Yeah, they were getting it. Uneasy looks were being passed back and forth, knowing lifts of the eyebrows, the faint shrugs. A lot of the communication was subtle—the sort that developed among people who knew each other intimately. Well, all but the sour senior woman in the back who had remained standing with her arms crossed. That, Kalico remembered, was Anna Gabarron.
Kalico raised her hands. “So there you have it. It’s not the Garden of Eden promised by The Corporation. It’s only a thousand people spread across a world that will kill us in an instant. Welcome to Donovan.”
She paused as she looked them, one by one, in the eyes, then said, “Now, given the grim reality of this planet, you might wonder why Ashanti wasn’t packed with people desperate to get back to Solar System. Why anyone, given a choice, would stay. We’re here, I’m here because, for all of its dangers and privations, Donovan is a fabulous opportunity for all of us. I came with the intention of using Donovan as a stepping-stone to catapult myself onto the Board. Maybe I still will one of these days.”
She gave them a grin, knowing how it stretched her scars. “So, can you picture that? Boardmember Kalico Aguila, striding into the Board, scars on my face, quetzal-hide cape over my shoulders, and one hand on my pistol.”
She struck a pose, adding, “Bet those white-assed candy-dicked bastards wouldn’t sleep for a week.”
That got her uneasy laughs. And, as she’d hoped, it broke the tension. “Some people stay on Donovan to become rich. Some stay because Donovan has seduced them with its challenges and beauty. Others, like you, are here for the science. You all want to be the first to discover and catalog new species, be the first to understand an entirely new ecosystem. Write that pivotal paper. Make full professor. Or just fulfill your contract so you can go back to Solar System on a full-ride retirement. Whatever. That’s your business.”
She had their full attention. Even the children. Well, all but the infants, one of whom kept making “goooo goooo” sounds.
“We told you all of this at orientation, but I’m telling you again. Here’s the way it lines out: This planet was named for the first man to set foot on it. You saw his grave when you disembarked on the shuttle field. What was left of him was buried under that stone cairn up on the rise. Within two hours, good old Donovan was eaten by a quetzal. He wasn’t the last. And there’s no telling what’s in the oceans.”
Kalico watched them shift nervously.
“Barring a miracle, which rarely happens here, some of you are going to die. Maybe a lot of you. This place plays for keeps, and we don’t have a clue about the rules out here on the water. Be smart. Think. Take no chances. Do not assume that anything here follows the same rules of behavior as creatures or plants do on Earth. Never consider anything that looks like it’s harmless, to be harmless. Treat everything like it will kill you, and you have a chance.”
The air conditioning kicked on, the soft hum of fans almost loud in the still cafeteria.
Kalico gave them a grim smile. “Sorry to deliver that without any sweetener, let alone to keep harping on it, but that’s just the way Donovan is. You can see my scars.” She pointed to the ones on her face. “The first time the mobbers came, it was just dumb luck that I was standing next to a crate. When I jumped inside, I locked five of the little bastards in with me. Had to kill them with my bare hands. Three of my people weren’t that lucky. And that was inside the Corporate Mine fence, inside the compound. And from a known danger.”
Michaela Hailwood cleared her throat, breaking Kalico’s stride to say, “Director, don’t think we take your warning cavalierly, but remember that you’re addressing some of the most talented researchers in oceanography. We’ve worked with just about every dangerous species in Earth’s oceans. That includes great white sharks, orcas, sea snakes, and just about every poisonous species on the planet. You won’t catch us making any mistakes.” As if to make her point, Hailwood told her: “We know what we’re doing. We have all been trained in safety protocols. We’ll be damned careful.”
“See that you are,” Kalico insisted, aware that the men and women in the audience were smiling in that superior, almost bored, “yes I know my business” manner of specialists being lectured by an amateur.
God, I hope they’re right. But how many ways could she beat a dead horse?
She clapped her hands together to break the spell. “Now that I’ve reiterated my point, and you’ve been locked inside the Pod while you brought its systems and equipment online, I’m betting you’re wondering if this is all there is. Whether, like the Crew Deck on Ashanti, you’re locked into this one small universe.”
Sudden interest lit in their eyes. Looks of anticipation shot back and forth.
“Well, you’re not. You will be rotated out of the Pod to Port Authority at whatever interval you decide on. At Corporate Mine, my people work a ten-four. Ten days at the mine, four in PA. Our crews are staggered, so the mine runs constantly. Work it out with Scientific Director Hailwood. While you are in Port Authority, you must remember it is not Corporate. You are a guest in an independent and autonomous community. Now, for the few days you were there after disembarking Ashanti, you got a taste of the place. At the time, all the locals were going out of their way to keep you safe and out of trouble. You had a basic introduction to money. And yes, you have to pay for everything in PA.”
She could see the question reflected in their faces. “You wonder where you’ll get the PA SDRs? You will earn them.”
“How?” she heard the man in the front row ask under his breath as he gave the woman next to him a bewildered look.
“You’re Corporate,” she told them. “I’m the Supervisor. When you landed, despite the fact half of you were out of contract, you all renewed. You now work for me. I know, it’s not what you’re used to. Back in Solar System, you did as you were told, when you were told, and The Corporation selected and assigned your living quarters, provided food, clothing, entertainment, medical care, and transportation. In PA, you can stay at the Corporate Mine barracks and eat in the cafeteria on a voucher paid by Corporate Mine. Anything else, for example a shirt like the one I’m wearing, quetzal-hide boots, a drink or meal at Inga’s, you will have to pay for. It’s simple math, people. And most of the folks in PA will help you figure it out if you ask them. They’ve been in your shoes, they understand your confusion, and with the possible exception of the casino they won’t cheat you.” She paused. “Questions?”
“What about that casino? The one we weren’t allowed to go to last time. Is that still off limits?” Shinwua asked.
Kalico glanced at Hailwood. The Director had made that decision last time around after she received complaints by some of the women. Hailwood said, “Your decision, Supervisor.”
Kalico studied the people, considered. “I’ve had a checkered relationship with The Jewel and its owner over the years, but we’ve reached a mutual tolerance. The place has just had a change of management, though given the stories, I’m not sure that it’s for the better. I will have a word with the woman in charge, but I warn you: not all of the predators on Donovan are native. You enter that place at your own risk.”
“What’s a casino?” a little brown-haired boy sitting next to tall blond asked.
Kalico gave him a grin. “What’s your name?”
“Felix.” He watched her with sensitive brown eyes.
“Well, Felix, a casino is where people go and guess if they can make more than they lose. But it’s all designed so they lose more than they make.”
“Who’d go there?” the boy wondered.
“My point exactly.”
13
“Now that Dan’s gone, I don’t suppose I could ever offer you enough to leave all this?” Desch Ituri asked. He lay on his back in Allison Chomko’s bed, right arm up to prop his head on the pillow. His short body was half out of the tangle of sheets and pressed against the wall of her room in The Je
wel.
Allison Chomko allowed herself a husky laugh as she ran her long fingernails in patterns across the man’s naked chest, then used the thumb and forefinger nails to lightly pinch Ituri’s dark nipple. The man gasped, stiffened, and slowly relaxed as she stroked her fingernails down, around his navel and into the damp mat of his pubic hair. As her fingernails continued to trace their way into the man’s ultimate erogenous zone it brought a low moan from his lips.
She met his longing gaze with her own steely blue stare. “What do you think would be enough? A berth down at Corporate Mine? The chance to be your kept woman as I reveled in the splendor of the mine’s cafeteria? Perhaps took evening strolls along the scenic chain-link fence on the mine perimeter? Or were you thinking of just buying me for all time? Maybe with a couple of gemstones? Rubies are always good, especially if you can find more of the pigeon-blood reds the size of a hen’s egg.” She frowned. “But wait. Don’t I already have a safe full of those? What, I wonder, could you buy me with?”
Ituri made a pained face that drew his dark eyebrows together. “It always comes down to SDRs doesn’t it?”
“That, and power, Desch. Though, in a sense, they are two faces of the same thing. Wealth gives power, and power attracts wealth. It’s an equation that’s as old as humanity. No one, not even The Corporation for all of its vaunted claims of providing social justice, blind equality, and systemic brotherhood for all has ever risen above the sordid reality of wealth and power.”
“I know.”
She could see him struggling for the right words. Cut him off before he could make a fool of himself. “You don’t want to say anything dumb. I appreciate the honesty, and I certainly value your company. Otherwise, I wouldn’t take you to my bed for any price. But sex for money is as far as it goes. Don’t delude yourself with sloppy romantic shit, or images of love and a caring relationship where you sweep me off my feet. You’ll only humiliate yourself.”
He nodded, a faint quiver of a smile teasing the corner of his mouth. “That just makes you more attractive, you know? There’s never any misunderstanding, no wheedling or play acting. You just tell it like it is. The other women. Dalia and Angelina. They overact, especially when they’re bored and just doing a job.”
“Maybe I’d better have a talk with them.”
“Ali, don’t. It’s part of the game. Most of the guys coming here are looking for just what they’re giving. Right down to the faked orgasms.”
She sat up, swung her legs over the side of her bed, and stood. Stepping to the golden sink, she used a cloth and washed before taking her dress from its hook and stepping into it. Pulling it up, she fastened it tight around her body. The material was a fine-silver thread, the fabric reflective so that it accented every curve of her toned body.
Ituri watched her with that now-familiar longing. Good. She had him right where she wanted him.
“Sure you gotta go?” he asked.
“The Jewel doesn’t run itself. For a lot of the patrons, they’re still feeling their way. Wondering how it’s going to work with Dan gone. Vik, Shin, and Kalen have pretty well figured out that nothing’s changed. They’re good with it. Some of the clientele, however, are still coming to grips with the fact that sweet Ali isn’t a pushover.”
“So I hear.”
She checked herself in the mirror one last time. “Ah, so what exactly do you hear? What’s the word down at Corporate Mine? Out on the street?”
“That you’re one tough bitch, just as bloody as Dan Wirth, and every bit as heartless.” He gave her a thoughtful squint. “I know you. You’re smart, Ali. And you’re anything but heartless. I know that you’ve done some things. Been tough on some who’ve tried to take advantage. And you’ve had Kalen Tompzen beat a couple of Wild Ones. Is that how you really want it?”
She turned, cocked her head. “No other way I can have it. Not and get where I want to go.”
“And just where is that?”
“The very top, Desch.” She lifted a hand to fix her hair. “And, no, I’m not talking about toppling Kalico from her gilded Corporate throne. I don’t want her empire, so you can relax. Believe me, Donovan is big enough for the both of us.”
She could see the slight flicker of relief behind Ituri’s eyes. The man was as dedicated to Kalico Aguila as the rest of the Supervisor’s acolytes. Which was another reason to avoid any kind of confrontation.
Left in the wreckage of Dan’s passage, Allison Chomko would either survive by her cold wits, or she’d lose it all. When Dan found her, she’d been wounded, grieving, and vulnerable. He’d seduced her, drugged her, used her, and finally prostituted her. When she’d sobered up, came to, and realized what he’d done—what she’d allowed him to do—either she could finish the destruction he’d started, or take matters into her own hands no matter the cost. She’d chosen the later.
“Desch, I don’t have any illusions. Dan beat them out of me.”
He sighed, gave a gesture of surrender with his hands, and climbed out of her bed. “You know that part of your allure is being forever out of reach. Forbidden fruit. Beyond the possession of any man.”
“Really?” She arched a pale brow. “When it comes to reach, seems you just had your hands all over me. And given what you did with your mouth, the fruit was pretty well tasted. As to possession, we were in delightful harmony that last time.”
“A fleeting moment. Tomorrow I’m back to the mine, and you are only a dream.”
She watched him as he reached for his pants. “Maybe dreams are all we really have, Desch. Seems like every time I think I’ve got hold of the dream, on Donovan it turns to shit. My parents, my husband, my daughter, and then Dan. I don’t dream anymore. I just set hard and fast goals, and then I do anything I can to make them happen.”
He was pulling on his shirt. “I’d say it’s working. Look what you have. After Kalico, you’re the wealthiest woman on Donovan. You brought down Tam Benteen. People, even the triumvirate, listen when you speak. You’ve become a powerful woman. Even Kalico says so.”
Allison stifled a smile. “She does? Wouldn’t have thought she cared.”
Desch gave an offhanded shrug meant to minimize any import. “She probably doesn’t. Just a passing mention. People talk, you know. Doesn’t mean anything.”
Allison turned, placed a finger under Desch’s chin and lifted it so she could stare into his eyes. “Sorry, lover. You’re working too hard here. She knows you are one of the few I bed. She gave you the third degree, didn’t she?”
“I don’t know about any degree—”
“That means she interrogated you. And, worshipping her like you do, you told her everything. Gave it to her straight up like you’re about to give it to me. What did you tell her?”
She enjoyed the growing panic in Desch’s eyes. His hard swallow shifted her finger where she kept it firmly under his chin. She let her stare burn into his, allowed the predatory smile she’d developed to curl her lips.
At his continued hesitance, she said, “Oh, come, Desch. Were those wistful words about taking me away from all this only sycophantic boy-talk to soak off the girl you’d just fucked from stem to stern, or was it horseshit to convince yourself that I was more than an ordinary and convenient whore?”
Desch looked miserable, reached up and removed her finger. Defeated, he dropped to the bed. “No. I wasn’t feeding you a line. It’s the rules, Ali. What I promised the Supervisor in order to come here. Nothing, not a word of Corporate Mine will cross my lips. That’s what I promised.”
“So, you and ‘the Supervisor’”—she’d noted the change from him calling her Kalico—“can talk about me. But you and I can’t talk about her? Clap-trapping hell, what is it about that bargain that just doesn’t seem fair, balanced, or equitable?”
“She can order me to never see you again,” Desch almost pleaded.
Allison dropped to the bed
, took his hand, let her gaze bore into his. “Desch, I can walk over to the door, give a whistle, and have Kalen Tompzen manhandle you right out the back and into the alley. All I have to say is ‘Desch never sets foot in this place again,’ and you won’t.”
“Ah, shit.” He made a face.
“Fact is, I’ll miss you. I like you. I enjoy the intimacy, the small talk, and the sex. Especially the sex. You’re a good lover, considerate and talented. But mostly, I’ll miss you for being you. The fact that when we’re together, we just relax and enjoy spending time.”
“Sounds like pretty good reasons not to have me thrown out, wouldn’t you say?”
She snorted through her nose. “Not when I think that you’re only here, only in my bed, because you’re Kalico Aguila’s spy. And, truth be told, after Dan compromised Kalen Tompzen, I wouldn’t put it past Aguila to retaliate in kind.” She let her eyes frost. “God, Desch. Is that what this is all about? Why you came back? So that Kalico could get—”
“No!”
“That really makes me a fool, doesn’t it?” she adopted a whisper, letting her eyes go absent.
“Shit on a shoe, how’d this go so bad?” Desch wondered, dropping his face into his hands. Through his fingers, he added, “She knows I have a thing for you. I asked her. Pleaded with her, that I could come back. Made the promise that I’d never divulge anything to you that Dan could use against her. You know how they were? His threat to poison her, her retaliatory threat to blow up The Jewel. Made with my backpack!”
She let her voice warm the slightest bit. “I know. I know.”
A beat.
“But Dan’s gone.”
Adrift Page 9