"Again, good." Big Bill's smile didn't reach his eyes. Didn't even reach his cheeks. Or any other body part. "But I asked you, how long?"
"No way of knowing."
"I see. As we have no idea what's in the armory, we have no idea how much you'll be paying me for the use of that storage pod. We don't know the specifics of my fifteen percent," he expanded when Cho frowned. "Given that, I'd like to know how long you plan on taking advantage of my generosity."
Slouching back in the chair, Cho hoped he looked like he didn't give a H'san's ass about eye lines or the unfortunate fact that his own ass was going numb. "Allowing me to use that pod is you minimizing the risk of blowing a hole in your station while still maintaining a certain amount of control over the contents of an armory you have no responsibility for. Length of time spent is irrelevant."
Big Bill stared across the deck at him, like he was actually seeing him for the first time in this conversation. "That's a valid point."
He made it sound like it was first valid point Cho had ever made in his hearing.
"Keep me informed." Eyes narrowed, Big Bill nodded toward the piece of paper. "Take the list with you."
Only a suicidal idiot would mistake that for anything but a dismissal.
By the time Cho had heaved himself up onto his feet, Big Bill had a channel open to what sounded like one of the shops in the Hub, enquiring about last quarter's drop in profits, and therefore a drop in his fifteen percent. As far as he was concerned, Cho had already left the room.
In the outer office the Grr brothers lay tangled together on a leather sofa, drinking sah and watching news vids, the big screen split into the top four networks. They'd been watching news vids when Cho went in to talk to Big Bill. And sure, he hadn't been in there long, but they'd been watching news vids every time he'd been called to the inner sanctum.
Could've been worse. Could've been a cooking show.
No surprise the little freaks didn't watch porn like normal people.
Craig could see that as far as di'Taykan went, Nadayki was a lime-green geek-and-a-half, but he was still a di'Taykan and di'Taykan were hardwired to default to sex. Sex seemed to be an obvious tactic to delay the opening of the seal, with the potential to be a repeat performer. As his stomach had steadied and the red-hot spikes were not currently being driven into his temples, Craig figured it made sense to get the initial encounter out of the way
"The thing with CSO codes," he said, looking up from his slate, "is that they're hard to put in and even harder to take out."
"Unless you know the sequence," Nadayki snorted, eyes locked on his screen, ignoring the potential for innuendo.
Craig fired off a second attempt. "Give us time and we'll get it off."
"Fukking right. There's no way some stupid scavenger is going to create a seal I can't break."
Any other di'Taykan would have made a proposition and started the foreplay by now. Raising his assessment of the kid to a geek-and-three-quarters, Craig upped his game.
The seal had been positioned in vacuum, which put it at an idiotically awkward angle with gravity applied. Upper body bent at about forty-five degrees, with the kid standing so close the movement of his hair kept Craig thinking of spiders and slapping at the back of his neck, it was easy enough to brush his ass to Nadayki's groin with every position shift.
And yeah, they still hadn't talked about where they stood with di'Taykan before the Heart of Stone had blown their lives apart, but Craig knew where Torin stood as far as staying alive went. She'd expect him to do what he had to. So, when Nadayki finally got with the program-and seriously, he had never expected to use the word finally when it came to a di'Taykan and sex-Craig responded with, if not enthusiasm, at least interest. First chance he got, he dialed the kid's masker back a couple of levels and enthusiasm became moot.
Then the kid decided to prove he could evoke the same response without the pheromone boost and Craig took back every disparaging thing he'd ever thought about geeks.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Nadayki muttered in Taykan against wet skin-maybe a description of the specific act or maybe bitching about the interruption, Craig had no idea and really, really didn't care-but kept going until Cho grabbed a handful of hair and yanked him back.
"No gods damned fukking on my time! I catch you again, and I'll have Doc cut your damned kayti off. And then I'll have Doc cut his off…" Half a dozen lime-green hairs floated to the floor as Cho released his hold and jabbed a finger toward Craig. "… and fukking feed it to you. Put your damned clothes on and get back to work!"
Craig had hoped Nadayki would argue, but the mention of Doc acted like a cold shower, and the kid complied without protest, his eyes pale, one hand rubbing at the side of his head. Di'Taykan hair wasn't actually hair. It was part of their sensory system, and losing some of it must've hurt like hell. Given three dead on the Prime Progenitor's lawn, Craig couldn't bring himself to care. Still… "You couldn't have taken another fifteen minutes to show up?" he grumbled, shooting the captain a disgruntled glare as he shrugged back into his overalls.
"You can fuk on your own time, Ryder," Cho snarled. "And your time is mine until that armory is open." He jerked his slate off his belt. "Huirre, get down to the locker."
"Now, Captain?"
"Yes, now!" Cho smiled unpleasantly. He jabbed a finger into Craig's chest. "I am warning you, do not fuk around on me. You forget why you're here while Huirre's watching and I'll let him pick a part to snack on." The jab became a shove.
Fingers curling into fists, Craig wondered how long it would delay things if he took a swing at the captain. Given the way he felt, he'd get the shit kicked out of him in any fight, but, hell, as long as he was alive when Torin found him, that only mattered in the short term.
Something in Cho's eyes stopped him. Something that said go too far and you'll be out the air lock wearing bruises and fuk all else.
Because the trick was to stay alive until Torin found him.
A second shove, to prove Craig wouldn't respond, then Cho backed up snarling, "Now, get back to work before I start carving bits off myself!"
"This is all your fault," Nadayki muttered sullenly as they bent over the seal again.
True enough. "Takes two to tango, kid."
"What the fuk is a tango? And stop calling me kid!" "What if Presit's little protege found the wrong Vrijheid Station," Mashona asked, saving one of Ceelin's games as the Second Star began her ten count before emerging into normal space.
"How many Vrijheid Stations that supposedly took a dirt dive during the war could there be?" Werst demanded from the second chair.
Mashona shrugged. "Space is big."
The stars reappeared.
"Ceelin found only one Vrijheid Station, and full disclosure laws give Presit access to government databases." Torin lifted her hands up off the control panel and started working the stiffness out of the fingers.
"She could be sending us on a fool's errand while she heads in to get the story," Ressk said thoughtfully, rubbing a thumb along the edge of his slate. "I mean, she said she knew you weren't going to let her join us. She could've set up equations to a different station and then faked her protests."
Werst shook his head. "You always this paranoid?"
He glanced over at Torin. "Just trying to cover all bases."
In the old days, being paranoid was a part of Torin's job. Now… "I trust her. I'm not one hundred percent positive she wouldn't screw me over, but she'd never risk Craig."
Mashona's brows rose and fell in exaggerated lechery. "You need to worry about her making moves on your man, Gunny?"
"Not everything crosses species lines, Mashona, di'Taykan excepted." Her response to Mashona's joking almost sounded normal. Under the circumstances, it was the best she could do.