A Double Edged Wish (A Cat Among Dragons Book 3)

by Alma Boykin

  Rrahsh stretched up, rising on her toes, hands to the ceiling and tail swirling, then slowly bent forwards, palms to the floor. As expected, Lyonel watched the display and it did not require an empathic talent to sense his interest in the slowly moving female mammal. Grinning to herself, Rrahsh straightened up and twisted before bending backwards until her hands touched the floor and her abdominal muscles screamed with the effort. Slowly, slowly she drew herself upright, shook all over, and collected her light jacket, nodding to the humanoid as she left the exercise room.

  Rada’s stomach churned and she swallowed hard, fighting to keep breakfast where it belonged. Blessed Bookkeeper! That’s disgusting. Her skin crawled under her fur and the Wanderer took a deep breath, settling her stomach and emotions before strolling through a more heavily-traveled corridor back to her room. Lyonel mer Olbaak reeked of lust, but not the healthy, playful kind. No, he wanted the Tobashto female so he could see how far he could “play” with the exotic toy.

  Rada needed to clear her mind before she attacked something, and she remembered seeing a meditation garden on the map of the resort’s grounds. After a few minutes the Wanderer found an empty, sun-warmed flagstone in the hedge-walled space and sat. She curled her tail into her lap and turned all her attention to the sound of the small fountain in one corner of the garden, letting the water’s splashing and trickling carry away her emotions. Warm sunlight flowed out of a clear sky, helping relax her taut muscles as the water washed her thoughts and feelings away from the source of her anger and distress. A small part of her mind wondered at how sensitive Rada remained to emotional threats, noting the problem for future attention. But most of her senses and thoughts focused on the present moment, the scents of warm soil, the sound of the trickling waters, the curving, gritty stone under her fingertips.

  After an hour she rose to her feet, stretched, and returned to her room. “Gone shopping; be back after 1600,” Rada read aloud, shaking her head a little and smiling. Then she got cleaned up, poured a large glass of the local milk, and settled onto the low, wide arm of the couch. She then opened a custom program on her portable computer and set to work. Forty-five minutes later, Rada frowned at the results. “I do not like this,” she hissed in Azdhag. “Not at all.”

  She’d sensed a pattern and that pattern now spread over the projection display. Three sub-corporations of the Karoo Cartel hovered in the air. Lines extended from each corporation’s logo to an illegal or questionable service that they claimed to provide. The lines overlapped in all cases. Filtak and Kishon offered goods of dubious morality and legality. Nori provided transportation for those specific types of goods, in a way that violated one of the few supposedly unbreakable principles of the Karoo Cartel. And Kishon advertised cures for diseases that did not exist yet. Rada sipped the last of her milk and then licked a few more drops out of the glass as she re-read the display. “By the Bookkeeper’s Tally this sucks like a singularity,” she whispered in Tobashto. “And then there’s Olbaak.”

  Could he be involved with the three companies in some way? Rada considered the matter. Slow down, Pet, she heard Zabet’s voice in her imagination. Just because he’s a slime-sucking predatory bastard doesn’t mean that he’s part of the Karoo corruption. Which was, indeed, quite true: bastards came in all sorts, often unrelated by anything but tasteless behavior and immorality. Just because Rada thought that Lyonel mer Olbaak acted like the kind of creature that would break laws in order to gain power and wealth did not mean that he was currently breaking any of the laws that mattered to her investigation, his association with Tarqi da Peerlan notwithstanding. “Aw bugger,” she sighed.

  Someone stopped outside the room’s door, hesitated, then activated the arrival chime. Rada turned off the computer’s projection display, put the empty glass out of harm’s way, slid the safety on her holdout weapon to “off,” and turned on the door identification monitor. It showed a Sarpasig carrying a bag of body armor. Rada opened the door.

  “Gentlebeing, your purchases are ready for your confirmation,” it chattered through a translator box. Rada let it in and shut the door. She slid out of her blouse and usual breast support and then tried on her new chest protector. The insect used the second protector to demonstrate the clasps and fittings, while Rada mimicked it. The fasteners were not exactly intuitive but she got the basics sorted out very quickly. “And the soft-part guard,” the sales-being chattered, offering the lower half of the set. Rada excused herself and put it on in the other room, then returned. The Sarpasig’s antennae swayed back and forth as it studied her, using a foreleg to motion her to turn around, then bend. It tugged lightly on her tail, snugging the armor against the bones for a moment. Rada swirled her tail around, testing the range of motion. “Good” the insect said.

  Rada pulled her clothes on over the armor and went to a mirror to check the fit. When she turned back around, the Sarpasig seemed to be studying her closely, its bright blue proboscis extended slightly from above the mandibles. “Gentlebeing, have you any business with Kishon Biologics?”

  “Not yet. ’Krrskalee Sebentoe is self-contained at this time,” Rada said, leaning into the Tobashtorak accent, her guard up.

  The pale-colored insect listened to the translator. “And in the future?”

  “The needs of the clan might change over time and turn.” What did the thing want and had it been watching her?

  “This one is named Krsst,” and a jumble of hissing and clicks followed as the creature pointed toward its self. “This one watches Kishon and watches Olbaak. Olbaak watches you, so this one watches you. Hive leader demands.” Rada sorted out the literal translation.

  “Hive guards Sarpas II?” she guessed, eye narrow.

  “Sarpas IV, eighty years from now. Trader watches you too, because Olbaak watches.” Rada’s sense of self-preservation began kicking into overload and she fought the urge to flee, especially when Krsst added, “And you taste of Trader as well as Tobashto.”

  Rada decided to take a chance. “Why come back to now?”

  “Rowfow pilot found a,” and the insect paused, antennae rubbing together as it looked up something on the translator’s tiny screen. “A ‘knot’ and a storm? This one does not understand but Hive does.”

  “The Rowfow pilot said a storm? That is the word he used?” Rada leaned forward, listening very carefully.

  The Sarpasig showed her the translator box’s screen. There it was, the term the Rowfow used to describe interference in the timethreads. Specifically, the word meant an interference that should not be happening in a known timethread. Rada leaned back and took a deep breath. The Debt Collector is all but treading on my heels if the Sarpasig is telling the truth.

  “You want me to watch Olbaak like you watch Olbaak? And let you know what I learn about Sarpas IV or the Trader with Olbaak?”

  “Yes. Find this one at the armor.” That made sense; Olbaak had seen her there, knew she’d ordered something, and probably wouldn’t make any connection besides the obvious one. “This one goes,” and the insect let itself out of the room.

  Rada began stretching and twisting, getting the full measure of her new body armor. It fit better than her Azdhagi gear did and she really liked the single-piece tail guard. The upper fit closely but didn’t squish her breasts, unlike some armor that she’d worn. Yeah, but when you need metallo-ceramic plate you do not care about anyone knowing what sex you are, she thought with a touch of grim humor. After a few more minutes of testing, the mammal took off her new goodies and packed them away, changing back into her Tobashtorak clothes.

  Zabet returned a few moments after Rada refilled her milk. “Any luck?”

  «Oh yeah! Catch,» and the happy reptile tossed a small object toward her partner’s head.

  Rada caught it and unwrapped the cover. “Shiny.” She pulled a jeweler’s loupe out of her carry bag and gave the stone a closer inspection. “And faceted. New hobby?”

  «No, barbarian. Try using it as a focus.»

  “As
a what?” The mammal looked from the gem to the reptile. “I can’t use a focus.”

  «I know. That’s why you need to try that one,» Zabet repeated. She draped her tail over her forelegs and sat on her haunches in a credible imitation of an impatient human.

  “All right, all right, sheesh.” Rada held the stone in her fingers and concentrated, trying to push emotions through it. When that failed, she shifted mental tracks and repeated the experiment with healing energy. “Yow, that’s hot!”

  For the thousandth time Zabet looked smug, her whiskers floating up and down. «So it will work. Good. I can charge double for it, then. It’s a new synthetic.»

  Rada put the gem back into the wrapper and handed it to her boss. “I had an interesting visitor while you were out.”

  «Tall, dark, and nasty-minded wanted a second date?» Zabet guessed as she packed the focus away. «Someone offer the Krrsskalee a contract? You won the drawing for the anti-ship cannon?»

  “No idea, nope, and by the Bookkeeper’s Talley I hope not! The jerks are not including shipping costs. No, I’m being watched and I was asked to watch in turn.”

  «Hmmmm,» Zabet sent, along with an image of a circle of people all watching each other. «The Trademaster from da Peerlan?»

  “You guess correctly, of most perspicacious of reptiles,” Rada said with a grin. “Him and his current boss, which makes me really wonder why a da Peerlan Trademaster is acting as someone’s bodyguard and assistant.”

  Zabet snorted and mimicked someone waving a credit ring, her ears and whiskers suggesting that the answer was obvious. Rada shook her head and idly finger-groomed her tail fur. “Not just credits, Boss. It means that the two are in a bound contract. Jiwal da Peerlan is involved in some very important aspect of his client’s business, something so sensitive that he needs to be physically present to manage and control things. I only heard of two such contracts during my entire apprenticeship.”

  «That sounds odd, since most weapons and military transport contracts are not that picky, and high-value goods transports tend to be either one-time events or to have a separate department set up to handle the contracts and scheduling,» Zabet mused, getting herself something to drink before taking up a pose on the dark-blue couch. «Do you have names to go with this charming pair?»

  “Jiwal da Peerlan and Lyonel mer Olbaak. And Gentlesir mer Olbaak takes maintaining his body-sculpt very seriously, which makes me think he might also have weapons training, which makes a bodyguard even odder. Here’s his card.” Rada handed the item over.

  «Are you going out again?»

  “Yes. I want to look at some of the small weapons displays. Petting the knives and all that sort of thing.” The True-dragon snorted again, this time shaking her head in mild disbelief. It was one of their old arguments. Rada wanted to be able to disable or kill anything at any distance, while Zabet preferred to talk her way out of trouble or shoot from cover. “Want me to look for something for you?”

  «Of course not...» Zabet caught herself and reconsidered. «See if you can find something pretty that I can use. And no tail-mounted blades; those are just stupid.»

  “Yes, Boss.”

  The mammal strolled through the small weapons booths and displays, weaving through the rush of browsers and buyers. She looked at a few decorative items, including stiletto-type blades chased with niobium and boasting aquamarine insets. Those almost went back to the room with her, because the colors coordinated with her House colors on Drakon IV. Then she remembered blowing her budget on the armor and Rada moved on with a reluctant sigh. A long knife with a pearlescent handle caught her eye. The manufacturer offered several varieties and sizes, but none quite large enough for Zabet to handle well. The smooth grip compounded the problem and Rada dismissed the item. A crowd clustered around one booth and she eased in to see what had attracted everyone’s attention. Two Sarpasig demonstrated tricks with a vibro-knife that included tossing it back and forth, catching it and not severing their gripping appendages. “Even if you lose control of the weapon, it can’t work against you!” The translator box worked overtime to keep up with the rhythmic chirps and clicks of the salescreatures’ patter. “Watch!” One Sarpasig cut through a piece of wood, then handed the blade to an onlooker. As soon as the customer gripped the handle, the blade stopped. “Genetic scanning technology at its finest, gentlebeings! Set for individual or species depending on your needs.” Rada eased around the outside of the group and continued on her way.

  Rada stopped at the information kiosk. Most people at the arms show had their own communications devices and messaging systems. Even so, the organizers provided a communications projection that served as a meeting place, message center, lost-and-found, and listed updates on schedule changes for the presentations. First Claw Rrahsh Foe-gutter logged in and discovered four messages. She ignored the first one about “Welcome to the Zilowi Arms Market” et cetera. The second provided a reminder that all purchased weapons must remain cased until the end of the fair on pain of ejection and/or termination, depending on the nature of the violation. However, the third message caught her interest.

  “You are invited to a reception and discussion of upcoming new-product releases by Kishon Biologics and Metallics. Please have your identification ready, this is invitation only,” she read. “I hope you can attend. Lyonel mer Olbaak,” the message concluded. Was this a trap? Rada glanced at the final message, inviting her to visit the armor dealer if she had any problems at all with the fit of her new set, and deleted all four. Yes, it was a trap, the Wanderer decided. A trap for Rrahsh Foe-gutter, laid by someone who never took “no” for an answer. Well, he probably never hears ‘no’ so why should he worry? Power served as an aphrodisiac in many, many cultures, she reminded herself, including Tobashotrak.

  “Speaking of power,” and Rada decided to go visit the armor booth again while the crowds were elsewhere. As she’d hoped, only one salesbeing attended to the front of the stall, and Rada made a querying gesture. The insect signed an affirmative and Rada turned on her translator box. “I have information and an opportunity,” she said quietly.

  “As do I,” Krsst replied.

  “Gentlesir mer Olbaak wishes me to attend a reception and sales-talk. I shall attend and report what I hear, should it be of interest to the Hive.” As she spoke, the mammal called up the care section of her armor’s warranty on her data pad, circled part of it with her stylus, and handed it to the Sarpasig. As she did she frowned, her tail tip vibrating with feigned annoyance.

  The insect studied the document, retrieved its own flop-screen, and highlighted a different part of the warranty. It passed the screen to the “irritated customer” and extended its proboscis again as if testing for anger and stress. “And da Peerlan asks about an unregistered Trader scout ship. This one’s partner remains with Rowfow transport, watches and listens.”

  Rada studied the indicated paragraph and flattened her ears, but returned the screen without further complaint. “Understood. Thank you for the clarification.” She shifted languages and hissed in unaccented Tobashtorok, “This one is Wanderer, not Trader.”

  The insect hissed in understanding and offered her a set of cleaning wipes in appeasement, but Rrahsh Foe-gutter declined and left the booth, her tail still twitching with agitation but her ears up, shoulders and gait relaxed. After all, she’d just been informed that no, the armor had to be cleaned by hand because of the materials involved. A quick and cheap solvent dunk would stiffen the fabric, as she should have known from reading all of the information provided with the armor.

  Rada traced her path back to the room, diverting briefly to check her messages yet again. Nothing new appeared and she did not seem to have a tail aside from the one already attached to her. Well, she thought as she cleared the search form and logged out, she’d gone looking for trouble and so she shouldn’t be surprised that she’d found it. She no longer had any choice; the Laws demanded that she help Krsst prevent or ameliorate the attack on Sarpas IV. There cou
ld be a good reason why Jiwal da Peerlan hovered over Lyonel mer Olbaak; it could be pure coincidence that three of the cartel companies offered illegal services; no connection might exist between what the Rowfow reported and Rada’s battle with the chimera. And Zabet might have found religion, turned celibate, and have taken a vow of poverty by the time Rada finished unlocking the room door; all were equally probable.

  «Get me anything?» Called a cheerful mental voice as soon as Rada closed the door behind her.

  “No, unless you want to glue grippy strips onto pearlized enamel or dip it into tack-grip,” she called back.

  «Barbarian,» the reptile sniffed, whiskers and ears drooping and tail tip limp with disappointment.

  The whiskers and tail tip snapped back upright with pure shock when Rada continued much more quietly, “And my initial target is probably Lyonel mer Olbaak, capture or kill.”

  Zabet froze, horrified. «Are you fucking nuts? I just looked up his records, as best I could. Sweet shattered scales Rada Ni Drako, do you know who he is?» The agitated reptile swept her tail across the floor as she charged on, «He’s the Vice-chairman of the Board of the Karoo Cartel, president of Filtak Genetics, and a lot of other things. He can destroy you in a heartbeat if he wants to!»

  Rada folded her arms. “And it’s bloody likely that he’s breaking the Laws, him and at least one member of Tarqi da Peerlan. Compulsion slaving, transportation of illegal technology, trans-temporal smuggling, and attempting to alter a known timetrack are all as illegal as hell, Boss. Someone needs to bring him to justice.”