by Blaze Ward
Finn wondered if the man might consider working some freelance gigs on the side.
21
Everyone was in the suite when Rob opened the door and walked in. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have been surprised, but Nigel had gone so far as to bring in one of Longbow’s amplifier cases that happened to be filled with small arms, if you opened the secret compartments just right.
“Status?” Jorge asked, only after Rob had closed and locked the door behind him.
“I’m blown, but the rest of the operation may or may not have the semi-official blessing of the Governor,” Rob replied, filling a mug of coffee and taking a spot at the table.
Longbow had his medkit handy, next to a holstered pistol hanging from the back of his chair. Roxy had six ammunition magazines for a bolter rifle lined up on the table in front of her, with the weapon itself holding the seventh and leaned next to her. Nigel was tweaking that camera of his. The one that supposedly fired missiles. Jorge had settled for a shoulder holster and a pulse pistol identical to the one Rob had gotten returned. The only person missing was Raef, but that meant she was probably getting the ship ready to run like hell in the middle of a firefight.
Everyone relaxed some as he sat.
“Talk to me, kid,” Jorge ordered.
Rob quickly filled them in, with Jorge adding details around the comm call he had gotten from a waitress.
“So I paid the fine this morning, got all my stuff back, and one of the cops handed me a tram coin to get me home,” Rob said. “I need a shower, a shave, and breakfast. In that order.”
“Kid, you got off cheap,” Jorge laughed. “Last time that happened to me, I ended owing about double that.”
“You hadn’t had your cover blown,” Rob guessed. “I asked him to keep it cheap because that was coming out of my operations budget, and I got the impression that keeping us in the field damages his enemies in all sort of delightful and probably unexpected ways. In short, we’re playing the stalking horse for whatever other gigs the governor thinks will come up.”
“So we stand down?” Longbow asked, looking back and forth between he and Jorge.
“Far as I’m concerned, nothing official changes,” Rob said.
“And the Governor confirms Black Aurora?” Jorge asked Rob. “This is where either we blow things open or it all slots into place neatly.”
“That’s what he’s willing to own up to,” Rob corrected the assumption. “Maybe he’s setting us up, maybe not.”
“I’m willing to chance it,” Jorge decided. “You meet your girlfriend on the dock when her shuttle comes in and see if she can be seduced. Play it as tight as you need, but assume I’ll be arranging a meeting with Nakano to bring him aboard. Queen of the Borders is already pretty much signed and delivered at this point as our troop transport, although he thinks most of them are filming crew and extras, rather than combat troops. But the money was good enough and so was the part where he gets to play the villain, when we go back and film all the dramatic roles later.
“He’s not setting up a double-cross?” Roxy asked.
“Oh, I’m sure they all are,” Jorge laughed. “But they think a double will be enough on this one. I’ve got so many pieces in motion that they’ll all be confused. Same with Handsome. By the time it all gets out, everyone will assume they were part of the biggest practical joke ever played. And there’s something to be said for that, but not the way they’ll expect. Now, Longbow, what trouble have you caused?”
Rob watched the man shrug and relax, falling out of himself and back into who he normally played. Gone, the combat medic. Back the melancholy rocker.
“We have a rough cut of an album,” he said. “Twelve songs recorded well enough that a little studio magic could probably make them releasable. Not sure what the hell to do with it, since there was a chance we were going to be in a firefight this morning and I’d have to abandon everyone. Again.”
“Last time wasn’t my fault, Levi,” Jorge said sternly. “I warned you she was trouble on day one. You chose to ignore my gut instinct.”
“True, but still,” Longbow sighed. “For the first time, in more than twenty years, it might be possible. I mean really possible to finish this thing. And do it right.”
Rob watched Jorge’s eyes narrow. You could almost hear the gears engage and grind as Jorge calculated odds and angles.
“What would happen if we decided to take this show on the road?” Jorge asked suddenly. “Instead of necessarily filming a movie on them, we change skins in space, after we’ve left. Round up your friends and have a tour? Maybe we hire all those goons as tour security for a cover. You’ve got a new album and we pull a variant of the old broken-down tour bus when Queen of the Borders suddenly drops into orbit and has a nav malfunction.”
“At a minimum, that puts us in a studio for a week with Alicia under a deadline,” Longbow said, smiling just the littlest bit. “She prefers that sort of thing, says it focuses her. We might land planetside with hardened chips to sell or give away, so we’ll need a couple of pallets of blanks to burn. Nigel?”
“Will add it to the list,” the cowboy nodded seriously. “Lined up a supplier, just in case. He’ll need three days for one pallet. I’ll need to see about getting a second.”
Somehow, Rob wasn’t surprised that Nigel was that far ahead of everyone with his planning. His job was the hardest, since he had to play defense constantly, while outguessing Jorge’s crazy stunts so he had access to whatever gear the team might need.
Like Jorge suddenly becoming a band manager and Rob handling bookings. He knew Roxy could sing. The woman could do almost anything if she set her mind to it. And the extra cachet of impersonating the real Mrs. Jones would be hilarious, although they might actually list Roxy under her real name and tell everyone it was a cover.
“You’re already deep into it, aren’t you, kid?” Jorge was scowling this way.
“Mrs. Jones should join the other females singing backup on the final recording,” Rob said simply. “Then we’re back to before, with Nigel handling sound, me running interference, and you impressing the hell out of everyone.”
“It’s hell, being me,” Jorge announced, taking a sip of martini.
Rob laughed. Fukui’s seduction of Longbow might just blow up in everyone’s faces so spectacularly that nobody knew what hit them. And it might put them into the right spot at the right time.
22
The settlement had mellowed out some in the week since Rob had gotten into and out of jail, but there was an element of wildness tonight that hadn’t been there yesterday. Almost a musk in the air or something.
He had nailed down a platoon of armed men whose scores and backgrounds he liked. Veterans who would only bitch the usual amount when they found out that everything had changed yet again. Especially since they were still getting paid for training and might not even have to shoot anyone, if everything went well.
And he had left a message for Lilijana when she got back to the surface from wherever Wild Duck had gone in the last two weeks. That wasn’t enough time to really raid someone, unless you had perfect intelligence on the target going in.
It was, however, enough time to bluff your way in the front door and surprise someone with a loaded gun they hadn’t been expecting, like Rob or Jorge had done more than once.
No, what concerned him was that they had been gone just long enough to run someplace like 6725 Lacertae and back, spending a day picking up and dropping off supplies and getting more information from the folks on the ground. Or warning them.
But that was just paranoia speaking. It was also enough time to go lots of other places. Nakano just played his cards too close to the vest for anyone to really know what the man was doing, and his crew didn’t talk.
Rob practically smelled her as he entered the bar. Might not have recognized her, though, except he was paying attention and hoping she would come.
Lilijana wasn’t dressed like a pirate officer tonight. Gone were the long boo
ts and leggings and shirt and jacket. Instead, she wore a royal blue dress like a sheath for a sword over her glowing skin, with a gold sash tied around the middle to emphasize her muscles and curves even more than being sleeveless. Her strawberry blond hair was almost long enough to grab a handful in a sweaty moment, but not quite.
Rob let his eyes get big and appreciative as she walked right up to the table and lurked over him.
“Wow,” Rob said by way of introduction.
“I had considered just blowing you off,” she replied. “Leave you dangling, lest you get the idea that I might be your beck and call girl.”
“I’m happy you changed your mind,” Rob gestured for her to join him in the booth.
“Nope,” she shook her head with a smile. “You’re taking me dancing.”
Rob nodded and slid towards her. She didn’t step back when he stood up, so it was almost like climbing a girlie tree as Rob got to his feet. There might have been a little too much rubbing and touching as he did.
“Whatever I can do to please you, madam,” Rob held out the crook of his arm for her to take as they finally got untangled.
Not exactly the way he had intended to probe the woman for socio-politically perilous answers, but there were worse ways to go about it, especially if she wanted to step outside herself for an evening and be treated like a woman, instead of having to be the toughest man on the crew to get any respect.
“We’ll talk about that, too,” she smiled enigmatically up at him.
Outside, they headed to the nearest tram station. She skipped the first train as being too crowded and picked the second. They ended up in a car by themselves, so he turned and extracted himself enough to look at her.
“Jorge’s also got a message out for your Captain,” Rob began.
“I know,” she nodded. “Okonkwo told me, so I presumed that it would be good news and we should celebrate.”
“Just so,” Rob smiled. “I’ll hope you are as good at keeping this secret as the others. Jorge would like to hire you, Nakano, and Wild Duck. But he wants to do something over and above that, and those two will be negotiating fees and such.”
“Oh?” her eyes got big. They were blue glaciers. “And what would law-abiding citizens like you need with pirates like us?”
“Jorge wants the most realistic footage he can get,” Rob said carefully. “So we’ve hired some experts in ground combat to assault a lunar base belonging to some folks nobody around here particularly likes.”
Let her do the math. Two plus two, but still.
“And Wild Duck?” her voice turned a little breathless.
“Your job would be to drop the hammer on the base, once those folks have disabled it,” Rob continued. “We’ll film everything, and Wild Duck gets whatever salvage it can haul away from the wreckage. Afterwards, we’ll come back here to build soundstages and shoot the rest of the movie.”
“That’s crazy,” she said.
“Jorge demands verisimilitude,” he replied. “And he has the funding, if Wild Duck can be hired cheap enough to clean up after the troops break in and do the deed. The studio work is actually pretty cheap, since we don’t have to pay union scale around here for talent, having recruited certain persons we would like to put in front of the camera.”
“So where is this place that’s about to get a dose of pirates?” she asked, her eyes growing darker and almost heavier, if he had to pick a word.
“It’s a secret for now,” he leaned down and kissed her lightly to take the sting out of the words. “Jorge won’t even tell Nakano until we’ve got everything nailed down with contracts, but they are going over plans in the near future. If your boss is in, hopefully you’ll be in as well?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” she kissed him with more verve, but they had to stop as the tram arrived at their destination.
Outside, they went into the main part of the nearest building, following the thumping of the music, rumbling through the ground at them.
The club was insanely packed. Rob, however, had already made it a point to bribe all the bouncers up front better than normal previously, so he got escorted past the rope line and into the joint like royalty.
Seriously, just hanging out with Jorge was teaching him all sorts of things he needed, in order to be a movie star. Briefly, Rob wondered if he should add some formal acting classes to the training the Service gave him, so he could put himself into a few movie roles, perhaps with Jorge.
What would it be like to be That Guy? The face everybody recognized but without the name attached. Creator knew he was probably going to start being recognizable at some point. Might as well be able to twist it sideways as a deflection.
At the bar, his favorite babe was tending in the middle. Underdressed and overstuffed into a top that just barely kept her contained. Interesting ink in her skin flowed off under her clothing in ways that made you want to tear off all her clothes, just so you could read her.
It made an interesting story, when you did.
She grinned at him and handed over a pair of glasses in trade for a bill and a smile. She was always working nights, so breakfast or an early dinner was the best way to hang out.
Rob handed one glass to Lilijana and sipped his own, threading his way to the back of the club, where another pair of bouncers isolated a section of the club for big shots. Rob didn’t have a reservation, but he had friends with these folks, so they found him a spot quickly enough.
Mostly, it was a place to keep the glasses from being stolen or tampered with while he and this lovely lady danced.
And they danced.
Rob came back with tall glasses of water at one point, just because he was sweating at least as much as she was. Probably more exhausted, but she had been going like the world was going to end in a few hours, so he wasn’t about to dissuade her.
Sometime after midnight, she looked up and him with a fire in those bright, blue eyes.
“Okay, I’m done,” she said. “We’re going back to my place now.”
Rob had wondered if he would have to cry uncle first, but all the aerobics he’d been doing at least let him keep up. He rose and she took his hand as they made their way out the front and back to the subway station. It wasn’t all that crowded, but it also wasn’t empty. Being underground, the city tended to go pretty much all the time, just cycling up and down in waves, like a lazy tide.
A tram stopped and Lilijana guided him aboard, her hands roaming around under his jacket as they did. Her head was against his shoulder as well. It was most distracting.
But something caught his eye as they sat. Maybe the way those two men stood, clear at the back of the car, well away from him and the woman, but not the least bit relaxed. Guards on duty had that particular gleam in their eyes when they watched you approach.
There were four of them. Two together and two more separated and patently ignoring each other, but somehow watching him in ways he couldn’t have explained, except to call it magic.
Field Agent training focused on knowing when you were being watched. Better to ignore a meet with a source rather than lead the authorities to a mole in their organization. And you had to be casual as you kept moving, leading them away from the scene of the not-quite crime so they wouldn’t know where to look, if they did see someone they knew.
Could be a coffee shop. Maybe on a park bench. Or brushing up against someone on a tram like this one.
Those men set off every one of his personal alarms. It wasn’t like the four cops that had come to arrest him. Those men hadn’t been aiming for subtle. These men were, but something about they gave off the wrong smell.
Rob didn’t panic, but he didn’t want to alarm Lilijana, especially if she hadn’t noticed. He could always grab her and bounce off a tram at a stop, drawing his pistol fast enough if trouble came with him.
He turned to nuzzle her hair and kiss her ear. It let him look backwards at the pair at the same time he slid a hand into a pocket and triggered the little alarm function on his co
mm. Nigel had programmed it, cracking the case itself open so he could solder in the extra bits in such a way that the little computer inside the comm didn’t know about them.
Somewhere, Nigel would come up out of a dead sleep, if he was. Hopefully, the cavalry would find him and it would all be a terrible misunderstanding. He could call and give Jorge and password that indicated he was fine.
But everything was wrong, all of a sudden.
“How close to your stop?” Rob murmured seductively in her ear.
“Two stops,” she replied as she kissed him. “Why?”
“Don’t like the looks of the folks riding with us,” Rob said. “Prepare to bolt off the tram when the doors open. I want some space if they mean trouble.”
She glanced back and snuggled a little tighter.
“Actually, it’s entirely different,” Lilijana said in a harsh voice. “They’re with me and we’d like to ask you some questions, Segura.”
Oh, shit.
Suddenly, there was a pistol stuffed into his stomach. Not his, but there was no way he could even move without her pulling the trigger.
Rob decided to play stupid anyway.
“What’s going on, babe?” he asked, tilting his head away from her far enough to look at her face.
It was no longer a face he recognized. The bones were the same. As was the skin. However, there was a different person inhabiting them. An angry one.
“You’re a spy,” she said. “We don’t like spies.”
Honestly, what happened to the woman he had just spent three hours dancing and necking with?
A hand suddenly descended on his neck, grabbing hard and holding him in place in his seat.
Lilijana’s other hand snaked inside his coat and pulled the pulse pistol out, handing it to someone behind Rob that he couldn’t see.
“Don’t do anything to make me shoot you, Segura,” she snarled at him.
He noted that there wasn’t the promise that maybe this was all a misunderstanding that could be cleared up later. No, this was the disappear down a rabbit hole scenario.
