Kyle’s mom raised her eyebrows at Gus.“What about you?”
“None for me, thank you.I have business to attend to.”
She wasn’t really a fan of leaving Caius and Anandra behind, but if she was going to implement her plan regarding Baran and get to the bottom of this thing with her siblings, she needed access to a computer she could trust.That meant a stop by her office.Herrealoffice.Not the one she worked out of from her home.
For all his faults, Kyle was her person.More importantly, he feared what the gardener would do should he betray them.He would protect these two in her stead.
Caius paused in the act of sitting down.“We’re going somewhere?”
“I’mgoing somewhere.You’reeating lasagna.”
After what happened with Kyle, did he really think she’d risk him ruining anything else?
Caius considered her with a slight scowl.“I’m not sure I like the idea of you going off on your own.”
“It’s a good thing I didn’t ask you then.”As if she needed his permission.“Stay here.Eat your food and gain strength.I’ll be back soon.”
Nine
Gusjerkedherhoodup as she stepped out of Natalie’s, rejoining the throng of humanity and letting it carry her along the causeway.In the short time she’d spent talking to Kyle, the flow of foot traffic had increased significantly.A sign of the impending shift change.
The food carts along the edges were stacked three deep with people looking for one last meal before they reported to work.
The crowded hallway made it difficult to walk, forcing Gus to practice patience as she waited for the clogged corridors to clear enough for her to slip by.
The delay gave her time to think, however.
Her visit to Kyle had been far less helpful than she’d hoped.In fact, except for him stumbling across Baran, it could even be considered a bit of a bust.
Gus would have to deal with the problem of her siblings herself.Not entirely unexpected; she’d figured it would come to that point eventually.
By her reckoning, there were a couple ways she could do that.The best and easiest, and also the one most likely to succeed, would be to lure them into the open by giving them something they desperately wanted.
In this case, Gus herself.
It’d be tricky considering how paranoid her siblings could be.Not to mention dangerous.Still, it wasn’t impossible.
She just needed to be low key enough about it that her intentions weren’t too obvious.
Not here though.This was much too close to where she’d stashed Anandra and Caius.She didn’t want to risk her siblings back tracking and stumbling across her key witnesses for when Kira, Roake, or the emperor’s people inevitably came calling.
With that in mind, Gus stuck to the security blind spots.Thankfully, those were plentiful on a deck like sixteen where crime was rampant and the residents resented anyone in power being privy to their business.Eventually, those in charge had given the deck up for a lost cause after constant sabotage blew their equipment budget three years in a row.
Nowadays, the two sides had an agreement.Deck sixteen’s residents would police themselves and not touch any of the remaining cameras, and security wouldn’t crack down on the crime they knew was happening on the level.
Everyone won—including Gus.
Passing the crowd waiting for the elevators that would take them down to the docks where most of those on sixteen worked, Gus noted the tired look most of the men and women had.
It almost made Gus pity them.
The relentless grind had worn them down to mere nubs, making it easy to see why so many on Titan found themselves turning to a life of crime.It provided an escape from the endless drudgery that existed on the right side of the law.
If that life also burned out far too quickly, like a candle lit from both ends, it was considered the price of doing business.A worthy trade meant to brighten an otherwise dull and meaningless existence.
Gus had trouble seeing it that way.
But that was because she considered her life precious.In their shoes, she may have chosen differently.Survival was what mattered.Not excitement.And definitely not wealth.
