Tag - A Technothriller (16 page)

“I’m on my way to my new contribution in New Singapore. I’ve just finished acquiring a new range of knowledge and my transfer from Geneva came through. I thought I’d check out the Moon because I’ve never been here and I’m glad I did because now it is off my list of ‘Must Places to Visit’.” She tossed the Virgin carry on over her shoulder.

“That’s great. I live in New Singapore. I’ve been contributing there for about four years now. My name is Jonah, by the way,” I said, giving her a wai.

She waied me back and said, “My name’s Mariko. Pleased to connect with you,” and flashed me another dazzling smile that gave rise to two little dimples in her cheeks.

“Do you...?”

“Do you...?”

We broke into laughter as we had said exactly the same thing at the same time, “You go first,” she said.

“Do you want to travel together? I can brief you on New Singapore, or were you thinking of sleeping on the way back?”

“No, I mean yes, it would be great to travel with you, and no I wasn’t planning on sleeping. I feel like I’ve slept for a day, and I haven’t really talked with anyone since I left Earth three days ago.”

The Lev door opened onto the concourse of Shackleton Moonbase and right opposite the Lev doors was the cred deduct point for the JAS ship back to Earth’s Orbiter. We hurried over to the JAS point and the man behind the waist-high Devscreen, which was suggesting flights and tours, said, “Good morning, and how can we at JAS help you today?”

“We’d like two normals back to Earth’s Orbiter please,” I said, and smiled at him.

“I’m sorry sir, but all the normals are taken. We only have supers left.”

“We’ll take them,” I began to say but was interrupted by Mariko.

“Uhm, I’m sorry, Jonah, but my budget doesn’t stretch to the supers. It’s OK though – you go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you when we get to New Singapore.”

I turned back to the man. “How much is the upgrade from normal to super?”

“It’s four hundred and fifty-six units with tax, baggage, alkys and nourishment included,” he said and smiled a very smarmy kind of smile, that said, ‘Let’s see if you’ll cough up those creds mister’. I returned his smug smile and held up my Devstick, “Give me two Siteazys next to each other.”

It was a bit extravagant but there was no way I was going to let Mariko out of my sight until I had her complete profile in my Devstick. Turning to her I said, “OK that’s settled. This trip to the Moon has been pretty bad for me so far, but,” I paused for effect and giving her my best dazzling smile as I gazed deep into those wide green eyes, said, “things are definitely looking up from my point of view.”

She tilted her head to one side and studied my face.

“Are you flirting with me?” she said with a laugh hidden somewhere in her words.

“I most certainly am, Mariko.”

“Could you make your way over to the spaceport immediately please?” said the JAS staffer in a squirmy kind of a voice.

I ignored him and said to Mariko, “Think of it as a 'welcome to New Singapore' gift and let’s just get off this rock. We have six hours to talk through before we reach the Orbiter.”

Taking her arm by the elbow, I thumbed my Devstick for the lights to the spaceport and led the way.

***

Agent Cochran froze frame on the image of Jonah’s face smiling at Mariko, his lips slightly pouted as he had just finished saying Orbiter. It was 8:45am, and Cochran was standing in the center of a Devcockpit in UNPOL’s Trace center in New Singapore. She’d been woken by a call from a staffer in the Center at 7:15am, when Jonah’s Devstick had been traced to a VacEnv on the third level of a place called the Nineveh Hot Springs Resort on Shackleton. At 7:29am she’d walked into the ten thousand square meter sized room, which was one of three primary tracing centers around the globe, and taken charge.

Either he’s good enough to be starring in the Flicks or he’s innocent, she thought. She’d reviewed the images from the time that Mariko had picked him up at the pool to now. Jonah showed no nerves whatsoever, and seemed blissfully unaware of the strange coincidence of Mariko staying at the same resort and leaving for Earth at the same time. He’d even splurged the cred to have her upgraded, when he had the opportunity to dump her, which he would have if he had something to hide.

Could he be that good an actor? She looked harder at the screen. Her only contact with Jonah had been on the day that the runner had run. She’d heard about the brilliant nephew of the Director, but they’d never met before. He didn’t move in the usual social circles for one of his level and that she found interesting, but put it down to a ‘loner’ type.

She stared hard at Jonah’s smiling face, the angle of the image just catching Mariko’s lower jaw, just the shadow of bottom of her chin seen occasionally brushing the edge of the image. She felt a little spike of … what … was it jealousy, as she saw the look in his eyes when he spoke to Mariko?

Well Jonah, you and I are going to be having a most interesting chat over the next six hours, she thought smiling to herself. Let’s get to really know each other.

***

Settling into our seats we were separated by a meter of space which was currently occupied by the JAS Intrav staffer who was helping Mariko to buckle in. Take off and ascent from Shackleton out of the Moon’s weak gravitational pull would be much less strenuous than it was on Earth.

I buckled in and was waiting for the staffer to get out of the way so that I could talk to Mariko. I didn’t want to lose the warmth that we had seemed to generate this morning.

I looked at my Devstick, and thumbed up my POS. Scrolling out on the image I saw our path from the Moon to Earth. From the blue dot that was me, the craft would fly in a straight line to edge of the Moon’s gravitational pull, and then turning right would catapult itself around the Moon and head straight for the Orbiter. The ETA on the track display showed we’d reach the Orbiter around 2:15pm, and with luck I could be back in my Env by 6pm. With even better luck Mariko would be with me.

Out of the window on my right, I saw what looked like a heavy metal box about four meters long and six wide on large rubber wheels with a pole sticking out of the end of it and rapidly approaching the craft we were in. A clunk signaled its coupling with the craft, which jolted forward a little.

The staffer stumbled against my arm and turning to me, said, “I am most sorry, sir, usually the drones are bit more gentle than that.”

I looked up at her. She was attractive, probably of Hispanic origin, I guessed by her features and her accent. She had large breasts and a generous cleavage which the JAS Intrav suit was displaying to full effect. My eyes flicked from her cleavage to Mariko’s, and I thought, I like hers better – not as big, but a really cute perky shape. I turned my eyes to find those of the staffer fixed on me and I knew exactly what she was thinking. What she was thinking was she knew exactly what I was thinking, and I smiled at her. She was exactly right.

“Would you two like an alky before we take off?” she asked, returning the smile. I leaned around her also-generous backside and asked Mariko.

“What do you think? Do you want to go for an alky?”

She smiled back at me, and staring directly in my eyes, said, “Sure, why not? Order me something relaxing and smooth.”

I looked up at the Intrav staffer and asked, “Would you happen to have the Endorpho 80?”

“Yes, I think I can find you a couple of those.” And with another smile, she walked back to the prep area between Super and Normal.

I turned, continuing to look at Mariko. I couldn’t get enough of looking at her. She was almost too attractive. She stopped doing what she was doing with her Devstick and glanced at me.

“What?” she said in a soft voice, and her eyes smiled at mine.

“I can’t stop looking at you,” I said, and felt like an idiot the minute I’d said it.

She chuckled and said in a teasing way, “We’re all beautiful, Jonah.”

I laughed, and said, “OK,” but perhaps I should have said, ‘Your physical features are a perfect match to my aesthetic taste’, and smiled back at her.

“I feel the same,” she said returning my smile. To my eye, her smile held a deeper promise. I wanted to kiss those wide lips. I knew that our mouths would match in size and it would be a perfect kiss.

Chapter 16

A Down to Earth Chat

JAS Flight JAS1608, Runway, Shackleton Moonbase, The Moon

Friday, 13 December 2109 9:00am

Sharon Cochran knew that the Staffer Margarita Delgado had been an Intrav for six years. She’d qualified on the Hydroships traversing Earth’s oceans and had qualified for space three years previously. She loved what she did. Her life was good – she met many nice men, and women, had a good balance of contribution and self-time, and had visited every major city on Earth and in space.

In all that time she had never received an UNPOL Blue Notice, and had to think hard to recall her training as to what it meant, especially as her brain had sent a typical panic response to the unusual notice spelled out on the Devscreen in the galley. An UNPOL Blue Notice requests immediate assistance to gather more information about an individual who may or may not be about to cause themselves or others harm. The receiver in their official capacity, and acting on behalf of the state is obliged to comply.

UNPOL BLUE NOTICE

Subject: Jonah James Oliver

Request Filed by: Special Agent Sharon Cochran

Requested authorized for Submission: Director of UNPOL: Thomas Bartholomew Oliver

Request Authorized: Judge Miriam Wu

Case #2109.

UNPOL requests immediate assistance by receiver of this Blue Notice, in accordance with UNPOL statute 34 B, D and E of UNPOL code of operations.

Intervention by actions to be performed by: Margarita Delgado. The intervention requested is for an immediate Truth Treatment to be applied to Jonah James Oliver. The truth treatment is to gather information related to Case #2109.

Agent Cochran had been extremely busy. Getting the Blue Notice on Jonah drafted and signed by the Director had only taken a few minutes. Finding a recipe for an impromptu Truth Treatment in space had taken a few minutes longer. She hit submit, sending the concoction of several parts of different alkys which were all available on flight JAS1608 bound for Earth’s Orbiter, to be mixed with the drink Jonah would be served.

Delgado bit her lower lip and pressed her finger on the Devscreen. Confirm.

At least they only want information, she thought He must be one of those Ent scammers. Her opinion of Jonah had changed radically in the last few minutes. The prepare for take-off light flashed on her console and she quickly sat down and buckled herself in.

***

The craft vibrated slightly as the roar of its rockets increased in pitch. Surging forward, the spaceport on Shackleton slid out of view as we moved off down the runway towards the ramp at its end. The craft picked up speed, occasionally bumping its passengers in their seats as it traveled down the runway, and then the steam catapult took up the pulling, and punched us into our seats for the last two hundred meters of ramp – hurtling us into space at seven hundred and fifty kiloms per hour. The craft left the ramp with a slight drop and then the rockets were pushed to their maximum as we climbed up at a steep angle.

A tanned hand reached over my shoulder and a sealed container with the JAS logo on it was dangled in front of my face. Twisting in my seat, I reached up and collected it with my left hand.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling. Intrav Delgado, as her name tag stated, didn’t smile back but turned her attention to Mariko. Mariko took the alky and shared a look that puzzled me. It was as if they knew each other, but I shrugged the thought off knowing how improbable that was.

Probably something to do with me checking out their breasts, I thought.

I forced myself not to look at Delgado’s backside as she turned away, as I could see, out of the corner of my eye, that Mariko was looking at me. I smiled at her and she raised the container with the spout first to toast me, then to her mouth and said, “Bottoms up.” I copied her action and drained the Endorpho 80. It tasted a bit different than the one I had at the Polar Nights relax lounge, but that was probably due to the stuffiness I still had in my nasal passages as a result of the Moon sickness.

I sat back comfortably in the Siteazy and waited for the drink to kick in, anticipating the cool stillness that I remembered from the last time I had it. The muted roar from the craft’s engine suddenly cut off and the craft banked as the Devscreen in the headrest in front of me flashed a warning that we were now in zero grav. I looked across at Mariko and saw that she was also lying back with her eyes closed, giving me an opportunity to really take a good long look at her body. Her outers had the image of a dragon running down the right leg, the colors were bright green and red. Then the dragon’s tail moved, but Mariko hadn’t moved her leg.

I didn’t remember that about the Endorpho. As it kicked quickly in with full force I felt like I was in a Lev on steroids, dropping through one hundred levels faster than the speed of light. I panicked a little with speed of the rush – it was nothing like what I remembered from my last Endorpho 80 and I might have gone too far with this one. Through wide eyes I looked at Mariko. She still had her eyes closed and seemed relaxed enough.

She turned her whole body toward me slightly, and I saw her left breast bulge out of the opening in the middle of her outers, the faint outline of her nipple clear through the material. She twisted fully onto her side and brought her hands up palms together, placing them under her cheek as though she was going to sleep.

I thought of her nipple in my mouth, and I felt myself reacting. Was this yet another side effect of the Endorpho? Obviously the Endorpho 80 was a whole different proposition in space, but as long as Mariko was OK then I was determined just to go along for the ride. I struggled with my senses, trying to get a bit more control, taking several short sharp breaths. The assault calmed down and the cabin took on a rose-tinted hue, my jaw ached a little: I had clenched my teeth too much. I wished I had some gum to chew.