Danger Money (7 page)

"Nope I'm thirteen," she replied, and kissed me.

For my part I kissed her back. Thirteen was old enough, about comparable to eighteen for a human. Animen were designed to mature early, hitting full adult growth at sixteen, I was fourteen when I had graduated from training and started working for the corporation.

"Trouble!" Hissed Rieselle suddenly.

I broke off the kiss and got my feet flat on the floor. From the corner of my eye I saw a very large Weasel approaching with several friends in tow. He was almost as tall as me.

He came up in front of me, with his three friends flanking me. They were two Coyotes and a Badger. Sil stiffened when she noticed them and tried to get up, but my arms had already tightened and she couldn't move.

I hated Weasels.

Rule three simply stated: I will kill all Weasels on sight. The company quickly learned that was true. Nobody liked them, you couldn't trust them worth a damn, and they enjoyed killing and inflicting pain. They were just too Human.

"It's bad enough you come here and take our table," He started. "But now you're messin' with
my
girl!" He growled threateningly.

Shotoon and Rieselle were already on their feet, hands on their knives. Azelett got the point and stood up too. I could feel Sil shaking now.

"I won't hurt him if you don't want me too," I whispered quietly in her ear.

"I'm not his and I hate him!" She hissed, "I wish I was rid of the bastard!"

I carefully picked her up and set her on the table. I then looked up from my chair at the Weasel and his friends.

"You and your friends better leave!" He growled again.

"I'm not going anywhere," I grinned ears perking up.

By this time a space was clearing around the table.

"The police don't come here kitty, so you can either walk out, or die here."

"Just you?" I laughed, "Or do you need your friends to help?"

"I don't need any help to kill you kitty."

"Hobb, he didn't ..." began Sil.

"Quiet," I said softly, she shut up. "That's twice you've threatened to kill me now." I started growling at him, flattening my ears and closing my eyes to slits. "If you get down on your knees and beg forgiveness, I'll let you live."

He pulled his knife then. I spun off my chair on my left foot, my right foot just missed his stomach. But the chair, which I was holding in my left hand now, didn't. He dropped the knife and I jumped him, punching him in the head several times backing him up.

He came back with his fists and claws managing to open a few small cuts on my arms. I responded with a flurry of my own followed by a spinning crescent kick combination and the claws on my right foot scored a deep gash on his forehead.

It was quickly becoming obvious to everyone around that this wasn't a regular fight anymore, as we continued to go at it.

He was pretty good, I'll admit. He had a lot of speed, more than a Weasel normally would, I wondered if he was on drugs or something similar. On the other hand I was slightly drunk and not as fast as I should have been.

My extensive experience was the only thing saving me. He telegraphed most of his moves and I just did the standard counters. But he still cut me up good. That got my adrenaline flowing and helped clear out the fuzz the beer had given me.

I was giving at least as good as I was getting, and the effect was showing on him. He was slowing down and even getting worried.

It took a while, longer than it should have, but he finally swung wide in response to a feint and I was able to duck under his arm and slide behind him. I grabbed him quick and got a good head lock on him then. A quick hard twist, accompanied by a sickening crunch and I dropped the body to the floor.

"Gods, I hate Weasels!" I growled and carefully headed back to the table. The crowd was deadly silent, but slowly started up again, like a machine winding back up into gear after a sudden unexpected halt. I grabbed a chair and sat back down and started licking my wounds. Those I could easily reach at least.

"You killed him!" Sil gasped.

"No shit," stated Shotoon. "How long 'til the police show?"

"They won't, they could care less."

I finished checking myself out. I had a few bad cuts and a couple of sore ribs, nothing major. I looked up and noticed that the body was blocked from view by the crowd. If it was even still there. The three side kicks were gone too, maybe they took it.

I looked over at Sil, wondering if I should hit on her or not. Azelett was looking daggers at me, and Sil seemed a little nervous.

"Come here," I said quietly.

She hesitated a second, then came over. I gently pulled her down onto my lap, and gave her a small kiss.

"I'm sorry if I upset you," I smiled weakly. "But I am not a nice person."

She started to look very nervous then.

"Now would you please bring us some more beer?" I smiled again and let her go.

"Sure, just a sec!" And she was gone in a flash.

"Would somebody please give me a hand with these cuts?" I asked pointedly looking at Azelett.

"No." She growled.

"What's got into you?" I asked taken a back.

"Not you!"

"Excuse me?" I said looking at Shotoon and Rieselle, no help from either of those two corners.

"What in the universe do you think you're doing?" she growled.

"Oh come on, I'm just flirting with the girl," I sighed.

"Not that!" she hissed. "I'm talking about that Weasel you just murdered."

"Hey, he asked for it! And besides, he was only a Weasel anyway. You know how I feel about them!" I growled back. This was really beginning to bug me. Plus two of those cuts were pretty deep and still bleeding.

"You're not at the Palace now Jotun. You're supposed to be on leave! You just can't behave like that!"

I looked at the other two, "You tell her!"

"You know he didn't stand a chance Jotun," said Shotoon.

"You could easily have knocked him out," added Rieselle. "There was no need to kill him."

"What?!" I hissed, I couldn't believe this!

"We are, or rather
you
are, on vacation!" sighed Rieselle, "And yet you've already managed to kill somebody and it hasn't even been a day yet. You're out in the real world now, you can't just kill every Weasel you come across, regardless of the circumstances."

"Fine." I said, it wasn't actually, but I was madder then hell and I hurt too. The last thing I wanted was to be fighting with my friends. Even if they didn't want to act like them.

So I got up and left.

I went to the back, past the bathrooms and straight out the back door. When I came to the street at the end of the alley I had to admit to myself that I had no idea of where I was going, or what I was doing.

I heard a noise behind me and caught a whiff of fox as I quickly spun around.

"Yes?" I couldn't totally stifle the growl that came out with it.

"You okay?" It was the Barmaid of course.

"No, why? What should you care?"

"Why don't you come home with me? I could take care of those cuts for you at least."

I caught another whiff of her scent on the breeze. She was scared and smelled it.

"You don't owe me anything," I sighed and turned back around and headed out into the street. "So you don't have to be scared that I'll try and collect." I turned left and started looking for an open store. It was late and I looked a mess, I needed a good First Aid kit. Or even a bad one.

"Wait please!" She caught up with me easily, I wasn't in any rush anyway.

"
Hobbs
was an out an out bastard, and did a lot of bad things. At least to me." She said quietly grabbing my arm.

"Owwww!"

She grabbed it where it was cut unfortunately.

"Oh! Sorry," she changed her grip. "Anyway, the least I can do is patch up some of those cuts."

"Okay," I said and let her lead me down the street and through a few alleys.

We cut through the machine room for a warehouse of some kind, and she unlocked a door in an accessway directly off of it.

"It ain't much, but it's cheap!" she said showing me in. I stepped inside. The floor was covered with worn rugs, my nose told me it was dirt underneath, and the ceiling was low and uneven. We were in the dead space between the foundation and the ground.

"At least it's roomy," I smiled. It was easily over a thousand square feet. "How'd you get it?"

"A small bribe to the janitor every month and he looks the other way." She smiled, "Now let’s see those cuts."

I walked over to a table and sat on a chair by it. She got out a rather expensive looking kit and set to work.

"It would seem that you know what you're doing," I observed.

"Mom was a medic and taught me what she could, and I have managed to get some education on my own."

"How'd you end up here?" I tried not to squirm as she cleaned the one really deep gash on my chest.

"Well, Mom got transferred and I couldn't go. So I just made do. I'm slowly getting training, so maybe I'll be able to get a better job in a few years."

"What about your Dad?"

"Who knows? Mom said she was never really sure what happened to him. She thought he died in the Leverage conflict. What happened with your friends in the bar anyway?"

She was gluing the gash closed and lining up the skin. I waited till she was done and had started on my arm.

"They were angry with me for what I did." I growled a little as I said it.

"I'm sure not!" She smiled askance at me, "Though it wasn't exactly what I expected."

"I hate Weasel's," I growled again.

"Why?"

"I don't want to go into it now," I sidetracked. "How many people will be upset by what I did anyway?"

"Not too many. Hobb was the local muscle and had killed at least one person that I know of, and probably several others that I heard about. The police really don't care what goes on up here, as long as they get their cut and it stays off the streets.

"So what got your friends upset?"

"Cause I murdered him plain and simple," I said looking at her.

"It looked like a fair fight to me."

"It wasn't really." I smiled, "If it wasn't for all that beer I drank it would have been even easier."

"You've done this before?" She looked up at me, eyes wide and ears splayed.

"Too many times to count." I reached over and put my hand under her muzzle, "It's what I do." And I leaned over and kissed her.

5

It was still dark when I awoke, Sil was curled up inside my arms with her head against my chest. I looked at the clock on the makeshift nightstand and saw that it was actually after eight. Then I remembered that there weren't any windows down here, hence the darkness.

Sil stirred a little and I looked down at the outline of her head in the darkness, the weak light of the clock more than enough for my eyes. I had to smile, she didn't ask any questions that I didn't want to answer. She just accepted things the way they were and lived with it. No worries, no fears, tomorrow will be a better day. I really appreciated the optimism of youth, and its vigor too! I smiled again when I thought about last night.

I just lay there relaxing with my nose in the fur of her head enjoying her scent and the moment. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have a normal life, living like this. It had been so long since I'd been in main stream society, I don't know if I could ever go back even if I did get the chance.

I felt Sil start to stir, then stretch as she woke up herself.

"Morning, sleepyhead," I grinned in the darkness.

"What time is it anyway?"

"
Eight twenty
."

"Eight! Boy you really tire a girl out! I'm gonna be late for work." She hopped out of bed and turned on a light.

"Me?" I asked surprised, "You're the one who kept encouraging me!"

"Umm, welllll." Her tail curled down as her ears disappeared in embarrassment.

I laughed at her discomfort. "So where do you have to go?"

"Well, first I need to go up the street to the public bathhouse. We can take a shower there pretty cheap. Then I have to show up at the bar to help with the morning service."

"How many hours you work there anyway?"

"About sixteen a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. I need all the money I can get if I'm going to go back to school next year."

"How's the pay?" I asked getting up and grabbing my coveralls.

"Lousy, but it's the best I can get with the little training I have."

"What do you want to be?" I asked walking up behind her.

"I'm going to be a nurse I guess," She said with a heavy sigh.

I put my arms around her and kissed the top of her head, "But what do you want to be?"

"A doctor," she said simply.

"So why don't you?"

"I can't afford that kind of training, I'll be lucky if I can afford the nurse's courses." She gently freed herself from my arms. "I have to get going, I can't afford to be late Jotun."

"Call me Jo, please" I said following her out the door.

"Sure Jo," she turned and smiled. "So what are you going to do today?"

I thought about that, "I haven't the slightest idea. I don't even know where my friends are, just what day and time to be back at the ship."

"I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding them Jo."

"I don't know if I want too," I admitted putting my arm around her as we headed down the street to the Baths. "I kind of like the present company."

"I have to work Jo,"

"Well, how about a proposition?" I had an idea.

"I'm not a prostitute!" She said hotly and tried to move away.

I dragged her back, "Good, I wouldn't know what to do with one anyway."

"Yeah right," she said.

"Listen up, I'm on my first vacation in longer than I can remember and I don't know the town or what to do even. You show me around, and I'll cover your pay."

We went inside the building and paid the machine for a stall.

"Just as long as you understand you're not buying me." She reminded as I followed her into the same stall.

"I thought you were free!" I laughed and she turned the water nozzle in my face.

"Only to you Jo!" And laughed herself as I sputtered in the spray.

We played around in the stall and cleaned each other off, then headed outside.

"So what do you want to do?" She asked looking me over.

"I don't know, see the city, have fun, whatever. You're the one in charge, earn your pay!" I grinned. I noticed I was doing a lot of smiling lately.

"Okay, what's your budget?"

"I need to hit a bank I guess, but the sky's the limit!"

"Okay then, first a bank, then we get you some clothes. That coverall is just too plain!"

"What? I like it just fine."

"Typical male, no sense of style or fashion at all!" She harrumphed, then led me off to the nearest bank.

I made a withdrawal of some cash on my account. Even though I didn't really have a public identity, I did have a corporate account. They had to pay us, the law said so plain and simple. So while I might not legally exist I had quite a bit of cash. Go figure.

"Think this'll be enough?" I asked showing her the wad.

"Don't flash that!" She growled.

"Why?" I asked putting it in my pocket.

"That's a lot of cash to be carrying around here, that's why! Somebody might decide it would look better in their pocket than yours."

"After last night you think anybody's going to mess with me?"

"Probably not, but not everybody knows about it either. Just how much do you have there anyway?"

"Ten grand, why?"

"Ten grand! What are you planning on buying?" She said surprised.

"What you don't think it's enough?" I asked pulling her leg.

"It's more than enough! Maybe you should put some back, don't you know what things cost?"

Obviously it came off in my hand too. "Don't worry!" I laughed, "I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't come up short, that's all."

"So why not just charge stuff on your ident tag?"

"Cause it's fake, or rather, a company blank. If I use it, they'll know I was doing something I shouldn't have been."

"A company blank? What's that?" I could see the confusion in her eyes.

"I wasn't kidding last night about my job."

"I didn't think you were, not after what you did to Hobb last night," she interrupted.

"Well, I can't have anything that ties me to my company, like a real ident tag, in case I get caught. So they give us ones that they can claim are stolen or forged on accounts of dead employees."

"So if you use it, they'll see a charge where there should be none." She exclaimed.

"Right, and as I'm not supposed to be here goofing off, I can't use it or they'll find out about it."

"So how did you get your money at that bank?"

"Oh, easy. I have a cipher account."

"You lost me again! What's a cipher account?"

"I give them the account number, which is kept secret of course. Then they give me a code that a computer generates based on a cipher that I picked when I opened the account. I simply convert it and give it back. If it matches it proves who I am."

"How do you convert it? I don't see any calculator in your pockets."

"In my head, you don't have to pick a tough cipher, just a good one."

"So won't the company track your withdrawal on that?"

"Boy you are a curious one!" I laughed, "No, they don't know about it, I set it up behind their backs." I remembered that incident! They wanted to know where all the money in my account had gone! I told them I was donating it to the widows and orphans fund, as I didn't need it myself. When they investigated they found that I was donating, but they couldn't find out the amount and just assumed I was sending in all of it.

"I had set it up just because I'm paranoid." I admitted laughing, "But now I'm glad I did.

"So let's go shopping!"

She led me off to the stores then, and by
noon
I had let her talk me into a couple of new outfits. Two of them were just fancy coveralls, which were what I usually preferred. But the rest were the height of local fashion, and I guess I did look good in them. I bought her a few things, so we'd look good together and then took her to lunch at the fanciest place we could find that would allow us to eat there.

"Not bad," I said looking around, "so just what do you think is good here anyway?"

"Hey I don't know!" She giggled, "This place costs more than I make in a week!"

We ordered a lot of different stuff, to the disgust of our waiter I suspect. It was obvious that we weren't the usual type of clientele that they normally got, but after I slipped the waiter a hundred he stopped caring about what we did.

"Hey, this fish is pretty good!" Sil said, as we sampled the different dishes.

"Try some of this Grecc bird," I said trying not to make a mess of my new outfit. "It's delicious!"

She speared a portion off of the plate, "Umm, not bad. What's that over there?" She pointed to another of the plates.

"Defla Beast I think, they really do know how to cook here. This is better than any of the stuff I've ever had back home, and they lay out some good spreads there too."

"Now you know how the bosses eat huh?" She winked at me.

"Guess so! Maybe that's why they never eat with us!" I joked.

We continued to chat while we ate our meal, after we finished I sat back and relaxed.

"So now what, oh great guide of mine?"

"How 'bout a show?"

"Nah, I see enough movies on ship."

"Not a movie, a show - a play! With actors and a stage and such." She said exasperated.

"I've never been to one," I said surprised, "What are they like?"

"Come on and see!" She smiled and stood.

So I paid the bill, complete with a large tip, and followed her outside. She grabbed my hand then and led me off across town.

"What do you want to see?"

"What's playing?" I asked.

"Mostly Shakespeare right now, there's a festival going on. But there's a lot of new stuff here, including Heinrich's latest play from Earth.

"Shakespeare? I've heard of that. Pretty old stuff isn't it?"

She thought a second, "Yes it is, but it's still pretty good. You know, Hamlet is playing, let's go see it!" And she dragged me off.

We got there in time for the show, mostly because I flagged down a taxi when she told me how far away it was. I then asked for the best seats in the house, to the surprise of the Monkey who was working the ticket box.

"You sure?" She asked, "The back row is a lot cheaper."

"Yeah I'm sure, how much?"

"Well, I have to charge you double if you want to sit up there, the management tries to discourage our type from sitting with the Humans."

"That's okay," I assured her. "How much?"

"Four hundred," She said. "each."

"Fine," I gave her the cash and got our tickets.

"Twelfth row, center. Enjoy the show, it's a classic!"

"Thanks!" And we headed in.

"Double for us huh?" I asked Sil as we handed our tickets to a surprised usher who took us down to our seats.

"Well of course, in the theater district many Humans don't like to see us hanging out. They feel we don't appreciate culture, as we don't have our own. And a lot of them still don't like to mingle with us."

"Then how come you're so familiar with the theater then?"

"Mmmm, well" she chuckled, "They don't mind us in the cheap seats. That's the real cheap seats in the balcony! The management needs the money and the actors like the applause."

"But I thought you were saving for training," I teased.