Profiteer

Her train of thought was derailed by an annoying buzz. The buzz repeated a few times before she realized that it was the door. She opened her eyes, realizing that she’d nodded off long enough for the gladiatorial contest to win the wattage war over the demolition derby.

 

She went to the door and opened it. Standing outside, in the hall, was Dominic Magnus. He looked—odd.

 

“Can I come in?”

 

Tetsami shrugged and stood aside, not quite certain whether or not she was irritated at her “partner.”

 

Dom walked in and spared a glance at the holo, where two hypertrophic steroid junkies were dueling with a pair of chain saws. He shook his head slightly and settled on the edge of her bed.

 

“I wouldn’t blame you for being angry at me,” he said.

 

Tetsami settled into the chair and killed the holo during a particularly gruesome parry. “Dom, I don’t know if I’m pissed or not yet.”

 

Dom sighed. Tetsami decided why he looked so strange. He looked tired. The look of fatigue was radically out of place on his face. It was as if a marble statue had suddenly sneezed. “I’m sorry for snapping at you back there. The news caught me a lit—”

 

Tetsami suddenly realized that they were on two very different wavelengths. “Whoa there, hold it a minute.”

 

“What?”

 

“You think that you being upset is why I should be pissed?”

 

Dom looked confused.

 

“Okay, I didn’t say that quite right.” She took a breath and started again. “Dom, if I’m angry at you, it’s not because you flipped a gear back there.”

 

Something she said actually made him wince.

 

“But I wanna know, CEO-man, if I’m your partner in this, or if I’m just another frigging employee.”

 

“Partner,” Dom said quietly, as if he didn’t quite understand the word.

 

She was beginning to realize that Dom hadn’t been thinking along these lines at all. “Damn straight. You might be financing this op, but I’m planning this thing. We pulled each other out of the shit. We’d be dead without each other—and this heist would never’ve been born.”

 

“I know.”

 

“I thought we were in this together.”

 

“We are.”

 

“Oh, we are?” Tetsami stood up and kicked the holo display. “Then why the fuck didn’t you let on about this place?”

 

Dom inhaled. “I was keeping it secret. They’re after GA&A employees and I didn’t want to lead—”

 

“That kept you from telling me? You’ve pulled Zanzibar and Shane on to the team without even talking to me!”

 

“They fill the requirements, and Shane knows—”

 

“I don’t give a shit what Shane knows! For all you know she could be the ever-loving colonel’s mistress. And that ain’t the point.”

 

Dom sat there, quietly, for a long time. After a while he said, “I suppose it isn’t.”

 

“So, am I your partner? Or am I just another employee you get to order around?”

 

“And if I say you’re an employee?”

 

Oh, you fucking bastard. “I’ll get that box cracked if you give me a kangaroo to work with. But I’m gone once I get paid. Way gone.”

 

“What if you’re my partner?”

 

What’s the difference, really? She was planning to blow this rock whatever happened. “I don’t know.”

 

“I came here for another reason, too.”

 

“What?” She didn’t like him just changing the subject like that.

 

“The window is closing. According to Shane, GA&A is part of a larger Confed operation. Once they get GA&A fully operational, they go on to Phase Two.”

 

“Which is?”

 

Dom shrugged. “Need to know, Shane didn’t. Anyway, getting GA&A operational requires a new mainframe. They’re importing one from off-planet. It’ll be here in little over a week. Ten days, installed.”

 

“And a new mainframe means a new security system.” Great, just what we needed.

 

“So we have to go before it goes on-line or me, Zanzibar, and a dozen Paralian ship experts won’t make a difference.”

 

“You just made my day. A week?”

 

“Ten days, partner.”

 

Tetsami looked at Dom and smiled. “You bastard.”

 

“I’ve been called worse.”

 

“I’m sure.”

 

“We need to fill the holes left in the team, and you need to polish up our plan for getting in.”

 

“And out.”

 

“And out,” Dom agreed.

 

“All we need is a ship expert and a driver. Levy said he knew a ship expert, and the pilot I contacted is back in Godwin by now.”

 

“Good, take Zanzibar and Shane back to Godwin and get things moving.”

 

“What about you?” Tetsami tentatively stuck out her hand toward him.

 

“I’ll meet you at the warehouse in a couple of days. I have to do things here.” He reached in the pocket of his jumpsuit and pulled out a small computer and placed it in Tetsami’s outstretched hand. “Here’s a line on our liquid assets, in case you need anything.”

 

Tetsami stared at her hand, taken by surprise again.

 

She could swear that she could feel the weight of the three hundred-some K they had left in the account. Dom left her there, staring at the computer that held all that money in virtual limbo.

 

She felt vaguely pissed again, but for no real reason.

 

I’m his partner all right.

 

Bastard.

 

Only a week....

 

<>

 

* * * *

 

CHAPTER NINETEEN

 

Leaks