3rd World Products, Book 16 (35 page)

About two beats later, the link ended again. Heh. I wondered if she’d call back to announce her success, but she didn’t. Elgin’s car was back in its previous spot. As I descended, I angled my approach to pass directly over her car on my way to Tanya’s front door.
 

Field-sweeping the building turned up no bugs. I rang the door bell and saw a shadow on the window blinds as Tanya walked to the door. Light from the peep hole was briefly obscured, then she opened the door with a big grin and stepped forward to embrace me tightly.
 

Then she kissed me firmly and I could smell and taste booze. It wasn’t gin. With that same grin, she turned and led me by the arm into the apartment. She closed the door and I turned to face her. When I started to speak, Tanya quickly and precisely raised her left hand in a ‘stop’ gesture and placed a finger to her lips.
 

“No,” she said, “Wait. I need to say something and talking is what nearly broke us up today.”
 

Um. Well, no it wasn’t, really, and that statement had been self-contradictory. I tried to gauge her booze level. Three or maybe four drinks? My core scanned her and stated a BA that translated to four drinks. And that was inside two hours if she hadn’t started drinking the moment she got home.
 

She said, “Don’t worry, I’m not drunk and I’m not going to get drunk. I just needed to relax a little more than usual.”
 

Aw, hell. The word ‘relax’ was an ugly echo from the long dead past. My first wife had used the same word to excuse her drinks. Her idea of ‘relaxing’ had been half a pint or so.
 

Tanya swept her right hand through her hair almost fretfully and said, “I was
happy
, Ed.
Really
happy. And then I
screwed
things up by running my damned big mouth when I didn’t know what the
hell
I was talking about. You were just doing what you do the way you always do it.”
 

True, but I wasn’t going to say so. I waited for more from the woman who’d declared a moratorium on talking. Or maybe just a moratorium on me talking. She’d stood chewing her lower
lip for a few moments without speaking.
 

I said, “Sounds like you spoke to Connie.”
 

Her eyes widened slightly and she hesitantly replied, “Uh… Yes. How’d you know?”
 

“It’s the kind of thing she used to say. And you’d have had a hard time reaching Angie without an emergency. Or Linda, for that matter. I hope you didn’t say anything about Marie.”
 

Tanya shook her head frantically. “No! I called and told her I needed to talk about something very personal and didn’t know who else to call. When I told her about us and what happened, I made it sound like I felt manipulated.”
 

“As I recall, you
did
feel manipulated.”
 

“Well,
yes
, but… I left out
everything
to do with mom.
Everything!
Really!”
 

With a shrug and a sigh, I took a seat at the dining table and said, “Well, I guess we’ll know if you’re right soon enough. If the feds don’t come get us, we…”
 

She cut in, “They won’t! I was careful! Super-careful!”
 

“Tanya, you’ve had a few drinks since I dropped you off. Think real hard about what you actually said to her while we get on with the evening.”
 

Tanya got a glass of water and sat down, then said, “It isn’t so much what I told her, Ed. It’s what she told me. She told me about a reporter named Marsha.”
 

Leaving that statement hanging in the air between us, she took a long sip of water and watched me. I shrugged.
 

“Marsha was a hot blonde wanna-be journalist who actually had a lot of talent, but she also had a shitty boss. She barged into one of our ops and I got custody of her. One thing led to another and we spent some time touring hotel bedrooms in France and Germany. My outfit hired her for a time and later got her a decent job at an American newspaper. Does that about match what Connie told you?”
 

“Yes. But she said she didn’t know why you broke up.”
 

I laughed, “Bullshit. Everybody in the outfit knew. I was about to get a subpoena and I had to get the hell out of Europe.”
 

Taking another sip, Tanya asked, “Then why didn’t she tell me that?”
 

“So you’d get curious. To add just a little more to the chance you’d call me. Now that I’m up here, she’d probably admit it and laugh. Call her and see.”
 

Glancing at her watch, Tanya said, “No, it’s getting late.” She tapped a fingernail on the table for a moment, then said, “At first I was drinking because I was hurt and angry and… all that. I had one before I called Connie, then about two while I talked to her.”
 

‘About two’? That probably meant two hefty ones.
 

“Then,” she said, “I had to work up the nerve to call you. I couldn’t let things stay the way they were, but I couldn’t think how to start a conversation with you. That last drink helped me decide to do it anyway, so don’t give me a hard time about drinking tonight.”
 

Shaking my head, I said, “I wasn’t going to. Within reason, anyway. A little booze can help people hop over rough spots or make those spots worse. You seem to be hopping pretty well, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
 

Studying me briefly, Tanya asked, “How come you didn’t need a couple of drinks, Ed? Or something else, whatever it would be? You caught the brunt of it all today.”
 

I sipped coffee and said, “Well, I confess I wasn’t in the best of moods, either. I figured it was all over and that you’d chickened out or talked yourself out of our affair, so I went back to work on Mike’s crash to take my mind off you.”
 

After a pause, she asked, “Did it work?”
 

Thinking of her ping to recontact me, I gave her a little grin as I truthfully said, “Not for long, of course. You sort of pushed your way back into my head.”
 

She returned my grin with a nod. “I know that feeling. Trying to consciously put something out of your mind is the hardest way to go about it.”
 

Yeah, that had always seemed to be true enough for me. I gave some thought to her drinking. I had maybe a decade left for her kind of excitement. After that I’d likely have to take it easy if I got
any at all. And I wasn’t in my twenties looking at a marriage or future kids, I was sixty-two and a woman who really turned me on seemed to find something about me attractive enough.
 

If it turned out Tanya drank too much in general, I’d find a way out. If she really just had a few to ‘relax’, no biggie. Let things proceed until the heat wore off, which it undoubtedly would at some point. I still didn’t know why she found me attractive enough to play with, but so far I couldn’t think of even one good reason not to reciprocate heartily.
 

Glancing at the cabinet that held the gin, I asked, “Were you ever going to offer
me
a drink, lady?”
 

Getting up and opening the cabinet, she said, “Oh, hell, I wasn’t thinking! Well, I mean I thought…”
 

“You thought I’d disapprove. No, a few drinks in times of stress are just a few drinks. If you started killing a pint every night or turned mean, I’d buy back the board to avoid legal liabilities and lose your number.”
 

Looking startled, she asked, “You’d buy back the board?”
 

“Yup.”
 

Putting gin, tonic, and ice in a glass, she asked, “How?”
 

“With money, of course.”
 

Turning to give me a droll expression, she said, “I
mean
, what if I didn’t
want
to sell it back?”
 

“Serena would override its assignment to you, call the board back, and pay the grand into one of your bank cards. I’d have very little say in the matter at that point.”
 

True. I’d say ‘
Repo the board, please
,’ and she’d verify my info, then do it. Not being able to hit anything while flying didn’t mean you couldn’t scare the crap out of someone and maybe cause an accident with a near miss.
 

Tanya set my drink on the table and I noticed the size of the glass immediately. It held the equivalent of two drinks. I tasted it and it only tasted a tad stronger than one drink should, which meant she’d only poured generous shots.
 

Nodding, I said, “Good stuff, but if I’d been thinking about anything but getting back here to you, I’d have stopped for some bitter lemon.”
 

Tanya looked thoughtful, then rooted in the booze cabinet for a time and produced a small green bottle. “This stuff?”
 

“Yup. It’s much better than tonic water with gin.”
 

“Want me to pour that out and mix you another?”
 

Putting a hand on my glass, I said, “Oh, hell, no. Look what’s left in the bottle. We might not have enough as it is.”
 

“I’m drinking bourbon. The gin’s all yours.”
 

“Well, then, maybe we’ll just barely scrape by. I’m not even close to being a teetotaler, Tanya. I just don’t find many excuses to drink very much.”
 

Once she had another drink of her own, she sat down and sighed, “I seem to. One or two on a slow night, two or three if I’m really tense, and maybe more if I’m upset. But I don’t get drunk and I don’t go anywhere after two drinks.”
 

Swilling down some of my gin, I felt it hit bottom and nodded. “Same here. A bust isn’t worth it. Cab fare is always cheaper.”
 

She laughed, “Like you’d ever take a cab.”
 

“Depends. Sometimes I’d rather people didn’t know about my board or the flitter, especially in places where I play pool. Offering to share a cab can be a way to get one or more people to hand over keys and not drive.”
 

I drank a bit more to get a nice buzz started and took my hat off to run my fingers through my hair. Maybe Tanya thought it was a hint. She grinned and took off her blouse.
 

Saying, “Those are very nice indeed, ma’am,” I took off my shirt while admiring her breasts and sipped again.
 

She took a sip, then stood up and toed off her shoes. I did the same. After another sip each, we stood naked by the dining table with me pointing throbbingly at her. Tanya grinned as she stepped
forward and squeezed me as we spent several moments in a kiss, then she gave me a light push as a hint.
 

“Sit down,” she said, “I need a place to sit.”
 

I sat. She straddled my legs and lowered herself to make contact with my dick, then kissed me as she slid all the way to the bottom.
 

She’d been posting happily for a few minutes when I heard something crunch out back. I sent a stun the width of the back fence and barely heard something hit the ground. The deer? If so, I’d wake it up. If not, I’d decide on the spot.
 

Kissing Tanya as she posted, I said, “Ma’am, I just stunned something behind the fence. I’d like to go see what I hit.”
 

Her eyes grew large and she turned to stare out through the glass door, then quickly got off me and stepped behind the fridge to peek around it.
 

She yelped, “
There’s someone out there?!
”
 

Putting my pants and sneakers on, I said, “Might be that deer. That’s why I’ll go check. If it is, I’ll wake it up.”
 

“And if it isn’t?”
 

“Hard to say. Could be an NIA guy.”
 

She swore softly as I headed out back and field-hopped over the fence. It wasn’t a deer. It was a guy in street clothes wearing a lightweight parka. He had NIA creds in a coat pocket and a big camera lay on the ground near him. Apparently he’d knelt or stepped on his camera case while watching us. I fielded the camera up and looked it over. Digital.
 

Snapping on my light saber, I thinned the blade to wire-thinness and drew it downward through the approximate center of the camera. Pieces of it fell out. Footsteps approached through the yard and Tanya heaved herself up to look over the six-foot fence.
 

Seeing my saber, she asked, “What the
hell
is
that
?”
 

I said, “Tell you later,” and lay the camera pieces on their backs, then drew the blade through them laterally.
 

There were now four pieces of camera and more bits were tumbling out. I tossed the camera remains on the guy and field-hopped back over the fence.
 

As we walked back to the apartment, I said, “That door could use a curtain, ma’am.”
 

She growled, “It’ll get one tomorrow. I don’t care if that bastard was NIA. I’ll spray him with this before I ask for ID.”
 

She held up a big pepper spray dispenser. The frame wrapped around her knuckles and loaded from the bottom.
 

I grinned. “Kewl! Be sure to hit him once or twice, too.”
 

“You know I will. What was that thing you were using?”
 

“A field gadget. Watch.”
 

There was a copper-clad grounding rod lying by her tiny shed. I snapped on my protective field and my saber and sliced off half an inch of the rod, then handed it to her. Then I let the blade widen to normal and lightly smacked her leg with it.