Ballistic (The Palladium Wars), стр. 75
Once she was outside, it felt like she had just escaped from a detention facility. She’d never be able to shed her access to the Ragnar wealth, but once she stepped out of the cocoon of Ragnar security, the world became a little risky again. It was enjoyable to have that feeling of unpredictability in the back of one’s mind, at least for a while.
Solveig turned and walked down the street, flowing with the crowds that were out and about for leisure this afternoon. The weather here was consistently pleasant, every day a sunny twenty-two degrees, neither too warm nor too cold. But now that Kee had pointed out the circumstance to her, it really was strange not to feel a breeze, not even in the deep canyons between the buildings. Whenever she did feel a slight movement of air on her face, it invariably came from below, where ventilation grids were set into the streets in regular intervals. After a while, it felt like walking around in a gigantic building, which was of course what the Acheroni cities really were—floors, walls, and roofs, just on a much grander scale.
The excitement of executing the sleight-of-hand deception with Cuthbert and Yejun had suppressed her anxiety temporarily, but now that she was out of the building and walking toward the diner, the feeling returned with a vengeance, and it got stronger the closer she drew to the place where she would meet her brother in person again for the first time since she was in primary school.
She checked the time. Nine minutes until the full hour, and only fifty-one minutes until she had to be back in the suite to avoid getting found out by Cuthbert.
Not even an hour, she thought. That’s all I get right now after seventeen years. And I have to sneak it like a thief. At least I will get to find out why he doesn’t want his old life anymore.
CHAPTER 19
ADEN
It seemed like the peak of vanity to buy expensive new clothes, but it was what felt right to Aden under the circumstances.
He had spent the last three months in a rumpled flight suit just like the rest of the Zephyr crew, and it really was the most comfortable mode of dress for shipboard life. But the last time he had seen Solveig, at their Mnemosyne meeting three months ago, she had been dressed expensively and impeccably, and he didn’t want to feel like a careless slob next to her. Thankfully, Coriolis City was riddled with opportunities for visitors and travelers to turn their disposable ags into custom-fitted threads, and an hour and a half after he had received Solveig’s message opening the possibility of a face-to-face meeting between them, Aden had purchased a set of bespoke computer-measured clothes that he dearly hoped made him look fashionable and not like a middle-aged man trying to look like a secondary school student again. They were well-made clothes that looked fine to him in the mirror, but he had lost his sense for fashion styles after living in uniforms for the last seventeen years, and he fidgeted with everything for fifteen minutes before he realized that he was just nervous.
When he left the store, his comtab trilled a notification, and he opened a screen in front of his face without breaking his stride, just like he had seen countless Acheroni do.
There’s a diner not too far from my hotel. Meet me there in an hour if you can. I may be a few minutes early or late. But I’ll be there.
The abruptness of the message was a little startling. Solveig’s last message had said that she would look into a possibility to get away, and he had expected at least a few back-and-forths concerning timing and logistics. But talking around the hot porridge had never been a Ragnar family trait, he supposed.
At least she said “if you can,” he thought with a smile, trying to ignore the nervousness that was now reasserting itself after he had mostly managed to wrestle it under control in the clothing shop.
The message had a directory listing for the diner appended to it, and he checked the location on a map of the area. The diner was a good way from where he was right now, but there was no shortage of available transportation in the city, and the map offered a variety of transit options along with their rates and estimated times of arrival. Aden noted with amusement that he could even elect to hire a private gyrofoil that would pick him up on one of several landing pads within three minutes of where he was standing. It would whisk him off to his location in only three additional minutes, if he had the desire to get there very quickly and didn’t mind parting with five hundred ags for the convenience. But his map informed him that at his average walking pace, he could make the location on foot in just forty minutes. He didn’t need to save the money for a transit pod, but he had spent most of the last three months in the tight quarters of a small ship, so he opted for the walk, grateful for the opportunity to exercise his legs and move in straight lines that were longer than just six meters.
He was half a block from the diner when he got another message on his comtab.
I’m here. Capsule 47.
Aden flicked the message away. He stopped and turned toward the windows of the storefront to his right and checked his appearance, then chided himself for the gesture.
You’re meeting your sister, not going