An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (16 page)

The danger passed quickly
with the corner between
her and the only real
threats
.
Her fat
igue
also flew as she could now move much more openly
.
She used her tools once again to open the window of a vacant office
.
Now it didn’t matter if
anyone caught her,
as the most
they’d
do is kick her out of the building
.
Once safely inside,
she mumbled a few words, rubbed a red powder across her lips, dripped yellow paint into her hair, put a pea into each cup of her bra and wrapped a length of ivy vine around her waist
, cloak and all
.

Unlike her
cautious
entrance or
the
long
,
slow sojourn around the building
’
s perimeter, n
ot one single person failed to note Sonya
illusionary façade
as she left
.
Men drooled and women narrowed their eyes jealously
at the
overly buxom blonde with full, cherry-red lips and
the kind of
hourglass figure men have lusted
after
and women have coveted for millennia
.
Sonya appropriately swayed her hips and gave cold stares to the few men who dared approach her
.
Once out the primary exit and onto the lift-bus, she
became
even more
untouchable
.

Now
,
waiting was all
.
Sometimes that was the hardest part.

* * *
 

Tony dream
ed
of
a night with
Carmine
,
seal
ed
inside a luxury hotel room
surrounded by
hot and cold running delicacies of both the flesh and palate
.
The two of them spent a fortune on a bacchanalia where they indulged in every way possible
—
women, men,
and
some who were in between
.

“Open up under Civil Code Fourteen-eighteen
,
paragraph
J
!
Metro officers identifying themselves and their right to enter.”

But every time
Tony got
close to Carmine herself, she giggled and slipped away, leaving someone
else
in her place.

“If you do not open the door, we have been authorized to override the command sequence
.”

Tony bolted upright
.
He
had
thought the melodramatic voice
a
n annoying
,
if
simple
,
part of his dream
.
Intending to step
down from his bed
,
he instead
tripped getting up off the couch
.
Disoriented though he was, he knew the
Metros
couldn’t
be allowed to
find Cin
!
W
here was she
…
?

“I’m on my way
!
Keep your helmet on!” Tony shouted as he scrambled about, looking everywhere he could see
.
“I’m in the back room and getting dressed
.
I’ll be there in a second
.”

The kitten
didn’t want to be found, so Tony hoped she
’d
remain
that way
.
Sweat crept over his scalp a
s he opened the door
.
Two Metros
towered over him
in full black riot gear, faces fully
obscured
.
“Out of the way,” came the
voice
sonically enhanced
with seven hertz anxiety infrasound
.
One
of the pair slammed
Tony
asid
e with one power-assisted arm, briefly pinning him against the entryway
.
Even without being able to see his back, Tony could feel the bruises forming.
“We have a right to search and seize chattels upon your premises
.”

Tony
panicked to do something
to deflect an all-out search for whatever they were looking for
.
With sudden purpose, h
e
spun to face the fair protectors of
Portland
.
“Your authorization
?”
he
barked
.

While the blank face-mask gave no emotion, Tony got the
distinct
impression he
both amused and
annoyed
the man
.
Massive ebon fingers
held out a recording crystal the size of Cin’s paw and dropped it to the carpet
.
Tony picked it up as the
armored policemen went into the bedroom.

“Y
ou can’t be too sure these days,” Tony offered feebly
.
“
You never know
.
Fake cops and all
.”

The
solido
crystal
went into his player and a solido image sprang forth
in
the middle of the room
.
Carmine’s image, life size, spoke to him
from behind the faux wood desk he
’d
g
iven
her as a present on her last birthday
.

“Mr. Sammis, or whatever your real name is
,
I had no idea you were such a deviant
.
I don’t know how you
could’ve
deceived me for so long, but I
must’ve
been seven kinds of fool for having trusted you with any part of my life
.”
Crashing sounds issued from the bedroom
.
Carmine leaned forward over the desk and shook her finger
at him
,
like
scolding
a
naughty schoolboy
.
Some part of him, despite her reaction to his news about Cin, still
had
hoped she
would
be the anchor in his life, just as
she’d been
with every other disaster
.
Instead she chose to inflict even more abuse.

“
It’s
obvious I can have no more to do with you, so
I’ve
sent the police to retrieve my things
.
Don’t interfere with them, for I’ve paid them well to make it unpleasant if you resist
.”
The image carried a feral smile.

“Do not attempt to see me
.
Do not attempt to contact me
.
Do not attempt to contact anyone we know
.
If you do,
I’ll
have the Metros return and show you real justice
.

“My skin crawls to think I ever let you touch me
.
You
must’ve
been quite pleased to get a nice real girl like me into your clutches, you
pathetic
Nil
.
Have you no shame
?
But then your
kind rarely does
.

“May your skin burn from acid fog at ground level
.”
The solido image gave him a universally understood and despised gesture before winking out
.
One of the Metros
chose that moment
to return to the room
.
Seemingly at random he
picked up a lead crystal lamp and smashed it to the floor.

“What the hell are you l
ooking for?”
demanded Tony.

“We have
everything
but one item
—
necklace, Black Hills Gold, with double grape cluster and differing colored leaves
.”
Tony had worn it since his time with Carmine in
c
ollege
.
It had been reciprocation for him giving her a friendship ring
.
Without a thought, he snapped its tiny chain from his neck and held it out to the cop.

“There is your fucking item
.
Now get the hell out!”

“Sergeant, I’ve got it
.
Let’s make jet-tracks.”

“Rog-O.”

Tony watched as the two walked out the door with an armload of boot
y
, some obviously Tony’s own property
.
They didn’t even bother to close the door after they left
.
Tony heard a
muted
hiss from under the couch
.
Cin only now
gave
her opinion of their unwanted guests
.

“I agree.”

* * *
 

Sonya
violated her own p
rohibition o
n
technology in her home with one item, an old
-
fashioned FM radio
.
If she played with the dial just right
,
she
picked up one hundred
eighty
-
five stations in the metro-Portland area
.

She sat at her dinner table with a ball of gray fur in her lap and listened to the
seven
o’clock
news
report
.
As usual
,
the news depressed her, but she must know if everything
went according
to plan before she took credit for the action
.
Her favorite, Plutonia, purred and kept her company while the headlines were read
.
The tiny
, still unnamed
Chihuahua
sat shivering on the tabletop
side by side with her
Pomeranian
,
Maxine
.
Sonya
smiled at it and placed a kiss on its tiny nose
.
She made
only the fourth headline story.

“In sadder news, four bombs detonated on the
Colonization
Unlimited
Building
in downtown today
.
Seventy-three confirmed dead and one hundred eighty-six others injured
.

“Police refuse to speculate if this bombing had anything to do with
recent
GAM actions
.
Chief Adams, is this related to the other bombings?”

“How can I tell
?
We haven’t had any time to run tests, talk to informants, or even get their call to confirm it—
”
 

Absently Sonya wondered if four actually went off
. W
ere they censoring the
total number
,
or that
a corporate exec met his maker
?
Sonya imagined the cruel way
she’d
just killed seventy-three (or more) people
,
and the
destruction wreaked by her bombs
.
She
had
reconciled herself to this course long ago
.
Wars
like this weren’t
clean and neat
—
lawyers
had
claimed th
e
clean
er kind of
warfare
centuries ago
.
Her
deed
s
of death and destruction didn’t warrant a smile, but as hard
and demanding
work,
they
did
.
She grinned and set Plutonia on the floor
.

Sonya
switched
off the radio and walked out
her apartment
door once more
.
Her next task wouldn’t work up any sweat.