Deserter (11 page)

“The folks we’re dealing with don’t lack money,” Kris noted.

“So I heard. I also checked out houses, time shares, and condo sales. No dice.”

“How big was the time window you used?” Jack asked, now more interested in the hunt for Tommy than packing Kris off.

“We started with the week before the
Space Adder
left Turantic and went forward. This grab couldn’t have been in the planning stage longer than that.”

NELLY, COULD YOU DISPLAY THE CALENDAR WE DID ON THE SHIP?

The wall across from the tub lost a harem scene as the requested calendar came up. Nelly had already added dates from Penny’s search. The woman came around the tub to stand beside Kris. Her hand went down the list of dates and times.

“That’s about it. I don’t see anything missing.”

“When did Tommy decide to take a vacation?” Kris asked.

“Hmm.” Penny ran a hand through her long blond hair, pursing her full lips.
Some women are born with it all.
“We had AttackRon Six’s officers pretty well locked down for the first two months after the mutiny. If you think you had a bad time, be glad you weren’t with them,” Penny said with a bit of a blush. This also changed Kris’s appraisal of the woman. She was using the bureaucratic “we” far too comfortably when it came to the security and intelligence maggots who had made Kris’s life miserable after the dustup in the Paris system.

“You must have gotten to know Tommy pretty well,” Kris said, her voice carefully even.

“Tom was just one of six officers I was tasked to debrief. Each one on a different ship. I don’t think Intelligence trusted us much more than they trusted you mutineers.” The woman smiled.

“Paranoia can be a survival trait,” Kris said dryly.

“So I’m learning. Anyway, all the crews knew they hadn’t a firefly’s chance in vacuum of leave until we gave them a clean bill of health.” Penny made a stab at the calendar. “That was when the
Typhoon
’s crew got their release,” she said pointing to a Monday that was a good two weeks before the
Space Adder
left for Castagon 6.

“You got to know Tommy pretty well. Did he invite you?”

“Tom is an easy guy to get to know. Very easy to get to like,” Penny said as Kris suppressed an even deeper sigh. “From questioning him I knew he was curious about the Three. He said everyone on Santa Maria was always hunting artifacts left by the Three a million years ago. He was going crazy, stuck on the
Typhoon
tied up to the pier, under observation by every roving cat and dog. They couldn’t message out, except for a weekly note to family.” Which explained why Kris hadn’t heard from Tommy.

“He did net searches on the Three in his spare time.” Penny studied her wrist unit for a long minute. “He started the search here.” She made a second stab at the calendar, a good two weeks earlier. “Found Itsahfine here.” That mark was three days later. “And asked me if I’d like to spend some leave time on Itsahfine here.” That marked the Monday before they were cleared for leave.

Kris didn’t ask Penny if Tommy told her about his hobby, or if the intelligence officer found out about it while bugging her subject’s computer. The latter would make it a whole lot easier to not like this woman, and Kris was feeling a real strong need to dislike the woman Tommy had asked to spend his leave time with. “Nelly, when did Tommy book passage on the
Bellerophon
?”

“Monday afternoon,” Nelly answered and that datum appeared on the wall screen.

“I got my ticket the same time.”

Nelly added that datum.

“So the bad guys could have known at least three weeks before the
Space Adder
left dock,” Jack said, rubbing his chin.

“Excuse me, Kris,” Nelly said. “May I add something?”

“Go right ahead.” Penny was staring at Kris like she had two heads. Maybe she did.

“When I heard of Lieutenant Pasley’s search on rental space, I thought it a very good starting point, and I’ve been expanding her search as the dates have run backward. I also found another very interesting point as I was doing that search.”

Kris rolled her eyes at the ceiling. Nelly’s new ability to move ahead on her own was nice. Her development of tact, however, was slowing her down. Maybe a tactful computer was not such a good thing. “What might that be?” Kris asked, trying to get things moving as fast as a computer was supposed to.

“On Tuesday, after Tom and Penny booked their tickets on the
Bellerophon,
three small apartments in Katyville were rented using three new credit cards, issued sequentially by Nuu Financial Support that morning. They have not been used for any further purchases.”

“Show us the apartments, Nelly.”

A map of Heidelburg, the capital of Turantic, flashed on the screen. Whereas Wardhaven City bordered the ocean, Heidelburg was downriver from a lake. The three apartments were along a low ridge near the river on the south side of the growing city, about eight blocks apart. “I don’t see a Katyville,” Jack said.

“Doesn’t show on the standard-issue roads and street map package,” Penny said.

“I have the latest update,” Nelly answered, with maybe a hint of hurt in her voice.

“You probably do,” Penny said quickly, eyeing Kris like she was nuts. Maybe two nuts. “Katyville is an industrial slum. Mainly warehouses, machine shops, meat packing, places where anyone could get some kind of a job. This hill,” Penny pointed to the ridge with the apartments, “eighty years back was expensive residences. Now it’s tenements. Not every industrialized city is as beautiful as Wardhaven.”

“So I’m learning.” Kris nodded.

“I’ll pass this to my cops. They’ll raid them tomorrow.”

“You willing to bet Tommy’ll still be there?” Kris asked.

“You only landed today. They had us stymied. They won’t expect you to change things that fast.”

Kris eyed the time line. “They’ve been moving fast from the start. Any chance they noticed what we’ve been doing here?”

“The screen is protected,” Nelly said, “but I have been pulling data from many sources. If they have alerts there . . .”

“Can you get your cops moving tonight?” Jack cut in.

“I can try.”

Kris ran the time line through her head. Damn, this Calvin Sandfire was no slacker when it came to knowing what was happening and making things happen faster. Was Kris willing to bet Tom’s life on Sandfire going slow tonight? What was she willing to bet her own life on? Again, that family mantra was humming in her head. There really was no other choice.

“You can try to get your cops moving, Penny, but we can be moving in ten minutes,” Kris said.

“Lieutenant, JG,” Lieutenant Pasley said to Kris, “there are parts of Wardhaven cops only travel in pairs after dark. In parts of Heidelburg, cops only travel in fours during the day. After dark, cops don’t travel in Katyville.”

“Which means your friends are going to move slowly,” Kris said evenly. “We need to move fast. Who’s with me?”

Kris knew Jack could move fast when he wanted to, but she was still shocked at how quickly he got around the tub to grab her arm. “Woman, you are not leading a pack of heavily armed Marines into a prepared assault. You’ve got one Secret Service Agent, one Intelligence desk jockey, one timid maid who probably won’t venture her nose outside this suite, and one Princess who does not know her limits. That doesn’t a rescue mission make.”

“Who says I won’t venture out of here?” Abby shot back.

“We are not equipped for a rescue mission,” Jack answered, not taking his eyes from Kris.

“Honey, speak for yourself.” Abby laughed as she hustled into Kris’s room. A moment later she shouted, “Catch,” as a large and rather cute pink beret sailed Frisbee style through the door. Kris caught it; it was heavier than it looked. She put it on.

“Ceramic weave all around?” she asked as Abby led an auto trunk back into the bathroom.

“Will stop a four-millimeter slug at five paces. Covers as much of your head as most helmets. Here’s a couple of watch caps for Penny and me. Not as pretty, but we all can’t be dolls.”

“There’s a lot more of her to protect,” Jack growled.

“Yes, honey, and while you can pass for just one of us girls most times, we’re about to get down to our unmentionables, so make yourself scarce. You must have brought along a few things just in case she started acting like she always does.”

“Who told you what I always do?” Kris frowned.

“Your mother.”

“My mother?” That didn’t sound like the mother Kris knew, but she was dying to see what Abby had in that trunk. It seemed a slightly different shade of brown from those Kris had watched Abby pack at Nuu House. Very slightly different. “Jack, leave us women alone.”

Shaking his head, Jack went.

Abby snapped the trunk open. “Now then, I’ve got some pretty heavy-duty stuff for a working girl like you,” Abby said to Penny as she dug in, “but we’ve got to figure out whether camouflage or misdirection is the best bet for you, Princess.”

“You have a cloak of invisibility?” Kris asked.

“Nelson and Taylor sold the last one just as I got there,” Abby deadpanned. “Here’re long johns for Penny and me,” the maid said, producing a combination that included thin ceramic plates at all crucial points. “Work trousers and coats will hide these. Leave plenty of room for the fun stuff.”

“Fun stuff?” Penny asked as she shucked out of her clothes.

“Guns, grenades, and the likes that smart boy better have shipped along. There’s only so much contraband I can get past sensors. Princess, it’s time for you to start stripping.”

“Stripping?” Kris asked, but she undid the buttons of her blouse. Abby was the one with the box of tricks.

“I got this from my last employer. Just your size,” Abby said, producing what looked like a see-through bodysuit.

Kris had seen sexy stuff like that advertised. Maybe she’d dreamed about owning a set. She dredged through her mind for a comeback. “I thought your last employer was big enough for the both of us,” Kris said, dropping her skirt.
How far do I go?

“Right. I meant the employer before last.”

“Didn’t any of your former employers survive the experience? I mean, Mother never hires anyone without references.”

Abby paused for a moment, eyeing the ceiling while seeming to puzzle through her memories. “One, two . . . three. No, two, I think. Hard to remember. So many of them. You got to ditch the bra and panties, honey.”

Kris did, then helped Abby begin the slow job of working the bodysuit up Kris’s six-foot frame. “I could use some powder,” Abby muttered. Penny retrieved a lovely porcelain powder jar from the marble expanse beside the twin sinks. “Good. Suit’s got to spread the impact of a bullet. Would hate to bruise you.”

“Aren’t these things supposed to stretch to fit?” Kris asked. This one didn’t give a millimeter. Abby just grinned and squished Kris to fit.

“Exactly what am I doing? Hey, watch the hair. That hurt.”

“Ugly faces like me and Penny a guy looks at and forgets.”

“Yeah, right.” Kris made a face at that line.

“You, Princess, on the other hand, are a problem. Not only do you have that pretty face, but it’s been on a whole lot of media lately. A guy looks at you, really looks at you, and you’re a dead giveaway.”

“And this?” Kris said, spreading her arms at her rather too-close-to-naked body.

“Your face ain’t gonna be what any red-blooded, lusting male is gonna see, honey.”

Kris glanced at Penny.

The woman bit her lower lip around a grin. “Misdirection was a standard method taught at my school.”

“What school might that be?”

“You don’t want to know the name of her finishing school,” Abby said, pulling the last of the nearly nothing up to Kris’s shoulders. “She tells you, then she’d have to kill you.”

“Yeah, right.” This conversation was going nowhere.

“Can I come in?” Jack called.

“No,” the three women answered. Abby produced a set of panties. Frilly at the bottom, they went well up the stomach. Kris discovered that her body stocking did let her move as she pulled on the undies. “Ceramic strips in there to help the under all,” Abby explained. “Frills will distract any guy who sees them.”

“How short is my dress?”

“Need you ask?”

“What is going on in there?” Jack called.

“We two will be just tired old working girls,” Abby said. “Kris is going to be a ‘working girl’ taking a trick home.”

Jack stuck his head in, got one look at Kris, and yanked it back out. “We can’t take her out looking like that.”

“Here’s your bra,” Abby said, producing one that looked just as flimsy as the rest of Kris’s outfit. “It’s a push-up.”

“As if this bodysuit would let any of me up.”

“Trust your Mamma Abby. By the time we have that loaded, you’ll be pushing up plenty.” Loading involved two small automatics, one for the bottom of each breast, and two pads that looked like they might be just what they looked like. “If things get too exciting tonight, push the nipples down, twist to the right, and throw them like Frisbees. Then put a solid wall between you and them. You might also warn us.”

“What do I say?”

“Fire in the hole,” Penny said, paused for a moment, then started giggling. “Oh my. Oh my. This should not be fun.”

“It isn’t,” Kris said dryly.

“Ready to turn the job over to the pros?” Jack called.

“Is this some sort of setup to get me to run for Mother?” Kris snapped. “Because if it is, so help me—”

“It’s for real, honey,” Abby said, deadly serious. “You going to leave Nelly at home?”

“You are not,” Nelly protested.

“Where can I put her?” Kris asked as Abby walked around her, studying her figure and looking dubiously at the small bit of red cloth draped over Abby’s arm.

“How about your belly? Some guys think a slightly pouched-out belly is really sexy, and Babycakes, yours is flat as—”