Ice Red

by Jael Wye

  At last, their strange guest said, “This is a remarkable hab. For some reason I had thought a mining camp would be more rudimentary, but this is quite lovely.”

  “You expected us to be living in tin can prefabs and rationing cultured meal?” Asif practically snarled. Mehmet shot him a warning look, but Bianca Ross turned to the young man with only a look of mild surprise on her face.

  “Not at all,” she said. “I have very little experience with mining operations as of yet, so I had no idea what to expect, really. This is a pretty isolated outpost. I’m glad you’ve made it so comfortable.”

  Han let out a derisive snort at that, and then tried, unconvincingly, to cover it up with a wheezing, hacking cough. Bianca pretended not to notice.

  Bo and Milla finally came in with trays of tea. Bianca took a cup with a smile and murmured thanks. Bo smiled back, a little shakily, and Milla tried to make herself invisible.

  Mehmet took a token sip of tea. “M’Ross,” he said carefully, “please forgive us, but this is quite a surprise. We’re unprepared for a visitor of your stature. If I may ask, how long do you plan to stay with us? And what do you intend to do while you are here?”

  “Please don’t think that I need any special treatment,” she said, waving her hand a little. “I’ll only be here a few days. I’d like to follow some of you around on your daily routines, ask a few questions. Learn the operation here.”

  Could that possibly be all she wanted? Mehmet thought. A guided tour? He didn’t believe it for a second. He took a slow, thoughtful sip of his tea. This was some sort of Byzantine tangle, impossible for him to unravel.

  Perhaps they should just make a run for it. Get in the rovers, head for Anderson or New Beijing, try to disappear into the cities. But would that be an overreaction, drawing more attention than staying put would? Possibly. He was unsure.

  The girl was still talking. “I didn’t want to put any burden on you while I was here, so I brought some extra supplies, just in case. Food, air mix and also...” She jumped up out of her chair and crossed over to a big plaz crate sitting by the front door that Mehmet had only vaguely noticed before. She dragged it across the room to the seating area, and sank down on the floor next to it, a little out of breath. “I brought along a ‘welcome aboard’ gift from StarLine,” she said, and tapped on the latch.

  The lid came up, and everyone peered inside. Someone gasped, and Mehmet felt his jaw drop. The crate was filled with tree fruit. Red and green apples...and pears, oranges, peaches, limes... He hadn’t seen fruit like that in decades.

  On Mars, tree fruits could only be grown in the largest, most complex greenhouses in the big population centers, so they were expensive and rare. Even back home on Earth they had been nearly impossible to get. This strange, otherworldly girl had practically laid treasure at their feet.

  The suspicion and confusion in the room was palpable. Was this a setup? Poison? Bianca’s smile faded a bit. “I...um...we, StarLine...we hope you like them.”

  Just then, Hussein pushed forward and reached into the crate to grab a peach. Asif started forward as if to stop his brother, but the boy had already taken a big, juicy bite. His habitual faraway expression instantly transformed into one of pure delight. He looked at Bianca over the top of his eyecam. “It’s wonderful. Thank you, M’Ross.”

  The girl’s face lit up with a true, genuine smile, the loveliest Mehmet had ever seen. “My pleasure. And please, call me Bianca.”

  Mehmet didn’t know what to think. Looking down at her shining young face as she knelt there on the floor, he just couldn’t feel that gut-deep fear of her that he should be feeling, according to his own hard experience. This entire situation was defying every one of his expectations.

  All at once, the long, exhausting day came crashing down on him. He would talk to Cesare Chan, and find out what he had to say about all this. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger. He would figure out what to do about Bianca Ross after they had all had some time to rest, and to think.

  “We all thank you, M’...Bianca,” he said. “This is a...a delightful surprise.”

  At that, the girl turned her radiant smile on him, and in spite of everything, he felt something in his desiccated old heart bend toward her, like a tree bending toward the sun.

  Executive Habsuite, Eris Space Elevator Station

  “There has been a slight change of plans, Javier,” Victoria said.

  Woods’s digitally scrambled voice floated up from her darkened vidscreen. “Hey, I’m flexible,” he replied. They were using sound only, with scrambler gremlins to prevent the com from being tapped or recorded. A necessary precaution, but talking to the Earther was even more grating than usual this way.

  Victoria drummed her nails on the arm of her chair for a moment, until Woods began making impatient sounds on the other end of the com. When she decided she had let him dangle long enough, she said, “I have a meeting soon, so I’ll make this brief. Bianca has decided to tour the RedIce mine at Noctis Labyrinthus instead of Tharsis.”

  Woods groaned. “The chic just had to make things even more complicated.”

  “Stop whining,” Victoria told him. Though, privately, she had to agree. It was lucky that the informant she had positioned in Bianca’s Pavonis team was able to alert her to the change of plans. Generally Victoria didn’t like to rely on human intelligence, but in this case she had little choice. She couldn’t eavesdrop on Bianca’s conversations personally now that she was out of range of her Eris spy nets.

  “Cesare Chan’s movements are unknown at the moment,” she continued, “but I want you to ensure that he is close by when you act. Just in case you’re somehow clumsy enough to raise suspicion about Bianca’s death, Chan needs to be on hand to divert attention away from you.”

  “Ay, boss. That it?”

  “No. After Bianca is taken care of, I want you to remain in the area and keep watch on Chan. I might need you to arrange an accident for him as well.”

  “What? I thought Chan wasn’t important enough to worry about. Now you not only want me to frame him for murder, you want me to dust the poor mookie as well?”

  Victoria felt her expression harden. Even though Woods couldn’t see her, she smoothed her face, and calmly said, “Dealing with Chan in a more permanent fashion may be worth the risk at this point. He’s proving to be more difficult to neutralize than I anticipated.”

  Yes, quite difficult, she brooded. What a disappointment Cesare Chan had turned out to be. He had stubbornly ignored her every overture, sexual or financial. She couldn’t understand it. By all rights, the bloke should be lying in her bed at this very moment, ready to fulfill her every need, just like all the others had before him. Instead, one com from that bloody fecking Bianca had him dashing off to the surface as if he couldn’t wait to get away from Victoria. Her nails drummed her chair arm harder.

  Woods’s distorted voice oozed up out of her vidscreen. “That’s a shame, boss. So your bone wasn’t tasty enough for Cesare, hmm? Bloke probably thinks little Bianca is more his flavor. Well, don’t fret. He was too young for you anyway.”

  Her vision went blinding red. Of all the things Woods could possibly have said to her, that was exactly the wrong one. “Enough, slave,” she snarled. “Every point in your accounts is mine as of now.”

  A strangled noise came over the com. Woods knew it was no idle threat.

  “Be quiet,” she said, her voice raw. “If you so much as breathe in a manner I find offensive, I’ll send you back to your Earther feckhole in pieces.” At this moment, she could have killed the squat with her bare hands.

  With a tremendous effort, she choked back her fury. She could have Woods shredded as soon as this operation was over, she reminded herself. Right now she needed him functioning. She took a deep breath. “You have one chance to redeem the money I’m taking from you,” she said sof
tly. “Do this job and do it quietly. I’ve tapped over the Noctis coordinates. Com me when it’s done.” She cut the com.

  With a sharp jab, she touched on her mirror program and bent forward, scrutinizing her reflection. Shocking, just shocking. Her face was pale with anger, her eyes hollow and burning. She couldn’t receive her visitor like this. Slowly, she schooled her face into a heavy lidded smile. She took out her brush and began smoothing her hair, trying to regain her balance.

  She was just as beautiful as always, she assured herself. Her last Correction had gone perfectly. And soon, very soon, she would be the de facto ruler of Mars. She would even make the Secretary General give her a title. “Supreme Ruler,” or perhaps “Empress.” Ay, that would do.

  Everything was going to fall out perfectly well. That loathsome girl would die. Even this annoying RedIce problem would be resolved tonight, just as soon as her guest put in an appearance.

  She contemplated that for a moment, and her smile slowly grew more satisfied, her brush strokes more languorous.

  She was back to herself again by the time her door chime finally sounded. Lazily she put the brush down, and arranged herself on a silk divan to wait. Eventually the security sensors in the foyer finished their scan, and the door slid open.

  The chief legal advisor for RedIce walked into the room, his long, thin frame attired in a teal and gold carbonsuit.

  “M’Briggs,” Victoria said. “I’m glad you could come. Please, have a seat.”

  “Thank you, M’Ross.” He strolled over to a nearby chair and sat down with a careless little flourish. “I was surprised to get your com,” he said, a look of shrewd curiosity on his long face. “You said there’s something important you’d like to discuss with me?”

  “Yes, very important.” She shifted her legs slightly. His gaze darted over them, and a telltale spark of lust flared in his eyes. She smiled slowly.

  “I wanted to talk to you about your future, M’Briggs,” she purred.

  Biohab Xanadu, Pavonis

  Cesare sat down on a bench in the middle of a fragrant jungle, and waited for his contact to arrive.

  This five-square kilometer biohab was supposed to be modeled after an Earther paradise. It completely lived up to expectations, in Cesare’s view. Huge trees towered a hundred meters over his head, dripping with vines and orchids. He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in the rich, humid scent of growing things. All around him was the faint rustle of emrats scurrying in the undergrowth and small birds flitting in the canopy above. Opening his eyes, he caught the glitter of scales as a red and black snake slipped through the leaves of a nearby tree. That was Xanadu—just as strange and beautiful as ever.

  He often came here when he was in Pavonis. He had always wondered if the surface of Mars would look like this one day, when humans had finished terraforming it. Wouldn’t be so bad, he thought.

  A lean, older woman wandered out of the greenery. She slowly made her way over to where he was sitting and dropped down on the bench next to him with a sigh.

  “Ni hao, Piat,” Cesare said. “Thanks for meeting me out here. Are you sure my father’s sec don’t know you’re talking to me?”

  Piat Singh brushed that aside. “Positive. Anyway, it’s worth the risk. Everyone at RedIce wants to stop this takeover. We’ve been throwing wrenches in the works, but there’s only so much we can do.”

  “I’m going to take care of it,” he told her. “But I need to find Bianca Ross.”

  Bianca had vanished from Pavonis without a trace, and she wouldn’t answer his coms. He could try mining the DataCloud for her whereabouts, but that might take days. His allies in RedIce were the only way he could hope to find her quickly.

  Singh nodded. “She’s at Noctis Labyrinthus.”

  Cesare groaned. The last place on Mars he wanted her poking around, and she had headed right for it. She was out of the headquarters in Pavonis, true, but this was almost worse. He had hidden many rescued Earther slaves among the work crews at his various mines, but the Earthers at Noctis were the most vulnerable of all of them, with the most damaging secrets.

  Singh continued, “Mehmet Nazif commed headquarters to report her arrival two hours ago.”

  “Get a message to Mehmet, could you? Tell him to keep a close eye on her for me. I’m heading straight there to drag her back to Tharsis.”

  “Drag her back? How are you going to do that?”

  Cesare shrugged. “I don’t know. By her hair?”

  “Don’t do anything rash, kit,” Singh warned.

  “Come on, Piat,” he said with a grin, “have you ever known me to do anything rash?”

  “I’m serious, Cesare. You can’t afford any more enemies.”

  His grin faded. “Bianca Ross is already an enemy. I’ll do what I have to, to keep her from wrecking us.”

  Next to him, Singh hesitated. “I don’t believe Bianca Ross would want to hurt anyone on purpose,” she said slowly.

  That made him pause. “Why do you think that?” he said.

  Singh shrugged. “She’s not malicious. Just ignorant.”

  Cesare frowned. He found himself almost hoping Singh was right. But if she truly was innocent, then he’d said a hell of a lot of unforgivable things to woman who didn’t deserve them. He banished the half-formed thought at once. “Ignorance can be dangerous too. I’ll keep what you said in mind. Thanks again for the tip. I owe you one.”

  With a nod, Cesare got up off the bench. He started walking quickly toward the biohab entrance, thinking hard. Malicious or ignorant, Bianca could do some serious damage in the two days it would take him to get to Noctis overland. The miners there wouldn’t stand a chance against her. She would worm enough information out of them and their comps to put it all together if he couldn’t decoy her.

  If she would just answer his coms! Didn’t she want to hear him grovel, like any other chic would? He found himself grinding his teeth in frustration. He had to get to her faster.

  He commed in a message as he boarded a tram for the airfields. “Angelo, I’m going to need a ride.”

  Noctis Labyrinthus Mining Camp

  That night, Bianca fell into bed with a groan. Well, the day wasn’t a complete disaster. The miners hadn’t tossed her out on her arse the minute they laid eyes on her. That counted for something. And they had given her a decent guest room. She raised her head off the pillow to glance around. Spartan, but clean and comfortable. She let her head fall back with a thump. Time to get some real sleep.

  Tomorrow was going to be a hell of a day. Lots of field work out on the surface. That would be exhausting enough for someone who wasn’t used to it, but she had a feeling that coaxing the miners into some sort of working relationship was going to be even harder.

  It wasn’t the same kind of formal diffidence she usually encountered. It was almost like they were afraid. Actually afraid of her. It was bizarre. But then, this whole episode had been a study in bizarre. And the deeper she looked into RedIce, the stranger things seemed to get.

  Money vanishing to who knew where, employees who didn’t officially exist living in perfect comfort, those same employees acting panicky...plus Cesare Chan... It just didn’t add up.

  Well, she thought, turning over on her side, there would be plenty of opportunity to figure things out tomorrow. And, whatever else might happen, it certainly wouldn’t be dull.

  Pavonis Public Hangar 91

  “Tomorrow afternoon? That’s the soonest we can leave?”

  Michelangelo Chan looked up from his bot workstation and glanced over at his younger brother with a small frown. Cesare was prowling around the hangar, watching the service bots work over the orbital plane.

  With a sigh, Angelo gave up on his tinkering with the bot parts in front of him. He had hoped to spend his morning on a soothingly mindless task that would get him th
rough the hours until he could be up and flying again. But when Cesare stormed through the door demanding to be taken to Noctis Labyrinthus, he knew that plan was shot to hell. On the other hand, his brother was himself an excellent distraction from the anxiety of being grounded.

  “The solar sails got shredded on my last trip to Deimos. The whole array has to be patched. It’s going to take some time,” Angelo told him once again. The flight to Mars’s smaller moon was always hell on low-orbit craft like his.

  Cesare made a frustrated sound and continued his restless wandering. Angelo watched him for a moment, his puzzled frown deepening. This edginess was totally out of character for his brother. His philosophy, if it could be called that, was to take things as they came.

  Maybe the prospect of losing the mines was finally beginning to rack him out. Well, he was right to be anxious, Angelo thought. Saving RedIce was a lost cause if he ever saw one. “I’ve been making plans to get the Earthers out,” he said quietly. “I can start taking some of them to Deimos on my next run.”

  Cesare wheeled on him, a hard set to his jaw. “The Earthers don’t need to go anywhere. I’m not going to let StarLine get my company.”

  “How do you think you’re going to stop them?” Angelo said impatiently. Then he took a deep breath. He had his contingency plans for the Earthers in place. He could afford to humor Cesare. “Do you even have a plan?” he asked in a more measured tone.

  “Ay, I do. Bianca Ross is the key. I think I can turn her against the StarLine leadership. She might not even know what her company did to the Earthers, Angelo. If I handle her right, I can break StarLine’s hold on RedIce.” He added, half to himself, “I just have to get to her. I have to explain why I said those things—”

  Angelo cut him off right there. “Sounds like you’re the one being handled. You’re letting this chic feck with your emotions, Cesare.” He tried to sound objective, but he heard the old bitterness in his voice anyway. Absently he reached down to rub the long scars across his lower right leg. The old wound was aching slightly once again.