“Hmmm…” the woman purred. “How about five hundred thousand credits? That’s a fitting number, don’t you think? Your nightmare all started with that number, and now it will end with it too.”
“How can I believe you? When I paid them they didn’t—”
The woman leaned over the back of the front seat and brushed her lips against Pontus’ left ear, an eerie contrast to the cold steel of her gun against his right. “Pontus, I am leagues above the scumbags who ruined your life. I could tell you their names and I could tell you their secrets. But I won’t. Really, you have a simple choice. Pay the five hundred thousand credits to the account I give you and have the video deleted forever or come with me to the police station where I’ll hand you and the video over. Your call.”
She pressed the gun firmly into his temple.
“Transfer five hundred thousand credits to account…” He paused.
“8G74T028I905.”
Pontus repeated the number and confirmed the transaction when prompted by the car’s AI which, despite the damaged display, still worked.
“Transfer complete,” the device responded.
The woman leaned back and tapped on a tablet, keeping the gun in her other hand. “Thanks, Pontus. By the way, William is on Palcinon Eight. He’s newly single and out of the closet. Now might be a good time for you to think about going on a vacation.”
With the air-car over a hundred and twenty stories in the air, the woman opened the back door, jumped, and disappeared into the depths below.
Pontus burst into a sobbing, jittering mess of relief and despair.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Armaros, Theron Techcropolis, Level 45, Malicarsh Building, ISA Offices
“Weren’t you worried about getting hit by another air-car?” Merry asked, still using the toilet as a chair as she tapped her tablet. In the bathroom doorway, Jayne leaned against the frame, her hair tousled. She wore her grey jumpsuit with the zipper undone to her sternum.
“It wouldn’t be any fun if it was safe. It’s been a while since I’ve done a city drop. If you ever find yourself in a funk you should give it a shot. Really kicks the adrenaline up and makes you feel alive.”
Merry brushed a strand of black hair out of her eyes and shook her head. “I like a good time as much as the next girl, but I’ll leave the suicide tricks to you. What if your wingsuit had a hole? What if you smacked into the side of a building? Shit, Jayne, you flew through the smog. It’s blind luck you’re still alive.”
Jayne smirked. “It’s not blind luck. I activated a pair of thermal imaging contacts before I breached the smog. Plus, the suit’s brake jets had already slowed me by that point. We should really get you one of these jumpsuits. The academy custom designed them to be useful in all sorts of situations.”
Raising her eyes from her screen, Merry shook her head firmly. “I’d rather not have my vag bulging through the fabric of my clothing.”
Suddenly self-conscious, Jayne pulled on the fabric around her crotch. “That only happens sometimes. But the suit is sexy and practical. Your black t-shirt and jeans can’t beat that.”
When her partner didn’t rise to the bait and instead, focused back on her screen, Jayne leaned over for a quick glance. “How’s the virus coming?”
Merry raised a hand and pushed Jayne out of her immediate vicinity. “It’s coming. No need to hover. I’ve got Axelsens’ security system mapped out along with all their online backups. I know what I need to do to wipe their data and corrupt their entire system, but programming such a sticky, destructive, and invisible virus takes time.”
“And the video?”
“What video?” Merry smiled.
Jayne smiled and stepped out of the bathroom into the empty waiting room. After a long night’s work, they’d managed to find their mole and the blackmail used against him. Naturally, Jayne had offered ISA’s unique brand of service to make the problem go away permanently for an acceptable price.
She looked around, sizing the place up. “Now that we’re rolling in credits, we need to furnish the place. I’m thinking mid-33rd Century leather couches and wooden shelves and end tables. A place where our clients can feel secure and comfortable. But confident. And maybe just a little bit intimidated.”
“Make sure to get a globe of Armaros,” Merry called from the bathroom. “They always have those in the movies. Oh, and get me one of those floating chairs that can rotate in any direction. They say spinning in them while you work is great for circulation.”
“Fine, but it goes in the workshop. That’ll basically be your office. Although we’ll have to leave some room for Vlad to work.”
“Vlad?” Merry popped up off the toilet and strode out of the bathroom, her tablet in hand. “Why would Vlad do any work here?”
“Uh…because he’s a genius? Because he’s a big reason why we were able to stop the bombings? Because he’s an asset we can use going forward?”
Merry shook her head in violent disagreement. “No. The guy is way too self-absorbed. He thinks he’s all hot shit and he’s got an ego the size of…of…” She trailed off, snapping her fingers as she tried to find a good metaphor.
“Yours?” Jayne offered.
“Yes!” Merry instantly agreed. Then she processed what Jayne had just said. “What? No! I don’t have an ego. I’m a humble hacker in black.”
Jayne chuckled and looped her arm through Merry’s. “Sure you are, hon. We’re all simply a bunch of meek mice making our way in a mean megacity.”
“Okay, maybe I have a tiny ego,” Merry allowed. “But it’s only because I’m better at a lot of things compared to most people. Vlad merely thinks he’s so smart and hot. It was all I could do not to punch him in the face.”
“Hot?” Jayne cocked her head and Merry pushed her away.
“Can we stop talking about Vlad? If he has to work here sometimes for jobs, fine. But I don’t want that guy here all the time. I’ll end up stoned all day long, and while that’s cool, I get mad munchies and I don’t want to get fat. I just bought these jeans.”
Merry was a far cry from fat, but Jayne nodded. Nobody wanted to get fat. You’d have to spend thousands of credits and almost a full day in the lipochamber getting rid of it. While the money wouldn’t be a problem for them now, anything was better than spending a day floating in a tank as nanobots siphoned fat from your body.
“He’ll have to get a mini air purifier if he’s going to smoke in the office,” Jayne added. “We can’t have clients thinking we’re a bunch of stoners. It would kill business.”
Merry bobbed her head in agreement. “We may want to invite Fred to join the fun, too,” she mused. “You said he was an arms dealer, right? That kind of work provides good contacts in the underworld, contacts that could prove useful.” She ran her toes along the length of a deep groove in the wooden floor and frowned. “What should we do about the floor? It feels like it could break apart any minute.”
It was true. The floor might have been beautiful once, but it now lurked on the verge of dilapidation. Compared to the timeless stone walls, it looked far too shabby. “Fuck it, let’s replace it with new wood. I like the way it looks. We’ve got the money. Let’s use it.”
+++
Armaros, Theron Techcropolis, Wazerfetch Extracorporated Executive Offices
Cara Addison spent the better part of the mandatory Tuesday board meeting messaging the guy she planned to see later that night. He was an older gentleman, a grandfather of four, but still attractive and virile. Sleeping with him was a bit of a no-no since he was technically still the husband of another member of the board. But Elisa Vondertell hadn’t spread her legs for her husband in a decade. Cara wasn’t one to let a good man go to waste.
Their affair had mostly taken place during odd hours. An hour in a hotel here, a stolen dinner there. That sort of thing. It was maddening how little time she got to spend with him. Tonight, though, he’d conjured up a fake business trip. They would spend an entire evening together. Ca
ra had already coughed several times in preparation for calling in sick the next day.
When the meeting broke up, she went straight to her office and continued to fantasize about the coming evening. Subordinates fled like a sheep would from a wolf. Her eyes gleamed with anticipation and it wasn’t her fault they resembled the face she wore when she fired someone.
Cara’s tablet vibrated. She glanced at the screen and smiled. It was Walter. She opened the door at the same time as she opened his message.
I can’t wait to see you tonight.
I got us the penthouse at La Threliscul.
Btw, Don’t wear panties.
She shut the door behind her and moaned. Only a few more hours.
“Hello, Cara.”
The tablet dropped from her hand as her adrenaline spiked and she jumped back against the door. Her heart pounded through her chest and her breath constricted.
The young agent she had hired sat on her desk. She wore a loose black blouse with a large collar. The top few buttons were undone, exposing her cleavage and a hint of her black bra. Her skirt was dark blue and her pointy high heels a stunning shade of black. She’d swept her hair into a bun and wore a pair of narrow glasses. Cara knew the look well. After all, professional sexy was her thing.
“What the—” Cara tried to catch her breath and finally managed a sputter. “Don’t sneak up on people like that! You made me drop my tablet.” She retrieved the device, saw the text message from Walter again, and blushed. Regretfully, she tapped her screen into sleep mode and looked at her visitor.
“How did you get in here?”
The woman smiled. “I work here,” Jayne answered innocently before drawing a lanyard from her cleavage and showing it to Cara. The name read, Amy Faunt, Wazerfetch Extracorporated. It certainly looked like the real deal.
“That’s a good fake,” Cara commented with honest admiration. “It got you past security?”
Jayne nodded as the executive walked around her desk and sat in her chair, forcing the investigator to hop off her desk to face her. She sat gracefully in the guest chair on the other side of the desk and leaned back.
“You could have called. You have my number.”
“If I had called, it would have been bad news.” Jayne lounged back in the chair. “I like to deliver good news in person.”
Cara’s eyes lit up and she leaned forward on her desk. “You figured out the mole?”
Jayne chuckled. “Oh, I did more than that. But since you asked, the mole was Pontus Filten.”
“Pontus Filten! But he wouldn’t…why? Why— He’s the vice president of the company. He doesn’t need to do something like that. Are you sure you have the right person?”
Jayne nodded. “I’m sure. We’ve got the confession and we’ve got the motive. It was a simple matter of blackmail.”
Cara swore. “Fuck.” For the first time all day, she wasn’t thinking about her rendezvous that night. In fact, she had almost forgotten about it entirely. “Who was doing it?”
“The actual blackmail was by an organization called the Axelsen Agency. They’re a group of shit-smearers who target highly placed execs, careless politicians, up-and-coming talent and get them on tape doing something that, if revealed, could ruin them. Then they archive the data until it’s needed. Eventually, a client pays a small fortune for say, the schematics of their rival’s upcoming line of top-secret prototypes. Axelsen checks their archive for someone at the target company who has the access they need. They show the pawn the tape, demand intel, and pass it on to their clients, all while keeping the money for themselves, of course.”
Cara drummed her fingers on her desk as she thought. “Those dirty bastards. You know Kicmantus wants me on their board? Every year, they up their offer and Wazerfetch always matches it. It’s not like we’re any better than they are, though. We simply use different methods.”
“Well, their method has been taken care of. Don’t worry about the leak. Pontus had a data relay attached to his computer, but we’ve taken care of it. No more information will be leaked through him. And while we can’t do anything about the data your competitors already have, we did take steps to make sure Axelsen won’t target any other upper execs in the company.”
“They could do that?”
Jayne nodded. “They could have. But we built a virus and infected their system. It destroyed their data. Axelson’s offline backups are safe for now, but the virus is sneaky. Unless they throw out all their optic boards and tablets and use a brand-new network, the moment they put their backups online, they’ll be infected too. I’m sure they’ll be hard at work digging up new dirt, but all the old stuff has been effectively neutralized.”
“You know, I can’t believe how quickly you took care of everything. It hasn’t even been a full week. I’m impressed. You’ll have the rest of your money plus the bonus and an additional ten percent as a thank you,” she said as she swiped her finger over her tablet. “I don’t suppose you’d consider being on retainer for us? You never know when we might have another fire to put out.”
Jayne shook her head and smiled knowingly. “Sorry. My work can take me anywhere and my availability always changes. But if you do happen to have another fire, by all means, give us a call. We’ll take care of your problem so long as we aren’t overbooked. And spread the word about us. We’re a referral-only operation. We aren’t looking to take on random cheating spouse or ‘my daughter ran off with her boyfriend’ cases. High importance, big stakes cases only. Anything less is a waste of our abilities. Also, you should know that we dig deep. We find out everything. It’s what we do.”
She ran her hands down her blouse to smooth some wrinkles.
Cara extended her hand and they shook. “I’d hate to lose the chance to call on you again with certainty, but I understand. You can rest assured, I will spread the word. I have all sorts of friends in high places and there’s no end to the amount of shit they get into. Keep your ringer on. You should get more clients soon. And again, thank you for everything. You have no idea how thrilled the board will be when they find out the leak is sealed.” She paused and her enthusiasm faded. “And how crushed they’ll be. Everybody loved Pontus. Especially his father.” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Fuck!”
“Everything all right?” Jayne asked from the doorway. The job was technically closed, but she did promise to assist in resolving the matter as well. It would be bad for business if some other issue were to suddenly arise as a result of her tampering.
Cara closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “Yeah, it’s fine. I just realized this whole thing will be covered up. Pontus won’t lose his job. Someone else will be scapegoated for this and fired, then blacklisted.” She sighed and sat again. “I can’t even take this to the board. I’ve got to go straight to Mr. Filten. Not Pontus, his father. Keeping this quiet is the only way to ensure that none of my people or myself are made the fall guy.” She groaned. “Be thankful you aren’t in the corporate world, Jayne. The only moral compass here is money and status. Everything else can burn.”
Jayne laughed and flashed her perfect white teeth. “Cara, that’s cute. But you’re talking to somebody with no moral compass. As far as I’m concerned, the money and status can burn with the rest.” She turned and reached for the handle. “Don’t let all this get you down. You’ll have a romantic evening tonight with Walter Vondertell. He’s handsome for a geezer. Life is short, so enjoy what you can.”
The young freelancer left a stunned Cara staring in shock at nothing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Armaros, Theron Techcropolis, Stoke-Dorchester Hotel
A black air limo docked at the port and pulled up to the hotel. A living bombshell stepped out a few moments later. She wore a sparkling, gem-encrusted, translucent red dress that showed off her sculpture-worthy physique. Her body was toned with just enough fat to add a soft layer to her curves. Her strong jawline was offset by her plush lips made for kissing. She carried a small, black gold-lined purse in on
e hand. Her emerald earrings were matched by an intricate necklace that dangled above her barely-restrained cleavage.
A pair of porters unloading luggage from an air-yacht stopped and stared at her bouncing breasts as she passed. She flashed her brilliant green eyes at them and smirked. They looked away, unable to hold the intense eye contact. The beauty continued on her way. As she reached the doorman, she ran a hand through her thick brown hair, moving a strand of her luxurious locks from her face. To his credit, the man remained completely neutral as he opened the door.
The porters remained motionless at the yacht, entranced by what they had just seen. Finally, one whispered in awe to his fellows. “She wasn’t even wearing panties.”
Jayne was dressed to stun. It was one of the academy’s favorite tactics and one of her specialties. It was fun to short-circuit people’s brains with sex appeal and take advantage of them in whatever way she needed to. It opened doors, led to introductions, and lowered the difficulty of virtually every mission. It also led to getting laid—a lot.
Always look sexy.
She hadn’t followed that mantra since her dismissal from the academy, but now that she had money and stability, she was ready to embrace it fully again. How that rule applied changed based on the crowd you were infiltrating. In the arenas of power, it usually meant custom suits for the men and dresses that left nothing to the imagination for the women. While the men’s outfits were considered by many to be less demeaning, they were also less effective at knocking people’s common sense out with lust. Besides, Jayne’s experience had proven one thing: the lower the neckline, the more successful the mission.
As she entered the hotel, the young and impeccably-styled concierge took one look at her and his eyes flared with interest. A warm smile of greeting spread across his face as he strode to greet this new and very attractive guest. He took her free hand in both of his and gave the back a dry kiss. His thin moustache tickled Jayne’s skin.
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