The child has miraculously lived through the meal. Before we parted, he even informed me about lessening aches. And frankly, his small body looked as if he’s endured intense training.

  Did I, too, look this weak and pathetic back then? No wonder everyone looked down on me. Shook my head free from an unpleasant memory.

  I made my way up to a rented room in the station’s attic and pondered the medicinal development. The unhinged warlord didn’t strike me as a guy who’d bother with a minor pain relief. Pulled out the phone to ask him what that was about.

  Another message.

  “Are the other places similarly beset?”

  What a clumsy attempt to provoke me into revealing information. Raktkalis really ought to know better.

  “Your lordship is the one with an access to the military’s database,” I replied with the obvious.

  I barely put down my backpack when the phone’s screen changed to indicate a call.

  He’s lost the patience. I had considered letting Raktkalis see my face as we exchanged these trivialities. However, even if I wanted to shoot myself in the foot like that, the repeatedly rerouted connection was too weak to handle such a data-heavy transmission. Amused, I accepted the call only to let it naturally peter-out.

  It was just an audio link.

  A most loathsome screech raked my ears again.

  “Augherfuhker!”

  I threw the noise away from me. Not a conscious act. It hurt and simply shorted me out. All I could do was cover my head and wail.

  A light chuckle trickled in after the noise cut out. I panted on the floor, taking in the newly reacquired bliss of silence. I still heard people in the other rooms, the soldiers outside and Raktkalis somewhere beyond the static. But it was all dull and so far away.

  “What t-the fuhck?”

  “Now that we’ve established you’re no longer in Z3, care to tell me who you’re going after next?”

  Damn. I didn’t think I’d need to have excuses this early in the game. Was the shifty jerk already onto my true destination?

  Luckily, my head had cleared up just enough to spot another open-ended trap.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “We d-didn’t eh-stablish shit,” I groaned out. Somehow, he had managed to hear it. Where even was the phone?

  “…verity of your reaction points to prior exposure.” Fuck. He had been speaking.

  Shakily got back up on my feet. My precious phone was safely lying on the lower bunk bed. Relieved, placed it on a shelf.

  “How did t-the meet-ting with Miloc go?”

  “Swimmingly.”

  An image of Raktkalis dunking a guy in a tub came to my mind’s eye.

  “Did you drown him?” I didn’t really mean to say it. It hadn’t been more than a whisper.

  Raktkalis lightly laughed again. It sounded so smooth. I liked that layered sound.

  “Only in debt. For now. You did a good job.”

  I plopped down on the thin mattress and melted into it. The praise almost made up for the surprise sonic attack. I deserved it anyway, I decided. Should not have messed with the man’s meds. These could have been antipsychotics for all I knew. Very important he take them.

  “Yohr c-c-coh-ffee,” I started, dropping the pretence. He knew anyway. “Is behind red bricks… in t-the basement we met.”

  He hadn’t deigned to reply. My ears concentrated on an ambient noise. I could hear my own surroundings, but not even a slightest rustle from the other end. That man always sat in his own bubble of peace. So much so, I wondered whether the line disconnected.

  “Raktkalis?” I mouthed so quietly, my call was drowned out by the screaming couple in the background.

  “Yes?”

  “You got stupidly sharp hearing. For a human.”

  Luckily, I was at a safe distance. Otherwise, a slander this foul would have landed me deeper than the mines. Still might.

  I don’t know why I voiced this suspicion. Gossip like this would be juicier than him lying on a deathbed. An esteemed bloodline sullied, infected with despicable invasive flesh. The scandal, the disgrace. His rank, titles and privileges turn into a raging dumpster fire. The domain itself would banish the man. At best.

  Accomplished mutants were occasionally rewarded with reinstatement of rights, but even then all positions of authority remained barred. Enhanced cannon fodder, that’s all they were.

  His medicine could be a suppressant, which doubled as painkiller.

  I heard door softly clack closed on his end. Raktkalis spoke much softer than usual, “I’ve a medical implant.”

  I wanted to laugh. Is that what we’re calling it? Cool. Me too.

  Still, his tone didn’t permit derision. It was something he sent the servants away over.

  “I am deaf without it,” an immaculate lord added.

  Shit, he was serious. This was serious.

  “Should you be t-telling this to me?” A data broker, for fuck’s sake!

  “I figured, you ought to at least be spreading facts.”

  “Why?”

  “So both of ours reputations remain intact, of course.”

  Like he cared for mine.

  “Why t-t-tell me this at all?” I corrected, and heard him make a little gasp of irritation. He sure relied on faces a whole lot.

  Man stalled, changing mental gears.

  “That’s an open secret. I’m really surprised you didn’t already know.”

  The household with its countless turning cogs couldn’t have overlooked this minor fact. It must be a public knowledge in Kalanta, or at least the Heirloom Palace. And yet, he asked the serfs to leave. As dehumanised as they were, Raktkalis was still painfully aware of the servile fixtures. Or perhaps just self-aware.

  This was also not something I’ve ever heard. Commoners scorned the high lord, and his privilege. Nothing else. And indeed, such a glaring flaw was hard to reconcile with this unstoppable madman. Maybe it was dismissed as false rumour, and it disappeared as he grew into the domain’s champion.

  “Waste of time. Ped-ddling your business is a d-death sentence.”

  “And yet, you love playing with fire.”

  “T-the fire is refusing t-to be put out.”

  Raktkalis chuckled lightly. “You should have stayed.”

  What a loaded statement.

  It’s as though he was asking to get provoked some more. I was really glad I wasn’t there. I might just do something to escalate. Clearly, absconding with precious keepsakes was not enough.

  “Nobody’s stopping you from visiting me, chopper boy,” I attempted to embarrass the man.

  “Where are you?”

  He didn’t get the clue. No. He got a wrong one!

  “It’s dark,” I reminded. Strange fauna loved the slow, heavy droning in the sky even during the day. At night, no flying contraption had a slightest bit of chance to even circle around the town. Aeronautics was the most forlorn field. Lone scouts pitied the airmen.

  Raktkalis sounded utterly amused by my dismay.

  “So? Are you, or are you not inviting me over?”

  This complete lunatic. He really would just do it! Just drag a pilot after himself into the cabin, and launch them both into certain death. Even knowing better than anyone just how untamed the wilderness was, being a soldier in a constant deployment for weeks on end at times.

  “No.” His death would be ill-profitable to my person at this time. I didn’t tell him so, because the hotshot might just take that for a dare. “I’ll come by again. Soon.”