The displays changed until all of them showed this particular party, now down to three people. They were running after the winged creature and firing at it, but it kept flying away. Another camera zoomed onto the scene, then took off after it. Three suns, it wasn’t going to watch as the dinosaur ate that woman, was it?
Alisa turned away, her stomach churning with disgust and distress. She noticed Leonidas’s cool gaze—he, too, had paused to watch. His jaw was clenched, his eyes hard. It was the look he got whenever he realized that the system had turned into a less pleasant place since the empire had been ousted. She expected him to turn his hard eyes on her, with accusation clear in them.
He did look at her, but only to murmur, “It might be difficult to leave the dome without being observed.”
Alisa frowned. Did every party that walked or rode out of the city get cameras following after it? Or was this something reserved for those who went monster hunting? She cringed to imagine some mafia vid network tracking her team as she went to search for a secret Starseer outpost.
A woman cleared her throat in the middle of the room.
It took Alisa a moment to spot the figure settled on a chaise lounge with an iced drink in her hand. Tawny haired and tan skinned, she watched their approach with the air of a predator. A sleeveless and low-cut dress hugged her form, revealing the tops of breasts that Alisa suspected had been augmented. Perhaps the rest of her had been too. Her eyes seemed old to belong to someone who was the thirty or thirty-five she appeared to be. Alisa could not tell if she was the boss or some boss’s mistress, but either way, she looked like she wielded power here. The androids headed straight toward her.
As Alisa and Leonidas followed them, his helmet remained forward, so she could not see his face or guess what he was thinking. The woman smiled as he approached, but her smile faltered when she took in Alisa. A dismissive frown turned her lips briefly, but she soon shifted her attention back to Leonidas.
She produced a remote and tapped a button. The speakers muted, though the people fighting and dying on the vid displays continued.
“Welcome to my humble home, Colonel Adler,” she said, removing any doubts they’d had as to whether the mafia people here knew who he was. Would they want the information in his head? About the whereabouts, or former whereabouts, of the prince? Or would this woman simply be interested in turning him over to the Alliance for the bounty?
Alisa tried to step up next to Leonidas, but the androids took a position on either side of him, blocking her. Even though they had not drawn weapons, their stances made it clear they would stop him if he tried anything aggressive toward their employer. They dismissed Alisa completely.
She eased to the side so she could watch everyone’s faces—and so she could put her back to the distressing displays on the wall. Neither the woman nor the androids paid her any attention. She folded her arms over her chest and leaned her hip against a fancy cabinet filled with dozens of ceramic and glass eggs.
“Who are you?” Leonidas asked.
“If I tell you, will you remove your helmet?”
He gazed at her in silence.
She chuckled. “I’ve seen your holo of course, and when I learned you’d landed in my humble city, I looked up some videos of you in action.” She smiled as she took a sip from her drink, ice globes jangling as the glass tipped. “I liked what I saw.”
Alisa blinked slowly, realizing this might not be what she expected. Oh, Leonidas could still be in trouble, but perhaps for different reasons.
The woman’s gaze slid down his armor, as if she were trying to see through it to the musculature—and various other things—underneath. Alisa resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Just because this mafia lady was intrigued by cyborgs, or Leonidas in particular, did not mean she wouldn’t hand him over to the Alliance if she didn’t get what she wanted.
Leonidas did not react to the woman checking him out. He’d said that one of the reasons the fleet had tinkered with the cyborg sex drive had been so that they could not be seduced or suborned by pretty women. Alisa liked to think that Leonidas would have been indifferent to this woman, regardless. She wasn’t exactly subtle.
“You weren’t the first cyborg military officer,” the woman said, “but you were the first one to rise so high among the ranks. I understand that the fleet didn’t want to put many cyborgs in leadership positions over its lowly human soldiers, lest they object to being ordered about by supermen.” She smiled and sipped from her glass. “My name is Solstice. I’ve been reading up on you, Hieronymus.”
“Why?” Leonidas asked flatly.
“You’re a cyborg colonel. One of a kind.” The woman—Solstice—spread her hand toward the various art pieces mounted on the ceilings and walls and cluttering every flat surface in the room. “I collect objets d’art, preferably one-of-a-kind items.”
“He’s not an item,” Alisa said, not caring that she hadn’t been invited into the conversation.
“I enjoy surrounding myself with wondrous variety,” Solstice said, ignoring Alisa and keeping her predatory gaze on Leonidas. “And if the items in my collection have function, all the better.”
Leonidas said nothing. This woman should have been drooling over Abelardus. He would have responded with a cheerful smirk, probably extolling all of his functions.
“My husband runs this little town,” Solstice said, not noticeably bothered by Leonidas’s lack of participation in the conversation—or the fact that she had a husband. “But it’s a hobby for him, secondary to his galactic operations, and he’s rarely here. I do most of the work, including maintaining a suitable security force. A lot of money flows into and out of the dome from the various industries here and gambling, of course.” She waved toward the wall display, glancing through Alisa without seeing her. “It’s important to have good security. I assume you’re not in the military anymore since the empire can’t afford to keep much of a fleet running these days. I happen to be in need of a security chief. A former military officer would certainly have the necessary qualifications. Would you be interested? I pay well. And there are fringe perks.” Her lips curved upward in a smile as she looked him up and down again.
“Are you sure being pawed over by you is a perk?” Alisa asked, before she could think wiser of it. She ought to keep her mouth shut—it wasn’t as if Leonidas couldn’t handle himself—but everything about this woman made her want to leap to his defense. If not by clawing her eyes out, then at least by delivering withering words.
Solstice frowned at her androids and pointed at Alisa. “Who is this?”
“An unidentified companion, ma’am,” one said.
The frowned deepened. What, was she annoyed that they had let Alisa come along?
Too bad.
“I’m his employer,” Alisa said. “He’s not looking for another job.”
“You’re the scruffy freighter captain?” Solstice asked.
“I’m a freighter captain. My scruffiness is debatable.”
Solstice sniffed and gave her a quick once-over. “No, it’s not.”
The woman’s disdain should not have meant anything to Alisa, but she caught her cheeks warming. Her clothes were on the verge of tatters, her Alliance flight jacket, in particular. It had been repaired too many times to look anything like the original. There had not been time or money for clothes shopping since she had left Dustor. Her limited wardrobe was in a sad state, and she knew it. She wished she were standing in front of this woman in that sleek blue combat armor. The sanctimonious bitch would think twice about insulting Alisa then.
Solstice turned her attention back to Leonidas. “Hieronymus—may I call you that?”
“No.”
“Ah, very well, dear Colonel. As I was saying, I’ll pay you well, and you’ll have a position commensurate with your skill level. Surely, commanding an entire city’s security force is more in line with your experience and abilities than—goodness, what do you do for this woman exactly? Guard widgets? I’m certain what
I offer you will be more fulfilling.”
“Actually, I guard chickens.” Leonidas met Alisa’s eyes and smiled faintly.
“Yumi will be pleased that you’re watching out for Isabel and Alcyone,” Alisa said, then closed her mouth, not wanting to mention anything even vaguely related to Alcyone’s staff, even if in this case, Alcyone was the name of one of the chickens. If Solstice got a sniff of that artifact—speaking of one-of-a-kind items—she had the resources to make a lot of trouble. All she would have to do was keep her forcefield shut, and the Nomad would be stuck in this dome indefinitely.
Solstice sneered at this exchange. “At what rate of payment?” she asked.
“That’s private,” Leonidas said.
Alisa grimaced. She hadn’t paid Leonidas anything. She had tried to put him on the same pay schedule and rate as Beck, but he’d refused to accept it, saying to wait until she had more funds. When she had wanted to hire him, she hadn’t imagined him taking a charity position. That had been their first argument that hadn’t had anything to do with which side they had supported in the war. She’d only allowed him to have his way by telling herself she would pay him a portion of their earnings whenever they found successful cargo hauling gigs.
“Not much, I’ll assume,” Solstice said with another derisive sniff in Alisa’s direction.
Alisa wondered what those androids would do if she attempted to stuff one of these fancy objets d’art up the woman’s ass. Maybe that twisted sculpture that looked like a cat licking itself.
“I mentioned perks that you would receive if you were in my employ,” Solstice went on, clearly not good at taking no for an answer. “Perhaps I should mention what might happen if you don’t accept the position.” She smiled and sipped from her glass as she glanced toward the display wall again.
Alisa made the mistake of looking over. A two-legged dinosaur modeled after the Tyrannosaurus rex was standing on a road, eating a lone human, blood dripping from its jaws to the ground. Her stomach lurched, and she looked away quickly, struggling not to retch—or cry.
“If you’re thinking of throwing us to your monsters,” Alisa said, forcing down the bile in her throat, “then don’t bother. We were already planning on taking a trek out to hunt a few. They don’t look very challenging, not for a cyborg.”
“We’d have excellent ratings if a cyborg in imperial armor strolled out to hunt the monsters,” Solstice said, “and I might even lure a few new sponsors down to my modest moon, but I believe it would distress you more to be turned over to the Alliance.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Leonidas again. “I do have contacts in their military. It would be a simple matter to call down some ships. You would find it difficult to escape my dome without my clearance.”
“Should have landed in the swamp,” Alisa muttered.
“There’s a reason why nobody does,” Solstice said. “I understand it’s distressing to watch your ship disappear into quick-mud, never to be seen again.”
“There’s a lot that’s distressing about this moon. I’m thinking of crossing it off my list of potential retirement meccas.”
“A shame.”
Solstice set down her glass and rose to her slippered feet. She strolled to Leonidas, presuming to rest a hand on his chest. Her head barely came to his shoulder, but she showed none of the usual intimidation people displayed in the presence of fleet cyborgs, especially those clad in the dreaded crimson armor. Of course, she had those androids standing inches away from Leonidas. Why would she worry?
“I don’t truly wish to threaten you, Colonel,” she said. “I’d much prefer that we have a civil relationship, and I could even use my influence to protect you from the Alliance, should that be necessary.” She slid her hand enticingly over the pectoral area of his armor. It occurred to Alisa, when she wasn’t thinking about strangling the woman, that Solstice probably didn’t know about the way the fleet had altered its cyborgs. Alisa wished she did, because some of her interest in acquiring this particular objet d’art might wane if she knew Leonidas wouldn’t sleep with her. “I’d also prefer to see you in something more comfortable.”
“My armor is comfortable.” Leonidas lifted his hands, and the androids leaned closer, each poised to strike if need be. He pushed her gently but firmly away from him. “You are correct, however, in that I have no interest in becoming an Alliance prisoner.”
“I thought not.” Solstice let him push her back, but her flirtatious smile never faded.
“I have obligations to my current employer,” Leonidas said.
“Involving chickens?”
“Among other things.”
“I’m certain she would understand if you broke those obligations to accept another offer.”
Alisa certainly would not, but she kept her mouth shut this time. She highly doubted Leonidas would break his word to her—or leave Alejandro and his staff in a lurch.
“Perhaps,” he said, “but it would only take me a few days to fulfill those obligations. Then I could move on.”
Alisa felt her eyebrows rise, but again remained silent.
“Oh?” Solstice asked. “A few days would not be an interminable amount of time to wait. Not for such a fine head of security.”
“I can contact you when I’m done.”
“Excellent. I’ll have my personal information sent to you. You can comm anytime and let me know when you’re ready to join me.”
Leonidas inclined his head. “I will.” He eyed his android bookends. “Are we free to go now?”
“Of course, of course. But Colonel? Don’t think of betraying me. I have an eye on your ship, and I’ll know if you attempt to leave. I assure you that the forcefield will not be lowered to let that freighter out if you’re not here at my side when it takes off.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said coolly.
Alisa pushed away from the cabinet and followed him toward the elevator. Solstice must have un-muted the speakers, because the screams of someone else dying floated to their ears as they walked out. Alisa shuddered. This shopping trip had not gone well.
Chapter 6
Full darkness had fallen by the time Alisa and Leonidas made it back to the docks, crushing her hopes of heading straight out to look for Jelena. Finding a hidden Starseer outpost in daylight would be challenging enough out in those marshlands, even with Abelardus as a guide. And cruising through dinosaur-infested swamps at night did not sound wise.
As she and Leonidas walked the lamppost-lined thoroughfare, with more lights floating high overhead under the dark dome, Alisa made plans to slip out into the wilderness before dawn. Maybe they would be less likely to be stalked by cameras if they left early. They would just have to watch out for the dinosaurs. Had those “monster hunters” in the vids had some kind of attractant to bring in the big predators, or were they simply that ubiquitous out there?
She shivered, remembering the people being eaten in those displays—and that nobody had gone out to help them, that watching them being torn to pieces had apparently been good for ratings.
“Are you all right?” Leonidas asked quietly.
Though he walked at her side, he had not said much since the androids had let them collect Alisa’s gear and leave the compound. For the first half of their trek, one of the spy boxes had followed them, so that might have put a damper on his tongue. Alisa hadn’t noticed it for several blocks.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m just mulling over concerns. I’m wondering how we’re going to find the Starseer outpost without ending up on the news, and I’m also wondering how we’re going to get the Nomad out of this dome when it’s time to leave. I’m assuming you were telling that woman what she wanted to hear to buy us time and aren’t truly planning to join her security force. Just in case you didn’t know, that would distress me greatly.”
“Because I’d be breaking my word to you,” Leonidas said, nodding in agreement.
“Because I’d miss you.”
“Ah.” He smiled at her. He had
removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm. His hair was tousled from having it on earlier. Attractively tousled.
“It’s too bad you’re a handsome cyborg, Leonidas. Solstice might have left us alone if you were homely.”
Of course, she also might have ordered those androids to drag him off to some Alliance embassy so she could collect the reward money.
“Then you’d probably leave me alone too,” he said, his smile turning wry.
“That wouldn’t happen.”
“No?”
“If you’ll recall, I wasn’t overly fond of you when we first met. Possibly because you were being unfriendly and pointing a gun at me.”
“Only because you wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“It was my ship I wouldn’t leave alone. You just happened to be clogging up the ramp with your hulking cyborg self.” She elbowed him, which would have been more appealing if he weren’t still clad in that hard shell. “It took me a while to decide I was attracted to you.”
“How long?” He tilted his head, appearing genuinely curious.
“It was after you chose to help us instead of your cyborg buddy, Malik.”
They passed a pair of women walking in the opposite direction, and he did not respond. The docks had been busy earlier in the day but had cleared out since then. Only a handful of people strolled along now, many toting bags or being trailed by hoverboards loaded with supplies as they returned to their ships. The noise of a drunken crowd came from one of several pubs dotting the docks. Alisa hoped people weren’t in there watching replays of the monster hunts—or human hunts—while they ate and drank.
“I came to appreciate you when you wouldn’t turn me over to your Alliance colleagues,” Leonidas said when the women had passed. “In case you were curious.”
“Up until then, you considered me a mouthy Alliance pilot it was preferable to avoid?”
“More or less. I suppose I was a little impressed with you when you handled that thuggish pirate by yourself. I’d been concerned…” He cleared his throat and looked away. “I feared I would be too late to help protect you from that. And I was.”