Corizen Rising

by Heidi J. Leavitt

  It made her feel slimy every time she thought of it.

  Luckily, Zane had seemed to take an interest in her without her having to resort to anything at all. The first time they had met to go over the preliminary project proposal, he had asked her out to dinner. Over the last few months, Zane and Jenna had continued to date, Carter & Yen’s design proposal had made Mr. Quintan’s short list of favorites, and Jenna had kept her self-respect intact. Zane was a nice enough guy, and he was pleasant to go out with. He was even pretty attractive, in a tall, dark, and brooding sort of way. In time maybe she would actually feel some romantic interest in him. If not, she hoped that their casual dating could last long enough for Carter & Yen to win the bid. In the meantime, she just had to keep from offending Zane.

  So she kept her mouth shut and smiled at him, all while scanning their surroundings for threats.

  “I wonder what’s keeping Jimmy and Grier,” Zane finally said.

  “Oh, are we waiting for someone?” Jenna asked, trying to keep her voice neutral. She had thought this was going to be just a typical night at the QE, watching Zane race with his friends. However, first Zane had commed her saying he wouldn’t be able to pick her up and asking her to meet him at the tube stop nearest the QE. Now they were going to stand around and wait outside the resort for who knew how long. She eyed the empty street nervously. The building across the way had several dark stairwells leading down to basement entrances. Anyone could be lurking in the shadows over there. She hoped Zane had bodyguards just out of sight.

  “Yes, James Forrest and Grier Nuris. You’ve met Grier, though you probably don’t remember. He is one of my father’s drivers and bodyguards. He’s making sure James makes it here without any problems. He just arrived today from Terra.”

  The guy must be special, Jenna mused, if he’s being escorted by Lev Quintan’s own driver. Her interest was piqued.

  “Who is James Forrest?” she asked curiously.

  Before Zane could answer, she spotted two figures striding down the opposite sidewalk. Well, one of the figures was striding. The other trailed a little behind, clearly more interested in his surroundings than reaching the entrance to the resort. They drew close enough that Jenna could recognize Grier. She did remember meeting him; he had driven Jenna and Zane the first time they had gone out to dinner. His bald head gleamed under the streetlamps. She was reassured by his thick, muscular arms and broad shoulders. Any thug would think twice about attacking them when Grier was around. Her eyes flitted to the mysterious James Forrest. He was short, barely taller than Jenna herself, and he had a bounce in his step and swung his arms loosely as if he was on a pleasant sightseeing expedition rather than entering the most dangerous part of town. His dark hair stuck up in wild curls that she could see even from across the street.

  “Why are they walking?” Zane spoke suddenly, his tone annoyed. “Grier is supposed to be driving him in my transport!”

  “Maybe it broke down?” Jenna suggested doubtfully. Zane’s luxury personal transport was brand new so that wasn’t likely. Then she noticed the eager way that James was goggling at his surroundings like an oblivious tourist and wondered if he had chosen to walk to the Quintan Edge like a regular guest on purpose.

  The new guy was still craning his head backward at the red warning signs when a dark figure rushed from the shadows and swung a club directly at Grier’s head. Grier crumpled to the ground and his assailant rounded on James, who had stopped dead in the street.

  James’ cry of alarm shattered the quiet night. Zane reached for his netband but before he could even speak Jenna was pulling her atlatl gun from her purse. James was backing away from the thug, who was now shouting incoherently as he raised his club. Jenna took a deep breath, aimed carefully, and fired four shots in quick succession.

  All four darts hit him in the back, the electrical charge snapping loudly. The thug’s body jerked violently and he toppled to the ground, his legs still twitching. Jenna didn’t lower her gun, keeping it trained on the inert figure. Four direct hits from an atlatl gun was usually incapacitating, if not fatal, but there had been cases where men had shaken it off and recovered enough to resume their attacks. Jenna was not taking any risks at all.

  Zane rushed over and knelt by Grier. Security was pouring out of the resort through some unseen doors. In less than a minute several of them had surrounded the downed man and several more were with Zane, checking over Grier. Jenna carefully disarmed her gun and put it back into her purse.

  James was still rooted to the same spot barely a foot from the attacker’s fallen body. His eyes locked with Jenna’s. She grimaced a bit, wondering if this friend of Zane’s was appalled by her actions. Was he one of those peace-at-all-costs types that seemed especially likely to come from Terra? Maybe he would think that she should have just waited for the security to handle it. Of course, by then James would have probably been lying on the ground helpless and injured like Grier. She had been right to stop the assailant. No telling if he would see it that way though.

  Well, she was about to find out. James’ frozen stance had cracked, and he threaded his way through several security officers to reach her. She braced herself for recrimination, but when she looked at him he was smiling broadly.

  “You are my angel of deliverance,” he declared gratefully. “Another moment and I would have had a rotten ending to my first day on Zenith.” He took her hand and raised it to his lips in a quaint gesture, something she had only seen in old holos. Her skin tingled at the touch of his lips, sending shivers up her arm. Her stomach twisted pleasantly, something that she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Careful, Jenna, she warned herself. Don’t let your hormones get the best of you. She gently extricated her hand. “I’m glad I could help,” she said smoothly, trying valiantly to mask any awkwardness. “All those hours spent practicing with the atlatl paid off.”

  “Jenna! Are you all right?” Zane swooped in and took both of her hands. She glanced over his shoulder and saw that the security guys had Grier stretched out on a gurney and were floating him toward one of the previously concealed doors in the face of the QE. Another trio of security officers had their attacker strapped down to another gurney to follow. He moaned and shifted. Still alive, then. Though if the rumors were true, he would wish otherwise once the QE security was through with him. Their notorious reputation usually kept any sane criminals from attacking anyone headed to the resort.

  Zane pulled her to his chest, and Jenna noted with satisfaction that her hormones were firmly under control now. No tingles when she touched Zane. “I cannot believe you had to shoot someone. Do you need to sit down? We can get you straight into the lounge.”

  Jenna shook her head, smiling a little. “I’m fine, Zane. Tougher than I look.” She was fine. She’d always heard that shooting someone was seriously disturbing, but it wasn’t bothering her at all now that her heart rate had returned to normal. He had been attacking violently enough to kill; she had had the means to stop him. It had been straightforward. Though perhaps it would haunt her later. All kinds of things haunted her when she woke in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep.

  Zane stared at her a moment, his brow furrowed. “How is Grier?” she asked hastily. She didn’t want him to think she was a heartless monster.

  “He’ll be okay. The preliminary scan showed a concussion. They’re taking him into the infirmary now. Security will certainly hear from me tonight! Their perimeter sweeps are clearly not good enough,” Zane fumed.

  “Zane,” Jenna interrupted, hoping to distract him before he stormed off and terrorized the QE security force, “you haven’t introduced us.” She gestured at James.

  “My apologies. I had forgotten in the midst of all the commotion that you two haven’t met before. James, this is Jenna Donnell, the most beautiful woman in all Omphalos.” Jenna didn’t even blush. She was used to Zane’s standard line; he used it every time he intro
duced her to someone new. “Jenna, this is James Forrest, the son of my father’s Terran partner.”

  “Call me Jimmy,” he corrected, taking Jenna’s hand again. Her traitorous stomach flopped again. Stop it! she ordered herself. You are not some silly teenage girl! “You’ve earned the right to call me by my nickname, I think.” Jimmy smiled a quirky, lopsided grin. “My father shipped me out here to be of some use in the family business. He’s tired of my lazy, useless ways. He thinks I can learn something from Zane, since he’s the model businessman’s son.”

  Zane smirked. “I’ll get you whipped into shape in no time.”

  “I intend to do my best to corrupt you, Zane,” Jimmy countered playfully. He was still holding her hand. She finally pulled away. Jenna’s cheeks were burning. Not only was her body absolutely betraying her—she had no intention of falling in love with anyone, ever, so she definitely needed to squelch this attraction right away—but the last thing she wanted to do was alienate Zane. Her job was on the line.

  She couldn’t quite keep herself from sneaking another glance at Jimmy’s dark eyes though.

  The story continues in The Quintan Edge.