“That won’t be a problem for me at all,” Jerred said, mulling over the idea. A full cycle was more than enough time to find the girl and get out. Mission or no, he wasn’t going to leave her behind. He’d already decided that.
She’d cost him far too many credits.
“How much longer will you need me to stay here?” he asked, rolling the sharp liquor in his mouth. It was decent stuff, far better than anything he’d had in a long time.
The captain and his men seemed to do pretty well for themselves. Idly he wondered if their Imperial keepers got a cut, or if this was strictly a local enterprise. If so, it might come in handy for Nicolai down the road. He made a mental note to tell the general about the captain in his next report.
“You can leave as soon as all the credits are transferred into the escrow account,”
the man replied. “This would all be much simpler if you would simply authorize it directly.”
Jerred didn’t reply, simply smiling at him. If he authorized it directly, the price to leave this room would almost certain to go up. Immediately.
Finally the captain’s computer bleeped, and he nodded.
“It looks like everything is in order,” he said with a smile. “You’ll need to authorize the release from escrow before you receive clearance to leave the station.”
“Naturally,” Jerred said. “May I leave now?”
“Of course,” the captain replied. “In fact, I’ve even arranged for you to get your blaster back. Carrying such a weapon illegally is a serious infringement of port regulations, but I’m certain we can trust you not to do it again.”
Jerred nodded then stood slowly to leave. A younger man waited in the outer office with his blaster. Easy enough, Jerred thought. It was refreshing to deal with Imperials who were so direct. Too bad the captain and his men weren’t guarding the Imperial court on Tyre. That would be a real treat.
Giselle crawled through the service shaft as fast as she could move, wishing desperately that she’d taken the time to explore it more. Where the hell was she? And perhaps more importantly, where should she go?
Manya’s was out of the question. It wouldn’t take them long to discover where she worked, and she’d brought him enough trouble already. If the station guards turned against him, he could lose his livelihood. But all her money had been in her bag. What was she going to do?
A glow of light appeared ahead of her. Was it a way out?
She headed toward it, trying to keep as quiet as she could. It wasn’t easy. Her breath came in loud, harsh gasps that seemed to echo along the narrow metal shaft, and every movement seemed to rattle the metal beneath her.
The light was coming from a metal grate. She reached it and peered out into a long, empty corridor. She had no idea where she was, but they had to have discovered her escape route by now. It was only a matter of time before they cut her off. It would be safer to head back into the main areas of the station, to try and blend in somewhere.
With a sigh, she realized that she would have to leave her hard-earned savings behind.
Again.
Was she ever going to be able to keep the things she worked for? Was that really too much to ask?
She shook her head—no time for self-pity. Pushing at the grate, she managed to pop it free and crawled out into the corridor. She looked down at herself with disgust; she was filthy. She brushed the dust off, wiping her hands down her clothing to get at the worst of it. She twisted to reach her butt, and something poked her breast. Memory came to her. Jerred, sticking his fingers into her cleavage and tucking something in.
How had she forgotten about it? Why hadn’t she checked earlier? She must have been too rattled. Hopefully it was something useful. She reached down between her breasts and pulled it out. A credit slip, wrapped around a plastic room key. There were directions written on the slip, and her lip curled in disgust.
What a bastard.
But, she realized, he was an incarcerated bastard. Unless he was able to come up with an enormous bribe, he would be in custody at least a cycle before he even saw a magistrate. There would be paperwork, fines, all of that. Until then, his room would be empty.
She smiled slowly, wondering if he had left anything valuable in it. Under normal circumstances she would never consider robbing someone. But this was hardly a normal situation. Her life was at stake, and he was at least partially responsible, she reminded herself. It was his fault she’d been so late getting home. His fault she’d witnessed the murder. The image of Sula’s lifeless body slumping in the corridor flashed through her mind, and she cut it off ruthlessly. Sula was dead. Thinking about her wouldn’t change anything.
She moved cautiously through the corridor until it branched with another. She followed the larger branch until she was in territory that, while still unfamiliar to her, was at least recognizable. Here were apartment doors and the occasional small business with the shutters down. The only places open on the station at this time of cycle would be the bars, the places that catered to drunken spacers on leave. Blessedly, everyone on this corridor seemed to be asleep.
She ran through the corridors until she saw signs she recognized. She checked the credit slip again, realizing how close she was to the hostel. There it was up ahead of her.
Deserted.
She walked toward it with a deliberately casual stride, then ducked into the doorway and pressed the key against the lock. It slid open. She held her breath as she crept inside, praying no one would see her. She was fairly sure she could talk her way out of anything that might come up, but it was always better not to leave a trail. There might be surveillance cameras, but nobody would bother to check them unless they had a good reason.
She walked swiftly down the corridor, checking off the rooms. There it was, number seven. The door opened smoothly and soundlessly when she slipped the card in. Then she was safe, the door shut behind her. She turned to survey his kingdom.
At first she wondered if she had made a mistake—it hardly looked as if anyone were staying there at all. Her visions of credit chits or valuable merchandise lying about vanished. Still, a safe place to rest was better than nothing, and now she had a few hours to figure out what to do next. Hopefully it would be enough.
She moved across the small room to the plain metal wardrobe, opening it to find a small rucksack. She picked it up, took it to the bed and dumped it out. A change of clothing. A small comp pad. Several entertainment disks. She looked at the titles, and curled her lip in disgust. Porn.
The man was truly lower than a krellet.
Nothing of any use, though, or of interest. On to the fresher.
There was a neat kit on the counter, containing several small packets of cleanser and a shaver. A brush. Nothing else. Was the man some kind of monk? She’d never heard of a male this tidy.
She stalked back into the room and sat down heavily on the bed, thoroughly disgusted. Not a damn thing of value in the place. She was going to have to find some other way to buy passage off the station.
Exhaustion filled her limbs and she scooted down into the bed, taking unseemly pleasure in the simple act. She checked her wrist chrono, realizing she had been up hours past her usual bedtime. She was wiped. Part of her screamed out that taking a nap at this point would be a huge mistake. She needed to move, to get going.
But on the other hand, when would she have a chance to rest again? She couldn’t keep moving forever. In fact, she couldn’t keep moving much longer. She needed to be sharp and alert if she was going to get through this. Perhaps taking a nap would be a good idea after all. It would give her subconscious a chance to work on an escape plan…