Espero (The Silver Ships Book 6)
Page 20
“No, he’s been as ignorant as me. You know, this was my third marriage, and I think I’m done with women.”
Toyo was thinking furiously, trying to ensure that he understood Lisa’s double-talk. This would be his only opportunity. When Lisa finished her comm, the device would be permanently disabled. It was as safe a method of contact as Toyo could create for a woman who was deathly afraid of getting caught.
“How sure are you that she’s guilty? I mean if your information is secondhand, you don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
“I always knew she was the devious sort even when I married her. But this time, I caught her in bed with my partner. I’m getting rid of the woman. Thanks for paying me back everything you owed me. I’m going to need the funds.”
“Good luck, Barnett,” Toyo said, tapping off the comm. So Kadmir is in bed with O’Brien, and I’m going to be the one left to face the adz, or worse, the Harakens, Toyo thought.
The longer Toyo thought about Kadmir’s betrayal, the angrier he got. There might have been a way out of Toyo’s predicament if he could have kept his wits about him, but that wasn’t Toyo’s way. His anger getting the better of him, he jumped up and tripped the first of his two emergency buttons. The heavy metal defense shield with its deadly razor edge leapt up in front of his desk, and two security men burst through his office door, searching for intruders.
Fortunately for his people, Toyo hadn’t tripped the second button, which would have engaged the popup weaponry.
* * *
sent Deirdre, having received the update from Miranda about the comm isolation, the trace sample found in Toyo’s office, and the drug-component shipments to Jolares.
Miranda offered.
Following Miranda’s directions, Svetlana and Deirdre picked up the two Haraken escorts the SADE had chosen for her debut at the dome and worked their way back to the shuttle arrival bays. Several times, they encountered Toyo’s employees and security personnel, but no one bothered them — not when it was obvious the way the two exotic Méridiens were wrapped around the New Terrans, who were extremely large specimens of their people, and it was supposed they possessed the temperaments of vacationing miners.
When the coast was clear, the pairs ducked into the broad corridor labeled freight receiving. Inside, they found stacks of plex-crates, plex-barrels, and smaller containers bundled on pallets. The freight rested on racks reaching 7 meters in height.
The women divided up the rows, each of them taking their companion, and started at the farthest rows, intending to meet in the middle.
Deirdre started down her row and discovered she had difficulty seeing some of the labels in the upper stacks.
At one point, Deirdre noticed the gap widening between her and Tyree, her companion.
“Twenty-one, Commander.”
Less than half my age, Deirdre thought.
“This is a lesson in proximity for the purposes of this exercise. Copy?” Deirdre whispered.
“Copy,” Tyree responded quickly and quietly.
Deirdre turned her back to him. “This is too far.” She took three steps back until her slender behind met Tyree’s broad hips. “This is too close,” and she grinned back at him, pleased to see the humor loosened Tyree up. Deirdre took one step forward and said, “This is the proper distance to tail your commander.”
“Understood, Commander,” Tyree whispered. “I will practice, and I ask your forgiveness in advance if I violate the too-close position.”
“That’s the spirit,” Deirdre said, giving the young man a pat on the cheek. “Now, let’s find us some drug-manufacturing supplies.”
Nearly a quarter-hour later, with only half of the stock area covered, Svetlana sent,
The two Harakens ran to the head of their row and then along the ends, pinging Svetlana’s implant to guide them to her. Svetlana was staring at bright blue plex-barrels piled high and stretching down the rest of the row.
“Look at these labels,” Svetlana whispered, and pointed at the barrels nearest her, which had labels such as benzene, trimethylamine, and ammonia. “I think these are what we’re looking for.”
“Look at the quantities they have,” Deirdre said, in awe of the huge stack.
At that moment, all four heard the distinct footfalls of two of Toyo’s security personnel, who were approaching their row, bright security lights splaying in front of them.
Brace blocked Svetlana from view of the security people as their lights rounded the corner companion. She dropped the shoulders of her wrap, and Brace swept Svetlana up in an embrace. In turn, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Deirdre and Tyree were caught out of position, and Tyree’s inexperience held him frozen in place. Deirdre dropped the top of her wrap, grabbed Tyree’s hands and yanked them on top of her breasts just as the lights played on them.
“Hey, you can’t be back here,” a voice claimed.
Brace turned toward the voice, swiveling Svetlana with him, and Deirdre took the opportunity to snuggle close to Tyree, trapping his hands on her breasts.
“Don’t be like that,” Svetlana said in a sultry voice. “Would you like to join us? These two boys won’t take us long.”
“You heard him. You can’t be here,” an older and deeper voice said.
The two Méridien women covered up and led the way out. As Svetlana sauntered past the security personnel, she said, “And I thought you called these pleasure domes. I’m beginning to think New Terrans don’t know the definition of the word.” She harrumphed and strode past.
When Brace passed them, he scowled and growled, “You boys are sucking the O2 out of my fun. Thanks a freighter load!”
“Sorry, Sir,” the younger security guard said, wincing in apology.
Tyree even managed a parting line to Toyo’s men. “Didn’t you see what I had in my hands? Screwing with my vacation, you are.”
The foursome made their way back toward the dome.
The group was still laughing as they entered the main dome, the women arm in arm with their companions, which did well to maintain their cover.
* * *
Svetlana and Deirdre left their companions in a bar to continue mixing and went in search of Miranda, expediting the process by signaling nearby implants for her location. Four links later, Svetlana received a signal of Miranda’s whereabouts and passed a request to meet in their suite.
Inside the room, the commanders offloaded their visuals of the containers and labels to the SADE.
The SADE was comparing the container labels to the list of ingredients Terese surmised would be required to make the type of compound that the hallucinogen represented and got several hits. It was the imagery of the massive amount of supplies stacked down the row that alarmed her.
Miranda left the suite and walked quickly toward their traveler until she could make a connection with its controller.
Miranda uploaded the latest images taken by the commanders of the stacked row of supplies.
There were a few ticks of silence while Cordelia absorbed the enormity of Toyo’s plans to distribute his dangerously addictive drug.
Miranda replied.
Cordelia commented.
Miranda’s comments made Cordelia wonder just how and when that would ever happen. For the briefest moment, she smiled. Despite all logic, she walked beside her love across planets, moons, stations, and ships. In the universe of Alex, all things are possible, Miranda, Cordelia thought.
Miranda sent.
Cordelia sent and closed the comm.
-21-
Dillon Jameson, Toyo’s head of security, hurried to his boss’ office since the man sounded extremely unhappy.
“I’m going to make this short and sweet, Jameson, so listen carefully,” Toyo said when his man arrived. “Load our largest passenger shuttle with all the security people you can get aboard. I want your hard cases, you get me.”
“Sure, Boss, load our biggest shuttle with our toughest people.”
“Break out that batch of new weapons we received … the stunners. I want each individual to have, at least, one, if not two backup power supplies.” Toyo waited until Jameson nodded. “Good,” Toyo continued, “you’re in charge while I’m gone. Keep things quiet until I get back. Don’t play it tough. Use comps, fems, or whatever it takes to keep the rowdy ones appeased.”
“One question, Boss,” Jameson said, disquieted by his orders. The number of people Toyo requested would cut his security staff by more than a third, and he would be taking the experienced veterans with him. It all spelled trouble. Perhaps, more trouble than the organization could handle. “Could I ask what’s up?”
“Yeah, I got a heads up that Kadmir is planning a raid on our dome. He hopes to take us by surprise, but I’m going to surprise him.”
“A raid? That doesn’t sound —” The words died in Jameson’s throat at the deep frown that formed on Toyo’s face. “I’ll get to loading the shuttle with the people you need, Boss, if there’s nothing else.” When Toyo shook his head, Jameson made for the door.
In the corridor, Jameson paused for a moment to stare at the overhead. Are you an idiot or something? Questioning the man’s orders, he mentally chastised himself. Jameson took a shaky breath and blew it out slowly to calm his nerves. Questioning Toyo was an easy way to get killed. It had happened to more than one person.
Jameson hustled back to a security control room. From there, he commed his people to assemble in the surface dome’s administration area, but he couldn’t help wonder about Toyo’s pronouncement. A raid didn’t sound like the Kadmir he knew. Mr. Blue was careful, a long-term strategist. Kadmir would tie you up in financial and political knots and let you waste away. He wasn’t the kind to amass a bunch of toughs and raid your domes. Something else was going on, and Jameson wondered if he shouldn’t execute his exit strategy if a war was going to break out. He had enough credits stowed in several accounts to last him a couple of decades.
When the last of the security personnel confirmed Jameson’s request, he tasked two guards in the security office to follow him, and he headed for the weapons storage room in a lower dome. They required a grav palette to transport a third of the crates of stunners and most of the backup power supplies.
In the upper dome’s administration area, Jameson oversaw the distribution of the new weapons and two reserve power packs to each individual. That he had chosen experienced people showed. Not one of them asked why they were being issued the deadly weapons. Instead, they quietly strapped them on, adding the power packs to their belt slots.
Once outfitted, the armed security staff made their way through the utility corridors to the shuttle that Jameson had prepped for standby and filed aboard. Expecting Jameson to join them when the shuttle was filled, they were surprised to see Toyo climb aboard, but each and every one of them kept their mouths shut.
“Wondering what’s up, people?” Toyo asked from the front of the main cabin. “I’ll tell you. We’re going on a raid. Kadmir
’s planning to make a play for our domes, and we’re going to beat him to it. You know what these weapons can do,” Kadmir said, hefting his own. “Make good use of them.”
Toyo could read his people’s faces well. They might be hard cases, but they were unconvinced of the sanity of raiding Kadmir’s domes, where the opposition had the advantage and probably outnumbered them two or three to one. “I know this will be a tough job, so I’m going to add a little incentive.”
At the mention of bonuses, every individual perked up. Risking your life for another’s gain was an amateur’s play; risking your life for your own gain was a professional’s play.
“For every man and woman who makes it back to the shuttle with me … 25,000 credits.” Toyo knew he had their attention, but not the attitude he was looking for.
Lydia Zafir, a woman in the second row from Toyo supplied the right idea. She was one of his top assassins and had the look of a hunter. “Any targets for special bonuses, Boss?” Zafir asked.
My kind of woman, Toyo thought, a grin spreading across his face. “Oh, yes. Whoever takes Kadmir gets an additional 50,000 credits. But I don’t want to hear that twenty of you shot him.” The laughter and chuckles Toyo received told him he was on the right track. “More than one of you takes the man down, you share the prize.”
“That it?” Zafir asked.
Toyo gave her a hard look, but Zafir held her own. Yeah, definitely my kind of woman. Just can’t trust her once she leaves the bed, Toyo thought. “Come to think of it, I do have one more target. You all know Boker. He’s the one who turned on us. He’s working for Kadmir, and word is that he set up the raid, since he knows every meter of our installation.”
There was grumbling at the thought of a traitor who was using his inside information against them. It was contrary to the professional criminals’ code, if such a thing did exist. Only one problem, they all knew Boker really well — one of the most dangerous men in a fight, the survivor of more deadly encounters than ten of them.
“How much?” Zafir asked.
Toyo could sense Zafir’s reservation in the way she spoke, and he realized it was time to provide some real incentive. “For a traitor’s head, I’ll pay 100,000 credits.” The hard grin on Zafir’s face told Toyo he had read it right. You’re a dead man, Boker, Toyo thought and made his way to the shuttle’s cockpit.