Stars Rise

LI. "I need to know where they're keeping Milana Nox"

The door to Franco Justinian's office closed behind Cristo and Lien Cassus and the hallway outside was empty. Cristo had a rare second to stop. To tell Lien where to go next, but it wasn't to go get Cytheria's children. He still wanted a peek in Marius's office.

And, he added, "If you see Senator Angelus Gloriam, turn around immediately as if you had been going the wrong way — say that you forgot something and we need to go back. We'll go back up the hall. Do you understand?"

"Yes," said Lien, eager to please, and without any questions she strode away down the hallway. They didn't see Angelus Gloriam.

Marius's office was the next corner office. Without an explanation to Lien, Cristo's gnomon unlocked the lock mechanism on the door without triggering an alarm — that he knew of — and the two disappeared inside.

The corner office was bigger than had seemed possible from the outside, as if the building stretched outward to accommodate Justin Marius's workspace, billiard's table, bar and personal kitchen and bathroom with plenty of extra floor space left over. A wall with books and bottles lined one side while the sides facing outside were only glass, the view of Soliara from up high vertigo-inducing and distracting enough not to be conducive to work.

Cristo eyed the expansive desk, stacked with paperwork, and more filing cabinets than Cristo had any hope of ever navigating. "You're lookout," he told Lien Cassus. "Warn me if anyone's coming or you're dead. I don't mean that I'll kill you, I mean that Marius will kill you for helping me."

Lien tilted her head and squinnied her eyes at him, but she made to obey. Her hand reached for the handle as if to open the door and peek her head out, but Cristo, with an unimpressed glower, pushed her out of the way and opened a one-way surveillance link in front of the closed door — the link showed the hallway on the other side. With a wave Cristo moved it over to the left and angled it until he could see down the perpendicular hallways.

Lien's eyes grew large. He said, "It's a link we can see through on our side but doesn't open on the other end — like a one-way window."

The explanation only made Lien's eyes grow larger, but there was nothing to be done about it. She was going to see some things she shouldn't.

"Keep watch," Cristo ordered, crossing the office to the gargantuan desk. He stopped for a second to quake at the number of drawers and the size of those drawers, the filing cabinet system of a maniac with far too many documents, or maybe it was another security countermeasure — to bury any snoops in paperwork.

"I need to know where they're keeping Milana Nox," he told Lien. He opened the bottom cabinet on the right and began to flip through folders.

"I don't know anything about that," said Lien from her post by the door.

"Of course you don't," said Cristo without looking up, and he crouched down to see further into the drawer, flipping faster. "Otherwise I would just ask you."

He really didn't want to ask Lien for anything, but these files and folders were bountiful and mostly useless, and he had less than an hour left. He needed at least two of himself. Lien as his enemy, even under threat, might slow him down or hide the files he needed.

"They sure were glad to see you alive," Cristo said, still flipping paper folders with only the pretense of actually looking at them. "And Exequi Nero doesn't seem to tell you much. Of anything. Did you even know about Exequi Fortunato's assassination?"

That wasn't actually their doing, but Lien wouldn't know that. Which was the point.

"That job would have been a nicer, cleaner job for you. Saved you from a night sleeping in a cell. Benito Fortunato went easy in his sleep. No security."

That was a big lie too; Fortunato had fewer employees on his dial to provide a breach, no one to target to betray their boss, and as strong a security force as Ilan Potestas.

"What about Ignatius Varian? Did they tell you their plans for him? A little threat, a little bribe. Zero risk."

Cristo pulled a folder right out and hid behind it while he talked, allowing Lien to react without the possibility of Cristo seeing. Cristo could picture her squirming, though, and almost hear her take a deep breath to get ahold of her temper.

"And what would your reward have been, had you successfully assassinated the Invernali director? The director's position in Corona? It's nice there for the three months of the year it isn't raining. What's a little distance from the capital when you can just step through a link these days?"

Lien's silence was itself an answer. She wasn't even breathing loudly anymore, but more likely holding her breath and clenching her fists and her jaw. "Oh, not Corona? Something farther inland? They probably gave Corona to whoever scared the little Solace girl. Hard work, that. Or to the man who abducted Milana Nox. I'm sure she put up a good fight. She doesn't have a magic license, but I'm sure she has sharp nails and knows how to use them."

The man who abducted Milana Nox would be dead by sunrise, or maybe just a few hours after, given how fast the sun would set, but for all Lien knew he'd been given a position on the board of executives.

"Unfortunately, you didn't succeed. There's no reward for you, and Potestas won't sleep until you're incarcerated again."

Lien shook her head. "I don't need a reward. Justin Marius is going to be elected president of the company tonight, and I'll be on his good side. I may have failed, but I've been loyal. Help you and I'll be on his bad side, and trust me, that's not a future worth living. You might want to consider that, and put those files back where you found them."

"There's a third option," said Cristo. "Stop him from winning." Those words spoken, his time would be better spent searching files in earnest now that he had planted the seeds of dissent, so he went to it.

"Milana Nox," said Lien, and she crossed the room and pulled open the top drawer on the left. "Her real name won't appear on any records." She withdrew a thick file and stuck her nose in it, occasionally looking over the top to keep an eye on the one-way link showing the hallway.

"Exequi Diana Aemilia is the target," said Cristo. "Anything to do with the Aemilias will be it. Anywhere a prisoner could be held; as far as I know she's the only abduction victim, the only person weak and powerless enough for Marius to just make disappear. It will be cryptic, but I know a lot about the family, and I'll recognize any information that pertains to them. The abductor's name I know too — Luca Vespilo. But I don't know who sent him. I assume there's someone between Marius and the disposable minions. No offense."

Lien didn't react. She continued to fly through files and periodically look up at the one-way link for intruders other than themselves.

Thank you for reading Stars Rise. All stars are so appreciated to make my dream of ranking in the fantasy category come true <3