We spent most of the afternoon wandering between the different displays, staring in awe at the different holographic fish, and cuddling.

  Although the Aquatic Gardens were busier than usual, we still only saw about half a dozen people during our time there. I guess the new holographic displays weren’t that exciting compared to heavily curated mass media slop that was available on the video sites these days. That was fine with me. I preferred it when this place was quiet, like a private refuge for Skyler and me.

  Since the Aquatic Gardens were located in the middle of downtown, the sun had disappeared behind the surrounding megabuildings by the time we left. It wasn’t even that late in the day, it was just that the massive block-wide superstructures completely eclipsed the smaller structures around them. As we climbed into my car, Skyler smiled. “We really should come here more often.”

  “We say that every time we leave here,” I sighed. “Even before we became samurai, our schedules were just so packed we didn’t have the time.”

  “I have to admit, when we heard that the government had arrested your dad, a small part of me hoped your mother would take things easy for a while. She’s been pushing herself and the company so hard the last few years, she deserves to take a break.”

  “Yeah, well, I doubt that’s going to happen anytime soon. Having someone break him out of prison was bad enough, but disappearing without a trace? Probably the worst thing that could have happened. If we can’t find him, she’s going to obsess over this for months,” I grumbled as I fastened my seatbelt and started the car. “Hey Artymis, has the government made any progress on tracking him down since yesterday?”

  {Arty: No, unfortunately due to the ongoing antithesis threat, the Cascadian government can’t afford to devote many resources to hunting down a half dozen fugitives outside the city. In order to track a submersible, they’d need to send naval vessels, but the entire navy is still tied up with shore patrols and search and destroy missions. Whoever was behind that attack is probably long gone by now.}

  “Fuck…” I muttered under my breath. “Is there anything else we can do?”

  {Athy: We’ve sent multiple requests to the Family asking to gain access to their satellite tracking logs, but we’ve been stonewalled every time we tried. It seems unlikely that we’ll convince them to cooperate in tracking your father. Without that, chances are slim.}

  {Arty: We could check for any minute traces the submersible might have left behind, but by now those would have become heavily dispersed by the ocean. I doubt even the best Class I tracking tech would be able to follow their trail all the way to the final destination.}

  “Wonderful,” I moaned. “All we have is the submersible’s last location, and the possibility to invest in some completely unreliable tech that could maybe track them. If we’re lucky.”

  “We could also pull up a list of communities and complexes that are located in that direction in order to get an idea of where they could have gone,” Skyler suggested. “The submersible might have changed course after it left sonar range and doubled back, but at least it would be a place to start.”

  I nodded. “Good idea. That’s probably faster than trying to track them down manually. Arty, would you mind assembling a list for us to investigate later?”

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  {Arty: Already on it.}

  “Thanks, we’ll look at it later.”

  Now that we had some sort of plan together, I put my full focus on driving us home. Even though Skyler and I joked about my driving abilities, I wasn’t a terrible driver when I put my mind to it. The heightened reactions and reflexes made me better at avoiding damage in close combat, they also made me a little twitchy while performing other actions. I needed to concentrate in order to avoid reacting to everything happening around me. I didn’t want to jump and swerve the car into the side of a building just because a bug splattered itself on the windshield.

  I did manage to get us all the way home without any incidents, pulling into the garage just before the evening traffic started to pick up.

  “What time is Mom expecting us to show up for dinner tonight?” I asked as we slipped out of my car.

  “She didn’t say. She was heavily distracted both by your condition and the fact that your father was still on the loose, but I assume we should pop in around five, like usual,” Skyler replied casually.

  “Makes sense. That gives us just enough time to get cleaned up before going up there.”

  As I pushed open the door, a tawny blur launched itself from the top of the nearby table. I twirled, cupped my arms, and caught the fuzzy projectile before it could bounce off me and hurt itself.

  “Lala, you shouldn’t do things like that--it’s dangerous,” I berated the kitten. She just looked up at me with her massive bright eyes and meowed at me before immediately proceeding to knead my arms and purring.

  “She really bonded with you, didn’t she? Before we adopted her, I could have been convinced that you were cursed and all animals hated you,” Skyler giggled.

  “They don’t hate me,” I grumbled. “It’s just that most of them are indifferent at best. Take Cleo and Leah, for example. They’re content to ignore me whenever I’m around.”

  “You’re right, that’s a way better option,” Skyler said as she slipped past me, rolling her eyes.

  Lala had curled up into a tiny ball in my arms, so I did my best not to jostle her that much as I stepped into the living room. Cleo, who had claimed the tallest cat tree in the place, cracked an eye as I passed, taking a look at the kitten in my arms, but otherwise ignored me.

  Since Lala seemed to like being where the people were, I found the closest cat bed to the kitchen and gently set her down there. As soon as I did, she complained loudly, promptly realized she was sitting on top of a soft cat bed, did a couple of quick circles, and promptly curled up to sleep.

  “You’re really not that picky, are you?” I whispered to the kitten before stepping away.

  “Do we have anything we can take to dinner tonight?” Skyler asked from the kitchen. “We should bring something nice to help distract your mother from everything that’s been going on lately.”

  “We finally got that case of Oleander Fields organic berry wine last week. We’ve been waiting months for it to arrive, and I’m sure she’d enjoy a bottle,” I suggested.

  Skyler nodded and stepped over to our modest wine rack. It took her a minute to browse through all the bottles and find one of the dark green bottles. She frowned briefly before passing the bottle over to me. “I just realized that even though we’ve been waiting so long, we’ve been so busy we haven’t had a chance to give it a taste before today.”

  “Do you want me to crack this one open? We still have a little time before we have to go up, and we have plenty of other bottles we can take up,” I asked mischievously.

  “You know I enjoy my wine, but it’s not like I’m some sort of lush that can’t wait until dinner,” Skyler replied before letting out a deep sigh. “Besides, we still need to get cleaned up before heading up. Do you want to shower first or second?”

  I gave her a small, suggestive smile. “You don’t want to go together?”

  “Normally I’d be all over that,” Skyler sighed, “but you know if we did that we’d absolutely be late for dinner, and it’s not a great day to leave your mother waiting.”

  “Ugh, you’re right,” I pouted. “You can have the shower first. I’ll see if I can find anything else we can take. We might still have some of those chocolates Mom likes in the pantry.”

  “That’s a good idea. Just don’t spend too long digging,” Skyler replied as she stepped over to me and planted a kiss on my cheek. “See you in a few!”

  “Enjoy your shower,” I replied lightly.

  As I stepped over to the pantry, I idly hoped a good family dinner would help distract everyone from all the problems we’d been dealing with over the last week or so. It had been hard, but in the grand scheme of things, we’d managed to come through relatively unscratched. We still had each other after all.

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