Lover

by Valerie J. Long

  “No. Heck, Velvet is invulnerable, too.”

  “They just blindly fired around. That way they won’t get me. But I have to admit that I otherwise work less conspicuously. In this case, it was useful though.”

  “Useful?”

  “Jana had proposed to assault the consulate. There’d surely be casualties. Now, the Cartel knows the booty’s gone, so they’ll cancel the assault.”

  “Where’s the booty then?”

  “I’ve destroyed the parts. The construction was dangerously poorly adjusted.”

  “It could have been useful in the fight against the Cartel.”

  “No, deadly. It could have torn the entire consulate down, if it didn’t pulverize it before, together with all the people inside.”

  “Phew.”

  “Or worse—a fluctuation could have interfered with the envelope field of the micro fusion reactor that had been placed right next, and you’d have had a pretty little energy discharge in the center of a densely populated city.”

  “Ouch. That takes me back to my question—how do you know so much about it?”

  “You don’t need to know that.”

  “Well, then. What else? Oh yes—how did you learn about Jana’s order for the experts? From the capo’s office, too?”

  “Nah. I followed her to her yacht and then listened in to her calls. Except for the Dragon technology experts, she’s ordered plasma weapons from Texas and armor suits from Australia, moreover, she’s instructed her people to accelerate project Sunrise. I have the phone numbers she’s called.”

  “And you know where her yacht is moored.”

  “Where it was moored last night, yes. I also have the license number of the car she drove. I guess that’s plenty of work for you, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. Still, it’s a pity about the force field. Do you have any idea about how they did it?”

  “An extended use of the Meier effect, actually quite simple once you’ve come up with it and have the right parts at hand. Sadly, the control logic’s programming was way too primitive.”

  “How did you learn about that again?”

  I plucked the memory card from my belt and held it out to him. He glanced at it, then back at me, and slowly extended his hand. “If I take that now, I’ve sold my soul to the devil, haven’t I? That’s no longer normal.”

  “I don’t want your blood. I’m not interested in your soul.”

  “Velvet—Jo—I can’t believe it. That’s just not possible. You visited the capo, this Jana, and then the consulate in the same night? And you know more about Dragon technology that any other free man?”

  “Yes, Alan.”

  I answered his scrutiny with silence. After a few minutes, he turned away. “If I didn’t know better—a few years ago there had been a girl, aw crap, a young woman, and she was called Jo, too. Johanna, I think. She’d been a top athlete and a genius in Dragon technology. Johanna Meier, right—the effect you know so well’s named after her. She had black hair and was about your size.” Now he gazed right into my eyes. “But she’s dead. The pathologist already had her corpse on the dissecting table, that’s official. Only her corpse was stolen.”

  I withstood his gaze.

  “She’d been the victim of a cruel crime, and the Dragon hospital had stitched her together again. Thereafter, she’d scored the best Ironman result of all times, an almost superhuman achievement. Dragonish, you could say. I wouldn’t put it past this woman to take the Cartel on.”

  He had done his homework—that much I had to credit him for. Well, he probably knew more about me than anybody else in the world, perhaps except for the Brit.

  “Of course, she changed her identity to not make it too easy for the Cartel. I believe, I’d trust my life to such a woman.”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  We both remained silent for a long while. What should, what could I say now? Deny it? Lie to him? Had he deserved the truth? No, but even less a lie.

  “You already did that, Alan,” I quietly replied.

  “And that’s the woman I’ve betrayed. Damn, Jo—if I had known that in Denver, the entire precinct couldn’t have prevented me from taking you with me!” He shook his head. “I’m talking crap. I should have taken you for what I already knew back then alone. You’d saved Fiona’s life.”

  “You’ve been quite an asshole,” I confirmed.

  “And that’s still kindly put. Okay. I’ll tell you frankly how it is. We professionals meddle our way through and fail. You’re an amateur, and you’re achieving results. It’s not right that we’re coming to you and begging for a few crumbs of your knowledge. We should simply do as you tell us.”

  As I tell? I should direct a secret agent network?

  “You’re crazy, Alan. I’m successful because I can assess myself and my own skills. I’m fighting the Cartel because I can afford it. I’m alone and can’t be blackmailed, that’s my recipe for success. Give me people I don’t know, and I’ll let them fail. Give me responsibility, and the Cartel will blackmail me with these people. Damn, Alan, if I’m given the choice, I’ll desert you.”

  “That would be right. I can be replaced, you can’t.”

  How true, even if he had no clue why.

  There was no more injective nano essence on this planet. There was no possibility anymore to create someone like me. And so…

  “Forget it. You’ll kindly do your job yourself instead of burdening me with all that. I don’t owe anyone anything. If I like to, I help. If I don’t, I’ll piss off. Clear?”

  He didn’t like it. “In the middle of a mission we can’t—”

  “Stop. I already said that I’m working alone. During a mission, you’ll get along without me, start, middle, and end. Should we enter a house together, like back then, and I’m opting for retreat and you don’t, you’re in trouble. Not for my sake, but because you didn’t figure how hot the situation is—once I chicken out, you should long be far away. Clear?”

  “Do you consider yourself so good?”

  “I am so good, Alan. Why else would you be here?”

  Part Six

  Mission

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  “Hello, Gomez. I thought you’d stay away from Vegas for a while?”

  This time, he didn’t flinch but turned around, grinning. “I can’t live without you, Velvet. If you once don’t surprisingly show up behind me in the middle of the night in a dark side alley, something’s missing.”

  “For that reason only you’re sneaking around here? The Cartel’s quite nervous recently.”

  “I’ve heard someone’s snatched two ship loads of hot stuff away from under their nose in San Francisco. Briefly before, Velvet’s been spotted in town. If anyone should look after herself, it’s you.”

  “Oh, I didn’t interfere with the ships.”

  “No—not your style. Too much publicity. Moreover, the Navy appears to have been involved. That’s not your team, or is it?”

  “I alone am my team, Gomez. I’m not reporting to anyone, and I don’t follow any orders. I’m my own boss, and I like it that way most.”

  “Yes, okay. Thanks that you’d at least told me that it’s over last time. I could have waited all night for something to happen. Could you reach an agreement?”

  “Let me put it this way—so far he didn’t bother me.”

  I was sure that the MI-6 wouldn’t bother me again after having clarified the frontline. But for the role that the Brit was playing, the situation was less obvious, and Gomez didn’t need to know more. Two people having seen through my cover were enough. How long would Jana need to draw her own conclusions? Before it came to that, I wanted to have paid my polite visit to their headquarters, and that’s what I was here for. So I couldn’t have a Gomez searching half of Vegas for me and by chance directing the Cartel’s attention to me.

  “And if not, you know where you can find me, isn’t it so?”

  “So it is. Sorry, Gomez, I’d invite you for a coffee, but the bars and ca
fés here aren’t safe.”

  “Well—I was almost to Jesse when I spotted those guys. The Black Hole is under special surveillance. I’d considered entering from the rear, but then discarded it.”

  “That’s better so. The guys in front are only to keep the peace among the guests, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. For surveillance, they’ve installed cameras front and rear.”

  “Cameras at the Black Hole? Shit.”

  “The net is systematically expanded. Don’t worry, here are none, otherwise I wouldn’t have shown up. But it won’t take long, and Las Vegas is wired all over, with face recognition via computer and all bells and whistles.”

  “That’s the beginning of the end.”

  “Yes. So, why are you here? Do you have a job for me?”

  “Right. Something completely different, and I don’t know whether it’s for you.”

  “Let me hear it.”

  “It’s about a guy who really got on everyone’s shit list. He must go.”

  “Murder? You’re looking for a killer? And you’re coming to me with it?”

  “This is a special case. I’ll explain. You can still say no.”

  “Okay, so the target’s one of the Cartel’s capos. A mega asshole, and the world would surely be better without him. Just as surely, nobody would be better suited for the job than I,” I stated immodestly.

  And yet—I had never before killed someone, and I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t see me this way. Sure, back then for Dandy I’d have made an exception, but that’d been something personal between us. After all, he had tried to do the same to me first.

  For many problems, killing was a very terminal—too easy!—solution. To grant me this would be a very terminal step for me. Thereafter, nothing would be like before. I’d be like them. There were emotional barriers against killing for good reason. On the other hand, I knew that the Imperatrix had killed, too. Was it this level of responsibility you had to bear when commanding nano essence? To decide who was to live and who to die? It was war, and my actions could tip the scales. If I ventured on this way, I’d do it with all consequences. It would mean opening the floodgates.

  I had to reject. “No.”

  “It’s against the Cartel, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked. What about your reputation? You’ve never put a job down.”

  “I know. Nevertheless, I have to say no today. Tell your clients they should ask themselves whether they’d really want to open Pandora’s Box. If you return in twenty-four hours and ask the same question, I won’t reject again.”

  If it truly had to be, I wouldn’t resist any longer. Then I’d take out the capo—and next my client, too, who tried to use me to get free access to that job. If I started to take out Cartel bosses, I wouldn’t leave it at just this one.

  “I’ll pass that on. Perhaps until tomorrow.”

  Chapter Sixty

  It was hot, much too hot, but I couldn’t sweat. Pearls of sweat would have endangered my camouflage.

  I was already stark naked, had assimilated the armor suit nanos that I otherwise wore, and still I’d gladly have dropped more.

  Around me, sweat-wet, horny, copulating couples gleamed in the scarce light—the Inferno’s fourth level saw open business, and uninvolved bystanders or prudery weren’t tolerated.

  Those who no longer could or wanted would search for coolness on the higher levels.

  I didn’t want to, as I hadn’t come for sex. I was on my way down, to the forbidden zone. Voluntarily, although the thought alone sent shivers down my spine repeatedly.

  The quicker I finished this visit, the better.

  The fifth level was still comparably harmless—here I saw bonds, whips, cages, torture racks, and similar accessories, but the guests came freely and could expect a single word to end the mock torture. This more or less applied to the sixth level, too, but the shackles weren’t stuffed and the customs were rougher.

  So far, I had only rumors about the seventh level. Only for very good clients, only on personal invitation, only hand-picked staff. Colleagues from whom nobody ever heard again. I had my doubts whether this was only owed to discretion—so Yori had turned down that invitation. However, my experience with Dandy might play tricks on me.

  I didn’t want to know the details. My target lay beyond this level. But first I had to overcome the personal invitation obstacle.

  The fact that the Inferno theme levels had indeed been built downward helped me there. Four, five, six stories below the surface, with open fireplaces, that required a lot of ventilation installations.

  Large flues sucked in fresh air from the surface, cooled it down, moistened it, and carried it to the subterranean levels. Fans helped to suck the open fireplaces’ smoke away and protect the eyes of paying guests from tears. All well calculated and all well protected—at least outside. I’d soon know what the security down here would look like.

  For that, I found a flue and looked inside. The fresh air came in through long and narrow slits where I wouldn’t fit in—I had already checked that. This flue had a more comfortable profile, and it seemed as if it would join with another flue some way up. I’d have a look.

  That plan had at least four drawbacks, as I quickly found out.

  First, it wasn’t easy to climb the wide flue with the smooth, aluminum-coated walls. Again, I had to play the gecko and trust the suction cups at finger and toe tips.

  Second, it was hot like hell in this flue. This also applied to the metal walls I clung to with bare skin. I had to order my nanos to suppress the pain.

  Third, the flue was full of smoke, which made breathing hard and filled my eyes with tears—until I thought of nictitating membranes and nose filters. That way, it was better.

  Fourth, it wouldn’t do my camouflage any good if I smelled like smoke for miles upwind. So I needed a surface that nothing stuck to, not even to my hair. Or I had to absorb that smell upon exit, yes, that seemed to be more efficient.

  Bingo! The next flue indeed led further down. I only had to find out whether the shaft profile was secured by any means.

  Cameras were inappropriate, as it was pitch dark in the flue, except for a faint red glow from below. Ultrasonic wasn’t advisable, either. Instead, I spotted the telltale warts of laser projectors and detectors on both sides in the walls below me. Okay! I had to fool them.

  Sadly, the light rays were too tight to simply wind my way through. Nor should I interrupt them. Were the signals modulated? To find out, I inserted a nanoscope into a ray.

  No. Fine.

  Thus it would suffice that any laser signal reached the respective detector. All I needed were a few mirrors to bend the signals.

  A few-molecules-thin and millimeters-wide layer of nanos would do. The nano threads with which I mounted the mirrors overall required more material, but I had plenty. I didn’t leave any nanos behind anyway, each single nano agent returned to my reservoir once I had passed the barrier.

  Below me, the fireplace waited. Upon approaching, I could see what the open fire was needed for down here. Iron bars with differently shaped tips were sticking in the red-and-yellow glowing coal.

  I definitely didn’t want to know what they were used for. Nor did I want to think of the poor girls who already had found out. But I felt encouraged in my decision to end this racket.

  Unseen and without seeing, I passed the Cartel’s private torture chambers, past tools of horror that are better left untold of, in search of the door to the sanctum.

  The walls were black and the light dim. No shadows could exist here. A skillful architecture ensured that sounds would be muffled immediately, so that no client could be disturbed by painful cries from the adjacent chambers. At the same time, the entire setup reinforced an atmosphere of hopelessness. A clear statement to the entertainers—you’ll never get out again.

  I wouldn’t change that during this visit. Any liberation attempt would mean unveiling the possibility of undetected access and warning the wielders of power. Whoever was waitin
g for her fate down here would have to make the sacrifice for the greater good.

  Dragon piss! Who was I to decide? Only a girl who, with her own dexterity, had procured a few options that she didn’t deserve. A girl that never had volunteered to save the world.

  Why had the three times cursed Dragons left Earth? How could they have left us alone with the aftershock of the Invasion, with the criminals who had skillfully and mercilessly grabbed their chance, while the rulers—accustomed to Dragon moderators—had deemed themselves safe? How could they have departed after having rendered the world’s secret services obsolete and thus non-effective?

  Yes, perhaps it was a damned problem of us humans alone, which we’d have to deal with alone. But they had interfered before, and they’d left us with a gaping wound and without antibodies.

  Well, almost without antibodies. There was still little me, and seen this way I had every justification to have procured my nanos. Seen this way, I was in every way entitled to decide how I’d use them.

  So I also had to decide who I could help and who I couldn’t. For the sake of all the girls who weren’t down here yet, I shouldn’t fail. Somehow I’d have to live with it.

  Where was that fucking door now?

  Chapter Sixty-One

  The door should be engraved with a pentagram and a multitude of runes and only be opened with a drop of blood.

  In fact, it was simply embedded in the wall, with an insolently primitive lock and only a single surveillance camera on this side. My nanoscope didn’t unveil any surprises in the door cracks and on the other side.

  The camera was switched off. Why?

  No, that was logical. Why should it be switched on if only invited, trustable guests could come here—and if those persons knowing of this door would come with a key?

  Like I did. I knew of this door, and my key always matched.