Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres [108]
‘Damn Savvy bastards. That Carnage Farr thinks he’s got free run of everthin’.’
The voice fell silent.
Thales maintained a steady forward glance. He could think of nothing else to say, so he sought the space between his fear and his anger.
‘Well, your visuals check out, Thales Berniere. Get yourself over to Heijunka section on Rho One. Find bay GG. Wait in the reception area. And a word to it—don’t be squiddin’ me. My supplier’s got more pull than a gravity well. She’ll slice you up and use your DNA for paste.’
She?
The shortcast finished abruptly. Thales pulled his moist palm from Bethany’s and shook the feeling back into his fingers. ‘You’d better stay behind. They mentioned your brother.’
‘He’s right,’ said Rast from the sink of thick biozoon tissue she called Secondo. ‘Good catch on the mercury traces, scholar. Residue. Hah! Maybe you did learn something from all that studium time.’
Thales clenched his teeth. ‘Education doesn’t equate to idiocy,’ he said stiffly.
‘Does in my worlds,’ Rast guffawed.
Thales tried to relax his jaw. The mercenary was an expert in the art of belittling and she wasn’t particular who she practised it on.
‘Perhaps you’re right,’ agreed Bethany. ‘It is possible that I might be recognised, or linked to Lasper. My brother has more enemies than friends.’
Thales gave her a warm look. ‘It would be safer.’
Bethany stood and moved behind him where she rested her hands on his shoulders. He was sitting in what Randall had called Autonomy, a larger nub with recognisable add-ons that moulded to fit its occupant. With the virtual display pushed aside he could view the entire buccal with a glance.
Rast had closed her eyes. ‘Better move, then. Don’t know how long Rasterovich can keep most of the attention his way. We’ll all leave together. I’ll take Bethany and the Baronessa sightseeing. Act like you’re doing the same. According to the tourist map, Heijunka section is right next to The Hoes in Bell One. Take a detour through The Hoes like you’re after some distraction—anybody that’s watching will lose interest the moment you get there,’ she said.
‘What are The Hoes?’ asked Thales.
Rast opened her eyes abruptly.
He felt Bethany’s lips at his ear. ‘The Hoes is another name for the sex parlours,’ she whispered.
Thales’s whole body flushed with heat. Scolar did not have such places. Carnal pleasures were NOT something philosophers paid for... though nothing would surprise him about those Pragmatists. But even they would not be tawdry about it. There was no sex industry on his planet. He imagined Rene’s repulsion at the very notion.
Mira Fedor entered the buccal and frowned over at Randall. ‘The port authority has finished their scan of the ship. We have been given permission to disembark.’
Rast leapt from her prone position with an agility that caused Thales a stab of envy. The woman was more of a man than he was in so many ways. And though bigoted and coarse, she was not a fool either.
Thales felt a sudden desire to shirk off his upbringing—his beliefs—and become someone else. A person of action—not a piece of flesh manipulated against its will by a Lasper Farr or a Sophos Mianos and especially not by a Gutnee Paraburd. A strange coagulation of certainty occurred deep inside his chest.
He could change.
Thales and Latourn parted from Rast, Mira and Bethany at the market stalls that lined the docks near their berth and took the suspended fast-trak to Bell One. The wavering overhanging tube only afforded brief glimpses of Rho Junction when it stopped and the doors flashed open and shut. There were no windows on the fast-trak, only bright dancing icons that recorded their journey with meticulous precision.
Thales sat opposite Latourn, who kept his eyes on their route marker. He tried to find his meditation space again, to keep out lurking fears about the disease with which Lasper Farr had infected him and the new biological cocktail that he was about to receive, but