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“You killed Richeal?” Eros pushes the trident into Jupiter’s neck.
“No, Haden wouldn’t let me. It was someone else. I would have done it correctly.”
Nico growls.
“Wait.” Eros’s voice is calm. “But you attacked Alder?” Jupiter holds on to the strap around his neck. He doesn’t speak. Eros tightens the strap. “Now’s your chance to confess all your sins.” Jupiter groans. “Tell us; let your legacy live.”
Jupiter glares at me. “Alder Callis was a sign. A sign to the rest of the city that change wasn’t going to be brought about by Glyden, Zaffiro, Diamont, or Stele—you’ve had your turn at power. A sign that Haden would finish what his father-in-law couldn’t. She almost ruined it for us years ago, and now you want to do the same.”
“The power of the domes is balanced,” I say.
Jupiter tries to laugh but ends up coughing. “Haden wanted it as a message to you. That’s why he sent B988.” He stares at Nico. “He wanted to crush anything left of Richeal’s. Haden knows how to tie up loose ends.”
“No,” Eros growls, but he’s not talking to Jupiter—he’s talking to Nico. Nico has his trident pointed at Jupiter.
I move closer. “B988. How did security not know the shark was a Veiled City trained one?”
“Not a shark, not trained here, but he made the old male suffer. I hear he’ll never shift to fluke again.” Jupiter smiles.
Nico vibrates next to me. Eros turns to glare at him.
“What is B988, then?” Eros asks, but Jupiter lunges for his trident. He doesn’t make it. His body falls back onto the cot from the blast I put between his eyes.
“I didn’t think I had to tell you not to fucking kill the source until you have everything out of them. Damn it, Hero of Hestertåtten,” Eros says in a mocking tone.
“He was going after you,” I say. But I wanted to kill him. You hurt my family, you die.
“I could have handled him. I wanted him to think he had a chance at freedom.”
“Fine, but I wanted to be the one to kill him,” I say.
“Exactly. There it is.” Eros pulls the corpse onto the floor and moves around the room, trashing the place. He finds the gold in the drawer and puts it in his pocket.
“What are you doing?” It comes out before I realize I know the answer.
“Making it look like a robbery, but also, I found this.” He holds up a mini drive, the kind no one uses unless they’re trying to keep information away from people. “Interesting, no block.”
41
NICO
I’m drilling a hole in the back of Holter’s neck with my stare. He fucking killed Jupiter. We’re on our way to a science dome this time. Eros has Jupiter’s gold in the lockbox in the back of the solo.
“We don’t need the cloaking devices now.” Eros takes the three pouches and locks them away too. This is a normal science building. We dock the solo at an outside dock and make our way to the airlock. On the wall outside of the airlock are thin tunics. Eros takes one, Holter too, so I follow suit.
Eros was right. I would have killed Jupiter before we got all the information out of him. Sure, Eros is steaming that Holter took the shot, but we got enough out of him. And now we have to talk to Fero Stourch, the son of Calvin Degree, the male Muster said no to. The one who Richeal was afraid of. He’s a “good son”—that’s what his surviving father said—not like Calvin. We’ll see. My finger isn’t going to not twitch until I have justice for all my parents.
There’s a long hallway that comes to a T. A sign to the right says labs and to the left dorms. And I get a weird sensation, as if I have been here before.
“Dorms.” Eros takes a left.
It’s quiet. The curfew has long been lifted, but a lot of people aren’t out and about yet. I duck my head into the first few rooms. They’re sparse, containing a few personal items, not a lot. The next one has a lot more things. About every tenth room, it seems like someone actually lives in it rather than just stays in it when they are required to work overnight. But the place is a ghost town. We might not have turned on the cloaking devices, but we didn’t leave the weapons in the solo either. And the way the three of us are moving down the hall, clearing in front of us as if we are on an op, no way will we be mistaken for scientists.
I push open the door to a room, and a young male jumps up off his bed. “I was just going back to work.” He’s hiding his block behind his back. “You’re not my manager.”
“No, I’m not. Who’s your manager?”
“Normally it’s Lucian Meichen. But he’s home with his family after being stuck here during the lockdown, so now it’s Fero. He’s not really a manager, but he’s always here, anyway, so they use him when they have to.”
