The Cold Steel Mind (35 page)

Winter flushed a little at the grins she got, but she dropped straight back into her role. ‘Thank you, Miss Jansen,’ she gushed. ‘I’d really
love
to do that.’ Aneka strutted away, trying hard to look like she had not been one-upped by the spy mistress.

‘She has probably been doing that kind of thing for years,’ Al pointed out.

‘I think I surprised her there, she just rallied quickly.’

‘Of course, Aneka. I’m sure you did.’

Aneka sulked all the way back to the office.

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 30.12.524 FSC.

Aneka had never seen Janna in anything quite so casual. The skirt was tiny, the T-shirt was fishnet, but she was wearing a bikini bra under it. It seemed that, now Janna had no expectations of seducing Aneka, and did not care to, the pressure was off to wear outrageously sexual outfits. It was also the last night of the year, and she was not at home, both of which might have contributed to her relaxed attitude. Whatever the case, mother, daughter, and daughter’s girlfriend were sprawled on the lounge floor on strewn cushions, drinking wine and chatting until midnight.

‘Ella tells me that you find my choice of vocation strange,’ Janna said.

‘No… But I’m not used to the idea of exotic dancer being a “vocation.”’

‘I enjoy it.’

‘She said.’

‘Always have,’ Janna went on, ‘and I’m damn good at it.’

‘I’d have to agree. It’s just that in my time it wasn’t something someone would aspire to. It’s that cultural thing again. I accept it. It’s how things are. I just find it… different.’

Janna chuckled. ‘When Ella was about nine, all she wanted to do when she grew up was dance like her mother.’

‘You taught me ballet,’ Ella said.

‘I learned ballet, classical ballroom, modern rhythmic, Torem… I wanted to be the best I could be and I felt that you should have the same grounding if you were going to do it. Besides, a nine-year-old should not be learning to pole dance.’ She sighed. ‘Of course, after… Well, you turned to more academic pursuits and I’d have to say that was a better choice of career for you.’

Ella giggled. ‘I don’t have the boobs for stripping.’

‘That could be fixed, not there’s a single thing wrong with your body. No, you’ve more brains than me or your father. It’s
right
that you went the way you did.’

‘I think so,’ Ella replied, grinning.

‘And it’s almost midnight,’ Aneka announced. ‘Who’s saying the Renewal?’

‘You are,’ both Narrows said at once. Ella giggled and bounced up to get glasses and a bottle of shinishee from the kitchen.

‘I realise that I’m physically the oldest,’ Janna went on, ‘but you’re chronologically far older, and this way I don’t have to
feel
ancient.’

Aneka laughed, but she had Al pull up the text she had been given the year before. ‘Ella and Gillian used the same excuse to get me to read it last year.’

‘It’s a perfectly valid reason,’ Ella said as she returned, putting the glasses down between them. ‘It should be the oldest and… It’s like Gillian said, the words have more meaning when they’re spoken by someone from before the Federation started.’ She poured three healthy measures of the dark purple liquor.

Aneka sat up, curling her legs under her, and waited for the flat’s computer to signal that it was midnight. It was only a few seconds before a flourishing string of notes sounded from the room’s speakers. Together they raised their glasses, clinking them together before taking a drink. The shinishee burned down Aneka’s throat; she liked the stuff, it was not pretending to be a drink that it did not really taste like.

‘As this old year turns and the new one begins,’ she said, reading from the text before her eyes, ‘we give thanks for all that has been, and look forward to all that is to come. The Long Dark is gone and we look into the light. Let this First Day be the first of many where we strive to be the best we can be and fight to keep the darkness at bay.’

There was another drink, and then Janna said, ‘It
does
have more meaning from you, Aneka. I mean, the first person to say it…’

‘Senator Alfresson,’ Ella put in.

Janna grinned. ‘He was born before the Federation existed. He really meant that little speech. I wonder what he’d think of what the Federation is now.’

‘They started out with a lot of high ideals we’ve never lived up to,’ Ella said thoughtfully. ‘Exchange of cultures was one of their big ideas back then and that lasted barely a century. The Torem are too insular, the Jenlay don’t care, and the Herosians are too…’

‘Herosian?’ Janna suggested.

‘Secretive,’ Ella said. ‘They just don’t seem to like anyone else knowing what they’re doing.’

‘Wonder why,’ Aneka said. ‘On the up side,’ she went on quickly, ‘the Federation was founded to avoid another inter-species war and it’s been pretty successful at that.’

Janna nodded. ‘It has… And we’ve got all serious. Let’s get Ella drunk and then I can tell you embarrassing stories about her.’

‘Mom!’

Yorkbridge, Leighbridge Airport, 1.1.525 FSC.

Aneka, Ella, and Janna stepped off the subway car and onto the white tiled floors of the Leighbridge Airport station. Janna had to be back at work the following afternoon. She had managed to get on the latest flight possible back to Barnard City, but the continent of Antipose was more or less on the opposite side of the planet, in the southern hemisphere, and Janna was going to be in the air for over eight hours. She could have used the same hypersonic transport that Aneka and Ella had taken when they had flown out to see her, but it was expensive.

Aneka was carrying Janna’s luggage and grateful for her artificial muscles. As they headed up towards the check-in lounge aboard an amazingly smooth escalator, Aneka wondered whether the airline had excess baggage charges.

It was as they crested the top of the moving staircase that Aneka saw the golden-blonde hair of Mistress Delaney standing near one of the advertising plinths. Aneka kept her eyes on the animated advert for the latest DeLevalle perfume, which claimed to be the ‘essence of feminine sensuality,’ rather than the blonde. The trio were heading past the plinth anyway.

‘What exactly
is
the essence of feminine sensuality?’ Aneka asked.

Delaney was smiling at her, apparently comfortable in her belief that none of them could see her. Today she was dressed in a severe, black, turtle-necked mini-dress and black thigh-high boots, and she had no visible weaponry on her. Then again, Al had informed Aneka of the ID check the airport’s weapon detectors had made. Aneka had a permit provided by Winter to carry one of her pistols concealed in a bag; it was doubtful that Delaney had the same privilege.

‘Mostly alcohol,’ Ella replied.

‘You’ve never had a nose for perfumery,’ Janna said. ‘They’ve gone primarily for a musk base, sweetened a little with what I have to admit is a fairly bland mixture of floral scents. I wasn’t keen, but I believe it’s supposed to enhance pheromones which work best on men.’

Neither of them gave Delaney a second glance, maybe even a first one, and she was definitely the kind of woman who Janna would have given a second glance. If the effect was psionic, then presumably it would fail if Aneka drew attention to the invisible blonde, but that would also draw attention to the fact that Aneka could see her. Currently she was fairly sure Delaney thought her trick was working on all of them and Aneka wanted to keep it that way.

‘There,’ Ella said, pointing towards a bank of three desks against one wall of the concourse. ‘Flight nineteen is yours, right Mom?’

‘That’s the one,’ Janna replied. ‘On time and already checking in. You two will be able to head home early.’

‘Oh we’ll see you through to the gate,’ Aneka said. ‘You’re not getting rid of us so easily.’ Delaney was moving slowly away, her gaze on the flight board mounted over the check-in desks.

‘I hate goodbyes,’ Janna said mournfully.

‘That’s okay,’ Aneka replied. ‘We won’t be saying goodbye, we’ll be saying au revoir.’ Janna gave her a quizzical look. ‘It’s French.’ Smiling outwardly at Janna’s confusion, Aneka spoke silently to Al. ‘Ping Winter. See if she can talk.’

‘France was a country near the one Aneka came from, Mom,’ Ella was saying. ‘Supposedly French was the language of love.’

Winter’s image appeared in Aneka’s vision field. ‘Problem?’

‘I’m at Leighbridge and so is Delaney. She seems to be paying a lot of attention to Janna’s flight. Can you have someone meet her in Barnard…?’

Winter raised a hand for silence. ‘Miss Narrows is going to meet a very nice young stewardess on the flight who will make sure she doesn’t get too much sleep on the way back, go home with her, and decide she likes her so much that she wants to spend her two-week break with her. And I assure you that Sharissa will make Janna think it was all her idea. She’ll never know she’s under protection so long as she doesn’t need it.’

Aneka fought to keep the smile off her face. ‘Thank you, Winter. I realise you’re going to say something about it being your job, but thanks.’

Winter’s right eyebrow quirked upward. ‘I was going to say no such thing. I’m sure I’ll find a way you can repay me.’ Then the connection was cut off before Aneka could reply.

They were at check-in now and Aneka dropped the bag onto the conveyer beside the desk while Janna was cleared through to the gate. ‘My daughter and her partner will be coming through with me,’ Janna said to the man behind the desk. He nodded and smiled, and Al informed Aneka that they had received an identity check pulse. Another thing the Big Brother identity implants were good for. And with no one to clear her through, Delaney would not be following.

‘You’re all cleared as far as the gate,’ the clerk said, still smiling. ‘Have a pleasant flight, Miss Narrows.’

‘Thank you, I’m sure I will.’

Aneka was pretty sure she would too.

~~~

‘I’m… oh… a little worried… mmm… about Mom.’ Ella lay curled in Aneka’s arms, her own hands tied behind her neck with setae strip so that Aneka had full reign to run the neurostim over her skin. She was, to say the least, distracted.

‘Why worried?’ Aneka asked.

‘If… if… if that Quint guy… mmm, this is really hard w-with you doing that.’

‘Quint won’t be a problem. Winter’s put one of her agents on guard duty.’

‘W-won’t Mom notice?’

‘No, but if Janna tells you about this gorgeous stewardess who picked her up on the plane, just congratulate her.’ Deciding to stop teasing, Aneka slid the smooth, plastic pad down over Ella’s mound.

‘Oh, that’s kind of sneaky.’ There was a pause. ‘It doesn’t feel m-much different there than… oh!’ Ella started trembling. ‘Oh fuck!’ Her entire body stiffened and her back arched. A second or two of contact and she was coming, hard. The gadget certainly worked as advertised.

After about a minute of panting and straining, Ella started begging. ‘S-stop… please… stop… can’t…’ Aneka released the button under her finger and moved the pad aside. ‘Please… oh fuck… no more…’ As before the reaction in Ella’s nerves continued for a second or so even when the device was removed, and then she collapsed into a shivering, whimpering mass in Aneka’s arms.

‘That seemed to work,’ Aneka commented.

‘Yu…’ Ella got out and then concentrated on controlling her breathing for a minute. ‘I, uh… I think… I think we’d better… keep that for special occasions.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yeah, I want it again already. I think it may be addictive.’

‘Think?’

‘Okay, I’m damn sure it’s addictive.’

Aneka looked at the little pad attached to her hand, shrugged, and put it aside. ‘Next time we try that little dildo attachment. I’ll have you moaning for hours.’

‘Ohhh… Stop that. I’ll be begging for it. Are you going to untie me now?’

Aneka reached around and slipped two fingers into the hot, damp channel between Ella’s legs. ‘Hell no, I’ve got other ways to make you moan for an hour.’

University of New Earth, 7.1.525 FSC.

The main conference room of the university was silent as those gathered in it concentrated on reading the document they had been presented with. Diplomacy was difficult when you had to think of what to say, send it, and then wait a day for a reply, so the Administration wanted to be very sure that their introductory diplomatic letter to the Negral AIs was perfect.

It had to say exactly what they wanted, which was pretty simple: they wanted peaceful diplomatic relations and controlled access to the AIs’ technology. At Gillian’s insistence it had to state the problems they had foreseen, mostly around relations with the Herosians. She felt it was important to be as honest as possible, mostly because she knew that the AIs had already figured most of it out and would know if there was any deception. There was also a section on the worries the Administration had regarding contact with such a superior force. There was a small novel which had to be read and agreed by everyone present before it could be dispatched. Aneka had never been so glad of her overclocked brain.

The final passages consisted of hopes for the future. It was all terribly diplomatic and full of the kind of stuff Aneka remembered from speeches she had had to sit through while guarding various dignitaries. Except that then she had been able to largely ignore the boring words and concentrate on watching the audience. Now she had to read it, digest it, and approve of it.

She was there to ensure that there was nothing in the letter that was going to insult the AIs. Really Al was more use at that than she was; he was in constant contact with Aggy and the two of them poured over the wording carefully, and at a thousand times the speed any Jenlay could manage.

Gillian was there, of course. So were several diplomats, two Vice Admirals, Doctor Hoopin the head of the university’s psychologists, Senator Elroy, and Winter. Wallace was not there since he was putting the final touches to the new tachyon communication rig at the spaceport.

‘Well,’ Aneka said after an hour and forty minutes, ‘it reads like a diplomatic document.’

Elroy looked up from his tablet. ‘I’m barely a third of the way through it.’ Aneka gave him a sour smile. ‘Yes… Nothing you can see which will cause problems?’