Titan Song Dan Stout (top 20 books to read txt) 📖

“I was working,” he said. “You understand work?”

“And then your friend attacked the officer.”

“He ain’t my friend.”

“Really? You’ve never seen him before?”

“Course I’ve seen him. He’s some guy who works for Vandie C. That don’t mean he’s a friend.”

“You took his side.”

Crowbar sat back. “Let me ask you this. If you saw a cop you don’t know getting into it with some drunk on the corner, are you gonna talk it through and find out who’s in the right, or are you gonna go in swinging and ask questions later?”

No one answered.

Crowbar smirked and hunched his shoulders again. “That’s what I thought. So yeah, he wades in, and I’m automatically on his side. You want to know why he did what he did, you ask him.” He shooed us away. “Go on, ask him!”

In a room at the end of the hall, beneath a stenciled 7J, the Mollenkampi who’d so bravely waded into the fray pointed at his biting mouth, splinted and wrapped shut with white gauze. “When do I get this looked at?”

“You already did.” The detective was a human named Rogers, and he was clearly running out of patience. “Medic said it’s dislocated, so don’t move it. What were you doing in that warehouse?”

The Mollenkampi was silent.

“Don’t have anything to say?”

“Yeah.” He leaned forward. “I want a lawyer.”

Vandie Cedrow’s lawyers had arrived in 7D by the time I returned. One human and one Gillmyn, both in expensive suits, they flanked her on the barrow table. And as much as they told her to save it for the jury, she just couldn’t help herself when she saw my smirking mug stroll back into the room. That’s when Vandie Cedrow let slip the real source of her money.

I stood in the back of the room, doing my best to be seen by our guest of honor. Vignolini continued the questioning.

“We know you were tampering with the geo-vents,” Vignolini said. “We know you wanted to create a panic with the sinkhole—”

“This is a load of crap.”

One of her attorneys, a particularly thin Gillmyn with yellowing eyes, whispered his counsel in her ear.

“Then why did you set up this elaborate operation?” Vig pushed the photos of the airlock across the table.

“Because she said we had to find—” Vandie broke off. Every cop in the room was stock-still, and I knew they were all fighting the same urge I had to lean forward.

“Who’s ‘she,’ Miss Cedrow? Who forced you into this?”

The lawyer placed webbed fingers on her arm, but she shook him off.

Vignolini made a show of indifference. “That’s fine. We have your men on assaulting an officer. They’ll tell us what we need to know, or they’ll do their time. I’m sure they’ll be real popular with the guards at Sequendin.”

Vandie squeezed the sides of her head. “They didn’t have anything to do with this.” She’d already tried to bargain for her employees’ release, but the CA had refused, saying that she had to talk before anyone could be deemed worthy of prosecution. She was riding the line between hope and distrust, and the end result looked to be a stalemate, not to be resolved until the workers either turned on her, or she caved and gave us what we wanted. Unless someone was willing to break the deadlock.

“Thing is,” I said, speaking loudly and causing everyone’s head to swivel in my direction, “my partner and I were the ones assaulted, and it’s been so difficult to remember the details.”

The other cops in the room were growing increasingly uncomfortable. Vig dropped a hand on my shoulder and applied subtle pressure, as if he could slide me out the door. “Maybe it’s time you got a break, Carter?”

“What are you saying?” Vandie stared at me, face composed. Vig’s hand fell away from my shoulder.

“My old man worked the rigs,” I said. “Ursus Major. After my mom died, I was mostly raised by other rig families. I saw a lot of spouses end up at funerals, and a lot of my friends end up missing a parent. There’s a lot of people in this world I don’t like,” I was careful not to express a personal opinion about her in front of her lawyers, “but I admire any impulse that would make sure more roughnecks made it home safe to their families.”

Vandie winced, and her head lowered. She was still carrying guilt for the riggers who’d died on her uncle’s campaign of madness. It was what drove her campaign for reform, and it was the key to unlocking her mind.

“Fourteen,” I said. “Fourteen kids have to stand for a parent at their funeral. Fourteen kids who deserve to know that whoever killed their parent is gonna pay. I’m not talking about the workers who dug an entryway to the vents, and I’m not even talking about the woman who gave the order. I’m talking about the person who pushed you into doing it, the person who made the sinkhole inevitable. Tell us who’s behind your trip into the vents. That’s who we want.”

Vandie nodded, and her pale Gillmyn attorney perked up. “We’ll need assurances,” the lawyer burbled with excitement, “immunity, a full package in writing.”

“Let’s hear what she has to say first,” Vignolini said.

Vandie stared at the corner of the ceiling. Then she shrugged. “She approached me a few weeks ago. I have no idea how she heard what I was up to, so don’t bother asking.”

“Who is she?”

This was it. The moment when everything changed. The truth was within grasp.

Vandie cleared her throat. “Paulus.”

We all sat in silence for a beat. My stomach flipped, and it seemed like the truth had turned into a handful of snow melting through my fingers.

Vandie leaned across the table. “The AFS is causing all of this. And next, they’re going after the festival.” She rotated her head, staring at us in turn, and ending with me. “I was trying to stop them when you assholes decided to arrest me.”

It took about an