GLORIA SETTLED INTO HER SUITE IN THE Imperial Cantabragian, the ritziest hotel on the planet, feeling drained from the boredom of her trip and the hassles of securing lodging. With the Quadrant Meeting about to begin, every hotel room in Central seemed to have been booked a year or more in advance. Gloria, with fame and money to spare, had been able to prevail upon the manager of the Cantabragian to find an appropriate suite, which required a difficult and diplomatically touchy reshuffling of various Dukes, Governors, and single-digit Dexta nabobs. Being who and what she was could be a strain at times, but it could also open doors—literally in this case—that would have remained closed to anyone else.
Elaine, who had a bedroom of her own in the suite, was off on a mission to the local Dexta offices to arrange for security. The impending Quadrant Meeting had taxed local resources to the limit, but, however reluctantly, IntSec would be forced to provide a round-the-clock contingent of Bugs to safeguard Gloria VanDeen. It wouldn’t be wise to let harm come to the most famous woman in the Empire on their home turf.
“I just got here,” Gloria said to herself, “and I’ve already inconvenienced scores of people. No wonder everybody hates me.” Well, not everybody—just the Quad Admins and everyone who valued their future at Dexta. Spirit, life was complicated!
It had become more complicated than necessary during the Flyer voyage to New Cambridge. After that first night, Gloria had explained to Elaine that she never had sex with anyone who worked for her at OSI, and that what had happened between them could never happen again. Rather than being disappointed by this news, Elaine had seemed, somehow, to be buoyed by it. She had scored with Gloria VanDeen, after all, and that made her unique within OSI.
It had been a stupid thing to do, Gloria readily conceded. Pleasant and satisfying, but stupid nonetheless. She knew Elaine would crow about her conquest, and that could cause problems with others, whom she had already turned down. She’d probably have to transfer Elaine and get her out of OSI, preferably off Earth. Punish the ambitious little tart for the crime of having had sex with the great and powerful Gloria VanDeen, Avatar of Joy.
Yet Elaine had done nothing that Gloria hadn’t done herself—sleeping with a powerful superior to secure her position and advancement at Dexta. The game never changed. Cornell DuBray from above and behind, Elaine Murakami from below; she had been well and truly fucked by both of them, and she could hardly claim that it had been done without her consent. Dexta was becoming indistinguishable from the null-rooms she frequented. She floated at the center of the swarm, seen, desired, and targeted by one and all.
If only Elaine hadn’t given her the Twenty-nine, maybe she would have been able to avoid what happened. But, after a moment of stunned hesitation, Gloria had sucked the lozenge into her mouth. Seconds later, she began to feel the rapturous intensity of the drug as Elaine industriously stoked her fires even higher. But the jigli had been her own idea. Why had she done that? At some level, had she welcomed and encouraged Elaine’s advance?
And why not? Why not keep Elaine around? What was so bad about having a small, sleek body at her beck and call, as a change from all those big, hairy ones? She knew that other successful Dexta Tigers often kept small-to-medium-sized harems of eager and devoted young men and women; why shouldn’t she? If she willingly shouldered the aching burden of responsibility, shouldn’t she take full advantage of the perks that came with the job?
“Gotta get a grip, girl,” she said aloud.
GLORIA WAS SO GLAD TO SEE PETRA THAT SHE gave her a big hug as she entered the suite. “Missed you, kiddo,” she said.
“Missed you too, Your Avatarness. Gloria, we’re going to need some of your star power if we’re ever going to get anything done on this planet.” Petra was looking more Tigerish than ever, Gloria noted, in a minimal miniskirt and sheer lime-green silk shirt, provocatively unbuttoned to her waist. And she had a bit of a glow about her, as if she were radiating energy in some forbidden wavelength.
“New Cambridge seems to have agreed with you, in spite of everything,” Gloria observed. Petra didn’t quite blush.
“Gloria, I swear I feel like one of those girls in the Greek myths who get swept off their feet by some handsome young god. Only this is the part where he brings her home to Olympus to meet the family and friends. They had this huge party, everyone dripping with money and ego…and Gloria!…I was the belle of the ball! I mean, really, I was! Because I was the mysterious woman in Pug Ellison’s life, you see. They were all looking at me, and I was looking right back at them, and you should have seen me! I looked so good, I looked like you, sort of. I mean, I was the most glamorous Petra Nash that ever was, and I loved every second of it! Spirit, Gloria, is that the way you feel all the time?”
Gloria couldn’t help laughing at her friend. She put her arm around Petra’s back and guided her to a sofa, where they sat down.
“I only feel that way some of the time, alas. And I’m happy for you that you got a chance to feel that way. Fun, isn’t it?”
“Gloria, you have no idea—I mean, wait a minute—you have an idea. But me! I’m just little ol’ Petra from Weehawken, and suddenly there I was, feeling like Eliza Doolittle at the ball. I was the absolute center of attention, and I swear, I handled it like a pro. I was witty and charming and sexy, and I didn’t spill a single drink or get caviar in my hair or step on any toes but Pug’s. And he didn’t mind.” Petra smiled.
“And where is the Pugnacious One?”
“Oh, he got shanghaied into some family thing today, but you were my excuse to avoid it.”
“Problems with the Ellisons?”
“Not really problems,” Petra said. “They’ve all been friendly and gracious and everything. But it gets a little overwhelming sometimes. I mean, you’re the only rich person I know, and you’re almost normal, most of the time. But the Ellisons! Gloria, every time I turn around, I bump into some servant determined to be helpful. Or see some mural or tapestry depicting the glorious heritage of the Ellisons. Yesterday, Pug’s mother asked me about my debut. My debut! At first, I didn’t even know what the hell she was talking about.”
“She probably doesn’t encounter many young women who haven’t had a debut,” Gloria suggested. “How’s the work going? You may recall, this was a business trip.”
Petra frowned. “Pug and I are being treated like lepers.”
“Get used to it,” Gloria told her. “We are now more or less at war with the Quad Admins, which means, effectively, the rest of Dexta.” Gloria brought Petra up-to-date on recent developments at Dexta HQ. She mentioned that she had dealt with the Manko problem but didn’t say how. Petra then treated Gloria to an account of her adventures with the New Cambridge office.
“Anyway,” Petra concluded, “we’ve made some progress, but we still have to do a lot more digging. We haven’t even started with Stavros & Sons and B & Q Shipping, but we have managed to find a slew of Dexta material related to that Savoy shipment. We even identified a few Dexta people from that time who are still active, but we haven’t been able to meet with them face-to-face yet. But Gloria, we did learn something that’s pretty interesting, especially in light of current events. The guy who was the Assistant Quad Admin in 3163, and who signed off on the Savoy shipment? It was Cornell DuBray!”
Gloria nodded. “I knew he was Mingus’s assistant at the time, but I didn’t realize he had anything to do with the Savoy shipment. I assumed it was all handled routinely at a lower level.”
Petra shook her head. “From what I’ve seen so far, there was nothing routine about that shipment. It seemed to generate more than the usual amount of paperwork, and people at the upper levels were definitely involved with it. I’ve even seen a couple of memos on the subject that were signed by Norman Mingus.”
“When I talked to him about it,” Gloria said, “he told me that there was so much going on at the time that he didn’t really have any specific memories of that last shipment. But it figures that he would have dealt with it. I just finished reading a history of the war, and apparently the last few weeks before hostilities broke out were a real madhouse, especially on New Cambridge. You know, Savoy is only about seventy-five light-years from here, so this planet was practically on the front lines. Mingus had to make a lot of important decisions on his own, without any direct oversight from Earth. That’s one reason why after the war, when he became the Secretary, he pulled all the Quad Admins back to HQ. He thought Quad Admins shouldn’t have the kind of independent power that he had when he was here.”
“Speaking of Norman Mingus,” Petra said, “you’ll never guess who I met. His daughter! Saffron Mingus Bartholemew.”
“No kidding!” Gloria knew that Mingus had a raft of children from his five marriages; she had even gone to summer camp with one of them when she was eight. But Mingus never discussed his personal past, and Gloria had been unaware of Saffron’s existence.
“You can sort of see the resemblance, once you know,” Petra said. “She’s probably in her eighties and still looks great. Pug says she grew up here on New Cambridge when Mingus was Quad Admin. She was a buddy of Pug’s mom in school. These days, she seems to be a wealthy widow with a wayward son. Pug says she hates her father.”
“Really? Norman’s coming to the Quad Meeting. I wonder if they’ll get together? I know he’s estranged from some of his family; but it’s such a big family, and with five marriages, I suppose something like that is inevitable. Still, it’s kind of sad. He’s so isolated. I don’t think he really has anything in his life now except Dexta.”
“And you?” Petra ventured.
Gloria thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “I think he views me as a harmless indulgence of his old age, but he won’t let it go beyond that. I don’t think he’s truly very close to anyone, and probably prefers it that way. After the life he’s led, I suppose that’s not surprising. Petra, until I read that book, I don’t think I really appreciated what a great man Norman Mingus is! We might not have won that war if it hadn’t been for his leadership in this Quadrant. He’s probably one of the four or five most important men in the history of the Empire.”
“And his daughter hates him,” Petra added.
“I suppose,” said Gloria, “that it’s hard to pay the proper amount of attention to your family when you’ve got an empire to run.”
“Yeah,” said Petra. “Family and career.” She looked pensive for a moment, then turned and stared Gloria in the eye. “Gloria? Are you going back to Charles?”
“Spirit! Does everyone know about that?”
“Pug’s great-uncle Benedict knew. He’s an Imperial Governor out on the Frontier, and he wants Pug to come work for him. First as an Undersec and a Thirteen, and then within a year he’ll move up to ImpSec and a Twelve. He also said that he might be able to find another Undersec slot for me.”
“I see.”
“Pug hasn’t decided. I mean, I think he wants to stay with OSI, but I know there will be a lot of pressure on him from his family. And, well…if you’re going back to Charles…”
“Petra, I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. He offered me real power as Empress, and with everything that’s happening with the Quad Admins, I admit it’s tempting. But for now, I intend to fight it out at OSI. I hope you and Pug will want to stay. But I understand the situation. Whatever you decide, you know you have my blessing.”
“And you have mine, Gloria,” Petra said.
THE SKIMMER TAXI DEPOSITED PETRA AT THE specified address in the Old City, near the harbor. After her visit to Gloria, she had decided to spend the rest of the afternoon checking out B & Q Shipping. But now that she was here, she wondered if maybe she should have waited until Pug was available. The neighborhood was seedy, the buildings were in disrepair, and the people watched her with avaricious interest.
Gusty winds from the harbor did dangerous things with her brief miniskirt and her unbuttoned shirt. Being nearly naked at the ball or at Elba’s was one thing, but it felt risky to be parading her bare breasts and bottom in a place like this. And yet…there was something oddly delicious about it, too, and she realized that risk was part of what made it fun. Anyway, she knew some Qatsima now. She had even thrown Gloria! Petra smiled at the dangerous-looking denizens of the street as she passed them, and made no attempt to cover herself.
A faded sign on the exterior of the brick building told Petra that she was at the right location. She entered the front door and found herself in a dusty, mostly deserted complex of glassed-in office space. Glancing at a sign, she learned that B & Q Shipping was on the top floor; another sign informed her that the elevator was not in service. With a weary sigh, Petra assaulted the five flights of stairs. The surface gravity of New Cambridge was 1.06 G, and the difference was enough to give her sore feet.
Panting slightly, she arrived at the top floor and saw that here, most of the office space was unlit, and the only sign of life was an old man with ragged gray hair sitting at a console, staring at images of nearly naked women. Petra discreetly cleared her throat, and the old man looked up abruptly. His alarm quickly turned to delight as he focused on the living, breathing, nearly naked woman standing before him.
“Well, hello there, cutie,” he said, breaking into a grin. He was a centenarian, at least, Petra figured, maybe even 120. It was hard to tell because at around the century mark, the effectiveness of the antigerontologicals began to decline, at rates that varied from individual to individual.
“Good afternoon,” Petra said, smiling. “Is this B & Q Shipping?”
“You’re lookin’ at it, sweetie pie. I’m the ‘Q.’ Jamie Quincannon.” He pushed himself up to his feet and held out his hand. Petra took it in hers.
“I’m Petra Nash, from Dexta, and I’d like to talk to you, Mr. Quincannon.”
Quincannon’s left eyebrow rose slightly. “Dexta, you say? Yeah, I heard they were havin’ their big convention here. You lookin’ for a room, sweetie? Do a little real estate on the side, y’see, and I just happen to know where I could get you a furnished apartment for the length of the convention. Prime location, just up the coast in Overlook. Only fifteen minutes from the Transit.”
“Uh, thank you, Mr. Quincannon, but I already have accommodations.” She suppressed an urge to point out the window at the Ellison compound looming high on the cliffside above Central. “What I need is to talk with you, or someone, about a shipment B & Q made about fifty years ago. I’d also like to look at your records.”
“My records? Y’got a warrant?”
“No. I could get one,” Petra told him, “but you don’t want to make me go get a warrant, do you?” She smiled again and leaned forward a bit to give Quincannon a better view of her small, round breasts.
Quincannon noticed and smiled back at her. “Naw,” he said. “Say, you bein’ from Dexta, would you know if that Gloria VanDeen is comin’ to the convention?”
“She’s already here,” Petra said, her smile taking on a slightly rueful complexion. Even here, in the midst of vamping a dirty old man, she was overshadowed by Gloria. Quincannon proceeded to emphasize the point by turning back to his console and tapping a few keys to bring up an image of a very naked and stunningly beautiful Gloria.
“Damn, she sure is somethin’! Hope I get to see her while she’s in town. You wouldn’t happen to know her, would you, sweetie?”
“Would you believe me if I told you I was her assistant?”
Quincannon’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t be pullin’ an old man’s leg, would you, cupcake?”
“Not a bit of it. In fact, I’m here to work on an assignment for Gloria. We need to learn all we can about a B & Q shipment in September 3163. It was the last shipment to Savoy before the start of the war. Were you here then, Mr. Quincannon?”
“Told you I was the ‘Q,’ didn’t I? Sure, I was here. Remember the shipment, too. Why do you want to know about it all of a sudden?”
“Mr. Quincannon, weapons from that shipment have turned up in the hands of terrorists. We need to find out what really happened to that shipment. We don’t think it ever reached Savoy.”
Quincannon took a heavy, rasping breath, almost a sigh. “Terrorists, you say?” He shook his head slowly, like a judge confirming a sentence. “Told Bart. Told him. Knew it would come back to bite us. But did that stiff-necked son of a bitch listen? Did he ever?”
“Bart?”
“My late partner. The ‘B.’ Died three years ago. Now there’s only me here, give or take his son. Junior’s got other fish to fry, but he keeps the office open. When he needs a special shipment for one of his other businesses, he leases a freighter through B & Q, which means that I lease one and pass it on to Junior at twenty percent under cost. Tax deal. Junior makes more money when B & Q takes a loss, y’see. But it gives me somethin’ to do once in a while. Y’know, cutie, we used to own—own!—twenty-three freighters. Whole building used to be B & Q offices. Now, we got one office, one employee, and no freighters. Anyway, that whole shipment was Bart’s deal. Didn’t want to touch it, myself.”
“The insurance company paid you for your missing freighter, though,” Petra reminded him.
Quincannon grinned suddenly at the memory, then resumed his usual slightly suspicious countenance. “Yeah,” he said, “they did. Bart’s deal again. Knew how to play both ends against the middle, my partner did.”
“And what actually happened to that freighter, Mr. Quincannon? It didn’t go to Savoy. Where did it go?”
Quincannon shook his head with a bit of vigor for emphasis. “Told ya, it was Bart’s deal. Far as I know, that freighter got blown to shit by the Ch’gnth.”
“I see,” said Petra, frowning. “In any case, I’m going to have to look at your records. We’re particularly interested in getting a cargo manifest.”
Quincannon pointed to another console on the other side of the room. “Help yourself, honeybunch. Bart’s dead, and I don’t give a rat’s ass, so go ahead. Download any damn thing ya want. Just don’t tell the kid I let you do it, okay?”
“The kid?”
“Bart’s son. Whitney Bartholemew, Junior.”
“Oh,” said Petra. “That kid.”