by Jael Wye
“It’s possible that someone with enough influence has been able to keep the information from her. Someone like Shen Chan, for instance,” she said reluctantly. She glanced at Cesare, but he showed no reaction to his father’s name except for a tic in his jaw. She went on, “I couldn’t sleep much last night, so I tried to do some data mining in our RedIce files from that period. I found no references at all to Cesare or Angelo. That has to be more than just an oversight.”
“But why would old Chan cover up for them?” Bo asked. He glanced at Cesare and flushed. “That is...I mean...”
“He was covering his own arse,” Cesare said shortly. He looked at Bianca. “What you’re saying makes sense. And it does explain the seduction routine Victoria used on me. I doubt she would have bothered to try it with a known enemy.” His lip curled. “Then again, she just might. She’s certainly arrogant enough.”
Bianca looked away, fighting down a surge of emotion she didn’t want to examine too closely.
Cesare went on, “But if she doesn’t know about the Earthers, then what does she want with RedIce?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to find out as soon as I can. But I believe you’re all safe for now. And I’m going to make sure that you stay safe for good.”
“What do you mean?” Han said suspiciously.
“I mean I’m going to go take Victoria down.”
Gasps and murmurs sounded all around her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mehmet and Asif exchange a look. But she kept her focus on Cesare, who was looking at her like she was a puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out.
“Just what are you planning?”
Bianca thought about evading the question, but at the moment, she was just tired of all the intrigue and secrecy. “First I need to get to an interplanetary com so that I can talk to my father. With his support, I can take control of the StarLine board of directors and put Victoria under review. But all of that will take some doing, and I don’t have much time. I need to set things in motion as soon as possible.”
Cesare’s brows were drawn. “Why the hurry?”
“Victoria will be docking at Pavonis in just a few days. She’s inviting all the most important Martian power players up to a grand tour of Eris.”
“That party you and Javier Woods were talking about earlier?” Cesare said.
“Ay. I’m sure it’s much more than just a party. It’s a political summit. I don’t know exactly what she’s after, but she’s got to be trying to wring some sort of concessions out of the government and the business council. I want to suspend her authority in StarLine before she gets the chance.”
“So when are you leaving?”
He sounds eager to see the last of me, she thought with a twinge. Of course, she was eager to be gone, too, she reminded herself. “This afternoon, I think. I can help you with the cleanup before I go. Do some analysis of the crash. Program some bots and so on.”
“That would be very useful. Especially since I can’t stay for the cleanup myself.”
“You can’t? Why?”
“I had a com from Eris right before the accident. The Trade Courts have found against me and in favor of StarLine. I’ve been severed of all contact with RedIce assets,” he said in a monotone. He raked his gaze over the prone shapes of the injured miners. “In short, they kicked me out. I have to leave Noctis as soon as possible.”
“Ciel!” someone said in horror. Asif jumped up. “You’re going to fight this, right?”
Cesare moved his shoulders. “Of course I will. But it won’t do any good. This tower collapse is proof of negligence. The court will never revoke the order after this. And maybe they would be right.” His voice was low. “After all, it was my responsibility to maintain the equipment properly, and I failed. I was careless with your safety.”
“No, Cesare,” Mehmet said sharply. “You saved all of our lives, and many other people’s lives as well. Don’t you dare blame yourself for this.”
Cesare waved that aside. “Whether I’m to blame or not, the result is the same. I have to leave. Now that everyone is out of danger, I have no legitimate excuse to hang about. I’ll go as soon as my transport gets here.”
“Wait,” Bianca said. “I’ll...I’ll make it so you can stay.”
Cesare went still. “You’ll do what?”
She thought fast. “I’ll hire you as a consultant. You can stay here or at any of the RedIce mines at my orders.”
“I’d work for you,” he said flatly.
Bianca hesitated at his tone. Then she lifted her chin. “Ay. Temporarily. Listen, Cesare, I’m going to get this tangle sorted out as soon as I can, I promise. But meanwhile, you can have full access as a StarLine associate.”
He looked at her, his eyes narrowed, saying nothing.
“I won’t mess you about,” she said softly.
After a moment, he nodded his head. “Ay, then.”
“I’ll tap over the standard contract,” she said, with relief. “We can get this all settled before I leave.”
Cesare’s mouth hiked up into a smile that was an ironic shadow of his usual broad grin. “Whatever you say. You’re the boss, after all.”
* * *
Cesare walked slowly by Bianca’s side as they made their way toward her rover. She was going back to Pavonis to confront Victoria just as she said she would. All by herself.
“I still don’t feel right about you tackling Victoria alone like this,” he said
She stiffened next to him. “I’m perfectly capable of dealing with her. Please don’t concern yourself,” she said coolly.
In other words, mind your own business. Hell, it wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of his own business to mind. Even with Bianca’s intervention, saving RedIce was going to be enough of a workload for ten men.
He tried his hardest to think about what he still had to do to rescue his company, but it was difficult to concentrate when Bianca was walking so close to him. That dainty little travel pac over her shoulder bounced against her slender waist with every step, distracting him. Her hips swayed gracefully, luring his gaze.
He had been trying to keep his eyes to himself all day long as they worked side by side to get the tower catastrophe sorted out, but it had not been easy.
He had a lot of things he wanted to say to her all banging about in his head, like I’m an idiot for doubting your integrity, and you’re the most magnificent bot driver I’ve ever seen, and I’d sell my soul if you would smile at me again. But for some reason, he just couldn’t summon the words. He was usually fluent in the sort of waffle chics liked to hear, but today, whenever he caught sight of her slim shape bent in concentration over her comps, every glib phrase just died in his throat.
Bianca, too, had been very quiet all day. She had put on her armor of cool professionalism and focused intently on the tower cleanup. The only time she had let the mask slip was when she had taken leave of the miners.
All seven of the Earthers had crowded around her, talking over each other, all trying to express an awkward and urgent gratitude for her part in the rescue. But she had handled it all with a shy grace, smiling her heartbreaking smile, shaking everyone’s hands, even hugging Hussein back when the boy reached up from his cot and pulled her into an impulsive embrace.
She had only been among them for a few days, but already the Earthers had fallen for her. Enchanted. Cesare wasn’t surprised. Poor blokes hadn’t stood a chance.
All too soon, they got to her rover lock. She turned toward him, holding herself very straight. “Well,” she said.
“Well.” A pause. “This field trip didn’t turn out exactly the way I planned.”
Her lips curved slightly. “No, but it was still very educational. Grueling and horrifying, but educational.”
“And you got what you wanted. You found out a
ll my secrets.”
“Ay. Her eyes took on a slightly haunted look. “Your secrets. My shame.”
“If there’s anyone who should be ashamed, it’s me. I misjudged you. Badly.” Another feckup of his to add to the list. He ran his hand over the back of his hair. “Heaven knows you’re not to blame for any of this.”
“But I am responsible,” she said softly. “I should have known. I should have stopped it. Now I have to go back and make it right.”
He could almost see the knowledge, the obligation pressing down on her like a physical thing. The same weight he himself carried. “I understand,” he murmured. They were both silent for a moment.
Cesare shook himself. “I have something for you,” he said. He dug into his hip pouch for a moment, and then pulled out his hand and held it out toward her. In his cupped palm was a sparkling, faceted lump of diamond. “When we were up at the reservoir I promised you a souvenir of Noctis. So here you are.”
A look of puzzlement crossed her lovely face. Then her eyes widened. “That’s the diamond you found at the lake?”
“Ay. Polished it up for you, like I said I would.” Taking her hand, he tipped the glittering stone into the center of her palm and closed her fingers over it.
Her face wavered. “Thank you.”
Hell with it. “You should stay. Just for tonight,” he said.
She looked up, startled. “Why?”
“Because I haven’t got what I want yet.”
“Right. Your company. We can’t resolve that until I get StarLine under control.”
“I wasn’t talking about RedIce.”
She frowned. “Then what—”
“You,” he said bluntly. “I want you.” He saw her eyes go wide. His mouth curved. “Why do you look so surprised? You’re the sexiest, most beautiful chic on the planet. And you’re smart, and sweet as sugar. A bloke would be cracked not to want to get his hands on you.”
“You don’t have to say things like that,” she whispered. “I know you don’t have much reason to trust me, but I give you my word I’ll fix this situation with RedIce.”
“This isn’t about RedIce.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not trying to roll you just to get a business deal.”
“You told me you would if you had to,” she said, her voice so low he could barely hear her.
He heaved a sigh. “I guess I didn’t apologize well enough for that bit yet. Let me give it another go.” He made a show of getting down on his knees, looking up into her face with the humblest expression he had on file. “I’m very, very, sorry. I’m the sorriest bloke in the Sol. If sorry were uranium, I would have at least 387,000 metric tons of uranium. Forgive me, Bianca. Please?”
Bianca was trying to give him the amoeba-on-a-petri-dish look again, but her lips were tugging into a smile. “You’re completely insane, you know that,” she said.
“Ay.” He jumped to his feet. “But I’m also completely in earnest. Stay. You’ll still get to Pavonis in plenty of time if we—I mean, if you leave tomorrow morning.” Had he been thinking he might go with her? No, impossible. He got back on track. “Staying one more night won’t make a difference.”
She shook her head slowly, the smile leaving her face. “I can’t.”
“Tell me something, Spacebabe.” He moved in close to her and looked down into her pale, lovely face. “Are you going to face this thing we have between us, or are you just going to run away from me again?”
She looked up at him, her red lips parted, her breaths suddenly coming fast. He felt something quicken inside him, felt the awareness between them flaring as strong as ever. Then, she slowly eased back a step.
“All right, M’Chan. I admit it. I am running away from you.”
She hit the lock, and stepped through the door the instant it slid open. With one last glance at him, she was gone. A few moments later, her rover was rumbling away down the glaze road to Tharsis. He watched her go, until her rover was just a small, dim shape lost in the red haze of the dusty air.
“Feck,” he said to himself. He turned back to the hab.
The Earthers were gathered in the common, slumped in various postures of pain and weariness. Everyone looked up at him when he came through the door, except for Hussein and Iqbal, who both appeared to be fast asleep again.
“Well, she’s gone,” he said. No one looked any happier than he felt at the announcement.
Mehmet sat forward a bit on his medcot. “Cesare, what are your plans now?”
He rubbed his eyes wearily. “As soon as everything is stable here, I’m going to Anderson to try to fight the takeover in the courts.” And to get a new lawyer, he thought bitterly. “I’ll file the reports on the accident and finish programming the bots to clean up the tower wreck before I go.”
“There’s no need for that, Cesare. We can handle it ourselves.”
He shook his head. “I want you all out of here as soon as you’re able to travel. Go to Tharsis and lay low for now.”
Mehmet nodded thoughtfully. “It would be wise for us to avoid attention when the accident becomes known.” He paused, frowning. “You don’t still believe that Bianca will cause problems for us, do you?”
“No.” After everything she had done yesterday, his impulse toward cynicism where Bianca was concerned was dead and dusted. “We can trust her.”
“Of course we can,” Hussein’s voice murmured. Surprised, everyone looked over to where the young Earther was lying on his cot. His eyes were open, drifting over them dreamily.
“Hussein!” Asif moved over toward his brother. “Are you going to stay awake this time?”
Hussein patted him absently, and then fastened his gaze on Cesare. “You should go after her. Bianca, I mean. It’s only fair. She’s helped us, and now she needs our help. She’s got problems of her own, you know.” The kit looked up at him expectantly, as if he thought Cesare was going to sprint out the door after Bianca any second now.
Cesare let out a bark of laughter. “Bianca doesn’t want me messing her about anymore. She’s made that perfectly clear.” That came out a little more harshly than he intended. She didn’t deserve resentment, least of all from him.
After all, she had every reason to want to get the feck away from him. Suspicion, insults and life-threatening situations had been the high points of his dealings with her. Ay, he was one smooth cowboy all right.
Mehmet looked thoughtful. “Our young friend has a point, Cesare. Bianca does have serious problems within StarLine, it seems. And heaven knows she’ll need every single ally she can get if she’s going to wrest the company away from Victoria Ross.”
Cesare stared at him. “You think I should go chasing after Bianca again, instead of going to Anderson to try to save RedIce?” he said, incredulous.
“You said yourself you can’t get control of RedIce on your own,” the old Earther said. “Bianca is still your best chance of getting the company. If you can help her get control of StarLine first.”
Han sniffled. “Ay, she ought to be grateful if you go charge to her rescue. And besides, you do enjoy playing the gallant knight.” Everyone looked over at him. “What? It’s true. Not that we aren’t all grateful.”
“Besides,” Hussein added, “you want to go help her anyway, because you love her.”
In the dead silence after that pronouncement, Iqbal let out a snore, as if in agreement.
Cesare choked out a laugh. “You’re all cracked!” He glared around the room at them all.
Hussein’s eyes had drifted shut again. Asif scowled at the floor. Bo and Milla smiled at each other slightly. Mehmet just looked at him with a wry twinkle in his eyes.
He turned his head toward the door Bianca had just walked through a little while ago. “Fecked,” he muttered to himself. “I’m fecked.”
* * *
/> The alert from StarLine sec’s private surveillance satellite began chiming. Bianca was on the road back to Pavonis.
About fecking time, Javier Woods thought. It had been more than twenty-four hours of waiting, and he hated, hated waiting. Even that massive accident at the mine last night hadn’t broken the monotony for long. If Bianca hadn’t started out soon, he might have had to do something drastic.
He flicked off the chime and crouched over his console, poised and ready. He had to spring the trap at just the right moment.
Victoria’s clever little poisoned compac had slipped a gremlin past the firewalls in Bianca’s cuff. It was only a fragment of programming, so seemingly harmless it could escape a scan. But it had been able to create a tiny flaw in her guard against a comp attack. The gremlin had then proceeded to infect every comp Bianca’s cuff had interfaced with since she downloaded the compac. Now all the tech that surrounded her was fatally sapped, vulnerable to a precise strike.
As soon as she got far enough from the hab, Woods would hit her rover with a kill order. No life-support, no com. She would quickly suffocate and freeze, trapped in the rover, with no way to call for help. A bad way to go, he supposed, though not as up-close and personal as he would have liked.
For a moment, he pictured her pale throat under his hands, her soft brown eyes wide with fear. His mouth ticked regretfully. Oh well. Probably best to get this done quickly anyway. He had business with Victoria Ross that he didn’t want to put off any longer than necessary.
He ran his finger over the biolocked pouch at his side. The antique tape recorder inside made a muffled clink. Not long now, he thought.
* * *
Dusk was falling. Had it really only been four nights since she arrived here? It seemed like an eon ago.
Bianca lay on the rover’s bunk, absently trailing one foot along the floor, and watched the scenery sliding past the viewport. The autopilot was moving her along at a steady pace. Away from Noctis Labyrinthus and the wretched things she had learned there. And away from him.
She sighed. She was going to have to see him again. After she was finished kicking Victoria over, she would have to sort out this tangled RedIce mess. It could take months. Months of working closely with a bloke who could wreck every defense she had with one wicked smile. It had taken all of her self-preservation to wrench herself away that afternoon when he had made his full court press. But she had done it. Could she keep doing it, again and again?