Fated Blades (Kinsmen)

The secare started training their children as soon as they could walk. They used the seco, they killed with it, and they replicated it, but nobody fully understood how the strands worked or why some children from secare bloodlines could use them and others couldn’t. The secare were never trusted with that knowledge by their creators.

Then, three years ago, a salvager had stumbled onto a forgotten Sabetera Geniocracy lab in a random asteroid field. He brought the data banks he found there to Rada, sold them to the Baenas, to the Adlers, and to a third kinsmen family, the Davenports, letting everyone think that the sale was exclusive, and got the hell off planet as fast as his ship’s drive would carry him.

The recovered intel opened the door to the creation of seco force fields by industrial means. Oh, it would require significant power and complex machinery to accomplish this, but it would blow conventional shields installed on modern warships out of the proverbial water. Bringing seco generators into mass production promised enormous benefits.

It also required a huge infusion of cash. Between the cost of rare metals, the custom nano cultures, and the cutting-edge tech required to retool the field to work without the biological component, developing the prototype would drain the Baenas’ savings to nearly nothing. They could lose everything they had built over the last seven generations, but if they succeeded, the family would be stabilized and well funded for centuries to come.

The secare were born risk-takers.

Nine months into the project, Matias realized that they were in a three-way race. The space sector offered only one industrial partner capable of mass-producing the seco generators. Whoever successfully pitched their idea first would reap all the spoils. All three families abandoned their other projects and shifted all their resources toward building a successful prototype.

Now Cassida was on the run, and a copy of the Baenas’ entire research was on the run with her. And so was Gabriel Adler with all his family’s work.

Matias unclenched his teeth. “What are you offering?”

Ramona narrowed her eyes. “I know my husband. This wasn’t his idea.”

“He’s off with my wife and your research. Now isn’t the time for sentimentality.”

Ramona shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to imply that he is an innocent pawn and your wife led him astray. But Gabriel lacks any sort of ambition. He has very little self-discipline, zero interest in business, and no knowledge of kinsmen politics. As long as he is fed, given an ample allowance, and allowed freedom to indulge himself, he’s perfectly content. He is too lazy to start this adventure on his own. I’m in awe of your wife. She has managed to motivate him in a way I never could, and the universe knows I’ve tried.”

“Cassida is very good at motivating.” She had mounted a relentless assault on his peace of mind since the moment they’d married. He thought they had reached an understanding. Apparently, Cassida simply shifted focus to a more receptive target.

“Time is a factor,” Ramona said.

He understood what was left unsaid. The stolen research would be sold. That sale would bankrupt their families.

“Cassida wouldn’t have left without lining up a buyer,” he said. “She isn’t always prudent, but she is shrewd. She knows that the moment I discovered the theft, I’d go after her with everything I’ve got.”

Ramona nodded. “I thought as much.”

They had to move now. They had to recover the research, and they had to do it quietly. On Rada, a kinsmen family’s standing was vital. It could mean the difference between being targeted in a feud and being invited to a negotiation table. Deals were offered and agreed upon based on the respect afforded to one’s family name.

The secare enjoyed an aura of menace. Both families had been attacked, and both he and Ramona had delivered a gory object lesson that the city wouldn’t soon forget. Most of their rivals considered a direct conflict with them out of the question. If it became known that not only had they suffered a catastrophic data breach, but their spouses had done it and then run away together right under their noses, their reputation would be in tatters. They would be disgraced. Even if they recovered the tech, they could no longer negotiate from a position of strength.

If speed was first, secrecy had to come second. Involving their families would only hinder them. He trusted his relatives with his life but not with his secrets.

“Who else knows?” he asked.

“The chief of cybersecurity and Karion,” she said.

Her older brother. He wouldn’t talk.

“I know my husband, but I don’t know your wife.” Ramona met his gaze.

“An alliance?” He raised his eyebrows, pretending to be surprised.

“A temporary one. Not between our families or our companies. Only you and me. We go quietly, we find them, we recover our assets before they destroy us, and then we never speak of it again.”