AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I eye him over the hedge-tots and flick my eyes to the door. He stands, pushing his chair back with a loud screech. “Thanks for the food. Now I need to go have sex with my mate.” He hoists Sunshine over his shoulder and takes long steps to the door. “Do you have everything?”
“Yes. Nico, put me down so I can say goodbye.”
“No time,” he grunts. With the other hand, he picks up his trident.
“Thank you.” Sunshine waves upside down, leaving me to awkwardly shrug and chase after them.
“Maybe next time you can come alone.” The two of them are grasping at their chairs from standing up so quickly.
“Never,” Nico says.
“Yes,” Sunshine says at the same time.
This time we scrunch into the elevator. It’s been twenty minutes since I’ve seen Holter. He’s in the back of the omada, his block in hand, focused on something in his lap.
“What you got there, blond warrior?” I cock my head at Holter.
“Blond warrior?” Sunshine asks. “I like it.” She slides into the seat next to him.
“What I have is why I didn’t want to join you upstairs.” He holds up a drive.
I blink. “Holy haddock. I didn’t see you take that.”
He wiggles his eyebrows at me. “Because this blond warrior has some moves.”
“Speaking of moves, I want to get out of here.” Nico’s behind the throttle. “Hold on.” The omada flies to the Braesen airlock.
Holter holds the drive in his hand. “MVP, the Mermaid Viability Project.”
For once, we are all speechless.
13
HOLTER
The info I was able to gather off the external memory isn’t as viable as I’d hoped. All we have is a name: The Mermaid Viability Project. But that’s not going to stop me. I’m going to figure out what is going on in the Braesen labs, no matter how long it takes. Dorian domes don’t keep information from each other. They sure as hell don’t have a cavern full of secret empty labs. But I guess one does.
My years in the military have left me knowing more than my fair share of people in the city. And someone must know, must have the ability to break this code. But the person who would be most likely to get more information from my stolen memory card is Kappler from the Centauri. His name is starting to feel like a curse. While neither Nico nor I have access to military information anymore, that doesn’t mean we don’t have connections.
I’m sitting on the sofa staring at my block and contemplating who I need to reach out to when Belle comes out of the hallway. I look up, ready to give her a good morning kiss and tell her how lovely she looks, but Nico cuts me off.
“What are you wearing? Like, exactly what are you wearing?” Nico stands and races from the kitchen island to Belle’s side. What Belle has on is something grand mermaids would wear for promenade.
“You’re not going to—” Nico shakes his head. “No way.”
“Promenade? Yes, I am. I mean, I’m just as shocked as you. But Kai explained what it was to me?—”
“How did you even get that corset tied?” I want to rip it right off of her. She’s a vision.
She shrugs. “It took some effort, but . . .” But if she had asked us to help, things would not have gone to plan for her. As in stripped naked and spread over the pod bed not to plan.
“Damn block.” Nico swears, but not under his breath.
“Like I was trying to say... or rather, as Ophelia said the other night, we are the ones who are stirring things up. We’re the ones who are going to make a change. But I can’t make a change from here. Not when I can’t read your mother’s writing. The translator in Zaffiro might be able to, but Eros has other things to worry about. Castor is going to speak in front of the governors today. So yes, I’m going to promenade. Which seems like the most ridiculous thing one could ever do.” She smooths her hands down the front of her delicate gold and blue gown. It’s cinched under her breasts and flows freely to the tips of her pointed silk shoes. She’s even managed to braid her hair in one of the simplest promenade styles. “Is my hair okay? I found a diagram of how to do it on my own, in my culture studies text.”
“It looks lovely,” I say, crossing the room. I take her gloved hand and give her a twirl, spinning her until she smiles and giggles. “No more of that, or we’ll be stripping this off you.” I kiss her at the nape of her neck.
She smacks playfully at me. “No. I’m gathering information.”
