Part 10 (1/2)

Good is ”that which we certainly know is useful to us.”

-Spinoza Bad is what the other guy does.

-Trafalgar Cuw ”Good job with Manjanungo, Janje. And pos, those corseted weirdos are cleared and confirmed: into the care of Lady Seerava.”

”How much time off do I get for bad behavior?”

”Bed behavior? Anyhow, I'll tell you this and then you tell me how much time you want off: You're ready to go undercover, and after the big one.”

”Monster!-you do know me. I'm ready. Skip the time off. What do I do when?-and where?”

”As I've told you before, you'll command your own s.h.i.+p-as a slaver, this time-and go after him by encroaching in territory he thinks of as his.”

”Why?”

”Because he has to come to you. We can't go after him. You just have to be there, Janja. Be available. Don't bother asking-this is the way we do it.”

Her hand twitched as if to flip its fingers; instead she nodded beside him, and shoulder-shrugged. Her hand continued its idle fondling of him.”And what if this 132.

133.

nice warrior gentleman decides to blast my s.h.i.+p out of s.p.a.ce?”

”He might.”

She clutched his s.c.r.o.t.u.m and he grunted, then reached over to pinch her nipple, hard. She jerked, grunted, and let go.

”Oh I do hate you, despicable gray Rat!”

”Sure. I hate you too, darling Janja.” He kissed the unnaturally dark nipple he had pinched.

”Where do I do my preparing? Become a slaver, I mean.”

”Rahman. That's where we're headed, remember? You leave this s.h.i.+p and go down onplanet in disguise, clinging lovingly to me like a real nothing. You-”

”Want to hear some genuine Daura slanguage?”

”Listening is easier when you aren't making comments. Ouch! We don't stay in Ramadan, but go cross-planet to Alisse. We check into a caravansery-not an overly nice one, you understand. There you get rid of the disguise and into the clothing that'll be awaiting you there. You leave. A while later I do, with the woman who'll be waiting there.”

”I'm going to resemble her when we go down onto Rahman, right?”

He saw no need to answer the obvious ones. ”Your s.h.i.+p is already on Rahman. One temporary crewmem-ber will be onboard. You will then make an illegal liftoff and you'll be pursued with alarms and attendant publicity.”

”Infamous right from the start, hmm? All right. I'm about to have a new name, I'll bet.”

”Good bet. You're about to become the piratical slaver Jansanerima Dee. You're not as accustomed to answering to other names as I am, so I made it easy. Do, 134.

however, start thinking 'Jansa' and 'Jansa Dee'.”

”Poor Outreach is about to sp.a.w.n a slaver, hmmm?” she said, since the name was obviously an Outie one, just as her a.s.sumed ”Janjaglaya Wye” was. Somehow Trafalgar Cuw had even got that one into the TGO memory banks.

She reflected on the names she knew this man had used (this man whose name she was not even certain was Ratran Yao): Sinchung Sin and Sin Yans.h.i.+n, Humayun RE4435d and Tabash-and-some-numbers, Hacema and Cougar, the name by which she had first known him. No no, second; he had come on as Sinchung Sin, policer from Resh. She wondered how many other names he had used, and she saw his point. Far easier to remember ”Jansa” something and answer to it than to try to be Popocatapetl Tee or somesuch.

She said, ”Where will I recruit my crew?”

”Up to you, Jansanerima.”

”All right. My, uh, old friends on Sunmother would volunteer if I could find-”

”That's out.”

His interruption in that flat voice was one she knew better than to argue with. She had expected it, anyhow. And the three Jarps off Lewuvul knew she was with TGO. She sighed. All right. She'd recruit her own crew. That shouldn't be difficult.

”All right. Where will I do my encroaching on Warrior's territory?”

”Aglaya.”

That brought her up in the bed, naked and with rage in her eyes. ”Aglaya! You s.h.i.+rash-slicing sistersucker, you really expect me to-”

”I do. To save thousands of Aglayans, Jansanerima, I expect you to go to Aglaya as a slaver. To save other lovers, meeting apart from their villages to plan their 135.

Lifemating as you and Tarkij did. To save other Tar-kijes, other little Janjabarians, once-sliced and anxious for more, only to be s.n.a.t.c.hed and hauled through s.p.a.ce and sold, sold.”

b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Nice sentence, she thought, hardly knowing that he had written it out onscreen, shaped and polished it, and memorized it for just this occasion. - She sank back. ”What more do I need to know?”

”How to conduct yourself as a slaver-captain.”

”Piece of cake,” Janja said, twisting her mouth. ”I've known several.” That gave her another thought. So long, Vettering. You were almost one of the good guys. She remembered something else: ”Oh. Think I know how to conduct myself in bed with-him?”

”I do, and so do you. Remember that he likes to be called . . . you know,” he said, for they had not said ”Ramesh Jageshwar” or ”Kshatriya” even on this surely-secure s.p.a.cer. ”I think you've conquered that one, Jansa.”

”-nerima Dee. Really? Perfect? Me in bed?” Her voice carried the sound of her pleasure, and was also teasing.

”Perfect, you say. Oh, well now. How could a barbarian from Aglaya ever be perfect at slicing in civilized surroundings with civilized men?”

She bent and bit his nipple. He grasped a very firm b.u.t.tock in one powerful hand and a breast in the other, and dragged-flung her off the bed. He followed, fast, and they hurtled into violent lovemaking, fast. HReenee would love it, Janja thought, gnawing nipple while hers was gnawed and three fingers moved within her. Then he was sliding onto her, into her, pinning her arms with his weight on her, acting as her rapist in violent hard surges that drove both of them swiftly past arousal into an aching panting need to flash; need for release. There 136.

was an additional excitement, for it was as if a new woman had come alive under him: Daurajanja, jerking as he drove in and in, listening to her cries and curses and thinking, insofar as he was capable of thinking, that what she had said was wrong: it wasn't ridiculous at all, all her noise. And then she was keening out formless cries, and he smiled with male pride, knowing that the two of them had slammed and thrust her right into o.r.g.a.s.m.

Only then, grinning and gasping, did he release the wrists he had held pinned to the smallish s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p bed. Only then did he take his weight off her, supporting himself not on his elbows or forearms but on his hands, so that their bodies touched only at crotch and, when he came down in that series of s.e.xual push-ups, belly.

A heavy shudder hit him. She enwrapped him with both arms as he began to stiffen and quiver, dragging him back down onto her and thrusting up her knees to deepen his penetration of her, to feel the violent spurts that accompanied his grunting groans and spasmodic shudders.

”Oh Rat, you rat, my Rat,” she breathed, when they had soared and flashed and glided down.

”I hate you too, s.e.xpot,” he muttered weakly, and went to sleep.