Yeah, it was every man’s erotic dream. But there was still something innocent about her and the way she was excited to see him. Something not ruined by the galaxy.
Maybe it was a lie, he thought.
But sometimes, just for a while, maybe it isn’t.
“You’re hurt!” she cooed, seeing his bruises and bandages. Honestly. Like she really cared about him. She led him to the couch, nursing him.
Sometimes it would be nice if lies we wanted to believe were really the truth.
“Today was just…” she began, her speech rushing and excited. Her soft sexy voice worried and sighing all at once.
He sat down and everything still hurt. But a little bit less.
“Today was just crazy, Jack! Wasn’t it?”
She sat down and something out of whack in his spine screamed. He grunted.
They’d given him pills.
He didn’t take them.
“I was watching the reports and then the entertainment streams went offline. I tried to see what was going on but… it was crazy out there. Everybody was crazy. Right? I was worried something had happened to you and now I know I was right to be worried. Something did happen! Look… you’re injured. What happened, Jack?”
He leaned back onto the heavenly cushions.
“Any of that champagne still left?” he asked.
She squealed with delight and surprise. She washed all over him and drowned out the galaxy.
“Would that help you, Jack?” she asked earnestly. “Because that would help me. I was so worried about you. I was afraid, Jack. Really afraid.”
He could tell she really was. Really had been.
“Yeah. I could use some too. If it’s still cold. Let’s have some.”
“Good,” she said. “Because the hotel sent up their best… or that’s what the nice young boy who brought it told me. I think I made him nervous. He said it was the hotel’s best. Selected by the som-, the somey-something.”
“Sommelier. I bet you made him nervous. Were you wearing that?”
She seemed startled and looked at her sheer silk robe as if seeing it for the first time. It left little to the imagination. She was truly beautiful.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“Just a guess.”
“Well, I had just gotten back from getting a massage in the hotel spa and my tentacles done. You said I should do that so I did. I hope it was okay? Was it okay? It was very expensive. Do you like them? They’re so pretty!”
“It’s okay. And I do.”
She squealed because she had pleased him. That seemed to make her happy. Like… like it was some mission she’d given herself for her role in the galaxy’s games. Just make people happy.
There’s enough unhappiness out there, thought Jack. Why not.
He felt warm and alive. Relaxed and languid.
He leaned back.
She was intoxicating.
“Champagne?” he mentioned once more as she stared at him with her large doe-eyes.
“Oh, sorry!” And then she was off, knowing that he couldn’t resist watching her voluptuous charms bounce and sway and curve as she got the champagne and glasses.
“Yeah,” mumbled Jack Bowie. But he didn’t know what he was agreeing to. Just something his mind was thinking without him. Something about being here. And not dead. And the price you have to pay to keep it that way.
“Yeah,” he said one more time.
And then she was back with a cold flute glass for him, and he had to help with the opening of the very expensive Silithian Grand Cru. But in the end… they got it open. The champagne tasted cold and dry and just a little sweet. She laughed at the bubbles and that was a kind of music to him.
It hit the spot perfectly.
She curled up into him and he didn’t mind the pain it caused to make that happen.
“I was worried about you, Jack. Honestly. I really was worried. I know we just met. But… there’s something special between us. I can feel it. Can you feel it too, Jack?”
“Yeah,” he murmured, drifting now. “I can...”
“Good,” she whispered softly and then listened to him snore.
Later, when Jack was in bed, she crawled from the sheets between them, not bothering to drape herself in that sheer white silk. She crossed the quiet suite without a sound and retrieved her comm. She’d hidden it. Then she checked to make sure the injector-knife she’d hidden was in its place too.
It was.
She touched the comm and acknowledged her check in. Then tapped out a message… Proceeding with Phase Two.
BOWIE
THE SOOB
31
Republic Capitol Building
Green Zone, Subiyook City
Colonel Ron Deage couldn’t quite believe what happened to his beloved Republic. He was regimental commander for the Republic Army’s 305th Light Infantry, part of the 50th Infantry Division—“Edge Walkers.” Colonel Deage had two rifle companies on Kublar: Good and Heater. Indigo Company had been on Kublar, but was assigned to the 7th Fleet for the defense of Kublar. The brass at division felt the company would be better used in the defense of Utopion than overseeing the Kublar project.
The colonel still didn’t know exactly what happened to the men and women of Indigo. Other than that they were dead. He’d heard the rumors that the admiral running the 7th had turned traitor. Joined with those Legion crazies in an attempt to overthrow the Republic. And he knew that the entirety of the 7th was destroyed over Utopion by Goth Sullus and his Black Fleet. Indigo likely went up in a ball of flames.
Never even got to fire their weapons to protect the Republic. Or maybe they did. Maybe they gave the Navy traitors in the 7th hell before being locked down in some destroyer.
It was a story the colonel would never hear. But he knew the men who ran Indigo Company—good soldiers—and couldn’t see them standing idly by just because some navy puke decided to cast her lot with whoever had the wind at their backs at the time of crisis. And so Colonel Deage allowed himself the fantasy of a final, heroic
