Part 30: The Moment When Tension Broke
West bank of the Fen River
Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
April 10th, 2017
Daybreak came under a heavy overcast sky, giving an aptly depressing hue to the line of emplacements overlooking the shallow waters. They were crude things, hastily molded out of quick-set concrete reinforced with scrap metal, but the hardworking men of the 236th had done their best with the materials at hand. The real problem lay in the shortage of mortars, heavy machine guns and light cannon which were needed to defend these positions: whichever units ended up digging in along this line would have to make do with what they carried among themselves.
"Colonel..?"
"You've done well." Kang Li turned away from the river, giving a wan salute. "Return to your men and wait for new orders."
"Understood." The personnel of the 236th Technical Battalion had been construction workers in civilian life, and their commander was a veteran foreman: like them, he still wore his company coveralls and hard hat, the yellow plastic painted over in a thick green. He returned the salute with a firmness born of grim determination, and departed.
"This is cozy." Mariko knelt and laid the long barrel of her rifle into one of the open-top slits in the emplacement wall. "Good shelter from direct fire... Put a forty-two-sixteen here and a one-twenty mortar in the back – that should lock this sector down pretty tight."
"Mm..."
"I know." The second woman rose. "We mustn't let them advance this far."
Advance this far? Dark memories of Cambodia stirred in Kang's mind. Not again. Not this time.
Mariko's attention was tugged elsewhere. "Listen," she said, pointing to the north. "That must be the shtrafniki moving out."
"Yes." Kang advanced a few steps, giving her a clear view up the riverbank to the wide bridge which spanned the sluggish, murky waters. The distant rumble grew louder, resolving into a weave of rattling tracks and grinding diesel engines. A silhouette appeared, a shape like a fat-headed duck traversing the concrete span from west to east. It was followed by another, and another, and another.
Shtrafniki.
It was a good label for the men who were departing over there. The soldiers of the 90th Redemption Division were a mishmash of convicted criminals, detained deserters, and prisoners of war captured from rival warlords. They had volunteered for this service, a chance to earn rehabilitation or die striving for it, and now rode to face their fates on the backs of T-34s barely a week out of refit, carrying Mosins and Sudayevs issued almost straight from the crate. They looked for all the world like a reenactment of Stalin's original penal units, not a serious contribution to the defense of Shanxi.
The appearance was deceiving. There was no Order 227 in effect and there would be no blocking troops lurking in the 90th's rear, waiting to gun down any man who took a step back. Today's shtrafniki would not be called upon to clear minefields with their boots, nor were they expected only to soak up the enemy's bullets in advance of better soldiers. They were going to the frontline with seventy year old tanks and rifles not as part of their punishment, but because there was simply nothing better left to be sent.
For Kang, the procession was a painful reminder of just how dearly the past winter's disastrous Hebei encirclement had cost her allies. "Let us hope their training was time well spent," she said, turning her back to the scene. Even if they weren't fighting in the shadow of a dictator, most of them would probably die in the coming days. Even if they were wrongdoers, she felt guilty for sending them to their deaths.
"You mean, let's hope they don't bolt at the first chance."
"I don't think they will," Kang opined. "They know what the 'kwantungs' do with prisoners." She turned her head. "We have company."
"Hm?" Mariko withdrew from the squat fortress. "Oh, it's Sauer."
It was hard to mistake the small but muscular figure for anyone else as she pedaled towards them astride a drab Husqvarna army bicycle, the long barrel of an Ankara Mauser jutting over her shoulder like a broken-off spear. Throwing a leg up, the artificial girl dismounted nimbly, propped the bike against the rear of the emplacement and strode towards her seniors, drawing a folded set of papers from the breast pocket of her tunic. "A report for you from Uncle Roland, Colonel."
"Thank you." Delivery by courier meant contents of a personal nature. The Chinese officer scanned the document slowly, finding Schuhart's penmanship as sloppy as ever. "The Liaison is going to cut off our air corridor," she informed Mariko gravely. "No more transports can get through."
"I hope Renaril isn't punishing herself for it," the sniper replied.
"So do I." They had all been expecting this development: whatever Renaril felt personally, she was still a nominal ally of the invaders. She had to yield when pressed, and not just for her own sake. "The Sino-Arumic Liaison is reinforcing its occupying units in the Jinzhong finger," Kang narrated, reading the rest of the message. "No incidents of violence." She turned the page over. "The last supply flight brought us an additional set of Sprut anti-tank guns... That's good, now we can transfer some Spugs to fully secure the Datong gap." Over to the third page. "What's this? Personal use... duration of operations... one Tiger tank, callsign 'Big Willy'... one Panzer Four tank, callsign 'Little Willy'... two Stug Four assault guns, callsigns 'Left Nut' and 'Right Nut'... one IS-Two tank... Even for Schuhart, this is too much."
"The Darwins chose the names," said Sauer matter-of-factly. "Did Uncle Roland give you the artillery as well?"
"Assorted anti-tank and field guns, seventy-five to one-twenty-two millimeter, all obsolete... Sauer, I know Schuhart loves to find new uses for old equipment, but what does he expect me to do with these?"
"Now that the exhibit is closed, he expects you to use them as a final defense," the gosta answered, "but their actual disposal is up to you."
"Final defense..." Kang went back to the river, her mind working in variables of traverse, elevation and rate-of-fire, calculating extremes and averages of distance, angle and line-of-sight. "Place the towed pieces along the bank, covering the bridges. Hold the tanks and self-propelled guns in the rear as a reserve. Apply whatever camouflage you can knock together. What small arms does your company have?"
"Dregs," was Sauer's candid response. "Most of us are still using reamed-out Arisakas... We have three Type Twenty-Four Maxims, one of which isn't holding water, and two Inglis Brens without spare barrels. The only available explosives are stick grenades and improvised plastique charges."
"What about transportation?"
"A few half-tracks for towing, trucks for ammunition and bicycles for the gun crews. Uncle Roland calls it The Ride of the Radfahr Raiders."
"Make the best use of them," the officer encouraged her, "and scrounge whatever else you can. Raid the museum again if you have to."
The girl shook her pale head. "We already took everything that wasn't welded up or rusted out," she explained. "What's left isn't fit even for spares."
"I see." Then so be it. "Carry out your orders. I'll join you shortly."
"Yes, ma'am." Sauer snapped a salute and remounted the bicycle.
"She's taking this pretty well," Mariko remarked, watching as the gosta rode away.
Kang nodded. "It isn't the first time those girls have had to put everything on the line." She pushed her hands into her pockets as a sudden breeze swirled about her. "We're done here. Let's return to the command post."
"Yes, ma'am." Mariko followed the colonel's lead, a hand pressed to the top of her soft cap. "Strange..."
"What is?"
"It's already been nearly a year since I started working at Eto Delo. I remember the first day so clearly." She glanced to the side. "Hasn't it been a year for you, too?"
"A year..?"
"Since you and Renaril, er... got together?"
"Oh." Kang had to smile, wan as it might be, at her escort's forwardness. "Yes, almost a year."
"I thought so..."
"Go on," the soldier prompted, picking up on Mariko's hesitation. "What's on your mind?"
"The million-yuan question," the sniper admitted dryly. "Will you go back to her?"
Kang slowed without warning, leaving Mariko several steps ahead of her. "I want to," she confessed quietly. "I want to see them again... The woman I love, the child I left behind." The nylon sling of her rifle shifted, digging painfully into her shoulder. She slipped it off, cradling the heavy Norinco in her hands. "But I can't. Not before I've seen this through."
The previous year – April 27th, 2016
Kang felt hot and bothered, and not in a good way.
When Renaril ran out, the Chinese woman had soon followed – not to chase her down, but to escape the condemning faces of the witnesses. Her own escape went unchallenged, and she quickly found herself alone in a parking lot which Hong Kong's new masters were, in their own idiosyncratic way, converting into a sprawling garden. That was good, the flummoxed soldier decided: a perfect place to cool down before she went looking for her Arume counterpart... Except her plan wasn't working. No matter how long she paced back and forth along the winding paths, she felt as wound up as she was at the beginning. Kang couldn't remember ever feeling these urges so strongly, not even on the rare occasions when she guiltily allowed herself to lust after the unattainable Zheng Mei.
Renaril, what have you done to me?
She wouldn't be surprised to find the group commander curled up in some dark corner, crying over her rejection, desperately masturbating, or both... Now that the thought was in her head, self-service was starting to look like an appealing solution for her own discomfort.
Stop it! Kang wrapped her arms tightly around herself before her hands could wander to places they shouldn't. Stay focused! Don't give in!
Reverting to a forced-march mentality might have saved her some embarrassment: "Colonel?" Keldanil called softly, walking through the garden towards her. "Are you all right?"
Kang looked away from the alien's concerned face. "...I'm sorry you had to see that."
"Why did you do it?" Undeterred by the cold reception, Keldanil closed in. "From my perspective, it was without justice."
"I know it was," said Kang flatly. "I know, but I... what are you doing?"
"Shh." The Arume slipped her arms around the trembling female, gently turning her so that they were face to face. "I have seen that you and Renaril care about each other very much," she said earnestly. "It pains me to watch you deny your feelings."
The unexpected closeness further fogged Kang's overtaxed intellect. "I... right now... these urges aren't my own." She tried to pull away, but Keldanil held her fast. "It's the nanomachines influencing me. You said so yourself..."
"That is not what I meant." Keldanil cocked her head. "Forgive me. I did not explain this correctly... The effect of the nanomachines is to lower inhibition and enhance sensitivity, that is all. You would not be so affected if your inherent desires were lacking."
"I'm not – "
"Please." The otherworlder neither raised her voice nor hardened her expression, but her firmness was conveyed perfectly. "This deception does not suit you."
"You think I'm lying?"
"I think you are," Keldanil replied bluntly. "Not to me, but to yourself."
Kang squirmed, inadvertently rubbing her breasts against Keldanil's and doing nothing to free herself from the iron embrace. "Please let go of me."
"If I do, will you hear what I have to say?"
What Kang really wanted was for this alien to stop invading her personal space, however noble the woman's intentions, before she would agree to anything. She understood, however, that stubbornness was not availing her. "...Very well."
"Thank you." Keldanil withdrew her hands. "Was I mistaken? Do you dislike Renaril?"
"No... No, I don't."
"Then, do you dislike being intimate with her?"
"I... No." The question threw Kang off-balance anew. She might have blushed, but it was subsumed by the persistent heat in her cheeks. "Master Commander, I cannot see how my personal problems concern you."
"No?" Keldanil lifted a white eyebrow. "Surely it is a commander's responsibility to see that strife among her allies is resolved amicably?" She smiled a little. "Well, I cannot bear to stand aside and do nothing when you and Renaril are so distressed. Your friend Roland Schuhart feels the same."
The frustrated female hadn't given much thought to her one-eyed comrade since she left him behind. "Where is he?"
"Looking for Renaril. He seemed very worried about her."
"Schuhart? Worried about Renaril?" Kang shook her head. "He barely tolerates her. What worries him is how much harm she might do."
"It did not seem that way to me," Keldanil asserted, "but you know him far better than I."
"Nn..." With no end to either her own arousal or Keldanil's admonitions in sight, Kang reluctantly goaded herself into action. "We should look for her too," she said. "I have to apologize..."
The Arume didn't interfere as the soldier began to retrace her way back through the low vines and bushes, but she had not yet given up. "Is that all?" she pressed, following close behind.
Kang grimaced. "What else would you have me do?"
"Follow your instincts, of course."
"Even if my instincts tell me to rut like an animal? Is that what you mean?"
"It is." Keldanil projected supreme confidence. "You still have not given me any reason why – "
"Colonel!" It was Negadael, running towards them from the barracks section of the complex. "...Master Commander," the adjutant added, saluting hastily. "We found Renaril."
"Where?"
"At the, er... the canteen. Schuhart is with her."
Kang nodded. Her skin might be on fire, but there was a ball of ice in her gut. "Let's go."
"...And then they made me the boss."
Somehow Kang had feared she would find a crowd gathered, taking in some terrible spectacle. In fact, only Eripol stood guard outside the door of the canteen, a modestly improved hut of the Quonset pattern. She saluted stiffly, her nervous glance noted and filed away as Kang strode past and into the little building. Inside, Renaril was slouching on a stool with her chin on her forearms, her back to the door. Schuhart sat beside her, punctuating his narrative with dramatic gestures. "I thought I could get away from the gunfights and car chases," he was saying, "but nooooo! Now that I'm the boss, I only get more of them – and now I have to deal with the paperwork, too. It makes me want to eat a grapefruit!"
"Why?"
The man offered an exaggerated shrug. "I don't know. Why not?"
"Ahem..."
"Oh, hey." The arms dealer spun away from the counter. "'Bout time you showed up, Colonel."
Kang ignored him. "Renaril, what are you doing here?"
"...Backwards."
"What?"
"Iss all backwards." The slender alien's speech was just this side of outright slurred. "You're bein' mean an'... an' he's bein' nice."
"I – "
The short-haired woman was cut off by the loud clank of Schuhart's leg brace hitting the floor. "I need a word with you," he said curtly, the goofy act packed and stowed at a moment's notice. "Outside... Master Commander, would you look after our inebriate for a minute?"
"Certainly."
"Thanks." Schuhart locked eyes with Kang and jerked his head in the direction of the exit. She backed out, waiting meekly as he followed. Eripol took the hint and joined the others inside, shutting the door behind herself.
Kang took a deep breath and let it slide out. "She was drinking?"
"Wanted to drown her sorrows," the cyclops confirmed. "The Darwins were here when she came in, and they didn't say no. She went through two glasses of vodka before I caught up." He leaned against the corrugated sheet-metal wall of the canteen, staring out into the darkness. "I sent the twins to bed when she started spilling her guts."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me." Schuhart folded his arms. "I heard you've got a kid on the way. Normally I'd congratulate you, but celebrating right now seems kind of... inappropriate."
Thank you for acknowledging the obvious, Kang didn't say. "What else did she tell you?"
"She started to say something about Angkor, but then she clammed up. You expecting some kind of trouble with Cambodia?"
"No." Kang briefly wondered if she ought to thank Renaril for not blabbing about that incident. "It's old history."
"That's a relief," said Schuhart. "So what gives? A few days ago, you said pity sex was the limit. Next thing I know, she's knocked you up and you're having mood swings." He squinted at his companion, the anemic light from the bulb over the door drawing an illusory halo around his head. "Keldanil told me about the, ah... the hormone surges, but still – you freaked out because she tried to give you a hug?"
"There were conditions," the woman muttered resentfully. "If she couldn't keep the relationship private – "
"Really," the munitions magnate snorted. "That's a hell of a way to treat someone you like."
"Spare me the lecture," Kang sighed. "I've already had Keldanil tell me I should take Renaril straight to bed."
"Good," said Schuhart. "I agree with her."
"Why?"
The arms dealer was unfazed by the cry. "Why not? You like her, she likes you, what better way to make up?"
"Please don't pretend you understand how I feel," Kang groaned. "I'm not in love with her and I can't – "
"Stop that." Schuhart held up a hand. "You didn't fool Keldanil, you didn't fool Negadael and Eripol, and you're not fooling me. I wonder if you're even fooling yourself. The proof's all over your face... and not only your face."
"You don't believe me either?" The scarred woman ignored the pointed reminder about her very visible erections, but she couldn't help bristling at his aura of self-assurance. "I tell you, I'm not interested – "
"Bullshit." The blond man pushed himself away from the wall. "If you weren't interested in Renaril, you wouldn't put up with her the way you do – never mind getting pregnant." He took a moment to morosely contemplate his boots, or so it seemed. "What's happened to you? You were never so squeamish in the old days... Where did we lose the Kang Li who feared nothing and stopped for no one?"
"She died," Kang replied flatly. "Around the same time as Schuhart the idealist, I believe."
"Ah, you got me there," the man conceded. "I almost miss the days when my life depended on sticky-back Velcro... Anyway, I just don't see why this is suddenly so hard. Not to be crude, but was the sex really that bad?"
"It's not about the sex." Under other circumstances, she would scarce believe such words were coming out of her own mouth. "I just... I can't go further."
There was a long quiet after that, and Kang started to wonder if Schuhart had run out of ready retorts. "I could say a lot of things to that," he began at last, "but I'm just going to say two." He held up a finger. "One, self-repression is bad for you."
"I'm not – "
"Two." Up went the second finger. "You're in the same place I once was and you're making the same mistake I did. Don't follow my lead."
"What?" It didn't seem like a joke, but... "You – "
"Me, of all people... I didn't take the chance when I had it, and I've regretted it ever since."
That it was plainly a sensitive subject for him made the revelation all the more surprising. "When did you..?"
"It's a long story and I'm not telling it now." The man crossed his arms again. "Maybe you think bailing out will save you some grief in the long run. Take it from me, that's not something you wanna count on."
"You think I should take the risk, staying with Renaril."
"Yep."
"Why?" That word was getting record usage tonight. "You hate Renaril."
"That's what she thought." There came the sardonic chuckle Kang knew so well. "She annoys me, sure, but I have to respect her determination... Do you know, she came to see me at Whampoa the other day – all by her timid self. Wanted advice on getting closer to you."
"And you gave it to her?"
Schuhart pursed his lips. "I acted like a total smartass," he confided. "Didn't think she had the guts to see it through... But I was wrong, and when I called your HQ from the convention center today – that was the real deal. No way she could fake it."
"I'm not questioning her sincerity," Kang grumbled, switching back onto the sour track. His persistence was starting to wear her down. "All right, suppose I stay with Renaril and let this go forward... and when it's common knowledge and our enemies exploit it, what then?"
"It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring," Schuhart recited sarcastically. "He went to bed and bumped his head and might be dying of a cerebral hemorrhage." He planted his hands on his hips. "Those assholes will find something to harp on no matter what you do. Fuck 'em." There was a growing undercurrent of annoyance in the words. "Any more excuses? I can stand here all night."
He would, too. "I didn't come here to argue with you," the soldier pleaded, hoping to head him off. "Why can't you just let me be?"
"Well – ! Besides the fact that I do give a damn about your long-term happiness and well-being, I have to roll off the couch tomorrow, round up my aircav boys and figure out how we're gonna kick the Norks out of Shanghai. We don't need this on top of everything else that's been heaped on our backs."
"I'm sorry."
"Save it. The best thing you can do right now is to take that sad little lady someplace quiet, do her until you drop and worry about the war effort in the morning... But it's your choice," the dealer continued, having stopped for air momentarily. "I can pester you 'til the cows come home, but I can't make it for you."
Kang's wall of resistance finally cracked. "Enough," she sighed, raising her hands. "I give up... I'll stay with her tonight, and when she's sober we'll talk things over, all right?"
"It beats leaving her in the ditch." Grudging approval, but approval regardless. "Go on, then."
One problem was allayed, at least for the moment, but it only made way for another: "How am I going to take her back to headquarters in that state?" the woman wondered, looking at the canteen door with trepidation.
"Why bother?" said Schuhart offhandedly. "We've got some open rooms in the girls' dorm. I don't mind putting you up for the night... The others, too."
"I don't want to be a – "
"It's just Mariko and the gosta living there right now. KK is sleeping in the workshop loft tonight, she won't bother you... You'd have to come back in the morning anyway, right?"
"I – yes, we would... Thank you."
"Whatever I can do for you." Schuhart shrugged. "You collect the entourage, I'll go make the arrangements. See you at the west door."
"Mm."
The one-eyed man nodded, stuck his hands into his fatigue pockets and limped away, quietly singing to himself. "I could hold my head up high and say that I left first... Or I can hang my head and cry – tell me which is worse..."
Kang inhaled, exhaled, inhaled again, and reached for the door's handle. All eyes were on her as she reentered the room. "Schuhart will let us stay on the base tonight," she informed her staff. "Is there anything you need from Guangzhou?"
Negadael and Eripol shook their heads.
"Very well." Renaril was watching her with subdued sullenness: a shiver raced up Kang's spine when the pair's eyes met. "I think we, um... we both need to get some rest."
"Us... together?"
"That's right."
The booze-befuddled alien took several seconds to think the proposal over. "You're not... angry?"
"No, I'm not angry." Kang held out her hands. "See?"
It was as if she were trying to entice a skittish animal. Renaril kept her wide, red-rimmed eyes on Kang the whole time, obviously expecting her to lash out again. The Arume didn't relax until she had her arms snug around the taller woman's waist. Looking over the top of her head, Kang found Keldanil all but beaming at the pair.
Things calmed down a little after that. Keldanil excused herself, saying she needed to return to her shuttle and finish a report. Walking in the night breeze helped shake Renaril out of her stupor, though she leaned on Kang all the way to the dormitory, where Schuhart met them at the door with Carcano and Vickers. The man quickly took off to resume his plotting, leaving the gosta to show the guests to their rooms and bid them good night before they too disappeared into some other part of the building. The room Kang and Renaril shared was small and spartan, with whitewashed cinder-block walls and a narrow window. There was a bare wooden desk with a bare wooden chair, and a bed which was just large enough for the two of them. Everything smelled new... new and never occupied.
Renaril had already made up her mind as to the sleeping arrangements: she left her shoes at the door, draped her bodysuit over the chair and sprawled naked on the blanket, waiting languidly for her companion to come to her. It was uncharacteristically bold behavior: Kang wasn't sure whether to blame the alcohol or the hormones, but she knew the alien was angling for more than a verbal apology.
She put it off long enough to remove her own shoes, then, resigning herself to her fate, went to the bed and sat down. "I'm sorry, Renaril," she began self-consciously. "I've treated you very badly." So far, so good. "Tomorrow, uh... tomorrow, let's – "
"I love you, Li."
"Um..."
"I love you a lot." Renaril knelt, spreading her knees and pressing the whole length of her body against Kang's back. "So please," she murmured, nuzzling the side of her elder's neck, "please don't go..."
"I'm... not going anywhere." She could feel the burn starting again – the pounding of her heart, the flush in her face. "I'm staying right here, I promise."
"Nnn..." Delicate hands crept around Kang's hips. "Why are you scared?"
"I'm not – "
"This deception does not suit you."
"You think I'm lying?"
"I think you are. Not to me, but to yourself."
"Li..?"
"I have seen that you and Renaril care about each other very much."
"You like her, she likes you."
"You would not be so affected if your inherent desires were lacking."
"If you weren't interested in Renaril, you wouldn't put up with her the way you do."
"You still have not given me any reason why."
"I just don't see why this is suddenly so hard."
"...I don't know." And here the charade ended, with a humiliating confession. "I don't know why I'm so afraid."
Renaril laid her palms against Kang's stomach. "Are you scared of loving me?"
"I..." The warrior swallowed. "What if I am?"
"Then I'll work hard until... until you aren't scared any more." Renaril leaned forwards, pressing harder against Kang's back, and sniffed almost curiously. "Li?"
"Huh..?"
"You're wet."
Kang clenched her thighs together, averting her face from Renaril's attentive gaze. "You're so close," she gasped. "I can't stop it..."
"Mm..?" Adding insult to injury, Renaril seemed pleased by this. "My fault?"
The alien shifted, bare skin sliding over thin fabric. Kang could picture those small breasts rubbing against her shoulder blades with aggravating clarity. "Yes!"
The Arume slid her fingers under the bottom of the rumpled jumper, pulling it up unopposed. "Let me..."
Suddenly everything clicked. It was a catch-22, a self-fulfilling prophecy: Kang had run from the truth in fear of its consequences, but the running led her straight back to them. She was losing control of herself and there was nothing she could do to stop it. What she had taken so long to figure out, what the others had taken for granted all along, was that it didn't need to be stopped.
"For the moment I think we can take the angel and the amazon off our list of things to worry about."
Brian Rodney cast a skeptical look over the top of his Thinkpad. "Really."
Schuhart pouted at him. "Give me a little credit, Daemon. They needed a nudge in the right direction, is all." The boss lowered himself into his chair and rolled it up to the conference table. "So what's new?"
"A whole lotta nothing." On the other side of him, Andrzej Majewski spun a mechanical pencil between his callused fingers. "The crystal ball is cloudy."
"You know what they say, Nereus." Schuhart flipped through the pile of papers which had grown up in his absence, affecting an unconcerned air. "No news is good news."
"Like hell it is."
Brian agreed with his Polish colleague. If somebody didn't budge before go-hour, the Liaison would be fighting uphill all the way to Shanghai. So would Eto Delo, if the situation continued to develop along the path he projected. Schuhart knew that, of course, but he was feeling entirely too chipper right now to show it. "I don't want to dampen your mood," the chief of intelligence said aloud, "but if the Zhejiang clique won't back down and the Kremlin won't help, we – "
Then the telephone in the middle of the table rang. Schuhart stretched out his arm and snagged the handset. "Yeah? Hi, Nadya... Really?" An eyebrow arched. "Of course, put him through... Well, who'd have thought it – the man himself! What do you want, you old miser? ...No kidding. Uh-huh... Hard to say right now, but it's worth a shot... Yeah... No, that's fine. I'll call you in the morning with an estimate... 'Bye."
He looked even happier now, to Brian's disquiet. "Who was that?"
"That – " The arms dealer did a drumroll on the tabletop. " – was Ikari Gendou."
The name stirred up memories, most of them bad. "And what does Ikari Gendou want?"
"Ikari Gendou wants to know if we would go to Shanghai on his tab." Schuhart pushed away from the table, got up and limped over to the whiteboard beside the projector screen. Snatching up a red marker, he took aim at the legend ZHEJIANG CLIQUE? and wrote a majestic ← FUCK 'EM! beside it. "Treue Genossen, our bad deal is getting better."
There was a metallic snap when Renaril, frustrated by the clasp of the bra, grabbed the straps on either side and jerked it apart. The supporting tension around Kang's chest slackened as those same fingers returned to her front side, pushing up under the loosened cups until her breasts settled into the Arume's upturned palms. "Gently," the recipient prompted, struggling not to clench her jaw.
"Mm-hm." Renaril was still for a few seconds, feeling the weight and the softness in her hands. She spread her fingers, just enough to let the nipples protrude between them, and made a slow squeezing motion. "...Good?"
"Ah – !"
"Good." Renaril made an exploratory massaging motion with her fingertips. "Li..."
"Uh..?"
"Do you... do it by yourself?"
"N-not often..."
"I want to see." The alien punctuated her request by stroking an areola. "So I know... what kinds of touch you like."
Kang liked that kind of touch. "Oh..!"
It was all the encouragement Renaril needed. Her fingers moved more rapidly now, and she increased the tempo of her grinding against Kang's half-exposed back. "Li," she panted, "I want to... together – "
The soldier was already being pushed beyond the threshold of coherence. She hadn't actually been touched below the waist even once, but after the prolonged excitement, this pleasure from being fondled so aggressively was feeding back into her nether parts... building up to a final overload. "I – I can't..!"
"Wait!" Renaril pushed herself up on her knees, her legs still spread wide, and thrust her wet sex against the base of her lover's spine. "I... I'm almost... almost there – "
Too late. Kang's mind went blank, her back arching involuntarily. Fingers like claws sank into the edge of the bed as she threw her head back, crying out in time to the contractions deep inside. "Aah – aah – aah – aaaaah!"
Renaril caught up as the orgasm faded, clinging to her opposite while she rode out her own climax with a long, low whimper. Finally spent, she slumped against Kang like a puppet with cut strings. The whole encounter couldn't have taken even five minutes. "Haaah... haaah..."
As she slowly returned to her senses, Kang found herself both exhausted and oddly relived. She could feel the Arume's sticky fluids coating her lower back and, as the tingling in her groin faded away, realized that she had completely soaked her own panties, but she felt detached from these mundane worries. "Was that... all right?"
"Mm." Renaril extended a trembling hand, reaching across Kang's throat. "I finally heard your breaking voice." Cupping the other woman's cheek, she turned the face towards her own and planted a gentle kiss. "I've wanted to hear it for so long... It's beautiful."
"I, um... I'm glad you're happy." She might have shaken off the effects of the liquor, but Kang could still taste a hint of the Avtomat on her lips. That couldn't be helped now – ditto the soiled clothes. Nothing for it but to strip them off and get into bed. "I hope Schuhart doesn't mind the mess," the colonel said to herself as she pulled the jumper over her head. "I didn't think to ask if he would bill us for this."
"Doesn't matter," Renaril declared, her voice soft and filled with contentment. She fumbled with the button of Kang's jeans, got it out of its hole after a couple of tries, and moved on to the zipper. "For this... for being with you, I'd pay anything."