Page 82 of Stars At Dusk

The comm call connected, and a woman’s voice picked up after a few pings. She sounded tremulous and filled with fear. ‘Who is this?’

‘Tis Aran,mamin. You OK?’

‘Me OK? Me OK!? I had enough of you,kijana, you ‘most got me dead!’ she cried down the comm line.

‘Where are you?’ Aran ventured.

‘East-side,’ she hissed. ‘They dumped me at the markets. So you no come home nowkijana, ya hear? I be this mad I may dead you myself.’

Despite her outrage, Kage could tell she was relatively okay, so he gestured to Aran to cut the call.

‘Got to go,mamin. See you later,’ the young man ventured, quickly hanging up to the sound of the woman’s enraged shouts.

‘Give me your wrist comm,’ Kage ordered.

The younger man handed it over.

Kage held it against his wrist device and tapped into his neural node.

Mirage, can you hack Aran’s wrist comm? Find the messages to him about his mother, track the link and see if you can nail her location. Then send it to Xion. Ask him to get one of his drones to check on her and ensure she’s safe.

Will do, Kage. Also, I’ve found a lot more in the few minutes spent fishing in our new player’s systems. But, first, we might need to gather all the Riders to discuss.

That bad?

Highly sensitive.

Kage sighed deeply.Get the Riders together, then. Give me 30.

Naam.

‘Aran, with me!’ he barked.

Kage marched Aran out of the cloakroom and to the streets outside Raha.

He flung the young man into his waiting flyer and took off towards The Sable Group complex.

Once parked under his building, he ran his charge into the lifts and shoved Aran into one of the safe apartments above The Osirian.

‘The apartment’s got plenty of food, water, and holo movies,’ he coldly told Aran, who was now nervously perched on a stool in the spacious one-bedroom. ‘Just got a ping that yourmaminis home now, so no worry there. I’m also sending someone to keep an eye on her. But you’ll stay here till I decide what to do with you.’

‘Naam, khan,’ mumbled the suitably chastened young man.

Kage left, securing the door using his wrist comm.

From there, he marched through a dizzying maze of corridors, finally stopping before a nondescript grey doorway. He punched a code into a keypad beside the door and used his wrist comm once more for further authentication. The keypad beeped, and the entrance slid open.

He stepped into a large, expansive room. Thick, textured walls surrounded it on three sides. One of the three solid surfaces was covered in beautifully lit shelves of books, artefacts and antique pieces from all over the System.

The fourth was all glass, overlooking an expansive area on the floor below that looked like an empty bar and dining club. Finally, in the corner was a glass elevator that led to a sprawling bar below.

Three men sat at an expansive table of dark textured altiphyte wood polished to a mirror sheen. Mirage, in gyrfalcon form, balanced on a steel perch nearby. A screen hovered over the conference table, with Kainan’s chiselled face patching in from Dunia.

‘Riders,’ Kage called.

‘Brother,’ they called back.

He proceeded to the table where they sat and lowered himself heavily into a chair.

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