“Lee! What’s wrong?”
His avatar came to hers and grabbed it by the shoulders.
“Forget all that guff I was giving you about adding me to your apartment security system the other night, Maia. Thank you, sweetheart. Twenty million times over.”
“Huh?”
“I’m in your apartment right now, and awfully damn glad to be here. Oh, and I used your mouthwash. Three times. Ieucch.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Lee, and why did you send me an emergency call?”
His avatar let go of her shoulders and began to pace again. She watched him, worried.
“Well, either the IPD made Nick Ashton at some point in the last day or so, or they dug up something on me they don’t like, I’m not sure yet which,” he told her. “Somebody just accosted me right outside my apartment building, and given he had one arm around my throat, and the other hand held a big-ass knife, I don’t think he expected me to survive the encounter.”
“WHAT?!” she almost screamed. “Are you okay?”
“More or less, yeah,” Lee told her. “A little shaken – okay, a lot shaken – and maybe a few bruises on my knuckles. But he’s probably gonna need stitches where I took a bite outta his arm, not to mention having his busted nose set.”
“So you got free and belted him a good one?”
“Oh HELL yes! Then threw him into the restaurant dumpster for good measure.”
“And now you’re at my place?” she confirmed. “Oh, now I get the mouthwash remark…”
“Yeah, I am, and I might need to stay here, out of sight. Or, well, someplace other than my apartment. For a little while, at least.”
“You took one of the clandestine routes, right?” she verified.
“Hell yes.”
“Okay, good. Lemme get hold of Adrian, who’s our disguise expert, and some of my trusted people, and we’ll just see about getting you moved in with me. I was gonna invite you anyway, at least until you got so bent out of shape about the security thing.” She shrugged. “I was still gonna bring up the subject and see how you reacted. And we need to talk about that, I guess. Are…are you okay with that? Moving in with me, I mean?”
“Yeah, honey, I am. And yeah, we need to talk…because my reticence is, well, foolish, I guess. And I guess I need to make sure you understand it. But right now, I think you’re not just my lover, you’re my lifeline.”
“And that’s fine. All of that. But you need to lay low while we work this, otherwise they’ll be after both of us. And I’ll give Nick a heads-up to watch his back, too.”
“Sounds like a plan, Maia,” Lee agreed, finally slumping into the armchair in the VR room. Maia’s avatar wandered over and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Damn.”
“Yeah. Stay put, right here, honey,” she told him, “and be compiling a list of what needs to be swiped out of your place and moved to mine. Meanwhile, I’m gonna contact my buddies.”
“Okay.”
In short order, Adrian Mott – who had impersonated Nick Ashton some years earlier, when he purportedly left Sintar for “training” – met with Peterson and Inspector Eugene Demetrius in her office; she’d also called Detective Stefan Gorski, but he’d been out at a robbery scene. She’d filled them in on what had happened in VR when she notified them to come to her office; while she was waiting for them to arrive, she’d likewise notified Nick Ashton of the attempt on Carter… without telling him where Carter was hiding. Because he’s a target, too, and he doesn’t need to know, or he could accidentally give away both of us if they get to him, she considered. But Gene’s an old pal who can get into the apartment, and he knows Lee, so that should work.
Twenty minutes later, Mott and Demetrius were thoroughly disguised and on their way to Peterson’s apartment to make sure Carter was indeed all right, then assist in covertly transporting his essential belongings to Peterson’s place.
“…No, I’m afraid not, Cally,” Ashton told Ames in the break room in private, fifteen minutes later. “Something bad almost went down early this morning, and my old bosses might be after me. I need to lay low for a while, and I need to stay away from my friends, at least in public. One almost got hurt, maybe killed, as it was. I don’t want to get anybody else in a bad place, let alone hurt.”
“I could come over to your place, and bring dinner…”
“No, I was supposed to pay, remember?” Never mind the fact that I’m not ready to have a girl over to my home, he thought. Not after Tabby. Not yet. I gotta get past some trust issues, first.
“Well, then you could come over…no, you’re supposed to be staying out of sight…”
“Right. So let’s just put it on hold, and see what’s going down. If it doesn’t actually have to do with me, we can try again later. It may only be a few days; try to be patient.”
“All right,” Cally said with a sigh.
“Yeah, I saw him,” Carter told the disguised Demetrius as he and Mott verified Carter’s condition at Maia’s apartment shortly thereafter. “Full-on face, after which I busted his nose pretty thoroughly. And yeah, I know him. It was Switch Sykes.”
“Mm,” Demetrius murmured. “Definite Imperial Police ties, there. He’s been suspected of being used for several assassinations, but because of his connections, we haven’t been able to nail him.”
“Yup, don’t I know it,” Carter sighed. “Which means I need to stay out of sight for a while.”
“You broke his nose?” Mott verified.
“Oh hell yes. And took a significant plug outta his arm, into the bargain. If you go back to that alley, you can probably
