Aneka Jansen 7: Hope (27 page)

‘His nails look manicured,’ Al said. ‘The weapon he is carrying is clean, very well maintained.’

‘You had me at “manicured,”’ Aneka replied, getting to her feet and moving to the rear of the room where she stopped in front of one of the men. ‘Wescott?’ she asked aloud, knowing it was because his name was written above his head. ‘Dalrane Wescott, right? I thought it was you. What are you doing here?’

‘Uh… Do I know you, ma’am?’

‘Check Lenora’s system,’ Aneka said silently while her mouth was saying, ‘We met on Oberian? At that party Lotram threw. I mean, we were both pretty drunk.’

‘Uh… Oh, right. Lotram’s party.’

‘Phew! Glad you remember because… wow. You were like an animal. And you ended up here, making money off that big dick. Wow, talk about a plum job.’

‘Huh… uh… Well…’

‘Lenora just tripped the signal flag on her server,’ Al said.

‘Sorry, Dal, gotta go.’ Aneka bolted through the rear door before anyone could stop her, darted down a corridor, turned right and headed for the door at the end which was where Lenora took her clients. As far as Aneka could tell, the brothel provided room and board to several of its employees, and not cheaply even if they were not slaves. Her boot hit the door and it slammed open to the sound of breaking plastic.

The tall, attractive man had his pistol in his hand, and not figuratively. He looked around, angry, his gun rising as he turned.

‘He’s Pinnacle!’ Lenora squeaked. She looked like she was having trouble breathing, never mind speaking.

Aneka took in the small box in the gunman’s left hand as she stepped into the room. He was well trained, probably military, and the door breaking had not surprised him for more than a fraction of a second, but Aneka was not even remotely Human. She caught his extended wrist, twisting it away from her as her left hand came up and then snapped out, the base of her fist smashing into his face. His eyes glazed over for a second as he crumpled, the gun falling from his hand. He recovered quickly, shaking his head as he started to rise, but then Aneka locked his arm, pushing him down to his knees. Then she slammed her knee into his jaw and he went down, tilting back until his locked arm stopped him.

‘I’ll take care of him,’ Aneka said, slinging the big man across her shoulders with little apparent effort. ‘Send a message saying he never arrived here.’ Then she turned and marched out.

Dalrane looked at her as she walked through with someone slung across her shoulders like a sack of coal. His eyes widened

‘Bastard owes me money,’ Aneka said. ‘Two whole coins! I’m going to have to kill him, obviously.’

‘Oh… uh… of course.’

Strangely, no one tried to stop her leaving.

Amethyst Hyde.

‘What do we do with him?’ Ella asked.

Their prisoner was sedated in one of the Hyde’s medical units. Aggy had already run sufficient tests to determine that Lenora had been telling the truth. The man was almost certainly Pinnacle. The fact that he had had some sort of control box for Lenora’s collar was a pretty good signal, but his largely unmodified genetics also suggested it.

‘Keep him under,’ Aneka replied. ‘He’ll be safe enough like that. If Lenora didn’t know he was coming, then the others didn’t know he was Pinnacle. They probably wanted to check up on her as well as the others.’ She glanced at Winter. ‘I suggest putting a bit of a rush on the construction. We might be able to delay them with the “he didn’t arrive” message, but they’re bound to start probing.’

‘Agreed,’ Winter replied. ‘This makes determining whether Sorien
is
our mystery agent even more important.’

‘That had not escaped me. His party is tomorrow. I’ll consult my fashion advisor for something suitable to wear and nail the bastard.’

‘You have a fashion advisor?’ Ella asked and then sagged. ‘Oh, right. Something slutty coming right up.’

Pirate Cove, 12.1.560 FSC.

Daven Sorien was built to be a pirate captain. He looked the part rather the way Kade was such a good match for Pirate Queen. There was something of the swashbuckler about him, though he had rather more muscle than Douglas Fairbanks. His shoulders were broad and his hips were narrow, giving him a slightly triangular torso. His arms were thickly muscled and his stomach, heavily on display thanks to a black, silk shirt which was open to the navel, would have made a washboard envious. There was a pair of thick, strong thighs clad in a pair of britches which made it quite clear that he was not lacking in other endowments. His skin had a dark tan, his teeth flashed white when he smiled, which was often, and he had clear, blue eyes with just a hint of green in them. Sadly he lacked a thin moustache, but his hair was shoulder length, black, and had a tousled, wild quality about it.

He had made speeches about freedom being the most precious commodity in the galaxy a fair bit at the start of the party an hour or so ago, but now he was just drinking and plotting how to get his hands on his latest potential conquest. She was tall and strong, and her hair, which fell to the upper slopes of her breasts, was black with red tints. He had spotted her easily among the crowd because, even in a horde of extroverts, she was something else. She was wearing knee-high, strapped boots with a wedge heel, leather bracers, and a corset and harness arrangement over a small pair of latex briefs and a fishnet body-stocking. No bra. She was made for him!

Which, of course, she more or less was, and Aneka was beginning to get a little annoyed that he had not made a move yet when he appeared beside her at the bar, all smiles.

‘I don’t think we’ve met,’ he said, turning up the smile a little more. ‘I’m Daven Sorien, Captain of the Baleful Eye.’

Aneka smiled back and signalled Al to pour on the charm. Her pupils dilated and her nipples thickened under his gaze. ‘Aneka,’ she replied. ‘I know who you are, of course. Everyone’s been talking about you.’

‘Nothing bad, I hope?’

‘The bad parts were the best bits. Good boys never seem to know what to do with me.’ She picked up her whiskey glass and sank the contents, running her tongue over her lips.

‘Another?’ he asked.

‘Please.’ He looked across the bar to where Naseena was busy at the optics. Aneka noticed his eyes straying across her behind. Then he paused and looked back. ‘I have a very fine single malt in my cabin.’

‘But… your party?’

‘I think they can do without me now, and I feel the need to share a fine whiskey with a beautiful woman.’

‘Will I do?’

He laughed. ‘Oh yes, Aneka. You will do very nicely.’

The Baleful Eye.

Sorien’s ship was a tenth of the size of the Hope of Sanctuary and not designed for long-haul travel even if it had a warp drive of the latest Pinnacle design. Most of the crew quarters were bunks, but there were a few cabins for the senior crew. Sorien had one to himself, but even then it was nothing compared to Kade’s lavish apartment.

You could tell that he considered the bed to be the focal point. It
was
the majority stakeholder as far as floor space went, but he had embellished a standard frame with silk sheets, black ones obviously, and had erected a canopy of sorts over it in a deep red brocade material. Aside from that there was a desk which looked underused, a wardrobe, and a door leading to the bathroom which was compact.

With nowhere else to sit, Aneka settled onto the bed, lying back against the headboard while he poured their drinks. What was it with pirates and drinking while sprawled?

‘Al? Please tell me you’ve got into their network.’

‘In and busy cracking their file system security.’

‘Good. I really would prefer not to have to let him do what I’ve suggested he can do.’

‘I’m working as fast as I can, Aneka.’

‘I know.’ Aloud she said, ‘You’re really making a name for yourself. Now that Captain Kade is gone, people will need a new man to look up to.’ She put a little emphasis on ‘man’ and he glanced back at her, smiling.

‘Kade was good, but she took too many risks. She hit the Pinnacle too hard and risked bringing their wrath down upon Haven. We are not strong enough to go against them. I make do with the small victories luck hands to me. She wanted to stop them entirely, bring them to their knees. It is a laudable goal, but not one she had any hope of achieving.’

Which was true enough. ‘She gave people hope, I guess.’

‘False hope.’ He walked over and handed her a glass before settling down beside her. ‘These latest attacks of hers were pride running away with her. Hitting border stations, seeking to steal their weapons and stop them from attacking a world they covet. She overstepped her bounds and she paid for it… But she was a fine woman.’ He raised his glass in salute and took a sip of his drink.

Aneka followed suit; it was not that fine a whiskey, and it was a blend. ‘I came here hoping to ship out with her, but she’s gone.’

‘You fancy yourself a pirate?’

‘I can fight. I’m fast and I’m stronger than I look. I can shoot too.’

‘The life is more than that, though. There are long flights between the fights. Much tedious waiting.’

She grinned. ‘There’s always something to do while waiting. Card games perhaps.’

‘Yes. The Eye is a small ship, but powerful. There is not too much room so we play a lot of poker, among other things.’

‘Oh, I’m terrible at poker. I always lose my shirt.’

He laughed. ‘That explains much.’ His drink was placed on a small table beside the bed, which meant he was preparing to make his move.

She grinned and pushed her chest out. ‘You like the outfit?’

‘I would be a very stupid man to say I did not.’ His hand came down on her thigh, tracing up over the fishnet. ‘It is most becoming. If you joined
my
crew, I would have you lead the battle. The crewmen we face would be too busy staring to fight back.’

She giggled, sipped her drink and looked into his eyes as her tongue slid over her lips. ‘Any time now would be good, Al.’

‘I am searching through the ship’s records. The man has the organisational ability of a teenage boy.’

Sorien leaned forward, pausing with his lips an inch or so from Aneka’s mouth before pressing closer. His hand slid up her body, over her hip, and then she lost it as it traced over her corset. It returned cupping her left breast, and she gave a little moan as he continued kissing her.

‘There are,’ he said, shifting to kiss her cheek and then moving off toward her neck, ‘of course, other pursuits which can be undertaken on long journeys.’

‘Oh… yes…’

His hand moved again, finding the buckles holding her cincher together and starting to undo them. ‘More pleasant ones than cards.’

‘Mmm…’

‘I may be able to find a place for a new crewman…’

Data began to stream across the inside of Aneka’s eyelids. They were message records, each one detailing a target ship the Eye was to hit. Every once in a while, there was a rendezvous with a Pinnacle transport for meetings or supply transfers. From the quantity of them, it looked as though Sorien had not made a move without Pinnacle direction since he had started.

Sorien had managed to get past the row of buckles and the corset came free, sliding out from under the harness, which was the next line of defence. He was going to have to remove that and the boots and bracers before he could get past the fishnet.

‘Fishnet,’ Al commented as he put up another set of emails, ‘such an appropriate term, though it seems to be remarkably good at catching men.’

The new emails detailed the rumours Sorien was to have spread about the missile warheads the Pinnacle were supposedly stockpiling. Sorien had questioned the method of dissemination, but his bosses had replied with a statement that their sociometric team had determined the best mechanism with the least risk of discovery.

‘Sociometry,’ Al said, ‘more Speaker’s area of expertise than mine.’

‘There is one thing I’d like to know, before I consider signing up,’ Aneka said aloud.

‘And what is that?’ Sorien replied, still kissing her neck.

‘Did the Pinnacle catch you stealing this tub, or did they set you up with her so you could come here and spy for them?’ His hand froze on the buckle nestled between Aneka’s breasts. ‘I think it was the latter because they seem to be going to a lot of trouble to keep up your pretence of being a pirate.’

He rolled away from her, sitting up at the side of the bed and sinking his whiskey. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Though,’ she went on as though he had not spoken, ‘you do attack ships. Ships they want you to attack. What’s that? Taking out supplies going to places they want to acquire? Weakening their economy? I’ve seen that done before, thirty years ago and halfway across the galaxy. It’s not a bad strategy, especially if it can’t be traced back to them. But it can, because you kept all their messages.’

He swept to his feet, raising the pistol he had hidden under the bedside table. He held it tucked into his side in a good, close-quarters shooting position.

Aneka raised her hands. ‘Hey, I’m unarmed. I’m practically naked.’

‘Yes, I shall see to it that a knife is found with your body. A Pinnacle spy sent to assassinate the captains. That should work.’

‘It won’t. Look, you’re finished. You’ve got two choices. Pull the trigger and try to make a run for it, and you’ll get blown apart before you get a thousand klicks out, or you can do as we say, keep things ticking over with your masters and walk away to do whatever you like at the end.’

He laughed. ‘You are a brave woman. You lie there making threats while I hold a gun on you and you look so confident. It will be a shame to kill you.’

Aneka lowered her right hand. ‘Put that thing down before you hurt yourself.’

‘I was really thinking of hurting you.’

Aneka fired her pulse weapon. Sorien let out a grunt as the air was forced from his lungs and he was catapulted across the room to slam into the wall. ‘Or I could hurt you instead, obviously,’ she said. She slid off the bed and turned to look at him. He remained standing for a second, blinking at her, his gun held limply in his hand. Then he sank to his knees and keeled over, falling face-first onto the deck.