Marissa set a fresh cup of tea in front of me. I stared down at it, suddenly worried.
“In the vidshows, the transhumanists are always the monsters,” I said.
“Not everyone is so foolish,” he told me. “Besides, it can be useful to be feared. As long as you have someone who sees beyond your reputation.”
“Huh. What kind of reputation do you think I’m going to have?”
“Fearsome. Kind to your friends, but deadly to your enemies, and quick to put those who cross you in their place.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I admitted. “But this is a lot to take in, Akio.”
“There is no rush, Alice. We have at least a year before any serious decisions must be made. Unless you are telling me you refuse to consider the matter?”
“No, it’s not that. I just need to think. And, um, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not really enthusiastic about the idea of supporting people like slavers and brain hackers.”
“Neither am I,” he admitted. “The clan heads all claim that it isn’t that simple, of course. That these things would happen with or without our involvement, and in truth the Masu-kai serve to make things better by centralizing and standardizing these unsavory black market businesses. But I think we could do better. The old guard are all fixated on the idea of the Masu-kai as a criminal empire, when we could be a proper kingdom instead.”
“Exactly!” I exclaimed. “That’s just what I thought, when I first saw Taragi. You guys have techs, a navy, design databases and a whole star cluster that no one else ever visits except for your customers. You could be building a major colony here, instead of just catering to criminals.”
“Oh, really? Tell me, Alice. What would you change, if it were in your power?”
Chapter 24
We talked for most of the morning. About how to reform the Masu-kai, which was a daunting prospect when you considered that most of the membership weren’t interested in change. About Akio’s plans for building a family that was also a band of ultimate badasses, and his struggle to find suitable people. About my own life, from the orphanage to my final escape from Felicity, and my plan to return and rescue Dika one day.
We might have talked right through lunch, except that Akio had a schedule to keep. So finally we said our goodbyes, and I collected Emla and headed back to my room. I was so excited I couldn’t wait to fill her in, so I opened a private comlink and started explaining on the way.
You sure did tell him a lot, she said dubiously. Are you sure he isn’t just playing you?
He might be, I admitted. But even if he is, that would mean someone like him thinks that playing me is worth the trouble.
Well, of course it is. You’re awesome, Alice.
Aren’t I? We’ll have to figure out some way to tell if he’s for real, I guess. But it’s not like I’m going to stay here or anything. He’s not ready to make that big a push yet, and I wasn’t dumb enough to make any promises just based on one conversation. The plan is I go back to the Square Deal and finish my education, and we exchange letters and maybe have a secret meeting once in a while. He’s not going to announce anything until he turns eighteen, so we’ve got a couple of years to figure out what we really think of each other.
I still don’t like it, she grumbled. This guy is going to get you into all kinds of trouble. Speaking of which…
Yeah, I see them. But hey, maybe I’d like a little trouble in my life.
Not halfway to my room we encountered a group of suspiciously nondescript inugami blocking the hall, all of them fingering their pistols and trying to look tough.
“What have we here?” One of them said. “A little foreign girl sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong?”
“You should stay away from the young lord if you know what’s good for you,” another one said. “No one is going to stand for that.”
Another group of inugami moved in to fill the hallway behind us. They were obviously of a different breed than the first group, with different weapons and a slightly different mod package.
“You should take their advice,” said the new group’s leader. “Even old enemies will put aside their grudges when an interloper appears.”
I just stood there silently for a moment, watching with a serene expression.
The one who’d spoken first scowled at me. “What? Aren’t you going to say anything, little girl? Or are you too scared to talk?”
“I thought it would be polite to let the others make their statements as well,” I said blandly.
Most of the inugami seemed confused at that, but a few of them turned wary. I marked those as higher priority targets in the tactical control space I’d just spun up and shared with Emla. I was happy to note that she’d already spotted the inugami in chameleon suits who were stuck to the ceiling down at the far end of the hall, although I had to point out the suspicious microbot swarms gathering in the air around us.
The chameleon team just held their position, but some of the microbots swirled together and powered up a distributed holodisplay. An image of an amused-looking fox woman with silver hair and five tails appeared, floating in midair.
“Well spotted, Alice,” she said. “But I’m afraid I must side with the puppies in this. There are many plans in progress regarding the young lord’s future, and there is no place in them for one such as you. Should you insist on pressing your suite, matters will take an unfortunate turn.”
“Well, at least your boss is polite,” I said. “Please tell him or her that I’m quite aware of the situation, and I’m not planning to complicate things. I can hardly refuse an invitation from Lord Akio while I’m a guest here, but that should be a temporary situation. Give me a chance to get back to my ship, and you’ll never see me again.”
Hey, it’s not lying if you haven’t decided what you’re really going to do, right?
“Like some jumped-up guttersnipe is really going to pass up a shot at all that money,” one of the inugami behind me scoffed. “We should just take care of you now. The poor little orphan girl had a tragic little accident. Boo hoo. No one would care.”
“If you are in a hurry to die today, I shall be happy to oblige you,” I said calmly.
Emla chuckled. “You? Kill my mistress? That’s rich. Girl, you’re all infiltration models. You’re designed to blend in with a crowd and rough up civilians, not fight war machines and supersoldiers. We’d kick your asses, and then palace security would show up and the survivors would get to explain themselves to Lord Himura.”
“Palace security isn’t going to notice a thing,” the leader of the first group said. But her girls were all watching Emla warily now.