Page 32 of Apollo

Once more, Rizon’s expression broadcasted dismal affirmation energy. “I was tired, desperate, and scared shitless, so I probably wasn’t as careful as I should’ve been with the calls and texts to Ito’s team,” he admitted. “And Natasha’s not as ditzy as the world labels her.” A shrug glitched along his shoulders. “Wouldn’t have taken much for her to understand why I suddenly possessed an item with such potent power.”

“Then to contact Ito herself, cutting out the middleman in full,” Irowen supplied.

And cutting herself the sweetest worldwide management deal on the planet.

The proclamation resounded through their brains but not aloud on the air. It grabbed Apollo like a physical clutch and he swung around in time to watch a trio of black forms swoop down into the aviary.

As Quil and the other corvid lieutenant landed on perches behind Kaw’s main position, their captain preened like the guy in a superhero movie who got to drop the kaboom plot revelation.

Brassy motherfucker.

Apollo had never been happier to see him in his life.

Meaning, of course, that skeptical retorts were required on the immediate menu.

“You have actual proof of that, Captain Kleos?” He didn’t wield it as sardonically as usual, but he hadn’t exactly sent out Kaw and the crew on a fried chicken run this time. The insistence was necessary, despite how the bird answered with an insulted ruffle of back feathers.

Does Tweety Bird shit where he eats? The proof is why we’ve come back. In lieu of a quiet preen because of that, he already returned to military decorum in addressing Irowen with a respectful tick of his beak. It hasn’t led us to any clues about Genny’s location yet, but I promise we’re looking for them. I’ve still got half the squad out on patrol. They’re canvasing every block and every building of Ito’s known territories.

The woman dipped her own head, reraising it with a dimmed but gracious smile. “I believe you, Kaw. And I know they’ll learn something soon. Thank you.”

While Kaw did plume out again, as smitten as any male would be in the glow of the gorgeous monster’s grin, Quil angled over to give a fast bow for Apollo. We succeeded in accessing Ito’s main offices in Kabuchiko, Anax. There, we downloaded the files from his personal computer with the signed contracts from Natasha Korra.

“Okay.” Apollo added his own quick nod of praise. “Well done. You know which one of my machines to send updates to. Now make my whole day by telling me where that bitch and her new sugar daddy are right now.”

“Wait. And you’re going to believe them?” Rizon bristled and shifted his weight. “Seriously, Godship? Three birds who claim they cracked Nao Ito’s security system and then broke into his master computer?”

“Shut up.” Apollo’s blood, again ready to boil Maine lobster, tempted him to finish that by tossing the imbecile into Hades’s deepest pit. Irowen bested him to a better clapback.

“Says the guy who wanted to flex by trusting his fast-track girlfriend with secrets of the Olympus pantheon?”

Not a second too soon, Rizon took the hint and acted on it. With the asshole properly cowed and back on his knees, Apollo could refocus on Kaw.

“All right. What’s the sitrep on the new dream team?”

As he tied that off with clean enunciation, proud to have kept his command but curbed his urgency, Irowen became the new stress ball spokesperson for them both.

“Holy shit, Fancykins. You’re right. If we find Natasha, we likely find Ito now too. One’s got your string, and the other’s going to tell us where Genny is if I have to hogtie his vocal cords.”

A subtle set of corvid clicks came from the atrium. Apollo glanced over, glitching a brow with clear demand. This was not the best time for Kaw’s version of a polite ahem, but when the bird didn’t elaborate, he finally prompted, “What is it?”

Your action plan is valid, the crow offered. But we have to talk about the timing.

Apollo absorbed that with a quizzical tilt of his head. “Clarify.” But before Kaw could start, Irowen jolted.

“Damn. The timing.” She paced away and then back in, her head tracking as if an invisible readout floated midair in front of her. “Because the Natasha we both met earlier, at that double dimension café, wasn’t Natasha. Which meant . . . what? Where’s the actual Korra now?”

“Fuck,” Apollo muttered.

Exactly, Kaw concurred.

“I have an educated guess about that, but only a hunch,” he offered.

“Which is better than nothing,” Irowen snapped. “So, as you’re fond of saying, clarify.”

He fixed her with a searching stare. “Last night, you originally showed up at the DeLux to hunt down Korra, right? Because you were certain she’d be there for the celebrity speed dating fundraiser event?”

Irowen ticked a terse nod. “She was on one of those local entertainment shows in the early morning, confirming she’d be there. I’m pretty sure that appearance was actually her. She went on and on about adoring Reks Byrd, and about how she was proud of him for selling out a week’s worth of shows across the Tokyo Metropolitan area.”