by L. V. Lloyd
Dane, Mike and TeeJay were moving as fast as they could through the streets of Asra to reach the Rising Sun. Mike looked up once at where he thought the bomb had been, but he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, maybe if he had a chance he’d have another look with his lens when he got back to his quarters.
Now the dome was no longer his immediate priority, his mind was full of thoughts about Dane and Callan. He was revved up, wanting to offload some of that adrenaline. If only he hadn’t lashed out at them, broken up their relationship, he could have been hoping for some great sex later that evening. Callan’s soft mouth on his, Dane’s urgent hands...
Instead, he had another lonely night to look forward to.
He had to talk to them, in private, as soon as he could, but he couldn’t think of what to say. “Sorry” probably wasn’t going to cut it. But he had to try.
Maybe they could never go back to the relationship they had had before, but he was going to give it his best shot. Maybe, at the least, they could be friends again.
He flicked a quick glance sideways at Dane. He’d been pretty angry with him, well they’d both been pretty angry with each other. Was it possible to get past that? He thought Callan might be willing to forgive him if it was just between the two of them, but it wasn’t. Callan was loyal. Dane was his closest friend. He didn’t think Callan would choose him, Mike, if it meant jeopardising his friendship with Dane.
His mind kept replaying Dane’s last words to him. Dane wanted to fuck him, but he didn’t think he meant it in a loving way.
Chapter Thirty Six
Callan Rian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Dane and Mike come down on the platform with TeeJay. Thank the gods, they were safe, he hadn’t truly been able to believe it until he saw them with his own eyes. He could hardly wait until he could finish up here and take both men upstairs to the room he had been quick to reserve in advance as soon as he had heard that everyone would have to retreat underground. He should probably feel guilty that a lot of other people would have to bed down on the floor, but he didn’t. There had to be some perks in being the Governor!
He wanted all three of them to sit down together and talk about what had happened. He didn’t want Dane and Mike to take out any more hurt feelings on each other. They were each sitting at opposite ends of the bar but he managed to drop a quick word to each of them. “We need to talk. Room 304 upstairs, I’ve booked it just for us.”
It was getting late. A hard core group was settling in for the night in front of the bar, prepared to drink the hours away until they heard the “all clear.” Serra Yoshida was ushering those who wanted to sleep, upstairs to rooms which they would have to share. A few people complained until Serra Yoshida advised them politely that they were quite welcome to decline her offer and spend the night sitting up in the bar if they chose.
At last, everything was sorted as much as it could be and Callan thought he could safely retire for the night having fulfilled his duty. He’d have to keep his wristcom active, of course, in case of any developments, but with a bit of luck he wouldn’t be needed for a couple of hours yet.
He looked around for Mike and Dane. Neither of them were where they had been only minutes before. Where were they? He scanned the room, only a little worried until he saw them disappearing together upstairs. Now anxious, he turned to follow, but his arm was caught by Ser Keating seeking reassurance again that everything that could possibly be done, was being done. Callan could scarcely concentrate on what the other man was saying. His thoughts were all with the other two upstairs. He had to get up there before either of them did something unforgivable.
Mike followed Dane into the room Callan had booked. He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing or not, but he couldn’t say “no.” He undressed silently and got onto the bed.
Dane knew it would be a mistake to have sex with Mike when he was angry and hurting, but... he did it anyway. As soon as he had finished, he left him lying there and got up, went into the bathroom and shut the door.
He stood there, looking into the mirror without seeing anything. Well he’d got what he wanted, Mike had got what he deserved. He should be feeling pretty satisfied with himself, right? But he wasn’t. He felt cold. He washed his face, he wasn’t crying, not really. He was certain Mike would be gone when he came out.
It seemed like an hour passed before Callan could finally break away from Ser Keating. He raced upstairs, his heart in his mouth, please gods he would be in time. He burst into the room to find Mike alone, getting dressed.
“Don’t go! Please.”
“Why? Do you want to fuck me too?” asked Mike, that brittle look back in his eyes.
Callan went straight up to him and took his face tenderly in his hands. “I’d love to, but maybe another time. Right now, all I want is for you to stay with me.” He stroked his hair back gently from his face and dropped a feather light kiss on his lips.
Mike hesitated. Callan started taking his own clothes off, as quickly as he could. “Come to bed and just hold me while we talk, we don’t have to do anything else, I promise.”
Mike bit his bottom lip but didn’t move. At least he had stopped putting his clothes back on.
“Please.” Callan was naked now, except for his briefs. He kept them on. He lay down on the bed and patted the spot next to him.
Mike shut his eyes tightly for a second. The last decision he had made had been a disaster. Far from being a reconciliation, Dane hadn’t kissed him, he’d scarcely even touched him except where he had to. Could he risk being hurt again, this time by Callan? True, Callan didn’t seem angry, but could he trust him? One thing was certain, if he walked out now, he’d never get another chance to find out. He took another look at Callan, lying there waiting hopefully for him to make up his mind, then he got into bed, pulling the covers up over both of them.
Callan wanted to grab him tightly and pull him into his arms but he held off. Instead, he stroked his hair for a moment as he turned to face him. “I’m not blaming anyone or making excuses for that matter, but I think you need to know, your words cut Dane into pieces. He might give the impression of being tough as plasfoam, but he’s not. It’s just camouflage.”
Mike’s eyes were wide open, staring into Callan’s.
“You are both complicated men,” Callan smiled at him. “I, on the other hand, am a very simple man. I just say what I feel. I love you, both of you, so much. I’d love you to hold me, but only if you want to.”
Mike went into his arms.
When Dane came out, that was what he saw. Callan and Mike in bed together, as entwined as if they were one person. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. This is what he had thrown away, Mike would never want him now, and probably neither would Callan once he knew what he had just done. His heart barely had time to sink into the floor before Mike turned toward him. Mike saw the hint of redness around Dane’s eyes, despite his attempts to hide the fact that he’d been crying. Still gripping Callan against his side, he held out his other arm to Dane.
“I’m sorry.”
Suddenly the wall of ice which had formed around Dane shattered into a thousand pieces. “I’m sorry too,” he gulped. “Are you sure?” he asked, looking at Callan as well.
“I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”
In less than a second Dane was in bed with them, Mike in the middle, all of them hugging and kissing as if they could never get enough of each other.
“We’ve got to talk,” murmured Callan, faintly.
“Later,” gasped Mike. Was that Callan’s hand or Dane’s inside his briefs?
“Shh.” Dane whispered and kissed him again.
Chapter Thirty Seven
Callan’s wristcom woke him early the next morning with an urgent message.
“Governor Rian? It’s Needham here. I’ve got good news. My team has finished repairing the dome, it’s safe now for people to come up and move around as normal.”
“That’s excellent news,
Ser Needham. Thank you!”
He looked with some regret at his two lovers, who were awake and watching him, waiting for him to give them the news. “The dome’s fixed and we’ve just been given the all clear. I have to get up and let people know.”
Much as he wanted to pull Callan back down into bed, Mike knew he should be up and about too, doing his job. He sighed and got up. Callan was already half dressed, Dane heading for the shower, when Mike realised they hadn’t managed to talk about any of the things they needed to. Now wasn’t the best time, but if he wanted this relationship to be about more than sex, he had to start opening up.
He was so used to keeping his problems to himself, it took a real effort to open his mouth and tell them.
“I have to go Burra later today, once things are running smoothly here,” he announced, abruptly. “Captain Spier wants to see me. Someone,” he couldn’t help flushing, “told her that Chang is my father. She thinks that’s suspicious. I don’t know if she has any actual evidence against me but... I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
Instantly, more than a few things slotted into place for Dane and Callan.
“I’ll take you,” Dane offered. He looked at Callan, “If I’m not needed here?”
“That should be fine, as long as it’s in the afternoon. The Rover will probably be in demand this morning.” He gave Mike a hard hug. “I wish I could come too, but I think I have to stay here, to reassure everyone that things are back to normal. But let me know immediately if there is a problem, won’t you?’ He included Dane in his demand.
Both men nodded.
“Now give me a kiss and let’s get moving.”
Captain Spier had not been a bit happy with Captain Takamoto’s call yesterday. Surely her investigations into the bombing and the extortion demand took priority over some bureaucratic Patrol protocol, for gods’ sake! Now she had to wait another day until she could get her hands on Oliver, presuming he deigned to turn up at all. She didn’t like to admit, even to herself, that the reason she was so keen to interrogate him was because he was the only solid lead she had to go on. Everything else had disappeared like smoke between her fingers.
She got into work early as usual and sat down at her desk to open up her console unit. There was a brief report from Lieutenant Varga in Wallaroo, advising that Mo Khan was keeping pretty much to himself, apparently enjoying the pleasures of the resort without feeling the need to travel around the islands. She sent a brief acknowledgement and moved on to the next item.
She frowned in annoyance. Her personal communication stream on the console unit was supposed to be unhackable, yet here was a message from an unknown source, advising it would be worth her while to go to a certain location and providing the co-ordinates. Who was this D. Vader? The name sounded faintly familiar for some reason, although it certainly wasn’t one of her officers or even a professional colleague.
She drummed her fingers on the desk. It had taken someone a lot of effort to arrange this message, it wouldn’t hurt to send an officer to have a look. Or perhaps two officers, to watch each other’s back. As soon as Officers Fenn and Clarkson came in she told them to collect their weapons and investigate the tip. Then she moved on to the next item of business, putting the issue to the back of her mind; it was probably a waste of time in any case, some idiot’s idea of a joke.
The message from Lieutenant Oliver announcing his intention to meet her at the station that afternoon, caused a wry grimace. She’d believe it when she saw him.
Thirty minutes later she got a call from Fenn. “Captain? We’re at the location you advised. Whatever it is we’re looking for appears to be in the basement of a deserted building. It’s locked. Shall we break in?”
“Go ahead.”
A few minutes later, Fenn was back online. “It’s a container, one of those large ones for storing goods. It’s locked, as well. Just a minute, I’ll give it a quick scan.” There was a short pause. Fenn’s voice changed, “Captain? There’s someone in there. Alive.”
Alive? Spier’s mind buzzed with possibilities. Containers were often used in kidnappings but there hadn’t been any lately, not to her knowledge. She checked her news feed again, just in case, but no-one had been reported kidnapped or even missing, in the last twelve hours. The only big case at present was the extortion demand, she couldn’t help wondering if this was connected. Had there been a falling out among thieves? It would be too good to be true if someone had caught the extortionist and presented him to her. But she couldn’t help hoping.
There was a fifty thousand credit reward after all, for information leading to a conviction.
Spier made a quick decision. “Stay there. I’ll be over with a laser as soon as I can.”
The laser sliced through the top corner of the container like a hot knife through butter. Once he was able to get his hand in, Clarkson, who was the tallest of them, was able to direct the laser outward, being careful not to damage anything or anyone inside. In a matter of minutes, he had cut an opening into the side of the container, big enough for Fenn, who was the smallest, to climb through.
“There are two people in here!” she exclaimed in surprise. She bent down quickly over the bodies lying on the floor. “Both alive but unconscious,” she advised. “Pass me the laser and I’ll cut out a proper door.”
Clarkson passed her the laser as Captain Spier took a moment to call for a medic. Better safe than sorry until they knew what they were dealing with.
Eventually the two prone men were carried out. “Are these men under arrest?” asked one of the medics. “I’d like to transport them to the clinic for observation until they come around.”
“Not yet, but I want a round the clock guard on them both until we have a chance to do some investigating,” declared Spier. They might be innocent victims of an unexplained assault, but... they might not.
“There are a couple of disposable wristcoms in here too, Captain,” announced Fenn, searching the container. She picked them up carefully, preserving any DNA evidence.
Captain Spier allowed herself to feel a moment’s satisfaction. At last, something solid to work with.
She took a close look at the two faces, one of them was a complete stranger but the other looked oddly familiar. It took her a moment or two to place him. She froze, no it couldn’t be, he was a planet away, on Moonta, but by gods he bore a close resemblance to the man she knew as Mo Khan. Of course, it couldn’t be. Could it?
She placed an urgent call through to Lieutenant Varga in Wallaroo, requesting a priority DNA match.
Lieutenant Oliver turned up at the station in the middle of the afternoon. Almost the first thing Captain Spier did was show him the images of the two men she had under guard.
“Do you know either of these men?” she asked, watching him closely.
Mike braced himself and took a good look. He shook his head in relief. “No sorry, I don’t know either of them.”
Captain Spier wasn’t sure she believed him, she had been so certain one of them was Chang.
“You can check my DNA,” Mike volunteered, knowing that as a Patrol Officer his DNA records would be inaccessible without a warrant. “You’ll find I’m not related to either of them.”
The Captain was quick to accept his offer, even though she was pretty sure now there wouldn’t be a match, she wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. He might be bluffing.
“Can I ask who they are?” asked Mike, as Officer Fenn came in to conduct the test.
“The man on the left is Cutter Levi,” Spier announced, unable to hide her satisfaction. At least she had one wanted criminal under arrest. “The man on the right is still unknown, his DNA is not in the data base.”
“Could it be Mo Khan?” asked Mike, his eyes alight with interest.
“Possibly,” Spier admitted grudgingly. She still had someone on Moonta going by that name. That individual was in the data base under the name Hari Patel, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t also “Mo Khan” or “Jian Chang” f
or that matter.
Fenn looked up from her test kit. “No match, Captain.”
Spier tightened her lips. That took some of the heat off the man in front of her. The chances were looking stronger that the unknown man was a colleague of Khan’s, even if not the man himself. Despite that, she took a statement from Oliver about his relationship with Chang, she wanted to tie off as many dangling threads as she could. When this case went to court, she wanted all the important questions answered in advance.
Herbert, her best technician, was working on the two disposable wristcoms, attempting to retrieve as much information as possible. Spier couldn’t help hoping there would be something important, otherwise why put them in the container?
According to Takamoto, the Lieutenant had risked his life to repair the dome, so it was hardly likely he had been involved in the extortion threat, but her instincts told her he was hiding something. Nevertheless, she was obliged to allow Oliver to leave after a couple of hours, on the proviso that he make himself available for further questioning, if required. She wondered briefly whether it was worth having him followed.
Lieutenant Oliver spotted the tail fairly soon after leaving the station. He was pretty sure he knew the reason but he walked a few blocks to make certain. He went into a large coffee bar, ordered a cup and sat at a table in the back, close to the exit. In less than five minutes, Eric Tate entered and sat down next to him, positioning himself so that he could keep an eye on the other patrons. He gave Mike a brief glance before scanning the room.
“Your father sends his apologies for not coming in person, but he knows you understand why.”
Mike nodded. Maybe when things settled down they could meet face to face, but not yet.