Gus doubted her sister would have wanted to be recognized.She would have tried to disguise her movements if possible.
Cronus’s smile was difficult to read.“Oh, yeah.Me and that woman go way back.Some of my people saw her getting into a bar fight with some pirates in Cat Three.”
“Which clan were the pirates from?”Gus asked.
Kira couldn’t already be on the trail of Belladonna, could she?
“We didn’t recognize the clan.Probably a group of upstarts.They won’t last long if they’re picking fights with the Phoenix though.”
Gus felt a headache coming on.
The likelihood of it being Belladonna was good.Kira’s tendency for being in the exact wrong place at the exact right time was a well-known phenomenon among the forty-three.
“Then I guess I’d better hurry,” Gus said.
Leaving the restaurant behind, Gus noticed that the slum’s residents, apparently deciding the danger had passed, had emerged from their hiding places to resume business as usual.
Brave of them.Though Gus supposed she couldn’t fault them for their assumptions.
Now that she and Cronus had come to an agreement, the chances of fallout spilling onto them were far less.
Skirting a few of the food carts in the process of setting up shop, Gus accessed her scroll.
“Brooks,” Gus said and waited.
A moment later, he answered.“What do you want?”
“I have a job for you.”
Silence.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass.I’m in the middle of something.”
Gus looked down at the scroll around her wrist, unsurprised to find that Brooks had disabled the video feature from his end.
“The accountant has betrayed us,” she declared.
There was a curse.
“That slimy bastard.I told you he was going to be a problem.”
Yes, he had.Gus thought she’d had a grasp on Kyle’s weaknesses and could control him.Her mistake.
All water under the bridge now.
A set of youths passed Gus, paying her a little too much attention.She stopped to eye them, not looking away until they were out of sight.Only then did she start walking again.
“This thing you’re in the middle of.It wouldn’t happen to have something to do with a group impersonating Belladonna, would it?”
There was a pause.
“Nothing gets past you, does it?”Brooks drawled.
The corners of Gus’s lips tilted upward.She knew it.“Do you know where their hideout is?”
“Vaguely.I should know more soon.They’ve got something big in the works.Word is we’re heading back to home base after.”
Gus fought a sense of disappointment.She’d hoped for better news.Perhaps she’d been a little hasty in spurning Cronus’s offer.
