The Emperor's New Clothes (Royce Ree #1) by Aldous Mercer

Author:Aldous Mercer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scifi, gay, funny, free, heist

“Our agent is still on Baldessh.”

“Do you think he will? Return, that is?”

“Yes, and with evidence. Imperial Intelligence will even expedite the process by a task-force to extract their errant agent.”

“Do you think the Spymaster suspects…?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

-Transcript, Casual Conversation, Trinity Prime 20.2994.11

SPACE-STATION, BALDASSHI PLANETARY SPACE

The transition to artificial gravity was gradual as the station’s mass-gradient exerted itself. Royce came to rest against the station’s nadir-surface, the “floor”, and allowed himself a space of four heartbeats to scan his immediate surroundings.

The corridor opened out into a large semi-circular waiting-area. Six other shuttle-birthing corridors disgorged a continuous stream of passengers that fought for space with the lush blue foliage of numerous potted air-exchangers. Here and there he could see the black uniforms of Kovan security forces amongst the crowd and, rarer, the blue stripes of Baldasshi’s own security.

Then he saw what he had been looking for—a woman, pushing a hover-cart, coming down a shuttle-berthing corridor to his left.

Royce smoothly pushed off from the “floor”, emerging from his corridor to make zig-zag progress at the edges of the waiting-room. The fact that he had an unconscious man slung over his shoulder attracted no little attention from the people he passed around; the crowd-cover, useful in these first few moments to shield them from the guards’ views, would rapidly become a problem.

Royce aimed the last leg of his momentum-aided travel to intercept the woman’s path before she emerged from her corridor.

“Cousin, this is an emergency. Will you sell me your cart?” Royce said as he alighted near her, partially shielded from view of the main waiting-room by the bulk of the hover-cart.

Only then did he notice the man sitting on a tow-float attached to the cart. Dressed in a Baldasshi Peacekeeper’s uniform, with medals pinned to his chest.

Royce’s adrenalin spiked till he noticed the man’s condition—sunken and frail, his head bobbing on a neck whose muscles were too weak to hold it fully upright. A mottled grey-and-black crow was perched on the cart’s handle, its head tucked under its wing.

Tow-carts were generally used to transport the disabled. The marine was retired, obviously, and helpless. Senile, too, if their luck held.

Royce relaxed. “Cousin? I need your cart,” he said again.

“What? No!”

“I’m willing to pay you anything you want.”

“My dada needs the cart. Call the medics.” The woman was getting annoyed.

“I….”

The old man raised a feeble hand, beckoned Royce closer. Royce crouched, meeting the man’s rheumy gaze—and was surprised by the amount of intelligence lurking there. The retired soldier’s frailty did not, obviously, extend to his mind.

Shit.

Suddenly, he felt his collar being grabbed. With surprising strength, the ex-Peacekeeper drew Royce’s face close to him. Royce didn’t fight it—for one, that might break the old man. For the other, anything that looked more like family-drama and less like fugitive-drama, he was willing to go along with.

“Da!” said the woman, coming around to their side and crouching down. “Da, let him go!”

The old man shook his head. “Offworlder,” he whispered, and paused to take a breath. “Are

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