Episode 6 - Thunder Across a Blue Sky

  Chapter 57 - Gratitude

  We’re guided by a staff at the Skyspire to a private room at the back of the President’s Club. I peek through the occasional ajar door as we walk to the back, catching glimpses of black and grey suits, and flashes of laughter or hushed voices. Servers at the club pass us in both directions, expensive tinted glass bottles in their hands, or covered plates with food from the kitchens. I catch the smell of real tobacco through one door, someone has contact with the black-market runners then. I wonder if Rhett knows them.

  Our own room is open, with a view beyond to the city, doors that open onto a short balcony, and a private bar as well as a few standing tables to mingle. I plant my hands on my hips as I look at the bar, and grab at Shion’s shoulder as she brushes past me. “What’s the deal?”

  “It’s all included. Get whatever you want.”

  Rhett hovers at my side, his hands tucked in his pockets. His attention slips to the doorway, watching for any Aquila employees behind us entering. I turn my head. “You want something?”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “You sure?”

  “Just water then.”

  I leave his side, coming to the bar to join Blake, who is already collecting a series of tall drinks from the bartender. He’s a huge bull of a young man, easily twice Rhett’s weight with a similar build, just an extra head and shoulders of height, and short blonde hair like his non-identical twin Nessa.

  “Where’s your sister at?” I ask as I slip to his side.

  Blake looks down his crossed, beefy arms at me. “Dunno Ma’am. Some last-minute work Adrian sent her on.”

  “Don’t ‘Ma’am’ me, I’m younger than you.”

  Blake shrugs. “You outrank me.” If the fact upsets him, he hides it well.

  “Know if it’s here at Apex?” I ask. I gesture to the bartender as he brings Blake his drinks. “You got any beer?” When he nods and holds up a single finger to indicate it’s just the one, I give a nod and continue, “whatever you have is fine. And a water.”

  “I think so,” replies Blake, beginning to pin the collection of glasses in his hands to lift them. “She said she was sad to be missing your birthday celebration.”

  I snort with amusement once. “Oh, I bet. Free drinks and a chance to gossip? Think she’ll be done early enough to make it here?”

  “Try Adrian or Shion, not me, boss. I ain’t know anything else-” Blake pauses mid-sentence as his head swings to the doorway, and the familiar raised voice forebodes the entry of the person we’ve all been on edge waiting for.

  Regina steps through the glass doors, stripping her suit jacket off as she does so. She’s a diminutive woman, compensating for her height with heels taller than I’d be brave enough to wear. Her wavy coffee-brown hair is pinned to one side of her head, cascading down her neck and over the collar of her white blouse underneath. She purses rouge lips as she enters, then her eyes find me. She spreads both hands to either side, stepping through the room and raising her voice above the noise of conversation, which cuts out the moment the first words fall from her mouth.

  “Conrada, one year already!” She beams, drawing uncomfortably close. I withdraw from her attempted hug, and unflinching, she pivots to grab both my shoulders and hold me steady. “We are so thankful to have you at Aquila.”

  “Uh, yeah. Thanks,” I mutter, looking over Regina’s shoulder to Shion and Adrian, who watch from the corner of the room where they were talking. Rhett, like a muscle-bound shadow, slinks close behind Regina.

  “When Shion suggested a little something, of course I said yes. You have no idea of the impact you’ve had on Aquila. We could not function without you now.”

  I know exactly what I add. I know how I pad Aquila’s bank accounts; I know how valuable an operative that can slip past symbionts has become. Regina doesn't care to know how Adrian and I make it happen; the only explanations we’ve given are tied to my past working in my dad’s taxonomic labs. The how doesn’t matter. What matters is the services she can sell clients, and Regina loves an investment that pays off. I’m everything she’s always wanted to add to Aquila’s portfolio, her pet cryptid.

  I will kill her one day. Her blood will flow and spill like water, and she will be forever silent.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I pick up the beer that has been delivered to me by the bartender. It’s a rich amber color, good stuff. Would have to be for a place like this. “I’m, uh, thankful you think so, Executive Hawthorne,” I say. Rhett is silent as he takes Regina’s jacket from her hands, and I pass him the water cup that was delivered for him as well.

  Regina laughs silkily. “You, thankful? I do not believe that. Where’s that thunder and lightning I so enjoy?”

  I clench my jaw. “I’m thankful to Shion then.”

  “Yes, there you go. Oh Everett, I have some news for you later,” continues Regina, and she leans around him to catch Adrian’s eye. “And some very interesting news for you. But plenty of time for business later. I’ll take a whiskey first.”

  Rhett clears his throat. “Mum?”

  “Oh, it’s just one. Once again, Conrada, here’s to another year!” she raises the glass of amber liquid, which has already appeared in her hand, clinking it against my plastic cup of beer with a grin.

  I step into the dark night of the balcony between conversations. The night is still relatively early. Drinks and finger foods keep conversations light. Most of us all live together, but usually we discuss work and other practical matters. After Regina’s entrance, it took a little while for the mood to loosen again, but eventually more casual conversations began to dominate.

  I spend so much time alone now. I don’t really know what to do with myself. If there isn’t work to talk about, I don’t know what questions to ask others. Nessa was the only person I regularly just ‘hung out’ with, and who greased my conversation with a lot of the others, and she’s not here. Rhett is mostly a silent statue when his mother is in the room, hovering at her side like a surly shadow.

  Shion is by herself out here already, leaning over the balustrade, her head dipped to look at something in her hands.

  “Thanks for doing this, and for the present," I say slowly as I approach, coming to lean at her side.

  “It’s not much,” mutters Shion, not looking up from her hands where she is picking at the end of her vape-stick. “But I know being away from home the first year can be rough, especially around big events.”

  I sigh. “Regina didn’t have to be weird about it?”

  Shion shrugs, and finally withdraws the cartridge from her vape-stick and tucks it in a pocket. She withdraws a new one and inserts it into the end of the stick.

  “Regina can do what she wants. It’s not her job to be liked.”

  “That doesn’t sound right to me,” I mutter, looking out over the city.

  Shion lifts the stick to her mouth, giving it a test draw, then she exhales a breath out of the side of her mouth and looks at me with an amused arch to one eyebrow. “You’re young.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Shion cackles with amusement. “It takes a certain kind of sacrifice to be a leader. We all go around, shaving slices of ourselves off every time we make a compromise for the things we want or need. Leaders shave parts of themselves off for other people; they bleed while the rest of us get the benefits and debate from the sidelines on their behalf whether the losses were worth the outcomes. They don’t have to be liked.”

  “What does Regina do that is worth so much to us?” I ask skeptically.

  “What doesn’t she do?” challenges Shion. “You know that little voice in your head that stops you from asking for help? Or that worries about all the little details of ‘how’ something happens? Regina doesn’t have it, she doesn't let it stop her. She demands. From you, from me, from clients. From the world.” Shion gestures into the night to emphasize her points. “She asks and expects her way. She sees only outcomes and doesn’t care how they happen; reality and details are problems for the rest of us. She has to find the pathway for everyone at Aquila, and she does so with forty-something mouths to feed instead of just worrying about herself like you or me.”

  “Why even bother? If people don’t like you back? Doesn’t give her an excuse to be so…”

  Shion laughs again, and her affect slips for a moment, Aster peaking through the seams. “Who here isn’t a little cracked?”

  I hum dismissively, and Shion takes another breath from her vape. “Like I said, you’re young. It takes a bit of growing to care about other people like that.”

  “I care about other people,” I reply defensively.

  “Care enough not to put yourself first? Care enough to curb all your little impulses for them? Care enough to hurt yourself for them even when they will never know why or like you for it?”

  I look at Shion silently, unable to answer those questions. I’ve cared about people, but every time I come to the moment choices have to be made, I’ve impulsively chosen myself and my own whims first. And then when consequences came to bite, I just got lucky about who they bit, or begged forgiveness.

  Shion blows her breath into the night, her vape stick twisting between two fingers. “You're a challenge to manage, but I don't mind it. I know you care underneath all that bristle and spite, don't worry. But, it takes a lot more growing to do all of that when people don’t like you as well. Especially when the reason they don’t like you is that you’ve sliced so much of yourself off for them they can’t recognize you anymore. We sacrifice, we bleed, we change. So you learn to give others a little more grace as well.”

  “How can you give her grace like that?” I ask somewhat incredulous that Shion can seem so accepting of Regina. I’ve seen Adrian’s memories occasionally when we’ve locked in and I’ve not quickly shut those doors fast enough, she has asked horrible things of people.

  Shion hums, clicking her fingernails against her vape-stick. “You have a lot more empathy for others once you experience it yourself. Like I said, you’re young. And not everyone is cut out to be a leader. You can always just be the squall Aquila sets on its enemies?” She finishes with a toothy grin, cocking her hip out beside her. “Go have fun, don’t waste the effort I spent putting this together.”

  “You coming back in?” I ask.

  “Mmm-hmm. When I’m ready.”

  I have commissioned non-AI covers! The first is done, but I'm waiting till I have book 2 complete for the swap on RR. The writing of Aquila is AI free BUT I do use AI for the current covers, ads, vibes, etc. I'm not here to have a long convo about it, it's a thing that exists these days and I spend far more money on this hobby than I make so saving $s where I can still remains important (although I love my paying patreons!), My attitude is just being transparent about it's use where I can so regardless of my opinions about it you can make your decisions accordingly. ANYWAY - we have new, human made covers coming. They are heavily inspired by the current covers, because their vibe is just very good, much love, but the artist has added their own style too. Also, I can finally get a spider on a cover - have you ever asked an AI to make a spider? Like seriously, they can't get hands with 5 fingers wrong, you think they can get 8 legs right?

  sort of degree in Biology - it was technically Conservation Ecology, I was good at sea birds and bats and very bad at plants, don't ask me about plants there are too many of them and their genomes are crazy bonkers)... also I could just be getting old now D: