The Complete Razia Series, page 75
Dorst took a long pause before replying, "I think Vel wants to continue work on his research. At least, that's the feeling I get from him."
Her eyes widened and she nearly flew out of the office, intent on ringing her little brother's neck. Dorst didn't know that their father had made it inside the Vortex, that he regularly used Lyssa as a good-soul-shield so he could experiment without incurring the wrath of the Great Creator. He didn't know that Lyssa, Vel, and Dr. Pymus had journeyed there, and that Dr. Pymus had fallen into Plethegon. Dorst thought that "experimentation" was simply tossing satellites into the gravitational pull and seeing what happened.
"That's a terrible idea," Lyssa said. "And why is he talking with you about it? Why not come to me?"
"Rumor has it that you refuse to talk about Father with anyone," Dorst said with a knowing smile. "But we're not here to talk about Vel. We're here to talk about you."
"Can we please talk about Vel?" Lyssa said, glancing out to where Sage had gathered a group of…five of her brothers and cousins. He was, as usual, the center of attention, and the group roared loudly with laughter. Sage could make friends with anyone.
"I mentioned some time ago that you needed to think about what you were doing with your life," Dorst said. "Whether you wanted to be a DSE or if you wanted to do something else. Have you given any more thought to it?"
She wrenched her eyes away from Sage and back to Dorst. "No…yes…I don't know." She huffed. "Can't I just continue to do what I'm doing? Why does everything in my life have to change right now?"
"Lyssa, there's so much that goes on at the Academy that you have no idea about," Dorst said. "There's meeting after meeting. I have a weekly call with my supervisor to discuss my subordinates. Do you know who nearly every call is about?" He shook his head. "People want to know, Lyss. They want to know what you're up to. You can't just walk in and flaunt knowledge about Leveman's Vortex and expect them to forget about it."
"So what do you want me to do, then?"
"One briefing," Dorst said. "One briefing, one…just…throw them a bone or something. Make it up if you have to, but…"
"You want me to give a presentation on Leveman's Vortex?" Lyssa asked.
"I want you to present something so that I can keep people off your back, and, more importantly, mine."
"And what if I don't want to?"
He pursed his lips and sat back. "Don't make me write you up. Please, I don't want to. But I can't…I can't keep fighting your battles here."
She glanced out again at Sage, who had the group (now numbering eight) in stitches.
"Fine. I'll do it. But not now. Later."
"Oh, Lyss…" Dorst stood and rushed around his desk. Before she could stop him, he enveloped her in a bear hug. She'd never been this close to him, not that she could remember anyways, and she didn't like it. He stepped back and beamed at her. "I'll announce it straight away, and I'll put you in the line up to sell your planet today, as well."
"Hooray…"
***
"So, wait…" Vel gawked as they left Dorst's office. "You have to put together a presentation on Leveman's Vortex?"
"Yup."
"I can't wait to see what you come up with."
"Yeah, about that…" She grabbed Vel by the arm and yanked him down to her level. "You are not allowed to go to Leveman's Vortex."
He opened his mouth to deny it but no sound came out.
"Do you not remember the fire? What happened to Pymus? What nearly happened to us? In what universe would this ever be a good idea?"
"The one where I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing with my life," Vel replied, gently releasing his arm from her vice grip. "I graduate in six months, Lyss, and it's scary. I could jump into an Academy position here but…is that really what I want? And maybe the Great Creator would show me a vision like He showed you—"
"Leveman's Vortex is not a damned career counselor!"
"I know, I know." Vel winced as her voice echoed in the hallway. "But I just feel so lost. Why am I even at the Academy? Mother enrolled me so I never had a choice."
"You sound like Heelin," Lyssa grunted, releasing his arm. "He was being a little bitch about it too."
"And then you used him to get into the pirate jail."
"He figured it out, didn't he?" Lyssa shrugged. "Something about looking at your death puts things in perspective."
"Yeah I know. Which is why I want to go back," Vel said.
"Look why don't…" She took a long breath. It was bad enough she had Sage following her, but she felt she needed to spend more time with Vel. "Why don't you come with me for a few days? We'll go hunt down a bounty like we used to."
His face lit up. "Really?"
"Yeah. Maybe then Sage'll be more bearable to be around."
"Says the woman pregnant with his kid…"
"I'm serious," Lyssa said, adding, "And I don't want you to ever think you can't talk about Sostas with me."
Vel's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Wow, Lyss, that actually sounded…maternal!"
"Get sucked," she snapped.
"Lasted for a second," Vel said with a grin as Lyssa swiped her badge to open the doors to her lab. She paused when she realized Sage wasn't with them.
"Where's Sage?" Lyssa asked. At that moment, he emerged from Dorst's lab with him, a smile on both their faces as they spoke. Sage shook Dorst's hand and walked to join Lyssa and Vel in front of her lab. She stared at him, trying to suss out what they'd been talking about. After a moment, she swiped her badge and led them inside. By habit, she flipped on the lights, and was surprised to find them actually turn on for once.
"I took the liberty of calling in the maintenance team to fix the lighting," Sage replied, passing by her to sit splayed-legged on one of her chairs. "It was too dark in here."
She mumbled her thanks and sat down at the main computer, starting the long process of pulling her data reports into a presentation she could use to sell the planet. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sage and Vel strike up an easy conversation.
"Lyssa's going to take me bounty hunting," Vel said to Sage.
"Oh yeah? Tired of me already, Lyssa?"
"I was tired of you ages ago," she muttered under her breath.
"It'll be fun. I haven't been back to D-882 in months," Vel replied. "Ready to get out there and find some pirates."
Sage laughed heartily, and it drew Lyssa's eye. "Slow down there. You can't just walk onto the planet and start fights. Do you even know how to hit?"
"I've been taking boxing lessons at the Academy gym," Vel said, making a right hook then a left.
"So if we run into any punching bags, we're set, huh?" Sage said.
"Lyssa taught me some things," Vel replied as Sage mock-punched at him.
"So if we run into any easy pirates—"
"Get sucked," Lyssa snapped from the computer.
"Actually," Sage said with a cautious tone that piqued her interest, "that isn't such a bad idea. I've got…some business to take care of elsewhere."
Lyssa stopped typing and spun around in her chair. "What? Where? Does it have anything to do with what you were talking to Dorst about?"
"It'd make me feel better if someone else made sure she doesn't get into trouble," Sage said, ignoring Lyssa completely.
"Sage!" Lyssa barked. "I thought you said you were going to…to…be here!"
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I thought you didn't like having me around? You've been doing everything possible to get me to disappear, haven't you?"
Her mouth opened. Was she that obvious? She screwed up her face. "Of course I don't like having you around, but—"
"And I thought you didn't want my help anyway?" Sage said with a half-smile.
"I don't, but—"
"So why is it a problem if I leave for a few weeks?"
"Weeks?" She didn't know which she hated more, that Sage was leaving or the way he was smiling at her outburst. Either way, she felt trapped.
"I promise, I'll just be a little while," Sage said, walking over to her. "Unless, of course, you'd like to come with me?"
"Ugh, no," she said, forcefully typing on the computer. "Go away. What do I care?"
"That's what I thought."
She snorted and continued typing, waiting for him to continue arguing with her. But the only sound that came was him leaving. And the voice in her head telling her that it was, yet again, her fault.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After her planet was presented and sold, Lyssa and Vel left the Academy for D-882. With Vel aboard her ship, she almost didn't notice Sage's absence. But she definitely thought a lot about how she'd told him to go, and for the first time, he had gone.
Vel fit back on her ship as if he'd never left, settling himself onto the bed that Sage had occupied, throwing his bag in the same place it had sat for his six month internship with her. More importantly, with all of the worry about Sage and the bug, it was nice to have someone to ground her in reality and keep her focused on what she was supposed to do.
"So it's a choice between Cree Hardrict or this new guy, Cadman Mead," Lyssa said, showing Vel the wanted posters for the two men. "I've captured Hardrict before, but there aren't a lot of older pirates left that I haven't captured."
"What's happened to them?"
"They keep retiring, or getting arrested for things not covered by the Piracy Act," Lyssa said. She told Vel about Opli, and her suspicions that he'd been behind all of the secrets—and that he had one on her as well. "So there are all these new guys flooding the top twenty."
"Why not go after them?"
She made a face. "They're boring. And most of them can't hide for shit."
"So picky with your bounties now. You don't have a big head at all."
"Hardrict it is," she said. "You know, I might still have some of his alias information from when I captured him the…" She trailed off and frowned. She had captured Hardrict the day she'd met Lizbeth.
"What's wrong?" Vel asked.
"Nothing," she said. "Back to Hardrict."
Since her capture, Hardrict had apparently gone to great lengths to create a whole new set of aliases, as the ones she'd discovered hadn't been used in quite some time. She and Vel tried looking for members of his crew to find correlation, but he wasn't a top twenty pirate for nothing; all his crew members had stopped using their old aliases as well. Without any other leads, Razia decided to check in with Harms when they arrived on D-882.
"Do you think I'll get to meet Harms one day?" Vel asked as they walked out of the transport shuttle station across the street from his bar.
Razia, dressed like herself but feeling like Lyssa next to Vel, shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he already knows about Lyssa. He did have my Academy bag at his house for a while. I left it there after Tauron died."
"And he's never said anything to you about it?"
"Shocking, I know. I guess he doesn't tell everything."
"So…" Vel stopped in front of the bar. "I can't meet him?"
"Not this time, kiddo," Razia said. "I'll only be a second." She made a mock angry face. "Go sit on your bench!"
Vel laughed and sauntered over to the bench where he'd waited for Razia when they'd worked together. Truly, it was pretty amazing that no one had noticed or asked about him. Then again, she realized with a jolt,—back then, though she was in the top twenty, everyone had assumed that she'd just fade away after a while.
She glanced down at her stomach and winced. Stay being a loose term.
Brushing those thoughts aside, she strolled into Harms bar and spotted him in the corner. He was deep in conversation with someone, not a rare occurrence. But what annoyed her was with whom he was meeting: Relleck. Harms' eyes slid over to her long enough for Relleck to turn around and spot her. She swallowed a look of disgust and realized her morning sickness had gone away over the past week or so. Perhaps the planet had been good for her. Or maybe she'd been too distracted by Sage to notice.
Sage, who was gone. Ass.
Relleck rose from the booth and sauntered over to Razia, making a big show of eyeing her up and down. Razia still couldn't believe she'd had a fling with that asshole, especially as he walked by her and said, "Looking a bit chunky, baby. You need to work out some more. Call me if you ever want some real exercise."
"Maybe I'll just capture you right now and save myself the effort," she replied.
She and Relleck locked eyes in a battle of wills before he gave up and left the bar. Her eyes lingered on the way he'd gone. If Relleck noticed that she'd gained weight, she had a problem. Her cargo pants were a bit looser than her DSE attire, but they'd still been tight when she had buttoned them. Her time of walking around D-882 was quickly coming to an end unless she figured out something else, and soon.
She forced an easy look onto her face and sat down at the booth. "Why are you still talking with him?" she asked Harms.
"Because he pays good money," Harms said. "What's the problem? Ex-lovers getting you down?"
She glowered at him. "I hope you aren't spreading that around."
"And risk being on the other end of one of your legendary beat-downs? No, thank you." Harms laughed, and she cracked a smile. "Besides, I know better than to piss off a woman who can stare down a gun and survive. So who's on your mind today, my dear?"
"Hardrict, actually," Razia said.
"Hm," Harms said, rubbing his beard. "You know, Relleck was just in here to tell me to quit selling out all of Contestant's guys. He said that they've lost ten to retirement in the past month."
"Maybe they shouldn't have so many secrets."
"Everybody's got secrets, including you, I'm sure," Harms said. She resisted the urge to place a hand on her stomach. "But, unfortunately, I'm in the business of selling secrets. And as it so happens, one of my informants told me about a new alias of Hardrict's just yesterday…"
The information Harms gave Razia was, as usual, on point. He had not only one, but two of Hardrict's brand new aliases, and three of his crew members. In any case, it was more than enough to get started building a pattern of transactions so she could corner him. She and Vel walked a few blocks to an out-of-the-way restaurant to start work together.
Yet again, she was thankful for Vel's presence. She was having trouble keeping track of the names between reading them on the Universal Bank ledger of one bar and comparing it to the names on another, so she was calling the names out to Vel as she came across a new one.
"It's pregnancy brain," Vel said after she'd told him about it. "Makes sense. All your energy is being used to grow a tiny human."
"It's annoying," Razia said, rubbing her face. "I can't even think straight. When does it go away?"
"I think it's usually replaced by newborn brain." Vel said with a smile. "Feedings every two hours, diaper changes, not showering…"
"That's Sage's problem, not mine," she muttered. "And change of topic, please? I don't know who's listening."
"Besides the bartender?"
"He talks."
"Fine, fine. Here's a new name." He wrote it on the list with the others to check in the Universal Bank.
They worked in silence for a little longer when Razia had a new thought. "You know, you're pretty good at this bounty hunting stuff," she said, not looking up at him. "Did you ever consider maybe…doing this instead of being a DSE?"
"And break Mother's heart even more?" Vel laughed. "No, thanks."
"But you wouldn't have to break her heart. You could just say you're working for me and be gone as much as I am," Razia replied. "Here, write this one down too."
Vel scribbled the name down. "But it seems like it's always such an ordeal for you to keep everything straight. Who knows you're Lyssa and who knows you're Razia?"
"Sage, his crew, you…Lizbeth." She pursed her lips in anger.
"Still haven't made up with her, have you?" Vel shook his head. "No wonder you're friends. You're both stubborn."
"I don't understand why I have to be the one to apologize," Razia said, purposefully looking at her mini-computer. "Wackily Paulus, write that down."
"Maybe she's thinking you don't want her to apologize?" Vel said. "You can be awfully hard to read sometimes, especially when you're angry."
"Darrell Kalkstein—"
"Huh?"
"Here," she shoved the mini-computer over to him so he could get the spelling right. "I just…it was really none of her business."
"It was when Sage showed up at her door."
She growled. "They're awfully close, you know. Lizbeth and Sage."
"Lyss, don't do this," Vel had started searching on the list of names in the Universal Bank. "Especially considering that anyone with two eyes and ears within a star system of you two knows he's in love with you."
She flushed pink. "Let's not talk about that."
"You brought it up, not me." He crossed off another name on his list.
"See? Look at you. You're a natural at bounty hunting," Razia said, desperate to change the subject.
Vel laughed. "So you're telling me that you'd actually allow someone else to join you on your 'I-don't-need-anyone' vendetta?"
"Hey now…"
Vel just laughed, the sound so bright even Razia couldn't be sour. "I won't graduate for a few more months. And by then…" He glanced down at her stomach, and his brow furrowed. "Do you think…?" He hesitated, glancing nervously at her hands then back at her face. "It's getting a bit obvious now."
She glanced down at her bulge. "You think?"
"If you really want to keep this a secret."
"What? Give up?" she snapped.
"No, just…maybe let someone else do all the hard work for you?" Vel said. "Like Sage?"
A bucket of cold water washed over her and she scowled darkly. "Well, he's not here, is he?"
"Do I hear a hint of loneliness in your voice?" Vel said, mock-aghast. "Could you actually like having Sage around? Even though you told him to, what was it, get lost?"
She fumed. She didn't want Sage around and she liked having Vel here instead. But she missed Sage. It wasn't just about the bug either.
"At the very least, you should consider buying some new clothes. I'm not sure how much more that poor shirt can handle." He smiled. "Why don't you try calling—"
