by Kieran Shea
Leela giggled. “Working? No, not working yet if can help it. I just thought, you know, now that I’m finally settled I’d take some time to look you up. I mean, really, the world wants to know. What’s Jimmy B. Vik up to these days?”
Jimmy pointed at the rugby game in progress. “Coaching.”
“Uh-huh. And they pay you for that?”
“Mostly in adolescent aggravation, but I’ve got a real job.”
Leela nodded. “Mmm. A real job. My investigator gave me a full workup. You’re living in a storage container like a janitor terrorist.”
“Hey, it keeps me in mac ’n’ cheese and out of trouble.”
“Uh-huh. I guess your ambitions haven’t changed.”
“Guess not.”
Leela took a step toward him. “I’ve missed you.”
Jimmy’s heart glowed and beat a high-speed tom-tom. His thought wound with so many apprehensions he could hardly stand still. It was rash, but sensing the liminal slipstream between them again after so many months apart, Jimmy abandoned all hesitation. Placing his wet hands on her cheeks, he leaned down and kissed her with everything he had.
Leela broke off the kiss. “Woof, easy there, bucko. You’re steaming me up.”
Jimmy dropped his hands and stepped back. “Oh hell, I’m sorry. That was out of line. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“No, no,” Leela replied, fanning her fingers under her chin. She looked back at the aerocab idling in the parking lot. Its operator, a truncated silhouette, flashed the lights and honked.
Leela held up a finger. “Listen,” she continued, “if you can tear yourself away from all this sloppy business, I was hoping you and I could talk.”
“Talk?”
“Yeah. Do you need to stick around?”
“I’m only the assistant coach.”
“Meaning?”
“The head coach is an old rugby rival of mine from back in the day. He told me I could take my time.”
Leela glanced at the coach and peeked up at the dark sky from under her umbrella. “All this rain… would it be all right if we, like, maybe got something hot to drink?”
“Tea?”
“A cup of Earl Gray sounds perfect.”
On the pitch, one of Jimmy’s up-and-coming wingers stiff-armed her way across the goal line on a try and a boisterous cheer went up from the sidelines. Jimmy looked back and his old rival shooed him off with a hand.
Together Leela and Jimmy walked toward the parking lot.
“I was going to wait,” Leela then said, “but I don’t know. Now that I’m here and seeing all of the months that have passed, I think I should just come out with it.”
Oh crap, Jimmy thought. He’d mistakenly misread her warm reception of their fleeting kiss and surmised she was only there because she’d some unresolved issue. When someone said they wanted to talk or come out with it, invariably it was because they wanted to express something that bothered them, usually something bad. They hadn’t left things exactly cordial on the Neptune Pact Orbital, so Jimmy wondered if this was all about Leela’s desire for closure. In a perfect world he believed he might be able to persuade her to take him back, but the world was never perfect to begin with. Jimmy reminded himself to keep his expectations low and prepared himself.
“Come out with what?” he asked.
Reaching the parking lot, Leela stopped and looked up at him. “You know your rucksack, the one you said you left on the Adamant’s tender?”
“Yeah?”
Leela gave her umbrella another twirl. “It wasn’t on the tender, Jimmy. I took it.”
The revelation was a sock in the jaw.
“You? You… took it? But I thought you left it on the tender when we de-docked.”
Leela held out a palm. The rain that was coming down had stopped so she shook off the drops on her umbrella and closed it. “Yeah, it took some wheeling and dealing on my end after the scow picked us up, not to mention some sleight of hand on the Neptune Pact Orbital, but I got all of the gold back to Earth intact, every last bit.”
Jimmy blinked. “But when? How?”
Leela smiled. “Hey, babe, if there’s one thing I’ve a head for, it’s taking care of details. Anyway, like I said, it took some fancy moves on my part, but no worries. We are totally in the clear.”
“Wait a second, did you say we?”
Leela took his hand. “Yeah, dummy, we.”
Oh wow.
Oh man.
Back on K7-A Jimmy had thought of it before, but holding Leela’s hand he broke into a wide grin.
Leela Pendergast.
A perfect Bonnie to his Clyde.
THE END
(OVER AND OUT)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The debts beholden:
Stacia Decker, Cath Trechman, Natalie Laverick, Ella Chappell, Steve Gove, Titan Books, my family, the genius of Gerry Anderson, quiet libraries, the ancient Ethiopian who came up with the idea of coffee as a beverage, and all my friends and readers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Theoretically, with three books to his credit (Koko Takes a Holiday, Koko the Mighty and Off Rock) Kieran Shea might be considered a novelist. Professional liar might be another way of putting it. He is proud of all his crimes.
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KOKO TAKES A HOLIDAY
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Five hundred years from now, ex-corporate mercenary Koko Martstellar is swaggering through an easy early retirement as a brothel owner on a tropical resort island. Koko finds the most challenging part of her day might be deciding on her next drink. That is, until her old comrade Portia Delacompte sends a squad of security personnel to murder her.
“FAST AND FURIOUS… FUN PULP”
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“WILD RIDE… BREAKNECK PACE…
GREAT FUN”
Booklist
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KOKO THE MIGHTY
KIERAN SHEA
Koko Martstellar (ex-corporate mercenary) and Jedidiah Flynn (depressed former sky-cop) are back running a saloon/brothel on The Sixty Islands—the world’s most violent and decadent resort. But when bounty agent Jackie Wire comes to collect the price on Koko’s head, it’s time for her and Flynn to make tracks. Things only go from bad to worse for our heroes… but, hey, that’s the 26th century for you. Buckle up, buttercup. Only the mighty survive.
“ECHOING THE ENERGY OF TANK GIRL
OR MAD MAX: FURY ROAD’S FURIOSA…
AN ACTION HERO WELL WORTH
ROOTING FOR”
Publishers Weekly
“A SERIES THAT IS GOING FROM
STRENGTH TO STRENGTH”
The Book Bag
TITANBOOKS.COM
COMING SOON FROM TITAN BOOKS
KOKO UNCAGED
KIERAN SHEA
Foiling a hijacking after being Shanghaied to the moon, Koko Martstellar returns to Earth a reluctant hero. She accepts a bodyguard position for Bogart Gōng—CEO of the Itokawa Corporation—who soon asks Koko to participate in a terra-sled rally race against a megalomaniacal rival. The race payday is juicy and enough to finance Koko’s revenge on bounty agent Jackie Wire, but (of course) Wire has other plans—namely to kill Koko once and for all.
AVAILABLE APRIL 2018
TITANBOOKS.COM
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM TITAN BOOKS
HOT LEAD, COLD IRON
ARI MARMELL
Chicago, 1932. Mick Oberon may look like just another private detective, but beneath the fedora and the overcoat, he’s got pointy ears and he’s packing a wand.
Oberon’s used to solving supernatural crimes, but the latest one’s extra weird. A mobster’s daughter was kidnapped sixteen years ago, replaced with a changeling, and Mick’s been hired to find the real child. The trail’s gone cold, but what there is leads Sideways, to the world of the Fae, where the Seelie Court rules. And Mick’s not really welcome in the Seelie Court any more. He’ll have
to wade through Fae politics and mob power struggles to find the kidnapper—and of course it’s the last person he expected.
“EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING”
SF Signal
“THE POTENT MIX OF GANGSTERS, MAGIC,
FAE POLITICS… MAKES FOR A RIDE THAT
NEVER TOUCHES THE BRAKES.”
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