She thought about it then shook her head. “No, I will stay here with Lin and Imma.” She paused. “Unless you need protection. I may not be special ops as you requested, but I am not unskilled.”
“I’ve got it covered,” Loch rumbled from behind me. “Stay, play with your kid.”
“We’ll talk when I get back. Figure out what the plan is, what I can do to help,” I said. “I’ve shut down the ship’s external communications, so if you need to contact me, use your com. You have one, right?”
“I do.”
“Okay, see you in a little while.”
I wrapped the scarf around my head while we waited for the cargo door to open. It was a bit tricky without a mirror, and I fiddled with it until Loch grabbed my wrist. “It is fine,” he said. “When we get out, I’ll be playing your bodyguard.” He pulled on a dark cloak he’d found.
“You’ll roast in that,” I said. Heat already poured in from the narrow opening in the cargo door. I dreaded going out in long sleeves.
“It’s temperature regulated,” he said. “Rockhurst kitted this ship with only the best.”
“Damn, now I’m jealous. Maybe I’ll buy myself one while we’re out. Maybe one in blue,” I mused to myself.
“I like you in blue,” Loch said.
I hoped the scarf covered my blush. “Today, I’m Irene while in company. What should I call you?”
He shrugged. “Guards don’t have names. Just call me ‘guard’ or, better yet, just point at whatever you want me to do.”
“My guards always had names. I suppose Marcus will have to do. It’s common enough that people shouldn’t immediately associate it with the bounty.”
I straightened my shoulders, tipped my head up just a bit, and settled firmly into my public persona.
“It’s scary how easily you do that,” Marcus said. I raised one imperious eyebrow at him and looked faintly bored. He grinned. “That’s the whole Consortium in a single expression,” he said.
“I had years of practice,” I said. “We wield expressions like soldiers wield weapons. One disdainful sniff from a House representative to a lower noble and the whole room will turn on the recipient. But we have to be careful, too. Wars have been started over unintentional insults.”
“Sounds tedious,” Marcus said.
“Incredibly. Are you ready?” At his nod, I stepped out into the bright midday sun. Stifling heat seared my face. It would be better on the city streets where a combination of building shades and thermoregulators would be hard at work to keep the heat tolerable.
The transport I’d called waited at the bottom of the ramp. I made sure the cargo door closed and locked then slipped into the transport’s cool interior. Loch followed me in and sat across from me. I touched my right thumb and middle finger, then ran my secondary identity chip over the reader. “Take me to the nearest von Hasenberg bank,” I requested. A location popped up on-screen, five minutes away. I confirmed and the transport glided away from Polaris.
The spaceport I’d chosen was tiny, with just a single berth perched on top of a middling building. Hundreds or thousands of such ports existed across the city, and ports for the larger ships ringed the outskirts. Buildings towered around us, protecting our little port from all but the most eagle-eyed spotters.
Once we glided off the edge of the two-hundred-story building, the glass panel in the floor of the transport—ostensibly for tourists but used most frequently to make sure no one was tracking you from below—revealed the chaos inherent in a city of over a hundred million crammed into an area just under eight square kilometers.
Sedition was the largest city on APD Zero by population, but one of the smallest by size. Situated on an island, it had grown vertically when the land ran out. Transport traffic was constant and mind-boggling at every level. Our transport slid into the flow heading down.
In Sedition, the closer you were to the ground, the better off. Only the highest-end luxury brands and the most world-class smugglers and privateers could afford ground-floor rent. The reason was simple—the lower you went, the better shielded you were from the ferocious sun. It also meant that if you tossed so much as a drop of water over the side of your balcony you faced up to a year in prison. The rich didn’t appreciate dodging detritus from the sky.
We were headed to the largest von Hasenberg bank in Sedition. It took up an entire ground-floor block. The rent would’ve been astronomical if the House didn’t own the entire building. The other Houses also owned their own blocks for similar reasons. APD Zero might be a smugglers’ haven, but the Houses wanted everyone to know that the black market flourished only because of their benevolence.
The transport settled onto a wide, tree-lined avenue. Men and women in expensive clothes strolled sedately along the shops. If you wanted to see and be seen, this was the place, which was a little tricky for someone who wanted to remain anonymous.
Luckily, I wasn’t the first person reluctant to show my face on a street full of wolves.
We rounded the corner and entered the private garage reserved for bank customers. And Irene Marie was quite a long-standing customer. Once the transport stopped, I told it to wait for us to return then moved to exit. Loch—Marcus—blocked my way. “Bodyguard first,” he said.
He climbed out, all dark clothes and radiating danger. After a few seconds he reached in to help me out. He fell in behind me as I headed for the VIP doors. I hit the doorman with my mother’s stare before he could embarrass us both by asking for my credentials. He turned magenta and opened the door so quickly it hit him in the face.
Inside, the VIP lobby was done in tasteful shades of cream, brown, and gilt. The whole place screamed old money, including the man moving to meet me. A middle-aged gentleman in a suit that cost more than most people made in a year, he would be easy to dismiss if you didn’t notice his shark-like eyes.
Those eyes took in my simple clothes in a single glance. “Madam, I am Mr. Stanley. How may I be of service today?” he asked. “Perhaps I could direct you to our regular lobby?” He all but oozed false obsequiousness.
Unfortunately, I knew his type. If I let him help me, he would poke his nose so far into my affairs that I’d never escape the bank. I settled more firmly into my aristocratic persona. Nothing got bankers moving like an angry aristocrat.
“No, you will not do,” I said with a sniff. I looked around. A harassed-looking young man walked by carrying a stack of papers. “Him,” I said, pointing.
“But madam—” Mr. Stanley started.
“Now,” I said. When he didn’t move, I let my expression, mostly hidden by the scarf, go glacial. “Perhaps you did not hear me,” I said in a saccharine voice. “Guard”—I snapped my fingers at Marcus—“do you think he has gone deaf? Help him with his hearing.”
“With pleasure, my lady,” Marcus rumbled. He stepped out from behind me, a towering wall of muscle covered by a dark cloak.
“There’s no need, madam,” Mr. Stanley said nervously. “I’ll go get him and be right back.”
I inclined my head a fraction. Sometimes playing a bitch was awesome.
“Having fun, are you?” Marcus murmured to me.
“Oh, yes,” I said. My smile was hidden by the scarf, but he could probably see it in my eyes. “Excellent work, by the way.”
He nodded once and returned to his position behind my right shoulder.
Mr. Stanley returned with the younger man in tow. “This is Mr. Rochester. How may we help you?”
“Mr. Rochester, take me to a private room.”
The young man looked a little bewildered, but he knew an order when he heard one. The older man tried to follow us. “You are not needed,” I said. I turned away without another word and followed Mr. Rochester to one of the rooms set aside to conduct sensitive business.
“Um, here is the room, madam,” Mr. Rochester said. He held the door open while I swept inside. Once we sat, I checked the room for bugs and found none. Excellent.
I sat in one of the plu
sh chairs facing the desk. “How long have you been with the bank?”
He moved to sit behind the desk. “Four years, madam. I assure you, even though I am a junior banker, I can assist with whatever you need.”
“Very good. I need to make several large withdrawals from a private account. Please set up the terminal for an immediate withdrawal from a numbered account and then wait outside.”
The young man’s eyes widened but he started typing on the terminal in front of him.
FTL communication was expensive and finicky. Only financial institutions and Houses had enough at stake to make it worthwhile. Everyone else waited for their messages to bounce through gates, carried by passing ships and communication drones. But it meant that in order to move large amounts of money, you had to physically be at a bank or wait for up to two weeks for the transaction to be confirmed.
I didn’t have two weeks.
Accessing my House account would alert Father to my location. And if he happened to be near an FTL com terminal, he could order the bank employees to detain me until a retrieval team arrived. So that account was out, even though it was the one with the most money.
Fortunately, I had more than one account, including several numbered accounts. Not tied to any identity chip, numbered accounts were anonymous but also dangerous. If you forgot the account number or access code, the money was gone forever.
Luckily, I was very good with numbers.
“The terminal is ready, madam. Are you transferring between accounts or do you need credit chips?”
“I will take it from here. My guard will alert you once I am finished.”
Mr. Rochester turned the terminal toward me, bobbed a half bow, then exited the room and closed the door behind him. That was the nice thing about junior bankers, they knew how to follow orders and not be a nuisance.
I laid two anonymous credit chips on the desk then pulled up the privacy screen. The other problem with numbered accounts is that anyone with the number could access them. And while I didn’t think Marcus would rob me, better safe than sorry.
I typed in the account number and access code. A second of delay and then my balance appeared. This account had just under a million credits. I withdrew two hundred thousand and fitted the first credit chip into the reader. A pleasant beep confirmed the transaction.
With Marcus taken care of, I considered how much money to withdraw for myself. The account linked to the identity I had chosen for this planet had nearly a hundred thousand credits in it. It was unlikely that I would need more, but another trip to the bank would be additional risk. I withdrew another hundred thousand credits onto the second chip.
Numbered accounts did not keep transaction records. Oh, they kept the running balance and showed when money had been added or removed, but they kept no records of where that money came from or went to.
Because anonymous money transfers were so ripe for abuse, opening a numbered account required a House ID. You didn’t have to give the banker your name or let them scan your ID chip, but if you couldn’t produce a House seal then you couldn’t open the account.
The lack of transactional records meant that when these credit chips were used, the money couldn’t be tied back to my numbered account. So I could transfer the money from the credit chip to Irene’s account without compromising the secrecy of the numbered account. It was the same way I got money into the numbered account in the first place.
I logged out of the account and carefully wiped the terminal screen clean of fingerprints. I lowered the privacy screen and placed the two credit chips in internal zippered pockets, keeping them separate. “Time to go,” I said.
Marcus opened the door and stepped out. At his signal that it was clear, I followed him. Mr. Rochester snapped to attention. “Madam, is there anything else you need?”
“No, thank you for your assistance. I am leaving.”
Mr. Rochester bowed and escorted us to the door. Marcus and I entered the waiting transport without incident.
I sighed and let my public persona fall away. “Do you need anything while we’re out?” I asked. “I was thinking about buying some new clothes, but I can drop you at the ship first if you’d like to head out early.”
“I go where you go,” he said. “I could use some more clothes, too, assuming you’re not shopping down here.”
The thought of Marcus Loch in a suit derailed my thought process for a solid minute. All of that muscle and menace hidden beneath a bespoke suit would be a sight to see. Yum.
I shook myself out of thoughts of getting Loch out of said suit and handed him the credit chip with his money on it. “This is what I owe you,” I said. “There’s no transaction history, so don’t lose it.”
Loch pocketed the chip without comment.
Handing the money over was bittersweet. My obligation was finished, but now he had no reason to stick around. “I guess today is our last day together,” I said, hoping he would deny my words.
He did not.
Chapter 15
I pushed aside my hurt and directed our transport to a shopping district in the two hundreds: high enough to be cheap, but not so high as to be poor quality. Most of the middle class shopped in this district. And around the periphery was a thriving black market where you could buy anything from jewelry to weapons to pleasure.
The transport dropped us on a landing pad on floor 215. I ended our ride and confirmed the fare deduction. Once we were out, the transport glided away to pick up the next passenger. I’d order a new transport when we were done shopping.
This was not my first trip to Sedition, but even so, the sheer scale boggled the mind on every visit. Looking around, it was easy to forget that we were hundreds of meters in the air. Even the harsh sun was partially blocked thanks to the higher levels.
Shops opened out to wide walkways bustling with pedestrians. Plazas dotted with small trees connected adjacent buildings, both on our level and above and below us. With the exception of the tall plastech and glass wall that prevented accidental falls, this could be a shopping street on any planet.
I moved away from the transport pad. The better deals were found when you had to walk more than two meters to get to the store. Loch followed me, just off my right shoulder. “You don’t have to play bodyguard here,” I said. “I can look after myself, and we can meet up later. You can shop for whatever you need.”
“I’m not playing,” Loch said. “That bastard is still after you and I am looking forward to meeting him again.” Loch’s expression filled with so much predatory anticipation that I almost felt bad for Richard. Almost.
“Yes, but that bastard will likely be after me forever. You can’t protect me forever. And despite what it looked like when we met, I do a decent job of keeping a low profile.”
Loch remained stubbornly silent and glued to my shoulder.
“At least walk beside me,” I said. “In case you haven’t noticed, bodyguards are not plentiful at this level. We’ll draw more attention if you keep stalking along behind me.”
Loch grumbled something unpleasant but moved up next to me. Other pedestrians still gave us a wide berth.
I purchased a temperature-regulating cloak at the first shop we stopped at. Cream with blue trim, it was in no way practical. But it was beautiful and it kept the sun from making me sweat, so I bought it. It would be destroyed the first time I took it anywhere near a dirty ship, so I also bought a dark gray cloak as a backup.
We crossed over a pedestrian bridge to the next building. I passed all of the little boutiques with their bright colors and cute outfits with barely a glance until a red dress in a display caught my attention and wouldn’t let go. I wandered over to the window.
The dress had a fitted bodice with short cap sleeves and a V-neck. A full skirt hit the mannequin just above the knees. I loved it, but if a cream cloak was impractical, this dress was wildly unsuitable.
“You should try it on,” Loch said.
“Where would I wear it? In the engine room?
It’s just something I’ll eventually have to leave behind.” I suppressed the sigh that tried to escape. One day I would wear dresses like this whenever I wanted; it just wasn’t today.
I walked away from the dress without looking back.
On the next block, I found the store I was looking for. It carried both men’s and women’s styles in simple cuts of sturdy fabric. I wouldn’t win any fashion awards, but the clothes would stand up to whatever I threw at them.
Loch wandered off to the men’s section while I dug through the women’s options. I found a few shirts in my size in various sleeve lengths. The pants I needed to actually try on because it was difficult to find something that fit without sagging. I grabbed a few pairs and headed for the dressing room.
After a frustrating ten minutes, I found one pair of pants that weren’t horrible. I went back to see if they had more of that style, and of course they didn’t. So I settled for what I had and went to find Marcus.
He lounged by the door, package already in hand. I paid for my purchases and joined him. We exited the shop and kept going, drifting farther and farther from the good parts of the district.
“You looking for something or just trying to find trouble?” Loch finally asked.
“Can’t it be both?” I asked. He didn’t even grin. “If you must know, I’m looking for a weapons dealer that used to be around here, but he must’ve moved. I don’t know what’s on the ship, but I’d like a new blast pistol and some more ammo.”
“In that case, we’ll need a transport. I’ve been here before.”
I ordered a transport to meet us at the next landing. We climbed in and Loch set the destination. We crossed the city then descended to the ground. I raised an eyebrow.
“Rhys has done very well for himself in the last few years,” Loch said.
I only knew of one Rhys who sold weapons in Sedition, but I kept the knowledge to myself. “An old friend?” I asked.
“Something like that. Let me do the talking and try to look inconspicuous. What kind of blaster do you want?”
“Small. A Mosey or Ketchum if he has one, otherwise anything that is small enough to be easily concealable. I don’t need any fancy extras, but I won’t turn them down as long as they don’t make the gun bigger.”
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