by Elin Wyn
“Ha, I like you,” he said as he slapped me on the shoulder. I fell hard to the floor and looked up to see Skud, Laz, and Aryn all laughing or smiling at me.
“Thank you?” I said as I rubbed my shoulder. He reached his big hand down and helped me back to my feet.
“Skud sometimes forget that little people like you aren’t strong. To answer your question, all that matters for you is there’s money involved if you work hard. Big money,” he answered, with a big smile to emphasize the amount of money.
It had to be the women.
Or drugs. Or weapons. Or illegal tech.
I shared a quick look with Aryn, and I hazarded a guess that she was thinking the same as I was. She looked up at Skud. “So, are we to assume that standard ‘shut up and work’ rules apply here?”
Skud let out a loud bark of laughter. “You are the smart one, aren’t you?” He nodded again. “You are right. We do job, we get paid, we stay quiet. If job goes well, we get more work. If job goes bad, we suffer. And the person, or people,” he said as his voice lowered into a deep rumble, “that make job go bad will suffer.”
We both nodded, understanding the hidden threat. We were the new ones, we were the ones that wouldn’t be trusted yet. If the job went bad, it would be our heads that rolled.
“When we don’t have work from high bosses, we make work around here. We make sure things happen, that way we get paid.” He went on to explain that their operation included some ‘protection’ provided for several of the businesses, as well as some loansharking.
I assumed that Laz ran the money part of things, Tutahns were never known for being terribly good with money.
He led us through more of the building, finally bringing us to a narrow hallway filled with doors. “This is sleeping area. You two are at end of hallway on…” he looked confused for a moment, using his hands and talking to himself a bit before turning back to us. “That side,” he said, pointing to the left. “If you two want in on the job, you earn it by working here. There are many small jobs. You’ll start in the morning.”
“Works for me,” Aryn said.
“Are you sure? You can walk away,” he said. Something in the tone of his voice, however, made me think that there really was no walking away, not anymore. Aryn looked at me, winked, and turned back to Skud.
“We’re here for work. We’ll do whatever is needed, as long as the payday matches the effort,” she smiled.
He looked at her, then at me. I did my best to look calm, but it was difficult not to feel completely intimidated by him.
I wasn’t a small man myself, but I felt like a tiny child compared to him. He was very obviously sizing me up, and without meaning to, I straightened up.
With a grunt of appreciation, he nodded and held out his hand. “If you willing to work, you get paid.”
Aryn took his hand and shook it. “Like I said, we’re up for anything.”
“Good. Welcome to Enclave. We’ll see how long you last.”
Aryn
I stifled a laugh at Kovor's expression. We’d been given accommodations. However since I'd said we were siblings, Skud didn't feel the need to give us separate rooms.
There were no windows. Furnishings were sparse and well used. The chair in the corner was missing a leg, the dresser only had one drawer and the surface was so scuffed I couldn't tell what color it was supposed to be, let alone what the material was.
And there was only one bed. I didn't know if it was Skud’s idea of a joke, or if he was testing us to see if we’d complain.
If I knew one thing about groups like this, there was no room for complainers.
“The floor is filthy,” Kovor muttered.
I checked the walls and corners for recording devices, cameras.
There was nothing I could see; the walls were bare, so anything would stand out.
Sure, there could be some sort of alien tech I didn't know about, but if I worried about everything I didn’t know about, I'd never get anything done. Besides, from the look of this group's headquarters, they weren't raking in the dough. Even out here, surveillance gear had to cost something.
I turned to find Kovor still scowling. How could somebody still look so charming even while being so visibly disgusted?
I sighed and grabbed the blanket from the bed. “Don't worry about it, playboy, it won’t be the first time I've slept on the floor.”
Before I could decide which corner looked the least grimy, Kovor stood before me, strong fingers wrapped around my forearm.
I stared at where his skin touched mine. Maybe he was sick. I hadn't realized his touch would be quite so warm.
“Don't be ridiculous,” he snapped. “I'm not sure if that mattress is much better, but you're certainly not going to be on the floor.”
I forced down the oddly-timed flutter of butterfly wings in my stomach.
This couldn’t be nerves. I'd never been nervous on a case like this.
“Trust me,” I put a hand on his chest to push him away, but he stood firm, solid. “I've slept on worse.”
His scowl only deepened. “Not when you're under my watch, you haven't.”
He bent his head close to mine and I realized I wasn't the only one wondering how private our room was. “You shouldn't be here,” he murmured, his breath hot at my ear. “You shouldn't be here at all. There's no reason for you to make it more uncomfortable for yourself.”
The quick flare of temper at his words made it easy for me to wiggle out of his grip, step away from his pull.
“You're the one that shouldn't be here,” I snapped. I stomped over to the bed, eyeing it with suspicion.
He was right, it wasn't much cleaner than the floor. And no matter where I slept, the blanket would be thin.
I sensed rather than heard him move behind me, watching me silently.
“Don't be whining at me in the middle of the night,” I forced steel into my whisper. “You sure the hell aren't sharing a bed with me. I've seen the way women throw themselves at you. I won't be one of them.”
Kovor drew one finger down the back of my arm. “I wouldn't expect you to be. But it's going to be difficult to explain why you won't ever be less than three steps away from your own brother, you know.”
I turned, perching on the edge of the bed. “Would you have preferred me to say you're my lover?” I regretted the words as soon as they slipped past my lips.
Kovor’s eyes narrowed as his heated gaze roved over me.
“Don't answer that,” I said hastily.
Like the flick of a switch, the carefree playboy was back.
“I know I could play the lover better than the brother.” He placed his hand over his heart as if he were swearing an oath, his easy grin securely in place.
“Stretch yourself a little,” I growled, moving over to the battered chest of drawers. I needed just a bit of space, a moment to breathe outside his presence.
I tucked the small bag we’d brought with a change of clothes for each of us inside the drawer. No point unpacking fully, not until we had a better idea of what's going on.
The bottle of skin dye sparked its own questions. It would last a day, maybe a little more. But I hadn't wanted to risk bringing a larger container. Who knew what we'd be doing, how long we’d be here?
Kovor leaned against the wall the wall by the dresser, watching my movements. “Sure it's enough?” he asked, eyes flicking down to where my hand tapped the bottle of dye.
“I think so,” I replied. “If we do this right, we won't be here very long. I didn't see any bathing rooms yet.” I trailed off, trying to figure how I’d reapply it with him so close.
“You're joking.” Kovor’s face fell in an exaggerated grimace. “I can live without a clean room, but I cannot live without adequate bathing facilities. That's disgusting.”
“Don't get your britches in a twist,” I said dismissively, even as I wondered how much of this was an act. No one could pretend so hard to be such an idiot all the time, could they?
“I wasn’t aware a shower was a luxury accommodation,” Kovor replied. “Maybe a deep soaking tub, somewhere to have a foot rub…”
I couldn’t help but laugh at his ridiculousness. “You haven’t seen enough of the world then.”
“Maybe not, then,” his smile faded. “But we’re going to see plenty of this particular bit of nastiness soon enough.”
I grabbed my spare shirt and wrapped it over the pillow. Tomorrow I’d see what could be done to sterilize the sheets.
The mattress.
The floor.
Everything.
He led me back to the bed, waiting until I gingerly lay down to shut off the light and stretch out on the floor.
“Do me a favor?” his teasing voice floated through the darkness.
“What?” I asked.
“Sleep close to the edge so the blanket can fall over on me.” Ridiculous. I could even hear his grin.
“Just take the blanket.”
“Won’t you be cold?” A hint of pity, of worry in his voice was enough to shake me.
“I can handle it. You, on the other hand, I’m not so sure. I wouldn’t want you to freeze to death before we find anything out.”
“I knew you cared,” he preened.
This time, I was able to laugh in earnest. “Don’t read too much into it, pretty boy. I still think you’re useless.”
“I look forward to proving you wrong.” His voice was serious, full of promises.
Promises I couldn’t believe.
“Good luck.”
Kovor
“You two get up, now. It’s time to work,” Skud announced in that deep bass of his.
“It’s time to get the delivery already?” I asked through another yawn.
I had no idea what time of day it was, the only thing I knew was that it was so ungodly early that I don’t think I had ever woken up this early in my life. I may have been awake this early, or late, depending on your viewpoint, but never woken up this early. I yawned as Skud stood in the doorway of the room he had given us.
He shook his head and snorted. “No. You work here. There’s much cleaning for you to do.” He left our room and I could hear his laughter resonating down the hall.
I turned to look up at Aryn, who was already sitting up on the bed, hair temptingly tousled. “Cleaning?” Not exactly what I’d wish for our morning conversation, but it would do. For now.
She shrugged. “We need to ‘prove’ ourselves first.” She stepped around me, pulled her hair back tightly. “Standard procedure.”
“Any idea what they’re going to have us work on?” I stood up and stretched, feeling my muscles loosen up, except the one in my shoulder. It stayed nice and uncomfortably tight.
“Not a clue,” she said through a yawn of her own. “But I’m going to assume that, since he said we’re cleaning, we’re probably cleaning.”
I was not happy. I had helped with all manner of tasks when we were renovating the Rogue Star, but I hated manual labor. Well, that wasn’t technically true. I did like working with my hands, but Orrin hated it when anyone worked on his engine. I hadn’t minded tearing apart some of the inside of the ship and rebuilding it, it was fun.
Cleaning was another matter.
“Hurry up!” Skud yelled at us from further into the compound. I looked at Aryn, twitched my left eye a bit, and threw on my shirt and shoes. We made our way down the hallway. We went down a flight of stairs, rounded a corner, and my heart dropped right down into my toes.
Skud stood in the middle of a dark hallway, two mop buckets and mops next to him, and a wicked smile plastered on his gargantuan face.
“It’s about time. You two clean, now. I want everything clean when we get back. If things not clean, you two sleep, eat, and clean in trash bin outside. Understood?”
I wasn’t sure if it was how big he was, or the smile on his face as he spoke, or maybe the bass that was so deep it could shake a mountain, but I wasn’t terribly keen on the idea of disappointing him.
Then, somehow, his smile became impossibly wider as he reached into a back pocket. “You two start in bathrooms. They extra dirty.” He pulled two ridiculously small brushes from behind him and held them out to us. “Here. This what you use to clean. I want it shiny!”
I hesitated a bit as I reached for the brushes. They were small wire brushes with a metal handle, a rubber grip that looked as though it had been chewed on, and tiny wire bristles that stung and drew blood when I touched them. “What are we cleaning with this?” I asked.
“The bathroom. Everything. Have fun,” he slapped me on the back, then walked away, laughing.
I turned to Aryn, the brushes held up in front of me. “Really? This is what he wants us to clean with?”
With a smile and a small laugh, Aryn took one of the brushes from me. “You’re taking this way too seriously. Come on, cleaning is part of the adventure. Besides, when we’re cleaning, there’s ample opportunity to look around.”
“Really? Adventure? What world did you grow up in where cleaning was an adventure?” I asked as she walked away from me.
She stopped, turned around, and hit me with a stern look. “It’s simple. We clean. If we don’t clean, we don’t get in on the shipment and we’re simply wasting our time. You want to waste our time, or do you want to get this clean, prove that we can follow orders, prove that we can get a job done correctly, and be part of the job? This is why I didn’t want you to come along. You’re too above this.”
Scro. She was right. I was being a jerk, and unhelpful, and all those things.
I’d blame it on having a crappy night on the floor, but that wasn’t going to win me any points either.
She turned away from me and started searching for cleaning supplies. She found them in a small closet next to the bathroom. “Well?” she asked as she pushed her way past me into the filthy room.
“Fine. Let’s clean.” I set the brush down on a small ledge by the bathroom door and grabbed a mop and bucket. If I was going to clean this thing, I was going to do it right.
I took the mop and bucket into the closet, where there was a small water spigot. I filled the bucket up with hot water, added some cleaner, and set them to the side. I then grabbed a broom, swept the entire bathroom, then started mopping.
“Why are you mopping now?” Aryn asked as she was scraping a wall with the bristle-brush.
“If I have to clean the grout, that means I’m going to be on my hands and knees. Who knows how many of these kouters missed the toilets, so I’m going to clean the floor before I clean the floor,” I answered as I slapped the wet mop onto the floor. “Problem with that?” I didn’t bother listening to her answer as I scrubbed.
But I heard her light laughter anyway.
While the floor dried from my first mopping, I took my bristle-brush and cleaned the sinks, then the urinals. I fought back my revulsion at what I was doing and concentrated as hard as I could on why we were doing this. We were trying to find the people that were selling women into slavery so we could stop them. We had a personal stake in this and wanted to make sure it was stopped.
If we didn’t stop them, Aryn was at risk.
I scrubbed harder.
After about two hours, the bathroom was as clean as it was going to get. We moved on to other parts of the building, including the other four bathrooms.
“Hey,” Aryn whispered as we scrubbed some outer windows.
“What?” I asked, not looking at her.
“I don’t hear anything.” She stopped, cocking her head. “We should look around now, see if we can find anything. Most of them are gone to do whatever they’re doing, so we should be able to sneak around easier.”
I glanced over at her and I could see the excitement in her eyes. She was right, we needed information and we could use our cleaning duties as an excuse for being in places we probably shouldn’t be.
I gave a slight nod to the idea and finis
hed cleaning my window. We made our way around, cleaning lightly, and found a small communications room. While I watched the door, Aryn went to check the computer.
It was only a little bit disturbing that she already knew how to use this system’s computer systems.
Maybe more than a little. We really, really needed to have a talk about her past.
But it was worth it, watching her work, watching the spark in her eyes when she found something of interest.
“Come here,” she whispered. I did a quick check of the hallway, saw no one, and went to her side.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“Look here,” she pointed to the screen. “The last few communications were within the station, but this one,” she pointed to one in particular. “This one was off-station. This must have been the message about the shipment.”
I took a closer look at it. It was a short call, definitely came from off-station, and looked to have come from a ship. The designation for the origin of call only gave a quadrant location, which is usually done when a ship is making the call, and a set of coordinates.
But there was no other information. Nothing we could use.
Nothing we could take back to the Rogue Star.
“I hear something!” Aryn whispered loudly. I quickly turned off the screen and we both went about “cleaning” the room. Laz walked in.
“What are you two doing in here?” he rasped.
“Boss man wanted us to clean everything, so we’re cleaning everything,” I answered as I emptied out the trash can and replaced the liner. “Are we not supposed to?”
He studied us as Aryn kept sweeping. I stared back at Laz who studied us with narrowed eyes. With a growl, he snapped. “You’re not supposed to be in here alone. Get out.”
I held up my hands to show that I understood our mistake. “Okay, okay. Sorry. Just trying to do what Skud, you know, the boss guy, told us to do.”
We gathered our supplies and left. We continued to clean, staying away from anything that looked important because we knew Laz would be watching.