by M. D. Cooper
“Sorry,” Tanis gave him an apologetic smile. “I think I’ve had too many of these CME’s. I’d best swap to coffee.”
To his credit, Kaebel gave a rueful laugh. “I guess my stories of meeting the head of manufacturing at C&R Industries isn’t as exciting as your stories of climbing all the mountains in the system.”
“Well, I’m sure your work is challenging, just in a different way,” Tanis said as sweetly as she could manage.
“Nice try,” Kaebel winked. “I’ll give you an ‘A’ for effort. I guess I need to find some hobbies. It’s just…with cramming my way through school, landing this job, getting up to speed, there hasn’t been a lot of room for the ‘fun’ version of me to get out.”
“I’ve had times like that,” Tanis admitted. “Luckily, I get to do what I love full-time, now.”
“Kicking people’s asses?”
“You’re just not going to let that go, are you?” She chuckled and brushed her knee against Kaebel’s.
“It was seriously badass!”
She couldn’t help but laugh at his enthusiasm. “You know, there’s a lot more about karate than just beating hulks into submission—though I’ll admit that’s a nice side benefit.”
“Is this the part where you go commune with spirits in the mountains?”
Tanis gave him a mock scowl. “You know I was kidding about that, right? I’m not into that hocus pocus—but I do believe that each of us does have a spirit, and that you need to get mind, body, and spirit into alignment to find true peace.”
Kaebel cocked an eyebrow as he regarded her with a half-smile on his lips. “That sounds a bit like hocus pocus.”
“To each their own,” Tanis replied with a shrug. “It works for me; you should try it sometime. The silver lining is that if you don’t get the whole inner peace angle, you at least get some serious ass-kicking skills.”
Kaebel lifted his drink—whiskey again—and took a sip. “I suppose that makes sense. It does seem to work for you.”
He took the opportunity to let his eyes slide down her body and back up, and Tanis gave him an encouraging smile.
She’d worn a light blue, well-fitted blouse, paired with dark grey slacks that weren’t quite tight, but certainly weren’t loose, either. Her feet were still bare, and she’d taken the time to color her toenails to match her top. Her hair was swept back in a clip with loose curls of hair framing her face.
She had to admit that she looked more put together for Kaebel than she normally did for Peter.
“Constantly working out can get you a body just as good as any mods,” Tanis said, feeling a bit disingenuous about the statement. Though she’d always had an almost willowy figure—a benefit of growing up on a low-g world—she did rely on mods to keep her fit and make up for missing leg day from time to time.
“You know,” Kaebel said, his eyes shifting to look at the bar’s exit. “We could continue this conversation in one of our rooms.” His finger trailed along her forearm, unexpectedly sending shivers up her spine.
Tanis had been considering that very thing for some time. Her conversations with Kaebel had made it abundantly clear to her that working for Division 99 would stretch the bounds of what was an otherwise monogamous relationship with Peter.
“My room’s a bit of a mess,” she said sheepishly. “Mind if we go to yours?”
Kaebel slid off his stool so fast he nearly fell. “Damn low-g,” he muttered as his face reddened.
Tanis wrapped an arm around his waist. “Gravity or the whiskey? Either way, I’ll keep you steady.”
“I like that plan,” he said while sliding an arm around her waist as they exited the bar.
Tanis rested her head on his shoulder as they walked across the lobby toward the lifts. For a moment she felt content, but then, as Kaebel’s hand slid down onto her ass, a wave of guilt washed over her, and it took every fiber of her being not to flinch away from him.
As the lift doors opened, Tanis pulled away from Kaebel. “I’m…I’m sorry. I thought I was ready to move on, but…well, I guess I’m still getting over someone else.”
Kaebel’s face fell, but then he squared his shoulders and nodded. “I understand.”
“Really?” She was surprised he’d acquiesced so easily—it was more maturity than most people his age displayed.
“Yeah, I’ve been in that place before. I could kinda tell you weren’t sure of yourself; you’ve run a bit hot and cold since we met.”
“That obvious, eh?” Tanis asked aloud.
“Not too bad,” Kaebel gave her a winning smile. “And I appreciate you spending time with me. You’ve made this trip one to remember.”
The sincerity in his voice struck her. “Well, we don’t have to part ways; it’s still awhile ‘til I need to hit the sack, and I do enjoy your company,” she told him honestly.
Kaebel glanced back toward the bar. “We’ve lost our seats, couple of black-suited goons took them.”
Tanis took his hand. “There’s another bar by the pool. Let’s go lay on the deck chairs and watch the starships—before the sun starts to rise again.”
“Deal.”
* * * * *
Tanis stayed up with Kaebel until nearly oh two hundred. Though there were still romantic sparks between them, it was more of an honest chat between friends.
She felt a bit guilty that most of her side of the conversation was fabricated, but she did her best to weave real events in, just changing names and circumstances to match Bella’s past.
Even so, she felt a bit of a bond forming with Kaebel, one that she wished she’d forged as Tanis and not Bella. Chances were that he would despise her if he were to learn that everything about her was a lie.
Eventually they parted ways, sharing an almost chaste kiss that had Tanis feeling guilty all over again. Genuinely enjoying time with Kaebel seemed to feel like as much a betrayal as actually having sex with him.
Thank stars this will all be over tomorrow—I hope.
Somehow, though she had a plan and had its execution mapped out, she didn’t feel confident that everything would be wrapped up in a day.
DISCOVERY
STELLAR DATE: 02.23.4084 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: The Golden Gazelle, Hunting Lodge
REGION: Ceres, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
Darla said, as Tanis drank her coffee at the hotel’s breakfast café.
She watched as two of the Jovian Combine leader’s advance security detail sat down at a table on the far side of the café. These two weren’t dressed like ominous security goons, they looked just like vacationers here for hikes in the mountains, but Tanis could tell from their demeanor that they were paying very close attention to their surroundings.
The fact that they were on Sawyer’s list of Jovian security goons helped too.
&nb
sp;
Tanis gave a sharp nod.
Darla continued.
As she drew a long sip of the hot brew from her cup, Tanis wondered about that. How much of this mission was real, and how much was just a red herring to get a shot at the Jovian Oligarch?
With luck, she’d find out in a day or so.
* * * * *
Tanis whiled away the day with another hike, a few katas by the pool—which turned into a demonstration against a holo-opponent for the crowd that gathered—and then a long swim.
She knew that, when dinner came around, Kaebel would be returning from his day of meetings and would want to meet at the bar. She didn’t want him to get caught up in anything, so Darla hacked his schedule and set up a bogus meeting for him with a company on the far side of the planet to keep him out of the way—he’d certainly be annoyed, but at least he wouldn’t get hit in any crossfire.
After her time at the pool, Tanis drew a warm towel around her shoulders and walked to the secondary lift bank that ran up the back of the hotel.
Tanis shrugged.
The lift stopped at the sixty-seventh floor, and Tanis stepped out and pulled the towel from her shoulders, its rapid-wicking having fully dried her already. She draped it over her long silken coat that rested across her left arm, while whistling a soft melody.
She turned the corner outside the lift bank and walked down the hall toward her room. One of the now-ubiquitous Jovian security goons walked past, giving her a sidelong look. She didn’t think anything of it—they gave everyone measuring glances—but once he passed her, the man’s gait slowed just a hair. She gauged it, and determined that she would reach her door before he turned the corner for the lift bank.
Tanis stretched languidly and dropped her towel to the floor.
“Oops,” she muttered while turning to scoop it back up, noting that the Jovian had suddenly become intensely interested in a mural on the wall. She dispersed a nanocloud.
Tanis sighed as she reached her door. She slipped her hand into her folded coat and wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her lightwand.
Darla made an appreciative sound.
The AI didn’t reply, as Tanis reached her door and waved it open, doing her best to appear entirely at ease while every fiber of her being was ready to fight.
Her feeds showed the room to be exactly as she’d left it, but she would eat Claire’s stupid ball dress if that were the case. However, when the door slid aside and the room appeared to be empty and undisturbed, she wondered if poofy dress would indeed be on the menu.
Not trusting her vision, Tanis dispersed a fresh passel of nanoprobes into the room, trying to enter with Bella’s carefree stride while waiting for someone to jump out of cover and strike her.
The moment she moved past her stack of crates, a voice said, “That’s far enough.”
Movement behind her caught her attention, and her nanoprobes showed the Jovian she’d passed in the hall blocking the doorway.
Tanis dropped into a ready stance, right hand tightening around her still-hidden lightwand, while her left grasped the end of her towel.
“Who’s there?”
A slight shimmer in the air moved out from around the corner. It wouldn’t be visible to anyone without highly augmented vision, but Tanis could make out slight changes in the cool air currents blowing down from the environmental control vents.
She kept her expression curious and searching, not giving away that she’d spotted her visitor, but then the figure dropped their stealth and saved her from the charade.
“I am.”
Tanis recognized the speaker immediately. It was Demetri Korva, head of Oligarch Alden’s advance security team.
“You’re with all the security types that have been crawling all over lately,” Tanis said, as her brow lowered in a deep scowl. “What are you doing in my room?”
“The correct question,” Demetri said, as his gaze darted to the crates next to Tanis, “is what are those doing in your room?”
“Is there somewhere else I should be keeping my belongings? I thought that was how this worked. I rented a place to put my stuff and to sleep.”
“Don’t be coy with me, Bella,” Demetri took a step forward, his heavy brow lowering in a scowl. “You have weapons in those crates—we picked up the ion signatures on one of our sweeps. Faint, but it’s there.”
“I have a few show weapons,” Tanis admitted. “Stuff I use in performances. All perfectly legal.”
Demetri shook his head. “Why don’t you open them, and we’ll take a look?”
Tanis considered her options, wishing that there was one that didn’t have her outing the Infiltrator Chameleon to the Jovians. The fact that the oligarch’s security was hunting for ‘Tanis Richards’ was not something she wanted in the TSF’s records.
If she killed the IC first, then the body would not be logged as hers, and she’d never end up on the books as a wanted criminal.
“Look,” Tanis said, shifting her speech to sound sharper, her words clipped. “I’m here undercover to keep an eye on things for the visit. I have a few weapons and armor, should they be needed; normally, no one would know they’re there, but I guess your scan tech is good enough to sniff them out.”
Demetri didn’t look impressed. “Undercover.” He said the word like it was utter nonsense, not a question at all.
“Yes. I’m TBI.”
“Pass me your tokens,” he replied evenly. “I’ll call them into the local office.”
“I’m operating out of High Terra,” Tanis replied. “Locals don’t kn
ow I’m here. I’m oversight for them. You can reach out to Inspector Sawyer of the HLPD. He’s already vetted me.”
One of Demetri’s eyebrows slowly rose. “Sawyer.” Again, it didn’t sound like a question.
“I assume you’ve spoken to him?”
“Yes. I’ll query him, but I’ll get my own verification. Pass me the tokens.”
Tanis sent Agent Sasha’s ident tokens and TBI codes.
“Now open the crates,” Demetri instructed, as the guard behind her stepped into the room and closed the door.
Tanis nodded to Demetri and turned to the crates, passing the unlock codes to the top one and pushing it open. Within were neatly folded outfits, each set into a vertical slat in the crate. Of course, underneath them all was a pulse rifle.
“Pull out the clothes. Slowly.”
Tanis nodded to the bed. “Some of these outfits are worth as much as you make a year. I’m going to toss them gently to the bed. You wreck them, you’re paying the bill.”
“Just shut up and do it.”
Reaching into the back of the crate Tanis pulled out a grey pantsuit, folded it over once, and then tossed it to the bed. She followed it with a green and white flowing dress, and then reached down, sticking out her tongue.
“Should be a headband in here that goes with—”
Her finger found the pulse rifle’s trigger and passed the biolock check.
Fhummm!
The pulse rifle’s concussive blast tore off side of the case and slammed it into Demetri.
Tanis didn’t wait for him to recover before placing a foot atop the case and kicking off into the air. Her other foot hit the wall, and she pushed up once more, pivoting so her feet hit the ceiling. The momentum compressed her into an upside-down crouch.
