by M. D. Cooper
After what felt like forever, I reached the table—still unoccupied—and sagged against it, feeling a modicum of calm without any bodies pressed against mine.
I nodded and glanced in the colonel’s direction as I pinged the bar for service. My gaze alighted on Jacy’s seat, and I was surprised to see that the woman was gone.
I shifted to see the dance floor—which was currently in a zero-g mode, with at least sixty patrons all twisting and cavorting in the air.
At least half of them were stark naked, and several groups were having sex in a writhing cluster of bodies. Jacy was near the top of the group, not naked, but close. She’d worn a jacket earlier, but was now clothed in only a skimpy bikini and voluminous fur cuffs on her wrists and ankles.
She was twisting and gyrating in the air, her eyes closed, but somehow managing to avoid the grasping hands of other dancers who tried to pull her close.
Not the most courteous group, here.
Then again, we were in a club owned by a notorious criminal. Perhaps that was what everyone felt gave them license to behave however they pleased.
“What’ll you have?” a voice asked from next to me, and I turned to see one of the servitors at my side. Her body was sheathed in a glowing white catsuit that encapsulated an absolutely perfect human form. She looked entirely human, down to a slight appearance of annoyance in her eyes.
Who uses human staff on the floor?
“Ummm…a Black Star with a splash of Maid’s Milk.”
“You got it.” The servitor glided away, feet a dozen centimeters off the ground as she glided on a-grav fields.
I snorted a laugh.
She was right, it had, and I knew it, but I still had trouble believing that it was the sole cause. A million factors had to be at play to bring about major societal collapse. Making machines that looked too human didn’t strike me as something that would be even a major contributing factor.
I shifted slightly to get a better view of the VIP entrance. Our plan was for me to simply make a direct approach once he was settled in his reserved area at the back of the club.
It was a twenty-meter-wide hovering pad covered in couches and low tables, a small space for dancing in the center. At present, it was occupied only by two of the white-sheathed servitors, standing stock-still at either end.
The fact that a person such as Korinth would come here to have a good time—or to conduct business, whatever his actual motivations were—baffled me. There had to be at least one or two DSA IS agents in the room, probably another agency or two would be represented as well. One of the most powerful criminals in the L rarely moved about unobserved.
The servitor returned with my drink a couple minutes later, placing it in front of me just as Korinth made his entrance.
He was proceeded by a pair of guards in matte black combat armor. They boarded the hoverpad first, bounding up the floating steps to inspect the area before signaling that it was safe.
While they were still giving the seating area the once-over, I did the same with Korinth, tapping into Jacy’s drones to get a better view than I had from my high-top.
I’d seen a dozen pictures of him and knew what to expect, but it was still something else to see him in person. Over three meters tall, and weighing half a ton, he was quite literally a mountain of a man. Long, red hair flowed down his shoulders, which were clothed in a black jacket that was probably made of organic leather.
The rest of his clothing was black as well. Loose, but well fitted, and he cut an imposing figure as he stood on the far side of the dance floor, impassively surveying the writhing bodies before him.
An image of him simply reaching out and plucking a nubile body from the mass like a person would pick a grape from a vine crossed my mind. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d actually done it.
When he finally boarded his hoverpad, I expected to see the thing sag under his weight, but it didn’t shift a millimeter. Two more guards joined him, while a few more circulated through the crowds, operating more like police on patrol than hired thugs.
Shit…that’s probably because they are local police.
A person like Korinth didn’t operate in the open without buying off a lot of the local authorities.
I replied with a nod. We’d practiced this meet for two days, going over everything Intel knew about Korinth, and the most successful approaches that had been made in the past. Still, my first meet being with someone like him seemed ludicrous; how in the stars did Jacy and Cynthia think I could do this?
If they weren’t both known to Korinth, I would have turned and walked out of the club without a second thought.
You’ve got this, girl. Do it.
Drink still in hand, I pushed away from the high-top and skirted the edge of the dance floor, coming too close at one point, and nearly getting groped by a hand. I slapped it away, much to the delight of a group at a nearby table.
One of Korinth’s guards was waiting at the foot of the platform’s stairs. The man was half a meter taller than me, arms as thick as my waist folded across his chest, a bearded face above, glaring down at me.
“Fuck off,” he grunted before I uttered a word.
“No.” I stood my ground even though every instinct I possessed was screaming at me to run. “Korinth has come into some items I would like to buy from him.”
“He doesn’t do business here. Leave.”
Drawing in a shuddering breath, I looked the oak of a man in the eyes and shook my head. “If you cost him fifty million credits, he’ll be pissed.”
A barely perceptible shift occurred in the man, and he blinked slowly. A moment later, he nodded. “OK. Korinth will talk to you.”
He stepped aside, and as I put my foot on the first step, his massive hand came down on my shoulder, nearly crushing me.
“Just so you know, if you waste his time, you don’t just get asked to leave. I break your spine.”
I swallowed visibly, not faking the fear that struck me one iota. I’d faced death a thousand times, but always in combat, always armed and armored. Here, I had nothing but my wits and a pair of sharp heels. If I said the wrong thing, it could very well be my last night alive.
I didn’t reply, but the information gave me a small measure of relief.
I straightened my shoulders and shrugged off his hand. “Try it, muscles, and I’ll cut off your dick and shove it down your throat.”
He barked a laugh, his shoulders heaving. “I kinda like you, girl. Get up there.”
His hand came off my shoulder, and I put all my concentration into navigating the floating steps in the impossible heels I wore.
Once I reached the top, I paused and took stock of my surroundings. In the center of the pad, reclining on a wide couch, sat Korinth. Behind him were two of his guards, with another pair on either end of the platform, next to the servitors. A woman was at his s
ide, though I didn’t recall seeing her climb the stairs—which was surprising, given the shimmering bodycon dress she wore.
There was a chaise lounge next to the arms dealer, and I sauntered toward it, my eyes locked on Korinth’s, though he hadn’t yet looked my way. I was almost at the chair when he finally deigned to look at me. Without a word, I draped myself over the side and held his gaze for nearly a minute before speaking.
“I’m buying what the Kerrigan is transporting.”
In an instant, all sound from the club disappeared, a wall of suppression cutting us off from the throbbing beat and roaring crowd. Link access went with it.
The sofa creaked as he leant forward.
“Are you, now? And how do you know about what that tub has in its holds?”
Korinth’s voice rolled over me like a thunderstorm, the echoes of his words reverberating in my bones long after his utterance ended. I wondered if it was a mod or the sound suppression system that caused the effect.
Or maybe it was just that he was so freakin’ massive.
I forced a smile onto my lips. “Well, I suspect that what I’m interested in isn’t just sitting in one of the ship’s holds. Probably somewhere a bit sneakier. Especially since I saw that they got boarded by a DSA cruiser a few days back. If the items I want were spotted by an inspection team, I can promise you that the situation would have played out differently.”
“You’re rather well-informed,” Korinth rumbled.
“I have a lot of credit to spend. I want to be sure I’m spending it in the right place.”
The mountain of a man regarded me silently for a minute, then finally nodded. “Yes, so my man told me. Strange that I’ve not heard of you before. I’m rather well-connected.”
A nonchalant shrug rolled off my shoulders. “I keep a low profile. I have funds, but not the clout you do to fund the protection a more public profile requires.”
“I can appreciate that,” Korinth replied. “My people have been running a background check on you. There’s not a lot to find.”
I barked a laugh. “Shocker.”
“Dealing with unknown entities is not something I enjoy.” His brow lowered, unblinking eyes narrowing. “I don’t think we can do business.”
Throughout the conversation, the woman at his side hadn’t so much as acknowledged my presence, her attention solely on the man she was draped over, fingers idly drifting through his long locks. But at this point, she met my gaze and winked.
“Go home, little girl. You’re done here.”
“I have fifty million for four,” I pressed, not wanting to botch the deal. “I can provide proof of the funds.”
Korinth turned his face from me, looking into the woman’s, their body language closing me out. A hand landed on my shoulder, and I knew that the meeting was over.
I’d failed.
I let the guard guide me off the platform, and the moment my foot touched the club floor, I was once again assaulted by the wall of sound. And the Link.
The colonel didn’t respond for a moment, and I let out a curse, realizing I’d left my drink on the platform.
Someone who knew what the fuck they were doing would have bugged that somehow.
Jacy advised.
I’d taken a long shower, well over thirty minutes, glad for the luxury of what seemed to be endless hot water that the Spintzer Hotel provided. Afterward, I let the servitor lather me in lotions while drying my body and hair. It wasn’t as human-looking as the ones in the club, with plastic skin and over-sized features, but it was still a far cry from the function-over-form machines we used in Paragon.
“Would my lady like to have a pedicure and manicure?” the machine asked.
“Why the fuck not,” I said, ambling out to the main room and collapsing in a chair. “After a night like tonight, I need it.”
I wanted to tell the bot that I was going to avail myself of every service it had before being sent back to Paragon in disgrace. Thankfully, I knew better than that. Chances were that everything the bot saw and heard was recorded and reviewed.
I was even more thankful a moment later when the bot gave me a strange smile and nodded. “Yes, that was bold of you to approach me like that.”
At first, the words didn’t make sense. I wondered why a servitor would say I was bold for using it when it was assigned to my room. Then I thought maybe it was one of the bots from the club, but that didn’t make any sense, either.
“I—” the word came out, but none followed.
The servitor laughed as she set down the small microblade she was using to trim my cuticles. Her left eye closed in a long wink, and then she reached up and pulled off the front of her face.
“You!” I gasped out the word, summoning all my willpower not to leap right out of my seat.
“Yes, me,” the woman—who had been curled up against Korinth less than an hour ago—said in a soft voice before placing the servitor’s mask back into place. “I hope this isn’t a bad time for us to have a chat. Korinth can’t be seen talking with random people out in public—especially ones as mysterious as you—but that’s what he has me for.”
“And you’re authorized to negotiate on his behalf?” I asked, unable to think of anything else to say. “Or will this take some go-around?”
“Ballsy and right to the point.” The woman laughed. “I like it. Name’s Penny, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Penny.”
“And you. It’s refreshing to see a new face in this business. New players, new blood. I like it.”
Something in the way the woman said the words suggested that she wasn’t speaking entirely about people with whom to barter and trade.
“Maybe I’ve been around a long time, and you just don’t recognize me,” I suggested. “Easy enough to change a face and fake a new Link ident.”
Penny laughed. “Sure, ‘easy’ for people with our means. Not for most folks. You said you have fifty mil? Delphian, I assume, right? None of that Paragonian shit here.”
I wanted to respond to that, but knew it was a trap, a way to get me to either confirm or deny the system I hailed from.
Instead, I laughed, then said, “Will you take Challian tokens?”
The woman inside the servitor’s frame laughed along with me. “Oh, hell yeah. You’re a breath of fresh air alright. Let’s talk turkey, then we’ll verify funds. You’ll have to make a deposit.”
“Understandable,” I said, nodding as she moved to my other hand.
It occurred to me that I was in a rather vulnerable position. Penny was holding a long blade sharp enough to slit my throat. My back was against a chair, and she could put her weight on my thighs, keeping me in place while going in for the kill.
I did my best not to fidget and made peace with the situation. So long as I presented no threat to her, she wouldn’t to me.
“This is where you state your offer,” Penny said after she finished trimming another finger.
With a shrug I said, “I already did.”
“Right, four cores for fifty mil. Do you do stand-up comedy? You’d be a hoot. Make me a realistic offer.”
“I’ll need you to confirm what’s on the cores,” I pressed. “Then we can see if they’re worth more.”
“Fair enough.” Penny Linked with me and passed the detailed specs on the cores. It confirmed what Intel already knew about them. It was a treasure trove. “Best part is that the DSA doesn’t even know they’re missing.”
“Yet.”
“We covered our tracks well. They might never figure it out.”
I snorted a laugh. “I heard you have over a dozen of these things. Someone’s going to fuck up, and the cat’ll be out of the bag before l
ong. They’ve got a limited shelf life.”
“Sure,” Penny tilted her head, looking me in the eye. “And the people who move fast will be able to make the most out of what they get their hands on.”
“Sixty mil,” I said.
“For three,” Penny countered.
“Three!” I almost shouted the word, then laughed. “Yeah, that’s not going to work. I need all four.”
The other woman stopped her work and sat back on her heels. “Oh? Why’s that?”
“Business.”
She stared at me, the servitor’s oversized eyes and frozen visage betraying nothing of what was going on behind them. “Seventy.”
“For four.”
She nodded. “Yes, for four.”
“Penny, you have yourself a deal.”
“I need ten million to hold, and verification of the full amount. We’ll be in contact to arrange delivery and final payment.”
She passed me an account, and I facilitated the transfer, the banking institution adding a verification that I did indeed possess the additional sixty million credits.
“Excellent.” Penny nodded. “Now, you do know that I’m a full-service bot, right?”
I’d forgotten during the exchange that I was still completely naked following my shower.
A shiver flowed through me as Penny slid the bot’s warm hands up my thighs.
“What are you worried about? I already touched you all over when I applied the lotion. Consider this a tip for a smooth transaction.”
I didn’t want to risk upsetting Korinth’s emissary, so I nodded slowly. “OK, let’s seal the deal.”
The other woman laughed. “Oh, I knew I was going to like you.”
It turned out that I liked her too.
14
PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS
Jacy set the food on my suite’s table with deft motions as she listened to me relate the conversation with Penny.
“That’s a new one,” she said when done. “Though I have heard that Korinth has worked through proxies before. Good thing you sealed the deal. Our other two agents struck out. No late-night visits from a sexy servitor for them.”