Tech World (Undying Mercenaries Series) (37 page)

“It serves you right,” Kivi said. “But I didn’t tell him shit.”

I looked at her. “Yours too. They’ll just get you permed in the end. Hand them over.”

Grumbling, the two of them gave me about a hundred coins. I had a suspicion that wasn’t all of them, but I figured it would probably be enough.

“A thousand Imperial credits for each of you paid in cold hard cash!” I shouted at the retreating Tau. “Get back here!”

The effect was dramatic. Not just a few of them stopped—they all did. Even the women, the elderly and the injured stopped. They did a collective U-turn and crept back in my direction cautiously.

I held up an Imperial credit piece which was as golden and lustrous as their illusory clothing was drab.

“Here it is!” I boomed. “One coin now and another when this crisis is over. Give your IDs to Natasha. Your claims will be made good.”

We got nearly a hundred recruits. I ran out of coins and was unable to convert any more of them into evangelists.

There was one thing that was good about the natural avarice of the Tau as a people. They were industrious and reliable—as long as they were paid.

“It’s like the biggest union shop in the galaxy,” Carlos laughed as they lined up and took their coins.

“It’s not enough,” Natasha said.

I looked at her. “Why not?”

She shrugged. “A hundred people trying to convert a few others? They’ll do it—but just enough to get paid. Then they’ll hole up again. They won’t risk themselves once the money runs out. And we don’t have enough coins to bribe everyone on the station.”

Nodding, I thought that one over for a second. The answer seemed obvious. I walked forward and waved my arms. Turning on my external speakers, I used my booming amplified voice to cut through their chatter.

More than anything, I was surprised by their lack of concern over the mound of dead that lay just a few feet away in the street. Seeing their own kind heaped up in mass death alarmed them—but it didn’t sicken them or make them mourn as it would have a human population. These people were truly alien in their thinking.

“I have a further proposition,” I shouted. “For every
ten Tau you convert and turn into new supporters, you’ll get an additional coin.”

There was a whispering of excitement around me.

“No limits?” demanded the first guy I’d recruited. “There are millions here. Surely, you can’t have that many coins.”

He was suspicious, and rightfully so. I’d pretty much wiped out my supply of coins already.

“There
is
a limit,” I said, doing some quick calculations in my head. “Tell your people they will have to work for you. You will share in their profits. They’ll get half the amount—and the man below him will get half that, a quarter of the original bounty.”

The man I’d talked to glared. “That’s less than a credit after ten people in the chain.”

“Yes,” I said. “But what do you care? You’ll get
their
credits! Thousands and thousands of people will be paying up the line into your pockets!”

The light of greed returned. I wasn’t just offering them a fee now, I was offering to make them rich off the backs of others who toiled underneath them for less.

“Who will pay this debt when it is accrued?” several of them demanded.

“I’ll give you a name, a rich business man by the name of Adjunct Claver. Perhaps you’ve heard of him.”

They looked from one to the next quizzically, but one man had heard of Claver’s exploits.

“It’s true,” he said. “I heard that man stole millions of credits from the central banks.”

“Then get out there!” I roared. “What are you waiting for? If you don’t think I have enough money, you should be working fast to get your share before I run out!”

That was it. They split up and rushed in every direction. There was new energy in their step as they raced down every street hurrying to do my bidding.

“How will you pay them all?” Natasha said, coming to stand by me.

I shrugged. “There are a lot of credits in their banks. And I bet if we shake down some of these Germanica pukes, they’ll jingle with looted coins.”

Carlos walked up shaking his head. “Don’t be fooled,” he told Natasha. “He has no intention of paying any of them. That’s McGill in a nutshell. He sets up a pyramid scheme, gets these poor losers running around in circles thinking they’ll get rich—then stiffs the lot of them.”

Laughing, I had to agree with him. Carlos knew me too well.

“Does it matter?” I asked them. “They’ll get their station back. They’ll live to start again. I came here to save their greedy asses, and they can damn well help out with the job.”

“I thought the station was probably doomed,” Carlos said.

“I believe in these people,” I said firmly. “They built this place, and there’s a serious profit to be made if they can repair it. Let’s see if they’re up to the task of helping themselves. It’s all up to them now.”

No one argued about that. When the last of the gray figures vanished from the streets heading to meet the rebels wherever they could find them, we turned around and headed for the pinnace again. We’d done what we could, whether it worked or not.

-39-

Nothing spreads like a digital virus. By the time we boarded the pinnace and cast off, the Tau we had liberated had infected over three thousand of their comrades within hours. The next generation spread the effect much further. The rival projectors had no immunity to Natasha’s virus, and it was overwriting Claver’s original scripting like wildfire.

“They’ll retake
Gelt Station within a few days,” she said. “And at that point, they’ll want payment.”

I waved her words away. “Then Claver had better have a lot of cash saved up,” I said. “That’s all I have to say. He’s going to need it when they track him down.”

Carlos produced a nasty laugh. “That’s good. That’s really good, McGill. If anyone needs a good screwing, it’s that guy. Speaking of which, what’s this I heard about you and our lovely Imperator Turov?”

I froze. Then the smile on my face slowly melted. If there was anything on this world Carlos was good for, it was exposing a man’s weakness. He could kick you when you were up—or down. This time, his foot had landed hard upon my backside.

Knowing I shouldn’t do it, I glanced around to see who had heard his comment. Only Natasha and Kivi were staring at me. No one else seemed to have noticed—but of course, they were the people who mattered.

I gave Carlos a death stare. He grinned in return.

“So it’s
true
?” he asked, giving a little war-whoop of amusement. “I was just fishing, I swear it. I had no idea. Sure, I’d heard about you going to drink with her, and you waking up on the pool table—what a laugh. You must have been drunk out of your ever-loving mind. Did you shit yourself, too? That would cap it all off—”

I punched him. Here we were, two men who’d just fought to the death, back to back, standing against an overwhelming horde of insane Tau—but it didn’t matter. I wanted to kill him and close his fat mouth permanently.

Carlos wasn’t as big as I was, but he’d always been able to take a punch. He was one of those guys who are hard to take out. I think his skull must be about an inch thick.

Snarling, he punched me back, and it was on. Most of those around us had no idea what was wrong, but they’d seen us get into it before. They backed up to give us what room they could on the crowded pinnace.

Rage was on my side. I pinned him after about thirty seconds. Our sides heaving, he spat out a tooth and gave me a bloody scowl.

“Was she
that
good?” he demanded. “Is all this just to defend her honor? Have you forgotten everything she’s done? What’s happened to you, man?”

The fight drained out of me then. I got up, sighing, and went to sit apart from the others. I wasn’t defending Turov. I was embarrassed, that’s all.

In a way, I couldn’t blame Carlos for gossiping in public. I’d slept with the woman, not him. Legion Varus was a pretty tight-knit group. We had plenty of secrets as far as outsiders were concerned, but inside the legion itself everyone heard about everything eventually. If I hadn’t wanted people to know about it, if I hadn’t wanted people to have a good laugh—then I shouldn’t have done it.

The rest of the trip back to
Minotaur
I didn’t talk to the others. I’d been humiliated. Turov was something of a demon in our group. Instead of lying with her being seen as an accomplishment, the others saw my transgressions as something low and degrading. I wasn’t used to that, and I hadn’t reacted well.

When we docked up and exited the ship, I was the last one to climb out of the airlock.

Kivi was waiting for me when I got out onto the hangar deck. Our eyes met. I expected her to laugh out loud or to scold me, but she didn’t do either.

“What happened, James?” she asked. “Did she make you do it?”

I blinked in surprise. “Uh…not exactly.”

“I know she has a lot of baggage to hang over your head. She sentenced you to be permed, for God’s sake. I know about that part by the way—we all do. Did you romance her to get her to drop the sentence?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know what happened,” I admitted. “We fought hard, lived through a battle, and afterward we felt like having a drink while the revival machine pumped out fresh troops.”

She stared at me for several long seconds. Then her face darkened. “So, you’re telling me you really
are
some kind of man-whore?”

“Come on, Kivi,” I said. “You’ve died, haven’t you?”

“Of course I have.”

“That’s right, and I’ve watched you do it plenty of times. Sometimes we live, sometimes we die and come back. Either way, it rattles our minds. Haven’t you come out of a tough fight and felt like celebrating? Sometimes sex is just a way of dealing with
a bad situation.”

Kivi sucked in a deep breath and sighed. “Okay,” she said. “I know what you’re talking about. I know that feeling. It’s just that…
Turov
? How could you? She’s such a witch. She’s so
mean
. I can’t visualize you doing this act—even if she did come back all young and cute again. That part is totally unfair, by the way. She should never have come back young again. It’s wrong.”

I didn’t quite know what to say, so I said nothing and started walking again. Kivi fell into step beside me.

“So…” she said. “If it wasn’t some kind of sexual payoff—how did you convince her to let you off the hook? She had you convicted and ready to be permed.”

“I saved her,” I said. “I revived her first, and then we fought hard together. I think she liked that.”

Kivi punched my arm. I didn’t feel it, but my armor rattled.

“Don’t be fooled,” Kivi warned me. “Just because she had a weak moment with you—that means nothing. Her personality is poison. She’ll turn right back into the snake she’s always been.”

I knew she was probably right, and I nodded. But part of me hoped Kivi was wrong. Experiences
did
change people. Physically, Turov wasn’t the same person she’d been before she’d died. So many years of aging had been lost, and an old mind in a young body wasn’t entirely old anymore. I knew youth had to be battling against experience within her. If I’d been a psychologist, it might have been an interesting experiment to watch play out.

After talking with Kivi, I felt better. At least there was one person who didn’t hate me for what I’d done.

Graves demanded my report after I reached 3
rd
Unit’s module. I gave it pridefully. I described the battle in the streets and reported the deaths I’d recorded on my tapper.

“Sir,” I concluded, “I think the mission has to be considered a success. Installing the virus took longer than we expected, and we had to do it while in very close proximity with active hostiles. However, I managed to improvise and get the locals to spread it from here on. Now all we’ve got to do is wait.”

Graves nodded thoughtfully. “Too bad it didn’t come sooner. Events have progressed, and I don’t think there’s any way to turn back now. Unfortunate.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about, sir?”

“Never mind. Why don’t you head up to see the Imperator? She specifically requested that you report to her in person.” Graves looked at me, deadpan. Was there a hint of amusement in his eyes? I felt a hot rush of embarrassment.

“Uh…okay, sir. Thank you.”

“Dismissed, McGill.”

He turned away, giving his head a shake. I left his office feeling uncertain what he was thinking. He’d hinted that my mission hadn’t concluded quickly enough. I hoped that didn’t have anything to do with the fact the station was still sinking into the atmosphere. Had we made a herculean effort only to find we were a day late?

Trying to push such thoughts out of my head, I hurried to the lift and rode up to Imperator Turov’s office. I was greeted at the door by an armed MP—a Veteran. He looked at me and my sidearm with displeasure.

“I think I should hold onto that for you, Specialist,” the MP said.

I frowned and put my hand over my gun. “I don’t think so. Not this time.”

Another voice interrupted our discussion which was about to become heated.

“Let him have it, Sullivan,” Imperator Turov said. She’d come out of her door to see what was going on.

I couldn’t get over how young-sounding she was now. She turned and vanished back into her office, and I followed. I resisted an urge to grin at the MP. I’d gotten myself into enough trouble lately.

The door swished shut behind me. I looked around, but didn’t see any armed men ready to jump me. I tried to relax, but failed.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Specialist,” she said. “Could you come over here and help me?”

“Help you with what, sir…?”

I trailed off, as the answer to my question was immediately obvious. She was opening her uniform.

My
jaw hung low as more skin was revealed with each passing second.

“Sir…?” I asked. “I’m not sure this is an appropriate time—”

“Shut up and pull this over my head. Or do I have to do everything myself?”

I heaved a sigh. She turned around and kept stripping down. I felt my pulse rate increase.

“This isn’t really fair, sir,” I said.

She looked over her bare shoulder and laughed. “Are you kidding me? Are you trying to tell me you’re an innocent? I’m not pulling rank. I’m not ordering you to do this. I’m just feeling….I don’t know,
different
, since my revival. I haven’t felt this kind of hormonal rush in years.”

“No, I didn’t mean that. I mean it’s not fair to display yourself so brazenly in front of a man. We can’t always do the right thing when we’re faced with this kind of temptation.”

She stared at me with a mix of confusion and growing irritation.

“What is this crap?” She demanded, mostly naked now. “You go around screwing everything that moves, McGill, and now suddenly you’re a boy scout?”

“Well, it’s not like that. People…people already suspect, sir. They know about what happened the other night between us.”

“Ah,” she said, stepping out of her shoes. She strutted toward me around her desk.

My heart began to pound. She was buck-naked and looking great. Her steps were like those of a dancer—lithe and graceful.

“I get it,” she said, touching my cheek with a single finger. “Your friends are making fun of you. They’re calling you names like boy-toy, is that it?”

“Hardly, sir.”

“Stop calling me sir, dammit!”

“Yes sir—uh, Galina. You see? Right there—this is kind of weird. You’re a high level officer. I’m just one step above a grunt.”

“What? Are you bargaining for rank already? Forget it. You’re not getting such perks that easily.”

I rolled my eyes. “This isn’t—”

She kissed me then, full on the mouth. She pressed herself up against me, and I almost grabbed her.

“Get out of that damned armor,” she hissed at me. “I can only touch your face.”

I realized I had the power to walk out on her. I didn’t have to put up with this. I could turn around, hit the door, and step outside. Maybe the MP would see his commander naked, and maybe he wouldn’t, but either way I’d escape and I doubted Imperator Galina Turov would ever try tackling me again. Oh, she might crap on me and give me a hard time—what else was new? But she wouldn’t risk a second humiliation.

Scorning her would come with a price, of course. She’d be pissed—probably for life. But I was considering it seriously. I swear it. I really was.

Then she did something dirty. She popped off my gauntlet and placed my hand on her bare
skin. I lost it then. Her flesh was warm and smooth and urgent.

What was I thinking as we stripped off my armor together and got busy on her desk? I don’t know. I don’t think men have complex thoughts at moments like these. If they do think, they probably aren’t enjoying themselves as much as they should be.

Imperator Turov and I didn’t hold back. If anything, our second time was more intense than the first had been. Our passion was brief, but thorough. I had to wonder afterward if Turov had developed a thing for me over the years. Maybe it was only now, in her new, young body, that she had the self-confidence to demand my attentions. Whatever her motivations were, her seduction had definitely worked.

Leaning back in a chair, I sighed heavily and pulled my armor back on. While I did so, Galina watched me with predatory eyes. I could tell the smirk on her face was one of satisfaction.

I didn’t much care what kind of fantasies of domination and triumph were going on inside her little head. I’d had a good time, and I figured that since everyone in the legion knew about us, it didn’t make much difference anyhow.

“Sir?” I asked as I completed snapping up my kit. She was dressed now, too. That was a shame, but I couldn’t have everything.

“What is it, Specialist?”

“I heard something odd from Graves. He indicated the success of my mission had come too late—that it was too bad I hadn’t managed to cure the Tau earlier. Do you know what he’s talking about?”

“No. But the recovery of systems has been unexpectedly good. The station is rising again, slowly. I underestimated what they could do to help themselves. The Tau themselves are repairing their station with uncharacteristic energy. I’m surprised by that—there’s no budget for the repairs, after all. They’re working together as if they expect a huge payoff. Mysterious.”