Hicks rushed out, and Biggs watched his progress on the monitor. It took an interminable fifteen minutes for the ops manager to suit up, grab a mining car, get to the location, and lumber up the ladder. Hurry the fuck up! Every second the crazy bitch wandered around jeopardized the entire operation. Acid bubbled into his throat, and he popped a handful of antacids.
The woman looked confused as Hicks confronted her. She shook her head when he motioned in the direction of the fumarole, but he took her arm, and, with far more gentleness than she deserved, led her away. Biggs watched as he ushered her down the ladder.
Biggs swiveled away from the screen and chomped a few more antacids. Christ. The last thing he needed right now was for someone to flip out. The lack of natural light, the confinement, the isolation challenged even the most stable people. Time had weeded out the weakest ones, and the prostitutes provided physical and mental relief for the ones who remained. Unfortunately, the sex workers had trouble adjusting, too. A fair number had fled back to Earth when he’d still been able to launch mining ships. The next cargo pickup wouldn’t occur for another year, and until the dragon problem got resolved, nobody was going anywhere.
Right now, prostitutes couldn’t be replaced, but if the whore couldn’t get herself under control, he’d have no choice but to put a bullet through her head.
Chapter Sixteen
Henry bolted upright. Again? Three nights in a row now, he’d awakened out of a sound sleep for no apparent reason. He tapped the band on his wrist. His compu watch emitted a burst of light and the time. One p.m. on Earth. By his guesstimate, that corresponded to two a.m. on Elementa, give or take an hour. Maybe.
He hadn’t attempted to adjust the settings on the device, finding comfort in the connection to his former life and planet, even if it was only the time. Besides that, Elementa rotated at a different speed, so it was doubtful the watch could be calibrated correctly anyway.
“Lights on!” he ordered, and flinched at the immediate blast to his retinas. “Dim 50 percent!” Illumination lowered, and he slipped out of bed. If tonight followed the same pattern as the past few evenings, there’d be no going back to sleep.
His discarded clothes lay over the chair as he’d left them. A quick search revealed his weapons remained in their hiding places, and the diamond pendant was under the mattress, where he placed it for safekeeping when he wasn’t wearing it.
The string of dental floss was stretched across the exit wall, a probable indication no one had entered while he’d slept. The string trick wasn’t foolproof. As walls melted open to allow entry and exit, if someone happened to notice the floss, he could step over it. But in the dark? Not likely.
Since he and Helena had figured out Biggs was on Elementa, he’d felt it prudent to take precautions. He hoped Biggs couldn’t get into the palace, but he or someone working for him had managed to defile the temple.
How had O’ne reacted to the discovery? What was she doing now? Did she ever think of him? Let it go. Let her go. He had to stop obsessing. The woman was a thousands-of-years-old dragon and a near-god. Despite the fyre supposedly burning within him, he was a human mortal. It was in his best interests that their interlude had ended.
Naked, he padded into the bath, relieved himself, and then, not bothering with underwear or swim briefs, pulled on a pair of pants and boots.
He rarely encountered anyone, and nobody would be stirring this time of night. He tucked a blaster into the waistband of his jeans and then donned a shirt to cover it. He slung a towel over his shoulder, and, stepping over the dental floss, left his suite.
* * * *
O’ne ducked behind a pillar and watched as H’ry entered the enclosed courtyard with the swimming pool. She took a huge risk sneaking into his personal chamber each evening. Her night vision was as sharp as her day vision, and she would sit in his chair, hold his clothing to her face, and breathe in his scent while watching him sleep. When she sensed him wakening, she’d leave, carefully avoiding the string he’d placed across the portal.
No good can come of this obsession with the human, the dragoness warned.
You are right.
Then why do you not heed my words?
Temple construction was progressing rapidly, her precious freedom burning so quickly, soon there would be nothing left but ashes. Her acolytes had been enjoying their independence and chattered nonstop about the wonders they’d observed. Their quarters were fragrant with the musk of happiness. Some had partaken of the pleasures of the flesh. They’d taken care to purify afterward, but sex hormones wafted on the air, too.
O’ne didn’t chastise them because she’d issued no restrictions on their freedom, had told them to go forth and live, and her transgressions were far more egregious than anything any of them could have done. She burned, she lusted, she coveted a human male.
The Eternal Fyre had never been without a temple. All norms had been suspended. They couldn’t cloister in chastity when they didn’t have a temple to retreat to, when they didn’t have a Fyre to serve, so the acolytes reveled in their temporary autonomy. She wished she could embrace the independence. In her dreams, she soared on the thermals with H’ry, sharing the world with him from on high. Except for the flight from the landing pad to the desecrated temple and then to T’mar’s palace, she hadn’t seen Elementa.
To contemplate taking him for a flight would be crazy dangerous…wouldn’t it? The dragoness hadn’t said too much about
