Chelen City: Chapter Eight, Part One

 Notes: Finally diving back into plot! Enjoy a fabulous introduction.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Eight, Part One

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Chapter Eight, Part One

Elanus had always been a believer in the maxim “The best defense was a good offense.” He didn’t like to wait for action to come to him and then respond to it. Admittedly, this had led to some less-than-stellar decisions over the course of his life at times when a natural, immediate would have been better than the practiced one he handed out. There were plenty of reasons why he’d been a bachelor for most of his adult life, and his “calculated bastardry” was one of them. Lucky for him, Kieron didn’t mind him being a schemer at heart.

In this case, though, he was beaten to the punch. And by one of his very own targets, too. The possibility of that happening had been all the way down at Plan G, although in retrospect he should have ranked the potential higher. Especially since the person to contact him was Fritz.

The request for an interview was sent in video form, and a more carefully curated blend of folksy approachability, professionalism, and cute innuendo Elanus had never seen. Fritz was one of the few men to wear his head-hair as elaborately as he did his facial hair, with tightly braided swirls and spirals and elevations here and there, giving the whole thing a wavelike look. His skin was dark brown with gold highlights along the cheeks and eyes, and his lips were a pouty, glossy red. He wore a brown suit that perfectly matched his skin tone, with a repeating pattern of the wave in his hair on it, only in the same gold as his makeup. He was…very handsome. Almost exhaustingly so.

It must take him an hour to put himself together in the morning. Elanus was all for looking his best, but he tended to prioritize the mental over the physical.

“El-anus Desfon-taines, back at last,” Fritz’s message began. “And with hardly a word about the things you’ve been up to for the year you’ve been gone. People are curious about you. You left so dramatically, you spent months in one of the most remote places in Federation space—you even went to the trouble of taking on that station’s contract, don’t think I don’t know—and then you finally come back only to prepare the way for a boyfriend and a ship full of refugees. A boyfriend that hardly any of us have seen, much less know anything about, although a little bird tells me that there’s a story there.”

Fritz grins. “I’d love to hear some of it from you, but I don’t mind going digging for it either. Would you like to control some spin? Come on my show! I’m fully booked this week, but I’ll bump any one of them if it means getting to see your precious face again.”

Precious face? Elanus fought the urge to gag. Pretentious son of a—

“Do let me know. I promise not to go live with any of my information about you until next week at the earliest, so there’s plenty of time.”

You’re going to regret threatening me.

“This isn’t a threat!” Fritz added, raising his hands in the air. “It’s a simple statement of fact. You’re a person of interest in the media, and you’ve been avoiding giving an account of yourself. You’re intriguing, especially in wake of your partner’s death. This is honestly stuff you should have handled weeks ago if you didn’t want to get bothered about it now. I promise to lend a sympathetic ear.” He grinned suddenly. “If you bring your boyfriend, I’ll even let you vet some of the questions.” He gestured toward his implant with a “tapping” gesture. “Message me!”

“Wow.”

Elanus turned in his chair to see Kieron standing in the door of his home office, arms crossed. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Since ‘dramatically,’ I think.” He shrugged. “If it was meant to be a secret, you should have closed your door.”

Elanus thought about it for a moment, then sighed. “It’s not a secret, it’s just not something you need to concern yourself with either. Fritz wants a story, that’s all.”

“And…do you want to give him one?”

“I want to talk to him, at least.” Elanus gestured at the other chair in the room and waited for Kieron to sit down before continuing. “He’s one of the people I’m considering as a candidate for hiring an assassin.”

“Really?” Kieron looked at the frozen image of Fritz projecting from the center of Elanus’s desk. “He doesn’t look the type.”

“He’s cutthroat,” Elanus replied. “He was a lawyer before he switched fields. He’s a hell of a researcher, too. If anyone could dig in and figure out what was going on between Deysan and me, he’s at the top of the list.”

“So you want to find out what he knows.”

Elanus laughed. “There’s no way he’ll let anything big drop. I’m trying to gauge him for…well, a lot of things. Interest. Sincerity.”

“Clearly he’s interested, if he’s reaching out for an interview,” Kieron pointed out.

“True, but that might be less about me and more about wanting a story. I am a pretty big scoop right now.” Immodest but true.

“Mm.” Kieron cocked his head a bit. “Do you want to do the interview, then?”

“I think I do.” He might as well. It saved him some legwork.

“And…do you want me to come with you?”

Elanus reached for Kieron immediately, and lucky for him, Kieron took his hand and let himself be tugged over. He rolled his eyes as Elanus settled him in his lap, but that was a fairly normal reaction. “I always want you with me, but you shouldn’t do anything you don’t want to. If you’re there, he will try to pry information out of you.”

Kieron frowned. “Then…I better not go. But I don’t like the idea of you going alone, either.”

“Oh, darling.” Elanus smiled. “I won’t go alone. I’ll take Ryu along.”

And see if Fritz has any reaction to seeing me in control of the man he might have hired to scare me with an assassination attempt.