In any hit and run extraction, timing was essential. Perforce Elli Quinn
worked fast; always had, it was her metier. But having a pair of possible
candidates was a rare treat, oh yeah. Made it real important to guess
right and get on with it. Worst thing was neither of them seemed
interested in making themselves obvious. If one of them was the client -
and one of them had to be - then they were rank amateurs, and that was
something Elli could do without. They gave no sort of signal at all. She
was going to be forced to make some of the running herself.
While Miles explained the rudiments of reptilian pest control through the comm link, Elli established eye contact with the geek, he being the easier of the two to contact. All she had to do was just flash a few teeth and wait for the next move. There was too little time to let things take their natural course though. She had to push it along. There was only the one thing that might help make the ident. Miles had been given codes. If the geek gave her the codes then he was out of there, otherwise, he was kicked to the kerb and Elli got after the dolly.
So subtlety was out.
Across the room from her, the geek was working up the nerve, she could see it in the way he looked across the room at her, it was sort of furtive but growing bolder when she gave no sign of dismissal in her returned gaze. In a moment she was going to smile and make the connection. She knew the game, but it made not a jot of difference to the way it was conducted. It needed all the steps. She could do them quickly, but she couldn't skip any.
And she certainly didn't need what followed.
"Elli," Miles' voice loaded into her ear. "Problems."
"What?"
"The sensitivity of the microwave radar just changed. The alarm threshold just went up."
"Hackers?"
"Yeah, more of." Meaning on top of the Dendarii's little bits and bytes.
"How far?"
"Enough to allow someone to carry."
Weapons! "Oh! In here? This place is full of people." Elli had come into the bar unarmed so the security system would admit her, and now this.
"Yeah."
Elli looked around at the bar, searching for the places where she might bolt if it got ugly. A box full of people and smoke. As if he was suddenly aware that things were getting urgent the geek tipped his drink at her from across the room. Elli smiled back automatically. Time to act. Like it's not complicated enough.
"Other military," Miles advised. "Got 'em."
Not great timing. Damn! The geek was deciding to come across. She had to keep her reaction to this conversation off her face.
"Who?" she asked, and then made a smile at the geek, had to keep the act running. In the poor lighting and the euphoric filled air, she hoped her expression was not recognisable for the grimace that it was. She waved subtly at him to make sure.
"Not completely sure," Miles told her. "but I'd be betting on Cetagandans."
Oh, eeerrr, thought Elli. Not good news. That was something that Elli didn't want to deal with just now - if ever. She certainly did not want to deal with the sort of mess that seemed to pile up while they were on the case. No way, not before and certainly not at that particular moment.
The Ghem were good at what they did. Professional prep, and occasional ruthless execution. That was the Cetagandans in a nutshell.
"They part of a team?" she asked Miles
Across the room, the geek raised his glass to her and smiled back. She played the part with only half of her attention.
"Yeah," Miles continued. "I haven't made all the members, but they look like they're accompanied. The pair of them wouldn't be in talking range of each other if they weren't."
Even worse news. "Where?" Decisions had to be made.
"Main bar."
"OK. They headed this way?"
"Not yet. They're still casing the place. Getting into position."
"How long before?"
"Ten minutes max."
"We stay in?"
"Yeah. I'll give you warning if we have to abort."
"Might be too short."
"All I can give you. Not as though I'm running them as well."
"Wouldn't listen to you even if you did."
The geek had climbed to his feet while Elli was distracted by the conversation. He was already on his way over. She took a deep breath. It was time to get into character.
"Buy me some time," she said distractedly. "I'm on in a minute."
"How?"
"That's your part, OK. Today I do the physical stuff, you do the thinking."
"Touche," after a delay, he came back. "Got an idea," he said. "I'm going to blow the bar."
"Hey," Elli complained, and then realised what he meant. He was going to release an artificial pheromone into the euphoric distribution. Tailored pheromones induced arousal among many of the crowd. Stuff you could pick up on Jackson's Whole if you had the money. The protective gear came at a high price. Trust the Betans to play the monetary side of the personal interaction game. "You can do that?"
"I think so," Miles replied with a total lack of certainty, "yeah. The cocktail is all there to mix it up."
"Oh this'll be fun," she smiled. "I want to watch."
"Just keep out of trouble. Leave this to us. You're going to be too busy over the next few minutes to worry about what I'm doing."
The quality of the lighting changed, throwing Elli momentarily into shadow. She looked up just in time for her introduction.
"I could mistake you for Hathor," the geek said.
"Who?" Elli asked through the ear-eye to Miles "Why thank you," she said out loud.
"Egyptian goddess," Miles replied, "of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Daughter wife, you name it, of Ahman Ra."
"Lovely sort, no wonder they all looked like dogs. We're on then?" Keep to ancient gods that was the code. It was the sum total of all their contact instructions. Their contact would follow suit.
"Looks that way," C.D replied doubtfully.
"I'll take that for a compliment," Elli told the geek. "If you match up to Ra."
"Can I offer you a drink?" he asked. If she said boo at this point the guy looked like he would run a mile. She smiled, and watched him relax. Oh, this is going to be easy.
"Certainly," Elli said and smiled a wider and even more false grin. "I'll have the same again." She showed him the empty glass.
At the bar the dolly frowned across at Elli.
Something wasn't right there, but Elli didn't have enough time to worry about that.
The geek dropped into a chair, spreading his legs around the chair back and leaning on it with crossed arms. He seemed reasonably relaxed now that she had invited him to join her. Elli smiled encouragement at him. Seen at close quarters he was younger than she first thought. His features were mature, but the lines beneath his eyes and at the corners of his mouth were still soft. Might be as old as twenty-five, not much more.
Up close the tight fitting business suit set his body off well, Elli decided. It was tighter across his shoulders and looser at the waist than the standard suit cut. Couldn't ask for more, except his eyes were sort of soft and tended to open slightly wider than most people's. It didn't make him look gormless - although it might have done - instead it made him look like he was interested, paying attention to what she had to say. His mouth was sensuous, expressive and seemed to smile easily. This might actually be fun, Elli decided. And then she concluded that if he wasn't her contact he didn't have any need to approach a dolly at all. If he wanted girls, all he had to do was talk for a bit and let them decide to invite him. She twitched, to make completely sure that the light show struggled to keep her covered, but only for the briefest possible, let him have a look at the merchandise. Only the one look. Had to play this just right.
"What's your name?" the geek asked her.
She told him, truthfully. He repeated it, pronouncing it badly. She had heard worse attempts. and better. lots better.
She raised her half-empty glass. "Your name?"
"Lucas," he told her after a delay. Obviously a lie. "Preston."
"Well Lucas Preston, why aren't you out there with the other revellers?" Elli asked, pointing her glass at the other bar, where the rest of the working geeks were letting off steam.
"I'm filling in time before making a deal," the Lucas explained, he drained the last of his drink and looked at his empty glass critically. "How long do I have you for?"
To the point, if nothing else, she decided. She looked at him more closely, trying to gain a better impression of him. He might not be the protected novice she took him for when she saw him across the room. There was a greater impression of alertness to him, in the way he watched her and the way he looked at the rest of the bar around them.
It was time to join in the code fun. "It's all up to Aphrodite," Elli said blandly.
"Aw yuck, crude," commented Miles through the ear-eye connection. Elli ignored him.
The geek's eyebrows raised. "We could await the presence of Ra, bypass the realm of Ahman?"
Sounds of someone being sick came through the ear-eye. It was all Elli could do not to burst out laughing. The geek took her smile the right way. Hopefully?
So translating what he said.
All night, wait for the new day. Might be the code and it might just be acceptance of the direction her banter appeared to be going. She had to make sure.
"I am happy to take that kind of offer," Elli conceded. "I promise Olympia." She smiled at him, to mock her own words.
"I am going to pay out on this big time," Miles commented. "This is priceless." Ignoring him was getting harder.
The geek nodded thoughtfully. "So long as Mars doesn't make an appearance."
Miles's laughter threatened to reduce Elli's concentration the broken shards.
"Join me," Elli suggested. "You may as well be comfortable while I drink that drink you're buying for me."
When the Geek claimed a need to empty his bladder Elli took advantage of the break in the conversation to link back to Miles. She watched the geek walk away with an appreciative air. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Let Miles make of that what he would, she thought. She knew he was watching the telemetry reports of her vitals, knew he could put two and two together and work out what she was thinking. Probably didn't need gear to be able to do that. While her second drink got warmer, but not any smaller, Elli began planning her way out of the bar.
"How are we doing?" she transmitted to Miles
"You're playing this role very well," he commented. "Almost had me fooled."
"Moi" She spun the glass around sloshing the liquid about, thoughtful. "You on line ready to pull out?" she asked. She was seriously worried about the approach of the alternate team of mercs - Cetagandan. Erk, why did it have to be them, of all possible competition?
Miles chuckled in her ear. "Flight plan filed ages ago."
After his first few little commentary notes, Miles had kept out of the conversation, and hadn't kept her up to date on events in the outside world, letting her make her play for the geek without distractions. But now she had to make decisions. Miles might do strategy, but in a field op like this, Elli had to do the tactics.
"Where are the Cetagandans hanging?" she asked.
"Still mingling. They look a bit lost out there. I'm about ready to release the blow. Been holding back to try and find out what they were doing."
"And."
"Still marshalling, I think. I don't think they have an ID, or a location. Look to be just fishing."
That was a relief. "We're on our way, just as soon as he comes back. That might be a good time to release the blow."
"Yeah, not a problem. And Elli," his voice dropped a lot of decibels, "I've been listening to the conversation."
"As you would."
"You're sure he's primed for this? You really sure about him?"
Which was unlike Miles. He normally trusted her judgement on these things. But the question fed right into Elli's nagging concern. She looked around the bar, taking in her surroundings, letting her mind drift free to make whatever associations it might make. Say whatever you liked, Elli was sure that intuition was real. She had played hunches that payed off way too often to doubt it.
And Miles was right to question her. Something was bothering her as well, but she was not able to put her finger on what it might be.
She replayed segments of the conversation between her and the geek. There hadn't been a great deal of it, and what there was had been mostly play acting and hot air, but.
Damn it. Miles was right. There was something missing. She was suddenly worried. The geek was way too passive. Someone looking to be lifted in a Hit and Run would be a bit more active in his questioning, would want to know how it was going to go down, would try to prepare.
While she took a sparing sip from her drink, Elli's eyes tracked the bar, lost in her thoughts. She held her self still as though any physical distraction would drive the thought from her mind. Something at the bar caught Elli's eye. It was just that.
For a moment she just couldn't see it.
The two leather and lace guys in the corner were seriously into each other. Nothing unusual about that. Anything went on when Betans got together.
The rest of the occupants were dealing among them selves, talking, wheeling and haggling.
The bartender was leaning over the bar and speaking with the dolly. The girl was as sleek as.
.and then it dawned on Elli. The dolly was still alone.
"Problems," she transmitted to Miles
"What?"
I've contacted the wrong one, she realised. The dolly was the client. The realisation burst in her head like sunrise. And Elli knew she was right, knew by how it made her feel, by the way she broke out in gooseflesh. How could we screw up like this? We had codes, we had.? She broke off her self- flagellation. There was nothing to be gained.
Her eye found the toilet door. The geek was still in there. So what is he? She wondered. Snout? Back-up? Spoiler? Either one; the op was screwed. Maybe?
She didn't really know enough to make a call like that. Not yet anyway. She needed more data and she needed it fast. Even thought their briefing had been sketchy it had been quite specific on that matter. There was only one target.
So, which of them is the target then? Elli wondered. Both of them? Possible? Or not? Hard to be sure.
Was the dolly just a back up, or was she the primary? She was entirely the wrong shape to be muscle, unlike the geek who just might...
Ah. So.
"It's the dolly," Elli told Miles So much time invested on the wrong one and Cetagandans to worry about. She felt the beginning of a panic and that would not do. Still it down, she told herself. She took a few deep breaths. It felt better, sort of.
"Yeah I was starting to think along that line," Miles agreed carefully. "She could be."
"We're running out of time and options," Elli transmitted and then placed the drink decisively on the table. She had to do something, had to act.
"Bring em both," Miles transmitted. "I've got Taura standing by, ready, in case you have trouble."
Elli reached the same decision. She pushed her chair away from the little table. "I'll make contact with the dolly," she said, then she lifted her drink and drained the contents. Waste not want not.
"Time's tight to start building a relationship," Miles warned.
Elli laughed. "She'll come straight away. If she's nothing more than she seems then it'll just be a spare body on board. If she is the one that we're looking for in this op, then we can work out the geek's status at our leisure. Wins for us both ways."
"Yeah, can't fault the logic."
"Gotta act."
Elli glided to her feet and stepped gracefully around the table before she strode across the floor, negotiating errant hands and heavy gazes before finishing close to the place where the dolly was propping the bar.
The girl was so fixated on the bartender's line of chat that she missed Elli's approach.
Elli swung her hip onto the barstool and sat beside the dolly, still without attracting attention. Damn, what do I have to do? Elli took a risk and placed her hand against the dolly's bare back, breaking the non- contact taboo.
It had to be done that way. The touch certainly got the woman's attention. The dolly whipped around as though she had been slapped. The look in her eyes was startled for an instant, taking on an almost feral intensity, like she was about to run for her life, and then the look toned back to just wary. Could have meant anything, but then again not. Elli let it past. Might have been nothing more than her being startled by the touch.
Elli leant against the bar and watched the dolly over her shoulder. The pose damped some of the light show and made looking at her easier. "Not working for you?" Elli asked her.
She almost had to shout into the other woman's ear to overcome the noise from the other bar. The dolly had certainly picked a poor place for trawling. There was too much noise to contend with if she expected any potential customer to come her way. And that might well be the reason why she was still alone. Fearing that the girl might just be incompetent, Elli was suddenly struck by a serious case of Second Thoughts about this approach.
"I'm not working at the moment," The dolly told her, almost shouting to make herself heard. To Elli's practised ear, the hard edge was missing from her words. Not right; not the sort of tone used among workers.
Elli sized her up through the corner of her eye. She certainly looked the part but she obviously wasn't. It had been obvious all along, and Elli had missed it.
"I work for Neptune," Elli risked. There wasn't a great deal of time; she had to make contact. Just so long as the dolly didn't start to think that Elli was a client. Might take some sorting out later. Then again in the interest of getting out of here, that's an acceptable misconception, Elli decided.
The dolly's face moved through the gamut, from enlightenment to relief. "I thought it must have been you," she said. "Sorry yeah. Um. Zeus knows this has been a long night. Is that OK? I started to wonder if I was going to get picked up at all. And then you started working that guy and I thought that you must have been just what you looked like and the deal would be made by someone else and there wasn't anyone..."
"Bring them both," Miles transmitted. "If security gets hold of him, the geek will make you under questioning."
"Just what I had in mind," Elli replied sub-vocally.
A few metres to Elli's right, the geek emerged from the lavatory. For a moment he stood framed by the doorway. His eyes tracked to the table he had shared with Elli. His expression appeared wild, lost, maybe even thwarted, and then toned down to just confused for a moment before he spotting her by the bar. Then he smiled - it might have been forced, Elli was no judge - and began purposefully threading his way over to join her.
Elli watched the show and wondered; what did all that mean?
"You know him?" Elli asked the dolly, nodding toward the geek.
"No," she replied neutrally. Her expression said baffled.
"You will," Elli promised. "Possibly a lot better than you really want to. We have to move quickly if we're going to get out of here. Others are working the bar, and we might want to avoid them."
The geek stopped just short of joining them, hovered outside of the radius of contact while he waiting to be invited into the conversation. Well, the guy has manners, Elli observed and then grabbed his hand so she could pull him over.
"You ready to release the blow?" Elli transmitted to Miles
"Already in the air."
"I hope these two are proof."
"That's the way it goes sometimes," Miles relayed with false lassitude. Elli was having none of that. She was frantic to get out of the alcove before it turned ugly, because she was dressed (if you could call it that) like cyber-slut. When the blow hit the alcove, she might be forced to hurt a few studs before she got her charges out because dressed in paint, Elli was just too tempting a target. There would no confusion about gaining access to her body, without any visible physical impediment to forced entry. Her and the dolly both. The last thing Elli needed was that kind of distraction.
"We have an offer for you," Elli told the geek. "The two of us for the price of one. You got a room?"
The geek looked the dolly over speculatively before he answered. "Yeah."
Hesitantly. Like a guy really wanted that fantasy offered to him. He might dream, but given the chance. He was wondering what the catch was.
The dolly cast one speculative glance Elli's way, all wide eyes and pursed lips, and then she screwed her mouth into an ugly moue of distaste that vanished before the geek caught it.
"Let's go," Elli told them.
The music was still pounding from the bar, but the first squeals of unwanted excitement could be heard over the melody.
Miles had begun his diversion.
While Miles explained the rudiments of reptilian pest control through the comm link, Elli established eye contact with the geek, he being the easier of the two to contact. All she had to do was just flash a few teeth and wait for the next move. There was too little time to let things take their natural course though. She had to push it along. There was only the one thing that might help make the ident. Miles had been given codes. If the geek gave her the codes then he was out of there, otherwise, he was kicked to the kerb and Elli got after the dolly.
So subtlety was out.
Across the room from her, the geek was working up the nerve, she could see it in the way he looked across the room at her, it was sort of furtive but growing bolder when she gave no sign of dismissal in her returned gaze. In a moment she was going to smile and make the connection. She knew the game, but it made not a jot of difference to the way it was conducted. It needed all the steps. She could do them quickly, but she couldn't skip any.
And she certainly didn't need what followed.
"Elli," Miles' voice loaded into her ear. "Problems."
"What?"
"The sensitivity of the microwave radar just changed. The alarm threshold just went up."
"Hackers?"
"Yeah, more of." Meaning on top of the Dendarii's little bits and bytes.
"How far?"
"Enough to allow someone to carry."
Weapons! "Oh! In here? This place is full of people." Elli had come into the bar unarmed so the security system would admit her, and now this.
"Yeah."
Elli looked around at the bar, searching for the places where she might bolt if it got ugly. A box full of people and smoke. As if he was suddenly aware that things were getting urgent the geek tipped his drink at her from across the room. Elli smiled back automatically. Time to act. Like it's not complicated enough.
"Other military," Miles advised. "Got 'em."
Not great timing. Damn! The geek was deciding to come across. She had to keep her reaction to this conversation off her face.
"Who?" she asked, and then made a smile at the geek, had to keep the act running. In the poor lighting and the euphoric filled air, she hoped her expression was not recognisable for the grimace that it was. She waved subtly at him to make sure.
"Not completely sure," Miles told her. "but I'd be betting on Cetagandans."
Oh, eeerrr, thought Elli. Not good news. That was something that Elli didn't want to deal with just now - if ever. She certainly did not want to deal with the sort of mess that seemed to pile up while they were on the case. No way, not before and certainly not at that particular moment.
The Ghem were good at what they did. Professional prep, and occasional ruthless execution. That was the Cetagandans in a nutshell.
"They part of a team?" she asked Miles
Across the room, the geek raised his glass to her and smiled back. She played the part with only half of her attention.
"Yeah," Miles continued. "I haven't made all the members, but they look like they're accompanied. The pair of them wouldn't be in talking range of each other if they weren't."
Even worse news. "Where?" Decisions had to be made.
"Main bar."
"OK. They headed this way?"
"Not yet. They're still casing the place. Getting into position."
"How long before?"
"Ten minutes max."
"We stay in?"
"Yeah. I'll give you warning if we have to abort."
"Might be too short."
"All I can give you. Not as though I'm running them as well."
"Wouldn't listen to you even if you did."
The geek had climbed to his feet while Elli was distracted by the conversation. He was already on his way over. She took a deep breath. It was time to get into character.
"Buy me some time," she said distractedly. "I'm on in a minute."
"How?"
"That's your part, OK. Today I do the physical stuff, you do the thinking."
"Touche," after a delay, he came back. "Got an idea," he said. "I'm going to blow the bar."
"Hey," Elli complained, and then realised what he meant. He was going to release an artificial pheromone into the euphoric distribution. Tailored pheromones induced arousal among many of the crowd. Stuff you could pick up on Jackson's Whole if you had the money. The protective gear came at a high price. Trust the Betans to play the monetary side of the personal interaction game. "You can do that?"
"I think so," Miles replied with a total lack of certainty, "yeah. The cocktail is all there to mix it up."
"Oh this'll be fun," she smiled. "I want to watch."
"Just keep out of trouble. Leave this to us. You're going to be too busy over the next few minutes to worry about what I'm doing."
The quality of the lighting changed, throwing Elli momentarily into shadow. She looked up just in time for her introduction.
"I could mistake you for Hathor," the geek said.
"Who?" Elli asked through the ear-eye to Miles "Why thank you," she said out loud.
"Egyptian goddess," Miles replied, "of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Daughter wife, you name it, of Ahman Ra."
"Lovely sort, no wonder they all looked like dogs. We're on then?" Keep to ancient gods that was the code. It was the sum total of all their contact instructions. Their contact would follow suit.
"Looks that way," C.D replied doubtfully.
"I'll take that for a compliment," Elli told the geek. "If you match up to Ra."
"Can I offer you a drink?" he asked. If she said boo at this point the guy looked like he would run a mile. She smiled, and watched him relax. Oh, this is going to be easy.
"Certainly," Elli said and smiled a wider and even more false grin. "I'll have the same again." She showed him the empty glass.
At the bar the dolly frowned across at Elli.
Something wasn't right there, but Elli didn't have enough time to worry about that.
The geek dropped into a chair, spreading his legs around the chair back and leaning on it with crossed arms. He seemed reasonably relaxed now that she had invited him to join her. Elli smiled encouragement at him. Seen at close quarters he was younger than she first thought. His features were mature, but the lines beneath his eyes and at the corners of his mouth were still soft. Might be as old as twenty-five, not much more.
Up close the tight fitting business suit set his body off well, Elli decided. It was tighter across his shoulders and looser at the waist than the standard suit cut. Couldn't ask for more, except his eyes were sort of soft and tended to open slightly wider than most people's. It didn't make him look gormless - although it might have done - instead it made him look like he was interested, paying attention to what she had to say. His mouth was sensuous, expressive and seemed to smile easily. This might actually be fun, Elli decided. And then she concluded that if he wasn't her contact he didn't have any need to approach a dolly at all. If he wanted girls, all he had to do was talk for a bit and let them decide to invite him. She twitched, to make completely sure that the light show struggled to keep her covered, but only for the briefest possible, let him have a look at the merchandise. Only the one look. Had to play this just right.
"What's your name?" the geek asked her.
She told him, truthfully. He repeated it, pronouncing it badly. She had heard worse attempts. and better. lots better.
She raised her half-empty glass. "Your name?"
"Lucas," he told her after a delay. Obviously a lie. "Preston."
"Well Lucas Preston, why aren't you out there with the other revellers?" Elli asked, pointing her glass at the other bar, where the rest of the working geeks were letting off steam.
"I'm filling in time before making a deal," the Lucas explained, he drained the last of his drink and looked at his empty glass critically. "How long do I have you for?"
To the point, if nothing else, she decided. She looked at him more closely, trying to gain a better impression of him. He might not be the protected novice she took him for when she saw him across the room. There was a greater impression of alertness to him, in the way he watched her and the way he looked at the rest of the bar around them.
It was time to join in the code fun. "It's all up to Aphrodite," Elli said blandly.
"Aw yuck, crude," commented Miles through the ear-eye connection. Elli ignored him.
The geek's eyebrows raised. "We could await the presence of Ra, bypass the realm of Ahman?"
Sounds of someone being sick came through the ear-eye. It was all Elli could do not to burst out laughing. The geek took her smile the right way. Hopefully?
So translating what he said.
All night, wait for the new day. Might be the code and it might just be acceptance of the direction her banter appeared to be going. She had to make sure.
"I am happy to take that kind of offer," Elli conceded. "I promise Olympia." She smiled at him, to mock her own words.
"I am going to pay out on this big time," Miles commented. "This is priceless." Ignoring him was getting harder.
The geek nodded thoughtfully. "So long as Mars doesn't make an appearance."
Miles's laughter threatened to reduce Elli's concentration the broken shards.
"Join me," Elli suggested. "You may as well be comfortable while I drink that drink you're buying for me."
When the Geek claimed a need to empty his bladder Elli took advantage of the break in the conversation to link back to Miles. She watched the geek walk away with an appreciative air. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Let Miles make of that what he would, she thought. She knew he was watching the telemetry reports of her vitals, knew he could put two and two together and work out what she was thinking. Probably didn't need gear to be able to do that. While her second drink got warmer, but not any smaller, Elli began planning her way out of the bar.
"How are we doing?" she transmitted to Miles
"You're playing this role very well," he commented. "Almost had me fooled."
"Moi" She spun the glass around sloshing the liquid about, thoughtful. "You on line ready to pull out?" she asked. She was seriously worried about the approach of the alternate team of mercs - Cetagandan. Erk, why did it have to be them, of all possible competition?
Miles chuckled in her ear. "Flight plan filed ages ago."
After his first few little commentary notes, Miles had kept out of the conversation, and hadn't kept her up to date on events in the outside world, letting her make her play for the geek without distractions. But now she had to make decisions. Miles might do strategy, but in a field op like this, Elli had to do the tactics.
"Where are the Cetagandans hanging?" she asked.
"Still mingling. They look a bit lost out there. I'm about ready to release the blow. Been holding back to try and find out what they were doing."
"And."
"Still marshalling, I think. I don't think they have an ID, or a location. Look to be just fishing."
That was a relief. "We're on our way, just as soon as he comes back. That might be a good time to release the blow."
"Yeah, not a problem. And Elli," his voice dropped a lot of decibels, "I've been listening to the conversation."
"As you would."
"You're sure he's primed for this? You really sure about him?"
Which was unlike Miles. He normally trusted her judgement on these things. But the question fed right into Elli's nagging concern. She looked around the bar, taking in her surroundings, letting her mind drift free to make whatever associations it might make. Say whatever you liked, Elli was sure that intuition was real. She had played hunches that payed off way too often to doubt it.
And Miles was right to question her. Something was bothering her as well, but she was not able to put her finger on what it might be.
She replayed segments of the conversation between her and the geek. There hadn't been a great deal of it, and what there was had been mostly play acting and hot air, but.
Damn it. Miles was right. There was something missing. She was suddenly worried. The geek was way too passive. Someone looking to be lifted in a Hit and Run would be a bit more active in his questioning, would want to know how it was going to go down, would try to prepare.
While she took a sparing sip from her drink, Elli's eyes tracked the bar, lost in her thoughts. She held her self still as though any physical distraction would drive the thought from her mind. Something at the bar caught Elli's eye. It was just that.
For a moment she just couldn't see it.
The two leather and lace guys in the corner were seriously into each other. Nothing unusual about that. Anything went on when Betans got together.
The rest of the occupants were dealing among them selves, talking, wheeling and haggling.
The bartender was leaning over the bar and speaking with the dolly. The girl was as sleek as.
.and then it dawned on Elli. The dolly was still alone.
"Problems," she transmitted to Miles
"What?"
I've contacted the wrong one, she realised. The dolly was the client. The realisation burst in her head like sunrise. And Elli knew she was right, knew by how it made her feel, by the way she broke out in gooseflesh. How could we screw up like this? We had codes, we had.? She broke off her self- flagellation. There was nothing to be gained.
Her eye found the toilet door. The geek was still in there. So what is he? She wondered. Snout? Back-up? Spoiler? Either one; the op was screwed. Maybe?
She didn't really know enough to make a call like that. Not yet anyway. She needed more data and she needed it fast. Even thought their briefing had been sketchy it had been quite specific on that matter. There was only one target.
So, which of them is the target then? Elli wondered. Both of them? Possible? Or not? Hard to be sure.
Was the dolly just a back up, or was she the primary? She was entirely the wrong shape to be muscle, unlike the geek who just might...
Ah. So.
"It's the dolly," Elli told Miles So much time invested on the wrong one and Cetagandans to worry about. She felt the beginning of a panic and that would not do. Still it down, she told herself. She took a few deep breaths. It felt better, sort of.
"Yeah I was starting to think along that line," Miles agreed carefully. "She could be."
"We're running out of time and options," Elli transmitted and then placed the drink decisively on the table. She had to do something, had to act.
"Bring em both," Miles transmitted. "I've got Taura standing by, ready, in case you have trouble."
Elli reached the same decision. She pushed her chair away from the little table. "I'll make contact with the dolly," she said, then she lifted her drink and drained the contents. Waste not want not.
"Time's tight to start building a relationship," Miles warned.
Elli laughed. "She'll come straight away. If she's nothing more than she seems then it'll just be a spare body on board. If she is the one that we're looking for in this op, then we can work out the geek's status at our leisure. Wins for us both ways."
"Yeah, can't fault the logic."
"Gotta act."
Elli glided to her feet and stepped gracefully around the table before she strode across the floor, negotiating errant hands and heavy gazes before finishing close to the place where the dolly was propping the bar.
The girl was so fixated on the bartender's line of chat that she missed Elli's approach.
Elli swung her hip onto the barstool and sat beside the dolly, still without attracting attention. Damn, what do I have to do? Elli took a risk and placed her hand against the dolly's bare back, breaking the non- contact taboo.
It had to be done that way. The touch certainly got the woman's attention. The dolly whipped around as though she had been slapped. The look in her eyes was startled for an instant, taking on an almost feral intensity, like she was about to run for her life, and then the look toned back to just wary. Could have meant anything, but then again not. Elli let it past. Might have been nothing more than her being startled by the touch.
Elli leant against the bar and watched the dolly over her shoulder. The pose damped some of the light show and made looking at her easier. "Not working for you?" Elli asked her.
She almost had to shout into the other woman's ear to overcome the noise from the other bar. The dolly had certainly picked a poor place for trawling. There was too much noise to contend with if she expected any potential customer to come her way. And that might well be the reason why she was still alone. Fearing that the girl might just be incompetent, Elli was suddenly struck by a serious case of Second Thoughts about this approach.
"I'm not working at the moment," The dolly told her, almost shouting to make herself heard. To Elli's practised ear, the hard edge was missing from her words. Not right; not the sort of tone used among workers.
Elli sized her up through the corner of her eye. She certainly looked the part but she obviously wasn't. It had been obvious all along, and Elli had missed it.
"I work for Neptune," Elli risked. There wasn't a great deal of time; she had to make contact. Just so long as the dolly didn't start to think that Elli was a client. Might take some sorting out later. Then again in the interest of getting out of here, that's an acceptable misconception, Elli decided.
The dolly's face moved through the gamut, from enlightenment to relief. "I thought it must have been you," she said. "Sorry yeah. Um. Zeus knows this has been a long night. Is that OK? I started to wonder if I was going to get picked up at all. And then you started working that guy and I thought that you must have been just what you looked like and the deal would be made by someone else and there wasn't anyone..."
"Bring them both," Miles transmitted. "If security gets hold of him, the geek will make you under questioning."
"Just what I had in mind," Elli replied sub-vocally.
A few metres to Elli's right, the geek emerged from the lavatory. For a moment he stood framed by the doorway. His eyes tracked to the table he had shared with Elli. His expression appeared wild, lost, maybe even thwarted, and then toned down to just confused for a moment before he spotting her by the bar. Then he smiled - it might have been forced, Elli was no judge - and began purposefully threading his way over to join her.
Elli watched the show and wondered; what did all that mean?
"You know him?" Elli asked the dolly, nodding toward the geek.
"No," she replied neutrally. Her expression said baffled.
"You will," Elli promised. "Possibly a lot better than you really want to. We have to move quickly if we're going to get out of here. Others are working the bar, and we might want to avoid them."
The geek stopped just short of joining them, hovered outside of the radius of contact while he waiting to be invited into the conversation. Well, the guy has manners, Elli observed and then grabbed his hand so she could pull him over.
"You ready to release the blow?" Elli transmitted to Miles
"Already in the air."
"I hope these two are proof."
"That's the way it goes sometimes," Miles relayed with false lassitude. Elli was having none of that. She was frantic to get out of the alcove before it turned ugly, because she was dressed (if you could call it that) like cyber-slut. When the blow hit the alcove, she might be forced to hurt a few studs before she got her charges out because dressed in paint, Elli was just too tempting a target. There would no confusion about gaining access to her body, without any visible physical impediment to forced entry. Her and the dolly both. The last thing Elli needed was that kind of distraction.
"We have an offer for you," Elli told the geek. "The two of us for the price of one. You got a room?"
The geek looked the dolly over speculatively before he answered. "Yeah."
Hesitantly. Like a guy really wanted that fantasy offered to him. He might dream, but given the chance. He was wondering what the catch was.
The dolly cast one speculative glance Elli's way, all wide eyes and pursed lips, and then she screwed her mouth into an ugly moue of distaste that vanished before the geek caught it.
"Let's go," Elli told them.
The music was still pounding from the bar, but the first squeals of unwanted excitement could be heard over the melody.
Miles had begun his diversion.