NADIENNE’S SURPRISE
1560 4D
The Kai Ren guy finds us at Caladrina‘s. Caladrina let me come back into his place again, after I paid him some metal for the ceiling repairs. He still doesn’t like me, but he likes Nadienne. He likes the Kai Ren guy too, because he leads him right to our little back table.
“You wanted Tomas Shanxi? This is him.” Caladrina leaves without looking at me.
The guy raises one long thin eyebrow at me, and I motion to the nearest chair. He drags it to our table with a foot, positioning it and sitting in one smooth movement.
“I’m Hings-Wen Weinan. I wanted to talk with you about some family business.” He says the last two words in Hau.
Nadienne starts to stand when she hears this, but I take her hand. “This is Nadienne Trandi, Song Clan. We’re together.”
Higns-Wen laughs, nods at her. “No, Tomas, that’s fine. We’re talking big family.” That means Nadienne too.
His face is creased and dark, exposed to the sun for days at a time. “You a soldier?” I ask him.
“I was. Now I train people.” He raises two fingers to a server, and orders a brew.
“What do you want with me?” I ask him.
“I heard you shut Rask‘s gate. That interests me.”
“Who told you that?”
“I read the militia reports, and the police reports. Then your mother said something–“
“Oh, another one. My ma collects guys like you.” Except now she’s got Armana, unless… “You seeing her?” The rude words get out before I can stop them.
He sits back a bit, shakes his head. “What she does in her personal life is her business. We worked together years ago, and we meet for a kaff at Marzan’s every couple of months. She always wants to know what the family news is, and she’s always got street draft to tell. That’s it.”
I cool down a little. “Yeah, Rask almost killed me. I was lucky. Ma’s training saved my life.”
“I trained your mother.” He took a swallow of his brew. “She’s one of the best.”
“You’re that old?” As I say this, Nadienne elbows me.
He laughs loud. “Look at this.” He grabs his braid and waves the end under my eyes. One gray hair. “I’m that old, yeah, child. Look, here’s the story. There’s a war about to start, and we need suss inside it, eyes and ears.”
Now I laugh. “This is a joke, yes? Kai Ren’s not in it, not what I hear.”
He waggles five fingers. “Novander Wye, Gellin Sintherou, Incarnastar, Darko Hejj. And Arcus. It’s big.”
“But why? Novander and Hejjis don’t mix. And Arcus people hate the Hejjis.”
Nadienne says, “The relocs. They all lost a lot in the last year. At least five thousand each, sent off to the mines and the North.”
I look at her – how did she know that? Hings-Wen nods, and adds, “Kai Ren has avoided it all so far, and none of us know why. Why is CityGov choosing them? Why is Regional approving it all and providing the trains? What are the corps doing? We think the colls know something important, and the govs and the corps are putting on the pressure to shut them up.”
“So why should I want to get mixed up in this?” Great story, but no metal for me. I lean back and watch him.
He reads me. “A good hard stack, Tomas.” He skates a fifty-piece across the table. I glance at Nadienne, and pick it up, feel its scrollwork along the round edges. She smirks. Metal.
Hings-Wen leans toward us. “Listen. Two things. First, you know andros, right? And aliens?” His voice lowers to a near-whisper.
“Yeah.”
“We’ve heard the corps are breeding them for fighting.”
He pauses. “Second, we’re hearing about andro and human genes trading places. Viruses got loose.”
I stand up. “Sorry, Xiansheng. This is way outside my world. I was in stat for six months. I just finished climbing out of the pyro hole. My friends are dead. All I want is to make a home, and have a job, and learn to love this woman.” Nadienne looks up at me softly, but she doesn’t smile, and she doesn’t get up.
She says, “Tomas, I arranged this meeting.”
“What!?”
“It’s time for you to do something more. I want you to listen to him.”
“But, Nadienne, how am I going to suss for Kai Ren with all those people? I don’t know anything about them! And why would you want –“
“Tomas, you’d better listen to him, because this fight is going to drag us all in before long. I’m asking you to do it because I’m doing it. I’m going to work my way in and find out what I can for the family.”
“You?” I feel things slipping out of my hands. Nadienne‘s going to leave me, I know she is, and that’s like when my ma– I stop my racing brain, fumbling for words.
“No, she’s not,” Hings-Wen says. “But she’s Kai Ren, and she knows her arts, and she knows how to do what she has to do. So do you. She wants you to come with her. Nadienne, leave us to talk.”
Nadienne looks hard at me, then walks to the street edge and sits at a table there. Caladrina appears instantly right next to her, smiling and eyebrows up.
I sit down again. “Tell me about it.”
He does.
My head spins. “Here’s my sumup. Andros turning human. Humans turning andro. Aliens using humans to eat humans. Nobody doing much about it except shipping people off to die.”
Hings-Wen smiles, both corners of the mouth this time. “Yes. Good sumup.”
“Why should I get into all this, after what I’ve done, what I’ve been through? All I want is to make a life of my own.”
“You think that’s possible?”
“It’s not a Hau Ren problem.”
Hings-Wen frowns dark. “All right. Tomas, I’m gonna ask you. I saw you at the memwall. I saw the names you wrote. How many other names got written there because of you in your pyro days? Do you think that writing those names and crying those tears and killing Rask was your ticket to a good life? Do you think you’re off the big hook?”
I start back with a sharp nasty and stop mid-word. “You– no. I’ll never be off the big hook. It’s forever.” A shudder rises through me.
His hand is on mine. His eyes are warm and soft, and he says, “Some of it, yes. Just like for all of us. But you have good work to do, and I’m giving you the one huge chance to do it. If you don’t, that big hook will hurt worse and worse, deeper and deeper.”
Very slowly, I nod. “I’m not going back.” To the pyro, I meant, but Hings-Wen nods.
“You’d never go back. You’re free. Just take the big step.”
Breath returns. “Let’s get Nadienne. I’m ready.”
When she sits down, he reaches out a hand to each of us. “Here’s what I want you both to do.”
