A Flight of Broken Wings: Aeriel Trilogy #1

Chapter 24

"He's gold," Jiniya said, delicately sipping her tea as she stood on the terrace. She gazed out over the twinkling vista of the capital city, stretching out in all directions below them; the horizon dotted with the silhouettes of faraway architecture. It was a clear night – a rare occurrence at this time of the year – and the stars shone down upon them rather pleasingly, like the lights of the city reflected in the sky. "Young, guileless, earnest and perfectly ready to talk. Not to mention, rather cute." She spared a quick glance at her companion, smirking. "The viewers will eat him up."

"Almost too good to be true," murmured Casia, leaning into the parapet, her arms crossed over the flat top of the wall as she too gazed out over the panorama below.

"He might be yet," agreed Jiniya. She set her cup down carefully on the concrete fencing, taking care to keep it far away from Casia's jutting elbow. "At least his paperwork checks out. So far as we can determine without letting it get to the IAW, anyway. Still, it all seems a little..."

"Easy?" suggested Casia. "I've been chasing this thing for months, Jiniya. Nothing, in all that time. It was almost as if someone was consciously blocking me, moving things around whenever I got too close. And now this. Honestly, I don't know whether to be grateful or suspicious."

"He's giving us good material," Jiniya shrugged, not taking her eyes off the dusky city beneath them. Shifting a little, she turned to face Casia. "Listen to me. If it's true, if it all checks out, the courts will get involved. The IAW will not be happy, nor the Hunter Corps. If half of what that boy's saying is true, it ought to have come out sooner. Somebody should've been working on it. Hell, the army should've been deployed to SifCo. Under any other circumstances, it would've been, what with Aeriels casing the place; even without this mysterious formula they're supposedly housing.

"Somebody up high has to be covering this up. Maybe even a group of somebodies, if something this big got pushed under the rug for so long. And when we try to pry open that can of worms, well... We'll be at the centre of a mighty fucking shitstorm, Casia, and you'll be the face of it. So think carefully how you want to play this." She flicked her wrist to hush the oncoming slew of protests from Casia. "Don't get me wrong, my dear. Our ratings will be through the roof, and I'm all for anything that makes that happen. But there might be...more to this than either of us can see right now. Whatever that is, you should make sure you're ready for it before we move forward with this story."

"It's not just about us anymore," said Casia, looking suddenly drained and leaning more heavily into the parapet. "They'll have to do something, once all this gets out. They'll have to take action, protect SifCo, if only to save face. The Prime Minister can't just let this hang over his head until something like the Parliament attack happens again. Not so soon after the last one. We might just end up...helping." She said it like she could barely believe her own words, then buried her face in her hands. "Obviously I'm way too tired to be allowed to talk. 'M going home, Jiniya. See you tomorrow."

"Goodnightmy dear," said Jiniya, gazing after her star employee as she walked slowly outof the terrace and down the stairs to the elevator. A faint thunderclap soundedin the distance as the sky clouded over above her, obscuring the stars.