by Michael Todd
Kennedy smirked. “I think I’m flattered. Anyway, when did you get ‘Madie’ out? I don’t remember us surviving the kind of shitstorm that comes with plucking these babies.”
“Sure you do,” Sal said. “It was on our first trip in. It hadn’t blossomed yet, so I took the chance that we wouldn’t call down all the kinds of hell that comes with pulling a plant out. I was…half right. They were still pissed, but not as much. And only the ones that were around. Remember? You got shot in the leg by those bounty hunters?”
“Oh, yeah,” Kennedy said with a smirk. “Fun times.”
“Fun times?”
“Yeah. But that’s not the point right now. I mean, you weren’t even close to a Ph.D. then, and you managed to pull something that not even the best, brightest or most funded—not necessarily in that order—were able to do.”
“I’m still not a Ph.D.,” Sal said with a grimace. He would have to finish his dissertation sometime. Eventually. One of these days.
“You should have told me,” Kennedy said. “We’re partners in this, and I have to be able to trust you to tell me the truth about things.”
Sal nodded. “I know, and I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t trust anyone when I got her, and while I’ve run tests, I wasn’t sure if I could tell anyone about her. It seemed easier to keep you out of the loop, and I made up all kinds of excuses, like giving you plausible deniability—” He paused when she snorted derivatively. “Yeah, I know, bullshit, but still. That’s why I’m filling you in on it now.”
Madigan nodded. She supposed that he could have kept it a secret indefinitely, and the fact that he had opened up to her about something that had happened before they were partners was a sign of trust.
She sighed and shook her head. “Why haven’t you sold it yet?”
Sal shrugged. “I’m not really sure. It’s not that I don’t want the money. I could probably push the price up to at least twice what they’re offering once I give them the results of the tests that I’ve run. But I’m not sure that I’m ready to trust anyone or any corporation willing to drop that much money on this.”
Kennedy narrowed her eyes and paused to think about what he’d said. When she finally arrived at her conclusion, she looked at him in surprise. “What? You’ve tested this stuff on yourself—is that what you’re telling me? Is that why you can fuck for that long?”
He backed away instinctively as her voice rose. “I’ve taken small doses of the unfiltered stuff from the flower. There is a correlation to my dosing myself with the blue stuff and my newly acquired…ahem, prowess, but considering that my sex life wasn’t even that active before any of this, I’m not sure if it’s actually a direct result of that, or maybe the fact that I’m young, and you have the ability to get a boner out of— Nope, nope, I will not make that joke.”
She grinned. “Thanks for that. And thanks for the compliment, no matter how badly you worded it.”
Sal chuckled. “Well, yeah. I kind of had a crush on you ever since our first trip. I’m not really sure that I would have believed that you ever came here that first night if you hadn’t left your panties with your initials on them. Well, the panties were the giveaway, the initials more…pointed the finger, I guess.”
She pushed from the bed and approached him with a small smile on her lips. “So…a crush, huh?”
Distracted, he lowered his eyes to trail his gaze over her form. “Well…yeah.”
“You named your plant after your crush?” Kennedy asked with a smile and leaned up to kiss his lips softly.
“I did name my ten-million-dollar-plus plant for my crush, yes,” he said with a small smile. “Do you want to fuck?”
“Unless you give me a dose of that blue stuff from Madie, I don’t think I’ll be able to,” she said regretfully and kissed his chin.
“Well, you did say a blowjob was on the table,” Sal said with a sly smirk. “But if you like, I can give you something for the pain.”
“Well, I guess we could start off with a blowjob anyway,” she murmured and leaned closer. “I seem to recall that you liked that. But I’ll want a rematch for the sex Olympics in a week or two.”
“Well, give me a moment and I’ll be right with you.” He kissed her gently.
Chapter Thirty-One
Courtney looked up from her empty breakfast plate when there was a knock on the door. Supplies arrived every week, but she’d had enough of the dehydrated stuff and the repetitive food that they served at the mess hall, so she’d put some work into stocking up on fresh food. It wasn’t the best. Getting groceries out into the desert was always troublesome, but occasionally, the variety and freshness made it worth the effort.
She washed her hands quickly, went to the door, and opened it. Sal stood outside.
“Well, good morning, boss,” she said with a soft, almost awkward chuckle.
He grinned in response as she gestured for him to come inside. “Well, I’m not technically your boss, but I appreciate the deference.”
Monroe chuckled softly. “Well, considering that there’s only one doctorate in this room, I guess I should call you ‘partner,’ then.”
“Junior partner,” Sal retorted and narrowed his eyes. “Let’s not get carried away. Heavy Metal is my baby, and you’re crazy if you think that I’ll let her go without a fight.”
“The company’s a woman now, is she?” Courtney asked.
“Well, yeah, since there are more women than men staffing it,” Sal said smoothly like he’d expected her to say that.
“Can I get you some coffee?” she asked.
“Please. You wouldn’t believe how bad the coffee is on the Russian side. Seriously, we could make a fortune simply by smuggling this stuff over to those poor, poor comrades.”
She laughed. “Well, we can look into expanding our business into smuggling coffee later, I think.”
“We’ve already expanded it into buying vodka from them,” Sal said. “I guess we forgot to tell you, but they sold the stuff for bananas, so we brought some crates back with us to sell to the bar here. We thought we’d be able to make some money on the side with that.”
Courtney nodded and set a mug of hot coffee on the kitchen counter where Sal had taken a seat.
“I got your message,” she said after he’d taken a couple of sips. “I really appreciate you giving me the full bonus.”
“You did the work, you get the money,” he said with a shrug. “And I looked into the tax laws around here, and I can actually get some tax breaks if I pass the money on to you, so…thank you, actually.”
Monroe laughed. “The breaks aren’t that substantial. Anyway, I appreciate it. I’m glad that I’m finally in business with someone whom I can trust. Someone who’s got my back, as it were.”
Sal smiled. “We’re partners in this. If we stab each other in the back, we’ll all end up dead.”
“That’s not how the guys who wrote my paychecks before saw things,” she reminded him and raised her mug to toast silently with him. “Any word on the actual pay from our little trip into the Zoo?”
“Well, it was cut short, so it’ll be a couple of days before we send out invoices,” he said. “But we did manage to bring in a substantial amount of data, so that, plus the salaries owed us, even if they’re half-rate, should net us some good income. Oh, Young sent me a message with what we’re owed for the sets of Pita flowers that we turned in, but those will also only be deposited once the rest of the teams come back in and all the money is paid out.”
Courtney nodded. One of the downsides of actually paying attention to how her money was handled was that she wasn’t great at keeping track of things. Maybe she should take notes or something.
“Can I ask you something?” Sal asked.
“Of course,” she replied and snapped out of her train of thought. “What’s on your mind?”
“Well, you’ve probably already made something of a name for yourself as the specialist who’s gone out into the Zoo the longest,” he said. “You could
probably get tenure in a university or a seven- or eight-figure salary in one of the corporations that are interested in this place. Why are you still here? I mean, sure, it’s fun, but don’t you ever feel tempted to go back to civilization?”
She settled her gaze on the mug of coffee cradled in her hands. “There’s always the temptation to head back, I guess, and I’ve actually talked with a couple of corporate headhunters about cushy job back home, but…it’s complicated.”
Sal seemed content to simply sit and wait for her to explain. He even leaned forward, and the gesture prompted her to continue.
“Well, you should probably know that my dad is Dr. Hartley Monroe,” she said. “You know, the—”
“Yeah.” he nodded. “The whole thing with the monkeys in Los Angeles. I remember.”
“Right. Anyway, he’s the one who got me this job with the goop before it became all Zoo-ified. So yeah, I’ve put out some peer-reviewed stuff that’s been well received in our circles, but I’ve looked for something…spectacular. Something that would put me on the map and kind of…well, show that I earned my place out here and I’m not merely riding on the wave of my father’s success, you know? Plus, I want to one-up him a little. So yeah, I stick it out in the most dangerous place in the world, fighting for my life, to make myself the Dr. Monroe, not Dr. Monroe’s daughter.”
“I get that.”
“Overbearing parents on your side too?” Courtney asked.
“No, not really,” Sal replied. “They were always the kind of people where a job was something that they did in order to live and never let their jobs be their lives. Which is a good thing, I guess, but I was born different. They knew that, and they loved me in spite of my brains. To them, I was simply one of their kids. It’s vanity, I know, but I’ve always wanted to be more than that to them.”
She laughed. “Yep, I get that you were one of those kids. You’re special, and you want everyone to know about it.”
He opened his mouth, but shut it again and shrugged. “That’s actually pretty darn accurate, but I do want you to stop describing me…forever, so let’s change the subject, shall we?”
“Sounds like a plan. What did you have in mind?”
“Well, I was over at the armory yesterday, and I talked to Boulos about upgrading your suit to something new and snappy. I thought that you might want to get something more dedicated to a specialist’s duties and not a hybrid like mine is.”
“That sounds about right,” she said with a nod.
“Anyway,” Sal continued, “I need to charge it to the company’s account, and for that, I’ll actually need to finish your working contract. Boulos will send me a list of the specialist suits that they have available for us, so if you could get all your contracts sorted out for me today?”
“I need to pick up my residual checks from the other guys this morning, and they’ll sign off on my severance this afternoon,” she said. “I’ll have them all to you by then.”
“That would be great.” He finished his coffee and stood. “I’ll give Kennedy the specs on what to look for in the suits regarding budget and you can tell her what you’re looking for with function. Based on that, we can find something that works for you. We can meet up for dinner at the bar and exchange all the info if that’s okay.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Awesome,” he said with a wink. “I’ll see you then.”
Courtney escorted him to the door and shut it behind him with a soft sigh. It wasn’t like her to pine after a guy or wonder what he meant by every tiny little detail. It did make her wonder why he jumped so quickly to all business when they had a real, earnest discussion.
“You’re overthinking this,” she scolded herself. She needed to finalize the contract issues, so she put the dishes in the sink to be taken care of later and grabbed her bag and keys.
She didn’t like that he had apparently friend-zoned her now that they worked together, but considering everything that had happened, she wasn’t too surprised about it. If he wanted her to stick around because he liked her brains, she could live with that. It would take some getting used to was all.
Monroe nodded, steeled herself, and put all those thoughts aside for later—maybe never—as she exited her apartment.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Courtney stepped into the bar. The sun had already set which meant that this would be the peak hours at the place. Most of the tables were already full, as were most of the bar stools. She did feel the need to have a drink, if only to help calm herself. It hadn’t been too stressful a day, and it was always nice for the ego when the people whom she worked for in the past asked her to come back. It also showed that they didn’t realize how shitty they had treated her, which was depressing too.
She looked around once more, reluctant to have to stand until one of the loud teams left a table, and finally saw Madigan in the corner near the kitchen, waving her over. A wave of relief washed over her as she joined her. It was a table for two, but three chairs were spaced around it. Considering the sour looks that Kennedy received from the people who stood at the larger tables around them, Courtney wondered if she hadn’t wrestled the extra chair away from them.
Monroe really wished that she had that sort of gall. Her companion simply sat there, sipped her drink, and didn’t give a single fuck about the people around her. She obviously also knew that nobody would try to take the chair back because she would happily fight them for it.
Of course, she would be kicked out for the night, but then again, so would the others. Nobody wanted to risk getting cut off for the night over a stupid chair.
Madigan knew that which was why she sat there in such peace despite the noise around them.
“Hey,” Courtney said with a smile. “Thanks for saving me a seat.”
“No problem.” She nodded in greeting. “You going to drink anything? I have a tab open.”
Of course, she did. “I’ll have a diet Coke. I’m still traumatized by the last time you and I drank together.”
The other woman smirked, headed to the bar, and returned with a soda in hand. “Sal is finishing off a whitepaper that he has pending. It’s a way for him to bring some money into Heavy Metal while we’re not in the Zoo. There are some testing contracts that we’ve worked on too. You’re welcome to join in on those, by the way.”
“Thanks,” Courtney said with a smile and sipped her drink. “How long do you think he’ll be? Sal, I mean.”
“Oh, that depends.” Madigan drank from her own pint of dark, frothy beer. “He could be bored and have it finished in fifteen minutes, or he could be interested and do it all night.”
“Which do you think is most likely?”
“With Salinger Jacobs?” She raised an eyebrow. “I honestly couldn’t say.”
“He mentioned something about a new suit for me to work in,” Courtney said. “Something about passing the budget-restricted list of suits to you for me to pick out.”
“Oh, yeah.” Kennedy tapped at her thigh to indicate her phone. “But that can wait, I think. We’re having dinner, and I’m starving. It’s always best to avoid shopping when you’re hungry.”
“That’s a myth, isn’t it?” Courtney asked.
“Not for me. I’ve kept myself under control with that in mind for a long time now.”
She grinned. “Well, I can give it a try, I suppose. Sorry if I’m overeager, but I’m happy to finally work with people whom I trust to watch my back, you know?”
Madigan nodded. “I feel the same way.”
“And I like the work,” she continued. “I’d be happy to take everything that he can put in me.”
“Phrasing,” her companion grumbled.
“What was that?” Monroe asked.
“Nothing. I just approve of your choice of words.”
“Oh…” Courtney blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Sure,” Madigan said with a grin to tease the woman across from her. “So, Sal told me what happened
between the two of you while we were over in the Russian Base.”
She caught her breath and tilted her head, and panic careened in her stomach. “Oh…really? What did he say?”
“He didn’t give me any specifics,” Kennedy said with a shrug. “Only that the two of you slept together and that if I wanted to hear the dirty details, I’d have to ask you about it. That’s not to say that I want to hear the details.”
“Well—” Courtney said and stalled for time as she tried to get a read on what the other woman thought. She had raised the conversation, after all. In this lighting, it was impossible to tell. That smirk could be malicious or teasing. She had no idea. “I…how do you feel about it?”
Madigan shrugged. “I think that we’re in a very dangerous business, and life is way too short to have to bother with the drama and complications that come with relationships that regular society approves of. When you can get your ass killed the next time you walk into the Zoo, all those rules and regulations don’t really have relevance.”
“Huh.” She had no idea where to go with that.
“What I mean is...” Madigan started and paused to collect her thoughts and word this right. “What I mean is that I’m not some catty bitch who will start a fight where no fight exists, you know?”
Courtney nodded. “I appreciate that. I mean, I really like working with you, and I wouldn’t want some drunken mistake to get in the way of our working relationship—and hopefully, a friendship.”
“I feel the same way. Although you’ll have to tell me how it was that you managed to get Sal drunk during the day. I can barely get him to drink at night.”
So he really hadn’t told her any of the details, Courtney thought. Well, if he hadn’t wanted to tell Madigan about it, she didn’t intend to pop that bubble. She really did respect the woman, and she had the feeling that if she told her about how she had sex with her man while he was asleep, she would take that seriously. It was way better to avoid the possibility of a fight with her—catfight or otherwise.