Free A Memory in the Black (The New Aeneid Cycle) by Michael G. Munz

If they’d lingered much longer, perhaps I’d have gotten my brain back enough to move closer and listen, but I missed my chance."
    "Can’t say I blame you for being a little shocked, Caitlin," he told her, stopping short —again—of bringing up her trouble with Gideon’s death.
    "I did manage one thing. The plates on the car. It's registered to Marquand Cybernetics." She gave a little self-satisfied smile.
    "Marquand?"
    "Mm-hmm."
    "Marquand," Felix mused. He spent time there now and again, trying to overhear random tidbits of interest. He knew a few faces. "The blonde, how tall was she?"
    Caitlin sipped. "About one-seventy centimeters, if I had to guess."
    He chuckle d. "Oh, you’re going to make me convert again, aren’t you?"
    "The rest of the world is metric, don’t blame me if you Yanks haven’t caught up. It's 2051 for goodness' sake." She flashed him a welcomed smile, though there was still a hint of the brood in her eyes.
    "Hey, I just live here. And I happen to know distances in Wales are measured in miles."
    "Roads, not people." She gave another quick smile, considering. "About your height, perhaps."
    Felix nodded and concentrated on memory. One particular woman came to mind, though it was only a vague description. Who knew how many five-foot-six platinum blondes Marquand employed? "Would you recognize her if you saw her again?"
    She nodded. "I believe so."
    He pulled out his phone and searched the 'Net for a picture he saw months ago. It didn’t take long. "This would probably have to be too much of a coincidence to actually be her, but. . .?" He leaned in and showed it to Caitlin.
    Her eyes dropped to the screen and then rose back to his, eyebrows raised. "It must be a day for coincidence. That’s her. Who is she?"
    "Really?" Felix blinked . "Her name’s Ondrea Noble. Marquand hired her maybe eight or nine months ago. She’s an engineer, used to be independent, did a couple years of contract work for RavenTech that somehow got her noticed at Marquand. I was in the Marquand building not six months ago trying to find out what they had her working on. Didn’t find anything out, though."
    "Nothing at all?"
    Felix shook his head. "In defense of my skills, my quest got interrupted by a certain freelancer we both know."
    "Diomedes ."
    "Hiring me to help find Gideon, even."
    Though it was Felix's first step on the shared path that eventually led to Gideon's death, Felix was at least able to take comfort that the two men would have met with or without his help. Gideon, having discovered a common enemy was pitting them both against each other, was already looking for Diomedes. Once united, the two worked together toward that enemy's downfall before Diomedes finally killed Gideon over a stupid matter of money. Felix's protest immediately afterward nearly got him shot as well.
    Caitlin tensed. "It must truly be a day for coincidence."
    "His including me in that did end up bringing us together." Silver lining and all that.
    The search had led Felix to a gr oup called The Scry: information hunters who did in a group what Felix did on his own, and of whom Caitlin was a part. Gideon had declared himself The Scry's protector in exchange for their being his eyes and ears in his fight against more violent groups. Fearing Gideon couldn't protect them from all retaliation they might incur from those groups, Caitlin spoke to Felix when the other Scry would not. Her hope had been that Gideon would suspect The Scry gave him away and dissolve the relationship out of mistrust.
    She couldn't have anticipated the outcome. When Diomedes pulled the trigger, it solved Caitlin's problem, but in a far more tragic way than she wanted.
    "Natural disasters bring people together, too, Felix, that doesn’t make a hurricane a good thing."
    Felix nodded. "Kind of beside the point now anyway. I guess the question is, what does Ms. Noble have to do with Gideon?"
    "One question, at least. " Caitlin slipped away in thought for a moment