Death Dealer
Page 17
Nerishka rolled over onto her stomach, mimicking Dresden’s pose as he picked at the small sandwiches, making a face.
“Who eats this crap?” he asked, lifting a cucumber sandwich for Nerishka to see.
She grinned, grabbed it and popped it into her mouth. “They are delicious. You know, I think this place might have the best cucumber sandwiches in the universe.” She selected a second mini sandwich and polished it off.
Dresden shook his head and smiled, glancing over at Nerishka out of the corner of his eye. His gaze ran the length of her body and she smiled as her awareness of the man increased. But she tamped it down. She was running out of time and she had to get this over with or else she’d suffer the consequences.
A clean break. That’s what she needed. Quick and clean.
The way she liked to kill her marks.
Nerishka shook the thought from her head. What a ridiculous comparison.
But apt.
She was going to kill the two of them. She just needed to get up the courage to do it.
A message came over on Nerishka’s Link and by the stiffness of Dresden’s posture, she knew he was receiving one too. She shifted to sit cross-legged and reached for her drink as she played the recorded message.
Nerishka swiped the message away and studied the contents of her next mission. The AI wasn’t something she was keen on, but she had little choice. Ryan’s reputation preceded him and Nerishka knew he had a skillset she didn’t possess herself—he’d give her the advantage she needed. She’d just have to put on her big girl pants and deal with it.
Sighing, she shifted to a kneeling position and glanced over at Dresden. “What shall we do for the rest of the day?” She kept her tone light, hoping he wouldn’t pick up on her roiling emotions. Of course, with his mods, he could measure her heartrate, skin temperature, and blood pressure.
He grunted and boosted to his feet. “I just got a mission from Venez. Thankfully, I don’t ship out until next week. Want to extend this trip a bit longer? I know we have two more days but I’m enjoying having you to myself.”
Nerishka smiled and took the hand he offered, using it to pull herself up. He often did the little things that told her he cared. She was fully capable of rising to her feet herself, but Dresden would help her up, hand her into cars, open doors for her. It had nothing to do with her being helpless, but more a means of him showing his tenderness, his caring for her.
Nerishka blinked away the burn of tears in her eyes and slapped Dresden’s shoulder. “Race you to the shower.” She sped off only knowing he followed when she heard the thudding of his feet on the sand and then the boardwalk as they sped to the outside showers next door to the chalet’s porch.
After much laughter, she headed into the san, demanding privacy and claiming she’d had enough of his ugly mug. She’d showered and changed, then stared in the mirror, hating herself more each second.
When she opened the door, she found herself nose to collarbone with Dresden. He was leaning against the door frame, smirking. “You took your time. I was about to break the door down. Expected to see your body on the san floor.”
Nerishka punched his arm and rolled her eyes. “I was not long. Not as long as you take anyway.” She slid past him and then paused before rising on her toes to place a kiss on Dresden’s lips. The tenderness of the kiss almost brought tears to her eyes but again she pushed her emotions down.
Dresden returned the kiss then chuckled and pulled away somewhat reluctantly. He placed a finger on her lips and said, “Hold that thought, woman. I’ll be quick and then we can continue this and see where it takes us.” He winked and slapped her ass then headed inside the san.
Nerishka backed away the moment the door shut on her. Moving faster than she’d thought possible, she fled into the bedroom, gathered her clothing, so glad she’d packed light for this trip.
Seriously, for this place, all a girl needed was a bikini.
Two minutes later, Nerishka slid out of the chalet and hurried up the path to wait for the car she’d ordered. The only thing the resort hadn’t done without were the hovercars that transported guests to and from their chalets to the main building, and from there to the lift to the port above the world’s surface ocean.
She rode the lift to the surface without even looking out at the wonders around her. When she reached the port, protected from the planet’s ever-raging surface storms by grav-shields, she took a maglev to the first off-world shuttle.
As the maglev took off across the port, Dresden messaged her on the Link.
Nerishka didn’t respond to the message, instead leaving it unanswered.
Coward.
Yeah well. She wasn’t about to deny that. Nerishka sighed and shook her head at the thought of what Dresden must be feeling. She hadn’t even left him a note.
The shuttle would take her to a low-orbit station, and she booked passage from there to a larger transfer hub around one of the system’s gas giants. From there a liner would take her to the first destination Jeriah had listed in the orders.
Once that was complete, Nerishka crafted a message to Dresden, explaining that things between them were over. Then she deleted it. She recorded another, then deleted that as well. After a half-dozen more tries, she gave up.
Dresden messaged her a few more times, until the light-lag was too great, and his messages were queued for physical transport.
By then, Nerishka was on the shuttle heading toward the transportation hub. As she stared out of the window down at the stunning blue gem of a planet, she prayed he’d hate her and move on. She didn’t want that, not at all. But it was for his own good. That was the only reason she’d done it anyway.
Leaving him had been for his own good. And he’ll never know it.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
STELLAR DATE: 10.13.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Arraphka
REGION: Xerxes, Ayra System (Independent)
The space elevator settled onto the planet’s surface, spilling its passengers into Arraphka Tower’s arrivals concourse.
It had surprised Nerishka that Anahita, the advanced, metropolitan world in the Ayra System was without a space elevator, but Xerxes, the simpler agrarian planet did. Her research had led her to realize that once the status of the worlds had been reversed. Xerxes had once been covered with metropolitan sprawl, nearly all of which had been reclaimed by nature over a thousand years.
Although Xerxes had few cities, it was as though the inhabitants had piled up all of their advanced tech into the city of Arraphka, constructing a massive arcology that formed the base of the space elevator—a tower which rose over ten kilometers into the air, housing twenty million inhabitants.
It took nearly an hour to go through arrivals, take three lifts and then a long maglev the rest of the way down to the surface and the equipment bay where their transportation awaited them.
When they arrived, Nerishka saw that it was an all-terrain vehicle, capable of handling anything Xerxes had to offer. A pair of automatons were loading their cargo into the rear, and Nerishka nodded with satisfaction, barely breaking her stride as she headed to the vehicle.
She gave a roll of her shoulders and climbed into the passenger seat, waiting for the others to join her. Within moments, Dresden jumped in beside her while Judith and Kelem joined them in the rear seats.
Nerishka acknowledged the pair then turned her attention to the road as Dresden pulled out of the bay, driving past
the low buildings that spread around Arraphka Tower for several kilometers.
Out here, most of the businesses and facilities supported the farmland that stretched for hundreds of kilometers across an ancient seabed. They passed by equipment yards and food processing plants before moving into a sea of green fields stretching toward the valley’s edge.
At the top of the slopes that ringed the valley lay the next phase of their journey, a dense forest that stretched for a thousand kilometers across Xerxes’s surface.
The team rode in silence for some time, but as they began to approach the tree line, Nerishka realized how truly impressive the towering trees were.
“That’s a freaking jungle,” muttered Judith. “This is why I like space. No bugs and animals and plants.” She shuddered.
Nerishka chuckled. “Hey, you were forewarned. No turning back now.”
The woman snorted as Dresden turned off the main highway onto a dirt road that wound its way into the dense foliage. The road was filled with holes and Nerishka shook her head as they were jostled about. “Let’s hope we don’t destroy our equipment before we get there.”
“Most of it’s sitting on the stabilizing platform. We should be good.”
Nerishka nodded, then checked in with Lyra,
Lyra’s avatar nodded, a frown on her face.
Nerishka gave a mental shrug. The whole thing was just one mystery after another.
Nerishka sighed again, trying to ignore Dresden who sat silently beside her. He’d been altogether too quiet since they’d left the house on Nimrud Station.
* * * * *
After what felt like hours of driving—which actually did turn out to be fifteen hours and twenty-two minutes—Dresden slowed the vehicle to a stop in a broad clearing.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Judith muttered as she alighted from the vehicle.
They’d stopped in front of what at first appeared—from what little they could see of it through the underbrush—to be a fence. However, upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a long line of densely packed trees. The road veered off to the left, and from the maps, they could see that it took a very circuitous route before coming to the valley the team was seeking.
Kelem called out, “I’ve dispatched a handful of drones. Maybe there’s a way through so we don’t have to go the long route.”
“And what happens when we do get inside?” asked Judith. “Are we even going to be able to walk through that stuff. And what about all that equipment?”
“I don’t think we should jump to any conclusions,” said Dresden. “Could just be a row of trees planted to mark the end of this piece of land.”
“For what?” muttered Kelem as he worked. “To keep something in or keep something out?”
“Shit. What’s the wildlife in this place?” asked Judith. “Are we going to come up against deadly animals wanting a taste of human flesh?”
“A bit dramatic don’t you think?” asked Nerishka, hiding a smile.
Judith made a face but was saved from responding by a yell from Kelem. “We have a narrow entrance over there. I’m confirming a clear trail wide enough for the a-grav pad.”
Dresden hurried over to Kelem and Nerishka followed. But before she got there, Dresden was waving a hand at the team, calling for them to prepare to move out. As the crew grabbed their gear and packed the pad, Nerishka saw to her own gear, weapons and testing equipment.
She’d been grateful that Dresden had secured the vacuum sealed pod Lyra had requested to hold any degradable samples they took. It too was packed neatly onto the pad and secured.
Dresden drove the vehicle into the trees at the edge of the clearing and covered it with a camouflage fabric that rendered the vehicle invisible. Hopefully it would remain that way until the team returned from their trip.
Lyra made a noncommittal sound and Nerishka ignored her, hurrying over to the team, glad she’d worn her armor. Judith had complained about bugs and animal life, but their armor would protect against them. Nerishka had to wonder if the woman had a phobia or something and resolved to pay closer attention to Judith just in case she needed help.
Thus far, their trek down the winding jungle road had been interspersed with shafts of sunlight slicing through the trees, and periodic clear patches as they climbed the hills that ringed Arraphka. But as they began to walk into the denser foliage, that changed.
The sunlight was completely blotted out, and the forest floor became dim enough that Nerishka activated her IR and nightvision augments to get a clear view of the ground ahead.
A place she’d once called home.
She shook her head, thrusting thoughts of Valkris from her mind and focused on the mission. A part of her hoped she was wrong about this whole thing, that her gut was leading her on a wild goose chase.
That’s called wishful thinking, she muttered to herself.
DECAY
STELLAR DATE: 10.13.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Caspian
Forest
REGION: Xerxes, Ayra System (Independent)
Dresden walked ahead of Nerishka, with Judith behind her, trailing the a-grav pad. Kelem was on point, chopping at offending branches and clearing the way for them as much as possible.
For a moment, Nerishka hesitated. She didn’t really want to engage with Judith, but she ought to gain the trust of Dresden’s team, even if they were only together this one mission.
She rolled her shoulders and replied,
Judith chuckled.
Nerishka had been meaning to ask Dresden how much his team knew about his background with the Hand. The answer should be absolutely nothing. The fact that he was allowed to operate as a mercenary in the Inner Stars was something that still baffled Nerishka. She’d never heard of an agent retiring and not returning to the Transcend.