shoved the chest into the closet, replacing the secret panel.
She was already late for dinner.
Chapter 14
Lila waited until ten o’clock before she shoved open the secret panel again. She tossed her ash-covered workborn clothes into a satchel and changed into trousers, a black sweater, her cheap work boots, and her leather riding jacket. Adding a star drive to the chain around her neck, a scarf, and her jammer, she slipped through the great house and started out for the garage, shivering as she stepped out in the cold.
Withdrawing her palm, Lila threaded through the dozen luxury cars and antiques and brought up a snoop program. She then passed the device over her silver Firefly, intent on finding any bugs. After several moments of searching, it was clear that the chairwoman’s people had not yet replaced the GPS chip or any other equipment. They had been about as productive as her own spies, for she had precious little new information on Muller and Davies that she didn’t already know, except that the pair had begun to spend a little more money than others of the same pay grade in the last two years.
Sloppy.
She put on her helmet and gloves, slipped the satchel over her head, and pulled out of the garage.
No one bothered her as she rode toward the guard post. Sergeant Tripp gave her a familiar nod, pushing back his young recruit from the road with a lazy jerk of his arm. After she lifted her visor, he blew out a burst of smoke from his pipe and waved her on.
It didn’t take long to reach the mechanic’s shop. As she sped past, she noticed a woman she’d never seen before, sitting in chair beside the dock door. She was dressed in a long hunter-green coat, the lapels more ruffle than collar. A dark gray knit cap had been stretched down low over her forehead, and the chill had reddened her nose. The butt of a gun bulged out of her front coat pocket.
Lila turned at the next intersection and cursed Tristan for the tenth time that night. She had called twice since dinner, but he had not returned her call.
That meant he was on a job, perhaps breaking into another office building so that he could plant yet another bomb. Dixon was probably helping him.
Lila parked her Firefly in front a closed Brazilian grocers, the same grocers she had been arrested in front of the night before. She traded out her riding jacket for her workborn coat and typed Tristan’s name in her palm one last time.
He did not pick up.
Lila bit her lip. She hadn’t the patience to deal with a lookout she didn’t know, and she had no desire to stand out in the cold until he came back. She had business with the man. It shouldn’t be too hard to break into the building and wait for him to return.
What a surprise it would be if he found her sitting on his couch.
Smirking at the thought, Lila pulled her helmet off and replaced it with her newsboy cap, tugging it down low over her eyes. She grabbed her satchel and leaned against the grocery store’s wall, pretending to fiddle with her palm, helmet balanced under the crook of her arm. Over the top of her computer, she watched the door of the apartment building just a few meters away.
It didn’t take long for someone to leave. A slim brunette opened the door, dressed in a threadbare coat. She opened the door so wide that it whacked against the wall. Shivering, she marched down the street, high heels clicking on the pavement.
Lila lunged as soon as the woman’s back was turned, catching the door at the last second, nearly slamming her fingers in the process.
Her boots crunched on shattered glass inside the entryway, the remains of a bulb still rolling on the floor. She crept up the dim stairs, finding yet another bulb on the ground, the only light peeping under the doors of each apartment. Whoever owned the building had not owned it for very long if they still used the delicate lights in a slum, rather than the nearly indestructible light strips across the ceiling. They would learn quickly, or else they’d go broke.
She climbed up to the top floor, the air stuffy and smelling of boiled cabbage. Sounds echoed through the doors and settled in the hallways: the howls of infants, the shouts of roommates and couples locked in arguments, the smashing of glass and fired clay, the sobbing of both women and men, and the moans of late-night sex.
At the end of the hallway, she reached a door and climbed up to the roof. The whirl of temperature-control units covered her footsteps as she approached the ledge.
Across the alley, three meters away, lay the mechanic’s shop.
r /> Tristan had been smart with his lease. Likely his people had begun a slow takeover of the apartment building, snatching up vacant units as soon as any tenant moved away. With the apartment building so close behind the shop, Tristan had two exits for his people. There was also plenty of cover on the shop’s roof as the row of temperature-control units sliced the roof in two, and a small greenhouse had been built toward the back. Tristan’s people could always jump across the gap and defend the shop if needed, or jump back to the apartments and escape.