Steve watched Anis commanding the meeting as if she was born to it. Of course she was born to it, but even then Steve felt a flush of admiration for her and the no nonsense attitude she had. He wondered for a moment how she would deal with Thomal's inevitable disagreement.
"Now, that is more than a waste of resources," Thomal drawled-in Steve's mind, totally on cue. "Sending the army in to find your ex-husband is rather tacky, don't you think?"
"Thomal, you can be such an ass," Vinnis countered angrily.
"Thomal, Vinnis!" Anis warned, her voice vibrating like steel. "I still have Clauses Fifteen A. and B. Do you want me to invoke them?"
For the first time, Thomal was in genuine shock. "You wouldn't! That's only valid in emergencies-"
Steve was impressed. Whatever Clause Fifteen did, it packed a huge punch.
"And this isn't an emergency, Thomal?" After an uncomfortable pause, Anis turned a sweet smile on Steve-as if she hadn't just threatened her family with death, castration or whatever. "Did you learn anything else?" she asked, her voice notably softer and doing strange things to him. Steve found it hard to speak for a moment.
Quickly clawing through the mire of lustful thoughts, Steve put his mind together again and clicked on the remote. An image of the assassin bots appeared.
"The first Vadarian assassin bot was a standard seek and kill model programmed to trigger by voice recognition," Steve explained, pointing out the relevant details with a laser pointer. "A faulty metal cutter on the front alerted us to its presence, allowing us to neutralize it in time."
"So it was programmed to react to Anis's voice." Vinnis scowled. "How did they get that imprint?"
Steve looked at the earnest youngster for a moment and then shrugged. "Easily come by really, newsvid report, public speech, anything like that."
"But I don't do that sort of thing," Anis told him. "It's not CEO policy to make public appearances. That's left to the presidents."
"You did that one for the Orphan's Charity in Nouveau Quad last month," Vinnis corrected her.
"Yes, but only because-"
Steve watched Anis stop suddenly and glance at Thomal. He'd already guessed who'd persuaded her to give the speech. Steve could see her finally making the connections he was certain were there.
"The second Vadarian assassin bot was a quick release area effect toxin," Steve continued. "It was timed to become active one hour after the first had launched. It was triggered by sensing its target DNA and set to release the gas three minutes after it was triggered."
"How did it avoid killing Anis then?" Vinnis asked, impatiently wheeling his autochair around to face Simon. Agent York nimbly leaped back in time to avoid being run over.
"Two reasons," Simon explained. "Firstly Anis slept in the adjoining bedroom, since her main bedroom was considered unsafe. We had suspicions a second device might have been placed. Secondly, and more interestingly, it wasn't set to be triggered by Anis's DNA."
"What?" Several heads turned at Anis's surprise. "If it wasn't set to kill me, then who…"
"The device was triggered by the dead maid's DNA." Steve watched their
faces, knowing which ones would be shocked-and which ones already knew.
He clicked the remote and a short animation showing the relevant DNA
tests and the matching results flickered in the holo. "The surmise is
that the maid was given enough time to dispose of the first assassin
bot, then another bot had been arranged to kill her. This effectively
removed one of the vital witnesses to the assassination."
"This fantasy has gone on long enough," Thomal said. "Are we supposed to believe this…bodyguard. Jassy was one of our most loyal staff. She would never do anything to harm the Family."
"Mallen?" Anis looked at the general.
General Mallen smiled grimly. "She was a cheerful and friendly girl, according to the staff," Mallen told her. "But when Kellen and I spoke to her friends this morning, they did feel she'd been secretive and obviously worried about something recently. Mr. Delamer's theory is a possibility."
"She had plenty to worry about," Steve added. "Preliminary autopsy results show that she was six weeks pregnant. I understand that on Poseidon VII single parent pregnancies are not looked on favorably."
A shocked silence fell over the meeting. Steve had read his notes well. In some ways for a single girl to become pregnant in Poseidon VII was almost a sin greater than murder. Not for any religious reasons, just simply that, historically, supporting a non-working and single mother-to-be drained vital resources, resources that were once too precious to drain. Nowadays, the report agreed, there was more than enough to go around and the odd single mother here and there was well looked after, but the stigma-and the shame-still remained.
"This has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous." Thomal slapped his hand on the table and stood. Dragging Carrie with him, he headed for the door. Loamis attempted to slink with them until Mallen barked a crisp order.
"This meeting appears to be at an end." Alan Grey stood as well, making his way to the door. The P.B.B. agents, at Steve's barely visible signals, moved around the table to protect those left sitting. "There is one more thing," Steve added, stalling the small party of escapees and preparing the bombshell that would probably have him kicked off the colony. "We've identified, through DNA, the child's father." Steve touched his unit again. Another animation of the DNA testing and match flickered through the holo.
There were grunts and gasps of surprise when the face appeared in the mist.
"Thomal?" Anis looked at her brother in horror as he leapt forward and smashed the cube to the floor. The shame of fathering a bastard child was almost greater than the shame of bearing one.
"I've had enough of this. And I've had enough of you, sister dear." Thomal turned to Loamis. "Bring your men in now and kill them all. Don't let them touch anything, especially don't let her near the terminal."
Loamis nervously drew his weapon and pointed it towards them as he moved to the door, speaking briefly into a small comset in his hand.
"My son will kill you for this." Synthisa snarled at Thomal.
"No, Synthisa, your son is paying me to do this."
Looking pleased with the effect of his parting words, Thomal left the office, Carrie and Alan in his wake.
Steve looked over to see Anis glaring at him.
"So what do we do now?" Anis demanded.
Steve waved a hand at Loamis. "Now we wait for Loamis's men to come and shoot us."
God, Steve thought, as Anis gave him one of her I-can't-believe-you're-a-wimp looks. She looked so damn sexy when she was mad. *** Anis was fuming.
Staring hard at Loamis, who was now visibly shaking as he pointed the gun at her, her! As if she, defenseless CEO, was the most dangerous person in the room! What about Simon? Her brave, would-lay-down-his-life-for-her bodyguard just stood behind her idly checking his fingernails, studying the walls. Why wasn't he doing something? Judging by Synthisa's expression, she was having exactly the same thoughts. Jarka didn't seem perturbed but then Anis had always thought Jarka should have been an Anamer with his level of self-control.
"Well?" Anis demanded of Simon when her patience had finally worn thin.
Simon stared at her blankly for a few moments. "Well?"
Anis fumed harder. How in the Company had she ever felt anything for the dunce? "Well, why haven't you killed Loamis yet?" Anis spelled it out for him.
Loamis started at his name, the gun shakily wandering between her and Simon.
"Oh, that," Simon answered as calmly as if he was discussing what to have for dinner. "Killing Loamis now would be detrimental to our escape plans."
"Don't try anything," Loamis warned. "I'll kill the first one of you that moves."
"What escape plans?" Anis demanded. "And how can killing him and walking out of here be detrimental to that?"
"Removing Loamis isn't a problem," Simon yawned. "It's what's coming after him that is." The office door opened and ten more soldiers, fully armed, walked in. "We need to disable them all."
"Well, do something-"
Before Anis could finish her exasperated demand, she found herself flattened on the floor, her chair tumbled somewhere behind her and the firm, heavy warmth of Simon's body covering her. Her ears were still ringing from the series of explosions that thundered at the other end of the table. In a fugue-like daze, she vaguely noted bullet holes in the walls behind where she'd earlier been sitting. In a much more primal haze, she felt Simon, hot and hard, against her thigh.
He lifted his head to look at her, his eyes burning with such a deep fire she knew he was going to kiss her. A terrifying and divine kiss that would claim her as his.
To her relief and disappointment, he blinked as if clearing his mind. "Are you hurt?" he asked.
She mentally tagged her sore butt, the knee that had been knocked against the table in her fall and the twinges in her elbow. Bruised maybe, but not seriously hurt.
"I'm fine," she answered, wriggling under him, trying to stand. "What happened?"