Lap of Luxury

Two vigilantes take a decidedly dizzying jump up the social mountain.
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The Kalos Lithos had to be the most opulent building Cassandra had ever seen. The towering hotel’s marble-white exterior made it a gleaming beacon on New Tyne’s dull-grey skyline. The lobby was a vast indoor garden. Carefully sculpted Aegean trees circled a bubbling fountain spraying water so high that it resembled nothing less than a gentle geyser. The lobby air was fresh and clean, an invigorating change from the grimy stench of the slums Cassandra usually awoke to—the stench she’d been breathing not two hours before. She might as well have stepped onto another planet.
Cassandra and Dyne stood out like mongrels at a prize dog show. The hotel staff—men and women not much older than the two unlikely visitors—were attractive and sharply dressed; the clientele even more so. The Kalos Lithos was the peak of Talitsa’s high society, a haven for the colonial elite to escape the rest of the planet. Cassandra and Dyne’s grimy jumpsuits could not hide their military-conditioned figures. The renegade Spartans drew scornful looks from the hotel lounge as they boarded the elevator. The glittering worthies at the bar must think they were a pair of enforcers summoned here on Syndicate business. The thought made Cassandra’s skin crawl.
Her embarrassment vanished as the glass-paneled elevator whisked them to the fifty-second floor. Cassandra gaped at the dizzying view of the hotel interior. Dyne caught her with her nose pressed to the glass. He flashed that warm smile of his and Cassandra bashfully drew back to the center of the lift’s lush carpeting.
“You didn’t warn me it would be this fancy,” she muttered.
“I told you it was the Kalos Lithos. Warning enough, right?” Her disbelief only fueled his palpable excitement. Dyne had talked up this trip for weeks.
Their suite was a spacious room with a high ceiling and clear, seamless windows ushering in beams of brilliant sunlight that danced across the walls. An enormous bed filled the suite’s center, its gentle mattress adorned with fresh linens. A guest basket overflowing with fresh fruits and luxury chocolates perched atop a pyramid of bulging pillows.
Cassandra’s duffel slipped from her hands. She stepped out onto a balcony almost as large as the suite itself. A wading pool immersed over half the deck in beautiful, clear water. Beyond the deck stretched a sprawling view of the city itself. Cassandra had never thought New Tyne could be anything but vicious and ugly, but from this high up the urban canyons below appeared resplendent. She could even see patches of green out beyond the city limits. A gust of wind tossed her hair and with a thrill she suddenly felt as if she were standing at the top of the world.
She looked back at Dyne, who grinned from ear to ear. “This place must cost a fortune. How could you possibly—”
“Remember that colonial executive from the other month? The one with the kidnapped daughter?"
“Yeah…”
“After we helped him out, he insisted on doing the Renegade a favor. This guy wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Dyne suddenly looked sheepish. “Don’t worry, I covered my tracks. They won’t trace this. And I know it looks a bit…”
“Corrupt?” Cassandra said the first thing that popped into her mind and instantly regretted it. Dyne cringed.
“Yeah. Normally I’d never go for it. You know me. But we never get to go anywhere. And you hardly ever leave your clinic unless you’re helping me. We’re only here two days, we can at least try to have some fun…”
He sounded on the verge of panic. Cassandra looked back out at the vast city stretched out beneath this monument to extravagance. Here she was, fifty stories high in the lap of luxury, while millions wasted away in the streets below. This hotel was swimming in dirty Syndicate credits.
She bit her lip and hated herself for those thoughts. Couldn’t she go five minutes without some spasm of self-righteousness? Dyne couldn’t care less about enjoying himself. He was desperate to give her something more than a night dodging bullets and stitching up wounds. So desperate he’d risked exposing himself on an excursion like this. The realization made her heart ache.
Cassandra took Dyne by the arm. He offered an embarrassed grin and she felt herself flush. He was right. They hadn’t had time together like this in months. She didn’t even know where to begin. “You’re right. Thanks for this. Let’s have a good time.”
He looked relieved. “Good. I mean, great! I’ve got so many ideas—”
A gust of wind from the city below slipped through the hotel’s atmospheric field, carrying a slight whiff of sewage into the palatial façade.
Category:The Weekly