Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I (36 page)

Koryn considered that. “I
suppose that means the ruse of sending the woman didn’t
work.
That
was
what he was going to use as proof of treason.”

“
I think so. But he lucked
up and got something even better from whoever’s been reporting to
him and managed to get there before you could leave with
her.”

Koryn was silent for a little bit. “I
wouldn’t mind so much if we had at least succeeded in getting Em to
safety. Gods! It’s driving me crazy! I wish to hell I at least had
friends in low places and could hire somebody to either kill that
son-of-a-bitch or snatch her from under his nose.”

Tariq sat up and stared at him. “My
gods, Koryn! You’re brilliant! I could kiss you!”

“
Don’t! My mouth’s still
sore,” Koryn said, grinning. “What did I say?”

Tariq ignored him, summoning the guard
down the hall. “I have an android named Aeon. If you’ll fetch him
here to me, I’ll make it worth your time.”

Avarice gleamed in the man’s eyes for
a moment and then he frowned. “How are you going to pay me locked
up in here? Anyway, don’t they take everything from anybody that
commits treason?”

Tariq smiled easily. “Luckily for me,
I don’t trust too many people. I have a few … resources they won’t
have found.”

The guard glanced up and down the
corridor and moved a little closer. “How am I gonna get it? If I go
get the android, how can I trust you’ll pay me?”

Tariq frowned. “You know where my
estate is?”

The guard nodded.

“
In the garden under the
fifth stepping stone from the east side of the fountain, you’ll
find a small gold box. It’s filled with coins and yours if you go
down to the receiving center and find Aeon and send him to me. If
you get him here, I’ll tell you where to find something of equal
value.”

The guard frowned. “They got guards
there!” he said indignantly.

“
I didn’t tell you it
would be easy,” Tariq said tightly. “It’s a lot of gold, but if you
don’t have the balls to go get it ….”

“
And you’ll tell me where
to find more if I get the android here?”

“
You’ll have the gold one
way or the other. It isn’t as if I could shortchange you. I’m just
saying, the box for the favor. A handsome tip if you show me I can
trust you.”

The man nodded. “I can’t leave for
another hour. This android’s at the receiving center, you
say?”

“
Or the nearest whore
house. You might want to check that first. Tell him I have
something to give him.”

“
What have you got in
mind?” Koryn asked when the guard had left again and Tariq moved
away from the bars and began pacing.

Tariq settled on the bunk next to him.
“There’s an ancient woman down in Old Town that I know. She’ll take
Em in and take care of her if Aeon can get her out of Mylor’s
clutches and I think he might be our only hope of it.”

Koryn looked horrified. “That’s where
all the freaks are!”

“
And that’s why she’ll be
safe there. Cleme can keep her hidden and nobody will ever think to
look for her there.”

Koryn considered it for a moment. “You
think you can trust her?”

“
I know I can. She was my
nursemaid.”

Koryn looked horrified all over again.
“What the fuck is she doing there if she was your
nursemaid?”

Tariq glared at him angrily. “She bore
a child long after I was grown. She took it there to keep it from
being destroyed—like everyone else down there. I bought her a house
and settled a trust on her. She’ll take care of Em for me and help
her when the baby comes.”

Koryn looked at him apologetically.
“Sorry. I should have known it was something like that.”

“
Yes, you should’ve!”
Tariq growled, jolting up from the bunk and pacing
again.

“
I really am sorry. It was
just such a shock. Old Town. It’s hard to believe anybody
would
want
to go
there.”

Tariq sighed. “They don’t want to.
It’s the only place they can go where they won’t be mistreated.
Nobody bothers them as long as they don’t have to look at them.
They would’ve made her abort the child if they’d known she was
pregnant, but she kept it secret. She wanted it even though she
knew the chances were high that it was going to be … defective. She
finally broke down and begged me to help her. I would’ve made other
arrangements. I wanted to, but she insisted. I don’t like her being
there, but she says she’s happy.”

“
How long since you last
saw her?” Koryn asked in surprise.

“
I went to see her before
I left for Earth. It upsets her if I leave without telling her,” he
said a little stiffly when he realized Koryn was staring at him.
“What?”

Koryn shrugged. “Nothing. It’s just …
I don’t remember my nursemaid,” he confessed.

“
Because you had a
mother,” Tariq said testily. “I only had Cleme. My mother died when
I was an infant and they fucked up her genetic sample and couldn’t
regenerate her.”

“
I didn’t know that! Gods!
How the hell did they manage that?”

“
The gods only know! An
accident in the lab, they said. She’d already been cremated. It was
too late to get another. That was when they passed the law that no
one was to be cremated without three samples being taken. One for
regeneration, the other two for insurance—and no more than one in a
lab at the time—Terra’s Law?”

“
I didn’t know that
either. How long have we been friends?”

Tariq sighed. “I don’t know … half our
lives, give or take.”

“
A hundred and fifty
years, at least, and you never told me any of that!”

“
It didn’t come up,” Tariq
said dryly.

Koryn sighed. “We’re getting
old.”

“
I’d hoped to get a hell
of a lot older.”

“
Me, too. Were you
planning on going for another one?”

“
I hadn’t actually given
it any thought, to be honest. Father didn’t approve. He said one
lifetime ought to be enough for anybody. He felt differently when
mother died.”

“
Yeah, well it turns out
he was probably right. If the old ones hadn’t been around since
fucking forever—
and
fucking, we wouldn’t be in the fix we are now with our gene
pool in such a gods damned mess!”

Tariq released a pained breath. “I’m
inclined to agree with you, but I wouldn’t have met Em otherwise. I
can’t regret that.”

Koryn blew out a breath. “Maybe if
we’d done something differently it would’ve turned out
better.”

Tariq uttered a snort. “That’s the
problem with these things, Koryn. You take a different path, you
get different results. There wasn’t another path that would’ve
taken us to Em. There’s no point in what ifs anyway.”

The guard distracted them. “You got a
visitor, Lord Tariq.”

Tariq looked at him surprise. He’d
said he couldn’t leave for at least an hour. He didn’t believe
enough time had passed for him to have found the gold, and Aeon,
and made it back, but his heart thudded with hopefulness just the
same. “I’ll see him.”

“
It ain’t a him. It’s Lady
Seana.”

A jolt went through Tariq. “Tell her
I’ll see her.”

“
Lady Seana? I thought you
said you tried everybody you knew and they were either with the
fleet or wouldn’t come?”

“
I guess she changed her
mind,” Tariq said slowly.

“
You don’t think she’ll
help us?”

Tariq frowned. “I don’t know. I
honestly don’t think she can.”

They fell silent as they heard the
brisk click of heals against the floor. A few moments later, Lady
Seana reached the door. “Oh! My poor baby!” she exclaimed. “This is
a horrid place! Just horrid! I don’t know how you can bear
it!”

Tariq smiled. “Not much choice,
actually,” he said ruefully. “I didn’t think you’d
come.”

She gave him a scolding look. “So
little faith?”

“
Well,” Tariq said,
grinning. “I know you, Seana. It’s a horrid place—not the sort of
place you like to go.”

She considered it.
“Actually, I really, really didn’t want to come, but I’ve sat in
that court every day trying to get a chance to speak with you and
it looks like there just isn’t going to be a chance. I didn’t want
you to … uh ….” She let out a huff a breath. “I am so
angry
with this … this
…!”

“
Farce?” Koryn
supplied.

She glanced at him and smiled. “Yes!
That’s the word I was looking for! It’s a … it’s a … Well, I don’t
know the word for it, but mark my words, it is! I wanted to come by
and tell you how much I appreciated the gift you sent me! It was so
thoughtful of you and I am sooo enjoying it!”

Tariq chuckled. “Not as much as you
enjoyed me, I hope?”

“
Of course not, baby! You
know how much I adore you! Anything I could do for you, I would!
You know I would!” Her expression fell. “I’ve been trying to do
something to help get you out of here. I really have. If I’d
just
known
about
that damned vid! I would’ve had someone take care of it, because
that’s all they have, really!”

“
Apparently, that’s
enough,” Tariq said dryly. He moved closer. “I didn’t figure you
could help me get out of this. There is one thing you could help me
with, though.”

She lifted her brows.
“What?”

Tariq covered her hand. “The breeder
Mylor took—Emerald. If you could arrange to have someone remove her
from his care, I can pay. I still have resources.”

Anger flashed in her eyes. “Really,
Tariq! That’s really, really bad of you! Asking me to risk getting
in trouble for your … sex toy!”

“
She’s carrying my child,
Seana. I’m asking you to protect my child. I wouldn’t ask
otherwise.”

She studied him thoughtfully. “So
you’re saying you don’t care what happens to her
afterwards?”

“
He’ll need his mother,
Seana.”

“
Well! As if I couldn’t
take care of him!”

“
Of course you could.
You’ll make a wonderful mother. You’ll want a nursemaid, though,
right? You aren’t going to want to spend all your time chasing them
around—yours and mine—wiping snotty noses and cleaning their
asses.”

Her lips curled. “You can be so crude,
Tariq! Honestly!” She frowned thoughtfully. “They are rather nasty
little savages when they’re young, though. I’d certainly have to
have a nursemaid.”

“
You’ll at least consider
it?”

She frowned. “I’ll think about it. I
have to go now, baby. I think I might catch something in this nasty
place if I stay much longer and anyway, that horrid man said I
could only have a few minutes.” She glanced up and down the
corridor and then stuck her tongue out, waving it at him. Tariq was
taken aback until he caught a flash of white. “Kiss me before I go,
baby,” she murmured huskily.

Tariq pressed his face to the bars
obligingly, opening his mouth over hers when she pressed close on
the other side. He smiled at her when she leaned away. “That wasn’t
at all satisfactory! I think I may have picked up germs from the
bars!” She reached in and patted his cheek. “I’ll come back to see
you tomorrow!”

When she’d left, Tariq glanced around
and then moved to the bunk where Koryn was sitting and then spat
the note she’d passed into his palm.

Koryn looked queasy. “I don’t blame
you. I wouldn’t have wanted to kiss her either. She’s old enough to
be your mother!”

Tariq snorted. “She’s on her fourth
life. She damned near shoved it down my throat. I’d forgotten that
tongue.” He patted the note dry on the leg of his pants and
carefully unrolled it.

Koryn crowded close to read it over
his shoulder, blocking the little light he had.

“
Gods damn it, Koryn! I
can’t fucking see! You’re blocking the light.”

“
Well? What does it
say?”

Tariq blinked at it, turned it over
and stared at the single word on it. “Unless the ink’s run it says
‘tonight’.”

“
Tonight what?”

“
That’s all it says.
‘Tonight’.”

“
Well, that’s fucking
cryptic! A good thing she
didn’t
shove it down your throat! We would’ve had to
wait until tomorrow to read it.”

Tariq sent him a drop dead look. After
a moment, he wadded the tiny piece of paper up, put it back in his
mouth, and swallowed it.

Koryn was looking at him with his
upper lip curled in revulsion. “I can’t believe you ate
that.”

“
I didn’t think it would
be a good idea to leave lying around. They could match the
writing.”

“
You could’ve flushed it
down the toilet.”

“
I expect I will, but
it’ll be less readable then.”