Aneka Jansen 3: Steel Heart (19 page)

He laughed. ‘If you actually need more there’s a full fabrication suite on the grounds. Now, I’m sorry to be a poor host, but I have a few things to clear up before I can give you my undivided attention. I’m sure you’d like to get settled in anyway. I’ll meet you for dinner around sunset?’

‘That sounds perfect.’

Smiling, he headed for the left-hand door. Aneka could see an open space through it, filtered sunlight streaming down onto some sort of water feature with plants around it. ‘I’ll see you then,’ he said before closing the door.

With nothing much else to do until her case arrived, Aneka stepped over to the desk and sat down, tapping a glowing area for attention. The screens lit up, along with a keyboard and mouse pad. The display suggested that the system was configured for her use; Teldarian really had pre-programmed it for her ID. She selected the messaging software and began to compose an email to Ella.

‘Al?’ she asked silently.

‘There are three wireless networks operating. Two of them appear to be using very strong encryption algorithms: one a service network, by the looks of the data packets, the other a general use network. The third is likely for guest use. I’d imagine they’ll provide access to that one.’

‘Can we use it safely?’

‘If we need to.’

‘Would you think I was being paranoid if I wondered whether the room is wired?’ She finished typing a basic ‘I got here safe’ message and hit send, and then got up making a show of looking around the room. Well it was worth looking at.

‘Not entirely. I can detect no transmitters in the room, or within reception range. If there is anything, it’s wired.’

The bathroom was white tiles on all surfaces, a shower which had a ring of heads suspended over a drain, and a bath you could just about do laps around, and came with water jets. Aneka looked over the place carefully and could find no hidden cameras.

‘I’m almost disappointed,’ she commented. ‘I was hoping I could put him down as a pervert and be done with it.’

‘I am a little surprised he does not have the means to listen in on business conversations that might happen here,’ Al replied.

There was a knock on the door and when Aneka called out, ‘Come in,’ a slim man in a white T-shirt and slacks came through the door with Aneka’s case.

‘Miss Jansen, I’m Butler. If you need anything your terminal can get me at any time. Would you like me to unpack your case?’ Butler the butler… right…

‘Uh, no thanks. Just put it on the bed, I’ll take care of it.’

He nodded, placing the metal case on the corner of the big bed, and then placing a sheet of paper on it. ‘Access codes for the network,’ he said, ‘and a few other bits of information you might find useful. I’ll leave you to settle in.’

‘Thanks. Uh, Butler?’

‘Ma’am?’

‘I’m having dinner with Mister Teldarian later. Formal or casual?’

Butler gave her a smile. ‘Mister Teldarian is never formal when he’s at home, ma’am.’

‘Thank you, Butler.’

With him gone and the door closed, she opened her case and lifted out the clothes. Two mini-dresses, one black, one white, her bikini, and there was actually a pair of shorts and a cropped T-shirt as well as several pairs of shoes. These were all taken to the closet and put up on shelves or hangers, mostly because she figured she might as well use the room since it was there. Then she went back to her case, unlocked the false bottom, and checked that Bridget and the two spare magazines were there. Better safe than sorry. Locking them up again, she put the case away in the closet and picked up her bikini. There was nothing much to do until the sun went down; she might as well try out the lagoon.

~~~

Aneka went for the black dress and some matching mid-height heels, and was dressed and waiting when Butler knocked on her door to lead her through the house to the dining room.

It was quite a house. Large, certainly, but it somehow managed to maintain an intimate quality which she found rather pleasing. Right outside her room was the open area she had seen earlier, a sort of dividing line between the rooms at the front of the house and those further back. Two carp ponds ran from the outer edges of the room in towards a walkway, which ran from the main entrance to the rear of the building, and the walls and pond edges were lined with ferns. Well, that was the theory. The carp were not actually carp, and the ferns were not any kind of fern Aneka had ever seen, but the overall look was good, and also rather calming.

Behind the ‘pond room’ the central corridor split the house in half and, aside from a couple of doors on the left and a single one on the right, there was no indication of the function of the spaces on either side of it. Butler said nothing as they walked through, surrounded by a moving video of swirling light patterns. Aneka wondered absently whether they were supposed to be hypnotic. Maybe that was Teldarian’s secret: he hypnotised women into submission.

‘I think he just waves his private island at them and they ask what position they should adopt,’ Al suggested.

Aneka suppressed a laugh; they were reaching the end of the corridor anyway and there was no sign of strange desires to prostrate herself before anyone. Butler opened the door at the end of the hallway, and they walked into the interior pool room. It was not a huge pool, but you could have swum in it quite happily. The main purpose was relaxation, however, as evidenced by the bar on one side of the pool, near the outer wall, and the irregular shape. There was also an indoor hot tub set in a corner off to the right and a T-shaped, bridge-like structure arching over the main pool. Butler led the way up this and then turned right. Out beyond the T, Aneka could see the Polyglass wall which divided inside from outside, and also the underwater tunnel which allowed one to swim between the two pools. The outer pool was visible only as a blue glow through the window, but it looked kind of inviting.

Somehow Aneka had expected the dining room to be less cosy. In fact it was just a section of a room which seemed to occupy the back corner of the house. Shaped like a Y, more or less, there was a relaxed sort of area near the pool where you could sit and drink, the dining room with its view out over the pool, and a slightly more intimate lounge. The three rooms were set around a sculpture of some sort which occupied the centre of the room: a lot of crystal columns in geometric shapes. Light shone through it, providing much of the illumination in the room, though Aneka could see ceiling-mounted spots overhead which would hopefully give a little more light when the food was brought out.

The dining room table had space for ten people and was very modern in design, Polyglass topped with a sculpted framework of chromed adanymax holding it off the ground. The seats looked a little odd and not especially comfortable: tall-backed and quite narrow, with the same sort of chromed structure, and a seat and back which looked to be made of Polyglass. Butler pulled out a chair near one end of the table and Aneka sat down. The seat shifted as she sat, moulding itself to her behind. She looked up, seeing the high back which stretched up over her head, the frame curling over into horn-like structures on either side.

‘Aneka,’ Teldarian appeared across the table from her, pulling out the chair opposite and sitting down. ‘I’ve got to apologise again for my absence. Abraham fired my enthusiasm again for that dual-core engine design. I was so close to working it out I couldn’t put it down.’

Aneka gave him a grin. ‘I can forgive you. I’m glad you find your work so fascinating.’

‘I do, but now it’s time for my other enthusiasm.’ Aneka was not sure he would not say ‘sex,’ but instead he said, ‘Like I said, I’ve been fascinated by the ancient history of the Jenlay since I was a child. Uh, if you’ll pardon the use of the word “ancient” in that sentence.’

‘Well, I was twenty-nine when I was taken. In some circles back then that was just about dead.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘I was ninety last year.’

‘Back then you’d be lucky to make it to ninety. Looking the way you do? Not a chance. Jenlay live… two or three times longer than Humans did.’

‘Thank you. I’m glad you think I look good.’

‘Stephen, I’d have to have some peculiar tastes in men to think you were ugly. Besides, there are more or less no unattractive people now. You, well the Jenlay, have spent a thousand years messing with their genome. I’m lucky I don’t look like a caveman in comparison to you people.’

Butler appeared from somewhere accompanied by two girls in short, white dresses, and Aneka stopped speaking. The women, who could have been twins aside from the fact that one was blonde, the other brunette, delivered plates with a salad of some sort on them, and then left while Butler poured glasses of white wine for Teldarian and Aneka.

‘We’ve really changed things that much?’ Teldarian went on once his servant had left.

Aneka nodded, taking a forkful of something vaguely like lettuce and chewing on it for a few seconds. ‘There was a movie, a vid, that my brother made me watch once. I think it was called
Gattaca
.’

‘Something to do with genetics? Not my speciality, but that sounds like nucleobase indicators.’

‘Yeah, Gattaca was the name of an organisation, but it was something to do with DNA. The idea was that the “best” children were carefully selected and they could get the best education, while the ones born at random were essentially relegated to second-class citizens. There was a lot of subtext about identity, but on the face of it it was a dystopian world full of genetic policemen. Everyone was beautiful, genetically perfect. This world could be the end result of that society.’

‘Except without the genetic policemen.’

‘Really? Babies are checked for genetic defects and watched for anti-social behaviour.’ She held up a hand as he opened his mouth. ‘I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. This society is peaceful, almost crime free. The people are long-lived, disease-resistant, and happy. I live in an area that would have been a demilitarised zone in my time. The people who look like they would knife you for a credit help old ladies across the road instead.’

‘You’re saying we’ve given up a few freedoms to have a better society. I think it’s worth it.’

Aneka laughed. ‘Well you would, it’s your society. Don’t get me wrong, it seems to work and I can’t really argue with it. But the technology used to create the Jenlay was only just beginning in my time. Genetic manipulation, especially on a species level, that was going to be a big political hot potato.’

He grinned. ‘I’m not sure what a potato is, but I get the picture.’ He was silent for a few minutes, letting her get some of her food into her mouth. ‘You know, I’ve had… how to put this… I’ve entertained women here who have a lot less money than some of the circles I move in.’

‘I’ll accept that. You’re loaded, I’m not.’

‘Most of them were a little uncomfortable about being waited on.’

‘Officer training. How to command troops, how to plan assaults and defences, and which knife and fork to use at high table.’ She took a drink of wine; very nice, but still not really wine. There was too much of a berry flavour to it. ‘I also did my fair share of business dinners, political functions, that kind of thing.’

‘I read a report saying you did bodyguard work.’

‘We called it personal security. I was moving out of that, though. Most of my ops before I left were hostage rescue.’

‘You were good at it?’

‘Me and my team, we were as good as it gets. We didn’t stand much chance against Xinti weapons though.’ Lifting her glass, she emptied it. Even if the alcohol did nothing to her, it felt good to be drinking it.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring back difficult memories.’

‘It’s the past. There’s nothing I can do about it.’

‘But you can go back to your home world and find out what became of it. I envy you.’

If he was trying not to bring up difficult memories, he was doing a terrible job of it. ‘Well, if it turns out that there’s anything to see, maybe you’ll be able to go there sometime.’

‘True.’ He poured her another glass of wine. Maybe he was hoping she would get drunk and go to his room for the night. ‘That would be a fine thing to consider when I retire. In another century or so.’

‘That’s a long time to be running a company.’

‘I promised my grandfather that I’d have someone to take over from me when I went. A child. He wanted it kept in the family. I haven’t met the girl I’d like to do that with yet.’

Aneka gave him a grin. ‘Stop looking for girls and find yourself a woman.’

He tipped his glass to her. ‘Sage advice. I just might do that.’

20.2.526 FSC.

The world outside the huge window of Aneka’s bedroom was almost pitch black. Her eyes caught flickers of ultraviolet from the wave crests on the lagoon; starlight only, Odanari had no moons. Still, she stood at the window and looked out, thinking.

Teldarian had not tried anything. If he was after her then he was patient about it. They had talked about political systems and governments. He had been fascinated at the idea that the world had had no overall governing body, that politicians were elected by a popularity contest. He had said it sounded disorganised, which it was, but then that disorganisation had been the source of her work.

She watched the sparkle of starlight on an alien ocean and tried to work out whether she missed any of it. She had been living in a different world for two years. She had adjusted to that change quickly and easily. Maybe far too easily.

‘You were conditioned to be more adaptable,’ Al said, his voice soft even though no one was going to be able to hear him. ‘It’s not surprising that you
did
adapt.’

‘Maybe. Or maybe I just supressed the anxiety. I mourned for, what, three or four days. I lost my whole world, my family… Four days.’

‘You had work to take your mind off it.’

‘And that helped, sure. I kept busy and that helped. But… What if I go back there and I break down?’

‘You won’t.’

‘I could get there and be no use to…’

‘Aneka, I’m inside your head, remember. I know you possibly better than you know yourself. Your professional pride won’t let you do that. And don’t think I won’t be watching for signs of excessive stress, just as Ella will be. You have both of us to fall back on if needed, but you won’t let it affect your work because of who you are.’