Burning Suns: Conflagration (Book One)
***
“Honey, I’m home!”
Jennifer’s flippant greeting echoed up from the airlock. Keera closed the code update she’d been tinkering with to occupy herself, and opened a new command dialog, working her way into the dockyard’s security systems and then to their video monitoring suite to pick up the camera feeds from outside their dock. “I’m in the wardroom,” she called back.
Jennifer’s boots thumped up the ladder, then the human was at her back, leaning over her shoulder to look at the feed. “I brought you back a pet goon,” she said. “He was loitering around the concourse when I came in. Big fella, bald, hit every branch on the ugly tree on the way down.”
Keera pointed at a likely candidate. “Him?”
“Yep, that’s the one. He’s pretty good. Moves real quiet for a guy with that build.” Jennifer leaned closer, studying the image, her breath warm against Keera’s cheek. “You gonna be able to handle him?”
“Yes. Your skin gives me increased reach and height, and I have far quicker reflexes than a human.”
Jennifer shuddered, pulling back. “Damn. Looking at you from behind I’d kind of forgotten about that.”
“Oh, don’t be so delicate,” Keera snorted derisively as she rose and turned to face the human. “Get your clothes off.”
“So much for foreplay, huh?” Jennifer teased, her eyes alight with sudden mischief. “Hey, if you’re me then technically if we make out it’d be self-pleasure, right?”
“Ugh. Really?” Keera objected, blushing.
Jennifer cackled wickedly. “Gotcha. Damn if you ain’t an easy mark for someone so cynical.”
Keera ground her jaw. “Can we get on with this, before your pet goon gets bored and wanders off?”
“You, Agent Naraymis, are officially no fun,” Jennifer sighed as she began to strip.
“Work first. Fun later. And no…” Keera shot the human a warning glance, “that’s not an offer. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of future opportunities to have sex with yourself.”
“Ooh, ouch. She bites,” Jennifer chuckled.
Keera changed into Jennifer’s outfit, cringing slightly at the residual body heat. She buckled on the weapons holster and belt, clipped on the pouch containing her own gear, and slid the heavy leather duster over her shoulders. “How do I look?”
“Badass,” Jennifer approved with a wink. “Be careful out there, though.”
Keera gave her a confident grin. ”Don’t worry. This bit should be child’s play.”
Jennifer’s smile faded, her expression suddenly growing cold. “I’m just warning you. This guy might be muscle, but he’s not stupid. If I hadn’t been looking for him I might not have picked him up. And I can’t be sure he’s alone. Don’t underestimate him.”
Keera nodded slowly. “I won’t.”
“Good. Because if you get caught, I’m not coming after you.”
“That’d be more trouble than I’m worth, right?” Keera retorted archly. She felt oddly hurt by the sudden indifference, and was satisfied to see the retaliatory jab get through the human’s guard as Jennifer flushed.
“That’s right,” Jennifer agreed, tone cool in spite of the heat in her cheeks. “You got a problem with that?”
“No, it’s fine. I understand.” Keera met Jennifer’s gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll be in touch.” Whatever had upset the human, now wasn’t the time to deal with it.
Gullane’s henchman picked her up within a hundred metres of the dock gate, and Keera led him on a long, convoluted route through the dock’s retail mall, browsing slowly through a random selection of shops before heading into the bar at the far end of the promontory. She made her way to the women’s washroom and shifted to the skin she’d used to snare Orden. Shucking off Jennifer’s coat, she stuffed it into her pack and replaced it with the dark, plain hooded sweater she’d adopted. Then, she slipped out the fire exit and walked back in through the front door of the bar, picking a shadowed corner from which to keep watch.
Jennifer had been right. Her tail wasn’t stupid. He realised within two minutes that “Jennifer” had given him the slip, making a call on his comms that also indicated that he hadn’t been alone. Interesting. Why spend more than the minimum effort making sure Jennifer isn’t going to cause any more trouble?
The thug waited one more minute, then he left the bar, his expression surly. Keera followed him at a discreet distance to a public parking lot near the docks. When she saw him unlock a nondescript hovercar with blackout windows, she slipped her loaded hypodermic ring onto her finger and broke into a fast walk, waving at him frantically.
“Sir? Excuse me, sir, could you help me?”
He turned with a scowl, and Keera threw her arms around his neck, gluing her lips to his and muffling his startled cry of surprise. She jabbed him just under the skull, holding him tightly as he went limp, then lowered him gently into the back seat of the hovercar.
Climbing in beside him and locking the door, she administered a second drug, a slower-acting sedative that would keep him down for twenty hours, then wrestled him out of his clothing, cursing the confines of the vehicle as she swapped outfits once more. The initial kiss hadn’t provided sufficient DNA, so she screwed up her courage and opened his mouth, running her tongue around his teeth and trying not to gag at his rancid breath—she didn’t remember kissing being quite so distasteful from her immersion training.
Pulling back, she fought the urge to spit, forced the saliva sample back to her receptors, and skinshifted again. She crawled through to the driver’s seat and started the vehicle, nosing gently out of the parking lot and into the street that circled the dock as she opened a comm line back to the Fortune. “Jennifer, come in?”
“Go ahead.”
“Our mutual friend has personal transportation, so you tagging along just got easier. Meet me at the passenger pick-up point. I’m all dressed up.”
“You got it.”
Jennifer arrived within five minutes. “Well, you’ve looked prettier,” she sniggered as she settled into the passenger seat, “but great work getting us a ride.”
“Thanks.” Relieved that the human seemed to be over her fit of pique, Keera outlined the next part of her plan. “We should park up for a few hours someplace, wait till it gets late. There’s less chance of random encounters with the staff at night.”
“Sounds good. We can pack Sleeping Ugly back there in the trunk, too. How long will he be out?”
“Well, put it this way,” Keera remarked, “if we’re still in there when he wakes up, it’ll be because we got caught.”
“Don’t jinx it,” Jennifer muttered.