Page 59 of Spark Transform

“They’re as lucky to have you as you are to have found them.” Compassionate, high-level healers who had never worked for the CPS were rare. She smiled. “I’ve heard your rescue story at least six times.”

He smiled crookedly and raised an eyebrow. “Not from Brenner, I’d wager.”

“No.” She chuckled, remembering his mumbled explanation that he’d helped a friend move. “He told us why he was late, but he definitely left out the good parts.”

Haseem started down the stairs. “Soleil is back, by the way. She’s in her office.”

“Thanks.” She made her way down the hall to her temporary room. Pushing the sling bags aside, she sat on the narrow cot and opened the shopping bag.

Dull-colored flexin base layer and recycled clothes for Brenner, because he wouldn’t wear new. A used camouflage raincoat and better flexin armor tunics. A new percomp and earwire to replace the ones he’d fried. She quickly keyed them to the biometrics she had on file for him. He could set his own security codes later.

Once she’d gotten Brenner into Haseem’s capable hands, she let him apply woundpacks on her scrapes, but refused a pain patch. She needed clear-headed time to think.

As much as she wanted to finish the stories she started, she didn’t want to find out how many more people her enemies were willing to hurt to get to her. The loose travel plans she’d made when she first arrived on Mabingion hadn’t accounted for a hasty exit. She’d made new arrangements and set them in motion, then tried to doze while she waited for confirmations. Unfortunately, sleep had been impossible. Her finder talent was ablaze with the wealth of connections it found.

Starting with Soleil, the somehow-familiar ex-Jumper. Every time Arco met someone in Soleil’s orbit, the list of connections kept expanding. Her partner Josh, with curiously variable body language and accent. A high-end autodoc in a more-than-it-seemed Canals warehouse. Cryptic references in Davidro’s journal that suddenly formed a pattern. Ayorinn’s Legacy. A sharp rise in cloned minder drugs and reverses. Persistent CPS data leaks. Mental shields for anyone. Outraged pharma lobbyists. Massive CPS budget cuts for the first time in living memory.

With time, she could sort them all out, but she didn’t have that luxury. Her team couldn’t cover for her any longer.

She opened Brenner’s bag, which her team had retrieved from her new flat. The newer clothes easily fit in with the familiar clothes, toiletries, and weapons.

From her own bag, she removed the duplicate of the flexin tunic she’d had to leave at the construction site. She stripped off the borrowed top, then pulled on her tunic and new raincoat that looked just like the old ones. Colleagues teased her about her sparse, repetitive wardrobe, but her habit of buying multiples of the clothes she liked was paying off now. She folded the borrowed knit top and placed it, along with the empty shopping bag, on the bed.

Last but not least, she fished out a handful of anonymous cashflow chips and used her tablet to transfer funds owed to Brenner onto them, keyed to his biometrics.

After a quick check around the room for forgotten items, she stuffed her folded tablet in her pocket, then scooped up everything else and headed downstairs to the office.

Soleil stood near the mud-spattered window, smiling at her tall and handsome partner Josh, who was scooping up dirty cups from the desks.

Arco hovered near the doorway. “Sorry to interrupt, but I have another favor to ask. Can I leave Brenner’s bag and some cashflows with you? He’ll need them when he wakes up.”

Soleil’s eyes widened with surprise. “You’re leaving?”

Arco nodded. “Police investigators are already poking around my accounts. They probably got a tip, which points to me being the likely target for the spider mech. To keep them off balance, I need to have been at Novo Granica all night.”

Soleil nodded. “Sure.” Her chin pointed toward the guest chair. “Leave them there.”

Arco exhaled forcefully. “Actually, I’m leaving the planet.”

Josh’s eyebrows raised. “What about Brenner?”

Arco hoped she was doing the right thing. “That’s up to him. He’s free to make his own star chart this time.”

Without knowing what Brenner had and hadn’t told Josh or Soleil, she couldn’t say more, much less ask what they thought. “When he wakes up, tell him to check his pings.”

Josh frowned. “If my opinion matters, I think your newest story tying the elite CPS squad to the multiple fatal ‘accidents’ has them categorizing you as a primary threat.” His accent changed subtly to clipped Nordic consonants. “Don’t give up your security team.”

Her finder sense made another connection in her memory, but she ignored it. Not her business that Josh might have been a former Kameleon. The CPS refused to admit they existed, but thanks to Davidro’s journals, she knew they did. “I’ll keep them as long as I can, but I’m a trouble magnet. I believe that same squad took out an entire building in Arazak to silence one troublesome professor.” She shook her head. “I’ll neutralize the threat by taking my ass to the other side of the galaxy and reporting on anything but the CPS. Settlement company abuses. Financial fiddles. Prize bovines.”

Soleil was silent for a long moment, her expression remote. “The CPS gets what they want, then.”

That stung. “Yeah, but I get to live. Brenner lives. You and your students all get to see tomorrow.” Biting back her temper, she dropped Brenner’s bag on the chair. “I’m a danger to you all if I stay.”

Soleil snorted. “Jumpers eat danger for dinner.”

Arco shook her head. “Children don’t. Pregnant cats don’t. Haseem doesn’t.” She held out her hand with the packet of cashflow chips. “Please give these to Brenner along with his bag.”

Soleil stepped closer and took it. “I will. Hope to see you again someday. You’re a good influence on the students.”