gaian consortium 03 - the gaia gambit (25 page)

“Thanks, Jackson.” She pushed the button to end the transmission and leaned back in her seat, then glanced over at Rast. Her expression softened a little, and she smiled.

It pleased him to know that she felt cheered when she looked at him, but he still knew she was worried about something. “What is it?” he asked quietly. “I would think it would please you to know we’re getting close to an answer. And Eridani is one of the few places in the galaxy where a Stacian and a Gaian might be seen together with no one making too much comment.”

“You’re right, of course.” She got up from her seat and, to his surprise, settled herself into his lap. The copilot’s chair, already overburdened with his bulk, squeaked in protest, but at least it appeared that it wasn’t in danger of imminent collapse. He folded his arms around her, holding her close as she continued, “I just can’t help feeling that somehow this is too easy.”

“Easy?” That was a word he hadn’t been expecting. “I would call this situation many things, but ‘easy’ is not one of them.”

“You’re probably right. I’m sure I’m just being paranoid.” She was silent for a moment, apparently content to rest there in the warmth of his arms, and he was certainly happy to have her remain there for as long as she desired. Then she said, “It’s just that — I know Jackson has ways of getting at data that almost nobody else does, but even so, I can’t help thinking that this Daos Senn person should have been harder to find.”

Since Rast had no way of knowing exactly which tricks Jackson Wyler had in his personal hacking arsenal, he wasn’t sure how to respond. Surely, once Jackson had gotten access to some of the data, the rest would fall into place in an exponential manner. Or at least, that was how Rast hoped these things worked. He smoothed a piece of hair back from Lira’s forehead, marveling once more at the silkiness of those wayward strands, and replied, “Perhaps. Perhaps not. Even so, it’s a piece of information we need to follow up on.”

She sighed, then pushed herself out of his arms. After settling herself back in the pilot’s seat and typing a brisk set of commands into the navigation system — coordinates to Eridani, he guessed — she said, “Oh, I know we have to follow this lead. It’s the only one we have.

“I just wish I felt better about it.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

From space, Eridani didn’t really look all that different from Gaia. Yes, the shapes of the continents under the mottled cloud cover were different, and three moons circled the planet to Gaia’s one, but otherwise they were extremely similar. Lira had spent two years here in an accelerated program at the university before moving on to the Academy at Nova Angeles, but she’d had no reason to return to Eridani since then. And anyway, the university she’d attended was located on the opposite side of the planet. This was her first time coming to this particular sector.

The coordinates Jackson had given her for Daos Senn’s place of business and his private residence put him in the southern land mass of Zedirani, near the regional capital of Teliir. Lira requested landing permission, giving her false identity and the
Chinook
’s faked registry, and held her breath. After all, she imagined the systems overseeing such things on Eridani would be far more rigorous than those on Miris Prime, which really, if one stopped to consider that dingy backwater world, had very little that was “prime” at all about it.

But the sweet-toned female voice coming over the comm system gave them permission to land in one of Teliir’s four spaceports, and to tune to channel 427 if they had any questions about local currency, weather, shopping, or dining.

“Thank you,” Lira said, then closed down the channel and turned to Rast. “So which first? Shopping or dining?”

He grinned at her. “What about accommodations? I might like to try out a bed that hasn’t been used by Gared Tomas.”

She found that a little rich, considering how many times that bed had gotten a workout over the past few standard days. But then she realized he was teasing her, and she smiled back. “It would probably be safer to keep bunking down here.”

“You’re right,” he replied, then looked a little wistful.

“What is it?”

“I suppose I’m looking forward to when this is all over, and we can simply enjoy being together.”

No arguments from her on that score. “Well, remember, we’ve already decided to spend our well-deserved vacation at the Eridani Majesty on Callia.”

“Ah, of course.” He paused, then lifted an eyebrow. “How is it you know of this place?”

She repressed a grin, wondering if he thought it was the scene of an early liaison with Jackson. That was a laugh. Back when they were together, neither one of them could have afforded to stay in one of the hotel’s bathrooms, let alone an entire room. “Because it’s one of the fanciest hotels in the known universe, not because I’ve ever had the opportunity to stay there. Anyway, we’ll order room service and drink champagne and — ”

“Champagne?”

“Fizzy wine from Gaia. It’s sublime, I assure you.” Or at least, she thought she recalled that it was. It had been a very long time since she’d had a reason to drink champagne.

“I like sublime.” He rose from his seat and bent down to kiss her, his lips warm and welcome. “I look forward to drinking this fizzy wine with you.”

Assuming we live to tell the tale
. Something about being here just felt off. She couldn’t put her finger on it, though, and so decided to keep her misgivings to herself. After all, Eridani was a highly civilized, safe world. She and Rast wouldn’t have to worry about getting shot on the street or shanghaied onto an ore freighter the way they might in some of the more dubious fringes of the galaxy. About the worst they would suffer here was sticker shock from the high prices in the restaurants or shops.

Speaking of which, they really needed to do something about their clothing. Neither she nor Rast had brought more than one change of clothing on this little adventure, and they were both looking a little seedy around the edges. Not exactly the sort of appearance a MonAg account executive or a Stacian bureaucrat — there was an oxymoron for you — should be presenting to the world.

She said as much to Rast, and although he lifted an eyebrow at first, he then looked down at himself, at his smudged trousers, and at her wrinkled shirt, and reluctantly agreed that they could both use some freshening up.

A quick survey of the districts around the ’port showed that there was a shopping area less than a kilometer away, but luckily not close enough to the area where Daos Senn’s offices were located that they needed to worry about anyone from his place of business seeing them before they were good and ready. Once they disembarked and were walking down the street, she realized that Rast had been right about one thing. The Eridanis around them didn’t seem to notice anything strange about a Gaian and a Stacian sharing a spot on one of the city’s moving sidewalks…or if they did, they were far too well-mannered to show it.

Luckily, the false identities Jackson had provided for them also came with healthy credit lines attached, so it was no problem to go into the first likely clothing store they saw, have their measurements taken, and walk out less than half a standard hour later outfitted in custom-made suits and footwear. A few doors down was a salon, although Rast balked at that.

“No off-worlder is putting a hand to these,” he growled, and reached behind him to curl protective fingers around the dreadlocked fall of hair down his back.

“Have it your way,” Lira said, knowing this was an argument she’d never win. “I suppose no one’s going to think too much of your hair — it’s what they expect of a Stacian. But I’m a mess, so give me another half-hour, all right?”

“If you must. But I think you look just fine.”

She wished then she could stand on her toes and kiss him on the cheek, but a public display of affection like that between a Gaian and a Stacian
would
raise eyebrows, even here on Eridani. So she just flashed a grin at him and went inside the salon, where she was buffed and polished to perfection, and came out within that standard half-hour feeling like an entirely different woman.

Apparently Rast thought the same, because he stared at her as she approached as if he wasn’t completely sure he recognized her.

“Well?” she asked, once it became clear that he didn’t intend to say anything. “How do I look?”

He studied her for a few more seconds, then said, “Intimidatingly beautiful.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“I think so.”

And because they were standing on a busy street, and not alone, she had to content herself with reaching out and giving his nearest hand a quick squeeze. Her fingers did look strange to her, massaged and manicured, her fingernails painted a dark sapphire color to match the suit she wore, but she assumed she’d get used to them eventually.

Because she doubted a MonAg exec like Adriana Ayers would deign to use public transport, she used her handheld to summon them a cab. It slid up to the curb only a minute or so later, driven by a mech. On any other world this would have been extravagant — mechs were far more expensive than biological labor — but the Eridanis excelled at mech building. It was one area where Gaia lagged behind, although the Consortium’s scientists and techs were doing what they could to close the gap.

They climbed in, and the cab sped away, the coordinates of their destination already programmed in because of the order she’d submitted to the cab company. Typical Eridani efficiency — everything sleek and seamless, designed to provide as pleasant an experience as possible. Eridanis as a rule did not enjoy conflict and did what they could to avoid it whenever possible.

In fact, Lira had had a friend at the Academy who was half Eridani, and who once commented that her parents had divorced many years earlier. When Lira asked, somewhat diffidently, if it was because they’d argued — she’d thought perhaps their differing backgrounds had become too large an obstacle to overcome — Elith stared at her, laughed, and then replied, “No, it was because my dad would
never
argue. It drove Mom nuts.”

Recalling this story, Lira wondered why the Eridanis, who as a rule avoided confrontations, had stuck their fingers into something like the plot involving her and Rast, and by extension Gared Tomas and Admiral sen Trannick. Surely mining rights weren’t a big enough incentive for getting their hands so dirty?

Beside her, Rast stirred, then said, “You’re very quiet. Contemplating your cover story?”

“I should be, but I’m not,” she admitted, and shifted in her seat so she could more or less face him. Even though he’d declined the salon services, she still thought he looked very handsome in his new suit of a dark umber color, his heavy hair pulled back from the fine bones of his face. “I suppose I was thinking of the bigger picture — of why the Eridanis would be involved at all.”

Rast made a warning noise deep in his throat then, and his gaze flickered to the mech driving the cab and back to her. She understood his concern; while there was no reason to think the driver was monitoring their conversation, she couldn’t be sure of that, either. So she nodded and fell silent, but reached over to him and took his hand in hers, glad of the strength she felt in his fingers. It was atavistic and backward and foolish, she supposed, taking comfort in the presence of the big capable male. Even so, she couldn’t help thinking somehow it seemed inconceivable that she should fail when she had him with her.

Even so, a little mental preparation wouldn’t hurt. She knew the credentials Hunter Chao had given her were impeccable, so she wasn’t too worried about that. Enough ores and their component elements were used in the preparation of agricultural compounds that it would seem plausible enough for her to have an appointment with Daos Senn, and to have with her the under-secretary for agricultural development on Syrinara. And, oh, how strange that the appointment was somehow not in the computer, but perhaps she could reschedule for a later time? At the very least they should be able to learn something of whether he was in Teliir or not, and use that intelligence to decide what their next step should be.

If they were lucky, during that time Jackson — more or less caught up on sleep, she hoped — might have dug up even more information for them, and they could use that with along whatever they learned at Senn’s place of business to determine if the trail stopped at him, or whether he was in fact an innocent party in all this. The possibility still existed of his identity having been suborned for a third party’s underhanded business, in which case this whole expedition might turn out to be a dead end.

And if it is?
she thought.
It’s not as if I have pressing business elsewhere…

Sadly, too true. But at least she was with Rast, and somehow everything else didn’t seem quite as bleak when she contemplated a possible future with him, rather than having to face an uncaring galaxy alone. He’d made it more than clear that she was his focus now, the object of his loyalty. She could not —
would
not — underestimate what a mental shift that was for him, what a sea change, in a man who had been raised to believe in his world first, his family second, and everything else a very distant third…if it existed at all.

The cab pulled to a stop in front of an airy confection of a building, all arched steel and many-paned glass, some of it in the blue and lavender and purple hues the Eridanis loved so much. Lira could not imagine a corporate headquarters back on Gaia — or indeed on any Consortium world — looking this fanciful, but the Eridanis had a very different way of doing business from the Gaians. And no need to worry about paying for their transportation here, as the amount due had been deducted directly from the false bank accounts Jackson had set up for her.

They got out of the cab and passed their fingers over the print scanner at the front door of the office building. Lira could feel herself tense as she did so, since this was the first true test of the false fingerprints Hunter Chao had given them, but the scanner only flashed a cool blue light, the doors opening inward.