Elite (Citizen Saga, Book 1) (9 page)

I felt sick. Sitting opposite Tan in a café drinking my third cup of coffee. I felt ill.

"I did warn you," he said softly, sipping his water, having only suffered through one caffeine hit.

"Does this actually work?" I asked, forcing more coffee down my throat.

"The compounding serotonin effect of caffeine counteracts the neurotoxicity of the Serenity Tab, but it's short lived."

"Great," I managed, taking another forced sip.

"How much did you have?"

"A negligible amount."

He sighed again and pushed his glass of water away. His eyes trailing over the sundress I now wore. It was a simple Citizen appropriate outfit, blending in with the many that were out on the packed street in front of this store.

"How's Aiko?" I asked into the strangely strained silence as Tan continued to stare.

"Better than you," he offered and carried on with his perusal of what he could see of the dress.

"Do you mind?" I asked archly. Tan and I didn't have the kind of relationship where he noticed my boobs or stared at my arse.

"You look different," he said with a shrug.

"Good different or bad?" Meaning, could it get me into trouble, not did he like the change?

He understood.

"You fit in, but I know you. Something's happened. Wanna talk?"

My turn to sigh.

I shook my head, closing my eyes behind the sunglasses.

"I guess I'm tired."

He huffed out a breath.

"We've been tired for years now, Lena. Maybe it was time you started to feel the exhaustion too."

My eyes snapped open and I held his steady gaze. I had the feeling we were talking about something else other than lack of sleep.

"I want to ask, what do you mean? But I'm scared I won't like the answer," I admitted quietly.

He leaned forward, over the table. I met him halfway.

"Tell me what you're feeling. Right now. The emotion that captures you in this instant," he demanded, only loud enough for me to hear. Anyone would think we were whispering sweet nothings to each other. It helped that they couldn't see the expression in our eyes behind the shades.

"Confused?" I offered.

"It's a start. What else?"

I took a second to think about it. "Frustrated."

"Better. Go on."

"Angry," I added, my voice soft, belying the emotion.

Tan held my gaze, almost as though holding his breath, then whispered, "Why?"

Coffee beans whirring in the grinder filled my ears, the bang of the barista emptying sodden grounds into the dump bin joined in. Music and conversation and the voice from an advertisement running on a vid-screen added to the cacophony of noise around our little cocoon. I had the feeling that something was changing. Maybe something to do with our relationship, but I thought, perhaps, it was more profound than that.

"I hated taking it," I finally whispered, somehow loud enough for Tan to hear. We were so close now, I could feel his breath heating my lips. "I didn't want to."

"You never do," he pointed out, meaning that's not what was new. And he was right.

"Yeh Zhang Yong is dead." My voice was all but gone, only the reading of my lips allowed Tan to understand me.

"Wiped?" he mouthed back, horror coating his face and then in the next instant vanished from sight behind a Citizen appropriate mask.

I nodded.

He leaned back in his seat and stared out the window, blindly I think.

In the middle of chaotic
Wáikěiton
, in a café filled to the brim with mindless Wánměi Citizens, on a day like any other in this city-state, I realised I wanted it to end. I wanted something else.

Not just a challenge. Not just a distraction from the boredom. Not just a reason to forget how my father died.

I wanted freedom.

Tan's eyes came back to me and he offered a small smile.

"Welcome to the real world, Lena. I've been waiting for you to arrive."

I stared at him, my lips parted, my heart thundering inside my chest, an ache setting up shop in my eyes. And I knew I had never truly seen Tan, and probably Aiko, as clearly as I did right now. I wasn't sure how to proceed, how to keep our relationship as natural and informal as it had been. They were different from who I had thought them.

I was different from who I had been.

But it didn't matter, because Tan behaved like nothing had changed, when we both knew
everything
had.

"So, you want to know his name?" he asked with a sly smile. "Is this to protect yourself, Lena, or because you're curious?"

"Don't be absurd," I replied, relieved beyond measure that he was teasing. Despite the reason why. "I'm at a disadvantage and you know how I hate that."

"Oh, yeah," he said with feeling. "So how're we going to level the field?"

"I was hoping you had an idea."

"I could check iRec when he appears. Text you once I get a hit."

I frowned, then muttered, "
If
he appears."

He huffed out a manly chuckle, appearing young and carefree, and out of place in the café all of a sudden. His eyes scanned the surrounding tables automatically, as though he knew he'd given himself away.

Why had I not stopped to consider how wrong that need was? The automatic desire to blend in. I'd hated it, no lie. But I hadn't really cared enough to question why. My hand came up and brushed the outline of the thumb-drive in my bra. It seemed like a good place to hide it. Not too many people got to look in there.

Tan and Aiko weren't aware of what exactly I had gone after at Wántel, they just knew I had followed up on a lead General Chew-wen had given me. A lead I'd gained by eavesdropping. Tan had never questioned why I did what I did, just accepted that I needed his support to do it. I realised now his encouragement had been for a purpose.

He'd been waiting, all right. And in the meantime, he'd been helping me hone my skill.

I leaned forward and waved him closer. His eyebrows rose, but he obeyed.

"What do you know about Sat-Loc?" I whispered into his ear, one hand cupping his cheek to make it look like a kiss.

He pulled back slightly and looked me in the eye, directly through my sunglasses lens.

"Is that what you took?" he whispered back, then reached up and cupped the nape of my neck, pulling me closer and breathing hot air against my lobe. "What does it do?"

He didn't know any more than me. Actually, he probably knew less. At least I knew there were codes on the file, but what they did was anyone's guess.

I shook my head, shrugging my shoulders to back the non-verbal statement up.

"This guy," he said softly. "The Cardinal. Does he want it too?"

I held his gaze with a steady one of my own.

"Yeah he wants it too," he surmised from my non-committal look.

They were all one and the same, I knew that now. The tech whiz Harjeet had connected me with, the Cardinal pretender, and the black clad men at Wántel.

"Why are you meeting him again?" Tan asked with a disbelieving sigh.

"Lena Carr's been compromised and I don't have Zhang Yong anymore."

"Fucking hell," he muttered under his breath, picking up his glass of water and taking a long drink to cool down.

"Burn her," he declared when he set the empty glass back on the table's surface.

"You know I can't do that."

"Become someone else," he suggested. "Buy another ID."

I flicked a wary glance around the café, but no one was paying attention to us.

"Not an option," I replied, my eyes still scanning our surroundings.

"You court unnecessary danger, you know that, Lena? You take risks you don't need to take."

My eyes came back to his face.

"They're mine to take."

"I can see why Aiko was attracted to you. You're reckless. She likes impulsive behaviour."

"I am not reckless," I shot back. I took precautions. I used a safety harness when one was lying out on the gantry I just happened to jump down to from a thirty storey roof.

I shifted in my seat.

"Don't get me wrong, Carr, I'm just as drawn to your inability to follow the rules as the next man."

My turn to offer an inappropriate huff of laughter. I covered it by lifting my near empty coffee cup to my lips.

"OK," he said leaning forward again. "We do it my way or not at all."

I could have argued. I'd always been the one in charge. But I felt strangely imbalanced, off kilter, out on a limb. And truthfully, I was just relieved to share the burden with someone I could trust.

"I'll iRec him from the back of Yum Cha. You hold off committing to anything until you receive my text." He sat back and grumbled, "Not that a name is going to change how trustworthy he is."

I smiled winningly at him across the table and reached up to pull my sunglasses off my nose.

"How do I look?" I asked.

I batted my eyelashes and then opened my eyes wide in a baby doll impersonation.

Tan snorted, crossing his arms in a disgruntled fashion over his chest, and said, "Like a lamb to the fucking slaughter house."

I was attempting to hide my laughter when I saw him out of the window, standing across the street watching us. How long he'd been there, I didn't know. He looked comfortable. Dressed in Citizen appropriate jeans and a t-shirt that hugged his rather fine chest. His shoes were still scuffed.

"How good are you on iRec-ing off the cuff?" I asked Tan, keeping my eyes locked on the deep blue that stared back.

"Why?" Tan asked carefully.

"Because by the time I cross
Federal
Street I want you to text me his name."

Tan wasn't naive enough to look out the window and confirm what I was looking at. I could feel his hard stare on my turned cheek, the silence seeming to emanate from his body.

Along with the tension.

"Walk slowly," he suggested and I smiled. It was probably a little wicked because a frown appeared on the Cardinal pretender's hard face.

I pushed up from my seat, straightening my dress and then finally turned to face Tan, who had risen as well.

"Wish me luck," I said.

He shook his head slowly, eyes rolling.

"Do me a favour?" he asked when he was done with the show.

I stopped moving and looked up at him, waiting for the request. My back to the window and our observer, my attention all on Tan.

Tan smiled down at me, lifted one hand to my chin, the other with his modified cellphone came up and rested on my shoulder, lens pointing out across the street.

"Oh, you're a bad man," I whispered.

"Babe," he said as if I'd accused him of stealing candy from a child. And then he leaned down and pressed his lips to my lips.

The cellphone camera repetitively beeped softly in my ear as a growl of protest sprang up from the back of my throat.

Tan pulled away looking smug. The kiss had been nothing really. But his timing was definitely a statement.

"Let's see how he handles that," he announced as the cellphone chimed an iRec hit. "Oh, and lookie here, Carr. Your man has a name."

I started backing away from him towards the door of the café, my eyes flicking out the window to make sure my quarry was still there. He was. Arms crossed over his chest now, a scowl on his face, the blue of his eyes darker as they bore into mine.

Oh, this should be interesting.

"And that is?" I said as I reached the busy entrance.

Tan's smile dimmed, the importance and risk of what I was doing conveyed in his steady gaze. Take care, his look said. Be careful, his eyes pleaded.

Then he said in all seriousness, "Masters. His name is Trent Masters."

I had a name. It didn't mean anything. But now we were even.

Or at least I hoped.

So, she had a boyfriend. I shouldn't have been surprised. What was interesting was that the boyfriend was definitely a Citizen and she dressed down for him. Not that I was complaining about the sundress, it was short and cute and displayed a rather impressive cleavage.

And, on second thoughts, the fact that she had a Citizen boyfriend could be considered a plus. It meant she associated with my kind. Maybe she sympathised, too. Maybe she wouldn't be opposed to joining the revolution.

Ah, fuck. Who was I kidding? The boyfriend had to go and I was only interested in the fact she ran with Citizens, because it made my goal easier. And my goal involved her and a bed, and not the fucking revolution.

I closed my eyes for a moment willing my mind out of the gutter as she finally approached the door to the café. I'd been watching for ten minutes. Si advising earlier that she'd been recorded in a limousine arriving at
Federal
Street. It had taken me half an hour to find her, and God knows how cosy she and the boyfriend had been in that time.

I didn't want to think about it.

No, what I needed to do was get my head back in the game. She had the codes, hidden somewhere. And we needed them. End of story.

I smiled as she walked across the busy pedestrian packed street. I saw a small frown mar her lush lips and then disappear. I dialled back the grin, not wanting to overplay it, and worked on holding her gaze.

Something was off about her eyes, and for a second I couldn't place it. But when she stopped directly in front of me, no more than two feet away, it became clear.

She'd dosed up.

The acrid taste of bitter disappointment met my tongue and I pushed off from the post I'd been leaning against and ground out, "I'm starved. Didn't you say something about Yum Cha?"

"No official greeting, Cardinal?" she asked sweetly, as she trailed behind, not bothering to exert herself to catch up.

Once an Elite, always an Elite. I'd do well to remember that.

"Were you expecting one?" I shot back, flicking a gaze over my shoulder at her.

She was paler than before, sweating in the heat. Eyes darting all around her, pupils enlarged. The sunglasses were back on, but I was close enough to see detail, and there was strain evident in the line of her lips now. A small crease between her brows.

She limped.

This was not the Elite I had met in
Muhgah Keekee
.

This was not the woman I had seen jump off a building and somersault through the air.

What the fuck had happened to make her take her Serenity ration?

I slowed down my rapid pace, and called myself every pansy-arsed name under the sun for doing it. Something about this woman made me lose all perspective. Something about her was highly likely to cause my death.

I held the door open to Yum Cha and let her precede me. Her hair brushed my arm as she pushed eagerly into the air conditioned interior, the smell of her shampoo meeting my nose. Flowery and fresh. I'm not up on which petal smells like what, but it suited her. Delicate and pretty.

The maître d' approached and she spoke in fluent
Wáitaměi
, taking control of the situation with aplomb. For some reason I let her. I was telling myself it was because she amused.

We were seated away from the window, but that was only because she asked for that particular table and made sure she was sitting with her back to the wall. Even dosed up she was careful, and I wondered whether, under normal circumstances, if the drug had any effect on her at all. She hadn't been dosed when I saw her last, so I had to assume this was an unexpected shock to her system and that's why she was compromised.

I should probably use that advantage.

I sat down opposite her, taking the menu from the server and waiting until they'd left us alone to peruse the dishes. My eyes stayed locked on her face as she pretended to read what was on offer.

"I hear the chilli crab is good," I suggested.

Her pale blue eyes came up to mine, the sunglasses packed away. A trade off for sitting out of sight in the dim rear of the restaurant.

God. She was beautiful. Even half drugged as she obviously was now.

"Do you believe in destiny, Cardinal?" she asked, ignoring my banal statement.

"Do you?"

She smiled that Elite smile they have. Superior, condescending.

"I believe there is a reason why we met," she replied pleasantly.

I could have shocked her. I could have told her exactly why I hoped we'd met and it had nothing to do with revolutions.

But I didn't.

"And why is that, Honourable Selena Carstairs?" I asked instead.

"Because I have something you want," she began and for a split second I thought I saw a wicked gleam in her eyes.

Well, now. Maybe she did know why I hoped we'd met.

"And you have something I need," she finished.

Again I had to force my mind out of the gutter. That wasn't why we were here.

"Do you even know what you've got, Selena?" I asked, then added, "You don't mind me calling you Selena, do you?"

She held my gaze, a serene smile on her face that I don't think was entirely Serenity related, and said, "As long as you don't mind me calling you Trent."

And just like that I knew I'd met my match.

And there was absolutely nothing in this God forsaken city that could stop me from catching her.

Selena Carstairs was going to be mine.