gaian consortium 05 - the titan trap (25 page)

“Still hungry?” he inquired, knowing exactly what her answer would be.

“Starving.”

So he said “Margarita’s” into the handheld, and it gave him a quick map and an estimated trip time. They were actually so close that he thought they could walk. It would feel good after so many hours cramped up in the maglev.

“Margaritas?” Cassidy inquired. “Do they have those here, too?”

“No — that is, yes, they do, but ‘Margarita’s’ is also the name of the restaurant where we’re going.”

“Does Margarita’s have margaritas?”

“Of course,” he said, offering his arm. “Not up to Tucson standards, but I think they’ll do.”

She looped her own arm through his, then said, “Lead the way.”

It was a pleasant early autumn day, the temperatures barely touching 25 C, a fresh breeze moving over the high desert town — desert no longer, although people still referred to it that way. He found it fascinating to watch Cassidy’s face as she looked at the shops and restaurants they passed, at the people hurrying to and from their places of work, at the hundreds of different makes and models of aircars that filled the streets. These were all commonplaces he took for granted, but aside from brief glimpses in Chicago and Tucson, this was her first real introduction to life down on Gaia. Maybe it felt more real now, since they were striding along the sidewalk instead of being removed from everything in the back seat of a cab.

In the early twenty-third century, some large towns had installed moving walkways, but then protests were made about them taking away the charm of a city — not to mention being detrimental to health and fitness — and so they’d all been torn out. The sidewalk they traversed now was not so different from those made centuries ago, although the invention of duracrete had made them virtually maintenance-free.

Around them he heard Anglic and Spaniola and the odd snippet of Nippon and Szechuan, as a good many of the Cloud’s refugees had ended up here in addition to the area around Tucson. Normerica’s official language was Anglic, but that didn’t keep people from speaking the language of their forebears around others in their family or extended social group. He could speak Spaniola and Nippon, and had a smattering of Szechuan, although he was much better at reading than speaking it. Being able to read signs had come in handy when he was working in Hunan Province, although of course there was no one around to speak Szechuan to these days.

But that only made his thoughts turn to the devastation he’d seen there, and he didn’t want to think about that right now, not on a day as lovely as this, not with a woman as beautiful as Cassidy Evans by his side. The breeze was picking up her hair and blowing strands of it around her face, causing her to constantly reach up to brush them aside, but she didn’t seem annoyed. No, she appeared fascinated, as if she’d never had to manage the wind blowing her hair in her face before.

He supposed she hadn’t, not if she’d spent her entire life shipboard or in Luna City. In that domed settlement, everything was carefully regulated and controlled. No fresh September breezes there, that was for sure.

After a walk of some ten minutes, they arrived at Margarita’s. It was set back a little from the street, with a large open courtyard area where one could dine
al fresco
if the weather permitted.

Cassidy gaped at the metal tables and chairs. “Do people eat
outside
here?”

“Sure, when the weather’s pleasant. Would you like to? There’s a table over there under the pergola where there’s some shade.”

Her brows drew together at the word “pergola,” and he realized she’d probably never heard it before. But when she saw the spot he’d indicated, still out in the fresh air but protected by a wooden structure with bougainvillea vines covering it, she nodded. “That looks beautiful.”

They went and took their seats, and a minute or so later a young woman who looked like she was probably working her way through the university came and brought them their menus, along with some water. Although many restaurants had taken to sending their bill of fare directly to patrons’ handhelds, or used heads-up displays next to their tables, Derek had always liked the places that did it the old-fashioned way, with a menu printed on real paper and backed with cardboard or faux leather. It made the food seem more real, somehow.

Cassidy was frowning as she stared at the menu, obviously confused by the unfamiliar dishes.

“Do you want me to order?” he asked in an undertone. “Normally I wouldn’t presume, but….”

A look of relief passed over her features. “That’s probably a good idea. Otherwise, I’d end up ordering dessert for the main dish or something.”

Smiling, he asked for a couple of house margaritas, and then chilaquiles for Cassidy and chicken enchiladas for himself. That way they could share a bit, if she wanted to taste something different. And, if she still had room after that, the best flan on this planet or any other.

The server took the menus away, promising that the margaritas and water would be out in a few minutes, then went back inside the restaurant.

“So….” Cassidy began after sipping at her water. “What now?”

Part of him wanted to leave the question of their next move aside for the moment, to simply sit here and feel the wind on his face, smell the faint aroma of spices and warm oil from inside the restaurant, but he knew that would only be wasting their time. He glanced around, saw that they were the only ones sitting outside, mainly because it was now almost two and so past the time most people would be taking a break for their midday meal.

“Put out an SOS,” he replied, then dug in his pocket and got out his handheld. Although there was no one around him, he thought it was prudent to type out his question rather than use text to speech. After pulling up his last conversation with their benefactor, he tapped in the message,
In Barstow, need help with biometrics. Thank you,
then sent it.

“Do you think they’re really going to keep bailing us out?” Cassidy asked, her tone wry.

“They have so far. Otherwise, we’re going to be in trouble. I’ve visited Barstow before, but I was here for academic conferences, not looking up ident-scrubbers.”

“Too bad,” she remarked. “That probably would’ve been more useful.”

Derek could tell from the gleam in her eye that she was joking, and so he merely lifted his shoulders. It was during that lull in the conversation the waitress returned with their drinks, and she set them down, said their food would be ready shortly, and disappeared again. It seemed obvious enough that she wasn’t in the mood to loiter or ask too many questions, which was fine by him. He really didn’t want anyone overhearing what he and Cassidy had to say to one another.

His handheld beeped, and he looked down to see a new message.
Working on it. Will get back to you soon.

Thanks,
he typed in return before sliding the handheld into his pocket. He looked up at Cassidy, who was watching him, gaze expectant.

“So?”

“Looks like he — or she, or they — hasn’t given up on us yet. I assume we’ll be contacted again when they have something. In the meantime, enjoy your margarita.”

She hadn’t touched it yet, was obviously waiting for him to be ready. Then she reached out and wrapped her fingers around the stem and lifted the glass in the air. “To tilting at windmills,” she said.

The reference surprised him, but he raised his glass as well and clinked it against hers. “To dreaming the impossible dream.”

A grin, and then she swallowed some of her margarita, eyes widening as she did so. “Damn…that
is
really good.”

“You sound surprised.”

“I suppose I am.” She drank some more, then set down her glass. “Gaia is surprising me. I thought it was crowded and over-regulated, and no one ever got time to enjoy anything because everyone was working all the time, but….”

“Like most over-generalizations, that’s partly true…but only partly.” He allowed himself another swallow of his margarita, savoring the sweet-sour flavor and the warm, aromatic undercurrent of tequila. “People do tend to work long hours, and there are cameras everywhere, watching much of what they do. On the other hand, there is still open land and trees and flowers and….”

“And margaritas,” she finished for him, sipping at her drink again.

“Not everywhere, but in this part of the world, definitely.”

For a moment she was silent, appearing to savor her margarita, and he wondered if he should warn her to slow down, that tequila could sneak up on you, especially on an empty stomach. But she was a grown woman and could make her own decisions. Besides, she’d be counteracting the tequila with some chilaquiles in the very near future.

“I think I get it now,” Cassidy said, but she didn’t get any farther than that, as the server came back with their food.

“Anything else?” she asked brightly, although it seemed clear that she hoped there wouldn’t, in fact, be anything else.

“I’m fine,” Derek told her, and Cassidy chimed in,

“No, I’m good.”

After they were alone again, Derek prompted, “What do you get?”

“Why you’re fighting so hard for this. Why you didn’t just pack it in and let me take you away to someplace that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Gaia.”

“Because of the margaritas?” he quipped, although he could tell from her expression that she didn’t appreciate the joke.

“Because of the margaritas and restaurants like this and all that green land we rode through. And those purple mountains around Tucson. The way the city lights reflected on the water at Lake Michigan. All of that.”

He looked at her, and his heart broke a little. Because that was exactly it. For all its flaws, this was his world, and abandoning it would have left a scar on his soul. And that was also why he wanted so badly for the truth to be known, because he understood that most people had no idea what their government was actually doing, save the usual propaganda about keeping Gaia safe while increasing its wealth and power in ever-expanding colonies throughout the galaxy. Maybe he would end up changing nothing, but at least he would have made the attempt.

For Cassidy to look at him and understand that, to realize what was so important to him — well, he’d never been with anyone before who had that kind of insight. Perhaps it was only her perspective as an outsider that allowed her to see things in an entirely different light…but he didn’t think so. Not entirely, anyway. And that made the situation a lot more difficult, because he understood now, more than ever, how special she was, and how much he wanted to survive all this. Not merely because of a need for vindication, but because he wanted a future with her in a way that he’d never wanted one with any other woman.

“Yes, because of all that,” he replied quietly. “And a lot more.”

Their gazes locked, and he could see the hope and need and worry in her because it so clearly echoed what they were both feeling. Then she broke the contact and gave a half-hearted laugh. “I suppose we’d better eat this before it gets cold.”

“Yes,” Derek said. “I suppose we should.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

They did eat, and the food was amazing to Cassidy, layered with so many different flavors and textures that she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to identify what they all were. Derek ordered a second round of margaritas, and somehow they’d both known to let the conversation flow to more casual subjects — the food, the places he’d traveled, the way he’d spent the holidays at his maternal grandmother’s house, acquiring her love for the cuisine of the area, as it sounded like his mother’s family had lived in the Tucson area for generations.

“That’s how I learned to speak Spaniola,” he said, as they lingered over some divine, rich dessert he called flan. “My mother only used Anglic, but my
abuelita
— my grandmother — she wanted me to have something from that side of the family.”

What was it like to have that kind of history, to know that your people had lived somewhere for hundreds and hundreds of years? Cassidy couldn’t begin to imagine it. True, her father had boasted sometimes about their Welsh heritage, about how the people of that land had been great warriors and poets, but he’d certainly never bothered to take his daughter there so she could see for herself. Then again, that would have been violating his “don’t set foot on Gaia” policy. Had he been running from something, or was it simply that he didn’t want to go back to a place which reminded him of where he’d met his long-lost wife?

Cassidy had forced her thoughts away from such things, as there wasn’t much she could do about it at this stage of the game. Better to concentrate on Derek’s face and the sound of his voice, then take a rather wobbly walk with him back to their room, where she was fairly certain of what was going to happen next.

And that turned out to be the case, because once they were inside, he went and immediately opaqued the windows, then turned back to her and pulled her against him, his mouth tasting of the creamy sweetness of flan and the tang of margaritas. She wasn’t sure who reached out to undo the fastenings of the other’s clothing first, and it didn’t really matter — the garments fell to the floor with a sort of dreamlike flutter, and then she and Derek were on the bed, hands reaching out to touch the other, to break the tension that had been building for the past day or so.

She wanted to taste all of him, and so she took him into her mouth, caressing him with her tongue, teasing him to the brink, until he let out a laugh that was half groan and pushed her up against the pillows, fingers stroking her, moving into her, and that wasn’t the only thing that was moving, since he began to kiss his way down her stomach until his tongue reached where his fingers had been only a few seconds earlier.

Nothing to do then but let him make love to her with his mouth, wrenching a climax from her even as she reached up to grab one of the pillows and muffle her cries with it — after all, she didn’t know how thin the walls in this hotel might be. As the orgasm continued to ripple through her, he moved, pushing against her, sliding into her, hips rocking in a rhythm that seemed to come naturally to them, even though this was only their second time together.