The Dawn of Dae (Dae Portals Book 1) (42 page)

“It was pretty empty.”

“His other hideout is the real issue. It was a home, correct?”

I scratched my scalp, wincing when I found a tender lump near my temple. “I didn’t see much of it, but it looked like a townhouse to me. It had a basement and at least three stories. I don’t think it had a fourth. I wasn’t paying enough attention.”

“You did exactly what you needed to do. Stop beating yourself up over it. You did admirably, all things considered. When I did pick up your trail, Colby and I were a bit preoccupied removing some other dae who thought they’d see what you were up to, so I missed a lot, too.”

Rob clacked his teeth together, cursed the slow traffic, and muttered a few things under his breath. “When I got a fix on where we were at, you had already skirted Reed Bird Island Park. You went in circles for a bit before I caught up with you near the rail yard. You really impressed me with how much distance you covered in your condition. I had no idea how badly you were injured watching you from the rooftops, not until you were about to collapse.”

“I’m sorry I can’t remember. I could see the skyscrapers from the main streets; I was using them to get a general idea of what direction to go.”

“That explains why you got turned around a bit, then—lots of things obscuring your view of the downtown core. Do you know what time of night you escaped?”

“Early.”

Rob spat curses, balled his hand into a fist, and whacked the steering wheel. “You could have been walking in circles for several hours before I found you, then. I didn’t pick up your trail until almost three in the morning. How in the hell did you avoid getting eaten on your own for so long?”

“Even a blind squirrel can find a nut every now and then.”

“Dumb luck happens, I guess,” Rob muttered, glaring at me before returning his attention to traffic. “Just keep watch and see if you remember anything, but I’m not going to waste a lot of time combing the entire city. I’d rather get you back to Gibson Island.”

“I’m feeling better.” It was mostly true; I ached, but I almost had my full range of motion back, even though lifting my arms over my head hurt like hell. “I don’t think I broke anything.”

“I don’t even know how that’s possible. I saw what happened. You hit the end of that line and jerked so hard I thought you were dead before you hit the glass.” Rob clutched the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. “Frankly, I’m still astonished you were even semi-conscious by the time I reached you.”

“How did you get to me, anyway?”

“Colby held your line while I zipped to you. You don’t remember?”

While I had a faint memory of him colliding with my back, the details were fuzzy at best. I shrugged. “Not really.”

“You did hit the glass pretty hard. Still, better to be safe. I’ll be calling in a doctor once we’re at Gibson Island.”

“Is it necessary?” Doctors liked prescribing every drug imaginable, and while Rob had kept his promise, I didn’t want to test my luck any more than I already had. The lingering desire for another high remained, and while it was within my control—so far—I feared what would happen if I had easy access to more drugs.

I shivered and stared out the window, not really seeing the buildings we passed.

“So stubborn. Yes, it’s necessary. I already told you I wouldn’t let you get hooked on painkillers. Do you want a broken rib puncturing your lung? I guarantee they’ll dose you with painkillers in the hospital with no regard for your preference on the matter.”

Grimacing at the thought of a punctured lung, I surrendered with a sigh. “Fine.”

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“You don’t have to be an ass about it.”

“Admit it; you enjoy when I rile you up.”

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. The dae’s usual smirk was in place, and I saw no sign of his car-beating temper. “It took me three years to get clean. I overdosed six times, and the only reason I wasn’t caught was because Kenneth stowed me in his basement each time. Didn’t want to risk losing a good bitch to rehab. If he had figured out I was in secondary schooling at the time, he probably would have sent me to rehab just to ruin my chances of Bach studies.”

Rob’s smirk vanished. “Yet he sabotaged your climbing gear while you’re working for him because he’s worried you’ll lead people to him.”

“There’s no proof it was sabotaged.”

“Why would that brothel girl warn you, then?”

I frowned. Monica’s behavior was unlike her; she didn’t tip off other bitches often. Whether due to the fact I wasn’t a threat to her bottom line or I’d done her enough favors in the past, she
had
warned me.

Kenneth didn’t have scruples about eliminating bitches who proved a risk to him. Returning his drugs and any data I could scrape from the electronics would probably even the scales—assuming I survived long enough for him to recant the kill order.

Without the gear, I’d never have proof of sabotage.

“Gentle upbringing.”

“Explain.”

“She’s upper middle caste. Her parents are Catholic, and while Monica doesn’t prescribe to any religion, she still dislikes violence. If she knew the gear was sabotaged, it wouldn’t settle well with her. An elite man like you is just a mark to her. Me? We’ve worked together, and she doesn’t like attack orders on other bitches. Not her style. That’s my best guess.” Shaking my head, I ran my hands through my hair. I found a second bump behind my left ear. “How many times did I hit my stupid head tonight?”

“Too many. You almost certainly have a concussion.”

“I guessed from the headache and the lumps.”

“Do you remember anything useful at all about where Hasling might be?” Rob clacked his teeth together. “
Anything
?”

“Sorry.”

“I really want to kill him,” the dae whined.

“There’s a line. I’m at the front of it. Be nice to me, and you can help.”

“I am nice to you.”

“Sometimes.”

“I’m always nice to my woman.”

I narrowed my eyes and glowered at him. “Haven’t we had this discussion before?”

“Let’s have it again. It’s such a fun discussion, Miss Daegberht. You’re my woman.”

“Do you want me to kill you?”

“Your gun is in the back seat. I’m safe enough for the moment.”

 
“For the moment. I told you,
I
get a say in this. I’m my own woman.”

Rob grinned at me. “Maybe that’s why I enjoy calling you mine. You’re so pretty when you’re angry.”

“I was mistaken. I’m not the blind squirrel, you are. You’re definitely a nutter, too.” I snorted, turning my head so I wouldn’t have to look at him. “By the way, Monica wants to take you for a ride.”

Women shared men all the time, but the thought of her sleeping with the only man I had any hope of taking to bed annoyed me almost as much as Rob’s claim of possession did. Still, she had tried to warn me of Kenneth’s treachery. Passing on her offer was the least I could do.

 
“Too bad for her. I’m not interested.”

“She wanted us both.”

“My attention span is limited to one woman, and unfortunately for Miss Monica, I’ve already decided you’re mine.” Rob chuckled, and when I didn’t say a word, he whistled a happy little tune.

I couldn’t tell if he was happy because of his claim on me or because another woman wanted him. Deciding it didn’t matter, I stretched out as much as I could and closed my eyes for the rest of the drive to Gibson Island.

I had three cracked ribs, a concussion, and a myriad of sprains to show for my run-in with a skyscraper. The doctor Rob hired clucked his tongue, shook his head, and left several prescriptions.

The stench of sulfur lingered long after the man’s departure.

“I
hate
fire-breathers,” I hissed when I was certain the man couldn’t hear me. The dae’s poking and prodding had intensified my headache, my vision was blurred, and I was convinced I’d never be able to breathe again without pain ripping across my chest.

Rob leaned against the kitchen counter and smiled at me. “I’m not a fire-breather.”

“One of your few redeeming qualities.”

“You’ll have to get used to them, Miss Daegberht. Fortunately, you will find most are not as aggressive or foolish as Mr. Hasling.”

While I recognized he was being polite by using my last name to address me, it bothered me into saying, “Alexa.”

“Pardon?”

“My name is Alexa. Miss Daegberht is for uptight idiots and elite who can’t relax.”

“You have a deeply ingrained dislike for the elite, don’t you?”

I scowled because it was true. “So what?”

Rob slid along the counter to join me, halting when his elbow brushed mine. “We’re not all bad.”

“I already said you have a few redeeming qualities.”

“Tough crowd,” he muttered.

With the doctor gone, I could get to work dealing with Kenneth so I could get on with my life—and off his hit list. I left the kitchen and went to the living room, grabbing both cases on my way to the couch. I set them both on the coffee table, sank down on the leather with a low groan, and went to work unloading our bounty.

The scents were probably enough to pacify Kenneth, but the mysterious packages I had found in the toilet interested me the most. Tossing the empty cases onto the floor to clear space, I went to work opening the bags.

Most of them contained a variety of crystals and powders. The package that had been taped to the lid of the toilet’s tank contained two vials. One had a small amount of the red fluid while the other was full.

“Bingo.”

“This is what Mr. Smith is after?”

“He probably used the rest, but recovering some is better than none. Too bad for Kenneth, but I’ll keep this one,” I announced, lifting the almost-empty vial. “Insurance—and a test sample.”

“A test sample?”

“Kenneth said the tests can’t pick this stuff up. If that’s true, it’s worth a fortune. There’s something special about this stuff if he’s so desperate to get it back and willing to sabotage my gear to keep my mouth shut about it.” I swallowed, setting my test sample to the side. “This’ll prove I was doing his work fair and square.”

“Except for your insurance sample.”

“If he did sabotage my gear, it seems fair enough I take out an insurance policy—and figure out what’s so important about these drugs.”

Rob hopped over the back of the couch and bounced onto the cushion beside me. “I like the way you think.”

“Make yourself useful; pack one of the cases with these drugs,” I said, grabbing the laptop and pulling it to me. I opened the lid, took the chip Rob had acquired, and inserted it in the reader slot.

“What are you doing?”

“Busting Terry’s laptop,” I replied, powering on the device. While some of Kenneth’s hounds were good at hacking, I wasn’t one of them. I relied on custom viruses to break the computer enough I could access the files and transfer them to a different computer. The viruses did the real work while leaving the files ripe for the plundering.

It took a little less than five minutes for me to crack to the system’s command line prompt. “These chips are a crap shoot. If you have an idiot owner, they work without fail. Smart folks disable the chip readers so they won’t load in anything during boot up. You’d figure manufacturers would disable it by default, but no. It’s like they want their systems hacked.”

I ejected the chip with the virus and held it out to Rob. With a puzzled frown, he took it. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“You paid for it, so you get to keep it. It should bust into most systems. You won’t crack a government-issued machine with it, but it’ll get by the basic protections. Depending on if Kenneth had the virus updated since I last used it, it might get by some mid-level users. Just don’t get caught with it.”

“This is quite the dangerous little tool.”

“It also cost you what most people make in a year.”

Rob’s eyes widened. “This little thing was what cranked the price of the gear so high?”

While I copied files from Terry Moore’s computer, I decided to humor the dae. “I’m not a hacker, but from my understanding, the chip’s special, designed specifically for this purpose. In order for most computers to accept an auto-run program, there’s some special code involved. Every laptop manufacturer has a different code. Without a chip with special configuration, the virus is useless. It won’t run once the operating system initializes. To make matters worse, the manufacturers update the codes every three or so months. That’s also why it won’t work on government systems; no one gets the codes and specifications for them. Once the computer has booted up, the operating system locks viruses out. I can’t tell you much more than that, but the virus sneaks in when the system is vulnerable during boot up. Lack the manufacturer code and the right type of chip, and you can’t get in.”

“I spent a year’s salary on a chip with a maximum of a three-month lifespan?”

“Yes, you did. Got a problem with that?”

“Do you have any idea how sexy your manipulation of my wallet is?”

I couldn’t help myself; I grinned at him. “The fine for possession of such a chip is equivalent to ten years’ salary.”

“Damn, woman. You’re vicious.”