Ice Red

by Jael Wye

  She felt tempted to pull him back down to the bed with her, take him inside her again, and dust whoever might see or hear them. Run her hands over every centimeter of him to make sure he was truly all right. Feel his strength, his life as he surged within her. Show him how much she loved...

  She loved him. I love Cesare.

  She yanked her gaze away and ran for the nearest lav, fastening her seals with shaky fingers.

  * * *

  Bianca loitered over her freshening routine, trying to get her emotions in some kind of order. She wasn’t having much success. She stared at her pale image in the mirror, shocked at the raw, vulnerable look in her own eyes.

  I love him.

  It was terrifying. Because he would leave her. They always did.

  She fumbled for the topical patch she had found in a cubby. Whatever happens, I will not be clingy or needy, she decided. She would not make any assumptions. She would deal with everything with calm and dignity. She stuck the patch over the bruise on her jaw, and regarded herself in the mirror again.

  I’ve certainly looked better. “Ice princess,” she whispered to herself. It didn’t sound very convincing.

  When she finally opened the lav door, she heard two male voices in low conversation out of her sight beyond a curve in the wall. Angelo must have made his appearance. She began moving forward to join them when suddenly she heard her name spoken. She went still, listening.

  “...it’s cracked, and you know it.”

  “Gentle up, Angelo,” she heard Cesare say. “I know what I’m doing.” He sounded relaxed and amused, but Bianca heard an underlying note of tension in his voice.

  Angelo’s voice rumbled, “Really. You’re gambling with our safety, and for what? Do you actually believe she’ll just give you RedIce back?”

  “She will. We can trust her. I told you what she did for the miners, and for me. Hell, you saw the tower wreck for yourself. It’s thanks to her that anyone made it out of there alive. I’m telling you, she’s solid.”

  “Even if she’s as solid as you claim, she’s still trouble. She dragged you into her row with Victoria Ross and it almost got you killed.”

  Bianca felt a deep twinge of guilt at that.

  “It’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before.”

  “You’re just ignoring the danger because you’re rolling the chic.” Angelo’s voice was laced with disgust. “I can’t believe this. I knew you were selfish, but I didn’t think you would risk all our lives so you could entertain yourself trying to thaw out the ice princess.”

  Hidden behind the wall, Bianca flushed, part in embarrassment for herself and part in indignation for Cesare. Cesare was anything but selfish, and his brother ought to know it. After all, he could have just drifted through life on his looks and his money, and dusted anyone who got in his way. Instead he had dedicated himself to helping other people. He had risked his own life for her. He had proved beyond all question that beneath his glittering exterior was a golden heart.

  Cesare’s voice went hard. “Don’t say another word about Bianca, Angelo. I’m warning you.” More quietly he added, “This is not the same as the situation with Katerina.”

  There was a charged silence. Then, “How could you possibly know that it isn’t?” Angelo said softly. “I never even guessed at the truth until it was too late. I just couldn’t keep my rod in my pants, and look what happened.”

  Bianca was shocked by the pain and bitterness in his voice. Whoever this Katerina was, she had left Angelo with some serious damage.

  “This isn’t about sex,” Cesare protested.

  “Of course it is. Even if you think you’re in love with her, it’s still just about sex.” He paused. “You don’t think you’re in love with her, do you?” he demanded.

  Bianca’s breath caught. Cesare hesitated.

  Suddenly, her cowardice struck. She couldn’t risk finding out what Cesare’s answer might be. With loud, brisk steps, she rounded the corner and strode into the room.

  They were sitting at the table, Cesare lounging back, Angelo braced and stiff. They looked up as she approached.

  “Good morning,” she said brightly.

  Cesare shot her an indecipherable look. “‘Morning Spacebabe,” he said, a little subdued. Angelo nodded to her briefly, his face a mask. They were probably wondering how much she had overheard. Well, they would have to keep on wondering.

  Cesare pulled out the chair next to him, and she moved to sit down. His eyes widened slightly when he saw the topical patch on her jaw. He reached out to touch her face with two fingers, examining the bruising. She saw a muscle tic in his cheek.

  “I’m all right,” she said softly.

  He didn’t answer, but he let his hand fall.

  She folded her hands on the table, wishing she had thought to get herself a cup of tea. Ah well, no point in putting this off. She cleared her throat. “Gentlemen, there’s something we have to discuss right away. I think it’s time for us to com MarSec.”

  “No,” Angelo said, his voice flat.

  She looked at him squarely. “A man is dead. We have no choice.”

  “Hang on. Before we do anything, we should listen to this audio in Woods’s pouch,” Cesare said. He gestured to the scuffed black bag lying on the table in front of Angelo.

  “Ay, the pouch,” she murmured. She said to Angelo, “Did you have any luck with the biosolution?”

  “Ay,” Angelo said. “Popped it right away. And I found something very interesting inside.”

  “You opened the pouch without us?”

  Angelo sent her an impatient look as if to say, “Of course.” He flipped the pouch open and took out the contents.

  Bianca and Cesare peered at the two strange objects he held up. A palm-sized black box, and a smaller, flat black rectangle. They seemed to be made of some odd kind of material that was almost like plaz, but not quite. And they both looked worn, almost old, the surfaces scuffed and brittle.

  “What on Mars...” Bianca murmured.

  “Well, over the last hour I had some time to do some research.” Angelo paused to cast a dark look across the table at Cesare and her. It clearly said that he knew what they had been doing over the last hour, and he did not approve. Bianca fought down a blush.

  “I found out that it’s a ‘tape player,’” he went on. “An audio device that was common on Earth Before Colonization. Mostly used for playing music.”

  “But it could record as well?” Cesare said.

  “Ay.”

  Bianca felt a small thrill of anticipation. “Then this must be it. It must be the incriminating recording Woods was talking about. Did you find out how to operate it?” she asked.

  “Ay. Easy enough.” He carefully inserted the rectangle in the side of the box. Then he pressed one of the buttons on the top.

  A thread of some kind of hard, screaming music drifted up from the black box. And then the music abruptly cut off. There was a static silence, and Victoria Ross’s low, cultivated voice said, “I’ve had a setback, Javier.”

  For the next several minutes, they all listened in quietly as Victoria and Woods plotted out Bianca’s assassination in exacting detail.

  “Don’t worry, boss. By the end of next week, I’ll have her pretty little corpse all laid out—”

  “Spare me your sexual fantasies, Javier. Just get it done.”

  “Ay, M’Ross.”

  The recording finally ended. There was dead silence for a moment. Bianca rested her forehead on her shaky fingertips. A horrible brew of anger, outrage, fear... It had all welled up within her as she listened, closing her throat and pressing against the backs of her eyelids.

  She had tried for so long to earn Victoria’s respect and acceptance, and in return the woman had tried to kill her. Even knowing the dep
th of her depravity, it was difficult to process.

  Out of nowhere, she felt an impulse toward a strange, dark laughter. I suppose I ought to be happy that Victoria even bothered with such an elaborate plot. She barely registered my existence before now.

  Suddenly she felt Cesare’s dark gaze on her, like he had brushed his fingers over her face in a caress. His body was warm and solid next to her. One of his knees touched hers, very slightly. She took a deep breath.

  Lifting her head, she focused on the tape player sitting in the middle of the table. This recording was a weapon. She had to think about how to use it. “MarSec,” she said to Cesare. “It’s our only choice. There’s no time to contact my father now. Victoria’s going to be landing in Pavonis tonight. If we want to stop her before she takes off for Eris with the Martian leadership tomorrow, we have to move fast. This evidence is strong enough to warrant immediate arrest.”

  “We can’t risk it,” Angelo said stubbornly.

  Cesare stayed quiet, a line creasing his forehead. Angelo went on, “If MarSec starts an investigation into RedIce it will lead them straight to the Earthers. Besides, StarLine is tight with MarSec, and that means Victoria is tight with MarSec. You can’t trust them any more than we can.”

  “I know. That’s why I need your help. I don’t know who in MarSec to approach, who to trust.”

  Angelo barked out a laugh. “And you think we do? There probably aren’t two Martians who have stayed more clear of sec than us.”

  Cesare said mildly, “As it happens, I’ve run across a few blokes in MarSec from time to time. One or two I know for sure aren’t Victoria’s mooks.”

  She looked up into Cesare’s face. His expression was thoughtful as he returned her gaze. “I know there are risks,” she said quietly. “I promise I will do everything possible to keep the investigation out of RedIce. But MarSec is about the only round I have left. I need a name.”

  He scrubbed his hand over his chin, thinking for a moment. Then he slowly nodded. “Volkov. I think Special Investigator Justin Volkov is our best bet.”

  “Volkov,” she said. “That name sounds familiar.”

  “Ay, it should. The Volkovs basically own Anderson City. Very rich and influential family. That’s why he’s a good candidate to approach. If anyone in MarSec can afford to resist Victoria’s threats and bribes, he can.”

  “So you trust him?”

  Cesare shrugged. “He has a good word among the Earthers. I’ve met him a couple of times. Seemed like a solid bloke.”

  “Hmm. I suppose that’s the best we’re going to do. Will you make the com?”

  He nodded slowly. “Ay.”

  Angelo threw his hands up in disgust. Bianca barely noticed. She was too relieved and grateful. She still had Cesare as a partner in this fight. For a while, anyway.

  She knew she couldn’t accept his help for much longer. She couldn’t continue to endanger Cesare and the people who depended on him by keeping him involved in this mess. He had already risked his life for her once. She was not going to allow him to be hurt again because of her.

  As Cesare began making coms, Bianca stole away to a nearby workstation and threw herself into the Cloud of RedIce data, applying every skill she had toward one single goal. Her last act here at Noctis Labyrinthus would be to protect Cesare and his people from MarSec. And from herself.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Trap

  A chime sounded. Special Investigator Justin Volkov glanced down at his cuff, and then back up at Bianca and Cesare from across the seating area. “My team is reporting in,” he said, rising up out of his chair. “Excuse me a moment.” He walked away from them to stand at the viewport wall, speaking quietly into his cuff.

  Next to her, Cesare leaned over slightly in his seat. “They must have found Woods,” he said in a low voice.

  “It certainly didn’t take them long,” she murmured back, muffling her satisfaction. The decision they had made to contact Volkov was turning out as well as she could have hoped. The MarSec team had descended on the Noctis hab early that afternoon, and SI Volkov had immediately taken their statements and set his techs to mine data and collect physical evidence. So far, everything had been handled with efficiency and professionalism. Hopefully they could get through the rest of this deposition without any high drama.

  She spared an uneasy thought for Cesare’s brother. The minute the MarSec orbital set down on the aero pad, Angelo had vanished into the bot hangars with a black look in her direction. She could only hope he wasn’t in there plotting some cracked cowboy action against the sec agents.

  To her relief, Cesare had faced them with much more equanimity. When the five sec agents had first presented themselves at the hab, he had welcomed them with his usual easiness. Though he had watched them all with a certain hard glint in his eyes, she thought.

  Volkov ended his com and turned back to them. He studied them for a moment with an unreadable look. Bianca discreetly returned the scrutiny. The investigator’s tall, whip-thin figure was clad in a perfect green sec uniform. His hair was dark, his features fair and aristocratic. As with most Martians, it was hard to tell how old he was, but she put him at maybe a decade older than herself. There was a sense of intelligence and discipline about him, which made her believe that it hadn’t been only his family connections which had gotten him to Investigator rank at such a young age.

  When he finally spoke, his voice was as guarded as his eyes. “My tech team reports that the forensic sweep at the crime scene is finished.” He locked his hands behind his back in standard sec fashion, and took a few measured paces toward them. “All physical evidence so far fully supports your allegations. As does all available data in the Cloud. The preliminary analysis of the ‘tape player’ recording indicates authenticity. There is no question that there are grounds for Victoria Ross’s immediate arrest.”

  Bianca let out a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding.

  “However, there are other facets of this case that are not nearly so clear.” Volkov inclined his head slightly toward the viewport, where they all could see the glistening black heap that had been Tower Two looming in the distance. “I need to know how the drill accident fits into this,” he said, his cool gaze steady on Cesare.

  Cesare kept his posture relaxed, but she felt the sudden tension in him like a live charge. “Why do you think the incidents are related?” he said.

  “Two reasons. Because the crash happened only a day before the Woods attack, and because StarLine is in the middle of acquiring RedIce.”

  Cesare smiled, and this time there was a hard edge to it. “So, are you asking if I’m one of Victoria Ross’s victims, or her accomplice?” There was dead silence as the two men locked gazes, neither giving anything away.

  Her moment had come. “Neither characterization is accurate,” Bianca said quietly. Cesare and Volkov turned toward her in surprise. She stood, a sheaf of datapads in one hand. “Victoria Ross had nothing whatsoever to do with this accident. The tower crash was caused by hour thirteen.”

  They both blinked. “Could you explain?” Volkov said.

  “Certainly.” She moved over to him and handed him one of the pads. “I had traced the problem to the anchor interfaces a day or so before the crash. Afterward, I was able to use that data to run a few tests and investigate a few components. I found out that one of the foundation slips had been made for deep mining operations on Earth, not Mars. It had no way to reconcile itself to our twenty-five hour days. The discrepancy set off a logic cascade that infected the drill and destabilized the GenIe. In essence, the tower committed suicide because it couldn’t tell time right.”

  Volkov examined the pad in his hand for a moment. “I see,” he said in a neutral tone.

  “You should also know that the anchor component which caused the problem was brand new. Supposed t
o be cutting edge in fact.” She slid a glance at Cesare under her lashes. The look on his handsome face was so raw, it nearly took her breath away.

  After a moment, she continued, “As an expert in megastructure engineering, it is my conclusion that neither StarLine nor RedIce bears any culpability for the crash. It was sheer coincidence that it happened during my stay here.”

  This analysis of the tower had consumed her for the last few hours before Volkov had arrived. She had bent every mil of her ability to protecting the Earthers from MarSec’s interference. And, to her relief and elation, she had also been able to prove beyond all doubt that Cesare was not at fault for what had happened.

  Volkov scanned over her data, his black eyes expressionless. “I’m not qualified to review this analysis. I’ll have to have my data miners look into it.”

  “By all means. Any independent review will simply reaffirm my conclusions,” Bianca said calmly. She kept her gaze steady on Cesare. At that moment she didn’t much care what Volkov or MarSec or the entire Sol thought of her analysis, as long as she could make Cesare see that he hadn’t failed the Earthers, or his brother, or himself.

  He had earned peace of mind. She was determined to give it to him before she left.

  * * *

  Cesare stood up swiftly and moved in close to Bianca, the SI’s presence all but forgotten. “What do you think you’re doing?” he gritted out.

  “I’m simply describing the facts of the matter,” she said calmly. She handed him another pad. “Look at the data. The proof is all right there.”

  He scanned the pad, focusing on every neat and orderly compression spread with an almost desperate intensity. Unbelievably, all the facts, equations and points added up to one conclusion—hour thirteen had caused the crash.