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  Victoria set down her brush with deliberation. “I’ve had a setback, Javier.”

  “I’m crushed to hear it,” he said.

  She went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “I need you to go down to the surface and see to Bianca.”

  Javier’s lips stretched in a grin of sudden anticipation. This conversation was going to be even better than he thought. “What happened boss? I thought you had a plan for her already.”

  “I did. But somehow my agent managed to dust the assignment. Her failure earned her a shredding of course,” she said, her pale eyes sliding over him in a clear warning.

  “Of course. But you don’t have to worry that I’ll feck up this assignment, boss. I have some ideas for Bianca that I’ve been working on for a while now.” He felt the blood start to rush to his groin just thinking about them.

  “Your ideas are not needed.” She picked up a palm-sized sphere from a gilded table next to her and turned it over in her hand thoughtfully. It was a datapac, a secured unit that could store sensitive data for physical transport. Javier could just make out the stylized apple engraved on the red plaz shell, the logo of the oldest tech company in the Sol. Nothing but the best for Vicki. She continued, “Bianca is already providing us with an excellent opportunity. It seems that Cesare Chan has invited her on a tour of the RedIce mine at Tharsis.”

  Now that was interesting. Vicki’s newest boy toy had only been here a few days and he was already dashing off to sniff around after Bianca. That must really twist the old girl’s tab. He grinned. “They do make the cutest couple. Saw them getting a drink together in the terminal right before our Bianca left, you know.”

  Victoria’s fingers tightened around the red ball for an instant. “And you forgot to inform me of this little detail?”

  “Sorry boss,” he said easily. “I assumed you already knew.”

  “It isn’t your place to make assumptions, Javier,” she said softly. “I suggest you not allow an oversight like that to happen again. Now, as I was saying, this visit to the Outback will be perfect for a subtle method of removal.”

  Javier snorted. “‘Subtle’ is just another word for ‘complicated.’ If you want her killed, just tell me to go kill her. Simple.”

  Suddenly, Victoria’s hand shot out and grabbed his ear, yanking his head toward her so that he was looking directly into her eyes. Pale, flat eyes that knew no fear. No guilt or pity or shame. Nothing he could get a handle on. For an instant, he was frozen, trembling under that inhuman stare.

  “Listen closely, you psychotic buffoon,” she said quietly, her nails digging into the cartilage of his ear. “It is vitally important that this look like an accident. The MBC is coming up in less than two weeks to rearrange Martian law for me. I cannot afford the slightest suspicion about Bianca’s death to fall on me at such a delicate moment. So if you deviate from my plan by so much as a micron, and draw any unwanted attention my way, I will shred you myself, and then I will dump the scraps on the surface.” She watched him cringe, and then with a last yank, she released him and turned back toward her mirror.

  Freed of those petrifying eyes, Woods’s courage began to seep back into him. He rubbed his throbbing, ringing ear, fury bubbling up in his throat. He ground his teeth and swallowed it.

  Never mind that his fingers positively ached with the desire to wrap around her long, thin neck and squeeze. He knew there were several weapons comps trained on him at this very moment, ready to put a round in him at the slightest hint of aggression. He had to be patient. The tape player sat reassuringly heavy in his pocket, whirring quietly.

  He let his hand drop and tried to look subservient. “Ay boss, subtle it is,” he gritted out. He shot a glance at the datapac clutched in her gilded talons. “So I take it this plan of yours has something to do with that little pac there?”

  Not deigning to turn away from the mirror, she held the red sphere up to the light and eyed it critically, as if she could see through the casing to examine the code inside. “Yes, Javier,” she said. “It does indeed.”

  StarLine Habtent, Pavonis

  You’ve been stalling long enough. Bianca settled resolutely before the vidscreen in her habsuite’s home office. Cesare Chan would arrive at the bottom of the elevator in two days, and they still had to nail down the details of this proposed Tharsis tour. She couldn’t avoid talking to him any longer. Steeling herself, she tapped on her screen.

  As the com chimed, she twisted her fingers together nervously, considering all her hasty research on Cesare. None of it was very reassuring.

  He had done well in school at Hellas and New Beijing, but at the same time he had managed to rack up an impressive list of arrests and citations. The incidents ranged from drunk and disorderly to public indecency, all culminating in an arrest and conviction for the theft of a luxury rover. A rover that belonged to an Assembly delegate, no less.

  That had been ten years ago, and since then, his life had seemed to straighten out a bit. There were no other incidents on record since his parole, anyway. And the RedIce people all seemed ready to vouch for his character when she had tentatively brought him up this morning at the office. If it weren’t for her suspicions about his business practices, she would have thought he had learned his lesson, and gone respectable. But now, she had to wonder if the juvenile delinquent hadn’t simply translated himself into a cunning adult criminal.

  Just then, the com picked up, and Cesare himself appeared on her vidscreen. His black hair was tousled, and he looked sleepy. But when he saw her, his eyes lit up with a distinctly wicked gleam

  “Well, M’Ross,” he said, “I was wondering when you would com me.”

  And there it was, she thought weakly, the real reason she had been putting off this com. The sexiest bloke she had ever seen was eyeing her like he was calculating how long it would take him to tear her clothing off with his teeth, and she didn’t have the faintest idea what to do about it.

  Bianca’s entire romantic experience consisted of exactly two relationships, and both of those blokes had been about as sexually exciting as a bowl of lukewarm protein meal. And they were both kind of skinny and squishy, not rippling with lean muscle under smooth golden skin...

  Hang on. Why exactly was she seeing so much of Cesare’s smooth golden skin here? She peered at her vidscreen, not quite believing her eyes. She couldn’t see everything, but she could see quite a lot, and from what she could tell, Cesare didn’t have a thread of clothing on. And he was in bed.

  Ay, he seemed to be webbed into his bunk in his elevator suite, the soft mesh wrapping over the sculpted planes of his arms and chest, and down to his ridged abdomen. He was up to date on his depilatory treatments, she noted, swallowing hard.

  “You’re blushing again,” he said, his voice slurring. “I love it when you blush.”

  Great. Naked, in bed and drunk. This was going to be a business conversation for the ages, she could tell.

  “Listen,” she said, “I’m sorry I woke you. I just wanted to tap over the itinerary and travel arrangements I’ve been working up. Why don’t you look them over and com me back when you’re...uh...sober.”

  He frowned. “Sober? I’m not drunk.” He rolled over on his side to face her, bracing himself on one elbow to see her better. His black hair floated around his face.

  “Sorry, but you’re giving me that impression. I mean, you do sound a bit odd. And you’re naked.”

  Cesare looked down at himself in surprise, as if just now noticing that he was wearing nothing but the bunk webbing. “Oh,” he said. “So I am.” He looked back at her, completely unembarrassed.

  People in the Outback habs often had very little privacy or personal space, she knew, and had developed a relaxed attitude toward nudity. But it was all a little disconcerting for a spacer chic like her. “Would you mind covering up while we talk, please?” she said, her voice go
ing squeaky.

  “Whatever pops your tube,” he mumbled. Casually, he reached out and grabbed a sheet floating nearby and pulled it around himself. “Sorry. Usually chics don’t complain too much when they see me naked,” he said, sliding her a little grin.

  She just bet they didn’t. Women must have spoiled him rotten. In spite of herself, she felt an answering smile tugging on her own lips.

  His look turned hazy. “What were we talking about?” he said.

  “You were claiming that you weren’t drunk,” she said dryly.

  “Right. I’m not. I’m spacesick. And I’m high as a moon on gravity meds.”

  “Oh! I’m so sorry.” Bianca’s dismay instantly turned into compassion. Even though she had never been spacesick herself, she had seen plenty of it up on the elevator, and it certainly looked miserable. Med tech could do lots of things, but warding off the effects of zero gravity was still a challenge.

  Suddenly Cesare swallowed hard and wrestled with his net until he was lying flat on his bunk again. “Damn zeegee,” she heard him mumble. “I don’t know how Angelo and Leo stand it.”

  She remembered from her research that he had an older and a younger brother who both worked in space. “Your brothers Michelangelo and Leonardo, right?”

  He peeked at her, a little surprised. “Ay.”

  She smiled. “You all have such mag names.”

  “Italian Renaissance. Mum’s idea. She’s a little moony,” he said, smiling fondly.

  “Moony!” Bianca laughed. “What do you mean?”

  “Ay, moony. Everyone said so. Wandering all over Mars, in love with everything she saw. Telling us stories from Earth. About our ancestors. Da thought she was cracked.” He shrugged. “I like her that way. Even when she finally dumped my father, she was still the same mum to Angelo and me. Miss her a bit. She and my stepfather and my brother Leo went off to explore the Belt, you know.”

  It was hard for Bianca not to be charmed. Any bloke who was so close to his mother and brothers had to be rather sweet.

  On the vid, Cesare’s eyes were beginning to drift shut again. She really should let him get back to sleep. They could talk about the Tharsis trip when he was feeling better. And was able to get dressed. It was the decent thing to do.

  On the other hand... Here was her business opponent, semiconscious and vulnerable, and seemingly willing to talk to her. If she were clever, she might be able to pry some answers out of him. No matter how adorable he seemed at the moment, she had to remember he was neck deep in highly suspicious business activities. She would be a fool not to jump on this opportunity to find out more.

  “I’m really beginning to look forward to this trip,” she said easily. It will be very interesting to talk to your miners. Tell me, what do you think of them?”

  On the vidscreen, Cesare’s dark eyes opened sleepily, and he rolled his head toward her. His sheet was floating around him like a cloud. “Tough blokes. Decent blokes, most of them.”

  “Decent?”

  “Ay. Be nice to talk to some good people for a change,” he said. “Been stuck in that Eris feckhole with those spacers for too long already.”

  That Eris feckhole? “Sounds like you haven’t had much luck with your negotiations,” she said.

  “Pffft,” he said. “My team has it under control. I’ll have RedIce away from those StarLine snakes one way or another. Never let them get their fangs into it.”

  He certainly had a low opinion of her company. Understandable. We are trying to take over his company after all, she thought. “Well, you shouldn’t have any trouble rallying your employees to your cause,” she said lightly. “They all seem very loyal to you, personally. Why is that?”

  He frowned. “Don’t know why. I wasn’t fast enough. Not good enough.” He shifted restlessly in his webbing. “I couldn’t save them.”

  Bianca had no idea what that meant. “Save them from what?” she said.

  He didn’t speak for a moment, his eyes going distant, glassy. “They were hurting them. Evil feckers. They died.”

  “Someone was hurting your miners?” she whispered.

  Cesare was evidently done talking. He shifted away from the vid. “Ancient history.”

  “Please,” Bianca said. “Could you tell me what happened?”

  Cesare’s eyes were beginning to slide shut, but she could see dark emotions crossing his face like shadows. “You know what happened,” he said. His voice was soft, indistinct, as if he was talking in his sleep. “You’re StarLine. You’re one of them. A liar. Ice-cold, greedy...” He mumbled something that sounded like ‘slave.’ He made a low, caustic noise in his throat. “Pretty, though. Suppose I could drill you if there’s no other way to get RedIce back.”

  Bianca had heard enough. “I’m sorry for disturbing you,” she said quietly, and cut the com.

  She sat back in her chair and looked down at her hands, which were shaking a little. Well, she had been trying to get some answers, and boy had she gotten them. She had learned that Cesare Chan despised her company, her home, her family and her. Served her right for trying to interrogate him like that, she supposed. Still, hearing it did hurt.

  And it wasn’t just the meds talking, she was certain of it. No, he had meant every word he said.

  Maybe when he talked to her in person, she could straighten out all his misunderstandings. And there had to be misunderstandings. After all, StarLine couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with harming Cesare’s miners. StarLine and RedIce had never had business dealings of any sort before now. The whole notion was ludicrous. If she could just make him see that...

  But, no, he wouldn’t believe a word she said in her own defense. He thought she was a liar. A stone-cold, greedy liar. She twisted her trembling fingers together. Who he could possibly force himself to have sex with, if he had to.

  Of course, she had known from the first second she met him that she couldn’t take his flirting and flattery seriously, even before she knew who he really was. A bloke like him probably flirted as easily as breathing. But to think that he could look at her with blatant lust while privately holding her in such contempt...

  It was going to be difficult to work with him under such conditions, let alone take an extended trip with him. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. No, she definitely couldn’t go to Tharsis with him.

  Still, she couldn’t just abandon her investigation. She pushed herself up from her desk and paced around her habsuite, thinking. She could still tour the mines, she thought. She just didn’t need to go with Cesare. In fact, she didn’t even need to go to Tharsis. There were other mines within traveling distance, mines that weren’t expecting her. She could go to one of them, possibly even take the miners there by surprise before they had a chance to hide anything they didn’t want her to see. She could track down some of the people with the shady records, interview them. Ay, that’s exactly what she would do.

  She sat back down at her workstation and began tapping on her datapad, looking at options, making plans. She was taking a responsible, proactive course, like a company executive should, she told herself. In no way was she running away from Cesare Chan.

  Elevator Car 203

  Cesare woke exhausted, the echoes of terrible dreams still whispering through his mind. He had been in the Outback again, racing to get to the downed lander, but he was too late, and they were all dying, begging for his help with their last breaths.

  He hadn’t had that dream in years. What on Mars had brought it on now? He had been miserably sick again, and he’d taken his meds, hoping to get some rest. Then a com had come in...

  He jerked up in his webbing, and the world rocked around him sickeningly, though whether it was from vertigo or horror at what he was remembering, he didn’t know.

  He had been talking to Bianca Ross about the miners, the ones he and Ange
lo had saved. And failed to save. He ran through his fuzzy memories of the conversation, trying to recall if he had given anything away. No, he didn’t think so. No names, no specifics. He began to relax a little. Bianca had tried to get him to say more, but he hadn’t. He had...had he actually called her a liar? And cold and greedy, and a vicious slaver?

  He winced, looked down, and then winced again. That’s right. He had also been naked.

  Way to impress the chic, cowboy, he told himself. Way to build up support for your cause. Heaven, he had some serious damage control to do.

  Ten minutes later, he was cleansed, dressed and webbed into his workstation seat, breathing deeply to calm his nausea. He couldn’t afford to take any more meds, he decided. He needed a clear head from now on. He tapped on the com to Bianca and waited impatiently.

  It took a long time for his com to chime through. Cesare was beginning to get worried when Bianca’s lovely, pale face finally appeared on the screen. “Ni hao, M’Chan,” she said.

  So they were back to “M’Chan” again. “Ni hao,” he said. He tried his usual grin, but he was afraid it came off a little sickly. Better just plunge right in, he thought. “Listen, I wanted to apologize for last night. What I said, the way I acted, it was completely out of line—”

  “There is absolutely no need for you to apologize, M’Chan,” she said crisply. “I fully understand that you were unwell last night.” Feck, he thought, she was truly pissed.

  “That’s no excuse,” he said earnestly. “I said a lot of things I didn’t mean—”

  “You sounded quite sincere to me,” she said, and to his horror, her eyes sheened with tears. For an instant, Cesare felt lower than a cockroach’s thorax. Then, mercifully, she blinked the tears away, her face settling back into a mask of cool indifference.

  Trying to recover, he blurted, “I need to make it up to you.”

  “I assure you, that’s completely unnecessary. Besides, I won’t be available for the next week, so don’t trouble yourself.”