“Are you a lurcher?”
“Hell no.” I bend to unclip the lock and then twist it so that the teeth of the lock disengage. I’m about to open it when I catch the girl’s eyes again. “I’m on your side, girly. If you little brats want to see your parents again, you do just as I say. Otherwise we’ll all get peeled apart like onions for a stew.” I watch them expectantly. “This is the part where you nod.” They both nod. First the boy, then the girl. “Good.”
I open the latch and step back, keeping my gun trained on the Duke. The girl bursts out but the boy follows more tentatively, eyeing the Duke and me curiously. He’s more tender and scientific than the girl, it seems. More willing to cooperate. I’ll talk to him. Then I feel something cold and metal against the back of my spine. I turn slightly and see the girl holding a solid razor to my back, which she must have fetched from the stack. I laugh at the size of it in her hands, but there’s no humor in the pale girl’s eyes. I’d call her bluff if I didn’t know who her psychotic parents were. The kid is feral.
“Very smart, little lady. Kill your ticket out of here.” I step away from the razor. She shuffles forward, the blade never leaving my spine. I look to the boy. “Will you tell her to stop slagging about? We’re wasting time.”
“Electra, he’s right.”
The girl twitches her blade to the side and cuts me shallowly on the arm.
“Dammit. I’m bleeding enough,” I say.
“That’s a down payment,” she replies. She reaches into the box of razors, trying them till she finds another blade. She tosses it to the boy. He catches it nimbly and spins it in his small hands.
Little warlords, I remind myself.
“What’s our point of egress?” the boy asks me like he’s a real soldier.
“There’s a ship on a private dock two floors up,” I say, holding up the key. “There’s also a main garage, but it’ll be swarming with thorns.”
“Place will already be swarming,” the Duke says bitterly. “You’re dead flesh walking.”
“He’s right,” the girl mutters. “You made hell coming in here.”
“Sound might not have traveled,” I say hopefully.
“We heard it through the vault, Gray.”
“What’s your name?” the boy asks me.
“My name?” I laugh. “Ephraim.”
He extends a small hand. The little halfbreed is mocking me, but his eyes are sincere. I laugh again and take the small hand. There are no sigils on it, but I’m surprised by the calluses I find there. “Pax,” he says. “Are the Telemanuses alive? The rest of the staff?”
“Don’t know.” I grab the Duke and haul him to his feet. “Up. Highness, you’re our human shield.” I straighten his jacket and leave him between the little monsters with their razors at the mouth of the vault. The Duke cowers. He’s already attacked me twice. I was surprised. I thought he’d wilt like a flower soon as I threatened him. “Watch him for a moment. Stick him if he gets out of line.”
“Immobilizing strike or just a flesh wound?” the girl asks.
“Goryhell. Just watch him. Little psycho.”
The boy grows quiet and serious as he sees the bodies outside the vault. Unfazed, the girl turns back impatiently as I cram the bag I brought full of gems and bearer bonds. It breaks my heart to see how little I can fit in the bag and how much loot I’ll leave behind. I could spend days in here. Place would have melted Cyra’s circuits. “What are you doing?” the girl says, scowling.
“Sorry, I have a problem.” I zip shut the bag and throw it up on my shoulder. I contemplate taking a razor for a souvenir, but the things are damn terrifying, so I settle for an old iron ring with a three-headed dragon snarling out from its surface. I’m about to leave when I catch sight of a familiar splash of blue and yellow paint on a canvas out of the corner of my eye.
It can’t be.
“Gray, we have to go!”
I ignore her and rifle through the stacked canvases, tossing several million credits’ worth of paintings on the ground, and pull out a small-framed oil-on-canvas painting. I laugh incredulously at the picture of Dalí’s dread monster: in bright, cracked colors soft watches drape over a tree branch and against the corner of a brown shelf. It is La persistencia de la memoria. I’m suddenly conscious of the blood on my fingers. “Gray!” the girl shouts. Wiping my hands, I carefully cut open the back of the frame and slide the canvas out, rolling it gently and slipping it into the bag. Feeling a bit lighter, I join the children.
“I once investigated this claim. They said it was lost in a fire!” I say with a laugh. “I knew they were lying.”
“Stealing even now,” the girl sneers. “You’re disgusting.”
“Quiet, hatchetface.” I grab the Duke by the back of his collar and push him through the entry room toward the double doors. “Everyone stick close to me. If anyone comes close, you stab them right in the jewels. Understand?” They both nod. The boy is a model of concentration. He paled when he saw the bodies I left on the floor, but now he’s lowered his head in anger. Same dead-set jaw as his father, but his hands shake as they hold the too-large razor. Pretend to be spawn of the Reaper all he likes, he’s just a terrified boy.
“You ready, little monsters?” They nod. I look at the closed door leading out of the antechamber back into the hall and feel the dread of what lies beyond it seep into me. “Let’s go.”
We open the door. Half a dozen guns roar. The door shakes and wood shatters as bullets and energy chew into it. I slam closed the door and duck with the children, hauling the Duke down into my lap. “You blind idiots!” I shout out over the Duke’s head. “I have your duke!” No one responds from the other side. “You, peek out there,” I tell the girl.
Her eyes widen. “What?”
“You’re the most expendable, look out there and tell me what you see.”
“Slag you.”
“Fine.” I grab the Duke and shove him out, then jerk him back. “What did you see?”
“Fuck you.”
“Will no one cooperate?!”
“I’ll do it,” Pax says. Before he can move, the girl shoves him back and darts her head to look through the holes in the door, then dips back to shelter.
“Four Obsidian braves, six Grays, three Browns. Six EFC-37 rifles, two GR-19 pistols, two Eaglefor PR-117s, a Vulcan 8k pulseFist. Couldn’t make out the rest.”
I stare at her. “So, no dolls for you, huh?”
“Was this your plan?” she asks. “How is this your plan?”
“Yap yap yap. You’re the one who got kidnapped, dumbass.” I rise to a crouch and push my gun against the Duke. “Tell them not to shoot.”
“Don’t shoot.”
“Louder, obviously.” He glares at me like he has a choice. I grab his balls through his robe and twist.
“Don’t shoot. This is your duke! Don’t shoot.” I dare a quick peek out through the door. A row of thorns clog the hallway. They look at each other in confusion.
“Tell them to put their weapons on the ground.”