Page 47 of Scion

“I said it was a gift.”

“Not for that.” I motion to the still-flickering holo. “For that.”

Verity frowns, but taps her pad and shows me the sequence. I transfer everything I have left. Not enough to rebuild Sanctum. Not enough to repay her for getting me out. But it will help her get back on her feet, and after the next few hours I’m either not going to need it, or really not going to need it.

“Call it a down payment. My contact is in there too.” I don’t look at her as I hand the pad back. “You get a sniff of the Keres, you let me know. I’ll come.”

She looks at me strangely.

“There’s something good buried in there, Azure,” she says quietly. No hint of her usual playfulness.

“Sure.” I grab the severed hand from the table, tucking it into one of Jasa’s pockets. Then I take one of the bottles of drink from the cabinet and splash it over her face, before using my revs to heft her corpse so that she has one arm slung around my shoulder. With my enhanced strength, to any casual observer, it’ll look as though she’s at least partly holding herself up.

I raise an eyebrow at Verity, motioning for her to open the door. “I’m a true saint.”

SHE IS… NOT DRUNK.”

“Nope.” I drop Jasa’s alcohol-sodden body into a chair.

Manuel winces, looking about to protest at the corpse slumped on his one piece of operational furniture, but then subsides. “Weren’t you supposed to be protecting her?”

“Can’t win them all.” I sigh as I let my revs deactivate, massaging my temples. It wasn’t a long journey here, but it was tense. DeGov drones wandered past several times doing face recog. I actually have no idea what would have happened if the system had registered the person I was pretending to help along was dead, but I cannot imagine it would have been good.

“This is true,” agrees Manuel. He shifts his portly form with a hint of nervousness. “Though, Azure. You know I can’t refund—”

“No, no. I’m not here for that. The Slabs worked perfectly. You do good work, Manuel.”

He visibly relaxes. “Damned straight. So…”

“I need another DNA wash.”

“Really enjoyed that first one, hey?” Manuel shrugs. “Sure. I’ve still got the samples, so I can just—”

“Not with Shart’s DNA.” I still shake my head from instinctive irritation at the name. “With hers.”

“Oh.” Manuel’s eyes glint as he stares at Jasa’s corpse. “Oh.”

“Possible?”

“Possible.” He chews his lip. “Off-net sequencing of the DNA will be expensive, though. Probably take a few hours.”

“Time’s fine. But I don’t have anything to pay you with.”

He gives me an exasperated look. “I gave you several thousand yesterday, Azure.”

“I like to spend,” I say with a shrug.

“Hmm.” He’s unimpressed. “You’re going after her tokens?”

“The thought had crossed my mind.”

“So what you’re telling me is that you will have tokens. If I help you. You want to pay me after the job’s done.”

“That is an excellent suggestion, Manuel!” I beam at him.

He does not smile back.

“Fine. Be like that. But if this works, I’ll double what you made on the Slabs.” I say the words in a playful, sing-song manner, dangling them.