Cat and Company

by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  “Now what?” Lilly whispered.

  “She’ll sleep.”

  “I imagine it’s what comes after sleep that will be the critical phase,” Brant said. “Is this to do with Nichol August?”

  “I’m going to kill him,” Connell said as the fury rose up again and tried to swamp his thoughts.

  “That won’t solve anything,” Lilly said, her voice soft.

  “It’ll stop him coming at her again,” Connell replied. “And I’ll feel a whole lot better about it, too.”

  “Just finding him and putting him in a long-term clinic will do that,” Brant pointed out.

  “That just helps him.” He made his hand uncurl from the tight fist he was holding it in. “How can someone do that to another person? I don’t understand. And I thought I understood humans after all this time.”

  “No one really understands,” Lilly said. “It happens, sometimes. Very rarely, now.”

  “Doesn’t matter how rare it is. If it isn’t extinct, it’s still a deadly disease.”

  Yennifer’s shivering had lessened and her eyes slowly shut. Then, with a soft sigh, she turned over on her side. She was sleeping.

  Lilly squeezed Connell’s shoulder. “You should sleep, too. It could be a long while before she wakes once more and Zoey can warn you when she does. I’m going to start a search for August.”

  “I’ll do that,” Connell said sharply.

  “You can take over from me when you’re awake. You’re better at that sort of search, anyway.”

  * * * * *

  Yennifer stretched under the warm coverings. Her eyes were heavy with sleep and she was reluctant to open them. Except that the bed smelled wrong. It wasn’t her bed.

  That brought her all the way out of sleep. She opened her eyes, the first stirrings of alarm circling, making her heart beat harder.

  In the space of a heartbeat, she assessed the city systems. Everything was fine. Zoey greeted her with what felt a lot like relief.

  Then Yennifer absorbed her physical surroundings. The room was dark, the sky beyond the windows all black star field. The only light source was a faux fire burning silently in an ancient-styled fireplace on the other side of the room from her. There was a chair pulled up next to it, turned to face the bed. Connell was sitting in the chair, his legs stretched out and relaxed in front of him. He was asleep.

  As her glance settled on him, his eyes opened and he blinked. He looked at her. “You’re safe,” he said softly.

  “I know.” As soon as she had seen Connell she had known that with complete surety. Which was odd, for Connell had been one of her least favorite people for so long, constantly challenging her, arguing with her and general ruffling her feelings one way or another.

  Then she put it together. Connell had always been sarcastic. Angry, even. Often he had been frustrated that she didn’t understand something he had experienced in his many more years as a sentient. Yet never once in all that time had she felt threatened by him.

  “Sleep if you want to. Zoey is watching out.”

  She had a hundred questions, including questions she didn’t want to ask and didn’t want answers to. They hung in her mind anyway. Questions about Nichol. Questions about what she should do now. How could she carry on if he could reach out like this and with a simple message scare her so badly? She would never be rid of him….

  For right now, though, she was safe and that let her close her eyes again and sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Charlton Space City, New Cathay (Ji Xiu Prime), Ji Xiu System, Perseus Arm. FY 10.187

  Digging deep into the digital landscape had never been painful…until now. It was a mental pain, bringing with it flashes of mostly-forgotten things, images and memories that Bedivere would much rather forget permanently, because they provoked the physical response. Adrenaline, a hot, thick soup of it churning in his belly and his chest, making him short on breath. Nausea threatened.

  Just ahead, he could see the target. The answer was there…if he could reach that far. He stretched, groping desperately, knowing he was at the limits of his tolerance. He drew closer. It was there. He could see it. Dizziness swamped him, blurring the perfect representation of facts. Information. Knowledge.

  He grasped, tearing the data away from its source and clutching it to himself, before streaking upward to the surface.

  He broke surface, gasping. He staggered to his feet and over to the wall and propped himself up, panting. Cold sweat was clinging to his temples and his back, making the flesh under his arms prickle. The nausea stirred again.

  Connell thrust a glass of liquid at him. “Here,” he said.

  “I’ll throw up if I drink that.”

  “It’s electrolytes. It will help.”

  He took the glass and tried to sip it. He was breathing too hard. He put the glass on the shelf next to him and wiped at his temples with his shirt sleeve.

  Connell returned to the sofa and studied him. “You weren’t exactly delicate in there.”

  “I got it, though.”

  “I saw that. So did anyone else who was looking. So will everyone else who looks there later. You left footprints all over the place.”

  Bedivere lifted his hand and looked at it. It was shaking heavily. Already, he could feel the cravings start up, the still, silent voice whispering of escape, of peace and solitude in its sweet, deadly cadences….

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “If I’m right, if this cracks open Devlin, then it won’t matter a damn that he knows it was me.”

  “If he even gives you enough time to do anything with the information you just grabbed. For all you know, he’s got alerts and monitors and now he’s sitting up and planning how to deal with you.”

  “There wasn’t anything set on the data. You saw it. It was raw.”

  “Passive monitors. And don’t forget the human element. As soon as you make a move on this, Bedivere, someone will notice what you’re doing and that someone could run straight to Devlin and tell him. You can’t monitor humans.”

  “No, just the traces they leave in the digital world,” Bedivere replied.

  Connell frowned. “What did you get?” he asked curiously.

  “I know where Devlin got his body. I know who helped him.”

  “Sure. That was why you insisted you dive deep this time instead of me. So?”

  “So…just for a moment, I was able to follow Devlin’s digital trail.”

  “Then he is Varkan?”

  Bedivere picked up the glass and drank. The edge of the glass wasn’t quite steady against his lips, but at least he could drink now. He couldn’t have, a moment ago. The reaction was subsiding. Thankfully, so was the nausea.

  “No, he’s not Varkan,” he said flatly. “What’s more, I don’t even think he’s human. Not anymore.”

  Lilly came out of their room, half-asleep and yawning, belting a robe around her.

  “Did we wake you?” Connell asked. “Sorry.”

  “Did you two turn off external communications?” she asked. “I just had Zoey prod me into coming out and yelling at you.”

  “What’s happened?” Connell said sharply. “Yennifer?”

  Bedivere opened up the conduits and straightened up with a jerk. “Emergency meeting aboard the Hana.” He ran through the list of invitees. “It’s anyone who is anyone.”

  “Including me,” Lilly said and yawned again. “One of these days we’ll all get a good night’s sleep.” She turned back toward her room. “I’d better get dressed. The meeting is in a little over an hour.”

  “Just enough time for Varkan to collect the attendees and bring them here,” Connell observed. “Humans have adapted to instant transport almost too well.”

  “Thank you!” Lilly called over her shoulder and closed the bedroom door.

  Connell rolled his eyes.

  “She never asks for free ride. Ever,” Bedivere pointed out.

  Connell got to his feet. “I know. I guess I’d better change. You
might consider shaving, too.”

  Bedivere rubbed his chin, feeling the bristles rasp under his fingers. “I keep missing doses, with all this jumping around,” he complained.

  “You just don’t have a good enough reason to remember to take them,” Connell shot back and closed his bedroom door.

  * * * * *

  Toby read aloud the ship schedule for the day, which had been revised a dozen times already and the day had barely started. This emergency meeting Devlin had called had wiped out every plan Catherine had made for the day. She sat on the bed to put on her boots as he finished up, when the door to the suite opened. From the sitting room, she heard Toby’s voice say; “She’s in the bedroom.”

  “Thanks, Toby.”

  Bedivere. Her heart leapt, even as she looked at Toby as he lowered the virtual board in his hands. “What the hell?” she accused him.

  He shrugged. “He asked to see you when he came aboard. I complied. You’ve given no standing orders regarding Bedivere X and access to your time and attention.”

  “And you’re falling back into black and white reasoning, you sneaky sub-routine.”

  Toby smiled.

  Bedivere leaned around the doorway. “I see he’s warned you already. Can I come in?”

  Toby winked out and she made a mental note to deal with him later and got to her feet. “I’m just getting ready for this big meeting,” she told Bedivere. “Is that why you wanted to see me? Because I know as much as you about it.”

  “Devlin didn’t tell you?”

  “He hasn’t told anyone,” she complained, pulling on her jacket and untucking her hair.

  “Are you peeved because he didn’t tell you in particular, or because you just don’t know what he’s about to dump on us?”

  “Both, I think.”

  He was standing in the middle of the open area of the bedroom, his hands by his sides. He looked relaxed, yet there was tension across his shoulders. He was holding them just a little bit too straight.

  “Something the matter?” she asked.

  “The timing of the meeting is interesting,” he said, almost speaking to himself. “It came straight after, almost the instant after I—” Then he realized where he was and halted. He gave her a rueful smile. “I was hoping you’d be able to warn me, at least, of what was going on. I don’t like going into that room blind.”

  “You know everyone who will be in there,” Catherine pointed out. “It’s not like they still want your guts for garters over the gate thing. They’re all reasonable people.”

  “Until provoked,” Bedivere growled.

  She laughed. “You’ve never let anyone intimidate you in your entire life. You’re really going to let Devlin get under your skin?”

  His gaze was piercing. Measuring. “Is he under yours, Cat?”

  The kiss. That damn public kiss.

  “Is that the question you really wanted to ask me?” she asked softly.

  “I think…yes. Although I didn’t know that until just now,” he replied.

  Raw truth. That was something she had never gotten from Devlin even when he was being completely candid. Only in this moment did she recognize that Devlin always had something in reserve. Hidden. “You don’t like Devlin, do you?” she asked.

  Bedivere shifted on his feet, his gaze flickering to one side. She’d hit a nerve. Then he brought his gaze firmly back to her. “No. I don’t like him,” he said flatly.

  “And not because I’m on his ship, either,” she guessed.

  “Especially because you’re on his ship, Cat.” His voice was rough. “That’s not the only reason, though.”

  Her heart squeezed then hurried along. The air between them shifted, became thicker, harder to breathe. Her body tightened in response.

  He was staring at her with a peculiar intensity and it was almost as though she could read his thoughts. The desire there.

  Desire. What a weak word for what was burning in his eyes!

  She tried to speak. Then tried again. Her voice was weak, but it was there. “Then you are working something, after all.”

  “I…might.”

  Her body, her heart, thrilled at those two simple words. “Oh, Bedivere….”

  He moved closer. “I can’t say anything, Cat. Not a word. If I’m wrong, it will be the most spectacular crash in all of history. It’s Devlin Woodward we’re talking about and my reputation is worth spit these days. That just makes me the best person to chase this down. I have nothing left to lose and besides, if I’m right….” He drew in a deep breath, controlling the sudden flood of words, reining back the intensity.

  If he was right….

  There had been a few times in the past when Bedivere had been right in the face of the most overwhelming opposition.

  If he was wrong, then Devlin would crucify him. She had no doubt of that, not a skerrick of it. Devlin was a successful politician, which meant that he had buried his share of bodies that he had metaphorically slaughtered. Every politician had enemies they had dealt with one way or another and Devlin was very, very good at what he did.

  “Be careful, Bedivere,” she breathed.

  “I’ll start being careful in sixty seconds.”

  Even as she mentally formed the question, he kissed her.

  She had missed his kisses. She had missed him. Catherine sighed into his mouth and leaned against him and his arms held her up. Good, strong arms. She liked having to reach up to kiss him. She liked the way his big body always made her feel weak and feminine.

  Then she lost herself in the kiss. His lips were warm against hers. He was holding her tightly, almost plundering her with the kiss, as though he was taking every fragment of it and storing it for later. It was delicious to be wanted so badly.

  It wasn’t just Bedivere who wanted. Her body was throbbing with the power of it, bringing her attention to the aching and empty core of her. So she pressed herself against him even more firmly, feeling his good body heat against her.

  He broke the kiss, letting her go with slow reluctance and putting her back on her feet. His eyes had the sleepy look she knew from so many moments in the past and her heart gave another small jump. His thumb stroked her cheek.

  “You be careful, too,” he said and his voice was hoarse.

  “Always.”

  “I mean it.”

  There was an odd note in his voice that made her breath catch. She nodded. “I will.”

  He cupped her cheek with his hand for one precious moment, then left.

  Catherine gave him sixty seconds lead, then made her way to the boardroom. Now, like Bedivere, she wasn’t just curious to know why Devlin had called everyone to Charlton. She was also afraid to know.

  * * * * *

  The largest boardroom on the Hana could hold fifty people sitting down and a lot more if they were forced to stay on their feet, crowding around the long, narrow table and jostling each other for a view.

  The chairs had all been removed for this meeting and Devlin stood at the top of the long table. Catherine squeezed her way through everyone around the table, to stand next to him.

  “Are you all right?” Devlin asked in an undertone. He was looking at the board in his hands, then his gaze flickered toward her.

  “Fine. Why?”

  “Bedivere came to your room. I know how he can…upset you.”

  Her heart jumped, and not with delight. Coldness spread from her middle. Was Devlin watching her that closely…and how?

  Toby.

  Toby was part of Devlin’s ship. There was no other explanation. The AI lived by her elbow and had been of such assistance she had come to rely on him for everything. And he had shown Bedivere to her room.

  Catherine let a tiny fraction of her sudden caution touch her expression. A negative response would reassure him. “He wanted to know what the meeting was about. I, of course, couldn’t tell him. It wasn’t a happy meeting but we can’t talk these days without arguing, so…” She shrugged. “Business as usual.”


  Devlin’s mouth twitched. “You’re getting stronger,” he observed. “Good. I don’t like to see you suffer because of him.” He returned his attention to the board as the last of the attendees slowly made their way into the room, filling it to capacity.

  Catherine stared at him. What did Bedivere suspect about Devlin? What made him so cautious? What made him not like Devlin? Everyone liked him. He was the most popular man in the galaxy. He worked endlessly for both Varkans and humans, to make their lives better.

  Could there possibly be another side to him that she had never glimpsed, had never caught even a hint of in over ten years? With Devlin standing before her like this, it seemed impossible, as if Bedivere was merely clutching at straws.

  Devlin raised his head and addressed the room. “Thank you all for coming here on such terribly short notice. I assure you I did not call the meeting at this hour just to demonstrate the efficiency of Varkan transport, although if you noted that on your way here, I will consider that a small bonus.”

  A chuckle sounded.

  “Since the Periglus terraformed Kashya, I have had Varkans patrolling the Canum system and monitoring Kashya itself. Their one-man skivvers are so small they are almost beneath the notice of the Periglus.” He looked around the room, capturing the gazes of everyone there. He had everyone’s attention. Talk of the Periglus had that effect upon anyone these days.

  “Up until two days ago, the Varkan have been jumping into deep atmosphere, only a dozen or so kilometers above the surface in some instances. They arrive, scan and leave within a few seconds. The images they have brought back with them have been analyzed by a handful of xenobiologists—yes, we have a new profession,” he added with a stiff smile, as the room reacted to the word.

  “Heads-up, please,” Devlin said.

  The heads-up display replicated itself down the table, visible to everyone. Still images began to play on the screens, a few seconds for each.

  “As you can see, the greening of the surface of Kashya after the complete denuding of any growth or structures that were previously there has been completed. The foliage of the plants that are visible are unknown to us, which is not unexpected. The biologists tell me that these plants are most likely native to the Periglus’ home world, wherever that might be. Also, please note in this image…” He touched the board and the rippling display of photos halted, and was replaced by a single photo across all the screens.