A Path in the Darkness

by M. D. Cooper

  “How big a block, and when?”

  “A million relative seconds, beginning tomorrow at 1200. It’s parallel, so only two thousand sidereal seconds.”

  Jessica was shocked. “A million? How much did he pay?”

  “Uh…a lot.”

  Jessica could imagine. She also could imagine what Myrrdan would do with a million seconds on an NSAI, even if it wasn’t a super node. Well, she did have some ideas, but nothing she really wanted to think about.

  Jessica stood. “Thanks Jameson. You’ve been real helpful.”

  He nodded and muttered something about denting his door. Jessica didn’t respond and pulled the portal shut behind her as she stepped out into the hall. With some effort she got it latched; the boot mark was a cosmetic feature as far as she was concerned.

  She walked quickly down the corridor and out of the block. A bank of tubelifts stood across the section’s main access corridor and Jessica stepped into one of them, keying the surface level. The tube closed in around her and pulled her up at over a thousand kilometers per hour. The mass compensation system cushioned the effect and she almost couldn’t feel the motion.

  Jessica accessed her Link and reported the information to Nell, the AI in charge of organizing agents’ duties and reports. Nell thanked her for the update and scheduled a meeting for 0800 with Sub-Regional Director Rickford to determine the next course of action.

  The tublelift arrived at the ring’s surface just as Jessica finished updating her internal calendar for the next day: 0800, discuss stopping madman; 1200, stop madman.

  She walked out of the transit station into the soft glow of night, the earth hanging directly above with the Asian sub-continent sliding by—the lights of the New Delhi arcologies a bright spot below the darkness of the Himalayas.

  It was near the vernal equinox, which meant that the ring was in line with Earth and Sol. Whenever this occurred the ring had two nights. The long night when its back was to Sol, and the shorter night as the far side of the ring fell in Earth’s shadow. The event also created a days-long eclipse on the far side of the earth as the ring obscured Sol.

  The nature of the ring, combined with the fact that in a place where people travelled hundreds of kilometers in minutes, time zones were unused. This meant that it was 2164 everywhere on the ring, no matter if it was night or day.

  Jessica could never get used to it. Sleeping during the day, night, morning, whatever; it messed her up every time. She missed Athabasca. It was too far north to catch shadow from the ring and had proper days and nights, and regular seasons, unlike the mild winter/summer shifts of just a few degrees on the ring.

  It made her itch to be back on Earth. Hell, it looked so close, hanging above her. She felt she should be able to reach out and touch it. However, she had another itch that needed scratching and there was just one way to get that done.

  Her groundcar was nearby, ostentatiously sitting in a no-parking zone, its TBI identifier keeping it from getting disabled and towed. She slipped into it and sent a command over the Link, instructing it to take her home; time to get out of this armor and into something a lot more—or maybe less—comfortable.

  The ring was in its ‘winter’ phase, which meant that nighttime temperatures would get as cold as twelve degrees Celsius. Jessica wasn’t about to let her fashion be a slave to temperature and wore a tight purple halter dress that didn’t cover much more than a long shirt would into the club

  The dress interfaced with her neuro-mods and slow patterns of shifting violet hues flowed across its surface. She altered their pattern to flow toward the front of the dress and then down suggestively.

  Covering her feet and most of her legs were a pair of tall boots made of the same material. They ended half way up her thighs, appearing to simply merge with the skin on her legs as was the current style.

  With a toss of her hair she walked onto the club floor and began to perform what could only be considered to be a mating dance. At least she certainly hoped it could only be taken as such. Sex, preferably something kinky and steamy, was her only priority tonight. Myrrdan, the murders, the whole damn case; all of that could—no, would—wait until tomorrow.

  Jessica knew her body was irresistible, she had paid a lot of money to make certain of it. Her elongated legs combined with the heels of her boots made the proportion to her torso just shy of cartoonish. Her breasts were not too large, but certainly bigger than her natural size.

  She ran her hands down her sides, nearly wrapping them around her fifty-centimeter waist, before caressing the smooth curve of her hips.

  That had been one of the more costly modifications because of the spinal reinforcement and alterations to her digestive tract—namely the removal of most of it—to get everything to fit right. Her hips had needed a bit of a change as well to make the curve from her narrow waist soft and smooth.

  Other than her hair, which ‘naturally’ grew blue, her only other external modification was a slight narrowing of her hands, the effect made her fingers look exceptionally slender and nimble.

  It was a body made to attract sexual partners. It even attracted her. Jessica had to admit that she often got off on herself more than her mates. There was just something about the crafting of her own form to be a sexual icon that excited her to no end.

  She knew it wasn’t an entirely normal response to have. TBI psychologists had recommended she alter her brain chemistry to have a standard sexual response—it probably would have been cheaper than all of the alterations to the rest of her body, but why would she want to do that? She liked the way she was.

  Her dancing hadn’t taken long to attract the attention of the opposite sex, and no small number of the same sex. She looked them over, sliding herself close to one or another from time to time.

  A man was eying her from the bar. No, he was blatantly staring. He was pivoted on his seat, the drink behind him long forgotten. His eyes bored into hers and he didn’t even glance down at her body. That was unusual to say the least.

  His clothing was black, all black. It appeared to be some lightly textured polymer, close in appearance to natural leather. The jacket fit loosely around his large torso, and the pants were tight on the thighs and crotch, showing he had something to offer down there. She could only imagine his ass would be fantastic as she sashayed across the floor toward him.

  Seeing that she was interested, he gestured to the seat beside him, rising as he did so. His eyes were black; not entirely, but close enough that without her own modified peepers she wouldn’t have been able to tell in the dim light of the club. His hair was also black; falling down to his shoulders with a slight wave that led her to believe it could be natural.

  She reached the bar and sat, taking a moment to make sure her dress was pulled down far enough so as not to give the entire club a view of her nether regions. She may be on the prowl, but she wasn’t quite that lascivious.

  “Jessica.” She said by way of greeting. She already knew his name was Alex, courtesy of a quick ID lookup on the TBI database.

  “I’m Alex.” He offered her his hand and she shook it firmly. It wasn’t the most demure thing to do, but she couldn’t bear a weak handshake, especially not from her own hand.

  “I couldn’t help but notice your stare, Alex. Would you care to come out on the dance floor?” She gave a seductive smile and altered her dress to swirl patterns around her breasts.

  “I would, but I don’t think I could match your moves. I’d be Pluto to your Sol.”

  Jessica couldn’t help but grimace slightly at the forced astronomical humor.

  She turned and faced the bar, eyeing the bottles lined up in front of the holo display. “Then I suppose we should have a drink.”

  “What would you like?”

  “I like the Nebula Margarita they serve here.” Her tone was offhand.

  The man waved the bartender down and ordered two.

  “So what do you do for a living?” Alex asked.

  She knew what he was th
inking. He supposed she was a bimbo executive assistant, or some other sort of window dressing. Her body and clothing certainly told no other tale. Of course, that was the message she tried to send, no reason to scare potential partners off.

  “I’m an administrative assistant for the VPs in a business near here.” It was code for eye candy and occasional sex toy as there was no need to have a human perform any administrative tasks when an AI or even simple non-sentient software could do a better job.

  Normally such a lie wouldn’t work—it was too easy to find out everything about a person from a quick facial scan. Working for the TBI had its advantages—Jessica had bribed several techs to ensure that her job never came up when she was on the hunt.

  The drinks arrived and the conversation proceeded down a rather predictable path. Before long they were checking into a nearby hotel. She followed him down the hall to the room, admiring the way his shoulders pushed against the jacket. God, she hoped he was modified, nothing like a man who knew where to enhance himself to turn her on.

  Once in the room he tossed his jacket on a chair and they wrapped their limbs around each other, Jessica taking a good look at his ass in the mirror—every bit as delicious as she’d hoped. She gripped it hard and bit at his neck, the other hand feeling the rippling muscles on his back. He had to be enhanced, there was no way a man could have shoulders this perfect on a natural body.

  He pulled away from her and removed his shirt, displaying an absolutely perfect chest, pecks just the right size, with dark nipples at the tips. When he lifted his arms over his head to pull the shirt off and toss it aside they tensed up just right and sent a quiver through her loins.

  His stomach was tight as well, a slight trail of hair descended under his pants, leading down to a promise she couldn’t wait to have in her hands. She looked up to his face and saw that he had been following her eyes. He glanced down at her body and quirked an eyebrow; she knew what he wanted to see.

  Pivoting her hips seductively, she placed her hands on her shoulders and slipped them under the straps of the dress. Slowly, but fast enough to keep his attention, she raised her arms, sliding the straps off her shoulders. With a twinkle in her eyes she lowered it past her breasts one at a time, stretching the dress tightly over them as she did so to make them bounce when they broke free.

  His eyes were devouring her now, and she slid the dress down further, revealing her own perfect abs before pulling it past her hips and letting it fall to the floor. She wasn’t wearing anything under the dress; other than her boots she was now totally naked.

  “Like what you see, Mr. Dark and Mysterious?”

  His grin was somewhat predatory. “Yes, very, very much.”

  He stepped up to her, and pushed his groin into hers, their legs interlaced. His hands ran down her sides, over her hips, and traced their way between her legs before coming back up to cup her breasts.

  “Get on the bed.”

  She smiled, throwing a mock salute. “Yes, sir, Mr. Sir.”

  Jessica sat down, and then lay back, using her long legs to push herself further onto the bed, the spike heels of her boots digging into the blankets. “You gonna come down here, or do I have to come get you?”

  “Oh, I’ll be there,” Alex said. The look in his eyes had changed slightly. It was a tiny shift, from excitement caused by lust to excitement from control and power. She would have to watch him, make sure he didn’t get carried away.

  He turned to his jacket and reached inside for something. Jessica’s hackles rose, but they were a moment too late. When he turned back he had a sonic beam pistol aimed at her.

  Sonic beam pistols weren’t fatal if a person was only shot once or twice. However, even one shot at a heavily modded person would make them wish they were dead.

  “What the fuck is this?” Jessica asked. “This your idea of a kinky little game?”

  Alex smiled. The lust was gone; it was all a power trip for him now.

  “No, though you do look damn fine. I’d love to screw your brains out, but you’re way too dangerous to get that close to now.”

  “Next time do a girl a favor and fuck her before resorting to gunplay.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He tossed her a set of ES shackles. “Lock these on your wrists, ankles and neck.

  Jessica pouted. “Think you could put the gun down and we could use these for fun?”

  He didn’t say a word, but his look spoke volumes. A gesture with the gun got her moving and she locked the shackles on the indicated locations. Nothing connected them, but they would lock together once activated.

  “This is going to be a little uncomfortable,” he grinned. So he did enjoy this sort of thing. The shackles were probably from his personal collection.

  She felt the shackles begin to pull her limbs behind her back into a hog tie. Her neck arched back until everything met. He wasn’t lying. It really did hurt.

  “So, uh—” Jessica had to pause for air “—why exactly are you doing this?”

  “I guess you’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?” Alex sat in a chair and Jessica squirmed on the bed to see him. She was trying to ignore the fact that she was completely naked and the arching of her back made her breasts stand out like stretched cones.

  “I kinda would, yeah.”

  “Well, you’ve managed to make an enemy who has decided to take you off his tail. I’m sure you know who I’m speaking of.”

  “Of whom I’m speaking,” Jessica said.

  “What?”

  “You shouldn’t end a sentence in a preposition. I don’t care what they say, it’s just not proper.”

  Alex snorted. “I really don’t think you get to say what’s proper or not. You’re one of the most improper people I’ve met.”

  “Touché.” Jessica sighed. “So what’s the plan? Wait for me to cramp to death?”

  “Well, I’m supposed to kill you, but I want to take a bit of time to enjoy the image in front of me.”

  She knew who wanted her dead, it had to by Myrrdan. She hadn’t pissed anyone off enough lately to go to these lengths other than him. Of course she did need to get free, apprehend, or maybe just kill Alex and then get Myrrdan.

  “Take a good look; it’s the last beautiful thing you’ll ever see.”

  A fleeting look of concern passed over Alex’s fantastic features before it turned to derision. “You don’t think you’re going to get out of this—you’re sorely deluded.”

  “Well…I don’t know what you were thinking regarding my Link.” Jessica smiled sweetly.

  “What do you mean? The ES cuffs disable your wireless net access.”

  Jessica laughed, and then choked as the collar pulled at her neck. “Ughl…that’s uncomfortable. I think Myrrdan doesn’t like you as much as he doesn’t like me.”

  Alex looked concerned now; this time the expression didn’t fade. “Myrrdan? The serial killer?”

  “Yeah…he’s the one that set this up. You’ll go to jail and I’ll just be humiliated. Better than dead, I think.” Jessica tried to look smug, but imagined that she was failing in her current predicament.

  “I don’t get it. How are you thinking you’ll get out of this?”

  “I can only imagine that Myrrdan failed to mention that I’m TBI. I have a low band, high power backup connection. Your new jailers will be here any moment.”

  “Aw fuck.” Alex got up from the chair and pulled his shirt back on and then picked up his jacket. He looked down at her and Jessica knew he was weighing whether to leave her, kill her, or take her as a hostage. Hostage was pretty dangerous. Jessica knew over three hundred ways to kill a person with her bare hands. Killing her would make the manhunt that much larger, that much faster. Letting her live was safest. He had to be assuming she had sent his information over the Link, so he was as ID’d as he was going to get.

  He turned from her, apparently deciding to go with the latter of the options. Jessica smiled, knowing what he was in for as he opened the door. He
pulled it wide, directly into the muzzle of an assault rifle.

  Alex’s hands flew up and he backed into the room. Two SWAT officers in full powered armor stepped through the entrance, weapons trained on Alex. They were followed by Agent Rogers, who glanced down at Jessica and smirked before looking to Alex.

  “Transfer the cuff control to me.”

  Alex appeared as though he was going to argue the point for a moment, but one of the SWAT officers leaned forward and tapped the muzzle of his rifle against the would-be assassin’s head.

  “I’d do like the man says.”

  Alex nodded and a moment later Rogers turned to Jessica and the cuffs released.

  “Oh god…it hurts almost as much to straighten out.” She stretched her legs and rolled onto her back, breathing deeply for a few moments before sitting up. “He’s got a pistol in his jacket. Don’t know what else.”

  Alex smiled innocently and pulled the pistol out.

  “We were just having a bit of fun. Lady there likes this sort of thing, I mean look at her, she’s built for fucking.”

  Rogers smirked. “Don’t I know it. Doesn’t mean you’re on the up and up. You’ve assaulted, kidnapped, and threatened an agent of the TBI. You, my friend, are going away for a long time.”

  Jessica got up and slipped her dress back on while the SWAT officers cuffed Alex and led him out of the room.

  “Little escapade gone wrong?” Rogers asked her.

  “No, he was sent by Myrrdan to take me out of the picture.”

  Rogers chuckled. “I guess he found your Achilles heel.”

  “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

  “Doubtful.”

  She gave Rogers her most seductive look. “Think we could make a deal?”

  He laughed and slapped her on the shoulder. “You may be the most sexed up agent in the TBI, but my wife is ten times more dangerous than you. Nothing you have is worth it.”

  Jessica pouted for a moment before turning off her sensuality. “Fine, Mr. All Business.”