Madam Zelsim was in the same spot in the door that Alec had first seen her in. The difference was this time, despite the party sounds inside, she wore a medical smock and a surgical mask. At first, Alec assumed she had prepared for a possible wounded immortal, then he realized there was fresh blood on the apron. What had she been doing?

  "You look no worse for wear." The accent was even thicker when muffled by the mask. She pulled it down under her chin. "At first I thought, How fortunate! I was in the midst of surgery in the medical room anyway. But true to your reputation, you require no work." The last was said with disappointment.

  "Surgery?" Alec asked, not wanting to hear the answer but needing to know.

  "A boy had a broken leg, but we have him up and running with a prosthetic now…" The last trailed off like a lie. The look in the madam's eyes and the amount of blood on her medical garb implied quite a different story. He pushed past her, and she turned to keep pace with him.

  "The baron is awaiting you in the showroom." She said in breathy tones as Alec intentionally kept a pace he knew her legs could barely keep up with. He took the twists and turns logged into his mind, and as they passed the hall to the downstairs lift, the madam broke off in a gasping breath. "You seem to know the way. I have work to attend to." She turned and braced herself on the hallway frame for a moment. Alec didn't answer; he turned on his boot heel and stalked up the stairs. Sounds of men's merrymaking and music drifted out of the upstairs showroom. One wealthier-looking noble stumbled out, clearly drunk at this early hour. Perhaps not recovered from the night before. Or not even stopped yet. Alec resisted the urge to push him head over heels off the balcony. By the looks of it, alcohol would kill this man nearly as quick. Alec passed by him; he had bigger game afoot.

  The Baron stood near the map, but his back was to Alec as he stared up at his Aamaranth Girl. Alec could tell by the way the man's shoulders moved that he knew Alec was there, but he did not turn to acknowledge it. Alec made his boots ring as he stepped into the hall. Some men had gathered unwilling local or Teretha servants. They sat on the men's laps smiling when they should, but their eyes were haunted and looked to Alec for hope. He dismissed the thought from his head; the last thing he needed was to entertain the idea that he was a saviour to a people who didn't need one. As Maywil had said so well, "the Teretha would save themselves." Alec was here as karma's tool; he would follow Tusong's lead. He looked to the women who were citizens of the baronhood. Each woman held the same look, Teretha or another. Alec decided he would make sure all the innocents here were saved.

  He was close to Baron Von Sinclair, but the man still stood in rapt attention to the suspended woman. The look in her eye was that of a wild horse finding itself corralled. Alec stepped between the two of them. The Baron moved almost to strike the offending view. The man was fast, Alec could tell. He logged that for later. Von Sinclair was not like the fleshy, lazy Barons of the upper worlds. This man was a predator on his own turf.

  The Baron calmed his look, acknowledging Alec finally in a moment of feigned acceptance. "Ah, the unkillable returns. And I hear eight of my men died along the way. You surely are worth the price." Von Sinclair indicated to a box sitting near the map, where the Baron stood protectively. The lid was opened to reveal nearly 50 vials of Aamaranth. Why double the rate now? Alec sensed a trap, or at the very least, some moves being performed that made him double-think his plan. He looked around the room at the outfitting of the security turrets, the barons' drunken yet armed men, and six elite officers. The latter stood at attention, not drunk. These were not the Baron's trained boys turned mechamen. These were true hybrid soldiers like those of the rift station. Sent straight from the Baron's universal army on Earth Prime.

  "Thought the deal was 25," Alec stated, gathering his thoughts. His preparation very rarely left room for improvisation, so well calculated was it. This left Alec feeling as if he was dancing on his heels alone.

  "I've found the quickest way to results is to inspire. By the state of your clothes and the vehicle outside, the risks are palpable. Where most of my baronhood brothers and sisters would torment you indefinitely." He paused at this, letting it sink in. His eyes were sharp and full of rage as they analyzed Alec. "Any deaths attributed to those blooder scum becomes a thorn in my side. A guard was overheard, and it caused quite the chaos in a tunnel. Mere minutes in delay in an Aamaranth mine are millions of credits lost."

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  The blood on the madam's smock made sense now to Alec. As did the rage he could sense buried beneath the Baron's performance. He continued, "This is an incentive to decrease martyrs. I can't have any more of my men die to give hope to those people. I find that with the threat, I must draw them closer to the mansion as well as impose a heavier-handed rule with the Teretha."

  Von Sinclair turned his attention to the map behind him and signalled to Alec to look. There, Alec could see marked sentry positions with what appeared to be updated location data as the soldiers moved. The Baron had indeed concentrated his troops on the mansion. He had also established a perimeter around the Teretha camp. Alec looked at the map to see where he would have parked Quip. Sure enough, there was a geotag titled "foreign vehicle." Quip indeed was being tracked by the bridle.

  The Baron was looking to Alec to gauge his reaction as he continued. "I know the rebels have connections to the inside. I have limited all water to Teretha homes to 1 cup per household, within the guidelines of the Xerith Accord, until the man is brought dead or turns himself in."

  "Looks well thought out." Alec took time studying the map, buying his brain some time to think. The Baron was clearly testing him to see where his allegiances aligned. In his hubris, however, he had given Alec a chance to study the defences of this place. There would be hidden challenges for sure, a man like Sinclair would keep a few cards up his sleeve.

  The Baron continued, twisting the noose and looking for any readable sign from Alec. "Food rations have been removed from the men and any non-nursing women, and as we speak, Madam Zelsim is creating a sickness targeted to their tainted blood. When it is done, we will wash the mountains with it and bring them down by a pox if you cannot finish this in time. I will not suffer any more loss to these blooder scum."

  The last was uttered with blind hatred, and Alec saw his way in. He could turn this to his advantage. He would lean into this hatred and appear to share it with the Baron, even though his heart hated him for it. "Threats aren't pain. You brought me here for a reason, and it's because as wonderful as your mind is, mine is fine-tuned to create suffering." Alec paused for effect. "Take their pregnant and nursing mothers, take the children. Take their future. Place it down below us where you house the other workers." Alec hoped the sick feeling he had was showing up as disgust for his perceived enemy.

  The Baron took it in stride with a wicked grin on his face. "Then we shall host a party for them. Men," he addressed the table of captains and nobles with the unwilling women on their laps. "Soon we will have a house full of fresh blood. Wake the nobles that sleep." He flicked a radio switch, and a soldier's voice asked for orders. "Round up the blooder women that are with whelps or feeding them. Bring them and every child to the house. I will inform Veslim to prepare."

  Alec took his turn to push a little farther. If this was going to work, it would take every opportunity he could create. He pointed to the guarded positions around the Teretha camp. "Once you have them rounded up, move these soldiers to outside the main wall. Let the men think they can leave."

  The Baron interrupted him, "We cannot track them; otherwise, this would be done. The dust in the air messes with any long-range sensors."

  Alec walked through the open door. "Again, you hired me for a reason. I will lie in wait outside of town. I must have been getting close to where I lost your men. Otherwise, why ambush clearly better-equipped forces? I will be able to follow anyone who leaves the camp."

  Von Sinclair seemed to buy the faked cruelty in Alec's plan. He barked a few more orders into the radio to move the strategic positions once the Teretha were contained. Alec could see motion in tags labelled "hover 1, 2, 3" and so on. The Baron was using the hovering Aamaranth haulers to gather the Teretha as Alec had recommended. "If there is nothing else, I will prepare outside of the town. The insider could move at any time to inform the rebels."

  The Baron nodded in agreement but had turned his attention to his captains and some nobles now wandering into the hall. He was planning a party, a chance to torment the women of the Teretha. Alec had managed to find his strategic open door, but it was closing quickly, along with all the windows. There was once a course of action that would have to happen now. The time Alec had planned to train the Teretha rebels was no more. His fast-firing biomechanical brain fired all synapses. He could almost feel the Aamaranth draining with thought. It was telling him there was a way to use Teretha's natural spirits to win without retraining them into an army.

  He glanced with longing at the fifty vials of Aamaranth in the box. He was done with the easy choice that served himself. After a millennium of self-preservation, Alec had finally found something that was worth all the Aamaranth in the world.