Chapter 30

Rob nodded firmly as he lowered his arm.

“Take a moment; you don’t know what’s been going on,” he said quietly to Sam. “The entire operation's organized so we’d all be in the dark in case one of us ever got caught. Things have changed. It’s going to reach further than either you or I can even guess. There comes a point where if enough things get stacked on top of each other, it all comes tumbling down. McCreed set it off."

Sam scowled but nodded.

She stared at a spot on the ground, lost in thought, a part of her lip caught in her teeth as she chewed absentmindedly. I would've called it "cute" had she not stood poised to eviscerate me a few moments earlier.

The water's roar was loud, but not deafening from the canal. The smell of the moisture was strong in the air as I approached Rob and Sam warily. My eyes caught a detail that surprised me, one I would consider mundane yet very substantial.

Pockets?! Thank the maker, my hands are freezing!

Sam's hands were indeed shoved deeply into pockets, conveniently positioned near her sides. In hindsight it made a ton of sense; while the sleeves of our jackets were somewhat long enough to envelop our arms and hands in their entirety, mine had been exposed to the rain and cold.

Discreetly, I attempted to slide my hands into the pockets undetected but spotted Rob's lips as they twitched in amusement. Pins and needles gave way to an almost painful warmth, like an immersion in hot liquid. A soft sigh of contentment escaped my lips as the inner lining worked its magic. Within a short period, sensation returned to my aching digits.

Sam's eyes flicked over to me in irritation as she gestured with her chin, breaking my moment. I hadn't paid much attention to whatever it was they'd been doing while I spaced out, but her talk was now directed straight at me.

"He still stinks of Corpoland." She'd said the words like one would describe a piece of garbage she'd seen at a dump.

Ouch.

Rob spoke. “Planned or not, McCreed made a gross miscalculation when Price here became a victim of circumstance." He stooped. "The only reason we caught wind of any of this in time was pure dumb luck.” His hands were busy as the scattered equipment was relocated to sit on top of Paul's body.

Sam spoke again, still undeterred.

"He's going to get us killed. He's too green; I mean, look at him!" She extended one of her hands to wave at me. "The idiot didn't even know his jacket had hand pockets."

Whoops. So I had failed to make it NOT obvious for her too.

“Look,” Rob said, “I think I know what’s got you riled up, but just listen for a minute."

Sam rolled her eyes as she stuffed her hand back into her pocket. "Fine," she said sharply. “Let’s say I believe you, and I’ll thank him later. Still won’t explain why you’d involve him now. Of all times. Adding to our list of problems just makes everything worse for us.”

Rob frowned. “He was kind of already involved. Even before tonight.”

He went quiet as he gave no further information.

“Kind of?" Sam asked. “How can you 'kind of' become involved?! 'Either you are or you aren’t.' You're the one who always says that.”

Rule 15. She called him on it; nice.

Rob sighed, the bone-weary type he'd done often around me. He collected his thoughts. "I do say that, but it's an extenuating circumstance. Hard to explain, but listen..." He gave an outline of what he'd learned since I'd shown up on his doorstep. All the portions I'd told him were paraphrased, but some sections were word for word. I was temporarily forgotten. The chatter shifted to a series of rapidly slung questions and answers. The dots just weren't connecting fast enough for me to follow.

My mental state was in shambles, so, rather than be upset or confused, I practiced something I'd learned very quickly under Rob's tutelage: I chose to not think for a bit.

Rule 13: Go with the flow unless you know.

My input wasn't needed. Rob and Sam had this. They knew what they were doing; they had a plan. I basked in the glow of a temporary reprieve as I just sort of...existed. Zoned out. Stopped the fight with gravity to let myself be carried into orbit.

I continued to not think as my thoughts floated along.

About things.

Things like how obviously suspicious the three of us were, perched adjacent to the edge of the canal in a near-empty green space.

In the early morning.

Suspicious, like with the bodies of two goons.

Without direction, my brain followed the line of thought like a train on a set of shifting tracks.

Yep. Bodies; plural. No way to kid myself here; Tim was dead. I'd carried him, and he wasn't moving. Flat-out: D E A D; Dead.

I was tired.

So tired I just...looked on.

For whatever reason, that statement didn't freak me out as I assumed it would.

Paul and Tim. Just part of the landscape, not people anymore. Objects. Like the rocks scattered around us like islands in the green. Huh. Could be poetry if it wasn't so morbid...

I huffed once before my eyes shifted to the sky, pointedly away from the ground.

Between the small gaps in the clouds, the morning had incrementally turned a dark cerulean shade from the night's inky blackness. The clouds still boiled as rain became a torrent.

I snapped back into real time as Rob's voice came into focus. He placed the items in his hands onto a nearby rock. "It means," he said to Sam, "Owen here was not only witness to but also blamed for and, apparently, charged with the death of the Exchanger before he was rather unsanctimoniously cast out of his home."

Sam cast a nervous glance my way as her hand twitched as if she wanted to extend the hidden blade. Rob looked over at me with a conspiratorial expression. "Don't worry, he says he didn't do it.”

I winced as Sam's hand twitched again. Why'd he have to say it like that?!

Rob chuckled as he raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry! I'm kidding. Don’t worry, he didn’t actually do it.” He winked at me before he moved back to Paul’s body. “Welcome back to Earth, Price. You ready to participate?"

I blinked at him but was more amazed by Sam in the moment. Her hands were already shoved back in her pockets. It had been faster than I could track.

Rob turned Paul bodily over and spoke again.

"The way I theorize it, the whole thing smells like a half-baked plan by McCreed. Seems he wanted to manipulate Owen into being a sacrificial messenger. It's 'half' because I suspect even McCreed was never fully aware of who Owen actually is—just trying to sling things into motion." Paul’s body rolled like a sack of liquid as Rob shoved it along with a heavy boot. Sam moved to Tim's body, and I moved to assist without being asked.

She squinted at me momentarily but didn't say anything.

Rob kept going. “Fortunately, for all of us, I was already up. Waiting for news on why you and Frank hadn’t reported in at midnight as planned.” He smiled grimly, lining up Paul’s body along the edge of the canal bank. “And though you don’t know it—but obviously are upset about it—Owen’s involvement meant we ALL managed to get away. Your merry chase meant nobody figured out where he, you, or I went; they're flailing and stretched thin. It was the perfect order for deliverance."

Sam and I placed Tim above Paul along the edge.

Rob's summary caused me to ponder. Had so much happened in such a short amount of time?

I looked up and to the left, where a chrono appeared. The muted red line of text hovered discreetly within the view of my ocular implants.

0414h

Only four in the morning?!

Sam scowled as I mentally shrugged and closed the chrono display.

She spoke. "But sacrificed to whom? Another Corpo somewhere further up the ladder? What would be the point?"

I too was curious.

Rob tucked Paul's arms in. "The pieces of a rather large puzzle started connecting after Owen came to my Pod to cash in some favors. Once he'd told me what happened, it became obvious McCreed was moving early and doing it badly. The important piece no one else knows is Owen’s mother left him with a sizable endowment."

I froze. Endowment?!

"Wait...” I said, shaking off my surprise as I tried to focus on the 'whys' rather than the 'whats.'. “Why would any of this matter to you guys?”

Sam stood up beside me. We shared a glance. She didn't look angry any longer, just curious. "Yeah, what does that have to do with us?”

We looked back at Rob without further comment.

“It’s more about who Owen is and his status. What it means for us directly is moot. Ruby will be the one who can tell you more.” With a shove of Rob’s foot, there was a splash. Paul’s body disappeared into the darkness of the water. The noise was minimal in comparison to the rush of the canal as the body plunged out of sight. Paul bobbed once before he was pulled by the current out of sight to...wherever the canals ended.

A thought struck me then: I wonder how many people fall into the canals?

There was another splash as it was Tim's turn to disappear. Rob's voice brought me back. “But what's really important is Agatha's dying wish for Owen. It's not surprising McCreed wanted it when he saw it during the audit, but the problem is keeping it away from Ian’s grubby fingers. He's going to want it back.”

The canal might as well have not existed as my brain jumped, and my heart jumped with it.

Rob said my mother’s name.

Well. To be pedantic, he’d actually said both my father’s and mother’s names earlier too. Back at his pod. The real kicker was the specific name he’d used. Very few people knew my mother as 'Aggie.' Even fewer knew her real name: Agatha. It was the one she’d been born with. The one she’d stopped using when she’d left The Glow. The one documented on her CCN.

As far as I knew and had known, nobody in the Stacks ever used or was aware of it.

Except...Rob.

Somehow.

Sam looked baffled, her face a hooded look of confusion. “Wait, so Owen was the one you were—” she started to say, but was stopped as Rob turned.

His face was set in a serious mask as he looked her in the eye. "Yes. He’s the son of Agatha and Ian Price,” he said firmly. “Their only son.”

As if summoned by a spell, the rain chose that moment to increase in intensity. The canal appeared to swell. White peaks formed upon the crests of waves as they turbulently surged past. It made the water frothy and violent.

Sam's face turned a similar shade of white as she directed her gaze toward me, an expression of surprised shock clearly written upon it. There was no more sign of the earlier irritation or hate.

“Oh,” she said.