Profiteer

Dom was a survivor. Not only that, there was something buried under the impassive façade. There was power there, nearly hidden. She had the feeling that if they split up, she’d be the one someone canceled.

 

Still, she wished he had the sense to hole up somewhere. It was barely eight hours since they’d skipped out on the Church. Here they were, though, sitting in a corp lobby, and he flipped channels on the complimentary holo as though nothing had happened.

 

He barely showed any emotion at all. The only real change she’d seen on his face was a twitch at the corner of his mouth. Not the most reassuring of facial expressions.

 

The door to the inner offices slid aside, and Tetsami had to restrain a frantic impulse to draw her laser and shoot the secretary. She was too wired. She needed sleep. A luxury that Dom seemed to be able to go without.

 

The secretary was a chiseled blond whose body looked as though it had cost a small fortune in cosmetic augmentation. He talked to Dom, ignoring Tetsami completely. “Mr. Brodie will see you now.”

 

Dom turned off the holo. Tetsami had a brief glimpse of stock reports before the picture faded. Dom stood up and ran his hands down the front of his suit. It didn’t help. With what his clothes had been through, he looked more like a refugee from a commune war than a corp type.

 

Dom walked up to the door and turned around when she didn’t follow. “Come on. This concerns you as well.”

 

She shrugged and got up. The secretary showed no sign of caring one way or the other. He led them down a plush corridor done up in imported woods, crystal, and off-planet artwork—mostly aquatic sculpture by the Paralians. Incredibly expensive stuff to transport, all webworks of threadlike coral that had to be kept in pressurized cylinders.

 

What in hell was she doing here? Tetsami got nervous this close to money, at least when it wasn’t hers.

 

And, how much would a policy against the failure of a corp enterprise be worth? Her paranoia was kicking in again. Her palms were sweaty. It was too close to a payoff.

 

She felt things could go ballistic very easily.

 

The blond secretary stopped in front of a large door and motioned them through. The door was manual, a slightly irritating conceit. Dom led the way, and Tetsami had to put a hand out to stop the door from swinging back and hitting her. The secretary stayed in the hall.

 

Brodie’s office did its best to scream money. None of the wood was native to Bakunin. It was mostly the purple close-grained hardwood from the Kanaka rain forests. The wood gave the room a slight tang of bay leaves and rancid mint.

 

Brodie was planted behind a U-shaped desk topped with red-and-green-veined marble. The light in the room was provided by the most ostentatious display that Tetsami had ever seen. In the wall behind the desk was a window about ten by four meters. Behind it was a huge Paralian coral sculpture, and darting back and forth in its midst were tiny aquatic life-forms that had to be from Paralia themselves. What the upkeep on that must cost....

 

In contrast to the luxurious surroundings, Brodie looked like a cheap hood. Tetsami saw Brodie’s lean, hungry face and had no trouble picturing him doing the soft-core hustle on the fringes of East Godwin. Brodie looked like a dealer in flesh, drugs, or money who’d made good.

 

But then, what was insurance but a high-class protection racket?

 

Brodie waved them to a pair of plush chairs that were placed an uncomfortable distance from the desk. They sat and Brodie leaned forward and addressed Dom.

 

“Account number?”

 

Dom rattled off a twenty-digit number in response.

 

“Voiceprint checks,” Brodie said as his gaze lit on some display out of Tetsami’s field of vision. Tetsami realized that Brodie only knew Dom as a twenty-digit account number.

 

Brodie sounded like a hood. He had an East Godwin accent that he didn’t try to hide. “I have reviewed your file and your claim.”

 

A small holo display lit up above the desk. The image looked to be from a spy sat aimed at the Diderot foothills. The buildings in the image must have been the GA&A complex. Brodie leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “We’ve confirmed that Godwin Arms and Armaments was attacked and seized by hostile forces, as you’ve claimed. Our attempts to contact the new management of GA&A have proved unsuccessful.”

 

As Brodie spoke, Tetsami saw a craft float into the holo’s point of view. Explosions peppered the perimeter of the buildings. Brodie did something that froze the image.

 

“We have confirmation that GA&A was attacked by a Paralian-built Confederacy troopship. The Blood-Tide.” Brodie indicated the ship floating just outside the ring of explosions on the holo. Tetsami looked over at Dom. You said nothing about the Confederacy.

 

Why the hell would the Confederacy take over GA&A?

 

A smile crossed Brodie’s lips. “This, of course, means we cannot pay out your claim.”

 

“WHAT?”