by M. D. Cooper
“Rio. You naughty thing. I thought you were a burglar or something. She bent and scooped up the feline, holding him against her chest and rubbing his ears.
He didn’t purr. He was too mad to reward her that way.
“I’m sorry I’ve been gone,” she whispered to him as she peeked into Aunt Ruth’s room. “Someone has to pay for your kibble, you know. It’s called a job.”
Both bedrooms were empty.
“Where did Aunt Ruth go?” she asked Rio. Even if he could answer, he wouldn’t, in his current mood. He didn’t unsheathe his claws, though, so he wasn’t as mad as he could be.
She carried him downstairs and went to the kitchen, then set him on the counter and riffled through the cabinet for his tuna snacks. Once there were opened, she placed them on the counter and Rio gobbled them up.
“You’re not too proud to accept goodies from me, are you?” she asked while he licked his whiskers.
A flash of movement at the corner of her vision got her attention. The window. She moved closer to look out and saw Aunt Ruth digging up a shrub.
Reece let out a sigh of relief. She’d really wanted to see her aunt and make sure she was well.
With a pat on Rio’s head, she went out the back door.
“Reece!” Aunt Ruth got to her feet and stepped forward to give her niece a hug. “What a nice surprise. What brings you here?”
“Just a visit. I wasn’t far away.”
“You’re not working too hard, are you?”
“I wouldn’t know what that means. I’m doing what my job requires.” She shrugged. “Why are you outside gardening at night.”
Aunt Ruth gestured up at the blaring sun. “What does it matter in the hot season?”
“True. But you tend to watch your shows in the evening.”
“I didn’t feel like sitting around. I wanted to be more active. Get some exercise, plus, this shrub got a blight and I want to get it out before it spreads to anything else.”
“Oh, that’s a shame.” Reece peered at the withered shrub.
Aunt Ruth shrugged. “Perihelion day. Some plants don’t make it through the hot season. I’ll plant something hardier in a few months when the worst of the heat has passed.” Aunt Ruth wiped her hands on her pants. Normally she wore a gardening apron, but that would be too uncomfortable.
“Did you see Rio?” Aunt Ruth asked.
“Yes. I bribed him with treats.”
Aunt Ruth nodded. “That’ll do it. And Dex is doing well? I have to say, it was kind of fun having him around for a few days. He’s such a lively thing.”
“I’m sure Rio was glad to see him go. But he’s great. Very happy to be back with Trey. He often comes to sleep next to my pillow at night. He’s actually rather sweet.”
“He is.”
“Want some help with this thing?” Reece gestured at the shrub.
“Oh, no, you’ll get all dirty.”
“I don’t mind. Clothes wash.”
Aunt Ruth shook her head. “Nah. I’ll get it. Do you want to make some iced tea, though? I could use some. We can talk for a little bit, if you have time.”
“I do. I’ll get it ready.” Reece went into the kitchen and got a pair of tall glasses.
Talking with her aunt and sipping tea while Rio gradually decided to forgive Reece for her absence, filled a hole in her she hadn’t realized had hollowed out.
Home was home, and she always missed it when she was gone.
After a good visit, Reece took the metro back to Smooth, feeling reenergized. She gave herself a mental timetable of a week. In a week, Smooth’s system would be entirely installed, tested, and the employees would be trained in using it. Reggie and Sequoia would be ready to take the lead as the company’s heads of security.
Last, but certainly not least, she’d figure out what the hell Donnercorp was up to.
One week. Then she’d get to go home.
* * * * *
First thing in the morning, Reece contacted Tabitha and Broderick in Rexcare’s HR department, and told them to put every bit of their energy into finding all direct links between Rexcare and Donnercorp. She advised them to look for conflicts of competitive interest and any issues with potential for acrimony.
Donnercorp was the source of Rexcare’s troubles, Reece was certain. She just had to drill down to find out why, and to find out who was involved.
Yep. All she had to do was penetrate a rival big four corporation. No problem.
It would certainly be one of the bigger challenges of her career with Rexcare. Once it was done, she’d have to ask for a raise.
In spite of the mountain of work ahead of her, the idea of getting to push Schramm for a raise boosted her mood.
She dressed in workout clothes and left her temporary bedroom office in time to see Reggie and Sequoia coming back from their run, sweaty and looking exhausted.
“So, you two did go run. Good. I like that you’re taking orders as directed. It bodes well for your future.”
In spite of herself, she was starting to root for these two to succeed in security. She must be getting soft in her advancing years.
Reggie and Sequoia panted a “Thanks,” wiping sweat from their faces.
“Go rehydrate and do some stretches. Don’t cool down entirely, though. We’ll do some disarming and tackling drills before I go out for the day.”
Reggie looked disappointed but resigned, but Sequoia merely nodded, resolute.
Yeah, Reece was starting to like those two.
“Go, before you get cramps!” she barked, to make up for her inner mushiness.
They went.
She heard a familiar chitter and turned. Dex came scrambling down the hall in that loping, four-limbed way of his. He grabbed her pant leg and scrambled up her body to sit on her shoulder.
She’d gotten used to this maneuver, though it had taken her aback at first. She reached over and scratched Dex’s head and neck with her forefinger and thumb, just the way he liked. He closed his eyes and leaned in, making a soft, almost purring sort of noise.
He was a cute little monster. She’d always thought a monkey would be stinky, but he had a warm, clean smell not too different from that of Rio. He was fastidious about keeping himself clean. Dex and Rio had a lot more in common than the two realized.
“Hey, little guy,” she said. “Where’s Trey?”
Trey didn’t let Dex roam free, since he tended to be too curious for his own good. Her partner had to be somewhere nearby.
Just then, Trey turned a corner and there he was, looking rumpled and sleepy in the t-shirt and elastic-waisted pants he wore at night. “Morning.”
“Let me guess,” she said knowingly. “You woke up starving and had eaten three kilos of food before you were even fully awake.”
He shrugged. “Something like that, I guess. It’s not my fault. My boosted metabolism makes me feel like I’m starving to death when I wake up.”
She no longer recoiled from references like that in regard to his augments, but they still made her somewhat uneasy. It always made her wonder about what his body was doing on the inside and how all that could possibly be healthy for a human. She never let him see that, though. It was her problem, not his.
“Anything good in there?” she asked.
Sage had been doing a good job of keeping them well fed. The guy had style, she had to admit. She liked his tendency to go big and bold on everything he did.
“There was, but I ate it all.” He grinned.
She laughed, causing Dex to chirp. He tended to do that when she or Trey laughed. It was almost like he was trying to laugh along. “I’ll go see if you missed some crumbs, then.”
“Good luck. Keep an eye on Dex while I get dressed, will you? He keeps trying to run off. He’s very curious about exploring new places.”
“I know. Sure, I’ll watch him.” She gave the monkey another head rub.
In the break room, she found a variety of fresh breakfast sandwiches from the deli, a pot o
f hot coffee, and a variety of fruit and pastries. Other than the fact that she was sleeping in an office, it was almost like staying at a high-class hotel.
“I bet Trey already fed you, but do you want some nuts and raisins?” she asked Dex.
He patted her neck with his tiny hand and she decided to take that as a yes. She got a pack of trail mix and emptied it onto a table.
“There you go.”
Dex walked down her arm and sat on the table, picking up a bebo nut. Those seemed to be his favorite.
After grabbing a sandwich, some coffee, and a dish of fruit, Reece sat at the next table beside the one Dex occupied. As accustomed to him as she’d become, she still didn’t feel right about eating at a table while an animal was on it. She didn’t even let Rio do that. She had, long ago, when he was a kitten. Then one day she’d gotten up to refill her water glass and come back to find Rio with his head in her cereal bowl.
Ever since then, she’d had a strict rule about sharing a table with an animal.
By the time her coffee kicked in, she’d eaten her small breakfast and guessed that Reggie and Sequoia had recovered sufficiently for some training.
“Want to come learn some security skills?” she asked Dex. Since Trey hadn’t returned for him, she’d just take the monkey along with her.
He looked at her with his big, round eyes, and she smiled. She’d thought Trey was a little cracked when he’d adopted a ghost monkey for a pet, but Dex had turned out to be awfully endearing.
She imagined it must be nice for Trey to have a sweet, nonjudgmental creature for a friend.
She had to wonder what that was like. Rio was always judging the crap out of her.
“Let’s go get this done,” she said to Dex. “I have a lot to do today.”
* * * * *
After a good session with her trainees, Reece left them in charge of Dex while she and Trey went out. She figured if they couldn’t handle a monkey, they couldn’t handle a company’s security. Fortunately, they seemed to like Dex.
“Want to fill me in on what you have in mind?” Trey asked as they walked to the metro.
“I know someone at Donnercorp. I want to talk to her. See if I can wiggle any information out of her.”
“A friend?” Trey moved to the inside of the sidewalk, away from a short, fat man who was glaring at Trey like he had stolen his life savings.
“I wouldn’t say that, exactly. We have a professional working relationship. We’ve been on opposite sides of the negotiating table lots of times over the years. She hired on at Donnercorp about a year ago. That might be just the right mix of elements to be able to get a little insider information.”
“Really? You think she’d tell you anything about her own company?” Trey seemed doubtful.
“Nothing she felt was damaging, or very important. But there are times when executives can’t make a deal because of some silly obstacle, and it’s up to the fixers like Raya and me to find a way around that—through unofficial means. We’re used to trusting each other to operate discreetly. It’s in everyone’s benefit, in the long run.”
“Except in this case, you want dirt on her company,” Trey pointed out as they turned a corner.
Reece saw the metro station ahead. “I don’t intend to burn my relationship with her—unless there’s no other choice. I’ll be careful not to put her in a compromising position.”
“Hm.”
It was a quiet sound, but the tone of it made Reece look at Trey. “What?”
“It just occurred to me that I’ll probably never be able to work solo in Machete. If the kind of relationship you have with this Raya is critical to corporations working with one another…well, that’s going to be a problem for me.”
“Ah. Well, you never know. Corporate types aren’t the same as the average person on the street. They see the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is whatever it takes to make money. Keep proving yourself as an asset, and you’ll be fine. Besides,” she added, “you have a great partner. Why worry about going solo?”
“For the fame?” he asked, injecting a comical tone into his voice.
“Hardly. A good fixer keeps a low profile.”
“Ahh. For the prestige?”
She shook her head. “There’s not a lot of that. The higher-ups recognize you, but we’ll never be at the level of the execs.”
He screwed up his face, as if thinking really hard. “Okay. For the money?”
“Now you’re talking. That’s definitely a reason.”
He laughed, and she joined in as they entered the metro station.
* * * * *
“Nice digs.” Trey looked up at the Donnercorp building.
Since it was a few years newer than the Rexcare headquarters, it was a little shinier. A little more modern. And four stories higher, because of course it was. The big four were always trying to one up one another.
Which was exactly what had brought them to this particular point in time.
“All right.” Reece nodded decisively. “In we go. Just be polite and say as little as possible until we get past the dragons’ lair. They’ll be looking at you sideways anyway for having mods, but you’ll be a modded person coming in with a rival from Rexcare. They probably won’t be too eager to let us in.”
“Is your friend expecting you?”
“No. If I’d asked for an appointment, she might have put me off for a day or two. Or five. I wanted to give us the maximum possibility to seeing her this morning.” She looked at Trey and his obviously synthetic eyes, trying to view him the way the Donnercorp people would. “I know why you don’t like wearing the cosmetic overlays, but it might have been a good idea today.”
He shifted uncomfortably. “I get it. And if you tell me I really need to wear them, I will. But hiding what I really am isn’t going to make anyone start thinking in a new way. Sooner or later, people in Machete are going to have to start seeing people with augments as just people with augments—not monsters or meat machines.”
She cringed at the crude phrase. Embarrassingly, she’d used the phrase herself, not that long ago. “Maybe. But we like things to be simpler here. More natural. What’s wrong with that?”
He focused all his attention on her. “Nothing. Everyone should live their own way. They just shouldn’t judge people before they even know them, because they’ve lived another way. And what’s more, circumstances could change. The universe is in flux, you know. There’s a whole lot going on out there that you’re oblivious to. Some of those things could end up having a big effect on the Orion Freedom Alliance, and, consequently, you.”
Reece let out a slow sigh. “Is it too much to ask that I be able to live the life I know and like, until I die? After that, Machete can change as much as it wants to. Well, except for the part where everyone’s prejudiced against you. That can change now.”
He smiled. “Unfortunately, people like you and me don’t get a vote when it comes to global shifts like that.”
“True.” She gestured to the entrance to Donnercorp. “So let’s go take care of the things we can.”
* * * * *
“And what time is your appointment with Raya?” The elderly man looking at Reece and Trey wore a button-up shirt patterned with palm trees. He looked like he should be bouncing grandchildren on his knee, not controlling the entrance of a major corporation.
“We didn’t have a time specified,” Reece answered. “I just needed to go over some details with her.”
She provided him her credentials, but it was only a formality. He knew who she was. She knew he knew who she was. Fixers had a different status than any other employee or citizen. Even executives weren’t viewed with the same level of caution, because they were bound to certain specific rules that fixers weren’t.
She smiled coolly at the grandfatherly man.
“I’ll tell her you’re here.” He said the words grudgingly, barely opening his mouth as he did so.
“Great. We’ll be getting some lemonade. It’s s
corching out there.” Reece smiled again, doing her best to appear charming, before leading Trey to the complimentary beverage station on the opposite side of the lobby.
“Lemonade?” Trey asked.
“Don’t tell Rexcare, but Donnercorp really does have the best lemonade. I’ve tried to find out their supplier, but no luck.”
She pressed a button and the machine hummed as it filled a pouch with lemonade, then dispensed it. A little window opened and she grabbed it before tossing the drink to Trey. “They even package them up all fancy so you can take them outside. They stay cold for ten minutes, even out in this heat. Cool, huh?”
He popped the spigot open and took a sip. Then he took a deeper drink. “Damn, you’re right. This is the best lemonade I’ve had in my life. Ice cold, too.”
“See? Sometimes when I’m downtown I pop by here and grab a few, even when I have no reason to be here.”
“A few?” He looked at her like she had bugs in her hair. “You just show up here and stock up on freebies?”
“Damn right. That’s why I wear the jacket. Big pockets.” She held out one side and showed him the internal pockets.
“Those are huge. But you’re kidding, right? That’s not why you actually wear the jacket.”
She took a long swig of icy, sweet lemonade. “You’ll never know.”
“I knew I’d find you over here.” a mellifluous voice said behind them.
Reece turned. “Wow, you got down here fast.”
“I was already on my way down. I have a meeting out of office.”
“Ooh, that sounds interesting. Anything you can hint at?” Reece eyed her slyly.
“Of course not.” Raya smiled.
Reece noticed Trey’s particular interest in her professional acquaintance.
“Raya, this is Trey, my partner.”
Raya offered him her hand. “Nice to meet you. I have to admit, I’m surprised. Reece has always been such a lone wolf. I guess you convinced her otherwise.”
Trey brightened. “I’m sure it was less because of me, and more because Rexcare decreed it, but thank you for the vote of confidence.”
