Part 41 (1/2)

”Good,” Forsythe said as he pushed open the door and hurried out into the quiet corridor, still with its night lighting in place. ”I want a courier of our own sent to Lorelei right away, with a collapsed skeeter catapult aboard.”

”You think that's a good idea?” Pirbazari asked carefully. ”The only way for the Pax to have destroyed the skeeter catapults at all four nets would have been for them to have overwhelmed the defenses there. Those sectors will be crawling with Pax s.h.i.+ps.”

”True,” Forsythe said. ”But follow it through. If they've destroyed the defenses at the nets, there's a fair chance they also destroyed the nets themselves.”

”Which would mean the whole system would be open to their incoming s.h.i.+ps,” Pirbazari pointed out.

”And to ours,” Forsythe reminded him. ”If we can put something small into the system, maybe at a good distance from anything the Pax would be interested in-”

”There's a fair chance it could sit there quietly and put together a skeeter catapult without being noticed,” Pirbazari finished for him, the first hint of cautious hope tugging at his voice. ”It might work. But what if there's still one net working?”

”Then we'll have lost a courier,” Forsythe said. ”Hardly worth counting after we've lost a whole system.”

”I suppose not,” Pirbazari murmured.

Forsythe threw a sideways look at him. ”Something?”

”I was just wondering,” Pirbazari said slowly. ”All those mining s.h.i.+ps we armed.”

”What about them?”

”We gave them targeting systems,” Pirbazari said. ”But we never gave them any instruction about tactics or strategy. I hope they've organized themselves into some kind of guerrilla-style resistance among the asteroids instead of just throwing themselves uselessly at incoming Pax s.h.i.+ps.”

Forsythe grimaced. ”Let's hope they were smart and not just brave,” he said. ”In the meantime, let's see if we can find out what's going on.”

CHAPTER 32.

The receptionist on the Stardust Metals executive floor was regally seated behind a desk the size of the Gazelles machine shop, working diligently at a pet.i.te little computer terminal as Chandris pulled open the heavy door and stepped from the hallway onto a wide expanse of light gray carpet. To the casual observer, she supposed, the receptionist would probably have appeared totally engrossed in her work, oblivious to the newcomer's approach.

But to Chandris's street-trained eye, it was clear the whole thing was an act. The receptionist was fully aware of the younger woman's presence; and from her body language Chandris could guess she was wondering who this intruder was.

Who, or what. Chandris still hadn't really nailed down the proper upper-cla.s.s clothing styles, and she'd had even less to work with on Seraph than she'd had aboard the Xirrus. Dressed in the best outfit she'd been able to throw together, she probably still looked a mess.

But there was no time for anything better now. And besides, she wasn't going for the sophisticated seductress role now. This time she was going straight for an even more basic human motivation.

Greed.

She was three steps from the desk before the receptionist finally looked up. ”Good morning,” she said. Her voice was polite enough, but there was a slightly contemptuous edge to the look she sent up and down Chandris's outfit. ”May I help you?”

”Yes,” Chandris said, nodding toward the five doors set into the curved wall behind the receptionist. The upper-cla.s.s voice and gestures, at least, she had down cold, and she could tell the receptionist was taken slightly aback by it. ”Please tell Mr. Amberson Toomes that Chandris Adriessa is here to see him. We met on his last flight from Lorelei aboard the Xirrus.”

For a second she thought the woman was going to refuse, or at least ask for some ID first. But the upper-cla.s.s mannerisms had apparently triggered her standard business reflexes, and without a word she picked up the phone and touched a b.u.t.ton. ”A Miss Chandris Adriessa to see you, Mr. Toomes,” she announced.

For a minute she listened in silence, her eyes occasionally flicking to Chandris. Chandris returned her gaze with the best air of unconcern she could manage, mentally running through possible escape routes in case she had to chop and hop. If Toomes was calling the police...

The receptionist replaced the handset. ”He'll see you now, Miss Adriessa,” she said coolly. ”Center door behind me.”

”Thank you,” Chandris said, circling the desk and heading for the indicated door. This didn't prove anything, either. Toomes could just be giving her a little more stall-rope while the police collected themselves and got over here.

The door opened as she reached it. Holding her head high, she stepped inside the room.

Toomes was standing beside a thickly padded chair in a contoured work area probably twice the size of the receptionist's, across a room that made the desk look relatively small by comparison. ”h.e.l.lo, Chandris,” he said. ”It's been awhile, hasn't it?”

”It's good to see you, Amberson,” Chandris said, studying him as she walked toward the desk. He was exactly as she remembered him from the Xirrus, only not as drunk. There was the same easy charm, the same air of ego and self-absorption, the same predator's smile aimed in her direction.

Or perhaps not. All the surface cues were still there; but as she got closer she could see that underneath was an edge of caution or tension that was new since the last time they'd been together. Perhaps because they were here in his office, surrounded by people he worked with, instead of in the relative anonymity of a s.p.a.celiner?

Or was it because the last time he'd seen her she was being escorted under guard to a landing boat?

”So,” he said, coming out from behind the desk as she approached, easing his way through the narrow aisle between the desk and the display table with its multiple status monitors. His timing was perfect; he arrived at the front of the desk just as she did. ”What have you been doing with yourself?”

For a split second she wondered if he was expecting her to kiss him. But something warned her off. ”Keeping busy,” she told him, glancing over at the chairs and couches over by the right-hand wall.

He took the hint. ”Let's get more comfortable, shall we?” he suggested, gesturing her toward a long couch that seemed to be upholstered entirely in white feathers. ”Then you can tell me all about it.”

A dozen thoughts raced through her mind on that long walk to the couch. Was he expecting what he thought he'd been getting aboard the Xirrus? Or was he just toying with her, playing the feline half of a game of cat and mouse while he waited for the police?

She reached the couch and sat down at one end. To her mild surprise, he didn't sit down beside her. ”I trust you cleared up that little customs problem?” he suggested, choosing one of the chairs facing her.

It was an obvious invitation to lie. A little too obvious. ”You know better than that,” she chided him gently. ”It wasn't anything to do with customs. I was a semi-stowaway.”

” 'Semi?' ”

”I had a ticket to Lorelei,” she told him, watching his face carefully. There wasn't a single atom of surprise there that she could detect. Clearly, he'd already been over the official version of the whole incident. ”Lower cla.s.s section. I decided to continue on to Seraph.”

”Why?”

In the old days, she would have had a sugar-story all set and ready to spin. ”I was running,” she said instead. ”There was a man I needed to get away from. I didn't have the cash in hand to do it.”

”Did you get away?””I think so,” Chandris said, s.h.i.+vering involuntarily at the thought of Trilling Vail lurking in some shadow behind her. ”This isn't the kind of place where he would look for me.”

Toomes lifted his eyebrows. ”I trust you don't mean that the way it sounds,” he warned. ”My office is hardly equipped for live-in occupation.”

”This isn't the 'here' I was referring to,” Chandris said. ”I meant s.h.i.+kari City in general.”

”Ah,” Toomes said. He sounded relieved, but his face didn't match the voice. ”So. What do you want?”

So much for any chance he might still be feeling romantic toward her. ”I came here to offer you a business deal,” she said.

For the first time his expression twitched. ”Really,” he said. ”What sort of deal?”