by Jael Wye
“What?” he said, his voice rough.
Milla’s trembling voice came over the com. “Cesare, there are two rovers docking at the hab—they say they’re StarLine security.” It took him a second to register the words. Then he jerked around to face the vidscreen fully. Every Outback duster ever born knew that a gang of private company sec at the door was very bad news. He hit the visual, and the look in Milla’s fearful eyes told everything he needed to know.
“Put them on Milla,” he rasped.
Milla vanished, and a familiar face appeared on the vidscreen. The last of the warmth in his blood vanished. “Ni hao, Cesare,” Javier Woods said with a wide smile. “Ni hao, Bianca. Well, here we are. Your mama sent us, just like you asked.”
Cesare’s heart stuttered. Bianca had invited Victoria’s pet snake to Noctis. He was shadowing her, just as he had been when they had first met on the elevator. Images flashed before him—Bianca “accidentally” dropping her pac in front of him, flirting with him in the café as Woods watched—all appearing to him in a new, darker hue. Do not trust her, Angelo’s warning rang in his ears.
This team of thugs was in position to do anything she ordered—destroy the evidence, or even the people themselves. Maybe Angelo had been right all along. Maybe she really was a lying puta, just like Victoria, and he had been all too happy to fall for her act. Had he been thoroughly played? Had a few blushes and big-eyed looks, one little mack session, been enough to make him give access to his StarLine evidence to a fecking spy?
Cesare bowed his head as disgust went through him like a blade. Disgust at himself.
“Ni hao, M’Woods,” came her deceptively gentle voice from behind him. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”
Woods just grinned wider. “Be a good girl and let us in.”
“We’ll be with you in a few minutes,” Cesare said curtly, and tapped the vid back to Milla. “Com Mehmet and tell him about our visitors,” he said to her. “Then you and Iqbal go take supply inventory on the lower levels.” He gave her a look that said, get to the bolt-hole. Milla’s pale, tense face nodded once, and then cut out.
“Cesare, is there something wrong?” Bianca said.
He turned toward her, and she flinched back at his expression. “You invited your bully boy here. That’s what’s wrong.”
Her soft, red lips parted. “He’s not—I didn’t—”
He cut her off. “Sorry bird. Whatever your game is, I’m done playing. You’re not getting what you came for.” He forced a smile with all the cynicism he could muster. “You’re a better huli jing than your stepmother, maybe, but you’re still not that good.”
She gasped at his words, her passion-flushed cheeks draining of all color in an instant. Shocked hurt flooded her eyes. He steeled himself for a tearful denial, or maybe an attempt at blatant seduction. But she did neither. She just sank down into her seat, and looked out the window in complete silence.
He started the tram, and put it on full speed for the hab. He had to protect his people from the treacherous beauty next to him. He wasn’t going to feel an instant of regret.
* * *
The scenery outside rushed by in a red blur as Cesare coaxed more and more speed out of the old tram. Bianca stole a glance at the man sitting beside her in freezing silence. If he felt her gaze on him, he gave no indication. He kept his dark head bent over the controls, steadfastly ignoring her.
“We’re going awfully fast, aren’t we?” she ventured.
“I have to get back quickly so I can dust your plot with Woods,” he said calmly.
Bianca clamped down on her temper, and a flash of something like pain. “For your information,” she said, “I am not ‘plotting’ anything with him. I have no idea why he’s here.”
Cesare just grunted.
“I take it you’ve met M’Woods before,” she said.
“Oh, ay. I got to meet your company thug when I was up on the elevator,” he said with a grimace. “But then, you already knew that, didn’t you?”
“No, I didn’t know,” she said softly. So Cesare didn’t much like the sec chief either. That was sensible of him, at least. Of all of Victoria’s flunkies, Woods was the most repugnant, in Bianca’s opinion. She had only met him a handful of times, but those few doses of his creepy unctuousness had been enough for her. She would no more willingly associate with him than she would sell Earthers into slavery.
But there was no convincing Cesare of that, evidently. He paid no attention to her denial. His strong profile was closed, forbidding. Her gaze went to her hands, twisting together in her lap. Her c-suit was still red, she saw. Hurriedly she tapped it back to pewter.
What kind of insanity had come over her back there? she wondered. Dressing herself up in ridiculous fashions, putting herself on display. Letting him kiss her. Letting his big hands mold her and shape her until she felt as if he could bend her any way he wanted, do with her anything he wanted.
In the heat of his presence, she had allowed strange, unfamiliar emotions to unfurl inside her, yearning toward his touch. And for a brief moment of wild folly, she had almost imagined an answering longing in him. Until a few harsh words had slapped her back into reality.
The reservoir vanished above the canyon rim with a last bright sparkle. She blinked rapidly. The glare of sunlight on the ice was making her eyes prickle. Surely that was the reason.
Fool, she said to herself. Fool to the tenth power.
Chapter Seven
The Crash
The hab was coming up on them quickly. They sped past the tram lots and drove around to the main hab entrance, docking at a rover walktube.
As the lock hissed open, he turned to her. “Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll be right behind you, where I can keep an eye on you.”
Bianca had no response to that. She got out of the tram and walked stiffly toward the hab, Cesare striding behind her like a shadow. They soon rounded the corner to the hab entrance. Two bored-looking Martian sec were standing near the door, and behind them, Javier Woods was bent over the door panel, fiddling with the controls.
It looked like... Was he was actually trying to break into the hab? A sudden wave of indignation hit her. The snake! Forcing his grimy presence in where it didn’t belong.
So she had more or less done the same thing herself, she thought with a stab of guilt. She would make up for it now by keeping Victoria’s minions away from the miners’ home.
“M’Woods,” she said sharply, “I thought you would be waiting in your rover.”
The Earther turned casually toward them and smiled a broad smile, completely unabashed. “Bianca and Cesare,” he said expansively. She stiffened at the insultingly familiar address. He moved toward them and stuck his hand out. Bianca knew better than to take it. So did Cesare, it seemed. She slid a glance his way. He was completely silent, just eyeing Woods with a flat stare.
“Well, I sure am glad to see you two,” Woods said, withdrawing his hand. “We’re getting tired of standing out here, aren’t we, blokes?” he said, turning his head toward his sec. The two thuggish-looking Martians gave no response.
“What brings you out here?” She said as politely as she could.
Woods ignored her question. “Aren’t you going to let us in?” he said, gesturing toward the door.
“No,” Cesare said simply.
Woods flared his nostrils. His two security blokes exchanged a look. “That’s not very friendly, Cesare.” Woods moved a little closer. “And here I thought you were part of our happy StarLine family. You and Bianca’s mum were such special friends up on the elevator. What, did you two have a little spat?”
A faintly contemptuous look crossed Cesare’s face. “You’re not going in,” was all he said.
“Well, now, it’s not up to you, is it?” Woods said, pursing his lip
s as if in thought. “After all, you won’t own this mine for much longer. Our little Bianca’s daddy will, isn’t that right, Bianca?”
The sec chief turned his toothy smile directly on her, craning his neck to look up at her with his bright little eyes. “You’ve got our bloke here by the stones, ay? How about you open the door for us?”
Not for my last breath of air, Bianca thought. She kept her eyes on the men before her, but she could feel Cesare standing near, coiled tense and ready for...what? She had the sudden terrible feeling that the situation was balanced on a blade’s edge. An unmistakable menace seemed to crackle in the air. She had to diffuse it somehow.
Drawing on all her long years of practice, she summoned up a bland, businesslike smile. “I’m sorry, I can’t. RedIce hasn’t been fully integrated with StarLine yet, and until then, there are certain protocols we have to follow with regard to giving our personnel access to RedIce sites. Legal liability, you know.” She was winging it here, but she was pretty sure there were regulations that said something like that somewhere in the Cloud. “It might take some time to get all of you proper clearance, and I wouldn’t want to delay you for hours. Or even days.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cesare staring at her like she had sprouted tentacles. She kept her focus steady on Woods, willing him to accept her excuses. She upped the shine of her smile. “Why don’t you tell me what brings you all the way out here,” she coaxed. “You said Victoria sent you?”
For a moment, Woods looked at her narrowly, like he was considering pressing the point out of sheer spite. Then he shrugged. “Your mum sent me down to bring you that data you wanted.”
“M’Ross is not my mother,” she said automatically, trying to figure out what he was talking about. Then it hit her. The party on Eris! Victoria had said she would send the guest list and schedule with a private courier.
She watched in bemusement as Woods thumbed the biolock on the pouch at his hip and sorted through its contents for a moment. Cesare loomed watchfully beside her. Finally, Woods pulled out a bright red compac and held it up between his fingertips.
“What is this data?” Cesare’s voice was a low rumble.
“Oh, I’m not allowed to talk about what’s in this little compac, I’m afraid.”
“If it involves RedIce in any way, you are legally obligated to inform me of the contents of StarLine coms,” Cesare said.
“Don’t be concerned, M’Chan,” she said. “This is a purely internal StarLine matter. I asked Victoria to send me a list of guests for a party she’s having. I think that’s all this is.”
Cesare looked skeptical. “She had to rush a list of partygoers out here under heavy guard?”
“I’m as mystified about it as you,” she said honestly. “I didn’t think it was that important.” She turned to Woods with a questioning look.
“Your family is worried about you, Bianca,” Woods said smoothly. “You haven’t seemed yourself lately. So, your mum said we’re supposed to indulge your every whim, no matter how cracked. She said, if a guest list is what will make our little Bianca happy, then tamade, she will get her guest list.” He held the compac just out of her reach, rolling it around in his short fingers.
“How very considerate of Victoria,” Bianca said. Her cheeks ached from smiling. “May I have the pac?” She held out her hand, trying to keep from looking impatient. He inched it toward her, a half-smile on his face, and she all but snatched it from him.
“Thank you for bringing this,” she said tightly. “If there’s nothing else, you should be getting back to Pavonis. I wouldn’t want to keep you out here unnecessarily.”
“Not so fast. I can’t leave just yet.”
“Oh?”
Woods slowly nodded his head. “I got one more thing to do. I got to witness you load the data.”
“Is that it?”
“Ay. Then we can be on our way.”
Could getting rid of him really be that easy? “Very well,” she said. Calling up her firewalls, she touched the pac to the cuff port. There was a tiny chime when the data loaded clean. She dropped the pac into her suit pouch. It was just an empty shell now, its guts turned to mash with the data transfer. Woods’s mission was fulfilled. “You said you had to be on your way,” she said.
Woods ignored her. He had turned toward the hab, a speculative look in his eyes. “I’m hai curious to see what you got in there that’s so extra-special.” He looked over at Cesare. “Connies? Tabs? Come on, you can tell me,” he said his voice low and confidential.
“I’ll see you out,” was all Cesare said. He gestured toward the walktube beyond them that led to the rover docks. “After you, M’Ross, M’Woods.”
Bianca took the cue, and set off down the walktube at a fast clip, forcing Woods and his goons to straggle after her. Cesare brought up the rear. The shadows of the sec’s rovers hulked beyond the translucent wall of the walktube up ahead.
She hit the doorpads, and the rover locks slid open. “Have a safe trip,” she said pleasantly.
“How about you come along with us Bianca,” Woods said.
She faltered at his words. She knew she should want to take him up on that offer. An escort from her own company’s security would be the perfect excuse to remove herself from the presence of all these people who resented and feared her.
She looked to where Cesare stood in the middle of the hall, his tall, broad frame blocking the hab from the intruders. His face gave nothing away. Then her gaze skittered back to Woods’s hungry, leering face.
She could barely suppress a grimace. I’d jump naked on the surface before I’d go a centimeter with you.
Besides, it felt wrong to leave now. She wasn’t finished with Noctis yet. Cesare was just going to have to tolerate her for a little longer. “I still have a few things to do here,” she announced. “I’ll start back for Pavonis shortly.”
Woods just watched her for a moment. Then suddenly he reached out, quick as a snake, and caught her hand. Before she knew it, he had raised it to his lips and his tongue flicked over her knuckles. Shock and disgust shot up her arm, and she tried to yank her hand back. For a split second, Woods held her, his stubby fingers clamped around hers in an iron grip. Then, chuckling softly, he deliberately let her go. She stumbled back, rubbing her hand on her side. “Goodbye, then, princess,” Woods said.
Cesare had jolted forward a step, his hands clenching into fists. “Get gone, Woods,” he said, a dangerous glitter in his eyes.
The Earther gave him a mock salute, and then lazily sauntered through the lock, his two Martian goons in tow.
Bianca and Cesare stood watching as the two rovers decoupled and trundled away down the dusty road. Only when they were truly gone did Cesare turn toward her. The animosity in his gaze had faded to confusion. Evidently this little episode had not turned out quite as he expected it to. She almost had to laugh.
“I need to scan you for gremlins before we go back in,” he said finally.
She shrugged. What was one more indignity today? He held his cuff port up to hers, and after a moment, the scan pronounced her clean. “Satisfied?” she said.
He didn’t answer. He was frowning down at her hand, the same one Woods had grabbed. “Your fingers are all right?” he said. He made a move as if to touch her.
She nodded, quickly moving out of his reach. She had had about enough manhandling for one day. She turned and began walking back up the tube toward the hab. After a moment, she heard Cesare striding along after her.
“You said you had a few things to do here, before you head back,” he said quietly. “What did you mean?”
She didn’t pause. “Well, for starters, I’m going to scan this big important courier message I just got. And then, I’m going to do some research to see if your slanders about Starline have a mil of truth to them,” she said. She opened the front door witho
ut showing the least hesitation, and headed straight through the hab for her room. Cesare followed her.
“And then,” she continued, “I have to finish modeling Tower Two to see if I can figure out where the problem is. Because, you see, I’m actually trying to help out around here,” she added.
“Wait. What? You’ve been working on Tower Two?”
“Ay.” She frowned, momentarily distracted. “Han doesn’t think the GenIe is the problem, so I’ve been concentrating on some sensor interfaces at the anchor points...” She stopped herself. “Anyway, those are a few of the things I need to do before I go.”
She got to her room and jabbed her finger on the doorpad.
“Was there anything else?” Cesare said as the door slid open. He sounded subdued.
She stepped through and turned to face him. He was standing close, gazing down at her with a serious look in his dark eyes. She summoned up a sweet smile. “Why, putting the finishing touches on my nefarious schemes of world domination, of course. Thank you for the tour of the plumbing,” she said. And, stepping back, she gently closed the door in his face.
* * *
“...I expect this to be over in a matter of days. You will send a message through the usual channels the instant you know for sure.”
“Ay, M’Ross. And what if everything doesn’t go according to plan?”
“It will. The gremlin in the compac is invisible and precise. Once the command is triggered, she’ll be dead within minutes.”
“But what if she isn’t? What if Bianca survives your little murder attempt, like she survived the last one? Do you want me to put a round in her head, or what?”
“If you are careless enough to fail in your task, I will send you instructions on how to proceed. Bianca does not leave Noctis alive.”
Javier Woods pushed the button that stopped the recording in his antique audio device. The one Victoria had sneered at and dismissed. The one all her cutting edge security probes had ignored. He leaned back into the cushions of his rover’s lounge chair, and contemplated his assets.