Some tough guy you are, he thought, keeping his gaze fixed on the flat, pale yellow surface. You can float in vacuum, break a man’s fingers one by one, and crack an arm with a judo kick when necessary, but you can’t look at a few pieces of artificially grown tissue?
He decided he couldn’t.
There was a smile playing around the chubby man’s lips, one that seemed to indicate he’d noticed Derek’s squeamishness and was amused by it. But he didn’t say anything, only gestured for the young woman to move closer. Then, so quickly Derek barely noted the movement, he used a delicate instrument to retrieve one of the retinas before depositing it in Derek’s left eye. A twinge, and the man went on to duplicate the process, attaching the retina so quickly that it was over before Derek had time to react.
“Now blink,” the man instructed. “First the left eye, then the right.”
Derek did as he was told. Everything felt fine, which seemed odd to him. He would’ve thought he’d notice something different.
“How’s your vision? Any blurriness?”
“No,” Derek replied, giving a quick glance around the screened-off area. There didn’t seem to be any material change in how he saw the world.
“Excellent.” The man beamed. “Test the eye, Alice,” he said, and once again the assistant stepped up, this time with a retinal scanner. It flashed the same information the thumbprint reader had. The man nodded in satisfaction before telling Derek, “You can get up now and send Ms. Whitcomb in.”
It was somewhat disconcerting to hear the scrubber using Cassidy’s assumed name, but maybe he was saying, in a subtle way, that they needed to get used to those names, to only use them, to leave Derek and Cassidy behind, as one slip-up could be fatal. “Thanks,” Derek replied, pushing himself up off the operating chair. For just a second he thought he noted a slight dizziness, but that could’ve been his imagination.
When he went out into the main room, he saw Cassidy sitting in one of the chairs there, flipping through what looked like newsfeeds on her handheld. The expression of relief that crossed her face when she saw him was somewhat warming, although it was possible the relief was just as attributable to the procedure appearing to be harmless as the fact that he’d escaped unscathed.
“Your turn,” he told her.
She nodded, but as she went to step past him to the makeshift surgery, he reached out and took her hand. “It’ll be fine. Over before you know it.”
Her fingers squeezed his slightly, a gentle pressure. “I know. But thanks.”
Then she was gone, disappearing behind the screen. Derek could hear the soft murmur of voices back there, then quiet. To occupy himself, he double-checked the stratliner departures from Barstow, but the schedule hadn’t changed. Since it seemed they were good to go, he went ahead and booked two seats for him and Cassidy. Not in first class, though; the networks might pay a premium to have their top talent shuttled around, but they definitely wouldn’t spring for that sort of thing for a lowly research team.
Just as he was wrapping up the reservations, Cassidy appeared, looking slightly bleary-eyed but otherwise fine. “So you survived,” he remarked, standing up and slipping the handheld into his pocket.
“More or less.” She blinked. “It feels strange.”
“It does?” he asked, alarm bells going off in his head. “Maybe you should have him look at your eyes again. It’s not supposed to feel any different at all.”
In answer, she gave him a deprecating smile and replied, “No, I didn’t mean it that way, only that I’m not used to having anyone do anything to my eyes, so it feels…odd. I have a feeling my eyes feel off to me because everything seems the same, and my brain is telling that it shouldn’t be.”
“You’ll get past that,” the scrubber said, peeling the self-skinning latex gloves he’d been wearing first from one hand, then the other, and tossing them in a nearby waste receptacle.
“So what do we owe you?” Derek asked as he began to pull the credit voucher from his wallet.
“Nothing.”
Cassidy shot the man a mystified look. “What?”
“It’s on the house. Free. Gratis. If it’s true that what you’re up to is going to give the Consortium the mother of all black eyes, then the least I can do is give you a few free retinas and fingerprints.”
Some part of Derek wanted to protest, but after looking at the uncharacteristically grim set of the chubby man’s mouth, he decided to let it go. “Well, thank you for that. We appreciate it.”
“Very much,” Cassidy chimed in.
“And I appreciate you appreciating it,” the man said. “Now, Alice, if you could show our guests out?”
The unsmiling woman nodded, and led Cassidy and Derek back out to the entrance to the suite. “Have a better one,” she said, before entering the code to open the door.
Derek almost wanted to grin at the young woman, just to see how she would react, but decided against it. Instead, he just said, “You, too,” and went out into the corridor, Cassidy right behind him. She shot him a questioning look, but he only shook his head and cast a significant glance upward, indicating the hidden but still most likely present security equipment.
A nod, and the two of them went back to the lifts, headed outside, and called for an autocab. It pulled up only a few minutes later. Even though the back seat offered an illusion of privacy, Derek knew that impression was specious at best. They’d have to wait until they were back at the hotel before they could talk…really talk.
Now, though, he was startled but happy to feel Cassidy slide over to get closer to him, have her rest her head on his shoulder. “I’m tired,” she murmured. “I think those margaritas are catching up with me.”
Margaritas and enthusiastic sex, followed by a fun little chaser of minor surgery to doctor your identity. He couldn’t blame her for being tired. Weariness began to catch up to him as well; he could feel it in the slump of his shoulders, now that it seemed a few milestones were behind them. Yes, tomorrow was going to be a challenge, and he had no idea what awaited them in China, but he decided it was better to wait and see what happened rather than rile up his brain with a baker’s dozen of manufactured scenarios, none of which might actually come to pass.
“It’s been a long day,” he agreed. This sort of exchange seemed safe enough, the sort of thing any couple might share while taking a cab ride back to their hotel late at night. “We’ll get a good night’s sleep, and then we’ll be ready for our flight tomorrow.”
At his words she shifted a bit, moving so she could look up into his face. Despite the shadows he could see under her eyes, a hint of a smile played around her mouth. “Okay…but I’m not sure I want to spend all that time sleeping.”
A rush of warmth went through him, and he marveled that she could still be so willing after everything they’d faced lately. Not that he was going to say no. “I think we can arrange that,” he said, dropping a kiss on top of her head and pulling her closer.
He wouldn’t let himself wonder what he possibly could have done to deserve such a woman.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
After returning to the suite, they did make love once more, and almost immediately afterward Cassidy felt herself falling into a deep, deep sleep. Her last coherent thought before she drifted into darkness was that she hoped Derek had remembered to set the alarm on his handheld, because there was no way in hell she’d wake up on time otherwise.
Apparently he had, since it began a strident beeping at precisely six-fifteen, far earlier than she wanted to get up. She moaned and pulled one of the extra pillows over her head in a vain attempt to blot out the annoying sound. Almost at once she heard a muffled chuckle, and Derek plucked the pillow away from her.
“We have to be there an hour before the flight leaves to check in.”
“Just another reason why I miss having my own ship,” she grumbled. Having to follow someone else’s schedules and rules was definitely no fun. But since the Zephyr-class ship was still sitting back i
n Chicago and the Avalon was gone forever, she didn’t have much choice but to push herself out of bed. Now that she was a little more awake, she was able to focus more clearly on Derek, who stood a few feet away, wearing only a pair of loose-fitting pants and with his hair slightly damp, which seemed to indicate that he’d already showered. A flicker of warmth kindled within her, and she knew it wouldn’t take much to fan that spark into a raging fire.
Unfortunately, she really couldn’t afford the time to give in to that urge, not if she wanted a proper shower when she could still get one.
“It’s not fair, you walking around like that,” she remarked, digging in her luggage for a clean pair of panties. “Positively distracting.”
“Sorry,” he replied, although he didn’t sound very contrite.
“Please tell me you’ve built some time for breakfast into this ungodly schedule of yours at least.”
“I have, or I would’ve let you sleep until seven. But we need to keep things moving.”
Despite his bare torso, he looked very brisk, very businesslike. So she knew it was better to shower quickly and allow enough time to pack and eat, especially since she had no idea what would be available once they got to Hunan Province. She sort of doubted there was anything like Margarita’s in that once-thriving region.
Although her thoughts couldn’t help wandering to what it might have been like to share the shower with Derek, she still enjoyed herself, marveling at the feeling of the seemingly endless flow of water over her bare body, the sweet scent of the shampoo and creamy lather of the soap the hotel had provided. And since the bathroom here also had a molecular hair-setter, she gave herself another headful of long, loose waves before wrapping a towel around herself and going out to get dressed.
“That’ll never work,” he remarked as she plucked a fresh shirt and pair of pants from her suitcase.
“What won’t work?” she responded, glancing down at the clothes she held. They seemed simple and comfortable, the perfect thing to wear on a long flight.
“You looking like that. Everyone’s going to think you’re one of the news anchors instead of only a member of the research crew.”
The off-hand comment oddly pleased her, but she managed to shrug and say, “I kind of doubt that. But thanks.”
Derek smiled and finished buttoning his shirt. His own suitcase was sitting open on a rack at the foot of the bed, and as she watched, he folded the lounge pants he’d been wearing earlier and put them away. The bathroom had been conspicuously clear of his own toiletries, so Cassidy assumed he’d packed them once he was done.
A quick glance at the chronometer on his wrist, and then he asked, “How soon will you be ready?”
“Ten minutes, max. I want to throw on some makeup, and then I’ll close everything up and be good to go.”
She proceeded to do just that, not bothering with much more than some lip color and a quick flick of the eyelash darkener. Back on the Avalon, she wouldn’t have done even that much, but she was going out in public now and figured she’d better look as if she’d made some sort of attempt at being presentable.
Judging by the way Derek was gazing at her as she finished packing, she had an idea that she might be a little bit more than merely presentable. That was fine, though. Being on the receiving end of such open admiration was a new sensation for her, but she wasn’t going to lie and try to tell herself she didn’t enjoy it.
“Ready,” she told him, quite unnecessarily, as latching her suitcase shut was indication enough that she was done with her preparations.
“Good. There’s a restaurant right here in the hotel, so I figured we could eat there, save some more time.”
Since she didn’t have any better alternative to offer, she nodded and went on out to the hall, letting him perform one last inspection of the room to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind. Apparently satisfied, he closed the door behind him, and then they took the elevator downstairs.
“Are we going to eat first and then check out, or vice versa?” she inquired.
“We’re already checked out. I took care of it while you were in the shower. We can still leave our bags at the concierge if you like, but — ”
“No,” she broke in. For some reason that didn’t feel right to her. Not that she had anything enormously valuable in her suitcase, but it was the only thing she could really call hers right now. She didn’t want to leave it with strangers. Maybe it would seem odd to the staff at the restaurant for her and Derek to have their luggage with them, but so be it. The hotel was close enough to the stratport that such behavior couldn’t be all that unusual.
He nodded, and they traveled the rest of the way to the ground floor in silence. The restaurant wasn’t too far from the bank of elevators, and the man at the hospitality desk there didn’t seem put off at all by the suitcases they carried. Instead, he guided them to a table by the window, activated the electronic menu embedded in the tabletop, and left.
Luckily, the items on the breakfast menu weren’t nearly as exotic as those on the bill of fare at Margarita’s, so Cassidy was able to select eggs and toast and sausage, although these all promised to be fresh, not the processed soy substitutes you got in Luna City. The setup here was more like what she was used to as well, where you pressed the touchscreen to indicate your selections, and then they’d be brought out to you by a server. She also ordered coffee, thinking that she needed it, and also that it would probably be better than anything she’d had on the Moon.
Derek made his own selections, and then he said, “We have about forty-five minutes to get to the stratport.”
“Is that enough?” she asked uneasily.
“It should be. We’re less than five minutes away, and places like this are used to people in a hurry. Our food should be out in no time.”
He was proven correct in that, as a waiter came by with their coffee less than a minute later. Cassidy always took hers black, mostly because she never completely trusted the additives you got in the spaceport cafes she tended to frequent, and so she blew on the surface of her coffee to cool it down, watching as Derek tipped some cream — which looked real — and one small half-spoonful of sugar into his.
“What’s the procedure like?” she inquired.
“The procedure?” he echoed, cup of coffee paused halfway to his lips.
“At the stratport. Remember, I’ve never flown that way.”
“Nothing too bad. They’ll scan your fingerprints and your retinas, check your bags. You’ll also be scanned for weapons. It feels a little intrusive, but it goes quickly enough. After that we’ll go to a waiting area until the flight’s called. From here the trip should take about five hours. They’ll feed us some kind of lunch, probably, but I can’t vouch for the quality, so it’s good we’re filling up here.” Up until then his expression had been serious enough, but then his dark eyes twinkled slightly. “Anything else?”
“No,” she replied, wishing she had more experience with all these things so she wouldn’t feel like such a rube all the time. “That seems pretty basic.”
“It is. But they are very security conscious, so….”
He let the words trail off, but she knew what he meant. There was no way they could have possibly gotten on board a stratcaster without their little visit to the identity scrubbers the night before. Even thinking about it now, Cassidy felt a nervous flutter in her stomach. Yes, both her prints and her retina had been tested and apparently passed, but that was with the scrubber’s equipment. Would the modifications he’d made really stand up to a real-world test?
Well, she supposed they were about to find out.
The food arrived then, and she made herself eat, forcing her thoughts away from what might lie ahead. It was harder than she’d thought it would be, partly because they had a view from the restaurant of one of the runways at the stratport, and she saw several of the sleek silver craft taking off and landing. In a little more than an hour, she and Derek would be on one of them.
He s
eemed to guess at the reason for her silence, or maybe he was worried that the hotel restaurant’s surveillance might pick up their conversation if they spoke about anything too suspect. Whatever it was, he ate quietly, too, cleaning his plate, and Cassidy did the same. As he’d said, better to eat now when the food was good. And it was good, hot and fresh. Funny how little things like that could make such a difference.
When they were done, Derek ran the credit voucher over the reader embedded in the table, and they were set. After collecting their suitcases, they were gone, heading to the front of the hotel and the line of autocabs waiting there for patrons.
It was another mild, sunny day, and Cassidy took a deep gulp of the fresh air before the cab door closed behind her. She couldn’t help wondering if she’d ever get to breathe air that fresh again.
* * *
Despite telling himself that it would all be fine, that the scrubber obviously had known what he was doing, Derek couldn’t help holding his breath as he placed his right hand down on the scanner while simultaneously looking into the retinal imager. If this goes south, I hope Cassidy knows to get out of here and pretend she doesn’t know me….
But nothing did go wrong. The light on the scanner went green. The official manning the scanning station glanced briefly at his I.D. and the data displayed by the device, then handed Derek back his identification before saying, in a very bored tone, “Have a nice flight, Mr. Chung.”
He let out a breath but didn’t look back, knowing that doing so would only reveal his worry that Cassidy might not be so lucky. However, less than a minute later she was through the station as well, clutching her suitcase. “Now what?” she murmured.
“Bag check,” he said, and pointed.
This part of the process was considerably less worrisome, considering neither of them had anything more incriminating in their bags than a few changes of clothing and some necessary toiletries. After their suitcases were scanned, they were tagged and sent off to be loaded on the stratliner, and he and Cassidy were given electronic vouchers to reclaim their luggage at the end of the flight.
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