“All right,” Lira said, after a pause she hoped Chao wouldn’t notice but was fairly sure he had. “That’ll help explain the Chinook, I suppose. A MonAg executive might actually have access to a ship like that, whereas most mere mortals don’t have that kind of opportunity.”
“Our thoughts exactly. The data is being crunched as we speak. But we might as well move on to the, ah, physical enhancements. Who wants to go first?”
“I will,” Lira said at once. Not that she was all that eager to have her retinas sliced and diced, but at least that way Rast could see that it wasn’t quite as horrible a procedure as he was probably imagining.
“I will,” he said, almost at the same time. His gaze met hers, as if to say, I refuse to let you step in first just because I am hesitant.
“Geez, kids, should I flip a coin?” asked Chao, clearly amused by their posturing.
Rast’s voice was low, almost a growl. “No need. I will go first.”
Oh, of all the — Lira threw up her hands. “Fine, go first. It’s not as if you’re saving me from certain death or something, Rast. I’m going to undergo the same procedure immediately afterward.”
A quick flicker of those amber eyes toward her. She wasn’t totally adept at reading his expressions, not yet, but she could tell he was not going to entertain any further argument on the subject. Continuing to bicker in front of Hunter Chao would be counterproductive at best, so she just lifted her shoulders and settled back in her seat, arms crossed.
“Now that we’ve got that settled,” Chao said, “care to step into my operating theater?”
Rast made a sound in the back of his throat that might or might not have been a growl. Even the insouciant Hunter Chao looked a little discomfited.
“Um, that chair over there,” he told Rast, and pointed.
The Stacian got up from where he’d been sitting and settled himself into the indicated chair, which didn’t look terribly dissimilar from the kind used by dental professionals the galaxy over. It squeaked under Rast’s bulk but appeared that it would more or less survive the abuse.
Chao stood as well, and went over to an autoclave cabinet, the kind that kept all its contents in rigidly controlled sterile conditions. Before opening it, he dipped his hands in self-skinning latex solution, then reached in to pull out the retinal reassignment instrument, which to Lira’s eyes looked more than a little like some of the medieval torture devices she’d once seen in a history book.
Stacians couldn’t actually turn pale, but she thought she saw Rast’s fingers tighten around the aluminum frame of the chair. It buckled slightly, but not in an area that would affect its usability. All she could do was hope that Chao hadn’t noticed.
“Really, this won’t hurt a bit,” he said, as he bent over Rast’s tense form, moving the shining metal device closer and closer to the Stacian’s left eyeball.
Even Lira felt herself blinking in sympathy, although she could tell Rast was doing everything he could to keep his eye open as wide as possible. A whir, and a flash of light, and then…
“Next one!” Chao called out, and quick as lightning lowered the device over Rast’s right eye.
A second brilliant burst of light, and Rast was blinking up at the ceiling, his forehead furrowed.
“Everything looking all right?” Chao inquired. “No blurriness, no dark spots?”
“No,” Rast said slowly, opening and closing his eyes several times in rapid succession, as if to make sure the side effects Chao had mentioned weren’t going to appear after a few moments.
“Great. Then it’s your partner’s turn.”
The chair creaked again as Rast got up from it. As Lira passed him, he reached out and put a reassuring hand on her elbow, a quick gentle touch that she wasn’t even sure Chao saw. Just as well. She certainly wasn’t in the mood to be explaining her relationship with Rast to anyone.
She sat down and leaned back into the headrest. Chao approached her, a little more confidently than he had Rast.
“Ready?”
“Sure.” She forced her eyes to stay wide open, although the impulse to blink seemed stronger now that she was trying so very hard not to. Judging by the delicate wire contraptions Chao had set down on a little table nearby, he had the means to keep her eyelids propped up by force if necessary, but she certainly didn’t intend to go down that road.
Then he was bending over her, and a flash filled her field of vision. Dancing bright and dark spots followed immediately afterward, and then her vision cleared. She didn’t have much of a chance to do react, however, because Chao was leaning down once more, this time over her right eye. Again the world was obscured by a flash of brilliant light. Just as Rast had done, she blinked several times, making sure the tiny flickering spots were only a temporary phenomenon.
Her vision cleared, and she let out a little sigh. One task down, anyway.
The fingerprints were much easier. Chao took a mold of all her fingertips, then set about making delicate little overlays generated by the 3D printer that were perma-sealed to her fingers.
“Noting will take those suckers off,” he told her, as she raised one hand wonderingly in front of her face and peered closely at her new fingerprints. The fusion of the overlay to her fingertips was flawless; if she hadn’t known what he’d done, she would never been able to tell.
Rast submitted to the procedure without comment, although she noticed he, too, held his fingers close to his eyes, as if believing he’d be able to note the difference. “Impressive,” he finally allowed.
“Best in the business.”
“Humble, too,” Rast said, his tone so sour that Lira wanted to laugh. For whatever reason, he did not appear to be a fan of Hunter Chao.
A shrug. “What’s the point?” He went to a different workstation and picked up a small booklet with a blue cover — an official Gaian off-world travel pass. Archaic, in these days of subspace transmissions and digital information that could be sent from one side of the galaxy to the other in just a few seconds, but there were still worlds that were officially off the grid and required actual paperwork. Next to it was an intricately folded piece of thick vellum that she assumed was the Stacian equivalent.
“Your papers,” Chao told them, handing Lira the blue booklet and Rast the piece of vellum. “All electronic files have been processed and disseminated throughout the necessary databanks. As of now, you’re no longer Lira Jannholm or Rast sen Drenthan.”
Rast made a disapproving noise at that, and Lira supposed she really couldn’t blame him. He still had some standing with his people — although she didn’t know how much longer that was going to last, with him effectively AWOL at this point. She, however, was glad enough to say goodbye to Captain Lira Jannholm and her record of disgrace. Flipping open the booklet, she saw her new name was Adriana Ayers. That was pretty, and she found herself grateful that at least Hunter Chao hadn’t burdened her with something difficult to pronounce or spell.
“Hello,” she said, turning to Rast. “Adriana Ayers, new accounts executive for MonAg. And you?”
For a second he stared at her, mystified, and then he bowed slightly. “Janth sen Lhannick, at your service.”
“Oh, you kids.” Chao was regarding them with an amused tilt to his head that told Lira he had probably guessed the true nature of their relationship. “Also, here are new handhelds programmed with your fresh identities, and with access to some fairly hefty credit vouchers. Jackson wanted to make sure you could get what you needed when you needed it.”
Lira took hers, and, after a brief hesitation, Rast accepted the proffered handheld as well, slipping it into his pocket without looking at it twice.
Chao said, “Well, I think you’re set, and Jackson’s covering everything, so — ”
Up until that moment Lira hadn’t even thought of how they would pay for Chao’s services, which she knew had to be astronomically expensive. That Jackson was willing to do such a thing for them told her maybe he still cared more than she was wi
lling to admit. Then again, he probably wanted to do whatever he could to ensure their success so he would be entitled to full disclosure once their mission was accomplished.
If it was accomplished.
She began to say something about how indebted they were to Jackson, but in that same moment Chao’s handheld beeped, and he reached down to pull it out of his pocket. He held it to his ear, then said, “Sure. She’s right here.” And he extended the handheld to Lira. “It’s for you.”
Mystified, she took it from him. “Hello?”
Jackson’s voice came through, clear but somehow small. No wonder, since the signal would have to be bounced through a number of subspace repeaters before reaching her here on Miris Prime. “Lira. I have some new information for you.”
Her attention sharpened. “Go ahead.” From the corner of her eye she could see Rast sending her a quizzical look, and she held up a hand, indicating that she needed him to hold off on any questions.
“So I started doing some digging on those Bathshevan mercs, as I said I would.”
“And?”
“Turns out they were hired by none other than Gared Tomas.”
Lira sucked in a breath. Then again, this wasn’t completely unexpected. If it really had been Tomas who’d planted the tracker in her makeup case, then it stood to reason that he’d be the one to call in the mercs to go after her on Gaia. “Okay.”
“You don’t sound surprised.”
“I had a sneaking suspicion.”
“Hmm.” Jackson’s tone indicated some disappointment. Clearly he’d wanted to surprise her with this information, and a bland “okay” probably wasn’t what he’d been expecting. “Anyway, it gets better.”
“Define ‘better.’”
He chuckled. “Even more interesting. So, okay, you took off with Tomas’s ship, so it’s natural enough that he’d be holding a grudge. But what’s not exactly natural are the large deposits he’s been getting at regular intervals at a certain out-of-sector branch of First Galactic Trust.”
“Jackson, Gared Tomas has his fingers in more pies than I can count. I’d be shocked if he weren’t getting large deposits in various banks at regular intervals.”
“True…but you might be interested to know exactly whose accounts this money was coming from.”
She could tell he wanted to amaze her with the information he was about to impart, so she said, “All right…whose?”
“One Admiral sen Trannick.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
At first she couldn’t say anything, just stood there with the handheld pressed against her ear. Then, “You’re sure.”
“Of course I’m sure. The deposits began approximately three standard weeks ago.”
Just when Tomas hired me…
“You there, Lira?”
She cleared her throat. “Yes, I’m here. I got that. Anything else?”
“That isn’t enough?”
“It’s more than enough, actually.”
“Well, I’m going to keep digging. My hacker friend on Gaia apparently took a liking to you. She’s sent me some leads on how to dig deeper into sen Trannick’s accounts. We’ll get this figured out one way or another. Now that I know things point toward Eridani…”
“…You’ll know better where to look.”
“Exactly.” Jackson paused, then asked, “Everything okay over there? Hunter take care of you all right?”
Lira replied immediately, “Perfect. Everything is in order, and he did a top-notch job. I can’t begin to thank you — ”
Jackson broke in, sounding almost embarrassed, “Hunter’s good people. So what’s your next step?”
I haven’t a clue. But she knew she couldn’t let Jackson know how lost she was feeling right then, as if everything beneath her feet had turned to quicksand. She needed to talk to Rast, tell him about these latest developments, and that meant getting back to the Chinook where they could talk in private.
“Haven’t quite figured that out yet,” she said calmly. “But if you come up with anything else, call me on the Chinook. We’re heading back soon.”
“Got it. Can you put Hunter back on the line for me?”
“Sure.”
She pulled the handheld away from her ear and extended it to Hunter. He took it from her, then listened in silence to whatever Jackson had to say. Finally he ended the call and shoved the device in his pants pocket.
“Sounds like you two have pressing business elsewhere, so I’ll go ahead and take you back to your ship.”
“Thank you,” Lira said at once, glad that he didn’t seem inclined to stretch things out. Then again, that one-sided convo with Jackson had probably been about payment or something along those lines, so if he felt reassured that he wasn’t going to be left holding the bag on this one, he most likely wanted to move them along so he could work with his next client.
Rast was still shooting questions at her with his eyes, but all she could do was lift her shoulders slightly and mouth later. After that he subsided and nodded, then went to the hooks by the door so he could retrieve his coat. Lira did the same, while Chao slipped into the alcove he apparently used as his personal living area and got his own outerwear, a bulky coat roughly the color of the perma-crete that composed the apartment building.
Since Lira wasn’t inclined to conversation, and Rast seemed to have gotten the signal that any meaningful discourse would have to wait until they got back to the ship, the drive back was a quiet one. Still, she was grateful for the ride, glad that they wouldn’t have to suffer another soaking on their return trip to the ’port.
As Chao came to a stop near the entrance to their landing pad, he said, “You shouldn’t have any trouble with those credentials I gave you, but if you do, call Jackson, not me. He can get in touch with me if he has to, but at least that way there won’t be a direct connection between us. Got it?”
Grimly, Lira replied, “Got it.” She didn’t bother to add that if someone did discover something dubious about their faked identifications, getting a call out to Jackson might not be the easiest thing to do. But Chao had made it clear that he wanted no further involvement, so there wasn’t much else she could do about it. He’d done enough as it was.
She waited as Rast levered himself out of the back seat. He extended a hand to her, and she took it, glad of the warmth of his fingers against hers, even as the chill rain fell against her exposed skin. Good thing they didn’t have far to go to get back inside the Chinook; if anything, the storm seemed to have intensified while they were inside Chao’s loft.
They hurried through the driving rain to the landing pad, the access stairs lowering at the command she sent through the remote in her pocket as they approached. As soon as they were inside, she palmed the lock with one hand and reached up with the other to start undoing the buttons of her coat, a garment that had gotten slick with rain even during the few steps they’d had to take from the shelter of the overhang at the entrance to the landing pad to the Chinook’s access stairs.
“Do you want to tell me what that call was about?” Rast demanded, even as she settled herself in the pilot’s chair and began the sequence for takeoff.
“The mercs were paid by Gared Tomas, and Tomas’s funding came from your admiral,” she replied, fingers tapping out the familiar sequence of commands unerringly.
“What?”
“That’s about what I thought.” Toggling the comm, she said, “Miris Control, this is passenger ship Chinook taking off from Sector Three. Request departure permission.”
“Granted,” came back almost immediately, in the same bored tone Lira thought she recognized from their approach a few hours ago. Made sense, she supposed. Although several things had shifted in her own universe during those short hours, the same personnel who had originally given her permission to land were probably still on duty at Miris Control. “Have a good one.”
“Thanks, Control.” Since she had no clear idea of where they were going next, she figured the best thing to do w
ould be to head toward the outer edges of the system and hang there in the relatively open space until they decided on their next move.
During all this Rast had maintained a tight-lipped silence, but as soon as they were clear of the atmosphere and flying smoothly out to the dark borders of the Miris system, he said, “So what’s your interpretation? You know Tomas. I don’t.”
Her mind had been picking at the sequence of events, coming up with an explanation she didn’t like very much, although it seemed to be the most plausible one she could think of. “I have a feeling your admiral — ”
“He is not ‘my admiral’ any longer,” Rast said abruptly. “I am done with that. All of it.”
Lira swiveled in her seat so she could look up at him. He stared back at her, jaw set, eyes narrowed slightly. From his expression she guessed this further evidence of sen Trannick’s involvement had been the final blow, the thing that shattered his increasingly tenuous connection to the man who had been his superior. Even so, for him to so abruptly renounce everything he had worked so hard for, to make the break with his command — and by extension, his people — shocked her.
Quietly she asked, “Are you sure of that, Rast?”
He reached out to touch her cheek, fingers warm against her skin, and she closed her eyes briefly, recalling those fingers running over her body, stroking her. But now was not the time to be thinking of such things. Her body had had enough — if not to sate it, then at least to keep it more or less content for the time being. She might not be the captain of a ship any longer, but that didn’t mean she had to abandon all the self-control that had come along with attaining such a rank.
“More sure of anything than I ever have been,” he told her. “But enough of that. I want to hear what you have to say.”
A quick nod, a silent acknowledgment of what she knew he had just given up. They could discuss it later…or not. That would be up to him. “The timing is too convenient. I think sen Trannick, for whatever reason, had agents keeping tabs on me. They must have tracked me to Ganymede, and then on to Iradia when I decided I couldn’t stay in the Gaian system any longer. Since I was at decidedly loose ends once my one job piloting a freighter was over with, it would have been easy enough for the admiral to decide he could best keep an eye on me by having me take a position with someone right there on Iradia. A big enough payout to Tomas, and there I was, right under both their thumbs and knowing nothing of it. I’d still be there, too, if it weren’t for you.”
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