The Travels of Scout Shannon: Books 4-6

Chapter 13

13

Sparrow and Gert half walked, half ran back through the labyrinth of corridors to the now pleasantly soothing hum of voices that was the marketplace. Scout set Shadow back down to walk, but that meant keeping a slower pace. Sparrow didn’t seem to mind. She liked promenading down the street with Gert beside her. The big black dog drew lots of attention and Sparrow soaked it all up like a sponge.

“He’ll be in here,” Sparrow said, ducking through a narrow doorway. Scout was afraid it would be another drinking establishment like the one in the black market back on Amatheon Orbiter 1, the one she had been in when Sparrow’s brother Hal had been murdered. But once her eyes adjusted to the dim light beyond the doorway, she realized it was something quite different.

The space was cluttered with squarish machines, some tall and some short but each with a person sitting inside or two people sitting across from each other. Their hands were all moving at lightning speed, and everything inside the boxes was a wash of color and light, everything moving too fast for Scout to make sense of any of it.

And the noise! A cacophony of metallic clangs, grunts, screams, explosions, shots fired. But none of it sounded real, Scout realized. It was all a simulation. As Sparrow stepped up to a box containing two people sitting facing each other, Scout realized the clanging sounds were coming from the holographic forms floating between the two people: a man and a woman, both heavily muscled, fighting with great gusto with swords.

“Games?” Scout guessed.

“Yeah,” Sparrow said. She sounded a bit embarrassed, like perhaps Scout wouldn’t think such things were cool. It didn’t seem to occur to her that this was something far beyond Scout’s experience back on the prairie.

“Hey, Stewart!” Sparrow said to a man across the room focused on a single-player game. He looked up at her. “Where’s Tom Tom?”

“In the back,” Stewart said, jabbing a thumb back over his shoulder before returning his focus to the tabletop in front of him.

Scout followed Sparrow, matching her winding path through the narrow spaces between the games and up a flight of steps to a second, more claustrophobic space. Here the floor was packed not just with the game boxes but with people standing around the tables, watching the players within vying against each other.

Scout was worried about the dogs, Gert in particular. Crowds of strangers made her edgy. But Sparrow sensed the dog’s growing anxiety and stooped over to rub her ears and settle her down before pushing on through the crowd to a game box at the very back of the room.

“Tom Tom,” Sparrow said to a boy about Scout’s age. “I have a friend with me. She’s from the Amatheon surface.”

At first, Tom Tom didn’t even seem to hear her, focused as he was on whatever game he was playing. But when he heard where Scout was from, he slapped a palm down the middle of the game board, freezing the play. Then he stood, extending a hand for Scout to shake. He was Space Farer pale with dark blond hair shaved on the sides but long enough over his forehead that he had to flick his head to get it out of his eyes before he could look at Scout.

“I’m Tom Tom,” he said. “You’re Scout Shannon. I’ve heard about you.”

“People keep saying that to me,” Scout said. She had picked Shadow up when they had reached the crowded part of the room, and she shifted him in her arms now so she could shake Tom Tom’s hand. “Are you that tight with the Months, then?”

“No, not really,” Tom Tom said. “I do small jobs for them. They value my work. But I’m not in the inner circle.”

There was that phrase again: value my work. “So where did you hear about me?”

“Actually, it was down on the surface,” Tom Tom said. “I have a friend down there. Technically my contact when I make deliveries, but he’s a friend too.”

“Tucker,” Scout said. No matter where she went, she could never quite escape his sphere of influence.

“Yeah,” Tom Tom said. “He told me all about you.”

“I shiver to think what that could be,” Scout said.

“All good,” Tom Tom said, but there was a gleam in his eye, and the way he wouldn’t quite meet her own eyes really made her wonder what Tucker had said.

“So when were you last down there?” Scout asked. “Do you know how Joelle and Reggie are doing? Is Malcolm all right?”

“It’s been a while,” Tom Tom admitted. “Things have been getting hot, a lot more ships moving around in orbit than usual. I haven’t had a clear path to get down without being seen. What would be wrong with Malcolm?”

“You’re seriously asking me that?” Scout all but snapped.

“What?” He blinked at her, appearing genuinely confused.

“The Months have been nurturing his dependency on some drug,” Scout said.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Tom Tom said, holding up his hands as if he were afraid Scout was about to hit him.

“You made deliveries to Tucker,” Scout said. “Tucker was giving the drugs to Malcolm.”

“That doesn’t sound like Tucker,” he started to say, but he flinched away from her and Scout forced herself to take a deep breath. Her eyes must be shooting daggers to make him react like that. Still, it wasn’t like she could do anything with a dog in her arms. What stories had Tucker been telling him? “My deliveries were all intel. Current communication codes, other things we couldn’t just broadcast down. No drugs, I swear.”

Scout let the last of her anger go and gave him a tight nod.

Come to think of it, Tucker had gotten the drugs for Malcolm from Farlane McFarlane. It still ultimately led back to the Months, but apparently not through Tom Tom.

“Sorry if I got a little heated,” Scout said. “I’m just worried about Joelle and the others.”

“If you want, I can try to get a message down,” Tom Tom said.

“To Tucker? No thanks,” Scout said.

“Scout,” Sparrow said, looking at a narrow band around her own wrist. It didn’t look like the wrist comms Scout had seen before, just an ordinary red plastic bangle, but still it seemed to be communicating something to Sparrow. “We have to get back to the audience chamber. The Months need you.”

“I’m guessing there’s no refusing a Months’ request,” Scout sighed. “Let’s go then.”

“Hope to see you again,” Tom Tom said, and as much as his attention seemed to have returned fully to his game, he sounded sincere.

Sparrow and Scout got the dogs out of the crowd and back into the center of the street, and Scout set Shadow back down on the ground. Gert came over to nose him, her tail wagging like she really hoped he had noticed how very chill she had been in that crowd of strangers.

“There you are!”

Scout looked up to see Caleb coming their way, looking very grateful to have found them not terribly far from the hospital.

“We’re on our way,” Scout said. “Audience chamber, right?”

“Yes, that is correct,” Caleb said, falling into step beside them.

“What’s this all about, do you know?”

“There has been a wrinkle in the bureaucracy. Nothing disastrous, no worries, but your presence is specifically required.”

“By the Months,” Scout said.

“No, by the tribunal enforcers,” Caleb corrected her. “Your consent is required on a small legal matter. But I will let the tribunal enforcers explain.”

When they reached the massive double doors to the audience chamber, Caleb turned to Sparrow. “Thank you for showing our guest around, Miss Sparrow. Perhaps I can take the dog from here?”

Scout wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Gert had never liked Viola, but then Viola had radiated hate towards Gert on account of Gert having caught Viola’s cat, crushing its pelvis with her heavily muscled jaw. But Caleb held Gert no ill will, and Gert didn’t seem to mind Caleb either, walking over to his side the moment the leash changed hands, tail wagging as she waited for this new person to pet her head. Caleb did so with careful deliberation.

“I’ll see you,” Sparrow said.

“I hope so,” Scout said. Who knew what was about to happen? Her life kept taking drastic turns in the blink of an eye and Scout was all too aware that she could count on nothing, not even being in the same place for more than a heartbeat.

Caleb opened the doors, and Scout saw the Months on their dais, Mai seated and Jun once more pacing. At the end of the carpet were Geeta and Emilie. Geeta looked none too pleased to be there, scowling up at the dais out of the corner of her eye as she stood facing mostly away from them. Emilie gave Scout a little wave.

Scout raised a hand to return the gesture but didn’t quite complete the motion. Her attention was caught by six figures who emerged from the back of the room and circled the base of the dais, three of them on each side. They stopped without quite meeting in the middle and looked up to the Months.

Tribunal enforcers, like she had seen when Liam had been taken away, with bald heads and long blue robes. Probably not exactly the same individuals, although it would have been very difficult for Scout to say one way or another about that. There was a variety of skin tones, but with the completely shaved heads and the body-hiding bulk of the robes, they were very hard to distinguish from one another. Scout wasn’t even sure what gender any of them were, or if they even had a gender.

“Good to see you again, Scout Shannon,” Mai said as Scout approached. She stopped next to Geeta and Emilie, setting Shadow down on the ground. Emilie took Gert’s leash from Caleb, and he gave the Months a bow before retreating from the room, closing the doors behind him.

“What’s going on?” Scout whispered to the other two. Emilie shrugged. Geeta said nothing, but she fumed with anger.

“The tribunal enforcers called this meeting,” Mai said. “There has been a wrinkle in our traversing the barricade, but once it’s sorted out, we can continue on our way. Of course, we’re all anxious to do that, right? Our court case and your sister’s recovery both await our arrival in galactic central.”

“Caleb said something about consent?” Scout prompted. That bit about Seeta’s recovery felt too much like a veiled threat to her.

“Indeed,” Mai said, smiling down on Scout. “The tribunal enforcers will be asking which side you are pledging with.”

“Which side of what?” Scout asked, looking from Mai to Jun. Jun stopped pacing to lean against the back of her sister’s chair. The two of them looked as unified as ever.

“Which side of the Tajaki trade dynasty,” Mai said. “I understand your confusion. My sister and I are a little confused ourselves. We were quite certain we were the only members of the dynasty inside the barricade, but it turns out there is another.”

She rested her chin on her hand and directed a sharp glare at the enforcers below her. If Scout had to guess, she would say the enforcers had been aware all along that both sides of the Tajaki dynasty had crossed the barricade.

“On what grounds are we supposed to make this decision?” Emilie demanded.

“Exactly,” Mai said, beaming at Emilie. “That’s the wrinkle.”

“And the solution?” Emilie asked.

“My sister and I are going to play host once more,” Mai said. “My cousin of a sort is about to join us. You will be given an opportunity to get to know him, just as you still have the opportunity to get to know us. Only when you are ready will you announce your decision. I’m not sure how much you know about tribunal enforcers, but you should understand that there is no way for either Jun and I or our cousin to coerce you in any way. The choice is entirely yours.”

Scout knew that wasn’t exactly true, not with Seeta hostage inside the hospital, but she said nothing.

A soft chime sounded, and Jun rushed to take her seat before the double doors started to open.

“Emilie Tonnelier, Geeta Malini, Scout Shannon,” Mai said as she rose to her feet. “Allow me to present my third cousin, Bo Tajaki.”