Steel Beneath the Skin (29 page)

Winter smiled. ‘What makes you think I want something?’

‘You could have called, or just had the Peacekeepers release me. You came down here to talk to me.’ Aneka frowned. ‘You really get around.’

‘You’ll find that, even considering my image as a secretive spy master, I’m very hands-on when I feel it’s warranted.’ She frowned thoughtfully. ‘Mistress. Spy
mistress.
Anyway, I simply want you to do what you’re likely to have to do anyway. Find out why they want you. Take care of the situation or call me in if necessary.’

Aneka nodded. If these Knights were going to keep coming after her she was going to need to deal with it. ‘All right, but I’m going to need my gun back.’

‘I’ll have the paperwork through to authorise you to use it by the morning.’

‘And I want those xinti records sent back to Gillian.’

‘Not exactly related…’

‘No, but you can make it happen and it’s taking too long. We got that stuff. Gillian should be the one analysing it.’

The spy mistress’ lips twitched. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

‘All right, I’m in.’ Aneka sighed. ‘Plus ça change…’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘It’s French. “The more things change.”’

‘The more they stay the same?’

‘Yeah. I thought I’d given up special ops works.’

‘You have, Miss Jansen. But it doesn’t want you to.’

Part Six: Humanity

Yorkbridge Mid-town, New Earth, 11.6.524 FSC.

Ella almost managed to bounce across the entire lounge to wrap Aneka in a hug when she walked in. Behind her Dillon and Katelyn got to their feet, but stayed where they were while Aneka walked toward them with Ella clinging on, legs wrapped around Aneka’s hips.

‘I told them we were attacked,’ Katelyn said. ‘They released me as soon as Dillon and Ella came to pick me up.’

‘One of their investigators wanted to talk to me,’ Aneka replied. ‘How’s your leg?’

‘Fine. Told you it would be.’

Dillon clapped his big hand on Aneka’s shoulder. ‘Thanks. I don’t know what those guys wanted, but you saved my Kate.
Anything
you need…’

Aneka grinned at him. ‘Could you prise Ella off before she breaks my ribs?’ Laughing, the big man grabbed Ella’s sides and pulled. ‘The cops don’t know for sure why we were attacked, but they suspect that they wanted a couple of playthings for the afternoon.’ It was a better cover story than robbery, but Aneka still did not like lying to them.

Ella finally gave up and let go, allowing Dillon to set her down on a couch. ‘You’re okay, right?’

Aneka settled beside her. ‘An afternoon in a Peacekeeper station dressed in a bikini is not how I want to spend my time, but yeah.’ She grinned. ‘Ex-soldier, remember?’

‘Shaking off stunner hits,’ Dillon said, sitting opposite, ‘that’s tough.’

‘One stunner hit,’ Aneka lied. ‘They weren’t professionals. Once I was charging at them their aim went right off. Used to work on conscript soldiers in Iraq too. Anyway, what did I have to lose? If they took me down it wasn’t going to go well and Kate was out in the open.’

‘Well, whatever happened,’ Katelyn said, ‘I’m glad you were there. If I’m going to be someone’s “plaything” I’d rather it was you three.’

Ella giggled. ‘I’ll go get the handcuffs.’

University of New Earth, 12.6.524 FSC.

‘It arrived by courier early this morning,’ Gillian said. She was looking at a small crate which was currently occupying an area of floor in her office. ‘It’s encoded for your access.’

Aneka looked down at the box. Ella looked down at it too. It had a button above the catch and no markings on it at all. Aneka reached for the button, pressing it, and Al informed her of an identity check. Apparently the case was encoded for her since the locks disengaged immediately and the lid lifted slowly on small hydraulic actuators.

‘Uh-huh,’ Aneka said, ‘Winter came through.’ Reaching into the box, she took out the case with her gun in it, turning to put it on Gillian’s desk. ‘You may want to look at the other thing in there.’

There was a squeal from Ella and Gillian said, ‘Well I’ll be a herosian’s lovechild.’

Aneka smiled and opened her gun case. The big pistol was sitting there in its nano-foam padding. She turned back toward the box, only to have Ella hand her the power cell box. ‘Thank you,’ Aneka said, ‘you always know what to give me.’

Ella giggled. ‘Dillon seemed to know what to give you too.’

Aneka rolled her eyes, locked a power cell into her pistol and watched as the tactical display appeared. ‘Thirty-four charges. She even charged them up for me.’

Gillian was busy connecting the xinti data archive to her office computer. ‘She’s a very thoughtful woman, for a spy master.’

‘Mistress,’ Aneka corrected. ‘She seemed to want it clear that she’s a spy
mistress.
’

‘Interesting,’ Ella commented. ‘Psychologically that is. Asserting both authority and femininity.’

‘Everything’s always sex with psychologists,’ Aneka replied.

‘I didn’t mention sex, though maybe Winter’s interest in you isn’t entirely professional. Anyway, you’re armed and we have years’ worth of xinti historical data to go through.’

‘Not the history of the start of the war, however,’ Gillian said. ‘As you suggested, that has been removed.’

‘Well, we still have it if we need it,’ Aneka replied. ‘Right now what I need is a bag I can carry this gun in unobtrusively.’

Ella looked at the weapon. ‘The student shop in the atrium stocks cloth bags that should fit it.’

‘Okay, I’ll go down and buy something at lunchtime.’ Aneka looked up at Gillian. ‘Want to continue the history lessons, or are you too busy with your new toy?’

Gillian sat down at her desk, leaned back, and crossed her legs. ‘I’ve started a categorisation algorithm running on the data store. Nothing much to do until that’s completed. Sit down and tell me more about your political systems.’

Aneka sighed and pulled a chair over. ‘Okay, where had we got to? I’d pretty much done the democracies, right?’

~~~

‘Everyone’s looking at me,’ Aneka muttered under her breath.

‘You’re famous,’ Ella replied. ‘Especially here.’

‘I don’t want to be famous.’ Aneka picked up a fabric bag with the university’s globe-shaped logo on it. It was not actually a cloth bag; the tag on it said it was made of woven bio-plastic threads, was self-cleaning, and could carry loads up to fifty kilos. What a student wanted with a bag which could carry that much, or how you could fit something that big in it, Aneka was not sure.

‘Well you are. Suck it up, soldier.’ Aneka gave her a look. ‘What? Monkey says his father says things like that all the time.’

‘Huh.’ Aneka stopped and looked down at a shelf. The shop seemed to have everything you could possibly want as a student. Apparently that included small toolkits. She picked up a small box and started for the counter.

‘What do you want that for?’ Ella asked.

‘It’s got a Swiss army knife in it. I
really
miss
my Swiss army knife.’

‘Why does it have to be Swiss?’

‘It’s just a name for a kind of multi-bladed knife. I think they were made for the Swiss Army, originally, but they’re just useful. I doubt this was made by a Swiss company, given that Switzerland doesn’t actually exist anymore.’

‘Yeah, it does,’ Ella replied. ‘That’s where they make those tools, Switzerland. It’s a planet in the Alpina system. Not very warm, lots of mountains. Aside from the knife factory, and some mining and refining, it’s mostly a giant ski resort.’

‘Huh. I find that unaccountably amusing.’ The cute blonde on the far side of the counter took her purchases and ran them over the RFID scanner. Aneka gave her a smile as the total came up on the counter’s built-in display. Aneka tapped an “accept charge” button beside the figure.

‘You’ll be okay using your bag… as a bag?’ the blonde said, her brow wrinkling at the lame line.

‘Sure.’

Making a show of putting the little box of tools into the bag, the girl handed the resulting bundle back across the counter. ‘Thank you for shopping with us. It’s, uh, really amazing to meet you.’

Aneka held back the grimace she wanted to show, and instead requested the girl’s name from her ident-chip. She got a name, and a contact identifier. ‘Thank you, Melanie,’ she said, taking the bag and starting for the door.

‘She gave you her contact ID didn’t she?’ Ella said once they were outside the door.

‘Yes, she did.’

‘She was cute. You should call her.’

‘You don’t think I’ve got enough trouble with you?’

‘I think you should go out with her. Alone, I mean. Without me.’

‘Why? Trying to get rid of me already?’

‘Because,’ Ella replied, not rising to the jibe, ‘she doesn’t know you, you don’t know her, and I won’t be there to help. It’ll be good practice, and she’s obviously interested so there’s no need to worry over that.’

‘A training exercise?’

‘Basically, yes.’

They were almost at the Social Sciences building by then and Aneka did not want to discuss the matter with Gillian present; it would take
hours.
‘I’ll think about it,’ she said.

Ella waited for a few seconds, until they were in the elevator up to Gillian’s floor before saying, ‘I’m a psychologist, you know? I can tell when I’m being fobbed off. You’ll think about it all right.’

Aneka sagged against the lift wall with a sigh. Sometimes having a trained psychologist as a girlfriend sucked.

~~~

‘You needed to see me, Cassandra?’ The android looked up from her console as Aneka walked in, nodded, and slipped out from behind her desk. One arm raised slightly, indicating some seating in a corner of the room, and Aneka moved over, sitting down.

Cassandra took the seat opposite, crossing her long legs and placing her crossed wrists on one knee. Her back, Aneka noticed, was as straight as it could get; a deportment school instructor could not have done better. ‘Something came up in the analysis of your structure which Doctor Wallace thought I should discuss with you.’

Aneka frowned. ‘Doctor Wallace found it, but he thought you should discuss it with me?’

‘Yes. Doctor Wallace is a skilled physicist, an expert in many fields, but he defers to me in more delicate matters.’

‘I… don’t understand. Is there something wrong with me?’

‘No.’ Cassandra might have been good at delicacy, but she was fairly firm on not beating around the bush, it seemed. ‘During the analysis certain chemical nano-factories were found in your skin. It took some time to determine what the function of these sites is. The other reason I am having this conversation is that I can ask Al about them at the same time. As Doctor Wallace theorised, these factories produce artificial pheromones.’

There was more frowning. ‘Like… insects use to communicate?’

‘Yes. Many organisms use messenger chemicals in this way, even jenlay. You are able to produce chemicals which influence those around you, increasing trust in you, asserting your dominance, or reducing people’s inhibitions.’

Aneka looked across at Cassandra, feeling suddenly cold. ‘You’re serious? I can make people trust me? I can… Ella could have come on to me because… This is… horrific!’

The android raised a hand. ‘Al has provided me with records of the activation of these… glands. The only one which you have actually deployed is the, for want of a better term, sex pheromone, and that only while engaged in sex. Ella’s attraction to you is entirely natural. Your body emitted chemicals which likely made the experience more intense, but you did not
cause
it to happen that way.’

The coldness turned to anger almost immediately. ‘You didn’t mention this because?’ she snapped silently.

‘Because I was worried you would react in just the way you have,’ Al replied. ‘Insecurity over Ella’s feelings for you and the trust your friends have developed in you. I was unsure that you would believe my records of the use of the pheromone emitters.’

Aneka was silent for a second, though she imagined that Al could see her mind working anyway. ‘No more secrets. If you’re going to live in my head, you don’t keep secrets from me. Understand?’

‘Yes, Aneka. My apologies.’

‘Is there anything else about my body I should know?’

‘No, Aneka. Or if there is, I was not made aware of it either.’

‘Okay.’ Aloud she said, ‘Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Cassandra. Al… neglected to include that in our discussions of what I could do.’

The blonde android nodded. ‘You’re angry with him. I can understand that, but his assessment of your state of mind is almost certainly correct. You would have worried that you were unconsciously influencing the behaviour of your friends, particularly Mister Gibbons and Miss Patton. It would have shaken your growing confidence in your new situation.’

‘I know,’ Aneka replied. ‘That’s why I’m being reasonable about this. You’re right, I’m pissed off about it, but I’m also aware that he had good intentions and he was probably right. I’ll cool down and get over it.’

Cassandra smiled revealing very white, perfectly space teeth. ‘You show remarkable self-awareness and common sense for a jenlay.’

‘Huh. Maybe it’s being scooped out of my brain and ladled into a synthetic shell. I think when I had hormones I’d have wanted to beat Al to a pulp.’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 14.6.524 FSC.

Rollins’ Market was a four storey structure three stops on the subway north of Ella’s apartment. When Aneka had said she would cook a traditional Old Earth meal for Gillian and Ella, Ella had suggested she go there. It had, according to her, the best fresh ingredients in the city. Gillian knew of people from the suburbs who would make the trip into the city to buy at the Market.

Aneka had to admit that it looked like she was right. The future, it seemed, was very particular about its food-miles, even if they called it FTF, Food Transport Factor, and measured it in kilometres. Nothing at the Market had travelled more than about two-hundred kilometres to get there, and the bulk of it had been grown at the edge of the city. The Market did not go in for the more exotic foodstuffs, brought in by spaceship from other worlds; fresh, local produce at reasonable prices, that was what the Market was famous for.