Greenshift (3 page)

Standing a head and a half taller
than the men squaring off around him, David Anlow dominated the scene in simple
navy blue fatigues and a grey t-shirt with the fleet insignia of six globes
arching around the silhouettes of crossed battle rifles. His hands rested on
his hips, highlighting the broadness of his shoulders. The contractors’ hands
hovered near the weapons strapped to their thighs. That unnerved her.

“David’s not the flirting
type either,” she said, picking back up on her conversation with Sean in
an attempt to lighten her anxiety. It was a half-truth because David never
flirted with her in front of the others, but he was finally warming up to her
when they were alone. “He was an officer in the fleet,” she said.
“That’s why he’s teaching me how to co-pilot the ship. He says all the
crew should know how, just in case.”

“We’re not crew, we’re
passengers,” Sean said. “And you’re the only one he’s giving private
lessons to.” Sean had forgotten about the pallet completely, his focus
riveted to the scene ahead.

“Maybe he’s just being nice
to me. Did you ever think of that?” She would admit that David’s good
natured jokes held some innuendo, though always safely ambiguous, and he found
reasons to touch her almost constantly when they were alone. Innocent little
brushes of her hair or a hand at her elbow, but even the casual touches
lingered. Of course, she made sure to invent excuses to see him as often as
possible.

“I can tell how nice he
wants to be by the way he looks at you,” Sean said.

That remark made Mari’s skin
tingle. She couldn’t tell if Sean was teasing her or being honest. If she
didn’t know him better, she’d think the comment was made out of jealousy, but
that wasn’t in Sean’s nature.

As for David giving her
appraising stares, she’d noticed all right. But Mari noticed
everything
David Anlow did—how his pupils dilated when their gazes met, how his body
language was always open and inviting, all the signals they were taught to be
aware of when seeking a partner. Granted, she may not have taken the advanced
classes in courtship and coupling at school, but she knew enough to know when a
man was interested. That’s how she knew Sean wasn’t.

For Mari, however, her attraction
to David went beyond his obvious physical attributes. It was also the
fascination of meeting an actual Armadan captain—well, retired captain.

“Why did David quit the
fleet so early?” she asked. “In the past three weeks I’ve heard all
about his four brothers, his sister, even his parents and their family estate
in the Koley Mountains on Yurai, but he always keeps quiet about his time in
the fleet.”

“I’ll ask him next time we
sit down for a beer together.”

Sean’s sarcasm dropped heavy like
Mari’s stomach when she watched two more contractors, a male and a female, pop
out of the stone and glass security kiosk a dozen meters from David.

She pulled in a deep, nervous
breath, filling her nose with Sean’s clean scent. David didn’t have scentbots,
but like the other Armadan who lived aboard the
Bard
, David’s skin had a
natural, subtle scent which reminded her of green tea leaves. She’d do anything
to have him close enough to smell right now and far away from the threatening
contractors.

“You should be nicer, a
little more respectful,” she chided Sean, but her speech was slow and
pitchy, no longer able to hide her apprehension.

“Why?” Sean asked.
“Because he’s my elder?”

She thought she caught a twitch
at the edge of Sean’s mouth. So maybe he
was
teasing her, trying to take
her mind off the escalating scene in front of them.

“
Because
,” she
said. “He convinced the dockmaster to give us a berth space even though
Shiraz wanted to put us off for another week.”

Sean remained unimpressed.

“We could have
starved.”

“We wouldn’t have
starved,” Sean said in that apathetic tone that he knew irritated her.

He was probably right, though,
considering the number of small docks within a few hours’ ride via a
terrestrial or aquatic transport. “Well, we would have had to shuttle all
of this stuff hundreds of kilometers. Or buy all new supplies, and some of us
don’t have a lot of money to spare.”

Sean didn’t say anything to that,
having spotted her for the rent on her suite for the second month in a row.

“Besides, this berth is
nice. So close to all the activity that we don’t even need to take a transport
or monorail to be in the middle of it all. It’s just a walk or a ferry ride away.”

Then she added, “David’s
just a little older than you.” Which was a stretch because Sean was around
thirty or thirty-five or something, and David’s formal Embassy bio put him four
months shy of sixty, though most people wouldn’t have guessed it by looking at
him.

“Try twice as old as me.”

“He’s not even middle age,
and have you seen him with his shirt off?”

Sean’s expression said that that was
the last thing he was thinking about.

“His body is fantastic.”
She couldn’t stop the volley of nervous words coming out of her mouth. “I
guess the physique is an inherited Armadan trait. We didn’t have any Armadans
around where I grew up. Geir was the first Armadan I ever met, although he
isn’t as muscled as David, so maybe it’s the military training. Do you know why
Geir became a scientist instead of joining the fleet? That’s more of a
Socialite job. I never wondered about that until David came on board.”

Sean’s posture tensed as the
latest arrivals strode closer to David.

“I know you’re itching to be
in on this fight,” Mari said. “Why don’t you go over there? David
would probably appreciate the back up.” Though maybe he didn’t need any
just yet, the way the contractors stayed out of his reach.

When David raised his voice and
an arm in objection to something the closest man said to him, all four
contractors casually pulled their cenders from their thigh holsters and held
the weapons at their sides.

Mari nudged Sean’s arm.
“Okay, you really should go over.”

“One more person in the mix
won’t be good for anyone. Besides, David knows they won’t fire their
cenders,” Sean said.

“How does he know that? How
do
you
know that?”

“Too many voyeurs hanging
around and taking in the action.” He gestured to the half dozen small
floating balls of telescoping cameras and directional microphones that gathered
in a circle above the uneasy scene.

A white gull attempted to land on
one voyeur which had been hovering patiently over the area, but the bird
thought better of it when two cameras extended from the voyeur in a fast snap.

Giant Media screens perched above
the docks from well-positioned kiosks picked up the live feed and broadcasted
the confrontation for not only those within the immediate vicinity, but also on
several channels across the system. Had Mari’s family been tuned into these
particular channels out of the millions available, they would be able to see
the man she was so enthralled with—thick, dark hair, prominent jawline, and
long legs extending from a perfect backside. When David forced one of the
contractors to back up ever so slightly, Mari’s heart beat a little faster.

His confidence amazed her. She
wanted to command control of a situation, any situation, like he did.

Raised voices reached her ears
from the scene in front of her the same time they echoed from the nearest Media
screen.
“You need to move your ship out now.”
It was one of
the original male contractors speaking. His ebony hair and brows matched his
clothing. Like all contractors he was perfectly beautiful with olive skin and
icy blue eyes.

The shot switched to David, whose
features were more masculine than delicate.
“As soon as we inventory
our supplies. I’m thinking that could take a couple of days.”
His
slight accent came through in the way he pronounced his vowels.

The camera zoomed in on his face
and Mari took a deeper breath. His tan skin stretched over a square jaw and
angled planes, though the screen didn’t do his eyes justice. There they looked
like the pale grey of the winter sky back in her home territory, but they held
a slight tint of deeper blue if you got close enough to notice, and she’d been
close enough plenty of times.

“What the hell is he talking
about?” Sean grumbled. “I’m not staying here just so he can prove a
point. I have stuff to do.”

Sean always had
stuff to do
.
He had a brilliant mind, especially when it came to the ship’s systems and
techy gadgets, probably why they called him a mech tech, but Mari believed
Sean’s intelligence was his biggest enemy. He thought too much and tried to
lose himself in his work or the virtual arena of the V-side to avoid
interacting in the real world. And he hated to be docked here at the Embassy
Hub. Mari found it exciting to be in the middle of the busiest city in the
system—well, usually.

She was already worried about
losing another client this week, adding to her mounting financial problems, and
today’s situation compounded her nervous energy, yet no one else paid the
slightest attention to what was happening. The bustle around Shiraz never
slowed for anything.

Another exchange between David
and the contractors played on the Media screens. Among the frenzied music
dubbed over the scene to add excitement, Mari heard David say, “
The way
you’re stroking that piece makes me think Killian here should be watching his
ass.”

The contractor leveled his pistol
at David. Mari’s mouth went dry.

David ignored the cender and
stuck his finger in the younger guy’s chest, bending down to face him. His
voice echoed from screen to screen.
“You keep pointing that weapon at
me and I’ll show you how to use it.”

Mari’s focus bounced from David and
the contractor to their images augmented on the Media screens. She missed
whatever David said next, but suddenly all but one contractor had a gun pointed
at him.

Sean snagged the knife from
Mari’s hand and tucked it discreetly against his side as he walked down the
boardwalk toward the action.

That pissed them off
.

David’s verbal sparring with the
armed group had taken a turn for the worse. Maybe he shouldn’t have used the
word
inbred
, but they did like to keep it within the family. It would
have been a good insult even if the voyeurs hadn’t broadcasted it loud and
clear for the whole system to hear. He could have thrown in illegal gene
manipulation, but that would have just been petty.

“Don’t get me wrong,”
David said, raising his hands in front of him as though he meant no offense.
“It’s a good look, a little cold, like your personalities.”

Killian motioned for the others
to lower their weapons. “You have half an hour to get that ship out of here.”

“If you have that big of a
problem with my ship being here, take it up with the dockmaster.” David’s
words snapped through the Media speakers. He didn’t let on that hearing his own
harsh tone startled him.

Apparently it made the
contractors uneasy as well. They were still twitchy because they knew they had
no reason to be here. Of course, most contractors he met never missed an
opportunity to flaunt their authority over an Armadan, at least those Armadans
not in uniform. Even contractors steered clear of any military involvement.
David didn’t know how or when the cultural tension between Armadans and
contractors began, but it had been gaining momentum recently.

The thought gave him pause. He
needed to end this before Ward and his friends stopped taking directions from
Killian.

Out of the corner of his eye,
David caught Sean meandering toward them. The two latecomers noticed, too. Their
attention split between David and Sean. As far as Ward was concerned, though, David
was the only thing in the world right now.

“I’d tell your crewman to
back off,” the female contractor said.

David almost smiled, thinking of
the string of expletives that would roll out of Sean Cryer’s mouth if he heard
that comment.

“I wouldn’t worry about him.
He’s a harmless mech tech.” Though David suspected Sean could be
dangerous, especially if he had been dosing recently.

David leaned in close to Killian
and hid his face so the voyeurs wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop. “We both
know you have a mark against you after that fight last year. The Embassy is
going to throw you out of the guild if this incident goes any further. I may
not enforce it, but I do know the law and so do all those viewers catching our
exchange at
home. Is getting back at me really worth your
job? Why don’t you just take Ward, get him tucked into bed before it gets dark,
and relax for the rest of the evening?”

Killian’s expression was blank.
Contractors gave new meaning to stoicism. “You’re bordering on harassment,
Anlow.”

“I know how to keep on my
side of the fence,” David said. “Does Ward?”

They both knew the answer to that
question. Ward was bristling for a fight, and Killian couldn’t afford for that
to happen in plain view of the system.

David made a motion for Sean to
hang back a bit, which to David’s surprise he did.

Killian took a moment longer to
regard both men before smacking his shoulder into David’s chest as he pushed
past. “I’d watch my back if I were you. These docks can be
dangerous.”

The other contractors followed
Killian’s lead, all except for Ward who stared at David and flexed his fingers
around the grips of his guns.

“Let’s go, Ward,”
Killian called to him.

David stood his ground and didn’t
take his eyes off the group. Sean sidled up beside him, not speaking until the
four contractors slipped back inside the security kiosk.