He was ten meters down the tunnel before Coleman realized the girl had followed him out of the Underbelly. Not bothering to slow, he glanced at her and jerked a thumb back the way they’d come.
“I don’t remember inviting you along, sister.”
Anna just flashed a smile at him. “I’ve been watching you ever since you since you sat down.”
She tapped her ear with one slim finger and Coleman rolled his eyes—oh great. The parasapien had some kind of snooper implants in her ears. Smothering he frustration behind an easy grin, he picked up his pace and shot back, “Well then you already know that I’ve got a full crew and no need for a waitress.”
For a split second Anna’s cool demeanor slipped, just like it had in the bar, but the cool façade was back in a nanosecond. “Yeah, I know you’ve got a crew. I also know your back’s up against a wall and your running out of time.”
Coleman’s gut knotted at the girl’s words, and he jerked around to stare at her almost without realizing it—which only made her smile grow even wider. “What do you know about me and my time?” he hissed, knowing just how crazed he must look but not caring. He didn’t really even care how she knew. All he wanted to know is why she was interested. Her slim figure and striking looks didn’t seem suited to life as one of M’shtinyb’s thugs, but you never could tell. “I’m ain’t up against any wall.”
Anna rolled her bright eyes at him and—lifting a hand to tick points off on her fingers—said, “First, you were recruiting a crew in the Underbelly. That by itself is all the tip-off I needed. Second, you sat around in your booth for—what, three hours?—and turned down half a dozen beings who stopped to join up. Then suddenly you got all desperate and signed up the next four beings that stopped by with no questions asked.” Her full lips curved in a mocking smirk, “Face it, Coleman, you’re—how do you folks from Old Earth put it? ‘Up a creek with no paddle.’”
Coleman must have looked even more flummoxed than he felt, because Anna patted him on the cheek and cooed, “But don’t you worry. Anna’s here now and she’s gonna make everything all better. Now come on.” She shouldered past him and continued down the hall. “Where is it we’re heading?”
Head spinning, Coleman darted after her.
“Hey. Hey! Wait up! And I still never said I wanted you in my crew!”
She laughed—a deliciously female sound that Coleman hadn’t even realized he’d missed the past three years—and just kept on walking.
The tunnel they were moving down hit an intersection and Coleman swung right—planetward—and Anna curved with him. Ignoring the parasapien for the moment, he activated his wetware computing implants and communications interface and—using a top-of-the-line encryption bug he’d purchased two years ago—began transmitting the meeting time and location to his new crewmembers.
Meanwhile, Anna just kept right on talking, badgering him with questions and suggestions to which he responded with as few grunts as could be spared.
“Seriously though, sailor, what possessed you to hire on patrons from the Underbelly?”
Grunt.
“You taking me to some secret hideout of yours?”
Mumble.
“Are we going to be smuggling goods, or running drugs, or both?”
Slight pause, then grunt.
“Are all Earthmen as ugly as you?”
That brought him up short. “I am not ugly.”
“Just testing for reception, sailor.” Anna murmured as she eyed him up and down slowly, a grin forming on her lips about as fast as Coleman’s face was flushing red. “And for the record, I agree with you.”
“That’s not what I . . . that is, I don’t care if you think—look, just shut up, will you?”
The parasapien did stop talking after that, but her throaty chuckles chased Coleman down the long tunnel.
Two endless—to Coleman at least—tram rides and twenty minutes later Coleman ducked down a narrow maintenance tunnel, Anna still hot on his heels. The rusting, humid tunnel was barely wide enough of Coleman to pass through without having to turn sideways, and was draped in shadow for long stretches, lit only be a few flickering glowbulbs. Water dripped mournfully somewhere ahead, the sound amplified and echoed in the cramped confines. Small portals passed them by on the left and right as they continued down the tunnel, and Coleman counted as they went, grateful for an excuse to focus on something besides Anna—she smelled like flowers in early summer back on Old Earth.
Four portals on the right, then three on the left.
Coleman tripped over something cold and squishy once, and only Anna’s quick reflexes kept him from a bruised chin. Her grip was firm, but her hand was soft and warm on his wrist, and he could feel her gentle pulse through her brilliant skin.
Five more portals on the left.
“Do you have like night-vision, or anything?” Coleman asked quietly, eyes scanning the tunnel ahead.
Anna was so close behind him that he could feel her breath on the back of his neck. She chuckled. “No. I’m afraid the being who had me . . . manufactured was more interested in appearances than any practical alterations.”
“Oh.” His reply hung in the air, so awkward that Coleman actually cringed. Risking a glance back, he flashed her a hesitant smile, “Well, um . . . he got the appearance part right, at least.”
“Why, sailor, that was almost nice.”
“You’re still not part of the crew.”
And he meant it. While they walked, a plan had been forming in his mind. The location where he was meeting the crew was a small utility room midway down the tunnel they were in. He’d discovered it a year back and managed, after several days of trying, to hack through the portal’s locking mechanism. When he’d first broken in, it had been evident that nobeing had been in the room for years, and in the twelve months since then no one had ever used it. It wasn’t his normal place of residence, but he always kept it in mind—a safe place to crash in these parts of the Docks, should he ever need it.
If he was lucky, Coleman thought he should be able to duck through the portal and get it shut and locked before Anna could get through. A lame plan—especially since he had no idea what he’d do once the crew started arriving—but really his only option at the moment. Hopefully she’d get bored and wander off before the others got there.
Behind him, Anna was laughing softly, like she knew exactly what he was thinking.
Seven more portals on the right, and one final one on the left, and they were there.
