CHAPTER THREE

The warehouse on Cassia looked just as River had seen in her memory, and she knew, as soon as she walked into it, that this place had been used more than once in the transportation of slaves. The aura surrounding it was heavy and dark, and the voices were much, much louder here. River instinctively pressed her hands against her ears, but it made no difference at all.

Zoe glanced at her. "Looks like this is the right place," she murmured, correctly interpreting River's reaction.

"Looks empty. Let's see if they mighta left some clue to where they went," Mal said.

River forced her hands off of her ears and looked around the huge building. It did appear quite empty, but that didn't mean that she couldn't find something that might help. Anything. "It was just a transfer point," she murmured, spinning slowly in place. "They were brought here and changed hands. Changed ships. First stop in a chain. They were careful, very careful."

"Got any notion where the next stop was? 'Cause that probably wouldn't have changed," Mal said.

River tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes. The voices were so loud… "New Melbourne," she whispered.

"You sure about that?" Mal asked.

"Yes. New Melbourne."

"Well, that might not help much. New Melbourne's a crossin' point for every planet that side of the 'verse." Mal sighed, and through everything else, River heard him thinking about how much time and possibly jobs he could lose if he continued to pursue this. They had enough money from the job with Badger to last them a few weeks, especially as there were only four of them on board right now. Less people to take care of. Then he looked at her for a long moment, and nodded. "Still, might be more evidence there than here."

"Aw, Mal, you can't be serious!" Jayne protested.

Mal looked at him sharply. "You really wanna have this conversation?"

"It don't make no sense! Why're we even doin' this?"

"We been over—"

"It ain't never just 'cause you're the captain," Jayne interrupted him.

Mal stared harder. "Don't matter why. I say we're doin' it, and we're doin' it. You wanna get off, feel free."

He said that, but River heard his own thoughts—why the hell am I doin' this? Got other business to worry on—but even Jayne arguing with him only served to reinforce his decision to do it. "Let's get back to the ship."

"New Melbourne, hmm?" Zoe said to Mal as they headed back to Serenity. "Lots of fish there," she said neutrally.

River barely heard Mal as he muttered under his breath. "Yeah. Lots of fish."

:-:-:

New Melbourne stank of fish. The dock they set down in was surrounded on three sides by water, full of boats—some old-fashioned, floating on the water, and some more hi-tech, hovering above it—but most were full of fishermen. There were big factories built around, processing the fish and preparing it for transport to other worlds. No matter where they went, there was no way to escape the reek of rotting, smelly fish, till River thought if she ever got away from there, she might never eat a fish ever again.

The docking port itself was full of ships and people—people boarding, disembarking, shopping, selling, like any number of worlds River had visited. And like any number of worlds, this one had the same bars—some more reputable, some sleazier. It was to one of the seedy ones that Mal and Jayne headed, one that was on a side of town that wasn't so great. This particular bar also seemed to be a very popular place, so it was likely they could get in and out without calling too much notice to themselves. Five minutes after they'd gone in, Zoe followed, and ten minutes after that, River filtered in on her own.

Even as she stepped through the doors to the low-lit bar, she was taking in the positions of everything in the room—tables, chairs, barkeeps, patrons, calculating length and width of the room, and how long it would take her to move from one side to the other with or without possible obstacles—processing all of it with barely a conscious thought.

Mal and Jayne were slamming back drinks near the bar itself, and Zoe was sitting on the side of the restaurant closest to the window. River placed herself in a dark corner on the opposite side of the room from Zoe, letting the thoughts of the people in the bar filter around and through her.

can't tell the wife; how would I explain

gotta get me some of that

stuff tastes like xiong mao niao—

hate his guts; might just have to spill them on the ground 'fore long here

damn fine lookin' woman

finish this job; boss ain't gonna be happy the quota ain't met

River's eyes narrowed, and she tried to find the person thinking that last particular thought. It took a minute, but it turned out he was just worried about the quota for his fishing not being met; nothing to do with slaves.

Mal had struck up a conversation with one of the barkeeps. River listened to that in her mind for a moment—Mal was subtly searching for any knowledge that these people might have of illegal slave trade being moved through New Melbourne.

It was very slow going. They ended up visiting three different bars before River actually got a hint of anything concerning it. There were two men who were having a very quiet conversation in the middle of a very loud bar, but no matter how soft their voices, River had no trouble hearing it all in her head. One man was the seller, of a sort—hunting for mercenaries to carry out the task of collecting slaves for someone else—and the other a prospective new slaver.

In all of two minutes, River had everything she needed, and she clicked her radio twice before standing up and heading out of the bar. She made it back to Serenity and punched in the entry code, sitting on the lowered ramp and waiting for the others to show up. Zoe was the first to arrive, followed shortly by Mal and Jayne. Once they were all aboard, River shut the ramp and turned to face the others. "I found one slaver, in that last bar. He's a middleman; he hires the mercenaries and tells them where to go. He gets a portion of the money, but he answers to someone else." She sighed. "Someone on Santo."

:-:-:

Three worlds and one week later, Mal was beginning to feel like he was circling the whole gorram 'verse. It felt like this chain in the slave ring would never end, but honestly, the more difficult it seemed, the more determined he became to see who was at the top.

He knew that Jayne was still wondering as to why they were really doing this. Zoe was doing some other kinds of wondering, he was sure, but Mal didn't have to answer to either one of them, which was a good thing, because he truly didn't know what he would tell them.

He knew that in this 'verse, you took work where you could, but slavery was just crossing too far over the line. No one had a right to steal anyone else's freedom. Maybe that's why he was doing this—because he knew what freedom meant to him, and knew it meant just as much to River. She was doing much better now that they were actually doing something about it. Still seemed a little off, a little jumpy, and Mal caught her giving him some mighty strange looks sometimes, but overall, he was sure this was helping her, which, in turn, helped his boat run more smoothly.

The last world they came to was Olympia. It was right on the edge of the Core—close enough to the inner worlds that Mal would have rather avoided it, but at least the presence of feds wasn't near as bad as places like Ariel or Osiris.

So far, they'd still been tracking middlemen. Whoever ran this whole thing had been extremely careful to keep any particular person from knowing too much. Names, locations—all had been set up so well that Mal doubted anyone but a reader like River would have been able to track it, at least very quickly or with very much success.

The last middleman they'd run into, though, had been going to meet someone on Olympia. And not just anyone on Olympia, but a dignitary of the state. That had given Mal pause—what the hell a dignitary was doing getting his hands dirty with a slave ring was beyond him. Wasn't like he wasn't already getting a lot of money, working for the government and all.

Problem was, River didn't know which dignitary their middleman was going to meet, because not even the middleman knew. He just knew he was supposed to show up at a big party for lots of government officials and he would be met there.

Which was how Mal ended up in one of his least-favorite covers—on a Core planet, or near enough, at a gorram party. He really, truly wished he could've sent Jayne or Zoe to do this, but Jayne wouldn't have been able to pass and Zoe had pointed out—chuckling under her breath—that Mal had far more experience dressing up for fancy balls than she did.

Still, the last couple of times he'd tried to dress himself up all fancible and sneak himself into high society, things had spiraled downhill fast. First with Inara on Persephone and that gorram swordfight, and then with River on Osiris and the whole Academy mess. So he wasn't feeling particularly confident when he showed up at a state dinner. Only reason they got in at all was because of River's ability to hack into a computer and add names—fake ones, of course—into the guest database.

Mal and River both went, but separately. He entered the party first. He was glad to at least get inside. Olympia was one of the colder worlds due to the way the terraforming had gone, and it was freezing outside, with stinging ice and snow whipping across the half of his face visible under his jacket. The fact that this was one of the warmest areas on the planet didn't speak much for the climate in general, and Mal knew he'd be only too happy to light off this world.

There were no guns allowed—this place had one of those shields that detected the weapons—so Mal hadn't even bothered to bring his. The building hosting the event was huge, and the whole of Serenity could have fit into the ballroom. Massive columns surrounded the room, supporting the balcony running around the whole of it. The marble floor was cut in specific designs that Mal couldn't make out under the hundreds of feet tromping around on it.

Pulling off his heavy coat, he handed it to the guy taking jackets and received a number in exchange. He made his way quickly to the second floor balcony and picked a position where he could overlook the ballroom below. Around twenty minutes after he'd settled in, he caught sight of River entering. Despite the enormously thick jacket that covered her head and half her face, he knew it was her just from the way she walked.

He watched her take off the coat and hand it off. She was wearing a dress that had been among the clothing left on board when Inara had died, but Mal had never seen Inara wear this dress—maybe because she would have found it too plain. It was just a simple white gown, but on River, it somehow seemed risqué compared to her normal outfits, and Mal found the sight a bit perturbing. The fact that he found it bothersome at all bothered him more, and he almost missed the server asking him if he wanted champagne.

Mal took the proffered glass, more to have something to distract him than anything else, and watched River quickly settling into her role. Before long she was laughing and talking with several dignitaries, playing her part as perfectly as usual. When one of the younger men offered her his arm, River gave him a big smile and allowed him to lead her onto the dance floor.

Mal twirled his glass of champagne in one hand and tried to keep just a casual eye on her, not wanting to draw any undue attention to himself or River. As he watched the man spin River slowly around the ballroom, it occurred to him that he'd been watching an awful lot of men dance with her on various planets lately, and a surge of completely irrational jealousy swept over him. It caught him off guard, and he tried to shake it off. What did he have to be jealous of, especially concerning River?

Still, he kept finding his eyes drawn back to River, and the way the man had his hand on her back. Seeing her so close to that fancy pretty-boy rankled something fierce. And he suddenly thought on holding her close like that, her body pressed against his, feeling her smooth skin under his hand and—

Appalled at the direction of his thoughts, Mal quickly yanked his eyes off of River, jerking around so suddenly that he knocked his glass of champagne over. It shattered on the table, the liquid he hadn't even tasted spilling across it. Mal ignored the drip, drip of champagne falling onto the floor, having bigger issues on his mind. What the hell was he thinking? River was…well, River. His slightly off-kilter, genius, kick-ass, mind-reading pilot. Hell, she'd been nothing but a little girl when she'd come on his ship, popping out of that cryo chamber all paranoid and naked…

He chopped that thought off right there. Rolling his eyes upward, he tried to get a grip on himself, suddenly very, very thankful for the crowd that prevented River from really paying attention to his mind all the way across the room. He couldn't think things like that around her; she would pick up on it and then what? He shouldn't even be thinking things like that about her in the first place. He should be thinking on her like any of his crew.

Except that wasn't working, because he was having some very un-captainy notions.

But it was River.

And she wasn't a little girl anymore—hadn't been for quite some time.

That scared Mal more than anything had in a long time.

Mal tried very hard to focus on the task at hand and not think about River, who stopped dancing and made her way to the side of the room, where she was offered her a drink of her own. She took it, her eyes flicking around the room and then up to the balcony, passing briefly over Mal's face. She stopped and frowned, and for a moment, Mal was sure she'd overheard some stray thought of his that he shouldn't have been thinking in the first place. But she was frowning at her drink. Very slowly, she set it down and did another survey of the room, a wary expression on her face.

Mal knew that look. He stood to his feet and made his way casually down the stairs, hoping to be close to her if something went wrong, but still maintain his cover.

Of course, that didn't go as planned. When did anything ever go as planned? He was just passing the buffet table, a few feet from River, when she whirled and threw herself at him, knocking him flat to his back on the ground. Mal just had time to process the laser that went flying overhead before River rolled off of him and took on a man twice her size.

Mal pushed himself to his feet. The laser gun—which shouldn't have been able to be here in the first place—was in River's hand now. Without even looking at him, she tossed it over her head straight at him, and Mal caught it reflexively, just as River called, "Left!"

Mal turned left, and sure enough, saw another man pulling out a gun—where were all these weapons coming from? Mal quickly shot his hand before he could get it all of the way out of his holster.

The party wasn't so lively anymore. The guests were yelling and running out of the way of River, who had knocked out the large man and turned to Mal, her eyes wide. "I think we should leave," she said.

Mal saw a group of security guards racing their way, and nodded shortly. "Not my sorta party anyhow. Exit?"

"This way." River spun and ran toward a side door, Mal right on her heels. The door led to a long corridor, and then into another room. The house was a labyrinth of halls and rooms, but River moved with certainty, and pretty soon the sounds of pursuit faded behind them.

River shoved open a back door, and Mal was met with a blast of icy wind and stinging snow. Without their coats, it was going to be a very unpleasant walk to Serenity.

:-:-:

Twenty minutes later, after River had shut down the security field surrounding the grounds so that they could escape, she and Mal stumbled up Serenity's ramp, and River had never been so grateful for the warmth. Her bare arms and legs felt like popsicles. She collapsed to the floor of the cargo bay as Mal raised the ramp and bellowed, "Zoe!"

Zoe appeared not ten seconds later, and her eyebrows went up when she saw their shivering, snow-covered bodies. "Party was that bad, huh?" She moved swiftly to River's side and pulled her to her feet, leading her toward the kitchen.

When River and Mal were both settled in the kitchen common area, wrapped in blankets with steaming mugs in their hands, Zoe and Jayne standing nearby, Mal finally asked the question that had been burning his mind since they'd fled from the ball. "What happened back there?"

"I almost missed it," River whispered. She closed her eyes, remembering how close a call it had been, how she hadn't sensed the danger until the very end. She hadn't seen it in the contact's mind, and it had almost cost Mal his life. "Someone drugged my drink. Drugged yours, too, I think."

"Good thing I didn't get a chance to drink it, then," Mal muttered. "But that don't answer the question of why."

"I don't know."

"Someone must've recognized you. Or at least known you were comin' this way," Zoe said.

That was plausible. Everything that had been done to River at the Academy was common knowledge around the 'verse now. Her face had been plastered across news waves, and persistent reporters had once spent several months trying to get interviews with her. She knew it was always a risk, being recognized, but the truth was, most people didn't. She was one of nineteen from the Academy. Too many names. Too many faces. They fell into history and people forgot.

But some people had better memories than others. "We could have been recognized on one of the other worlds we visited. Maybe someone knew who we were and alerted the slaving contact here."

"It was risky, tryin' to drug your drink," Mal pointed out.

"I—"

"Wait just a ruttin' minute," Jayne interrupted. "If'n someone here wants y'all dead, why ain't we left yet?"

Mal rubbed a hand over his forehead. "'Cause we ain't dead. Seems we were gettin' close."

Jayne was shaking his head. "I been nice and cooperative up till now—" Mal snorted, but Jayne kept on "—but this is gone too far."

Zoe was thinking much the same thing—that they had used up a lot of time and resources pursuing this. But she wouldn't say it, because she followed Mal wherever he went, whatever he said.

Mal closed his eyes tiredly. "Does seem we might've hit a dead end. Lot harder to do anythin' when your cover's blown." His eyes flicked to River, then back to Jayne and Zoe. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, when I've had some time to think it over. Meantime, River, I want to get off this rock, least for a while."

Wrapped in her blanket, River silently got to her feet—which she could finally feel again—and passed Zoe and Jayne, heading for the cockpit, while Jayne picked up his argument again.

It was there, later, that Mal found her. He stopped at the door and looked in at her silently for a moment before moving to his chair and sitting. "What now, River?"

River looked over at him. His mind was in turmoil. On the one hand, she sensed that he didn't want to take this any further—he wanted to wash his hands of it and be done, but on the other, he wanted to see this through, and she realized, not for the first time, how far Mal had come in the past couple of years. There would've been a time when he would have just dropped the pursuit of this and ignored it, but she had watched him slowly and steadily gain a foothold on things he had long thought lost. It was this that kept him going now.

And there was something else, something that she couldn't pinpoint because it was just tickling the edges of Mal's mind. He was trying very hard not to think about it, and River didn't pry. Instead, she whispered, "I almost didn't see."

"See what?"

"That you were about to be shot. There were too many people, too many thoughts."

"But you did see it," Mal pointed out.

"What about next time?" she asked. "They know we're in pursuit of this."

"Then if we go after this, we'll have to switch tactics. But I gotta know, River—you see anythin' in that hun dan's mind that would give you any clue to who he was workin' for?"

River stared at her console.

"You saw somethin'."

"Mal," River said slowly, "you almost died."

A smile lifted the corner of Mal's mouth. "Not for the first time, and it sure weren't as close a call as some I've had. But you know that; we got a dangerous line of work sometimes."

"But this isn't work," River replied. She pushed her seat around and faced him. "This isn't…this is…" The words she wanted to say weren't coming—she wasn't even sure what she wanted to say.

The smile faded from Mal's face and he turned his chair to face hers. "River, you been miles better since we started this."

River couldn't deny that, but it somehow didn't seem enough. "I'll be all right if we stop." She would have to be, wouldn't she?

"Weren't you the one arguin' for this?"

"Yes. And you agreed to do it for me, Mal. For me, I know it, I saw it, I see it. To help me." And there was that slippery, elusive muse creeping around the edge's of Mal's mind again.

Mal stood up. "You don't wanna do this no more?"

"Yes. No. I…" River stood up, too, preventing him from moving past her, frustrated at her current lapse in words. "Of course I want to do it," she finally said. "I'm just—" Confused, worried, scared, and to top off her state of mind, Mal was standing very close again. She wondered if he knew he had a tendency to do that when talking to people, because it really wasn't helping her right now.

"What did you see? In that man's mind?"

"Not much," River replied. "Just a name. His boss. I didn't recognize it."

"Cross reference it on the cortex, and see what you can find out. Anythin' more, any decisions—we'll talk about it in the mornin'."

River nodded and forced herself to step out of the way. Mal walked past her and down the stairs. Moments later she heard his hatch open, and then close. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and sank back into her chair.

Trying quite unsuccessfully to put Mal and the effect he'd been having on her lately out of her mind, River set to the task of linking to the cortex and looking up the name she'd heard for any information.

What she eventually found surprised her, and she stared at the screen for a long moment. Mal wanted to possibly change tactics…and she thought that she just might have an idea about that.

She'd bring it up in the morning.