“Oh, that miserable old woman who always ends up on the manure duty because everyone dislikes her,” Suse said. “I’m not surprised; she’s always eavesdropping, when she gets a chance. So it must have been the black-haired woman who’s been stuck working with Zuzu who told you about us. One of the new women.”
Suse glanced at Nance as she spoke. It was obvious that she had negative feelings towards the comely woman. As in, is that woman going to try to horn in on my territory?
“Well, of course,” Texi replied, getting into the act. “When some of us who are fixing the vehicles were complaining about needing more parts, and one of us came up with the notion of asking the guys with the sleek ships, and a fancy building somewhere nearby, Dian mentioned that she’d heard that there were girls around who had dealings with them.”
“The mechanics thought that the Neotsarians might be willing to trade for, or sell equipment, if some established Settlement people whom they already knew and trusted would intercede for them,” added Jeb. “And since I’ve been befriending the new people, they asked me to approach you and Mimi.”
“You better be planning to keep all this from leaking to the Elders,” Suse said. “That Roland guy that you’re so tight with hangs out with the Elders. What’s to stop him from dropping a hint among the old men as to what the girls are up to? I’m really not looking forward to getting whipped half-dead.”
Nance could not help gasping.
“Would they do that?” she asked.
The look Suse gave Nance said that she was incredibly naive.
“Of course they would,” was all she answered, but some of her frostiness evaporated.
“I guess Nance’s reaction to what you said, tells you that we’re not going to rat on you,” Jeb said evenly. “Be assured that I won’t say anything to Roland; what he doesn’t know he won’t be able to talk about. We’ll keep this business among us young people, how’s that?”
*****
“I guess a good portion of this spy business amounts to being able to tell lies with a straight face,” said Texi after they had separated from the two girls.
They had arranged that the five would meet when the girls’ next visit to their boyfriends was imminent. It would be happening in a couple of days, when two of the sleek space ships had left the Settlement Space Port on regular flights. The vessels, The Mission people, living as they did at the Space Port, had noticed, took off every two weeks, and stayed away for seven days. Thus, some of the personnel of the mysterious Facility, presumably, spent one week out of three, away from there. Suse and Mimi claimed that it was the more senior of the staff who got to rotate in this fashion; the peons, even of the Neotsarians, remained on-planet most of the time. And apparently, according to the girls, there were a handful of people who never got to go anywhere; one of the boyfriends had called them “the captured slaves”.
The girls said that the men picked them up with a flyer from a small clearing on the forest side of the gravel expanse which was the Port. They did not know or care for what purpose the clearing had been created; for them and their paramours, it was simply a handy, hidden meeting place. Jeb, Texi and Nance agreed to be there at the appointed hour; Texi with his list of the parts that were needed.
“Can you bring a flyer or a flit, Texi?” Jeb asked. “I’d rather not depend on ‘the boyfriends’ for a ride back to the Settlement.”
“Yeah. I’ll take a flit,” Texi agreed. “It’ll carry the three of us, but won’t have much room for stuff. That way we’ll have an excuse for making the second trip, which, presumably, will be the attack on the Facility.”
He was feeling edgy, now, that things we’re about to start happening. He marvelled at how calmly Jeb was taking it, and even Nance just seemed to be excited. Well, maybe she had the personality to become an Agent, while he was more suited to being a mechanic. That might not be so bad; Jillian and Joe had made the combination work for them. Although it was going to tax his patience to watch Nance tease information out of some Hounds by charming them; well, he was just going to have to grin and bear that scenario, if he wanted to keep Nance happy.
*****
“So how did it go?” Sarah asked, as soon as Texi and Nance showed up, at Hera’s Hope.
“We got a little sortie arranged,” Nance answered gleefully. “The girls were not a problem in the least; we just had to agree to keep their involvement with the Neotsarians, as those people call themselves, a secret from the Elders of the Settlement.”
“Jeb’s good,” Texi conceded. “He talked Suse and Mimi into waiting for us at the place where they meet the guys, the next time they’re to see them. That’ll be in the evening in two days, just as soon as the two space ships that take trips off-planet, have left on their next voyage. Apparently a fair number of the Facility personnel leave on them, and they’re the higher level workers.”
“That’s good news,” said Sarah. “The ones lower on the pecking order should be easier for us to deal with.”
“And there are a handful of workers in the Facility,” added Nance, “who are ‘captured slaves, who never leave the place’. Wouldn’t you say that we’ve got the right target?”
“Well, I’ll be,” Sarah commented. “Sounds like those girls knew rather a lot. They may want us to keep secrets, but the Hounds certainly aren’t hanging on to theirs. Maybe the confusion, frustration, whatever, among the Hounds, has been going on for far longer than we realized.
“I can’t wait to get in there, and see what’s what.”
Texi thought that the women he was associating with these days were entirely too fearless. He hoped that the y-chromosome set would not have to pull them out of some really nasty hole before this was all over.
“Don’t be too impatient, Sarah,” he said. “Let Jeb, Nance and me scope the place out. You don’t want to be letting on who and what you and Dian are, before we have some idea what it is we’re rushing into.”
Sarah wrinkled her nose, and looked at Nance.
“Is your husband going all Coryn on me?” she asked.
Nance giggled.
“Sort of, isn’t he?” was her response.
CHAPTER NINE
“So, sweet Suse, why have you and Mimi brought strangers to our meeting place?” asked the Neotsarian who had wrapped his arms around Suse from behind, and was pressing himself against her in a lewd fashion, even while eyeing Nance hungrily.
“We agreed to help them find out if you people could supply them with vehicle parts,” Suse replied, taking the mauling in her stride. “The newcomers have been helping the Settlement by getting our space ship, and our flyers and flits, into usable shape, but now they’ve run out of spare parts. Someone thought that maybe your Facility would have extras, since your ships make regular trips off planet, and Jeb found out that Mimi and I were in contact with you guys, and asked us to introduce him to you.”
She pointed Jeb out to the two fellows who barely glanced at him, so busy were they ogling Nance, even though she was dressed in drab grey, and wore a black kerchief on her head. Texi wanted to strangle them both, but kept a blank face. He was good at that; he had grown up as a servant-class Kordean, and had learned to hide his feelings, no matter how strong, at an early age.
“And who are the other two persons?” asked the guy who had his arm around Mimi, stressing the word persons.
Mimi did not have Texi’s restraint, or Suse’s calm.
“Rolf and Sevi,” she snapped, “if you want to fuck Suse and me, you better stop leering at Nance! I’m sure not going to lie down on my back for a guy who’s more interested in some other woman, and I doubt that Suse will put up with it either!”
“Take it easy, Mimi,” Suse said to her while grabbing one of her mauler’s hands and bringing it up to her small breasts. “Nance isn’t a threat. She’s gone on Texi, everyone knows that. That’s probably why she came along with him, and his equipment list. I think she’s afraid that you or I might vamp him.”
Well. The
two of them made quite the pair, Texi thought. No wonder that they were afraid of getting whipped if the Elders found out what they were up to. The Settlement Elders liked their women modest, and chaste, and these girls were obviously neither. With who else, besides Rolf and Sevi, were they getting it on?
He glanced at Jeb, and saw a half-smile play on the Agent’s lips. Jeb was probably figuring out how he could make use of the knowledge he was gathering, while everyone (except Texi) was ignoring him.
“Hey, Rolf and I are willing to take the three of you to talk to Morri, the fellow who’s in charge of the outfit when the important guys go back to civilization, to party, probably,” the Hound hugging Mimi said. “Morri might be grateful to us for bringing in eye candy, even if she’s keen on someone else.”
“Can we follow your flyer in our flit?” Texi asked. “We thought that maybe if we were able to get some of the things on my list, we could haul a bit back right away. Not much, but a few essential items that we need desperately.”
“I trust that you have something to trade for them,” said Rolf with a sneer.
“We sure do.” Texi grinned at him. “I think that your Morri will be suitably impressed with our merchandise.”
Jaime had come up with the “merchandise”. There had been a slight panic in Hera’s Hope when The Mission members realized that they could not count on trading the Settlement’s products for the vehicle parts. With Suse and Mimi insisting on secrecy from the Elders, and Jeb having promised it to them, there had been no way to even explore that notion. Another brainstorming session had followed, and after a few ideas had been tossed around, Jaime had suggested that he fake a collection of experimental Armed Forces vehicle schematics.
“Can you do that?” Jillian had asked him.
He had grinned at her.
“Sure can. Remember, I spent time at the Mallora Pilot Training Facility, and I did it when Carovan was running the place—he who now is in charge of the Experimental Vehicle Division. Of course, what I’m visualizing couldn’t possibly be made operational, but it sounds like the big shots aren’t around right now, and even if they were, they wouldn’t be putting the plans to trial until after we’re long gone. Me and this ship’s computer will come up with a disc full of data that is going to look absolutely authentic, and seem like it’ll be worth way more than the equipment we’ll be asking for.”
A copy of the little disc was now in Texi’s inner pocket, out of sight.
“If you’re asked how you got it,” Jillian had instructed him, “be vague. If they insist, and make them insist seriously before you cave, tell them that one of our number—don’t name any names, absolutely refuse to do that—worked at the Experimental Vehicle Division, a while back, and happened to get his hands on that thing. He or she is a smart cookie, and understood what was there, and sort of just happened to take it. If they ask about security protocols, say that you know nothing about such things, but that the person who took the disc is very bright, and surely knew what he or she was doing.
“If you can make it sound like we’re holding back something, they’ll be more likely to swallow the rotten fish that we’re feeding them.”
“You can’t bring your flit into the Facility,” Sevi said now. “But we’ll come, or send someone, to open the gate so that you can walk in.”
“You’ll do it,” Rolf told him. “Or get someone else to do it. I’m going to be a little busy with my girlfriend here. I’m feeling a little needy. Haven’t had a woman since the last time Suse came by.”
Sevi took the flyer’s controls, while Rolf and Suse crawled into the back, Rolf uncovering Suse’s chest even as he helped her in. Nance shuddered at the sight, thinking again about how young Suse and Mimi obviously were, for all their sexual proclivities.
“Those girls are going to get hurt bad, sooner or later,” she muttered as she climbed into the flit to sit between Texi, who was piloting, and Jeb.
“You’re likely right about that,” Jeb agreed. “However, if they’re playing with fire, they have freely chosen to do so—unless rebelling against your parents, and other authorities, is not considered a free act. Besides, we don’t have the leisure to worry about their morals, or whatever; we have bigger fish to fry.”
Indeed.
*****
Two men, armed with laser pistols, came to let the threesome into the compound. They ogled Nance who stood up very straight, even as she batted her eyelashes just a little bit.
One of them spoke into a com he was carrying, and then unlocked and opened the access gate, slamming it ostentatiously shut, after allowing the visitors to enter.
“We’ll take you to Morri,” the one with the com said. “He’ll decide if what you’ve got to sell is worth the parts on that list of yours.”
He indicated the sheet of paper which Texi had folded, and stuck into his front shirt pocket for visibility.
“Sure,” Texi agreed laconically, ignoring the looks directed at Nance, and glances Jeb was throwing all around him.
They had decided earlier that Texi would behave as if he had no interest outside of the transaction he was planning on; the single-minded mechanic was his role. That left Nance and Jeb to do the looking around. Jeb had figured that they would get more of an opportunity to snoop if it seemed like a couple of them were along merely as an afterthought, to help when it came to carrying stuff. Although, Nance needed to show curiosity—ignorant curiosity—since she was the one who was to lure Morri into allowing them to be shown around the Facility.
Accordingly, Texi followed at the heels of the man with the com, while his companions trailed behind him. Nance made a great show of gazing about her curiously, if slightly foolishly, keeping the attention of the second man who was walking behind them, on herself. Thus Jeb could use whatever wizardry had been implanted into his body, to take notes for later study.
They followed their guide into a large, low, one-story building. The door banged shut behind them, and for a brief moment Texi found himself fighting down panic. He did not like locked doors, especially not, when there seemed to be little need for them. Who were these people locking out, did they expect there to be unknown dangers on the planet? Or, were they locking someone in, rather than protecting themselves from something local? What was it that Suse and Mimi had said about the “captured slaves” who never got to leave the place?
“Is this one of those places where scientists do experiments?” Nance asked the fellow who was following her and Jeb.
“You mean a laboratory?” the man queried in return.
“Yeah, that’s the correct name, isn’t it?” Nance responded, seemingly foolish and ignorant.
She was perfectly prepared to feed the Neotsarians’ prejudices about women. It was a tactic she had had the occasion to use in Trahea, now and then, and she was aware of its power. What had attracted her to Texi in the first place had been the fact that he had seen right through the dumb but pretty girl act that she had been putting on at a do—at the moment she couldn’t remember why she had been doing it that time, but she had never done it without a reason, so there had been one.
He had asked her to dance, and she had willingly accepted the invitation; he had not been the handsomest man at the do—wait, it had been a wedding—but one of her girlfriends had pointed him out as someone who had an apprenticeship at the Space Port. That meant that he had a secure future ahead of him, although Nance had not really cared about that, either; she had not been looking to pair up. Flying solo had been lots of fun—thinking of that, she recalled why she had been putting on the dumb act: that time it had been a game for her and her best girlfriend. What was the most idiotic thing they could get a tipsy guy to say to them by batting their eyelashes at him, and pretending to be stupid? Every now and then they had compared notes in the women’s loo, and laughed themselves silly.
“I get the distinct impression that we men are a butt of some ridiculous joke,” Texi had said, while they did a slow dance, and she had fluttered her la
shes and simpered.
She had noted that he had penetrating eyes, and they had been boring into hers, questioningly, but with good humour. She had started to giggle. It had been a good thing that the dance had been a simple, slow one. Had it been one of the intricate ones, she would have made a total mess of it.
“Don’t tell me you’ve caught on!” she had said when her chortling was under some kind of control. “You’re the first one!”
“Caught on? I may have caught on to something, although I don’t know what,” he had responded. “To some way by which bright young women amuse themselves at a wedding where the old aunties with sharp eyes are making sure that nothing even remotely unchaste goes on?”
That had started her giggling anew.
“Yeah,” she had answered when the dance had ended and Texi had begun to escort her—not back to her seat but to the refreshment stand. “My girlfriend Leah and I have this little game we sometimes play at dull functions. Which one of us can get a guy she dances with to say the stupidest thing, just by flaunting her feminine wiles and looking silly. You wouldn’t believe the things some guys come up with!”
“Oh, I’d believe,” he had said, laughing. “I’ve known some prize, masculine fools. I guess they’re only getting their just desserts, being laughed at by a couple of women whom they are, basically, insulting with their behaviour.
“Care for a glass of something?”
Now she was playing the very game which she and Leah had indulged in that night, trading on the silly egotism that many men displayed. The Neotsarians apparently were absurdly prone to it, perhaps for the same reason that the Kordean males had been. They lived in a class-conscious society, and, as Texi had told her, having had a Terran explain the psychology to him: often in such societies, those who could claim a small class advantage over others, simply assumed that they were the smarter ones. Since in the lower ranks of such societies the men were generally deemed superior to women, many of them believed that they were innately the more intelligent sex.
Love and Intrigue Under the Seven Moons of Kordea Page 18
