XLIX. Hora Quarta
What Cristo needed Lien Cassus for was a break-in to the Constellation Company in the middle of what was quickly becoming the afternoon. "Let's go," Cristo said, and the two started up the street toward the tallest building downtown, above which four short buildings orbited.
"There's a complex of offices I need you to get me to on the penultimate floor of Eosphorus building," said Cristo while they walked. "Do we need to take the elevator or do you have authorization to link to that floor?"
Lien was cooperating, at least at this point, and she said, "The offices of Justin Marius and his campaign managers? Once we're past security an operator will link me up there."
"There won't be any red flags?" Cristo asked.
"No, I'm authorized to enter."
"And to bring a friend?"
"Yeah," said Lien. She had better not be a good liar. They were seconds from security at their pace.
"I want to point out," said Cristo, "that if you raise any kind of alarm, I'll be executed. Which means adding a murder rap to the charges really won't hurt me. You're going to want to warn me of any potential security triggers, or I will not hesitate to take you down with me."
The security check for visitors was in a booth on the side of the building, and Cristo was following Lien's cues to get past, but all Lien did was give the officer in the booth half a wave and keep walking. Cristo followed through the invisible arch again and was shocked a second time; he had Louis' gun. It seemed that was permitted. He followed Lien inside the glass door to the lobby.
Lien led Cristo to another arch that was almost invisible, except that she strode toward it as if to go through and two paces from it a hallway and a series of doors appeared on the other side. With a wave to the operator who created the link, Lien walked right on through without stopping and Cristo had no choice but to trust her and follow her before the link closed again. It would have been a good way for her to lose him if he didn't keep right on her heels to get through a link and have it close before he came through it. In the hallway with the doors, he had no idea whether he was in the right place, but he had to pretend to look as if he knew what he was doing.
"Marius isn't in his office today," said Cristo, almost as a question. It was a struggle for Cristo to not look around, up and down the hallway he had never been inside before, peering at the names on the doors and revealing that he had no idea for sure where he was, but he wanted to look like he had been here before. Still, directions were what his hostage was for. "Take me to his office."
"I can't get you inside undetected," Lien warned with what seemed like real concern. Either she was a good liar or Cristo's charms had won over his captive. Or the threat was working.
"I can get inside," said Cristo. Lien led the way down the corridor past sets of doors until they reached a kind of lounge at the corner of the building with glass windows and white couches. Around that corner were fewer doors, promising larger offices, only on the inner side of the building — the outside wall was still glass, looking out from the penultimate floor of one of the building's four orbiting towers. The offices along this corridor wouldn't have windows to the view outside, meaning they couldn't belong to anyone very important, so they picked up the pace toward the corner office at the end of the hall, where Cristo halted but Lien started to turn the corner.
"Wait," said Cristo, thinking, timing, calculating. "Whose office is this?" There was no label on the door, only a bronze knocker, knob and mail slot.
"That's Senator Gloriam's office. He ought to be here today," said Lien.
Cristo darted away from that office with a jolt in the pit of his stomach and started around the corner ahead of Lien, but at the next office he asked, "And this one?"
Less than two heartbeats after Lien said, "Franco Justinian's," Cristo rapped on the door politely, hiding the urgency, his plan coming together in disjointed parts while Lien stumbled to get out in a whisper, "He's at work today too," before the door opened.
Franco didn't try to hide his surprise to see Lien Cassus walking free and standing outside the door to his office, but he didn't seem to know what to say about it. "Lien," he breathed, eyes wide, handsome thick eyebrows high up on his forehead. Cristo resisted the mad urge to push him inside and close the door.
"May we come in?" he asked as slowly as he could make himself say it when the words wanted to race out of him, all the while imagining Senator Gloriam striding down the hall and appearing behind him. Cristo tried to sound confident, not desperate, so Franco Justinian would invite them in. Franco moved right out of the way, presumably to get Lien Cassus out of the hallway and on the other side of a closed door, while he asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm Julian Somnare, a very good friend of Lien's," said Cristo. "I'm the one who broke her out of imprisonment in Potestas Tower. And Lien tells me you can help me with something." As the door closed, he hoped Lien had a look on her face that made it seem like that was true.
Franco hadn't been alone in the office. Cristo gave a little wave to the woman seated in the armchair across from Franco's desk. It took a second to identify her, but he decided the woman visiting Franco Justinian mid-afternoon could only be his manager, Portia Nero. If he was right, that would be perfect. He held a hand out to Franco for a shake, hoping for introductions.
"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Franco," said Franco, and after shaking his hand Cristo turned to the guest he thought was Portia Nero, who stood up to shake the hand as well and said, "Portia Nero, nice to meet you." She was looking warily at Lien Cassus and not at Cristo as she said it.
"Lady Nero," Cristo said, "I'm glad you're here because I think you can help me too. I'm planning to kidnap Liao Terra. I believe you could use him to blackmail Exequi Liao."
The silence was like the kind after a bomb goes off, once everything settles, but Cristo resisted the urge to speak into it.
Eventually Portia Nero sat back down and said, "Neither of us know what you're talking about." Franco went back around his desk and sat down, so Cristo moved further into the room. Lien stayed right by the door, almost like a bodyguard but more like someone who wanted nothing to do with this.
Portia's reply might as well have been, Tell me how you know that, and we have a deal.
"You've been watching the Liao family for months, trying to find a hole in their security," said Cristo, not answering the unasked question.
"Who are you?" asked Portia, looking from Franco to Lien for an answer more than Cristo himself.
"Well, I'm someone who can get you Cytheria's daughter in under one hour. All trussed up and tied in a neat little bow."
"Just what would we want the daughter of Exequi Laio trussed up for?" asked Portia Nero.
"To make her do what you want — that's what blackmail means. Starting to feel like I'm repeating myself," he said.
"To blackmail her to do what?"
"To vote for Justin Marius for company president." It was all out in the open and it would be very annoying if Nero continued to deny it at this point ("Funny theory, what would the point of a single vote be? No one can unseat President Gaia Solin — all that trouble for one vote?").
"But you can't do it, it's impossible," said Nero, changing gears without losing a beat, and gesturing to Cristo to take the other armchair. As he sat, Nero continued, "If it were possible, we would have done it ourselves."
"Exequi Nero," Lien broke in from the door, "I wouldn't underestimate Mr. Somnare. He's very inventive. You'll notice he was able to break me out of Potestas's holding cell. He has some magic—"
"It's actually a lot simpler than that," Cristo interrupted. "You made Cytheria an enemy — now I know that wasn't the plan, but Candra Satiri is only charming until she doesn't get what she wants." Franco and Portia Nero exchanged thunderstruck glances, but no one asked how he knew about Candra's acts at this point. "I had the foresight to make Cytheria my friend, and she has given me everything I need — inadvertently, obviously — to take her daughter from her."
Another few seconds of silence, but at this point Portia Nero and Franco only managed to look impressed. "It was kind of you to return Lien to us," said Nero, but the kindness of her face disappeared as she prepared herself for the next round of the game, "but I'm not sure what you're expecting — a reward? She was captured by Potestas through no one's fault but her own, and her mistake cost us."
"The only thing I ask of you is that you wait here in this office for forty-five minutes while I bring you Terra. Then we can talk about rewards. Lien's jailbreak is its own reward. She's here to make up for her mistake, and ensure that Justin Marius becomes president of Constellation tomorrow."
Nero stood up then and clapped her hands as if dusting them off. "Let's talk about rewards now. If you bring us one of the Laios in an hour, what are you going to want for your troubles?"
"Forty-five minutes," Cristo corrected, "and I think you know."
Nero nodded. "So that's why you've waited until the last possible moment? Spied on us, gathered information, and offered us the one thing we can't possibly get ourselves this late in the game?"
"Exactly," said Cristo, now standing as well and taking a step forward to close the distance between them. Franco comically leaned way back in his seat as if repelled and Lien moved in so she could continue to see and hear the conversation. "Because I'm not a bottom feeder like Lucian Acario, or like the Cassuses, no offense Lien. I'm not a lackey and you can't buy me with a little villa in some border town like, what is it, Lien? Corona?" He turned around to watch Lien's face turn purple, then turned back to Portia Nero. "I've come to you with an unequalled offer in your hour of need, if I may remind you how poorly your operation in Invernali went, and I'm not giving it to you for promises of money and old job titles. This is not like the Nox girl," he said, and Portia and Franco glared accusations at Lien for revealing a plan she probably didn't even know about. "I'm taking a big risk and I want the highest reward you can offer. The Laios are not defenseless, they're not alone and they're not weak like the Aemilia family. They have an army of security, they have friends, and they have the funds to take revenge. If they lose one of their family, they will tear anyone involved into tiny pieces. I'm not Mr. Lucian Acario or Candra Satiri. My risk is much, much higher, as is my contribution at this point."
"Yes," she said, "a daughter is irreplaceable, and at the possibility of losing one, Cytheria will do whatever we ask — but she will also be out for blood. We would like to avoid that. And unfortunately for you, we've already come up with an alternative, so we don't need your contribution at all. We have something to offer her. It's in line with what you were saying about friendship."
Cristo grinned. "Friendship is what I'm asking for, but that's not what you're offering Cytheria. I think taking her daughter would be more persuasive—"
"You don't know what we have to offer her," said Nero.
"Actually, I do," said Cristo, and he felt a surge of adrenaline as the other three in the room went rigid, tensed like a pack of wolves surrounding him. "And I know Justin Marius would prefer if no one knew you had it yet. This is going to be a mercurial transition and you can't simultaneously demonize magic at the same time you use it for something like that — not so publicly. Not until you've made it so no one can stop you. Besides," he added, "you have no guarantee she'll accept." He managed to sound reasonable, even if he was the one person in the room who knew for sure that Cytheria would accept. He had to make sure that didn't happen — not until they had angered the Laio matriarch beyond reconciliation.
"She has been stubborn," Nero admitted.
Franco was more wary than his boss. "There's no guarantee she'll capitulate to get her son back, either."
Without growling, Cristo got out, "No guarantee, but it's the best shot you've got, with the fewest caveats."
Portia Nero, a pensive moment later, said, "Bring me both of the Laio children. To show her we aren't playing games like everyone else in this empire." Cytheria's two children. One to show they weren't playing games. The second to bargain with. "What game are you playing, Mr. Somnare?"
Cristo didn't intend to answer that, even with a lie. He was too preoccupied with her new demand. To show her they weren't playing games, not like Cristo. The decision to destroy another life was made in the time in which it was polite to pause before his reply. "I'm going to need the full hour," he said.
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