Up Against It - M. J. Locke [136]
“I’m not sure you should involve yourself with the Viridians.”
“You seem to be doing all right for yourself.”
“That’s different. I told you, I help them occasionally, pro bono. I defended Obyx, back when.”
“Back when what?”
Sarah smiled. “Ze was a defendant in the mail-order miners lawsuit.”
“So?”
“So, nothing. We have an agreement. Obyx doesn’t ask me to do anything illegal, and I’m hir connection to the mainstream business community.”
“So, consider me a new business opportunity.”
Sarah’s brow furrowed. “First you should know what you are dealing with. The Viridians really are different from us. They have their ethics—their code of honor, if you will—and they’re careful about their activities out here, but they have ties with criminal organizations back on Earth. Things could get … complicated.”
“‘Criminal organizations’? Let me tell you about ‘criminal organizations.’ The prime minister has just signed a deal with a Martian crime family. The disaster in the warehouse was sabotage—caused by Ogilvie & Sons. One of my staff has been murdered! Don’t lecture me about ethics.” She had come half out of her seat before she knew it. Others in the restaurant were staring at her.
Jane sat back down. Cool off, Navio. “Sorry. But you get my point”
Sarah waved her apology away. “Forget it. I just want you to know what you’re getting into. When do you want to see hir?”
“Tonight. Right away.”
“Tonight?” Sarah eyed her. “You don’t waste any time. Let me make some calls.” She excused herself and went outside. Jane spent a few moments stirring her drink with her pinkie, sucking her fingertip, brooding.
Thondu and his accompanists were just then reentering the café. Jane walked over to them. “I enjoyed your performance.”
“Thank you,” he said, turning with a smile. Then his eyes flew open and he suppressed a start. “Oh … Commissioner Navio. I didn’t expect—”
Jane regarded him. Interesting reaction. “Not ‘commissioner’ anymore. I’m a private citizen now.” She sensed, rather than heard, Sarah come up behind her.
Thondu looked embarrassed. “Actually, I will be leaving soon.”
“Really?”
He was babbling now, clearly nervous. “Yes, I’m trying to get a berth on the Sisyphus. But it’s been difficult—no seats are available. I don’t— I may have to wait for a later ship.”
Jane turned to Sarah, who gave her a minuscule nod and gestured for her to follow.
Thondu’s obvious discomfort lingered in her mind as Jane and Sarah departed the restaurant. But more interesting to her was that clearly, he—he?—did not want to spend any more time in her company than he had to. It confirmed her suspicions that he had stolen the feral sapient out from under their noses last night.
Sarah took her down a catwalk. Along the way, a group of adolescents played stickball nearby, leaping into the reaches of the mid-gee netways. Gravity was heavy enough here that she found their gymnastics impressive. At a café, young couples sat at small tables. Some of them even looked human. Groups of young Badlanders roamed the streets. Jane grew nervous as one group approached, laughing raucously and gesturing. They stared at Jane and Sarah, and there was a hint of menace in their behavior. But a large, multilimbed young man appeared from the shadows nearby. He was holding a dual-snake-DNA staff. The group grew quiet, and passed Jane and Sarah without a word.
Jane glanced at Sarah with raised eyebrows, as the young man faded back into the shadows.
“Shivas,” Sarah murmured. “Angels. They work for Obyx.”
“Obyx has an army? Christ, Sarah.”
“Relax. They’re not vigilantes. They’re peacekeepers. More like a neighborhood watch committee.”
“How come nobody talks about this?”
But she was being naïve, and she knew it. Obyx’s name certainly came up, when the city and cluster power brokers talked about the impacts of legislation or other proposed city plans on local neighborhoods. Still, none of them had ever let on that Obyx was a gang lord. Neither had Chikuma; if anything, she had seemed to hold hir in a certain wary regard.
Perhaps it was simply