The Augenspire (Origins of Elaria Book 1) Read online

  I can’t do this right now.

  She thought about summoning Topher, just to give herself someone to talk to, but then remembered he was out canvassing the heart of downtown Silveria—thanks to her—for information on Hera. The next time an assignment came up requiring a Major to be gone all day and night for weeks or months on end, she would make sure not to volunteer Topher for it.

  No, that isn’t fair. I can’t show obvious bias towards him, no matter how I feel about him.

  She would give anything to be out there with him right now, walking the streets and interviewing people about the woman who was trying to destabilize the entire government. She still had no idea whether Hera was behind the attack on First Orbital or not, though it didn’t seem consistent with her previous targets.

  Why can’t I go with him?

  Now there was a thought. As the heir of the Viceroyalty, she wasn’t exactly banned from going outside and wandering around, but she was strongly encouraged to take an armed guard with her. Since that armed guard usually involved four Provo-Major, it was impossible to go anywhere without it turning into a circus. The last thing she wanted was angry protesters pointing, staring, or shouting at her—or worse, admirers wanting pictures; anonymity would be best.

  Just for fun, she removed her light armor and donned one of the few pairs of street clothing she owned: fitted blue pants and a loose white blouse. Since she typically wore her wavy red hair in a ponytail or bun to keep it out of the way, she let it flow loose around her face and shoulders now, pinning a few strands back behind her ears to keep them from covering her eyes.

  Without her armor or her signature look, she could be any regular person, she assured herself. No one expected the Vicerina to be walking around in civilian clothing, so no one would give her a second look on the street. At least, that was the hope.

  After a lengthy internal debate she left her communicator behind, since any of the Provo-Major could track her by it and the last thing she wanted was someone panicking when they found out she was gone and sending a horde of Majors after her in their heavies. Her ID-chip was impossible to remove, but at least only four people had the ability to remotely track her by it: her father, her sister, Hanna, and Topher. The first two choices were obvious, given her position, but the last two picks were entirely at her discretion. Hanna had been her assistant for years, and she trusted the woman to know her well enough to understand when it was important to locate her and when to leave her alone. Topher was…well, Topher. She trusted him more than anyone, and knew she could rely on him to do whatever he deemed necessary.

  She penned a quick note for Hanna to leave on her coffee table and sent a quick comm message to her father that she was going to leave the Augenspire briefly for business. She neglected to mention the fact that she wasn’t taking an escort, but would deal with it if it became an issue later. At the last minute she grabbed her shield-stick and a knife, concealing both at her beltline beneath her blouse.

  She walked calmly out of her room and through the residential quarters of the top floor, moving purposefully towards the elevators.

  She only passed three people before stepping onto the elevator, and none of them called out to her to ask where she was going, though they all looked curious. She breathed a sigh of relief when the doors closed in front of her and the elevator dropped rapidly to the two-hundredth floor without picking up any additional passengers. She saw no one as she switched elevators and descended to the ground floor, stepping out into a busy hallway and moving purposefully towards the exit.

  The first blast of fresh air revitalized her, and she drank it in as she continued down the main walkway, turning towards a depot of government vehicles. She tapped her wrist against the card reader to gain access and entered the main floor, where hundreds of different aerial and ground cars were parked in neat rows, all stamped with the crest of the Augenspire to mark them as official vehicles. She selected a zippy black speeder and scanned her wrist again to release the locks on it and officially check it out.

  It had been a long time since she’d driven herself anywhere, but it wasn’t the kind of skill one forgot over time. She keyed up the console display and held her wrist to the reader beside it.

  “Locate Major Topher Augen.”

  The display flickered through her credentials and then blinked green to show her clearance for such a request. The display changed to a navigational map of Silveria with a blinking red dot appearing near the big banking area. Jessamine smiled and backed the speeder out of the depot, guiding it gently into the air and setting the altimeter control to put her into the lane for emergency use only to avoid traffic.

  She encountered almost no other vehicles as she descended into the city, slowing once for a sky-ambulance at an intersection. It only took her six minutes to catch up to Topher, though she passed overhead and dropped the speeder to ground-level past him, following the flow of street traffic into a garage and parking the speeder. Checking his location on the map one last time, she departed the speeder and jogged down the street until she spotted him up ahead.

  She was half-tempted to call out to him so he would slow down for her, but then considered that surprising him might be more amusing. It wasn’t until she had almost caught up to him that she realized where they were standing.

  Just as she opened her mouth to get his attention, he whirled around and grabbed her by both arms, looking like he was prepared to body-slam her to the ground.

  Years of training kicked in and Jessamine leaned into his grip, pushing hard against him with her weight to make him step back or lose his balance. He swung her around and adjusted his grip on her so his arm was locked around her neck, pinning her up against his body.

  “I’ve got a knife at your side,” he informed her coldly and quietly, ignoring the glances they were getting from people on the street. Even in this part of Silveria, most people tended to mind their own business. “If you try anything, I won’t hesitate to put this in your spine. Now tell me who you are and why you’re following me.”

  A part of Jessamine was secretly delighted that even Topher Augen hadn’t recognized her on sight.

  “I’ll activate my shield-stick and neuter you long before you get that knife into me,” she pointed out reasonably, and Topher made a sound like a mouse being trodden on and released her immediately.

  “Jessa?” he spun her around to face him, expression comically aghast. It had been a long time since she’d seen so much naked emotion on his face.

  “Good to see you keep your skills sharp,” she replied calmly, smoothing her hair down. “I suppose you’re still wearing Talents under your hat though, which hardly seems fair.”

  The hat was barely concealing the enhancers at either of his temples, and though the hat didn’t really fit in with the rest of his look, he was obviously trying to pass it off as a fashion statement. Otherwise he was dressed very casually in beige pants and a black t-shirt, though she suspected he was armed to the teeth all the same.

  That man looks good in anything, she sighed inwardly. He was clearly not neglecting his five hours of required physical conditioning per week, because he was at peak of fitness.

  “What in the name of holiness are you doing here and where is your backup?” he whispered frantically, looking all around as though expecting a horde of his peers to rain down from the sky at any moment.

  “I didn’t want this to turn into a circus; I just needed some fresh air,” she admitted, bracing herself for the lecture she knew she was about to receive.

  Topher blinked twice at this and said, “Do you have a death wish?” He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the main walkway for more privacy. “You know there are plenty of people—most of them Gifted—who want to see your family dead and buried, and you come out here alone and unarmed?”

  “Yes, but you didn’t recognize me. Plus, I brought a knife and my shield-stick,” she argued, though she knew this wouldn’t placate him. “And according to you and my father, there�
�s also someone inside our own government who wants to see my family dead and buried, so you’d rather me be up there with them right now?”

  Topher frowned at this and said, “No, I wouldn’t, but as far as we know our problem inside is only coming from one person, and there are thousands of people inside the Augenspire who remain loyal to your family and would protect you.”

  “One person murdering me or a thousand people murdering me makes no difference,” she explained. “I’m still dead in any case.”

  Topher had the look of a man who knew he was not going to win the argument no matter how long it continued.

  “Fine. What are you doing here, of all places?” he asked her.

  “I was talking to Darius this morning and it…didn’t go very well. After, I wanted to get out for some fresh air, and I knew you were out here working on your sweep of the financial district, so I thought I’d come join you. I haven’t ever been with you on undercover work before.”

  “You shouldn’t be on undercover work with me. You should have a guard with you,” he insisted, still glancing around as though expecting to see one hiding somewhere.

  “I thought that’s what you were,” she raised her eyebrows at him in challenge.

  “If I knew I was going to be guarding you today, I would have worn my armor and brought a lot more weaponry, and at least three of my peers for backup. For all that we claim to be invincible, the Provo-Major are not without limitations.”

  “Sure, because nothing says ‘discretion’ quite like a clutch of Majors in their heavies all swarming around the Vicerina in her street clothes,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you’ll get tons of quality undercover intel that way.”

  Topher scowled and said, “We should return to the Augenspire before anyone realizes you’re gone and they send out the cavalry.”

  “I told my father I was going out for business and left a note for Hanna so no one would panic. Give me a little credit for not being completely thoughtless.”

  “The Viceroy was alright with you leaving the building without an escort?” Topher looked highly suspicious of her explanation.

  “I may have forgotten to mention that I was going out alone, but I’m sure he’d approve of you acting as my incognito escort if he knew.”

  Topher closed his eyes and said, “You don’t think anyone will track your communicator and notice you’re out here with no one except for me? Then I’ll get blamed for allowing this, though how anyone can expect me to overrule your mulishness is beyond me.”

  “If they track my comm, they’ll think I’m in my bedroom—”

  “You left your communicator behind?!” he looked like his head was going to explode if his blood pressure went any higher.

  “I can still be tracked by a few select people by my ID-chip in case of an actual emergency,” she explained. “Now, if you’re done lecturing me like Hanna, tell me how your investigation is going in this area, and why are we near First Orbital Bank?”

  Topher seemed to be grappling with whether to allow the change in subject or not, but in the end he chose not to argue with his Vicerina and said, “Slowly. I’ve mostly been listening: in coffee shops, on the sidewalk, anywhere people are talking, really. Sometimes I strike up conversations with people who seem like they might know something and try to gently ask about it without making it obvious that I’m digging for dirt on Hera.”

  “Have you found anything promising?”

  “Not really. Some logically-conflicting reports on whether or not she had anything to do with the First Orbital terrorist attack, but that’s about it. I’ve got a team of Minors working with their informants in the area as well, trying to get information through their own channels, but nothing solid has come through yet. Maybe I was wrong and she really isn’t based anywhere near this part of Silveria.”

  Jessamine asked, “Is that why you were headed to F.O.B now? To see if she had anything to do with the attack?”

  “I wanted to see the place for myself, I suppose.”

  Jessamine thought she understood. She too wanted to see how things were progressing with the repairs.

  And not just because I want to reopen the building for banking, she thought furiously at Darius.

  “Well, let’s go then,” she slid her arm into his before he could protest and began walking towards the headquarters of First Orbital Bank, which was only a block away from them now.

  She noticed Topher casually reach under the edge of his shirt and swap Talents out when no one was looking, snapping them into place and then readjusting his hat to cover them.

  “What are you doing?” she asked with interest.

  “Enhancing my ability to know when others might be about to attack us,” he answered softly. “Vital signs, heat signals, adrenaline spikes…”

  “I thought you already had that Talent equipped. How else could you know I was behind you?” Jessamine asked in surprise.

  “Intuition, I suppose.” He shrugged. “You’re not the first woman to stalk me recently, and I’ve become a bit twitchy about it.”

  A spike of jealousy went through her, and Topher must have picked up on it with his Talent, because he glanced sideways at her and said, “Are you alright?”

  “Yes, I just don’t like to hear that my Majors are being stalked,” she lied. Sometimes it was damned inconvenient for him to be able to read her general emotions. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised there are women showing an interest in you though; you’re quite handsome.”

  He looked like he wasn’t sure how to take the compliment, so he ignored it completely.

  “I have gotten four offers to go out for coffee and one invitation to tour the inside of a bedroom since I began my investigation in this district, but in this case I was actually thinking of a non-romantic encounter.”

  Jessamine suppressed the urge to ask him whether he had taken any of those women up on their offers, because it really wasn’t any of her business what her Majors did in their free time.

  “Oh, is this the one you told me about the other day? The Gifted girl who told you the reason someone in our government wants my family dead is probably because we’re trying to end the tension between the Gifted and the military?”

  “Ana Crumb, and yes,” Topher supplied helpfully.

  “How did she know you were a Major if you were incognito?” she asked instead. For that matter, it was doubly surprising that she approached him for conversation if she knew he was a Major to begin with. The Gifted rarely solicited conversation with the Provo.

  “It wasn’t our first meeting,” Topher admitted. “I encountered her during our sweep of the Academy for the psychic, and we spoke briefly. There is something about her that is hard to place. I can’t help but think that she’s important in some way, though I have no idea in what way that might be.”

  Jessamine didn’t like the sound of that one bit, though she did her best to conceal it. Darius Hamish was going to be marrying her soon enough, and Topher was free to pursue whoever he wanted.

  That doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.

  When they arrived at the headquarter building of First Orbital, barrier tape was still up around the building to ward people away, and a half-dozen armed members of the municipal police were preventing people from entering the area. Behind them, work crews were swarming all over the interior of the building, clearly determined to restore it as soon as possible.

  Darius will be pleased, she thought bitterly.

  “Move along, you two,” one of the municipal guards informed them, though his partner was staring at Jessamine like he recognized her face but was trying to place her.

  “I think you’ll find we have sufficient clearance to enter,” Topher informed the man, though he didn’t sound at all displeased to be stopped and questioned.

  “Have I seen you before?” the second officer asked Jessamine, squinting as though it would help him see her face better. “You look really familiar.”

  “Probably, but my iden
tity is not something I want to advertise at the moment,” she replied.

  It was the voice that did it. Recognition hit their faces and their bodies went rigid as they stared between her and Topher, immediately understanding who they must be. Their eyes flickered to the hat concealing Topher’s Talents as though suddenly able to see them.

  “We are just going to look around for a moment and check on the repairs,” Topher assured them. “Excuse us.”

  They were cleared to pass the barrier and enter the ground floor of the building, where they were completely ignored by the work crews bustling about to refinish the floor and install the new marble countertops.

  “I didn’t think they’d be able to turn it around this fast, but First Orbital must be paying top-dollar for their work crews. Another few days and they should be back in business,” Jessamine noted. “Assuming they can find people brave enough to work the counters.”

  “I’m sure they will manage,” Topher assured her, looking around with interest at the new structural supports currently being covered in drywall and paint. Then, out of nowhere, he turned to her and said, “Your call with Darius Hamish didn’t go well?”

  It took Jessamine a minute to switch gears so abruptly. Why was he still thinking about it, or had he just gotten over the initial shock of seeing her?

  “Yes?” she asked, uncertain as to where he was going with this.

  “Tell me about it.” He guided her gently away from a trio of women towing a large steel girder across the room with a hand-tractor.

  Before she could open her mouth, a jackhammer began roaring from nearby, drowning out all other noise in the deafening cacophony. Topher glanced around one last time and then motioned her outside with him.

  “Thank you, officers, I think we are finished here,” she told the two who had let them in a few minutes ago.

  “I hope everything is progressing to your liking, Vice—Miss—um, Ma’am?”