Page 11

CHAPTER 11

“W hat the hell are we doing here? ”

The “here” to which Rona was referring was Jeriko, the city where the Riadne Mining Company shipped its raw silk to be refined.

It had been a long, long time since she’d last seen the place, but from the foot of the Talionis ’s boarding ramp, things still looked much the same as she remembered them.

Ugly rockrete buildings gnawed by acid rain.

Dirty streets where merchants with varying degrees of legitimacy mingled.

Air thick with the scent of roasting bugmeat and narcosmoke.

And in the background, looming above it all, stood the dark stacks of the refineries steadily pumping out a dense, green vapor that hung above the city like a poison cloud.

God’s Fart, the locals called it.

At least they had when Rona still lived here, years ago.

“I already told you,” Aeron said.

“Business. Now come on.”

He tugged her leash.

Rona was dressed in yesterday’s clothes.

At some point in the night, the Mercs had washed them for her.

Everything except her panties, which were still in Murdok’s possession.

As they made their way into town, the scarred Merc took the dirty undergarment out of his vest pocket and held it up to his nose like a perfumed handkerchief.

Rona grimaced in disgust. He smirked at her and took another big sniff.

Tug, tug …

The new addition to her wardrobe was the collar and leash.

The former was wrapped snugly around Rona’s throat, the latter held firmly in Aeron’s hand.

Whenever she started to fall behind, the Merc gave her a gentle tug to get her moving again.

“Do I really have to wear this thing?” she complained.

Aeron nodded. “You’re too much of a flight risk without it.”

“A flight risk? Seriously? Dude, this thing is uncomfortable as hell. If you take it off, I promise I won’t run.”

“I highly doubt that,” he said, “based on your defiance so far.”

“I thought you liked my defiance.”

“I do. I also like having you on a leash.” Another tug.

As they started to make their way toward the center of town, Rona noticed people casting curious looks in their direction.

Even in a den of iniquity like Jeriko, it was strange to see a human on a leash.

Still, nobody dared to speak up on her behalf.

They obviously didn’t want any trouble with the Mercs.

The embarrassment of being led through town like a pet was only part of Rona’s concern.

If it had been a different city, she might have been willing to put up with it.

But this was Jeriko.

She had history here.

Bad history.

“Listen,” she pleaded.

“Can’t you just take me back to the ship? Surely you don’t need to have me with you while you’re conducting your so-called business.”

“I don’t trust you alone on my ship,” Aeron said.

“You can lock me in the holding cell. Tie me up. Do whatever you want.”

Aeron stopped walking and stared at her hard.

“What’s with you?” he growled.

“I thought you would have appreciated the opportunity to get out and stretch your legs. Why are you so nervous about being in this place?”

“It’s embarrassing ,” Rona said, touching her leash.

Aeron just kept staring at her, and she felt herself withering beneath his intense, augmetic gaze.

“I used to live here,” she added in a low voice.

“If someone I knew were to see me like this…”

Aeron thought for a second, then shook his head.

“No. You’re coming with.”

“But—”

“No buts. After I’m done with my business, we’re checking into a hotel here in town.”

“A hotel? ” Rona half shouted.

“Excuse me, but don’t you guys have a job you’re supposed to be doing? You know, like clearing the raiders out of the mine?”

“As far as I can recall,” Aeron said, “we haven’t actually received any payment for that job yet. So yes, we’re going to do it, but we’re doing it on our time. The people of your village can hold out for a few more days.”

“A few more days?”

This time, Rona really did shout, and not because she was worried about the villagers.

As far as she was concerned, those jerkoffs could eat dirt after the way they had sold her out.

She was thinking about herself, and the things that were going to happen to her at the aforementioned hotel.

A single night would be bad enough.

Multiple days sounded like more than she could handle.

Aeron slid his hand up her leash until he was holding it by the clip where it connected to the collar.

The front of his body pressed against Rona’s, and she had to tilt her head all the way back to look up into his piercing eyes.

“Listen woman, and listen well. I’m in charge of this mission, and we’re going to complete it on my terms, not yours. Now either you start behaving yourself like a good girl, or I strip off all your clothes and parade your defiant little ass through town stark naked. You want that?”

Rona glowered up at him.

“That’s what I thought,” he said.

“Now come on, we’re wasting time.”

Aeron turned and started to walk again.

Rona had no choice but to follow him.

She didn’t know if he was bluffing about taking her clothes off in public, but she wasn’t about to test him on it.

Besides, she didn’t want to get yanked by the leash again.

That was one game of tug-of-war she knew she couldn’t win.

Murdok and Zeth fell in behind her and Aeron, the three Mercs moving in a triangular configuration around her.

If she didn’t know any better, she would have said they were being protective of her.

Because I’m their property, she thought.

Still, it worked in her favor.

The Mercs’ big bodies helped to conceal her from the prying eyes of the cityfolk around them, and that was a good thing.

There were people in Jeriko who might still remember her after all these years.

People whom Rona really didn’t want to deal with.

After a few more minutes of walking, they had reached the center of the business district.

They came to a stop in front of an enormous gray structure fronted by massive, rain-bitten columns.

Men in expensive suits and fine silken robes loitered outside.

They glanced only briefly at the Mercs and their leashed prize before returning to their conversations.

Rona recognized the building instantly.

She’d come here often as a girl to beg for spare credbits from the wealthy merchants who frequented the place.

It was the Bursa, the hall where businessmen could buy and sell shares of the local publicly traded companies.

“Wait… what are we doing here? ”

“You keep asking that,” Aeron said.

“No, I don’t mean Jeriko. I mean, why are we stopping here at the Bursa?”

“Why d’you think?” said Aeron.

“To buy some stock. Brundage said most of the shareholders in Riadne Mining Company had been selling off their shares. The price is probably good and cheap with the mine shut down.”

Rona stared at him in shock.

“Unbelievable,” she said.

“You’re gonna buy up the stock while it’s cheap. Then, after you’ve gotten rid of the raiders and the price goes back up again, you’re gonna sell it for a profit.”

“Pretty much.”

Rona scowled.

“That’s the most unethical thing I’ve ever heard.”

Aeron just shrugged.

“Woman, I kill people for a living. I don’t know where you got the idea I was ethical.” He handed the leash over to Zeth.

“Hang on to her while I go inside. Murdok, you stay here and keep an eye on things. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He walked between the pillars and disappeared inside.

“Well,” said Zeth, “guess we’ve got some time to kill.”

His smile was sweet, but the way he said the word kill sent a shiver up Rona’s back.

There were covered stalls on the other side of the road where vendors were hawking their wares.

Zeth led Rona across the street to have a look.

Murdok followed behind them, huge and terrifying.

When the other customers saw them coming, they all moved out of the mercenaries’ way.

I guess there are some benefits to hanging out with the Mercs , Rona thought.

But there were too many eyes on her now.

Entirely too many eyes.

“What do you think of this?” Zeth asked, stopping in front of a jeweler’s table.

He selected a string of pearls off a rack and held it up to Rona’s throat.

“Very becoming, don’t you think?”

Murdok grunted.

“I’d rather see her wearing a different kind of pearl necklace.”

Rona rolled her eyes.

And noticed something gleaming a few stalls down.

“Oh,” she said, pointing.

“What about those?”

“Knives?”

“Yeah. I need a new one. My old one got broken.”

She didn’t bother mentioning how her previous knife had gotten ruined.

She was pretty sure Zeth remembered well enough.

The wounds on his shoulder had already closed, but there were a few tiny scars where she had stabbed him before the tip had snapped off.

As far as Rona could see, they were the only scars on his otherwise perfect body.

“Careful,” Murdok growled.

“Remember what happened the last time she had a knife in her hands.”

“Oh, I remember,” Zeth said, smirking.

“But I think she’s learned her lesson.”

Rona nodded.

“I’m sure as hell not gonna try to stab you with it. There’s no point in that… no pun intended.” When that received a smile, Rona batted her lashes and went in for the kill.

“But I’ll need a blade when I go back to the village after this is all over. I mean, you’re not going to leave the mother of your child all alone with no way to defend herself, are you?”

It worked.

Zeth led her down to the knifemonger’s stall.

The weapons were arranged in padded boxes, and they came in every shape and size.

Straight blades, recurved blades, flat grinds, hollow grinds, clip points, and edgeless trench spikes designed solely for stabbing.

Rona’s eyes widened a little as they roved over the plethora of knives, searching for the perfect one.

On the other side of the table, a man was sharpening a butcher’s knife on a grinding wheel.

The blade was sending out a spray of orange sparks, filling the air with the scent of hot steel.

When he noticed the two big Mercs studying his wares, he stopped what he was doing and came over.

“You gentlemen see something you like?” he asked, rubbing his hands on his leather apron.

“Are these sharp?” Rona asked sweetly.

The knifemonger lowered his gaze, apparently noticing her for the first time.

He let his eyes wander down her body and back up again before flashing a lascivious smile.

“Sharp enough to split hairs,” he said.

Then, to prove it, he plucked out one of the long, greasy strands combed over his balding pate, and he severed it lengthwise with a small paring knife.

“Impressive,” Rona said.

She pointed to a knife with an inward curving blade, like a harpy’s talon.

“What about that one?”

The knifemonger chuckled.

“My, my. The lady has a good eye. That’s one deadly little knife there. A deadly little knife, indeed…”

He lifted the harpy knife from its case and offered it to Rona, handle first. She accepted it, turning the blade so the edge caught the light.

It was so sharp it hurt just to look at it.

She brought the blade up to her throat. And slashed.