Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5) (22 page)

Sitting
on the arm of the chair, Laura related everything she knew and had guessed.
“Eowyn is a superhacker, probably with the Mind-machine Interface talent. She
hates my grandfather and anything corrupt and corporate. She likes medieval
things, and Grant took her on a tour of the Vatican Museum when he worked there
as a guide. By now, she’s probably taking the Metro to the airport to get the
hell out of Rome. But don’t research her from this plane because our web access
has been tapped.”

“Why
the Metro?” her mother asked.

“She’s
never going to take a cab again. I won’t either.”

When
Laura evaded, Oleander told her what to expect as a prison inmate.

Kaguya
added, “Laura’s an Active. They go to special penal colonies now. If the
Italians can prove she used her talents in the crime or if they’re sufficiently
afraid of her, the prison will lobotomize her to remove her talent.”

Crawling
into a corner, Laura shouted, “Stop it!”

“We
can’t help you if you don’t tell us everything,” Oleander insisted.

Laura
related a sanitized version of Grant’s interview through her cab ride to the
airport. Both women had a stream of questions. The whole time, Laura kept
thinking,
This is what hell is going to be like—confessing everything I’ve
ever done wrong to my mother and my new boss. At least I can thank God that
Grant never finished the special on me.

They
grilled her off and on for hours. When Kaguya defended Laura’s actions, she
made the Mori family sound even more dysfunctional. “You can’t call that sexual
slavery. Like you’ve never made a man do something he didn’t want to by taking
him for a spin on top of an industrial-grade washing machine.”

The
flight attendant started taking notes.

When
Oleander offered moral judgments, Kaguya would snap back retorts like, “Tell me
again how you had your daughter after Johnny announced his engagement to
another woman?”

“Tell
me how you had yours after Z was married,” Oleander replied. Thankfully, the
sparring was limited to the verbal.

Eventually,
Laura faked a yawn and closed her eyes just to avoid any more discussion with
these two. She managed to drift off twice for about an hour and a half each,
but nightmares woke her. While the other women dozed, she planned what she
would tell Stu during the hour he had promised her. That hope alone kept her
sane on the twelve-hour flight.

Laura contacted the
girls’ school for pickup shortly before the jet landed in Rio. Once they arrived
at the university gate, Oleander signed Laura in as a member of the
Sanctuary
security team. When the guard asked for her official title, Laura thought of
the HR way to say mailroom clerk. “Communications and Public Relations
Specialist.”

By
midafternoon, Laura had unloaded her luggage onto Stu’s floor. The boxes from
several of her apartments were stacked in the large living room, shrinking the
available space by half. Stu, however, was nowhere to be found. Instead, a
shapely coed wandered out of a bedroom with one of Laura’s tiaras on her head.

“You’re
wearing my jewelry.”

“Sorry.
I thought—”

“That
the ambassador was going to surprise you with a little gift? I’m Laura Zeiss.
Is that my bedroom?”

The
young woman placed the jewelry atop one of the many crates. “We only have one
bed.”

“What
about the guards from LA?”

“Since
Stu has decided to stay a while, corporate security switched to locals. Onesemo
sleeps on the sofa in the living room. I’ve made arrangements for
you
to
stay in the dorms.” The girl’s basic body shape had been augmented. Mori
Medical called this package Underwear Model 3. The spacers had a more
comfortable setting for sleeping or sports. The cost of the enhancement would
have been more than her tuition.

Irritable,
Laura asked, “And you are?”

“Stu’s
friend Fiona. I’m helping him out.”

Oleander
locked her sneak suit in the master bedroom.

Laura
noticed that Miss Adjustable Tits had an access card around her neck on a gold
chain. “When did he give you complete access?”

“Last
night,” Fiona said suggestively.

Sniffing
the air for the cause of the burning odor, Oleander raised an eyebrow at Laura.
“I’m heading to the infirmary to see my daughter. You should freshen up.”

That was girl code for, “You look like hammered shit.”
Laura took the hint. She had also promised to
treat the embassy staff with respect. Regrettably, this plastic pinup
qualified. Laura visited the bathroom with her travel bag. She had her work cut
out for herself. Between crying and having the contacts in for so long, her eyes
were scary red.

After
several minutes of detangling and putting her hair back, Laura wanted to know
how long she had to fix her personal disaster area. She turned to the secretary
and shouted, “I have an hour appointment this afternoon with Ambassador Llewellyn—

“No,
you don’t,” Fiona replied from the hall.

Closing
her eyes, Laura tried again. “He’s agreed to see me.”

“Actually,
he explicitly banned you from his sight.”

“He.
Promised.”

“You
didn’t bring back Mr. Thisbe like he asked,” Fiona snipped. “In fact, you did
the opposite.”

Laura
swallowed hard. “And you would know this
how
?”

“Mr.
Thisbe was a famous investigative journalist. He’s had hundreds of death
threats,” Fiona explained. “In the event of a suspicious death, he programmed
his data cache with a failsafe to spam all news outlets with his latest
investigation notes.”

“The
Koku files? How many hours worth?”

“The
Salome exposé—two hours of raw footage.”

Laura
dropped the brush. White spots covered her vision.

Fiona
twisted the knife. “Stu couldn’t watch more than a few minutes. They compared
you to your father, and he likes Commander Zeiss so much that it broke his
heart. I watched the whole disgusting thing and filled him in on the highlights
of the rest.”

“You?”

“His
guards backed me up. They explained you were a flash-and-grab artist.” This was
the lowest form of street thief. Men often had biometrics built into their
wallets to call the police if someone took their money under duress. Certain
con women learned that if they flashed a little skin, turning the man on, the
surge in biometrics would be ignored as paid sex. Most victims were too
embarrassed to file a police complaint. “The guards watched the Cayman Islands
part several times. A hundred million for seducing him? You whore.”

Laura’s
hands tingled, numb.
Smacking this bitch might wake them up
. “Where is
Stewart right now?”

“That’s
confidential. You shouldn’t even be in here. As soon as the bunks arrive, we’ll
exile you to the farthest storage closest available.”

In
a blink, Laura slammed the stuck-up girl flat on the tile floor. When Fiona
cried out, Laura jammed a knife hand into the base of her right breast. “With
one touch, I can crush the controller on this enhancement unit. It’s
very
painful. Worse, you’ll walk around lopsided until you have the operation to fix
it. Where is he?”

“You
can’t make me.”

“Did
I mention that I’ll deflate the left ass implant next? That causes
incontinence,” Laura fibbed.

“He’s
teaching a low-g combat seminar in Ramsey Hall,” Fiona blurted.

Kaguya
poked her head in. “Problems?”

“Not
at all, Mother. I’m just about to collect on a debt.” Laura located her
favorite high-tech berets in the open jewelry box.

“I’m
calling security!” shouted the secretary on the floor.

“Oh,
hush,” Kaguya said. “You waltzed out of her fiancé’s bedroom wearing
her
jewelry and wanting to try on other things that belong to her. When she
threatened to put your tit in a wringer, she was showing restraint.”

“Give
me one good reason I shouldn’t file charges,” Fiona demanded.

Kaguya
sighed. “If my daughter is proven innocent of these murder charges, the
ambassador will support her publicly. More charges would simply add to his
embarrassment. If Laura was crazy enough to kill someone for damaging her
reputation, why would she stop at one person?”

As
Laura stomped to the elevator, her outfit fringes swung wildly.
He’s sooo
going to beg.

****

At the door to martial-arts
class, Freya, the glamorous huntress, blocked Laura’s way. “Why would I let a
killer like you in here?”

Laura
wanted to lash out, but as a coworker, Freya deserved her respect. “Oleander
made me part of
Sanctuary
security.” She flashed her new ID.

“Who?”

Crap. How do you tell people about the invisible woman on their plane
without sounding like a lunatic?
“I flew back with the head of Stu’s security team, Oleander Dahlstrom. Ask Mo.”

Freya
contacted Onesemo through her earpiece and then said, “Give me one reason I
shouldn’t take you into the Italians myself.” The huntress was a registered
bounty hunter.

“My
grandfather tried to kill me but got Grant instead.”

The
gym doors parted, offering a glimpse of the mats inside. Six schoolgirls and
two bodyguards sat in a circle around Stu. A teacher in a blue gi was sparring
with him. The guards all wore specially colored pins like Secret Service.

Onesemo
stepped into the hall. “What seems to be the problem, ladies?”

“I
have a vital briefing for the ambassador,” Laura explained, presenting her new
credentials again. “Notice that they were signed after the incident.”

Mo
scanned the badge with his wrist computer and flipped through several pages of
associated documents. He raised an eyebrow when he reached the skills section
of the attached file. “You can stand here while I contact Ms. Dahlstrom.”

Laura
observed the lesson with her analysis talent. The teacher was ex-military,
probably from Thailand, specializing in a space-friendly variation of Tai Chi.
Nothing special. More interesting was watching Stu’s form. He was clearly a
disciple of Conrad Zeiss. Several moves were identical to footage she’d seen of
her father and mother training. However, Stu was cocky. He left holes in his
defense in at least three maneuvers.

She
could own him.

Eventually
Mo nodded to a face on his wrist unit. He walked over to the mat, signaled Stu
to halt the sparring, and whispered in his ear. Stu shook his head and went
back to sparring.

“You
promised,” Laura shouted. Her anger flared again. The room smelled like a
burning dental drill.

“This
is a combat class,” the instructor said.

“If
I school both of you, do I get my hour?” Laura asked.

Onesemo
motioned for the six students to move toward the exit. “Class over, people. We
have a situation.”

Stu
raised a hand. “It’s okay. They can stay for the lesson. I’ll handle Miss Zeiss
myself.”

Onesemo
covered his face with his palm. “Sir, I feel obliged to warn you—”

Laura
interrupted. “Mo, he thinks he can make life-or-death judgments based on
incomplete information. Let him see where that gets him.”

The
circle parted, and Laura bowed to her opponent, Stu. While the instructor and Mo
debated who should be referee, Laura apologized. “The fringes on this are too
easy to grab. I didn’t come dressed for this, but since it’s a girls’ school …”
She bent over a meter from Stu and slid out of her flapper skirt. Her underwear
was black, lacy, and more like a tattoo than clothing. The instructor paid
close attention and so did every man in the room.

As
Laura removed her second foot from the puddle of clothing, she faked toppling.
Stu held out a hand to catch her, but Laura headbutted him in the jaw, knocking
him backward. She told the audience, “
Real
opponents do not wait for you
to be ready. They strike when you are not expecting and at a disadvantage. You
don’t get a best two out of three in real life.”

Her
mother was watching from the wings now, smiling.

Stu
climbed to his feet, rubbing his jaw.

“Mr.
Llewellyn, I freed your friend from torture at great personal cost. His death
was not my fault. Give me what you owe me, and I won’t embarrass you in front
of your fans.”

“Millions
for defense,” Stu quoted. “Not one cent for tribute.”

“Well.
This time you attack. Play as dirty as you like,” she said, turning her back on
him.

Stu
grabbed her ponytail—not hard, just enough to show the others that he had
control. “Yield.”

“Shock,”
she ordered, and the beret discharged its capacitor. This stunned Stu just long
enough for Laura to kick him out of the ring.

“Point,”
called Mo.

“No
points. This goes on until he surrenders,” Laura replied.

As
she and Stu circled each other, she could feel his eyes on her torso. He tried
to track her hands and feet, but the other parts distracted him.
The longer
this contest goes, the more turned on he gets. Excellent.
After a few
feints, Laura said, “Your newest girlfriend said I hurt your feelings.”

“She’s
not my girlfriend,” Stu insisted.

“Then
why did she brag about being in your bedroom last night?”

When
his eyes flicked up to her face to defend against the claim, she kicked him
again. This time, he rolled with the blow and kept circling.

“Two,”
said Mo.

Laura
blocked a flurry of probes.
He has stamina, but he telegraphs his punches
mentally. He doesn’t
want
to hit me.
“I thought you’d like to know
that three biotech companies are in a bidding war. The bounty on your blood or
semen is up to two hundred million. The others don’t know why Grandfather wants
it, but they know it’s worth a hundred times what he offered me. You’re never
going to trust another one of these schoolgirls again, always wondering if
she’s doing it for love or the payoff.”

His
rhythm faltered. She smacked him again, just a love tap.

“Are
weapons okay?” Stu asked, picking up a staff from the rack as he passed.

Laura
grabbed her skirt from the floor. She wrapped the ends around her hands to have
a blocking bar made of fabric. “I can take whatever you throw.”

He
fenced for a while. She deflected most blows, but he bruised the fingers on her
right hand. On the next thrust, she captured the staff and twisted her body
against it for a disarm. Instead of retaining his weapon, Stu grabbed her
around the waist by surprise, spooning against her tightly from behind. When
their auras touched, her skin tingled pleasantly. She moaned involuntarily.

He
swallowed hard before whispering, “Yield.”

“I’ll
let you put those hands anywhere you want.”

Startled,
he relaxed his grip. She broke his hold and rolled away.

“In
space combat, other things can happen. Lights off,” he shouted, and the room
plunged into darkness.

Laura
pretended confusion and allowed Stu to creep up behind her. At the crucial
moment she performed a leg sweep, knocking him to the mat. Then she hopped onto
his chest.