A minute later, as the so-called song ended, Hunter and Ingrid headed back to the table. The twins stayed on the dance floor, simply grinning, and rolling their eyes as the duo left them behind.
"Is that smart?" I asked. Before either of my companions could respond, I held up my hands in surrender. "I know, I know. Shh. Watch."
Jon and Ingrid downed another drink, and talked animatedly for another several minutes while Amanda and Aleesha gyrated some twenty meters away, drawing a huge throng of admirers. I was one of them. Their moves were almost hypnotic, especially in those dresses.
"Heads up," Jane said suddenly.
I felt a flash of shame, thinking she'd caught me ogling the bodyguards again, but then she pointed to a different cam feed. This one was by the exit.
My pulse quickened as I realized what was happening. Jon Hunter and Ingrid Blakstov were hand in hand, leaning drunkenly on each other, headed out of the disco, and into the corridor. Outside the door, a transport trolley waited for them.
I expected one of them to pulse a message to the twins to let them know their charge had left their line of sight, in the company of an assassin.
That's not what happened.
"It's show time," Janet said, as she and Jane stared at the bank of monitors in front of us.
And damned if they both didn't have wicked smiles spreading across their gorgeous faces.
Forty Three
The view on the monitors switched to the door of Jon's hotel suite, except for one which continued following the trolley through the corridors.
Jon and Ingrid were giggling wildly at something he had whispered in her ear, to the point where she almost tumbled off the trolley to the floor. Jon heroically snagged her, and pulled her close to him. Their noses were so close, I was sure they would kiss, but they managed to control themselves.
"Sensors are functioning at full capacity," said Janet.
Her voice had all the animation of someone reading a diagnostic report. I glanced back and forth between them, looking for any hint of emotion. Nothing.
"So this is just an ordinary day in the Hunter organization for you two?" I asked, baffled. "Watching your boss get ready to sleep with the strange woman you just told me was probably an assassin?"
"I doubt there'll be any sleeping going on," said Janet, her eyes on the monitors.
Jane smiled absently at that.
"Highly unlikely."
The trolley dropped the pair outside the hotel entrance. Ingrid slipped off her shoes, and carried them in one hand, taking Jon's arm in the other, so they could steady each other on the walk to his suite. He had a noticeable limp in addition to a mild stagger, from the half-dozen beers he'd put away at the disco.
The cams followed them through the hall, switching to the feed from the suite door as they arrived at it. Other cams began broadcasting from inside the suite itself.
The door slid open, and as soon as Jon and Ingrid had crossed the threshold, Janet stirred.
"Scans negative. Not even the shoes."
"Scans?" I asked.
"Concealed weapons," said Jane. "Jon's personal suite has the most powerful scanning technology in the entire spine, even more advanced than the tech we use in the docking and cargo bays."
"Bloody expensive, too," Janet added.
"Fritz managed to knock out the cams in the docking bay and security office," I pointed out.
"Different technology," she said with a hint of irritation. "And only for a handful of minutes. And it won't work again."
"Did the scanners register the necklace as a weapon?" I asked. "Or is the wire too thin? It couldn't have been more than a micrometre wide."
"She's not wearing a necklace," said Jane.
My eyes narrowed as I peered at the monitors. They were right. Ingrid's neck was bare.
"It must be concealed somewhere else then," I said. "Unless she's not our killer, in which case this has all been for nothing."
"It's possible," said Jane. "But I'm pretty sure we've got our killer. And the scanners would have picked up the wire if it was on her person."
What the hell? None of it was making any sense.
"Is there any way she could have gotten it into the room some other way?" I asked. "Hidden it in the bed or something?"
"Impossible," said Janet. "Even if the scanners malfunctioned, no one has been in the suite except Jon in weeks."
I was left to scratch my head as we turned our attention back to the monitors. Ingrid had tossed her shoes into a corner while Jon kicked off his own. Apparently it was just footwear which was holding them back, because Ingrid immediately pounced on him, pressing her mouth against his, and running her hands under his shirt.
"That's odd," said Janet, focusing on her PC screen.
I looked at her.
"You mean things weren't odd before now?"
"Pheromone spike," said Jane, looking perplexed. "Unknown combination of acetates and alcohols. They're practically flooding out of her sweat glands."
"Pheromones?" I asked. "What are you saying?"
"Pheromones affect the sexual behaviour of any number of animals, from insects to mammals" said Janet. "But none of the known types have ever been proven to have a significant impact on humans."
"But this is a new one?"
Jane nodded.
"I'd be willing to bet that, if we isolated and studied it, we could prove that it has an effect."
"Can we warn Jon first?" I asked, even though I knew what the answer would be.
They ignored me.
"It fits the hypothesis the killer lured the victims into sex before cutting off their penises," said Jane. "They wouldn't struggle if they were in the throes of sexual ecstasy."
"At least we know they died happy," Janet offered.
Except James Patterson, I thought. Poor bastard screamed before he passed into the great beyond.
On the screen, Jon seemed to hesitate for just a fraction of a second, which reminded me of the odd movements I'd noticed with Jane and Janet when we first met. I chalked it up to the pheromones, and sure enough, he was yanking his shirt over his head an instant later. Meanwhile, Ingrid was working his pants down over his ass, and onto the floor.
Hunter stepped out of them, and grabbed her dress by the hem. One swift motion later, and it was over her head and sailing across the room to the floor beside the sofa. Hunter lifted her off the floor, and she immediately wrapped her legs around his waist, and went back to work kissing him hard.
I felt warm blood in my cheeks when the monitors switched to the bedroom to catch Hunter wriggling out of his underwear before dropping onto the bed, naked and very obviously horny. His erection was in full view of the cam, a fact which didn't seem to faze Janet and Jane in the slightest.
Ingrid, meanwhile, reached behind her back to unclasp her bra. It sprang free to reveal an attractive pair of breasts, the nipples very much standing at attention. Hunter rose onto his knees and bowed his head, taking one into his mouth. Ingrid's head dropped backwards in pleasure, and her arms wrapped around his neck to pull him closer to her.
"Still no sign of a weapon," said Janet, oblivious to the fact her boss was engaged in sex acts in front of her. "Curious."
Until that moment, the only audio from the suite had been a mixture of panting and grunting, without any discernible words. Now, Ingrid was leaning into Hunter's ear.
"Let's turn off the lights," she purred.
He obliged by waving, plunging the room into darkness, lasting for us for a tenth of a second. Almost simultaneously, the cams switched to a light-enhancing mode, which made the room almost as visible as it had been before the lights went out.
"More cutting edge tech," Jane said, before I could ask her about it.
I snickered in spite of myself.
"Cutting edge."
She smacked me without turning her attention from the monitors.
The cams showed Ingrid taking Hunter's erect dick in her hand, and stroking it. His hands were
on her breasts as he alternated between them, licking and sucking like he was in a frenzy. No doubt he was, if the girls' theory about pheromones was right, and I had no reason to think it wasn't. I was finally learning to just trust their blazing intelligence.
His hips began to thrust in time with her strokes while his hands slid down to her hips. He hooked his thumbs through the waistband of her thong underwear, and pulled it down, exposing her groin. His breathing sounded like he was running a marathon.
My own breath caught in my throat as the cam focused on the part of Ingrid which had just been revealed. It was almost enough to make me fall out of my chair.
"Tell me you two see what I see," I said through numb lips.
"Absolutely fascinating," Janet said, with clinical detachment.
"That was definitely unexpected," Jane echoed.
I felt an odd tickling in my guts at the sight, but part of me was totally transfixed by what was on the monitor, and it felt almost physically impossible for me to look away.
There, on Ingrid's groin, where one would normally expect to find pubic hair, or maybe a smooth surface, hell, even a piercing or tattoo, was a thatch of short, needle-thick tentacles, which were the same bright green as the hair of the woman on the surveillance vid with James Patterson.
And they were moving.
Forty Four
It was all I could do to keep it together, as those little fuckers writhed like hundreds of tiny octopuses above her vagina. Hell, even just remembering it makes me shiver, let alone right then.
"Is she an alien?" I heard myself ask.
"I don't believe so," said Janet. "More likely a mutation."
I snapped my fingers.
"That explains it!"
"Explains what?" asked Jane.
"James Patterson was heard screaming before he died. He must have caught sight of those… things."
She nodded.
"Possibly. Though it seems probable that some of the other victims either saw or felt them, too."
"True," said Janet. "But they may have been in such thrall to the pheromones they didn't react. Patterson was somewhat different from the other victims, though, in that he was literally at the peak of human physical and mental fitness. It's likely he overcame the effects when he saw the tentacles, and he reacted accordingly."
Jon didn't seem to be having that kind of reaction on the monitor, even though his hands had found the tentacles, and were actively working their way around Ingrid's crotch. And his erection didn't seem to be suffering for it. I watched the scene unfold with a mixture of fascination and horror, and I didn't know what was more unnerving, watching the whole thing, or knowing the two women beside me were watching it, too.
Ingrid pulled herself gently away from Hunter, and placed her palm against his chest, shoving him playfully onto his back.
"About time," said Jane. "This is starting to get a bit tedious."
I thought I was over being stunned by the things the two women said, but I was wrong. I tried to follow their example, finally realizing I was actually watching an attempted murder in progress. At least I hoped it would only be attempted.
In the bedroom, Ingrid wasted no time crawling on top of Hunter's dick, the two of them groaning as she slid down slowly, until he was entirely inside of her. The tentacles seemed to be even more excited now, and I thought with sick fascination that Hunter would probably scream too, if he caught sight of that particular phenomenon.
The three of us watched like the galaxy's strangest voyeurs, as Ingrid bounced enthusiastically on Hunter's erection. The lovers, meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, judging by the panting, grunting, and moaning. His hands gripped her waist, adding his strength to her downward thrusts, which apparently increased the pleasure for both of them.
After several minutes, their movements started to get faster, and their breathing louder.
"Won't be long now," said Jane.
"And then the murder," I warned. "Don't forget about that part."
"Shh," said Janet. "It's starting."
The fact their boss was the subject of these offhand remarks made my mind reel for a moment, before I saw the duo on the screen entering the endgame. The bed was shaking with their movement, and Hunter finally shot forward, and wrapped his arms around Ingrid, pulling her tight as they appeared to climax together.
And suddenly Ingrid's face changed from a look of ecstasy, to one of triumph. At the same time, Hunter's face twisted into a mask of shock and horror, and my gorge rose in my throat as I imagined my pension going up in flames.
Jon Hunter was already dead, and I just sat there, and watched it happen.
Forty Five
"Got you, bitch," Jane said beside me.
And also on the monitor in front of me.
For a moment, I felt a wave of vertigo, which threatened to send me off my chair, and down to the floor. Captain Jane was next to me in the security office, but according to the cam, she was also lying on the bed in Hunter's suite, and Hunter himself was nowhere to be seen.
"What the fuck…" I breathed.
The Jane in the suite was in full uniform. On the monitor, Ingrid looked as shocked as I felt, so I knew I wasn't hallucinating. Or if I was, at least I wasn't the only one.
The monitor outside the suite showed the Peck twins standing next to the door as if waiting on a transport. A moment later, four security officers joined them with a medical transfer care unit. None of them seemed to be in any hurry.
Meanwhile, back in the room, Jane reached up from the bed, and clamped a hand around Ingrid's throat. Ingrid finally seemed to understand her situation, and gripped at Jane's fingers, trying to pry them apart. If this caused Jane any discomfort, it didn't show.
I looked to the Jane beside me, then back to the monitor. Before I could speak, Janet, another Janet, not the one next to me, appeared out of thin air in the suite with a stunner in her hand, levelled it at Ingrid's head, and pulled the trigger. Ingrid immediately slumped into unconsciousness, but was still being held up by Jane's single arm.
Jane stood up, and dropped Ingrid's unconscious form onto the bed, before joining the other Janet in the middle of the suite's bedroom.
I looked at them, then at the two women beside me.
"You need to tell me what the hell is going on," I demanded, trying to overcome the feeling I'd just been dropped on my head.
"We're taking a suspect into custody for attempted murder," said Jane. "Why, what does it look like?"
"How the hell are you in two places at once?"
"Three places, actually," said Janet, pointing to the other monitor, which now showed another two Janes, entering the suite with the security guards.
I blinked, dumfounded, at what was unfolding in front of me.
"Don't worry," Jane said with a smile. "There's an explanation. But you should probably take a deep breath before I give it to you. Maybe even a drink."
She pulled a bottle of beer from the cooler which had been sitting on the floor ever since we started watching this fucked-up show unfold. It seemed like years ago, even thought it had only been a couple of hours.
I tilted the bottle back, and drained it in just a few gulps. When it was empty, I slammed the bottle on the table next to me, and let out an epic belch.
"All right," I said. "I'm ready."
Jane flashed a glance at Janet, before turning back to me with those stunning blue eyes and lips, which made me hungry every time I looked at them.
An instant later, I was looking at a security droid wearing only a black belt.
"Fuck me!" I yelped, dropping to the floor, and landing hard on my ass.
Behind her, Janet pulled the same trick. After a handful of moments, both changed back into the women I'd come to know.
"You're robots?" I gaped at them from the floor, feeling like a complete idiot.
"Avatars," Jane corrected as she reached down to help me up. "Sorry, I see now it would probably have been better to warn you bef
ore the change."
"You think?" I croaked, managing to take a seat again.
She smiled and touched my cheek.
"I'm one avatar of the artificial intelligence which runs all of Jon's ships. Janet is the avatar of the station's AI. We use specially programmed mercenary protection suits to appear to be human."
I sat there blinking for a few seconds, before finally biting down on my own tongue. The pain was bright and electric in my mouth, and it didn't change my circumstances one bit. I wasn't dreaming this, it was real, and they were both looking at me with cringing expressions.
"I bet that hurt," said Janet. "Sorry."
I shook my head, trying to clear it, but it wasn't working.
"Okay," I said. "Can I maybe start getting things straight here?"
"Absolutely," said Jane. "I'll answer as much as we can."
"So Jon Hunter and his bodyguards were never here on Hunter's Redoubt? It was you the whole time?"
"Correct. Jon and the twins are currently on Gold Coast, a planet on the far side of the Australian sector, probably skinny dipping or sunning themselves on a beach somewhere. They've been there since just after they returned from the Midgard War. Jon's due in Sydney day after next for the signing over of Nexus to him. I'll send myself a full record of what's happened here, so the 'me' with him can show him the whole event, from the moment you and I first met."
I nodded as if I understood. I mean, I did understand, in a way, but it was still far from being solid in my brain. But it did suddenly explain the strange movements and responses which had itched in my brain every so often since I first met Jane and Janet. The pauses which lasted just a fraction of an instant, the ever-so-slightly synchronized movements once in a while. I doubted anyone else had ever picked up on them, but I'm a highly trained, and experienced observer of body language. All the same. Fuck me!
Burnside's Killer: Extended Version (The Hunter Legacy Book 6) Page 19
