Anja's Star (Outer Settlement Agency) (5 page)

“Agreed, we should definitely be more responsible. Hand me that bottle of wine.”

Not sure he wasn’t entirely joking, she laughed and shook her head, forced her mind off him and on their money situation. Anja grabbed his omnitab and pulled up a datapac of Rosoft and projecting it on the left screen. “It looks like a modern, well managed city.  How do you intend to get Fitzchow?”

“So, we’re not going to talk about what just happened? All right. Well, she’ll be guarded by hired, private forces. Opportunities to get her alone won’t come easily. She doesn’t have family or lovers that aren’t paid for.”

Anja leaned back, popping her feet over the edge of the seat. “We need a different angle than kidnapping. She’ll have heard of your father, but did she have any dealings with him?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Good. That’ll make this a whole lot easier.”

Retzi flashed that dangerous smile of his. “What foul plots are you formulating over there?”

“Blackmail. You tell her that new charges have come up and, for a price, you can make them go away.”

“No, I’ve worked hard to keep my name clean. Grantly would never say anything, but this woman? She’s been in and out of the courts for so long that—”

“So what? Even if she goes to the authorities, they have nothing on her. There’d be nothing to support her claim. For the same reason, if she one day finds a way to check her file, she’ll see no new charges and think it’s because of you. She’s not going to go blabbing about that. Besides, you said it yourself, she deserves everything she gets.”

***

M
s. Fitzchow’s long painted nails rapped against the table in their hotel room. Her thin and equally red lips hadn’t cracked an inch since Retzi laid out his proposition. Anja didn’t like it and took to studying exit points in case the plan blew up all around them.

Another eternity passed before the woman slammed her flattened palm against the table, drawing her goon to heel. While they whispered back and forth, Anja caught a quick grin and wink from the otherwise stonefaced Retzi. The man was of two natures, deadly serious, dangerous even and yet playful beyond words when they were alone. Which one was the real him? She shouldn’t want to know, shouldn’t care.

She’d successfully spent the last years of her life guarded and alone. There was a comfort in the certainty that no man could hurt her, but not until Retzi entered her life, had she considered the tradeoff.

Here, in the silence, hanging on the thread between total success and certain death, she’d get no worse time to sort it out. Still, while Retzi and Fitzchow looked deep into one another’s souls for hidden minefields, Anja sat crosslegged on the bed, draped her hands across her knees and laid out the facts.

Fact: He could literally be the death of her.

Fact: She’d never laughed so much in her life.

Fact: He annoyed the hell out of her.

Fact: She’d never felt more womanly than when she’d been straddling him.

Her core quivered at the memory of him, hard against her leg. Good thing they had the time to change before calling this meeting. Not that there had been any other decision to make. The scent of their lust had clung fast to the flimsy shift and she’d been eager to get out of it, washing it in the necessary’s basin.

She studied his face, once again blank and latched on to Fitzchow’s across the table. If he meant what he said about the hopper, really meant it, was she willing to risk her job with his father for it?

No.

Not without any certainties attached and it was a little early for that.

“What assurances do I have that this will hold,” Fitzchow asked, yanking Anja back to the present.

Retzi reached for a piece of bloodfruit from a basket in the center of the table and took a bite, his tongue flicking out to catch the dripping dark juice. “My badge isn’t enough?”

“I’d prefer a contract.”

“Doesn’t work that way.”

“I’d rather surmised that. You’ve given little in the way of options and you come to the table with the whole OSA on one side and a force of cross galactic criminals on the other. You didn’t think I wouldn’t know about your father, did you? I suppose I’m flattered you came all this way just to blackmail little ol’ me.”

“If you’re asking if you were targeted, the answer is yes. I don’t like slavers. Perhaps taking, no charging this uncomfortable fee will halt your efforts for a time. Let’s be very clear with one another. This doesn’t buy you cover, so much as a blank tally. I’d take if I were you.”

They were interrupted by a knock at the door and Anja answered it, gun in hand, red dotting the knocker’s chest. The man didn’t flinch as he laid  three stacked crates at her feet. With her gun still trained on the target, she lifted the edge off the top one, nearly blinded by its contents.

Fitzchow walked past her then, leaving without a word.

“Well?”

“Minerals, jewels, some hard currency, no actual cash though.”Anja’s skin tingled at the hand on her shoulder.

“Oh, that counts. Come on, let’s get it wrapped. I’ll call for a trolley. I want to be off the ground as soon as possible.”

“Sounds good to me,” though she did spare a quick glance to the bed. That earned her a chuckle from Retzi and a pair of flaming cheeks.

“We’ll have time for that later. But I won’t enjoy you like I want if I’m having to keep an ear open for a kicked in door.” He pinched her nose and went back to work.

They were out the room and off the ground within the hour and with days to spare before returning. It didn’t mean they had time to play around though. Half of their take had to be converted to cash, neither wanted to risk the jewels being deemed unacceptable by Crost.

They found a moneylender at their next landing point, but didn’t hang around long after the exchange. With the amount they’d brought to the table, they’d attracted a colony load of stares. Heads bowed and feet fast, they moved on.  There was still another stack of jewels to convert.

She was a yawning mess at their final stop of the day. Coherent thought, let alone words, weren’t on the table. She’d taken hold of his hand after they landed and hadn’t let go. He’d half pulled, half dragged her from the port, opting for a hire into town. She slept the entire trip to a hotel. “Just a little farther. I’d carry you, if it didn’t think it would draw too much attention.”

She yawned into the sleeve of her jumpsuit. “Guess I didn’t know how exhausted I was. You’re leading me on quite the adventure.”

“You’re beginning to enjoy this, aren’t you?”

“Not at all,” she said, raising to the tips of her toes to kiss his chin. “I’m going right back to my piratical ways and you’re off to capture misguided—”

“I am actually heartbroken. Have you forgotten already? And after I’ve given you my star in its stead?”

“I’m too tired to play games, Retzi. I won’t hold you to it.”

“Too bad. I’m pumped up for the adventure. This is fun. Or, it is for me. I thought.”

“Me too, but I backed you into a corner. You were sad for me and I know that. I don’t want to make you do something you don’t want to.”

He stopped right there, crossing his arms, bending until his nose brushed against hers. “No one makes me do what I don’t want to do.” He nodded side to side. “Unless they take my daddy’s ship. Even then, I’ve decided and it’s settled. We’re finding that damned star.”

“Alright, but do you think we could find a bed first? And before you say anything, the only thing I want to do is pull the covers over my head and disappear. We’ve got time for that right? What’s the worst that could happen?”

H
e’d woken up with her curled next to him.  She was a solid sleeper and quiet, not moving once after worming her way into the crook of his arm.

And his heart. Hell, he might as well send Crost a note of thanks at the end of this mess. As for the elder Ert’zod, Retzi intended to give him a well placed left hook. If Retzi was still alive after, he’d explain to his father that Anja was no longer available for employment. She deserved a better life than having to look over her shoulder for the rest of her days.

He could vouch for her and get her enrolled in the academy. A tough woman like Anja needed a badge, not a criminal file in her datapac. She didn’t have one yet, he checked, and if she got out now, no one would ever have to know.

Personally, it meant he’d get to keep an eye on her, no matter how distantly. A freezing year on Saturn wouldn’t be so bad and he could pull a few strings to get her to his base.

He wanted her, plain and simple. Nothing she said could persuade him otherwise and he saw no point in waiting. Life in the outer settlements demanded a team approach and they made a good one. He wasn’t a fool though. They would need time to grow, to learn each other’s quirks, but he wouldn’t get the opportunity to do that if her father got her arrested, or blown out of the sky.

Nope. He had to put her on the straight and narrow, starting today...after they traded in the hush money they lied to get from a slaver. Best to exclude all present events when casting judgments.

Laughter and music from outside the window drew his attention. It sounded like a parade, but he couldn’t reach for his omnitab without jostling her to find out the cause. He couldn’t think of a single good enough reason to risk waking her up.

“What is that?”

“Nothing. Go back to sleep, hmm?”

And she did try, rooting until she found a suitable place in the pit of his arm, but screams and hoots from the streetside revelers only amplified as the morning progressed.  “It’s no use,” she said minutes later, stretching and yawning until her back popped.

“Good morning to you too. I’ll order up some breakfast. Is there anything in particular you have a taste for?”

“All of it.” She placed a quick kiss on his cheek before heading into the necessary and stayed there for the full half clock turn it took for the food to arrive.

“Here’s the – you took a water cleansing!”

“My body needed something a bit more relaxing than gel today. Hope you don’t mind paying extra.”

“It’s not that,” he said, pulling her close to sniff her skin. Although she was dry already, he could still smell the moisture and squeezed a part of her still pebbling bottom. “Just seems sort of wasteful not to share those.”

“I see.”

“The only logical way to fix this, is to join me my water cleansing.”

“I suppose that’ll depend on how well you feed me.”

He sure hoped so. He
had
sent for a bit of everything, unsure of what she liked and curious about her tastes. Spicy or sweet? Wholesome or comforting?

To his total delight, she had meant what she said by, ‘all.’ The woman was an eater, leaving nothing unsampled. She didn’t love everything, but hated nothing and each time she placed something in her mouth, a look of raptured expectation crossed her face. “We’re packing up the rest,” she said between bites.

She shoveled handful after handful into her mouth, stopping only for air, juice and tea. He’d finished ages ago, but didn’t move, content to watch her go at it.

“You should go take your bath,” she said, chewing on a stringy piece of fruit. The nail from her little finger tried working a piece from between her teeth. “I’m going to be awhile.  And toss over your omnitablet. I need to know what all that noise outside is about.”

***

“F
ounding Day,” she told him as they walked arm in arm. “The day Meash Three began terraforming this section of Titan one hundred and twenty years ago. This place is strange, though. Most of the founding families here came from Venus directly, by way of Mars. Can you imagine? Leaving Earth, hopping from one new place to another, before settling in a recently terraformed area? Crazy.”

“Isn’t that what you want to do? Find some hovel in the dirt and open a garage?”

“I talk a big game, but I wouldn’t mind a little civilization near my hovel.” He tried not to laugh when she punctuated her thought with an eggcake pulled from a sidepocket of her restitched jumpsuit. “The article said this thing lasts for two straight days and is half modeled of an old Earth celebration called Carnival.”

“You have any more of that?”

He’d been joking, but she hadn’t, pulling another eggcake from her pocket while continuing her discussion on the finer points of parade float making. He would have much rather been on the hopper, waiting for their afternoon meeting with the second jewel buyer or wrapped in blankets with her back at the hotel, but the smile plastered on her face hadn’t left since they stepped outside.

He hated these things, but then he’d grown up with them. She’d had Earth, a smog filled cesspool that by its very nature limited outdoor activity. He couldn’t take this from her. She shined here in the beautiful outdoors.

Hell she’d shined in the torrential rains before, but she flourished here, picking up crashing cymbals thrown from floats and spiced meat treats sold from vendors. “For later,” she’d said, though he had his doubts. That meat wouldn’t last an hour.

They paused as the crushing horde of spectators lost their collective minds at the next float. A bevy of scantily clad dancers twirled across an artificial forested landscape in costumes rivaling what he’d seen in the 38
^th
. The womens’ nipples looked to have been painted over with white veined leaves while their male counterparts had their sex framed in upturned and, presumably, hollowed out wood.

He turned to discuss the logistical nightmare that could be, but she wasn’t there. “Anja! Anja!”

Calling her didn’t get far, he couldn’t even hear himself in this mob. He fought his way to nearby foodstalls, but none of the vendors noticed or remembered her.

He could hear his heart thudding in his ears as he went up and down the street, straining and hoping to hear her call his name. The faces around him ran together, all registering as ‘Not Anja.’

He retraced his steps to the last place he’d knew they’d been together coming up with more nothing.
Maybe she went back to the hotel room?

The hope propelled him, elbowing his way down a side street to save some time. That’s when he heard the sounds of a scuffle.  Ahead, between two buildings, Anja was on her back, kicking and fighting, her weapon useless at her feet.