Chương 57: Following the Trail

Jam stared at his bloody finger while the whole club grew still—even the dancers over in the next section froze. Everyone stared, but Hector had eyes only for Jam.

"I said, where'd you get this ring?" The words ground out between his teeth as Hector fought against the urge to dig his steaming Aura Blade into Jam's guts—he needed answers, not a corpse.

"Hector—" Grando growled, but he was still back by his storeroom door; Hector had covered ten meters in a flash.

"Y-you cut off my f-finger!" Jam wailed, finally finding his voice. He strained against Hector's hold, but he didn't have any leverage. Hector was twisting his wrist, leaning into him, chest-to-chest, bending his back over the bar-top. Hector was single-minded in his pursuit of an answer, but even so, some part of him knew his Aura Blade would fade soon. He lifted it to Jam's face. People around gasped, and someone put a restraining hand on his elbow— Sass? —but Hector didn't stop.

He put the blade a centimeter from Jam's right eye and hissed, "Want to lose more parts?"

"Th-the ring? I got it from Lemon! But she gave it to me, man! She owed me." Hector stared into Jam's eyes, watching his pupils contract, watching the tears pooling. He exhaled slowly and then dismissed his blade in a cloud of crimson steam.

"Start talking. From the beginning."

"M-my finger—""Talk!" Grando roared, much closer by then.

"Your finger will be fine." Jam's face had regained some color, the shock of Hector's sudden attack having begun to fade. He was a prideful man, and everyone's eyes were on him. Hector could see he was weighing his options, trying to decide if he should stand up for himself. Grando's blaster whining as the coils warmed up banished such thoughts.

"Relax, boss! I'm talking! She was at the station a few days ago—the one on Fourteenth. I saw her and, um, reminded her she owed me some bits I gave her to get out of a mess last month." He licked his lips, forcing a pained smile that exposed chromed canines.

"She gave me this ring—th-the bits on it." Hector slapped Jam's severed finger down on the bar-top.

"More detail. Why was she at the station?"

"I don't know. Um, I mean, she whined about needing to buy a ticket, and I said something about priorities. I mean, hell, she wasn't happy about having to pay me, but she did." Jam tried to shrug, but it looked more like he was trying to wriggle away from Hector.

"So she was going somewhere? Jam, I swear—" Grando leaned past Hector menacingly.

"—I'm going to get the vid footage from that station, and if you're lying to us right now, I'm gonna burn a hole through your skull."

"I'm not lying, boss. I swear!" Hector let go of him and straightened up. He snatched someone's drink from the bar and poured it on his left hand, washing Jam's blood off. Grando snapped his fingers and pointed at Jam.

"Bring him into my office. Hector—""I'll head to the station. Let me know what you find out." Grando nodded.

"Right." He started for the door but paused, looking back at Sass. She was staring, eyes wide, but when he looked at her, he saw her steel herself. She stooped to pick up her backpack and hurried after him. Outside, she hurried to walk beside him as he started toward the corner.

"That was intense! I mean, I thought that guy was a little shady, and he was definitely inside my personal space, you know? I didn't expect that, though!" Hector grunted, his mind drifting down possibilities. Why had Lemon been at the train station? Was she bailing on Grando? On him? He didn't think so. Something had to have happened, and that idiot, Jam, had complicated things for her. Hector recognized that his reaction to the sight of the ring had been…

hasty, to say the least, but thinking about it, he only felt a bit of grim satisfaction. If he found out Lemon had come to harm because Jam had collected his debt at an inopportune moment—"I mean, this is kind of good news, right?" Hector looked at Sass, frowning.

"How so?"

"That guy in there—he saw your friend. I'm assuming it was on the day she went missing, right? And she was taking a train, so maybe this really is all a big misunderstanding. Maybe she's fine." Hector shook his head.

"She'd message me."

"Oh. Right." Sass frowned.

"Well, I still think it's good; at least you've got something to go on." According to the route Evie had set up on his mini-map, their destination was the same station he'd used to leave town—one of the tall spires with the broad elevated rails that ran out of the city. When they rounded the corner and the station came into view, Sass came to the same conclusion.

"We just came from here, right?" Hector grunted.

"You think that guy, um, Grando, can really get ahold of the video footage?" Hector nodded.

"He knows people. Especially in this neighborhood." He didn't know what else to do, so Hector started climbing the spire, pausing at each platform to look around, studying the crowds as though he might spot Lemon among them. It was dumb; if Jam were telling the truth, she'd been there almost three days ago, but it made him feel better to be moving, to be doing something. Sass didn't comment, gamely keeping pace. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

On the third platform, he saw a PK and almost ducked out of sight, but then he remembered he had a new ID and, unless Janus had truly double-crossed him, he shouldn't have any need to hide. So, he met the PK's helmeted gaze, and when he looked away, Hector climbed up to the fourth level. Huffing for breath, Sass asked, "What's she look like? I could be more help if I had an idea."

"Tall, slender, blonde hair with bangs. Dresses like a doll."

"What color eyes?"

"Gray."

"You think she's here?" Hector scowled at her.

"I know it's stupid. I'm just doing something while I wait on Grando." Sass ducked her head, biting her lip.

"Yeah, right. Sorry, Hector." Hector felt a twinge of guilt for speaking harshly to her; he knew she was just trying to help, but he was feeling useless and frustration was setting in. He started up the steps to the next platform, and then his AUI flashed and a call came through from Grando. With a thought, he accepted the call.

"Yeah?"

"Bradbury Station."

"What?" Grando's thick lips curled into a Cheshire smile.

"I'm good, aren't I? My guy got the footage of Jam shaking her down. She was crying, but alive, when he left. Tracked her on the city cams to a fence, then back to the station where she bought a ticket to Bradbury. It's a shithole hydro-dome operation about a hundred klicks south of Helio. You good? Want me to send some boys?"

"I'm good." Hector closed the call and hurried to a ticketing kiosk.

"What's up?" Sass asked.

"She went someplace called Bradbury Station." He tabbed through the menu until he found his destination, then he bought two tickets. Handing one to Sass, he gestured to the elevator.

"Level twenty." She took it and followed him without comment, but when they were in the elevator car, packed in with a handful of other travelers, she asked, "Do you think you should chase after her?" Hector narrowed his eyes at her.

"Why not?"

"Maybe she was, like, trying to slip away. I mean, you said yourself she'd have called if she wanted—" Hector shook his head.

"I just need to know she's okay." He didn't know why it had become so important to him. He supposed it might just be something he'd built up in his own mind; days of worrying and then fixating on the idea that she'd been there for him—the first friendly person he'd met in this new life of his. //I believe it's more than that. // Yeah? Enlighten me. //You feel a fondness for her. She reminds you of something or someone.

Perhaps she represents this new life, and you're subconsciously trying to hold on to her as a surrogate for embracing your new existence. // Trying to get me to stop looking? //No! I just wish—I wish you'd consider that you're not exactly Hector Finalis anymore. Maybe there's something to what they say about ghost memories. Maybe Paul Chevalier—// Don't you dare go there.

They had a twenty-minute wait for the next train heading out toward Bradbury, so when they got off the elevator, Hector walked over to the platform railing and looked down at the city. Sass leaned against the concrete nearby, but her eyes were on him, not the view.

"When I first got here," he said, turning to look into the dark hollows of her eyes, "I told Lemon I'd be leaving soon, but that I'd leave her in a better spot than when I got here." Sass just nodded, her face open, willing to listen.

"Back in Redwick, I lost somebody. I think that's been affecting me—making me reckless."

"You did? In the fights?"

"No. Somebody else. Someone I should have been looking out for." She sighed and leaned an elbow on the railing, putting her chin on her fist as she looked up at him.

"You ever gonna replace all these vague terms with names? I feel like every time I turn around, there's a new mystery with you." He wanted to tell her to run—to get the hell away from him while she still could, but something made him bury the words. He swallowed and looked away, back down to the little people on the sidewalk below, then he let his eyes drift over to the convoluted junction of train tracks hanging in the air between the buildings. Not for the first time, he found Helio's train system impressive.

He inhaled the sharp, ozone-rich breeze and listened to the clangor of the trains and the buzz of the crowds on the various platforms. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine he really was Hector Valerius, that Hector Finalis was just a bad dream. Was Evie right? Could he be? Could he let those dusty oaths die? Could he let the memories of the people he'd sworn to protect fade into a history no one wanted to remember?

He clenched his jaw and stopped himself from going down that road; he wouldn't like the answers he found.

"I'll be honest with you, Sass, but just be patient, please."

"That's a deal." She smiled and punched his shoulder, and Hector couldn't help grinning. He might be a walking ghost, driven by vengeance, but maybe he could make some friends along the way. The train was smaller than the one that ran toward Redwick—narrower cars with cramped seating. Worse, it never built up much speed, as there were nearly twenty stops between Helio and Bradbury. By the time they got out there, into a barren, lifeless part of the Martian landscape, the sun was moving toward the horizon.

Just as Grando had said, Bradbury was a farm town, if you could even call it that. A dozen domes dotted the countryside, and Hector figured they were used for crops that didn't fare so well in the terraformed atmosphere. A few buildings near the train station made up the bulk of the town—a run-down housing stack, a motel, and a couple of bars and restaurants. //There are more businesses further north, past the grow domes.

//"Question is," Hector said, as he and Sass got off the train, "how are we supposed to find Lemon out here?" Sass shrugged.

"Doesn't seem like too many people could live here. Maybe we can just ask around?" Hector frowned, letting his gaze drift over the nearby buildings and settling on the housing stack.

"Workers live there, you figure?"

"Probably," Sass replied. //This farming operation is run by Howard and Lombardy Goods and Services TC, and that housing stack belongs to the company. // Hector pointed.

"If Lemon was coming here to see someone, I figure they'll be in that stack."

"You think that's why she came here?" He frowned, turning in a slow circle, taking in the run-down diner across the street and the bland, pitted plasteel of the buildings nearby.

"Why else?" Sass nodded.

"Good point. Not exactly a vacation spot." Hector shifted his backpack, the weight reminding him of the absurdly valuable treasure he was hauling around, and then started walking. Sass hurried to keep pace.

"At least it's not a big stack. I mean, not like the ones back in the city," Sass observed. Hector grunted.

"Yeah. Maybe a thousand units."

"Still a lot of doors to knock on." Hector snorted, shaking his head. His plan involved hanging around the lobby and waiting for people to pass through. If Lemon were visiting someone, she'd come and go, wouldn't she?

"Probably an old lady we could ask," Sass said.

"Huh?"

"There's always a nosy old lady around. Your friend sounds like she'd make an impression."

"Now you mention it, there's probably a property manager—" Hector's further words died on his tongue. They'd come to a street corner, and as he looked across, waiting for a cargo van to drive by, he saw a familiar, willowy figure walking their way. It was Lemon, dressed in a dark gray jumper and wearing a wide-brimmed blue hat, smiling and chatting away with the fellow clutching her hand—a little boy, maybe seven or eight years old, with messy blond hair.