The air car aced back over the city scape below. It was the day cycle now, though the only discernible difference was a slight lightening to the grey drizzle of rain on the dome above. Rene found that the rain was oddly soothing, even though he couldn’t have heard its fall above the bustle of the city. It reminded him of  time spent at the hunting lodge at the Summer House, a somewhat inaccurate name for the several thousand acre property in the hills of northern Capella, on which he had spent four months of the year as a child. His family Swordmistress, a taciturn woman named Chaipon, had taken the young Renard on long excursions there, hunting for food and sleeping rough. His mother had objected to the practice but his father had overruled her with his normal curt decisiveness. The sound of the rain, whether it be on a tiled roof or a canopy of braided leaves was a balm to him.It was unlikely that even if he survived the rebellion that he would ever be able to take Solae to The Summer House, but the fantasy was an attractive one.  

“Sir Rene,” A voice sounded in his head, startling him. Solae tensed beside him her hand frozen mid way through turning one of the pages. Ten had engaged the autopilot of the air car and was busily compiling a list, presumable of Ralch’s allies or people whom he was blackmailing him, evidently unaware of any disruption. The voice was a radio communication on his integral microphone. A fingernail sized transceiver that was surgically installed in his mastoid bone as part of Marine basic training. It wasn't particularly powerful, having been intended as a last ditch method for troops who for whatever reason had no communications gear with them. Most often it was used for emergency recalls from shore leave and other such minor emergencies. 

“Reporting, Mia is that you?” Rene sub vocalized, his throat moving but not producing audible sound. While it was possible this might be some kind of trap, there was only one person who called him Sir Rene, well person was perhaps stretching the point somewhat.

“Yes Sir Rene, I apologize for reaching you this way.” Even through the com distortion of the mastoid implants limited bandwidth it sounded like a declaration of ‘I’ve been a naughty girl’ which was better confirmation of the transmission origin than any challenge question Rene could have come up with. 

“Its fine Mia, go ahead,” he sub vocalized again. Solae arched an eyebrow but he made a small calming gesture with his right hand. Her eyes flicked forward towards Ten for a moment and then she returned to reading, or at least appeared to, her diplomats instincts correctly reading the situation. 

“A hostile program has infiltrated the Bonaventure’s computer systems, my sensors also indicate physical surveillance,” Mia went on. Rene’s mind provided the breathless edge that the limited communication couldn’t.

“Are you… I mean are you in any danger?” Rene asked.

“I am not,” Mia returned, “I am a non standard addition and the intruder is not very sophisticated, I do not believe it is aware of my presence.” Rene didn’t know anything about computer intrusion, but he was willing to trust Mia’s assessment. An AI designed for a manor would be sufficiently weird to a standard intrusion program that it would be dismissed as junk or corruption. How Mia had managed to hijack radio equipment to contact him he couldn’t imagine but it wasnt important in the present moment.

“Can you eject the intruder Mia?” Rene asked, his mind whirling. A combined digital and physical intrusion almost certainly meant Duke Tan and his intelligence section. It also meant that though they had found their trail, they didn’t yet know precisely where they were, otherwise they would have no need to stake out the ship.

“Easily,” Mia replied with a hint of contempt, “Shall I do so.”

“Negative,” Rene responded quickly, “Just be ready to do so if we ask.”

“Will there be anything else Sir Rene?” Mia asked stretching the word anything out invitingly.

“Just keep us apprised if anything changes. Quentain out,” Rene responded, the words cutting the transmission.


“Trouble?” Solae whispered. Rene nodded before smiling tightly.

“What else is new,” he added before reaching forward to touch Ten on the shoulder. The criminal started and whirled, looking none to pleased to be touched. After a moment he smoothed out the expression.

“Change course,” Rene directed, “we can't go back to the house.”  

“Why not?” Ten asked a little irritable, glancing between Solae and Rene as though he might discover something by their interplay.

“Our ship is under surveillance,” Rene explained to both Solae and Ten.

“That means your house might be also.”

“You can’t think that I…” Ten began to protest, as though a criminal selling them to the highest bidder was an unthinkable state of affairs.

“No, If you had tipped them off they wouldn’t bother watching the ship,” Rene explained, “But they might have tracked us to your house by now.” Rene didn’t think that likely, but nor was he willing to risk Solae’s life on an unnecessary gamble. Marine evasion training stressed that you should always imagine your enemy knew more than you suspected.

“We should ditch the car also, in case they…”   

“I have protocols for this sort of thing,” Ten interupted, touching the control yoke and disengaging the autopilot. 

The cruised apparently at random for another ten minutes, during which time Rene filled Solae and Ten in on the details of the situation, though he made no overt mention of Mia or his mastoid implant. The news that they could trust that Ten wasn’t or wasn’t yet in league with the Duke was welcome, but it would have been foolish to divulge any more information than he needed to. Ten was wise enough not to press for any further information. After a series of short cryptic radio transmissions Ten guided them down towards a large building bedecked in holographic displays of unsurpassed gaudiness. 

“We are going to a casino?” Solae asked as they approached a large hangar in which a half dozen luxury air cars could be seen.

“The Twin Star is one of the finest casinos on all Zatis and it has absolutely no connection to me I regret to say.” The air car descended to a private landing pad set off from the main entrance by high wall designed for the privacy and protection of particularly paranoid visitors.

“Be ready to dismount promptly,” Ten advised as he set the car down with the finesse of a falling feather. The moment the skirts touched the pad a door opened in the wall and a trio of figures emerged. One was a woman dressed in the same dress as Solae, the second in a body guard suit and the third was a dead ringer for Ten. As Rene and Solae climbed from the car, their apparent doubles climbed in without exchanging a word. As the stepped through the doors the car lifted back into the sky headed out into the city with any following eyes none the wiser.

“Slick,” Rene complimented their host as he led them to a private elevator.

“I’m so glad you approve,” Ten simpered. “I have rooms booked here, well I paid to buy some existing bookings. Nothing connects to me, we should be safe until Mistress Solae is ready to make the next move.”