by M. D. Cooper
Kylie tried to keep her expression neutral. “You could say it was pleasant, thank you.” She pulled out a paper fan and flicked it open with her wrist. It was the latest fashion accessory in the Pi Scorpii Beta System.
“General Mulke awaits you. If you please,” he gestured toward the shuttle.
Kylie and Grayson entered and Winter followed, squinting at the light pouring in through the port holes. “Bright for eighteen hundred hours.”
“Yes, we’re in our cycle of full light from both stars. It’s what we call the day burn. Once we reach the twilight band, it will darken, but not by much. After a few cycles, you get used to it.”
They got into the shuttle’s passenger area, where champagne and butter tarts waited, while their host took to the cockpit. Before long, they were coasting through space and angling down toward the planet.
It didn’t take long before they reached the surface and passed over one of the metropolitan areas. Crystal towers rose into the air, air and ground traffic weaving around them. The shuttle skirted around the city, slowing as it approached a hotel overlooking a ravine so deep that it seemed to drop down into nothingness.
“The view is breathtaking,” she said.
“Uh huh, totally.” Winter chewed on a tart and licked his fingers. “But this food…I could handle having these every day, you know what I mean?”
“They are good,” Grayson admitted. “The sort of thing my mother would bake before I set off for the academy.”
Kylie gave him a smirk. “Before you married me the first time, you mean.”
Grayson lifted his glass to her. “Cheers, my darling.”
Kylie drank to that. Mostly. She didn’t need an excuse to drink.
Kylie grinned.
* * * * *
Kylie felt a hole where Marge used to be. She and the AI had spent a great deal of time talking about separating; how they thought they would each handle it, and if it was something they really wanted.
Marge had answered frankly,
For Kylie, the answer had always been the same: she didn’t want to separate. She didn’t want to part, even if staying paired was dangerous for her.
But she’d agreed to it because her friend needed it. Marge had needed to go.
Life had seemed to move at half speed since then. To think she had been apprehensive about getting an AI implanted to begin with; oh, how things had changed.
Now she needed to shake the melancholy off and get the mission done. It was go-time, whether Kylie wanted it to be or not.
They arrived at the mansion overlooking the cliffs she had seen during their descent. Guests were arriving and ascending the marble stairs, while guards patrolled out front. The animal topiaries were particularly delightful.
You know you’re among the rich when they turn their greenery into animals.
Marge would’ve laughed at her joke.
The door to the shuttle opened, and Grayson exited first, then took her hand. From the slight shift of his head, Kylie could tell his HUD was active and he was checking the grounds for guards and escape exits.
To most, it’d be a negligible shift, but after ten years of fighting and loving side by side, Kylie noticed just about everything.
Kylie stepped forward, and Grayson followed her lead. They went up the marble stairs and followed the path toward the front door. At the top of the final set of stairs, they met an entry guard passing as a doorman.
“Duchess Camile and Duke Estevan,” Winter announced.
“If they have no invitation, I don’t care who they are, they aren’t getting through.”
“Hostility is unnecessary, my dear boy.” Kylie smiled widely as she sent their invitation across the Link.
It should check out, and if it didn’t…well, Kylie could move faster than he could, she was sure of it.
The doorman accepted her token. “Welcome, Duchess Camile.” He gave a slight bow and moved so the door was accessible. “Have a lovely time at the party and silent auction. Refreshments will be on your left.”
“Thank you,” Grayson offered his arm to Kylie, and they stepped inside.
As far as mansions went, Kylie thought it was okay. Stairs, pillars, fancy music to dance to. She thought it checked all the boxes. Hopefully, they wouldn’t need to blow it up.
However, it was always an option.
She scowled at her own inner monologue and glanced up at Grayson. “Do you think I’m becoming jaded?”
His eyebrow twitched. “Becoming?”
So much for that.
Kylie swatted his arm then gave the other guests a once-over.
The men were either in black tie tuxedos or ceremonial military uniforms. Nice, as far as men’s fashion went, but a little boring. The women’s dresses were far more interesting, and the ensembles were topped off with regal makeup, and hair that seemed to defy gravity in artistic twists. Kylie would bet that at least one of them had modded their hair with an anti-gravity well.
Pinned curls were much simpler. In fact, it might’ve even screamed Mom hair.
Winter growled across the Link.
Kylie knew how much he loved a sweet wine.
Grayson led her to the dance floor and took her hands. Kylie swept a studious gaze across the other dancers.
Not too many people were on the floor, but those who were stood close enough that Kylie could scan them with her HUD and pull up more information about them. All of which was very dull, and so far, no one’s ident matched General Mulke.
“Do you think I should have done my hair like these other women?”
“No,” Grayson answered and took her by the waist. “You should do your hair the way you want to do it. And I love your curls.”
Kylie couldn’t disagree with an answer like that.
When the waitress came by with a tray of Moscato, she took two glasses and handed one to Grayson.
“Time to live a little,” she smirked.
Grayson raised his eyebrows as they crossed arms and drank from each other’s glasses. When the vessels were drained, he dipped Kylie to the side and gave her a little kiss designed to get attention—but not too much attention.
“MOOO! WHERE BEEF?”
Kylie straightened and spun around with horror etched in her features. Her panicked gaze met that of Mr. Fizzle Pop, who stood at her feet with a little blue bowtie around his neck.
Grayson grunted. “His bowtie is straight.”
“Fizzle Pop!” Kylie hissed quietly. “What are you doing here?”
“HEARD BLACK TIE.” Mr. Fizzle Pop swatted at his bowtie. “WHERE FOOD, ASSHOLES?”
“Shh! You can’t talk like that here. Your tie isn’t black,” Kylie pointe
d out.
“TECHNICALITY.”
“How did you get off the ship?” she demanded.
The cat only gave her a sparkly-eyed look and Kylie turned to Grayson for help, but he was busy rubbing his forehead as if a migraine was setting in.
Too good, and that’s what bothered Kylie. It seemed that the only time they could exclude Mr. Fizzle Pop from a mission was when he wanted to sleep one out.
“How’d you get into the party?” Kylie grilled.
“INVITATION.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You have an invitation?”
“MADE INVITATION,” Mr. Fizzle Pop corrected.
Talking to him was going to give her a stroke.
“Don’t cause any trouble. Please.” She hoped to appeal to his common sense, but she wasn’t sure if he had any.
“THERE FOOD. BYE, ASSHOLES!”
Mr. Fizzle Pop trotted off toward the buffet with his tail flicking through the air.
An older gentleman was entering the party with a woman on either side of him. The way he walked reminded her of her old boss and owner, Maverick, except the women in his company were classier.
Present company excluded.
Grayson glanced over at the buffet table, and went green.
Kylie grabbed his chin and forced him to peer down at her.
Grayson smiled, and they spun one more time, putting Kylie right against General Mulke as he made his way across the dance floor toward the silent auction room.
“Oh! Excuse me,” Kylie feigned shock and placed a hand to her chest. “I’m terribly sorry.”
“It’s no harm,” the general said. “Miss…”
“Duchess,” Kylie gave him a warm smile and ran her hands up his arms. She dusted his shoulders off and placed the tracker just under the collar of his jacket. “Duchess Camile. This is my husband, Duke Estevan.”
“It’s a pleasure.” He raised Kylie’s gloved hand to his mouth and gave it a kiss. “I hope I’ll see the both of you in the silent auction.”
“We wouldn’t miss it,” Grayson said.
“Not for the world.” Kylie grinned. “Or the galaxy.”
* * * * *
Grayson hated when Kylie used the word ‘galaxy’ to describe the small sliver of space humanity had explored. He hated it so much that by the time they were seated at the silent auction, his eyelid had begun to twitch.
And that was basically what Kylie had been going for.
She fanned herself with her small purse, her dazzling bracelet catching the ceiling’s recessed lighting. Up ahead on the stage, helpers brought the next item for auction onto the pedestal, and if she wasn’t mistaken, it was an ISF micro SC battery.
True.
And there were already enough reasons they might not be happy.
Kylie kept an eye on the furry white paws skittering under a row of chairs ahead. Mr. Fizzle Pop was up to something; she just wished she knew what it was.
Cat burgling? Or cat nap?
Focus! she scolded herself. He is not the mission.
Kylie blinked, bringing up her HUD’s full overlay, noting that the tracker she’d placed on General Mulke still hadn’t moved from three levels above.
He’d only been in the auction room for a few minutes before running up there. The blueprints she had pulled of the place said it was an office, and she was more than a little curious what had drawn him away from the evening’s main event.
A moment later, she finally saw movement. Mulke was walking down the back stairs leading to the silent auction.
Kylie’s avatar stuck her tongue out at him as she eased through the double French doors, and slinked up the stairs toward the second level.
At the restrooms, she turned left down the hall and came upon a row of doors. The one she needed was locked, but her thumbprint against the security plate might trigger an alarm.
Of course, her nano could bypass all of that and get her inside.
“WHAT YOU DOING, ASSHOLE?”
Kylie jumped and spun around. “Mr. Fizzle Pop! Whatever you think you’re doing, stop. This is a serious mission.”
“KNOW. NOT STUPID. WANT PTÉ?”
Kylie sighed and shook her head. “Just go back to the silent auction, sit with Grayson. And don’t. Move. Again!”
She slid her hand over the door and sent her nano through. The door popped open, and she stepped inside. She turned her head to give Mr. Fizzle Pop one more stern warning, but his head tilted to the side, and it was one of the cutest things she’d ever seen, so she didn’t.
That would probably come back to bite her.
Kylie left the lights off in the room, using her augmented vision to survey the office and make her way over to the desk. There, she found a secure holo terminal, and activated it using some of the breaching techniques Marge had taught her. The last account to log in was Mulke’s.
She played back the most recent transmission he had received.
“So far, all of our tests on the stasis shield technology have failed. We’re beginning to suspect we might be missing a component….”
The clip went on, but Kylie was focused on the message headers, using them to track the signal to its point of origin: a laboratory on the other side of Scorpi Minor.
From what she’d overheard, Mulke stopped in for weekly visits, and his next one was coming up soon. They could use him to get in, follow him right by the gate.
Beautiful.
Kylie saw other messages and carefully copied over the data she thought she’d need.
Kylie silently grunted to herself.
She ended the communication with her team and worked quickly on the holo terminal. Her head down, she missed the bookcase to her right opening and a woman stepping out from around it.
It wasn’t until the woman’s fist blew through the holo display, smashing into Kylie’s face, that she realized something was wrong.
Kylie took the hit right across the bridge of her nose and staggered back. She gripped the back of the chair to stabilize herself. A quick scan revealed the woman was covered in head-to-toe stealth body armor. Sophisticated, too. It was sleek and revealed little about the wearer except she was tall, curvy, and knew how to throw a punch.
“I knew you couldn’t resist coming.”
The woman’s words sounded mechanical, a clear indicator she was disguising her voice, though Kylie had no answer for why that would be.
When the attacker pulled a pistol from her side, Kylie jumped up onto the desk and kicked off her shoes. The woman aimed the sidearm at her, but Kylie grabbed her wrist and leapt forward, flipping over her adversary. The woman was thrown backward overtop of Kylie’s body, and slammed into the wall.
Kylie quickly advanced and grabbed the attacker by the throat, shoving the woman back hard enough to crack the wall around her head. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
She broke off, able to feel the interference.
If Marge was still here, she’d tell her that the room had a Link dampener.
“Someone protecting secrets you want no part in—but it’s clear I’ve been bested.” The woman raised her hands overhead. “How do you think you’ll get out of here with me?”
Kylie took the attacker’s pistol. “Who said I need to leave with you? On the floor.”
The woman stepped forward and began to kneel onto the carpet as another silhouette appeared in the adjoining bathroom.
Kylie raised the pistol to fire at the newcomer, but she quickly realized the weapon hadn’t been loaded with a charge.
She had been set up.
“Wait—” she cried out as a round hit her center mass.
She flew backward against the bookcases, and it toppled over onto her. If the air hadn’t been knocked out of her, she would’ve been able to get out of there without much trouble.
“Don’t worry,” the first woman said to her companion. “She’s tougher than she looks, AI or no AI….”
She knelt down beside Kylie, who glared up at her.
“You won’t—”
“Get away with it? Why not, because you have powerful friends? Where have we heard that before?”
The woman pressed something against Kylie’s neck, and moments later, everything went dark.
CHAPTER 20 - TANIS
STELLAR DATE: 01.05.8960 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sigma 1199 Alien Facility
REGION: Sigma 1199 System, Norma Arm
Angela shouted across the team’s private network.
