Stolen Flyght – Chapter 3

Ken’s apartment is peaceful this morning. Birds chirp outside his window, and the bedroom is warm with sunlight. Ken and Jinzo went out for a run, an activity I never imagined they would do together, but there it is. Then they each showered and left to get things ready for our departure. I smile as I remember their easy banter over dinner. They have become the best of buddies. It’s all I could have asked for and more.

It’s time once again to sift through my messages and prepare to face the world. Now that my name has been somewhat cleared, I can brave the public. Somewhat cleared. Everyone has still seen my blurred-out naked body, and they know my brother was aboard my ship for a while before he spaced himself.

Before I open my messages, I sit and stare at the wall. Tomu’s face, in that little airlock window, appears in my memories, clear and bright. He was so angry, so defiant. I understand not wanting to end up in a military prison, but… I sigh. Trying to decipher his actions and figure out where he went wrong is a losing battle. He was born off-kilter, always short on morality and empathy. As he grew older, we all thought he would grow out of it. He never did.

I shake my head and access my messages. Time to put Tomu behind me.

But the first message in the queue is from Dad. He’s finally answered my calls. I choose the vidmessage and draw in a sharp inhale at Dad’s face. He hasn’t shaved in days, and his eyes are two pools of black ink.

“My dear Vivian, I’m so sorry. So very sorry. I…” He stops for a moment, choked up, his fist pressed to his mouth. “I’m ashamed of the way I stormed into your ship, that I gave you so much grief for Tomu. I don’t know what happened to him, but I shoulder some of the blame. He used to rant at me, too, and I should have steered him in the right direction… Taught him better. The fact that he came after us just goes to show that we babied him too much.” He shakes his head. “Too much. I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me, forgive your mother. You have given up so much. We will support you, whatever you do. I love you.”

The view shifts to my home screen, and I blink the tears from my eyes. The immature side of me wants to gloat in this apology, but thankfully, the impulse only lasts for a millisecond. Instead, relief floods through my chest. My parents love and support me, even after everything that’s happened.

I take a deep breath and vidmessage him back. “Hey Dad, it was good — really good — to get your call. I’m sorry, too, for everything. I’m sorry I yelled at you and lost my cool. It was disrespectful of me, and I promise to be better in the future. Tomu made his choices, and yes, they were terrible choices. But they have nothing to do with us. He chose his way of life and eventually his death too. We need to put it behind us and move on.” I smile at him. “I hope to see you soon on Ossun. Please give my love to Mom. And take it easy until I return. I love you.”

I sign off and send the message.

Good. Yes, let’s put this all behind us.

Everything except for how Tomu hacked my systems.

I open a call to Carlos.

“Hey Captain, how are you doing?”

Behind Carlos are the white walls of his hotel room, the room he’s leaving soon to board the ship with us to Sonoma.

“Thanks to the video footage you got to CC1 yesterday, I’m doing much better.” I smile at him, and he blushes.

“Just doing my job, Captain. My off-site backup is in tip-top shape. I have everything locked down and ready to go. Once we get the Amagi back, I plan to port everything back over. Even Nanci and Ai are backed up. Plus, all of your seed notes and the database from your dad. I have it all.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief. “That’s great, Carlos. But what about what Tomu said, about how he hacked us?”

His eyebrows draw together, and he shakes his head. “My security is impenetrable, honestly. I see no unauthorized intrusions into our network. But!” He raises his finger into the air. “But, he was on the ship and causing problems for weeks before we caught him. Jinzo and I went over a lot of the equipment, but it is possible he installed a device inside the network. A kind-of repeater that would broadcast the data on our network. If he had access to any of our datapads, then he could also access the encryptions, and…”

My head swims, and I’m surprised I understand as much as I do. Still, I hold up my hand to stop his inevitable slide into tech jargon.

“I think I understand what you’re saying. Is there any way to find out what he leaked?”

Carlos shrugs and shakes his head. “Without access to the Amagi to find the repeater, I can’t scrub the video surveillance logs to find out when he installed it because he was, you know, invisible. I’ll have to do an analysis of heat signatures instead, and that will take longer than we have right now, what with the mission coming up.”

I nod. Okay, this is not a mystery we’re going to solve right now.

“Got it. We’ll come back to this later. See you soon on the ship?”

Carlos nods. “Definitely, Captain. See you soon.”

I sign off with another heavy sigh and stretch my neck and back. As I sift through more of my messages, one thing becomes alarmingly clear. My time spent in the spotlight has made my queue explode. I delete messages from news agencies begging for interviews. No, no, and very much no. At least a dozen messages from men asking me to add them to my network. One guy sends me a dick pic, and another’s message is titled, ‘Your so hot.’ You’re an idiot. Ugh, no. And then there are at least thirty messages from women I don’t know. I don’t even want to open them to find out what kind of vitriol they have for me. I file them away in a separate folder. No time for that.

I take a deep breath, straighten my hair, and put on a smile for a joint message to Malina and Alipha, my two new Ossun friends who are helping me through this mess. Malina helped me through the end of my struggle with Cressida, Jinzo’s ex. Alipha has been talking me through the other problems I’ve encountered, and I’m glad she’s no longer mad at me for what happened with Sean.

Today, I need them even more.

“Malina and Alipha, I hope this message finds you well. I would have vidcalled you directly, but I know it’s the middle of the night there. Unfortunately, we’re way off universal time again and synced with Concord City. My body has never been so confused.”

I smile and try to convey warmth and friendliness.

“You’ve probably seen the news by now. My brother is dead, and I am, thankfully, not in jail. I’ve made a few bargains, both with the military and Athens Industries that will keep me afloat until the upcoming auction. My main problem now is that I need to be the only, or the highest, bidder at this auction.” I pause and think, turning my head to the side. “I know I haven’t really inspired great friendship with a lot of women on Ossun.” I inhale and turn back. “But I feel like any of us could be put in this position at any point in our lives. I’m hoping I can inspire other women to stick together instead of getting out the metaphorical knives and slitting throats. My message to the other women of Ossun is that we can be stronger together, just like our networks. And when we support one another, we support our whole world.” I pause and lift a shaky smile. “Do you think you can pass along the message? All my love to you both.”

I end the message, proof-watch it, and send it without edits. Fuck it. I tried, right?

The chime to Ken’s apartment sounds. That must be Marcelo. I trot over to the door, check the security camera, and find him waiting on the other side.

“Hi,” I say, smiling and opening the door for him. “I’m almost ready to go.”

He touches my chin and looks over my face. “Have you been crying?”

“Only a little,” I confess. Damn, Malina and Alipha will probably notice in the call, too.

I close the door behind him and lead him into Ken’s room. The only things I own are in a pile on the bed, and the bag Jinzo bought me is open and empty.

“I’m still trying to pack so we can go, but I keep getting distracted.” I stare down at the jumble of clothes before me. “Who do these clothes even belong to?” I ask, holding the three shirts I own in my hand.

Marcelo blinks at them. “What? They’re lovely.” He reaches out and rubs the fabric between his fingers. “Jinzo has excellent taste.”

I sigh as I slip them into the bag. “I’m just not used to them.”

“When the dust settles on this fiasco, I’ll take you out shopping. I promise.” Marcelo places his hand over his heart as he sits down on the bed. “Do I need to have the ‘be safe and don’t do anything stupid’ talk with you?”

“You might as well, right? It’s not like I have much sense of my own lately.”

“Ms. Vivian, please,” he says, reaching out a hand to me. I slip my hand into his warm fingers. “So few clients of mine have been important to me like you and your network. I never married… never joined a network…”

“Because you’re gay?” I fill in, and he smiles.

“That, and I wanted an independent life. A life without the constraints of family or network obligations of my own. I could have found love — I almost did once — in a network with men I was attracted to, but that life wasn’t for me.”

I press my lips together. “Marcelo don’t make me cry, please. My tear ducts are literally swollen shut. They hurt.”

“All I’m saying is I want you to be careful. Get the job done and get out. You are not some military operative swinging a gun around. You just happen to be the right woman at the right time with the right connections.”

He squeezes my hand once before letting go to stand up and dust off his pants. He grabs more of my meager supply of clothes and adds them to my bag.

“So, I’ll escort you over to the hotel. Ken is at the Flyght ship we’ve chartered. Jinzo has docked my shuttle with it —”

“And you’re with us to Sonoma?”

“Yes. Then we’ll rendezvous at the Lee home ship when your mission is complete.”

I nod and place the slippers I bought in a bag and set them on top of everything else I’ve packed.

“My mission… Why does this all feel like a bad dream? Since when should someone like me be going on a ‘mission?’”

“It’s a nightmare, Ms. Vivian.” He takes my bag from me and shoulders the strap. “You can still say no.”

I shake my head. “Maybe in some alternate universe I say no and handle everything myself. But I’m still short on money and running out of time. And if I don’t support Renata Dellis, then she’ll outbid me at the auction. This is my only choice.”

It’s the illusion of choice.

Outside of Ken’s apartment building, the sidewalk is covered with amateur paparazzi, trying to get more footage of me doing stupid shit. But I’m heartened that there are fewer people out here than yesterday and fewer than the day before that too. The gossip is dying down and moving on.

Marcelo keeps me shielded until we get in the autocab, and after a two-minute ride, we’re at the hotel where the rest of my crew has been staying. Carlos and Lia have gone ahead to the Flyght ship since I spoke to Carlos, but Skylar is still getting ready to go.

“I’ll go check on Skylar,” Marcelo says, nodding his head at Gus’s room.

I take a long moment to breathe and steady myself outside of his hotel room before I announce my presence. In my head, I rehearse everything I’ll say to him, and I realize that this has a high probability of not working out. My heart races, and my hearing rings. Stepping back from the door, I consider running and avoiding him. Am I that much of a coward?

Yes, absolutely.

I sigh as I ring the doorbell and let my wristlet announce me. The door swings open, and Gus is standing on the other side.

His lips jump into a sweet smile, and he dips down to wrap his arms around me and pick me up.

“Oh, God, I’ve missed you.” He swings me around and carries me into the room, letting my feet hit the floor next to the bed.

“Gus, your arm!” I pull back from him, so I save him the pain of doing silly and stupid things, but his smile is playful.

“My arm is fine, Vivi.” He holds it out to me. “Good as new. I was in some pain yesterday, but I woke up today pain-free.”

I stare at his left arm as I run my fingers up from his wrist to his elbow. I remember how swollen and bruised it was on the trip to Palo Alto, and the memory of it makes me sick to my stomach.

I let out a long breath. “Thank goodness. I was really worried.”

Gus takes my face in his hands. “Jin says you’ve barely gotten out of bed the last two days.” He swipes his thumbs over my cheeks. “I don’t like what I see here. You look exhausted and no better than when we were on the Amagi.”

Taking a step back, I release myself from his clinical gaze.

“I owe you a huge apology.” My voice shakes, and Gus’s expression becomes puzzled, his eyebrows drawing together. “Can we sit, please?” I gesture at the bed. Gus sits next to me.

Where do I start?

“Vivian, you don’t need to apologize to me. I need to apologize to you.”

“No,” I say, resting my hand on his leg. “When I…” I lick my dry lips. “When I went to speak to your mother about adding you to my network, I strongly suspected something was wrong right then. Your mom agreed to the arrangement far too easily. It was like night and day. One minute she was shooting me looks of death across the dance floor of your sister’s wedding, and the next, she was sweet as sugar and welcoming me to the family.”

I look down at my hands.

“I kept it from you, my suspicions. I didn’t want to believe she’d betray us.”

Gus slides his arm across my back waist. “I could have told you she’d betray us. In a heartbeat, she’d drop everything for the military.” His gaze is far away. “You know my mother was abandoned as a child?”

“No. I didn’t know that.” Who abandons a baby girl?

“I’ve never met my mother’s parents. My mother remembers a woman who took care of her with a facial disfigurement, but the memories are very hazy. So my mother’s family was always the military. She was sent from foster care to a military school at seven years old. That’s her family. We’re all just along for the ride.”

When I was growing up, my father was always sure to tell me stories about how others lived their lives. He wanted me to understand that I was privileged, and I should be thankful for my station in life. That I should use my position for good. Thinking about my father now hurts my heart, but he was right to teach me the way he did. Still, I learn more every day about family circumstances and differences in class structures in the Duo Systems. Giving up a baby girl is almost unthinkable to me.

“You’re thinking about your dad, aren’t you?”

I smile and huff a laugh. “How did you know?”

“We were both betrayed by our parents recently.” He pulls me close and kisses me on the temple. “Me, I saw it coming. I knew someday, the military would come first for her. Yet…” He thinks for a moment, turning his eyes to the window. “I don’t know. She seemed resigned and unwilling, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, maybe. She said she had no choice.” A lot like me.

He shakes his head. “Maybe we’ll figure that out one day. Maybe we won’t. You, though, I understand why you’re upset.”

“I betrayed my father, too.” Saying it out loud is both horrifying and cathartic. “I kept him from his son. I kept him from getting closure.” Squeezing my hands together, my knuckles fade to white. “He sent me a message, said he forgives me. I’m not sure I deserve it.”

Gus’s smile is reassuring. “You do. You’re the ideal daughter, and you made a mistake, sure. But it’s not the kind of thing that ends relationships.”

I rest my head on his shoulder.

“Do you forgive me for keeping this from you? I should have told you right away.”

“Of course I forgive you.”

Gus stands up and grabs his bag. He turns around to see me sitting on the bed, and his smile becomes sultry.

“Vivi, I know the perfect way to put this behind us.”

I glance at the door. “Marcelo is waiting for us.” A brief laugh bursts from my lips. “But we could be quick?”

I stand up and cross the space between us, trying not to feel guilty that I haven’t slept with either Jinzo or Ken the last few days. Depression had taken me into the depths, and I thought about Gus all the time, how I would apologize and make it up to him for lying to him. Sleeping with either of them was off the table until I had made things right with Gus.

Gus’s right hand caresses my cheek before he cradles my neck and pulls me into a fiery kiss. His lips over mine burn straight down into my core, reminding me of our first kiss in the massage room at the Lee villa on Laguna. My insides dissolve, excited for this reconnection between us. I moan as I wrap my arms around his waist and pull him to me. This sends him into a lustful panic, his kisses blazing down my neck and his hands reaching for the hem of my shirt. I back away just in time for the shirt to come off. He doesn’t wait for me to unclasp my bra. He jerks it up and brings my breast into his mouth.

“Oh, God, Gus.” My lips stumble over the words, and my legs tremble. “Clothes off. Now.”

Did I say we should be quick? Because as Gus’s naked body slides over me, and I take him into me again and again, I want it to go on forever.