by JC Hay
S
now fell on the Limmat. In the haze of the lamps on either side of the river, she could barely make out the tiny swirling flakes as they waltzed out of the sky to be consumed by the slow-moving black water. Zurich was nothing if not picturesque. Elise leaned her face against the window, felt the cold outside seep into her bones through the glass.
“Are you about ready, darling?” Na’im’s voice, quiet and gentle, came from the bathroom of their suite. Below, a boat stretched out along the water, no doubt transporting a load of passengers to their next vacation destination.
She pulled the shades and turned away from the window. “I’m ready. The question is, are you?”
He stepped out of the bathroom and her breath caught in her throat. His carefully sculpted body had softened since they’d left Dubai, but now it had the look of practiced use rather than careful exercise. At the moment, the whole package was encased in a bespoke suit from one of the finest tailors in the city. And yet, all she could think about was ripping it off him. Tonight, she promised herself. When we’re done.
He smiled, and her resistance melted. She crossed to him and laid a hand against his chest. “You look delicious.”
“For what the suit cost? I’d better.”
“Necessary expense. No one’s going to think you’re part of Pakistan’s corporate glitterati if you waltz in wearing off the rack.” She threaded her hand into his elbow, noting with pleasure the way his eyes followed the neckline of her gown.
They stepped out of the suite, and took an elevator to the street outside. “You really think this will work?”
She could hear the nervousness he didn’t want to show.
“It’ll work. If MAZ’s been stockpiling information like you say, then their files will give us the ammo we need to keep Zaahir at bay.” Jalila hadn’t made her resurrection public yet, though there were rumors spreading through the corporate world. Elise had no doubt that once Jalila had staged her return, she’d make crushing them her first priority.
He lifted her chin for a quick kiss, the touch of his lips filling her with molten honey all the way to her toes. “You find the files. I’ll stand around the party and be pretty. It’s what I do best.”
“Mmm, second best. Believe me.” She kissed him again, taking the time to curl her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. “But I’ll let you do that, too. It’s only fair.”
He growled quietly and hugged her. “I’ll take it.”
She inhaled, relished the slightly musky smell of his cologne. “You don’t have a choice. I’m not about to let you go.”
He grinned as the snow began to dust the shoulders of his suit. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
●
The Zurich connection
Blurb
In this previously unreleased short-story, Elise and Na’im put their newly-budding relationship to the test when they work together to pull off an elaborate heist in the middle of MAZ’s corporate headquarters. Will the secrets they’ve kept from themselves, and from each other bring everything they’ve built crashing down?
Chapter One
T
his was just a milk run, Elise tried to convince herself. She gave Na’im’s hand a reassuring squeeze, which he returned immediately. It surprised her how quickly she’d grown to need his tiny touches and the incidental caresses that peppered her day, and this one was no exception. Warmth blossomed in her chest and she glanced over at him.
God damn but he was beautiful. In his expensive suit, and with snowflakes dusting in the black tousle of his hair, he looked like a cover image from a fashion eZine. It shouldn’t be a surprise, of course, given his history as a “personal assistant” for one of the richest women in Dubai. Which led her back to the insanity of planning a data heist while on the run from both Zaahir Amalgamated Technologies and the supposedly neutral mercenary forces of Corporate Services.
That, and the opportunity to possibly turn off the lethal assassin programming that lurked in Na’im’s brain meant he could finally be free.
“It’s fine, you know. We’ve planned this.” His voice cut through the chill in the air, his concern as reliable as his strength. “Between your skills and my knowledge, this will be a cake walk.”
Elise’s heart lurched, the readout in the corner of her vision letting her know that her pulse had spiked. “You don’t say it out loud. That’s the surest way to jinx it.”
“I never would have pegged you as the superstitious type.” There was no judgment in his voice, just a mild surprise.
She stopped and turned to face the river. Even in the snowy dark boats continued to ply up and down the dark waters of the Limnat. Lights reflected of the water and voices in various stages of celebration drifted back to them. His arm snaked around her waist and she leaned into the touch, resting her head against his shoulder. “I just don’t want anything to go wrong. Besides, it would be an inconvenience to move all that luggage out of the hotel on my own.”
His laugh was deep in his chest. “I thought my job was to look pretty, not lift things.”
“Yes, well, you do that very well.” She reached up to grab the pack of his head and pull his mouth down to hers. Even the quick kiss set her nerves alight, the pressure of his lips insistent as he parted hers. His tongue possessive as it claimed her mouth. It set molten honey in her veins and made heat pool low in her belly.
Elise released him, taking in a breath warmed by the nearness of his skin. She gave her head a quick shake to clear out the desire to slink back to the hotel. “MAZ’s embassy is around the corner. We really should get going or we’ll be more than fashionably late.”
“It’s not like they’d miss us.” His voice was lazy, but full of promise.
For a moment, she could read the look on his face - his willingness to let the whole thing drop and find better ways to amuse themselves. Tempting as it was, she pushed down her desire to concede. Healing him meant he’d be free; that meant more than any momentary pleasure.
“Later,” she smiled, meaning every word. “I promise.”
It was too risky, Na’im thought to himself. Not that he didn’t trust Elise to have every detail planned out. He trusted her with his life. Which is obvious, I suppose, since if this plan goes sideways, we’re both dead. She was an infiltration specialist, but by her own admission she worked better without a crowd. That wasn’t going to be an option tonight. Every person in the crowd was a variable, and if working for Jalila had taught him one thing, it was that variables introduced risk.
He rounded the corner, his arm still around Elise’s waist, and got his first glimpse of Manscheim-Arbeitegruppe-Zurich’s headquarters. People spilled out into the streets, while lights and music pulsed out of the windows to disrupt the quiet snowy evening.
And that, he thought, is a lot of variables.
He wished again that he’d Jalila had bothered to have him outfitted with a more advanced pair of eyes. His fine visual acuity and color perception were great for identifying how close a partner was to climax, but she’d stopped short of a data display. ‘I don’t want to think you could be looking at something else instead of me,’ she’d said. At the time, he’d laughed. Looking back on it, it should have been his warning sign. Jalila’s insecurities had nearly been their undoing.
They walked to the front of the line where a ridiculously large security guard waited for them. The man’s bone reinforcement had been clumsily done, as evidenced by the flat, heavy planes of his face. There’d be titanium under the skin and muscle, it screamed, and plenty of both to back him in a fight. So maybe it wasn’t so clumsy after all. It got the message across that it intended. And, he noticed, it distracted from the other three guards carefully positioned to be nonchalant, looking like guests but for the bulge of shoulder holsters and the grace of their movements.
Na’im held out his wrist for the other man to scan it. The black-market chip lay under a layer of false skin, directly over the scars where his
old chip had been. While he waited for the chip to read, he smiled. “You Swiss throw quite a party, hm?”
The chip-reader buzzed, and the guard’s eyes narrowed. Na’im could have sworn he heard the man growl.
“It’s too cold for your warm skin, love.” Elise canted her voice in a perfect Swiss accent as she leaned over his wrist. “I’ll warm you up.”
Before he could protest her lips grazed along the inside of his wrist, setting his blood alight. He resisted closing his eyes to press into her touch, but only barely. And then he felt her turn the chip slightly with her teeth, its corner digging into his skin beneath the false cover.
She lifted his wrist from her mouth and held it out to the guard. “Try now.”
The guard looked unmoved by the physical display and dutifully held out the scanner. A moment later and it beeped. “Yussef al-Rashad,” the guard read with a voice that sounded like tectonic plates shifting. “And guest.” After scanning Elise’s wrist to record her name - or at least the name on the chip she’d used - the guard waved them through the main doors and into the droning music and heady swirl of the party.
Chapter Two
E
lise hated nuGazer. As musical styles went, she leaned more toward the frenetic energy of Bangladeshi EDM or the Sufi-influenced stuff coming out of Turkmenistan. At least they had the decency to hire an actual band to play, rather than use an AR version of one of the original bands from the turn of the century.
She scanned the room, marking exits in the mental map she was building while the facial-rec software she’d purchased fed information to her vision as to the identity and net worth of each person she saw. The numbers were large.
Her fingers tightened on Na’im’s arm and she whispered “You wanted the high rollers, love. They’re all here.” The ease with which the word left her mouth still surprised her. A year ago, she'd not believed love was anything more than chemicals and convenience. Now, the idea of being without it felt cold and terrifying.
Na’im patted her fingers and she happily leeched some of his warmth for herself. “I recognize about a third of them. Jalila often brought me to these sorts of events, so she could show me off. I'm just worried they’ll recognize me in return.”
“If they do,” she said, “then we’ll worry. The hope is you look just familiar enough that they think they've seen you before. It's only a problem if they connect you to Jalila, and they all think she’s dead.”
When that changed, she thought, all bets would be off. Until then, they still had a chance to get Na’im free of the cuckoo Jalila had planted in his head. And any other surprises she might have had installed to guarantee his loyalty. Part of Elise worried about what kept the woman from announcing how she had defeated death. The rest of her hoped that some flaw in her plan kept her at bay permanently.
Optimism felt alien and new too.
She made a big show of kissing him on the cheek, easy to do since every thread of her being ached for him. Leaving him to the wolves would be too damned difficult. “I want to freshen up a bit,” she announced. "Go. Mingle with your friends. I will come find you."
She let her hand linger just a bit longer; tried to write his warmth, his solidity into her memory to get through the next phase of the plan. Then she stepped away and allowed herself to get swept off in the crowd of revelers.
As she moved to the edge of the room, and the hall where she could slip upstairs, she made a point to catch Na’im’s eyes one last time. He smiled, and the warmth that rushed through her gut was more than simple lust. The idea that she might lose him chased after the heat like a greedy glacier. Attachment endangered both people, wasn't that what Ty had always told her?
He'd been an idiot, but her presence tonight proved he’d been right about that one thing. She’d risk anything if it meant keeping Na’im safe.
The fine points of working a crowd had never been difficult for him. Armed with Elise’s identification of various persons and his own extensive memories from working with Jalila, he could do magic.
He laughed on cue as the CTO from BlueGene shared an anecdote they had supposedly been present for; he'd never met the woman, but she was convinced otherwise. He flagged a passing waiter - human, surprisingly, despite the advances MAZ had made in cybertechnology and robotics - and grabbed two flutes of champagne.
After handing one to the CTO, he turned and faked seeing another person in the crowd. He had to shout to be heard over the music but leaned in and touched her shoulder. “I'll be right back my dear. I just need to go ask Eamon a question about mineral rights”
The woman looked disappointed but acquiesced, allowing him to slip away from her and cross the room. He tried not to think about how long Elise had been gone - she was brilliant, like no one he'd ever met. She would be fine out of his sight for ten minutes.
If he was honest, she’d always be safer out of his sight. His cuckoo - the sleeper software that Zaahir had hidden in his brain - had already been used against Elise twice. As long as it remained, he endangered her. Trouble was, he’d always been selfish. Selfishness led him to accept the Devil’s bargain the Jalila had put in front of him, and it meant there was no way he’d be able to turn Elise away now.
Iron fingers gripped his shoulder and interrupted his thoughts a heartbeat before a voice whispered in his ear. “It’s Na’im, isn’t it. I didn’t figure we’d ever see you again after Ms. Zaahir’s death.”
She kept her tone neutral, but he’d been in enough board rooms to recognize a threat when he heard one. He turned slowly and faked a smile for the head of
“Don’t patronize me. I think we both know who you are.” Her smile failed to reach her very expensive cybereyes. “But if you want me to pretend that your pulse hasn’t sped up, that you aren’t suddenly sweating, changing the conductivity of your skin, well - I suppose I can play for a few minutes.” She reached out and took his flute of champagne before draining it.
“What do you want, Angela?” He knew the answer, of course. The shameful way she’d tried to buy him from Jalilha, rent him like any other Zaahir corporate asset. And in the end, isn’t that exactly what I was? Fortunately Jalila had a selfish streak as well and didn’t share her toys.
“Your mistress humiliated me. And last I checked you were still wanted for questioning by ZAT. Now you show up here in Zurich as though nothing’s happened?” She took a breath and for the first time her smile of pleasure looked genuine. “We can leave together, now, or I’m going to destroy you.”
Chapter Three
T
he destination for each door appeared in green-lettered overlay as Elise walked down the upstairs hall of MAZ’s complex. While the main data store would be in the arcology, she knew that the public center had a handful of machines that connected to the arcology’s restricted mainframe. Wisely, and unfortunately, MAZ had air gapped the systems, and they didn’t connect anywhere else. Had the systems been open to the ‘Net, the job would have been easy. Yashilla, the mumbaikar hacker who supplied Elise with mimics and passcodes, would have done the job for a song - more interested in the challenge, and in tweaking the nose of the corporations, than in making a living with her skills.
The lab she was looking for was behind the last door on the left. Huge glass windows lined the hall, allowing visitors to watch MAZ’s scientists “hard at work.” In actuality, it looked nothing like any lab she'd ever been in. Gleaming white surfaces were everywhere, the desks were free of clutter, and no personal items were visible. It made it obvious that it was a show quality workspace for when shareholders came to visit, easy to populate with programmers from the main arcology on the outskirts of town.
People who needed access to files back in the arc’, prompting a hardened connection between the two buildings.
She smiled and checked the door. Her intel had been right, no card scanner, just an ID reader. Keyed, no doubt, to the wrist-chips for the programmers on an as needed basis.
/> Elise fished the chip-mimic out of her clutch. The tiny chip rested between two layers of VatSkin, kept at a constant 37 C and fed a nutrient solution by the case that housed it. Expensive, and hideously illegal, the mimic could also be easily reprogrammed with new information as needed. It wouldn't get past the biometrics for a financial transaction, but it fooled door locks very well. Best of all, if you were careful, and good, you could skim another person's chip while they weren’t paying attention – such as the guard who’d been in front of her in line at the coffee house last week.
Elise was both careful and good.
She held the mimic near the scanner, which beeped and displayed the name of the security chief whose ID she’d swiped. The door popped with a soft hiss, pressurized air blowing out of the room to keep dirt from sneaking in. Elise shut the door behind her and kept low to the ground to stay out of view of the windows.
She exhaled, releasing the tension in her neck, and allowed herself a moment to think about Na’im. He had the easier job tonight, look good and be a distraction when the time came. It didn't stop her worry; too many things could go wrong on a job like this. She'd learned through too many painful lessons that you couldn't count a job as done until you were at a safe muse counting the score. Nowadays, with both Zaahir Amalgamated and Corporate Services looking for them, not even that was especially wise.
Elise switched her vision to thermal before she moved, peering through the wall to make sure no guard had followed her upstairs. Her intel said they made the sweep every thirty minutes, but she had been burned by trusting bad intel. No one took it for granted.
The coast was clear. She moved across the floor at a low crouch and huddled under a desk at the far end of the room. Reinforced cables extended down from the system on the desktop, disappearing through a port in the floor. She took her lipstick out of her purse, removed the end, and shook the data leech into her palm.
