Heart thumping in anticipation, he got unsteadily to his feet just as a picture fell off the wall. Reese caught hold of his arm to steady him and they hurried to the window. Nick gave a cry of jubilation at the sight of The Prince coming down to land in its previous position, just west of the town. The ugly ship had never been more welcome.
He turned to find Reese already putting his thick coat back on. Reese tossed Nick the other coat and they smiled widely at each other and raced to the door. The noise of the ship landing was almost deafening outside and other townspeople had come out to stare at it and ask one another what it was doing here. Seen from underneath, with lights illuminating the pale fuel smoke it was gushing out as it got closer and with the planet’s multi-coloured rings shimmering above it, the ship looked impressive and larger than Nick remembered. He irrelevantly tried to recall when he’d last seen it land from outside instead of inside.
Reese grabbed his hand and Nick looked round at him and nodded in response to the intention clear in Reese’s eyes. Together they ran through the dark streets, illuminated only by old-fashioned globe lights, past people and shops, following that earth-juddering sound. Reese slipped on ice but Nick kept him upright and they kept going at full speed, passing houses now and the odd inn, Nick suddenly desperate to see his sister and colleagues again.
They finally got out of the town and the ship was ahead of them, its charcoal colour and narrow back end making it resemble a gigantic whale stranded on the snow-covered ground of the desolate landscape. The sound of its engines vanished and silence seemed to descend over the whole planet.
The landing lights went out, making the ship almost invisible in the chill darkness. Nick had an ache in his side from running but he had seldom felt happier as he stared at the dark form. Reese’s hand was still linked with his as they marched forward, feet sinking down into the snow with each step and making the small distance take far too long to cross. This ship was his home and its presence meant he and Reese would never have to worry about slavers again. Everything would be all right now.
The main cargo door of the ship sank downwards, the bright interior once again lighting up their surroundings. Blinking, Nick couldn’t take his eyes off the ship and he smiled in anticipation of the reunion with his sister. He and Reese finally reached it, passing from snow to metal as they walked up the ramp into the docking bay, which felt pleasantly warm. The bulky form of the shuttle he had arrived on the planet in was in front of them so the crew must have stopped at the agreed landing site to collect it before arriving here.
He looked past it and saw that several members of the crew were donning coats and boots, ready to come out. The sight of one particular slender figure, safe and well, made him give a sigh of relief.
“Poppy!”
Dressed in a red padded coat with one boot on and the other in her hand, she put her foot down and turned her head, catching sight of him. Her face twisted into a glare. “Nick, what the hell happened? Where were you? I’ve been trying to get through to you for hours.”
Hours! He began to laugh.
Chapter Fourteen
“NICK!” POPPY exclaimed, with more irritation than pleasure.
He managed to stop his laughter as he and Reese came to a halt opposite the three people. “Sorry. It’s just that I’ve been on that hell-hole for nearly five days, caught between the choices of freezing to death or being forced into slavery. I was beginning to feel as if I’d never see any of you again.”
Poppy dropped her second boot and put her hands on her hips. “Five days? You’re not making any sense.”
He looked round and pointed at Sycophant Two. “You’re supposed to find out about stuff like time differences.”
Keith, who had been doing a good job of blending in with the walls, shrugged in an indifferent way. “I did. It was in my report.”
Nick and Poppy both turned to stare at the captain, who had been donning a bright blue frock coat and took a moment to notice. Prince raised an eyebrow as if to ask what the fuss was about. “Oh, yes, time passes far more slowly on Ocean than here. I knew that.”
“Is there some reason you left me stranded on the planet to die?” Nick asked through gritted teeth.
“Don’t be so melodramatic,” Prince said, which was rich considering the ludicrous outfit he was wearing and loud arrogant drawl of his speech. “You’re clearly not dead and you can’t expect me to tell Poppy every insignificant detail about a planet.”
Nick really was going to kill the bastard this time. It wasn’t just that the captain was incompetent but that he genuinely didn’t care about the welfare of anyone but himself. Prince wasn’t the least concerned about the dangers Nick had faced and he’d well and truly had enough. Nick took a step towards the scumass but Reese hurried past him and, before anyone could react, he threw himself into Prince’s arms.
Nick stared. Poppy turned round and stared. Sycophant Two’s mouth fell open. Nick blinked a few times but the image in front of him didn’t change.
“Thank you so much for saving us from such a terrible place,” Reese said to the captain who, having got a good look at him, wasn’t letting go any time soon. “I’m more grateful than I can say.”
The captain looked delighted by this proclamation.
“This is Reese. He’s been helping me with the investigation,” Nick said, not that his endorsement was needed any more as the two men were gazing at each other as if no one else existed, standing with their arms round each other as if they were posing for a romance novel. The sight of them together – the man he liked a lot and the one who made everyone’s lives miserable – made Nick feel ill.
“How useful.” The captain looked Reese over with even more interest.
“I’m hoping you’ll allow me to join the crew,” Reese said with a bright smile. The flirtatious kind that he had previously given to Nick.
“I’d be delighted. Let’s go to my room and discuss it.”
There was nothing Nick could do but watch as the men walked out of the cargo bay together and then Poppy turned to him. “What just happened? Who is that?”
“Reese is a friend.” Nick’s happiness at the ship’s arrival vanished like melting snow as he took in what he had just lost. Any dream he’d held of having deepening his relationship with Reese was destroyed in just a few short minutes.
It could have been exuberance at no longer being stuck on Ocean that made Reese embrace Prince, but, as much as he wanted to believe that, Nick knew the other man better by now. Reese had needed to get off Ocean and the captain was the only one who could make it happen.
Nick just wished that Reese had found another way.
Chapter Fifteen
“THE DU Lissin family tried to get you locked up by slavers?” Poppy asked in disbelief when, an hour later, they were all sitting around a table in the canteen that they apparently also used for conferences. Six members of the crew were here anyway, although there must be more people than this on the ship.
Reese and the captain had already got more closely acquainted and his place on The Prince was secure. Seeing the way Nick avoided his gaze, Reese wished things had been different as he genuinely liked Nick and found him far more attractive then he was likely to ever find the captain, but it was what it was. Now he was free to do the job he had really travelled out here for.
“One of them has to be the murderer,” Nick said, getting out his computer. He and his sister shared the same blue-grey eyes, serious air and attractive looks but that was all. Nick had been desperate to get back here and find out that she was safe but Reese hadn’t seen any of the same concern from her, although the captain had taken him away from them too soon to see much of their reunion. “Thanks largely to Reese, who got a job at the du Lissin castle to spy on them, we have pictures of most of the suspects.”
Nick brought up the images in the room, the images hanging, doll-sized, in the air and pointed out who each of them was, starting with the oldest. “This is Ember du Lissin, who
owns and controls the main company. She had a good motive for wanting her sister dead as Kass was selling her own export company, which would have probably cost the family money, having to start paying an outside company for exports. From his reactions, her husband seems to have had a close relationship with Kass, although we don’t know how close. Ember has two children: Mer, the oldest, who’s married to Keat, and Norla. Both children have management roles in the main company so they would have had a reason to want Kass dead too. Kass herself had a daughter, Arwyl, who’s married to Pos, and a son, Bop, who seems pretty close with Mung Sen Zhan, who’s part of a competitor company. If his mother objected to the relationship that could give him a motive for murder and if the children didn’t want to leave Ocean when their mother sold her company, that would give them both a motive.”
Reese listened with one ear, noting the logical way Nick laid out the information, while his eyes drifted to the people he didn’t know. There was an alien woman, Siglinde, who had lilac fur and fangs. He knew from her file that she came from a matriarchal planet where the men were strictly controlled by the women and he wondered how she got along with the captain. She had been introduced to him as the retail specialist, which didn’t really clarify her role aboard the Prince. The other two people were humans: the man, Keith, who Nick had initially blamed for not telling him about the time difference on the planet and Lyn, the pilot. Both of them were young and attractive, Keith having dark eyes and a dimpled smile, while Lyn had short blonde hair and striking blue eyes. They had both shot Reese angry glares during the meeting, which he had no idea what he could have done to cause. The first thing he needed to do now he was here was find out a lot more about the entire crew.
“You’ve made good progress with the case given all the problems you were dealing with,” Poppy said when her brother finished his summary of the facts.
“Reese did a lot of the work,” Nick looked at him directly for the first time since they had arrived here and Reese didn’t see the anger that he had expected over Reese getting friendly with a man who would clearly not have cared if Nick had died on Ocean. It was worse than that: Nick’s eyes showed hurt. He had genuinely liked Reese, who had let him down by siding with Prince. Reese wished he could explain why it had been necessary but that wasn’t allowed.
“He’s a useful person to have around,” the captain commented and Reese still couldn’t look at him without raising his eyebrows. Prince was dressed in the clothes of the British rulers and they had taken their fashion sense from regency England, so he wore laced shirt, breeches, knee-length boots and a peacock blue frock coat that came down to his knees. He looked as if he had escaped from a theatrical group.
Reese smiled at him, still playing the role of besotted lover as Poppy asked her brother, “Did you confront the family about the slavers?”
“I couldn’t or I woulda ended up in jail. We couldn’t even question them openly because we didn’t know what they might do to us next. Reese got a job at their castle and found out most of the information by looking round and speaking to the staff.” Even though he was unhappy with Reese, Nick was making sure he got full credit for his contribution, helping him as he’d said he would. Nick was the nicest person he’d met in years. Reese hoped he hadn’t messed up their relationship irretrievably.
“Excellent work,” Prince said, smiling at Reese in a benevolent manner that made Nick grimace.
“We still need to find the murderer,” Poppy reminded the captain in a dry tone.
“Yes, of course. I’ll help look into that myself after I’ve demanded an apology from the du Lissin family for their shameful behaviour.”
“We can’t prove they’re the ones who got the slavers to arrest me yet,” Nick said, “and the slavers are still a threat so, even with permits, I think anyone who leaves the ship should be armed. Also, it’s likely that the family will continue to lie to us if we speak to them now. If he’s willing, perhaps Reese should keep working undercover at their home and Poppy and I can do surveillance. Once we know exactly what it is they’re hiding and why, we can confront them.”
“Yes, I have decided that is what we shall do,” Prince said in a self-important manner.
“Will you assist with the surveillance?” Nick asked, in a way that suggested he already knew the answer to that.
“Certainly not while those slavers are still about.” Prince looked appalled at the idea. “I’m not leaving the ship until I get an assurance from the government about my safety. You don’t want me to risk my life, do you?”
Reese’s eyes widened at such blatant self-interest. Nick looked very much as if throwing Prince to the slavers was exactly what he wanted but Poppy managed to say semi-convincingly, “Of course not, sir.”
The meeting came to an end and Reese followed Nick out into the corridor, saying, “Could we speak privately for a moment.”
“Okay.” Nick took him to a small, basic room that was obviously his bedroom aboard the ship. Aside from some family holo-photos on the walls, it was pretty bleak: more like a prison cell than a comfortable personal area.
“I just wanted to apologise to you over Prince,” Reese said, unaccountably nervous. “I know you don’t like him and I hope you won’t want us to stop being friends now.”
“No, of course not.” Nick smiled. “I get it. I don’t blame you for being desperate to get off Ocean.”
“I needed this job too and a casual relationship with him isn’t a big deal. I doubt it will last for long but it gives me a chance to prove that I can do a good job working with you.”
“Yeah.”
The brief response bothered him. “So we can still spend time together, can’t we?”
Nick’s eyes warmed. “That sounds good.”
Chapter Sixteen
REESE FOUND that he was still part of the investigation, accepted aboard the ship, with barely any effort, although he knew it was largely thanks to Nick’s comments. It wasn’t why he was here but he decided to do the best job he could to find the murderer to be certain of staying part of the crew. It wouldn’t be a hardship as his curiosity had been triggered and he wanted to work out what the du Lissin family was up to anyway. Besides, he could hopefully rebuild his relationship with Nick while they worked together. He told himself that doing so would help his overall mission but he knew that finding out any dark secrets Nick possessed was the last thing he wanted.
Reese left the spaceship and walked to the castle the next day as if nothing had changed, to find the staff all racing about. Beja, the housekeeper, pounced on him in the kitchen, saying, “Ariel can manage without you today. You’ll be working for me.”
“What’s going on?” he asked as she led him out to a cupboard filled with cleaning supplies.
“Three of the five families who own everything on Ocean are meeting here in two hours, so the house has to look perfect.” She gave him a cloth and pot, her fur tickling his hand. “Take these and help Finn polish all the tables. He’s through there at the far end of the castle.”
She just had time to point him in the right direction before another member of staff hurried over with a problem. Reese left them and headed into the main part of the building, which he hadn’t seen before. The walls shimmered with bright colours and there were ornaments and pieces of three-dimensional holographic artwork that he guessed were expensive. Human-looking computer avatars wandered about when not needed and danced, sang or juggled to entertain people.
Reese had seen from the outside that the castle was four levels high but, as he went through one room and into another and then another, the length seemed to go on forever. There were living rooms, offices, two different dining rooms, rooms with virtual worlds in them for gaming and rooms he didn’t even know the purpose of. Finally he got to one where a man was wiping a table – one of the ones that glowed as if it had a fire lit within it – in the slow, methodical manner of someone who is profoundly bored.
“Finn?” Reese checked and the man glanced round, p
erking up.
“Yes?”
“I’m Reese. I’m supposed to help you.” They exchanged greetings and he opened his pot of polish and got to work on the other side of the table.
“I haven’t seen you here before,” Finn said. “Are you new?”
“I’m supposed to be a gardener – I started a couple of days ago – but I gather there’s a bit of a panic inside today.”
“Yes. Three of the heads of the main families announced this morning, with virtually no warning, that they were coming here. No one seems to know what it’s about, including the du Lissins.” Finn said the last words in a whisper, glancing at the door to make sure no one overheard him.
“Do you think it’s about the thing we’re not allowed to mention?” Reese whispered back.
Finn came round the table to speak even more quietly. “I hope not. It’ll cause big trouble if they’ve found out already.”
He went back to work while Reese tried to work out what he meant. Did he mean that the other families didn’t know about the death? If the government knew about it and members of the other main families had ties with the government, then how could it be a secret? Perhaps it was the fact that it was a murder rather than a natural death that was being kept quiet but, again, the government was already aware of this.
They finished in the first room and moved to another. They all seemed to have at least half a dozen coffee tables or desks or larger tables, so there was plenty to do. In the hall they each took a wooden banister, polishing their way up the stairs. He heard voices approaching and glanced at Finn, who gestured for him to keep back and carry on working.
“... Getting ridiculous,” he heard a woman say and, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that it was Ember du Lissin. “What do you expect me to do?”
The woman with her was her daughter, Norla. He recognised her curly brown hair and the cold expression that reminded him slightly of Poppy. “I’ll deal with everything,” she told her mother and they hurried past him and Finn without so much as glancing at them.
No One Likes Humans Page 6
