Silence (10 page)

Indigo reached behind his back in a
flash of motion. Sheikoh cursed vehemently. He probably wouldn’t
beat the man holding all the cards, but that didn’t mean he planned
on going down without a fight. He flicked out his electroblade
smooth as glass, and his body tensed into a fighting stance, his
left palm out like a shield and his right behind him, cradling the
knife in a light grip.

Indigo’s thick arm swung around,
flinging something at Sheikoh’s face. It spun through the air
humming with speed. Sheikoh unerringly snagged out of thin air,
intending on throwing it right back into Indigo’s shiny teeth. The
ganglord would’ve been dead if Sheikoh hadn’t dragged him from the
fire. As he lifted his hand back, Sheikoh glanced at the object.
Shock stopped his arm.

He twisted the thing around, looking
at it from all sides. There was no evidence then it was anything
other than he’d thought. Indigo had just thrown him a memento of
the day he’d tried to kill him; Sheikoh’s old ML5 silenced
pistol.

Sheikoh looked up at Indigo and
flashed him the only real smile he ever had. He immediately forced
a mocking light into his eyes as he straightened up and tucked the
handgun away, but he knew Indigo had seen. Side by side, they
walked out of the burned area, silently and
uncomfortably.

Sheikoh knew that Indigo knew that
he’d thought Indigo had been ready to attack him. He wasn’t sure
what to say about; for some reason he didn’t like Indigo thinking
that after fighting on the ganglord’s side. Sheikoh was at a loss
for words, and the silence was uncomfortable. It was like his chest
wanted him to say something that he didn’t want to say.

A subtle flush touched Sheikoh’s
cheeks. Flipping his hair out of his eyes, he glanced down at his
old pistol.

“
Big Zee, is all sad.” Big
Zee was thirteen-year-old Sheikoh’s nickname for the pistol. “She
misses you already. You must have treated her well. She’s so shiny;
did you oil her today for me?”

Indigo grunted
noncommittally.

“
That was
so
thoughtful
, you great big Dandelion!” Sheikoh mocked, all the while
pushing peculiar warmth back down his chest.

“
I tossed
that piece of trash in a drawer and forgot about it,” Indigo
retorted, his cheeks coloring a little.
“
Until this Celestial started
throwing your name around, saying he had a job for that’d make me,
you-

Indigo stopped for a second, and
thought. “Well, he said after this we’d be the richest people in
Interium.”

Sheikoh noticed the stutter, of
course. But his mind was on what he considered the most important
thing. It was the same promise Dekla had waved in his face. In his
experience, the more people who’d been offered a job, the less
likely it was for any last second surprises. Still, he didn’t like
that neither of them had given him a number. Then he began
wondering why a Celestial wanted a thief and a ganglord
for.

“
So, we talking the richest
West Siders in Interium?” Sheikoh asked, thinking. He wondered how
that translated into his new deputized status. Indigo smiled, his
eyes narrowed with greed and glittering with lust.

“
No we’re
talking the richest
any
siders in Interium,” Indigo whispered, his face
glowing and magnificent with wild, almost bestial excitement.
 

“
Wow, gotta say that I like
the sound of that,” Sheikoh murmured quietly.

“
Okay, so be by the gate
around eleven tomorrow,” Indigo ordered. “Eleven in the morning.
We’re meeting someone there, then going to see the Celestial in
person. So don’t be late.”

Indigo began walking away. But Sheikoh
still had something he wanted to make clear.

“
Hey wait!” Sheikoh called.
"Indigo!"

The ganglord turned. His gaze
smoldered with annoyance.

"What?" He grunted.

“
If I see a single Legacy
dude, I'm gone," Sheikoh warned.

Indigo's eyes widened.

"Wait-”

"-Anyone that even looks a like a
hood," Sheikoh went on.

"But-"

"-If I feel
anything
we didn't plan
on-"

"-Don't be-”

"-That’s
it
," Sheikoh interrupted
him sharply. "Reward or no, I’m
gone
."

Indigo’s jaw dropped. His
face looked like I child about to whine,
‘unfair’
. He opened his mouth and
began speaking in a gruff voice.

“
We… we could use the
assurance-

“
Oh,
silly!" Sheikoh giggled. "I already
know
I’m irresistible in this
jacket.”

Indigo’s expression blanked out into
shock.

“
But I'm more than a body
Indi,” he went on, “And this may not be the best time for any
surprise gropings, or back alley kisses you got saved up in that
big, strong chest of yours, if you take my meaning.” He batted his
eyelashes at the ganglord.

Indigo stared at him for a second,
wearing a mixture of shock and disgust.

“
I’d
rather kiss my own
ass…
” Indigo finally managed to
splutter.

“
Sounds fun,” Sheikoh
giggled. “You bring the lotion and I’ll rustle up a yoga
instructor. We’ll oil things up ‘round here.”

Indigo stalked away then,
shaking his head darkly. Sheikoh distinctly heard him mutter,
“
prick
”. Then
Indigo slipped around East Side Swifthooves traffic and quickly
vanished from view.

“
Well…”
Sheikoh murmured to himself. “It’s been...
interesting
…”

Chapter 5

Know your
Enemies

Sheikoh glided along the picturesque, cobble-stoned walkway
meandering through the east side. It was strange walking to the
soundtrack of his quiet footsteps. Between the clanking hammers
pounding against metal in the factories and the merchants hawking
their wares, the west side was a bustling melee of noises and
motion. Compared to its west counterpart, the east side’s quiet
felt almost unnatural.

The people around him rode Swifthooves
or had the animals pull their carriage. Their coattails and scarves
fluttered elegantly behind them. Monocles glinted over one of their
eyes, usually dominant. A pedestrian wearing ripped, black clothes
should have stuck out in their midst like a sore thumb. Luckily,
Sheikoh was well practiced at blending into the secret shadows
hiding at the edges of afternoon. People couldn’t gossip about what
they couldn’t see.

Sheikoh drifted through alleys and
streets at the edges of shrubbery and the vestiges of buildings,
free to find his way to the gateway independent of conscious
thought. He walked silently with the traffic, subtly deviating from
its patterns and currents to make for the edges of shadows. His
clothing and features were blended with velvet darkness.

As he wandered, Sheikoh thought back
over his strange day. He and Indigo had fought on the same side and
they planned a repeat. Still, if something felt off, Sheikoh was
taking Dorothi and running.

Sheikoh rounded the last block and saw
the seamless silversteel gateway to the West Side, guarded by its
two, resident Century. The white-cloaked sentinels stood at
attention on either side of the gate. Sheikoh’s eyes glanced over
their featureless, visors, just visible beneath a pair of identical
bone-white hoods. Suppressing a shiver, he let his hand creep to
the reassurance of the Century Deputy Badge inside his pocket. He
pulled the octagonal badge out and held to the crystal-faceted
scanner on the wall.

Pain flared across his muscles, and
his vision was dotted with electric flashing. Cramps writhed their
way down his back and arm, and, before he even had the time to
register surprise, Sheikoh was falling. He was unconscious before
he hit the cobblestoned ground.

Something pounded the inside of
Sheikoh’s
skull. Disorientating
uproar rampaged through his mind, crushing coherency
underfoot.
When he tried to rub his aching
head, something stopped him. He quickly realized that his hands
were latched to the arms of his chair. Sheikoh squinted at the
blurry scene, trying to take stock.   

What had
happened
?

Slowly, the scene aligned itself, and
Sheikoh could make out the details of the face of the man opposite
of him. It was someone he had never believed that he would meet in
person. Centaurai Cylium Vest, the unquestioned leader of Skyrei,
ruler of one of the eight regions of the Intrasentient
Empire.

Vest’s long dark hair was
slicked back. He wore his thin goatee sharp and thin. His skin was
a little pale and at the early stages of wrinkling, but Sheikoh
could spot the teensy scars of one or more face lifts. The way his
face was lined though… Sheikoh didn’t like it. They weren’t
smile-lines; the marks hinted at bitterness, determination and
something else, something darker.

Vest’s plucked and dyed eyebrows were
furrowed into an expression of disgust. The Arch Centaurai looked
down at Sheikoh like he hadn’t bathed in months. A deep, blood red
jacket hung over his straight shoulders with coattails hanging down
to the backs of his knees. It hung over a jet-black suit, ending in
a pair of polished black, dress shoes. The region’s eagle sigil was
etched over the jacket’s heart in silver thread.

Two white-cloaked Century
stood vigil at the door behind Vest, presumably the same two that
had stood at the wall. Other than the menacing occupants, there
wasn’t much worth looking at in the room. Their backdrop was a
square of grey concrete, wearing a solitary blacksteel toilet.
Obviously a cell in the Solitarium.

Sheikoh thought that taking this
strange job meant that he didn’t have to worry about this kind of
thing anymore. Luckily he had experience with this kind of thing.
When he’d glanced down at his blacksteel manacles before, he’d
instantly known that he could break out of them in less than a
minute. Any escape plans were going to have to wait until he got
rid of the dudes however. Then he shook his hair from his face. His
momentarily-forgotten aching head, reminded him that he better not
do that. Sheikoh almost gasped at the sharp, concussive
pain.

He arranged his expression into what
he hoped was a look of innocent curiosity and then realized, for
once in his life, he really was curious as to what’d prompted his
arrest. He’d only killed in self-defense. Maybe he could talk his
way out of this?

“
Well. You went with the
smart course of action, kidnapping me and all,” Sheikoh told the
Centaurai conversationally. “If you sent me an invitation to this
party, I can’t guarantee that I would have RSVP’d.”

The Arch Centaurai leveled a
calculating gaze on Sheikoh for a few moments. Then he turned to
the Century.

“
Leave us,” the Vest
ordered sharply. “And don’t forget: If I catch any hint of this on
record, it will be your last mistake.”

“
Leave?  Well if you
insist,” Sheikoh laughed, shaking his arms. “I might need a little
help with these, Mister Centaurai.”

The two Century left without a
backward glance. The blacksteel door slammed with a loud clang. The
Centaurai’s intensity made his suit and outfit look menacing rather
than pompous as it would’ve on anyone else. Or maybe it just seemed
that way, seeing as Sheikoh was currently strapped to a metal
chair.

Minutes stretched underneath that
unwavering stare. Sheikoh searched for something to say and when he
came up dry, he imperceptibly began to work his right hand out of
its manacle.

“
Look, mate, I’m sure you
got better things to spend your time with than standing there and
posing for me,” Sheikoh told the politician. “And if I’m here cause
there was something up with that aide pass thing? That wasn’t me.
See, this guy, Dekla-“

“
There
was nothing wrong with the wall pass, merely its carrier,” Supreme
Centaurai Vest coldly informed him. “What do you have to say for
yourself,
criminal
?”

“
Well, I’m getting the
feeling of some kind of mix up here,” Sheikoh laughed uneasily as
he subtly popped half of his right thumb out. “So Indigo... um...
He's your guy..? My contact? Right?”

The Supreme Centaurai answered him
with a severe frown. He thought that he’d been working for a
Celestial? Didn’t the Celestial Enclave play on time with the
Imperial folk like the Centaurai?

What was going
on?

“
Guess not… awkward, huh?
He said something about a Celestial..?”

“
A Celestial? Go on,” the
Arch Centaurai murmured, obviously interested.

So Sheikoh described everything that’d
happened to him. He usually wasn’t the cooperating type, but right
now it was just an easy smokescreen. The Centaurai was obviously
off his guard. Even so, Sheikoh forced himself to stay slow and
invisible. It was harder than it usually would’ve been, as his
broken index finger was next to useless. At least it didn’t feel
pain the way a normal finger would’ve. There were some advantages
to a hard life.