The Significant (31 page)

      
Theo glanced at it, taking it slowly,
confused.

      
“What’s this?”

      
“Thirty thousand credits,” she said.
“This with your money should allow you to get the other members of the moron
committee out of Uren.”

      
“Thirty…” Theo looked between Kailynn and
the card several times. “But…”

      
“Theo,” Kailynn said, “don’t do anything
so fucking stupid again.”

      
“Wait!” Theo said, quickly fastening his
pants and closing the door to Sonya’s place, stepping into the hallway as
Kailynn turned around. “Where did you get this money?” he whispered, stepping
close to her.

      
“None of your business.”

      
“It is!” he hissed, grabbing her arm when
she tried to turn away. “Are you whoring?”

      
“No.”

      
“Does Raphael know?”

      
“Stop it, Theo!” Kailynn snapped, jerking
away from her brother. “I am not whoring, so don’t accuse me.”

      
“You have no circles, you have no
product, so what the hell else could you exchange for this amount of money?”
Theo growled. “I’m not going to accept it if you don’t tell me where you got
it.”

      
Kailynn rolled her eyes.

      
“What does it matter how I got it?” she
said sharply. “It’s sitting there, in your hand. What do you want me to do?
Give it back?”

      
“I want to know where you got it!”

      
“I
worked
for it,” Kailynn said.

      
Theo looked at the card.

      
“
Brad?
He pays you this much?”

      
“I had to pick up some other jobs to pay
for this,” Kailynn said. “The point is, I worked, and I didn’t whore myself in
the Walking District. Alright?”

      
“No, not alright,” Theo said. His
expression turned suspicious. “You paid for us to be released, didn’t you?”

      
Kailynn quickly saw that the amount of
money she would have needed to break them out of Uren would be impossible of
obtain outside of Anon. She tried to think of a response, of some job she could
tell her brother that would appease him without telling him that she was
working as a Significant.

      
“How did you get all that money?” Theo
whispered. “Even if you were a whore, there is no way you could get all this so
quickly, and everything you paid to get us out.”

      
Kailynn looked at the ground, trying
desperately to come up with something.

      
“Lynni,” Theo breathed, worried, “what
have you done? How did you get this?”

      
“Theo,” she started, her voice weak, “it
doesn’t matter how I got it.”

      
“It does. It matters to me!”

      
“Why?”

      
“Because I want to know what my baby
sister had to go through to get us out,” Theo said. “I want to understand why
you have been so absent. And I want to help you out of whatever trouble you are
in.”

      
Kailynn could not help but bark a laugh.

      
“You can’t.”

      
“Kailynn, what did you do to get this
money?”

      
Kailynn looked over Theo’s worried
expression. He was struggling to think of any jobs where she could obtain so
much money in such a short amount of time, and his inability to come up with an
answer terrified him all the more. He walked forward and took Kailynn’s
shoulders.

      
“Please, tell me.”

      
She looked at her older brother, her
resolve to keep him in the dark about her job as a Significant chipping away.
So much had happened so quickly since she had started working as a Significant
that the thought of actually being able to confide in her older brother was too
appealing to resist.

      
She dropped her head and Theo’s hands
tightened around her shoulders.

      
“It’s alright,” he whispered. He pulled
her into a tight hug. “It’s alright. I’ll help however I can.”

      
She braced herself, unsure of her
brother’s reaction.

      
“I have been working, Theo,” she started,
her voice weaker as she pulled out of the hug. “I found work…in Anon.”

      
Theo’s eyes shot wide.

      
“You’ve been working in Anon?” he hissed.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could have been caught and
killed!”

      
“I know.”

      
“Who would even hire you? You don’t have
citizenship.”

      
Kailynn hesitated once more.

      
“Kailynn,” Theo urged.

      
She took a deep breath to steady herself
and closed her eyes.

      
“I was working at Companion,” she
whispered. She opened her eyes and spared a glance at her brother. “I am
working as a Significant.”

      
Theo was still and silent. She could
almost see the words fall into place in his mind.

      
Suddenly, his hand struck her across the
face so hard she saw stars.

      
“You better be lying,” he growled.

      
“Theo—”

      
“You were working as a fucking
Significant
?” he growled. “Fuck, even
whoring is more honest than that fucking circus.”

      
“You don’t understand—”

      
“How could I not understand?!”

      
“You were going to be killed!” Kailynn
snapped, shoving Theo away. “You are all I have left! I couldn’t let you die!”

      
“But you didn’t have to go be a slave to
fucking Anon and cater to their sick desires!”

      
“You don’t know anything about it!”
Kailynn yelled. “Fuck you, Theo! I did it to save your life so I wouldn’t have
to hear that you were dead!”

      
“I know what happened to Father upset
you—”

      
“What the fuck do you know about it?!”
Kailynn barked. “
I
found him! You
didn’t! And you are the only family I have! What the fuck was I supposed to do
if you died?!”

      
The tears were forcing Kailynn’s voice to
break. She turned away and pressed a hand over her mouth, trying to compose
herself. Theo took a deep breath and closed his eyes, shaking his head.

      
“Fuck, Kailynn,” he sighed, closing his
eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “This would have never happened if…”

      
“If you hadn’t had such a shitty plan for
shutting down Venus?” Kailynn snarled.

      
“Yes,” he admitted. “If not for Venus,
things would be very different.”

      
Kailynn’s heart stopped. She recognized
the tone of Theo’s voice. It bespoke determination and decision.

      
“Theo, no,” she said sharply.

      
“You know it’s true. If it weren’t for
Venus, the Trids would not have to scrounge for food and shelter. We would not
be freezing to death in alleys and being killed by Officials without reason.”

      
“Theo, no, not again,” Kailynn pled.
“This is how I got stuck in this shit in the first place. There is no way to
shut down Venus.”

      
“I know,” Theo said, turning to his
little sister with a serious expression. “But we don’t need to take own Venus.
Only her messenger.”

      
Kailynn’s eyes shot wide, terrified.

      
“What?”

      
Theo took Kailynn’s shoulders.

      
“I was not going to tell you this,” he said.
“I did not want you in any danger. I know I screwed up last time, but this time
is going to be different.”

      
“Theo, what the hell are you talking
about?” Kailynn choked.

      
“We’re going to win, Kailynn,” he said
confidently. “The Golden Elite, the shining star of the Altereye System. We are
going to send a message to the entire system that the
people
are the true source of power and that we will not be ruled
by some computer and her army of genetically-altered freaks.”

      
Kailynn’s breath was caught in her throat
and she was sure that she was choking. She could only stare in horror as the
words continued to cut through the air and pierce her ears like daggers, their
meaning slicing open her chest over and over again.

      
She backed away from her brother in horror.

      
He smiled and nodded.

      
“That’s right,” he breathed. “We’re going
to kill Golden Elite Isa.”

Chapter
Twenty

      
Kailynn wandered around Trid in a daze
for over an hour while the words processed. It felt as if there was a knife in
her belly that she could not rid herself of and each step and every breath made
it dig deeper into her flesh.

      
She went to her own home, unable to face
anyone with the words rattling in her brain. She sat heavily on her bed and
stared at the wall.

      
The conflict within her made her feel
ill.

      
She tried to find her breath, running her
hands through her hair and closing her eyes. She focused on calming down and
getting her thoughts under control.

      
She could not.

      
If she told Isa about yet another plot on
her life, then it would go without question that Theo would be arrested and
likely killed. It would be the second time that he went against the Syndicate
and Venus in such a brazen manner, and she was sure that, this time, there
would be no hesitation in killing him.

      
However, if she said nothing to Isa, it
was possible that the Golden Elite would be killed. All she could think about
for several hours was the way Isa’s body convulsed in the NCB chair when the
Pulse Virus hit, and how sickly she looked when she was lying in the hospital.
When she thought about the way the Elite looked when she was home once more,
tired but smiling, the thoughts of the Elite made her heart skip a beat. She
remembered the way Rek whispered to her that she was key in killing Isa.

      
To have become witness to three plots on
Isa’s life was enough to make her feel like she was losing her mind.

      
If she had heard about any of these plots
one year previous, she would have laughed and celebrated, excited to think that
the Elite Syndicate could be dismantled and the Trids could become equal to
those in Anon, even if that meant that the citizens of Anon would be forced to
live as the Trids lived.

      
Now that she had been close to the Elite,
her perspective on everything had changed.

      
Isa was not the enemy.

      
She still remembered vividly the day that
the news of Caroie had been announced. She remembered the pain that creased
Isa’s face, the way she blamed herself for being unable to maintain peace in
the Crescent Alliance, the way she stared into space, lost in what she believed
to be her failure. The look pained Kailynn. That had been the moment she
understood that Isa was trying to mend everything broken in the Altereye System
and was faced with opposition wherever she turned.

      
Kailynn did not want Isa to die.

      
She also did not want to lose her
brother, the only family she had left.

      
She fell sideways on her mattress and
cried quietly into the blankets, waiting and praying for sleep to take her to a
less-confusing world.

      
She woke from a gentle shaking of her
shoulder. She blinked her eyes several times, forcing her pounding head to
focus on Raphael’s face above her. He smiled gently, his eyes sad.

      
“Hey,” he whispered.

      
“Hey…” she responded, her voice cracking.

      
“I didn’t see you all day,” he said, running
a hand over her hair. “I was worried about you.”

      
“Sorry…”

      
“Why are you sorry?” he chuckled lightly.
He tucked some hair behind her ear and leaned close. “What’s wrong? You’re
acting like the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.”

      
Kailynn closed her eyes and pressed a
hand to her head. She wanted to tell Raphael everything—her relationship with
Isa, Theo’s plan to kill the Golden Elite, how confused she was at how easily
she had changed after meeting Isa—but she knew that he would not understand.
She was sure that he would remind her of her Trid heritage and that getting rid
of the Elites and Venus would be the best thing for their future.

      
But Raphael had not spent time with Isa.

      
He was just as ignorant as Kailynn used
to be—ignorant and fueled by anger.

      
Raphael leaned forward and kissed her.

      
“Talk to me,” he murmured. She turned
away, trying to keep him from being able to kiss her again. “You haven’t been
yourself.”

      
“I have a lot on my mind.”

      
“Kailynn, please, tell me what’s wrong,”
Raphael begged. Kailynn stood, leaving Raphael sitting on the mattress,
watching her walk across the room and search through her minimal belongings for
different clothes. “I want to help you.”

      
“It’s nothing I can’t handle, Raffy,”
Kailynn assured, giving up on the search for clothes, deciding she would go
back into Anon and change at Companion. “I just need time to deal with it,
alright?”

      
Raphael searched her expression, worry
creasing his face.

      
“…alright.”

      
“Thank you,” Kailynn said. “I’ll be back
later tonight.”

      
“Where are you going?”

      
“I have some things to take care of.”

      
Kailynn walked out of her disheveled
apartment, knowing exactly where she was going.

      
After changing her clothes at Companion
and being sure she looked as professional as possible, she hailed a car and
went to Syndicate Intelligence, her heart choking her as it threatened to crawl
out her mouth.

      
Kailynn tried to keep calm. She tried to
remind herself that she was in a very dangerous world now, where her close
proximity to the Golden Elite could mean her death. If she let on that there
was a problem to Rayal, she was sure that the former caretaker would take any
measure necessary to protect Isa’s life without understanding Kailynn’s
connection to the attacker.

      
She took a deep breath as the car slowed
in front of the door.

      
The Significant got out of the car and
walked to the door of the Intelligence Agency, stepping through the automatic
doors to the security desk. The building was far quieter than it had been on
her previous visit, and that made her nervous.

      
“May I help you?” one robot guard asked,
rolling in front of her when she tried to walk forward.

      
“I’m here to see Rayal Teleta.”

      
The robot extended its arm and she had to
force herself not to back away when the sensor on the end of the arm pressed
into the space at the back of her ear. A few seconds passed before the robot
moved its arm away and spoke again.

      
“Follow me, please.”

      
Kailynn fell into step behind the robot,
which rolled slowly through the halls. Already knowing the way to Rayal’s
office, she was tempted to pass the robot and walk on her own, but she remained
behind the robot, her eyes on the ground, focusing on keeping calm.

      
When they finally reached the door, the
robot stood to the side as the door opened. Kailynn walked in, surprised to see
Rayal waiting for her.

      
“Kailynn,” he greeted, motioning her in.
“I was surprised to hear you were here. I did not expect you.”

      
“Sorry to just drop in,” she said,
walking forward as the door closed behind her. She took the seat that Rayal
motioned to. “I wanted to talk to you.”

      
“What about?”

      
Kailynn looked at her lap, nervously.

      
“Nothing discussed here will leave this
room, right?”

      
“No, of course not,” Rayal assured. “If
there is one thing I pride myself on it is my discretion.”

      
“You said that Isa has had eighteen
attempts on her life,” she started. “Why do people want to kill her?”

      
Rayal sighed heavily, thinking about how
to answer.

      
“Everyone has their own motivation,” he
started carefully. “When a young leader comes into power with big ideas about
change, people get nervous. Change is uncomfortable.”

      
“What has she changed, though? She said
herself that she did not think she mended the Alliance.”

      
“She has mended it far more than she will
ever take credit for,” Rayal corrected, shaking his head. “The Altereye System
is in a better state since her rise to power.”

      
“But there are still people who want to
kill her.”

      
Rayal took a deep breath, his eyes
lowering.

      
“The reasons have changed over the
years,” he admitted. “This latest strain of plots is related to Gihron and
everything that happened five years ago.”

      
“Why would that make people want to kill
her?”

      
“Because one of the planetary leaders of
Gihron died while visiting Tiao,” Rayal said. “And Gihron wants revenge.”

      
Kailynn hesitated. “…how did he die?”

      
“He was assassinated,” Rayal said. “But
he was under Isa’s care as a foreign leader when it happened. Therefore, Gihron
blames her for what happened to Colonel Amori. And they want her to pay for
their loss.”

      
“Why does Gihron hate this planet so
much?”

      
“The same reasons that the other planets
not in the Alliance hate Tiao,” Rayal explained. “They hate Venus. They hate
the Elites. They think that Elites are dangerous and should be destroyed. They
feel the same about Venus. It also has to do with many of these planets being
crushed under taxes and trade embargos and all sorts of other economic problems
that come from being outside the Alliance. It was better for those planets when
the Alliance had disbanded.”

      
“…sounds a bit like the Trids.”

      
Rayal let out a broken chuckle.

      
“Yes, I suppose it does.”

      
Kailynn sighed heavily, looking at the
ground again.

      
“Finding that man upset you a great deal,
didn’t it?” Rayal murmured. Kailynn glanced up at him, her mind taking a few
moments to realize he was talking about her client, Rek.

      
“It just kind of seems like everyone is
out to kill her, and it’s scary.”

      
“I know,” Rayal agreed. “And many people
are out to kill her. We’ve found many plots over the years. Most of them do not
develop far enough to be considered an attempt on her life, but there are a few
that we miss.”

      
“
Miss
?”

      
“Well, we do our best to monitor
everything for the safety of the Elites, but we are only human. We make
mistakes. And the computers and Venus don’t always catch everything, either.”

      
Kailynn was silent for several moments,
looking around the office, trying to decide how best to voice her question.
When Rayal saw the worried look on her face, he leaned forward.

      
“Kailynn? Are you alright?”

      
“Can Venus hear everything we say in this
room?”

      
“No.”

      
“Do you…you were in Isa’s service for a
long time, right?”

      
“Yes, since I was fifteen.”

      
“Did you ever…in the time that you were
with her….think that, maybe, things would be better without the Elites? Without
Venus?”

      
Rayal was silent for a few moments,
looking over Kailynn’s expression carefully. He finally took a deep breath and
rubbed his hands together, trying to think of how to answer.

      
“I think that’s a normal thought to cross
everyone’s mind,” he said. “Yes, I did occasionally think that things would be
better without Venus.”

      
“And the Elites?”

      
Rayal hesitated. “That’s a little more
difficult,” he said. “The Elites are a complicated system. I’m not sure I can
adequately explain. They’re not usually dangerous. Most of them are made to
obey, and they obey without question.”