The Sam Gunn Omnibus (23 page)

“I’ve never had champagne before,”
Jade said, with a slight giggle.

Arak al Kashan leaned back in the
plush banquette and steepled his long manicured fingers in front of his chin,
admiring her from across their damask-covered table.

“You should have it every evening,”
Raki said, smiling. “A creature as lovely as you should have oceans of champagne.
You should bathe in champagne.”

Jade lifted an eyebrow slightly. “I
don’t think there’s that much champagne in Selene.”

“Then
you can come to France with me. We’ll rent a chateau and bathe in champagne
every night.”

“Oh,
I can’t come to Earth,” Jade said lightly.

“I
could see to it that you get a much better position with the network. In
France. Or in Florida. We could see each other every day if you came to
Florida.”

She
had already drunk enough champagne to dull the pain of what she had to tell
him. “I can never come to Earth, Raki. My bones are too brittle for it.”

His
mouth dropped open for an instant, but he immediately recovered his composure.

“Then
I must come to Selene more often,” he said gallantly.

Jade
accepted the compliment with a smile and a totally unpremeditated batting of
her eyelashes. In the center of the restaurant the head waiter supervised the
creation of a spectacularly flaming dish that brought murmurs of approval from
the watching diners.

He’s
a doll! Jade thought to herself. Raki is a handsome, elegant, charming, living
doll.

He
was also an accomplished lover, as she found later that night, in the suite
that the network maintained for visiting executives. Jade felt herself swept
away like a cork in a tidal wave under Raki’s experienced hands and tongue. She
felt as if she would suffocate; she felt as if her heart would burst in her
chest. Electric thrills tingled every square centimeter of her skin.

Slowly,
ever so slowly, she floated back to reality. As if awakening from a dream, Jade
gradually sensed the bed firmly beneath her, the darkness of the room eased
only by the luminous digits of the clock on the night table, the animal heat of
the man sleeping next to her naked body.

Jade
could make out the form of Raki’s body, coiled like a panther, his face half
buried in his pillow.

She
took a long shuddering breath. Now you’ve done it, she told herself. It’s over
and done with. It was exciting, but it’s finished now. Tomorrow he’ll be
leaving. Tomorrow he’ll go back to Earth and you’ll be alone again.

“What’s
the matter?” Raki’s voice was whisper-soft.

Startled
that he was awake, she said, “What?”

“You
were muttering. I thought you might be talking in your sleep.”

Jade
almost laughed. “Just talking to myself. Sorry if I woke you.”

“It’s
all right,” he said, turning over onto his back.

“You’ll
be going home tomorrow.”

“The
day after—oh, yes, it’s Tuesday morning now, isn’t it? Yes, tomorrow.”

“Do
you live in Orlando?” Jade asked, her voice as flat and unemotional as she
could make it.

He
laughed softly. “You want to know if I’m married, don’t you?”

“I
already know that. I looked up your personnel file.”

“You
have access to the files?” He sounded surprised.

“No,”
she said. “But I’m a reporter.” “Ah.”

Silence.
Jade had watched enough old videos to know that this was the moment the lovers
usually lit cigarettes. She wondered what it would taste like, whether she
would feel the carcinogens attacking her lungs.

“You
know that I am married and have two children,” Raki said. “Statistically, it
should be one point seven, but we found it difficult to produce only
seven-tenths of a child.”

Jade
did not laugh. “Is it a happy marriage?”

“Yes,
I’m afraid it is.”

“I’m
glad,” she lied.

“As
a practicing Moslem,” Raki said lightly, “I can take four wives, you know. The
state of Florida would object, I’m sure, but I doubt that the government of
Selene would mind.”

“A
wife in every port,” Jade muttered. “That might get expensive.”

“My
wife is a practicing psychologist. She makes an excellent living. And you, of
course, are employed as a reporter....”

“Don’t
joke about it!” Jade burst. “It isn’t a joking matter.”

“No,
of course not. I’m sorry.”

Silence
again.

At
length, Raki asked, “What is it you want?”

Jade
tried to swallow down the lump in her throat.

Raki
turned toward her. “I know I am devilishly handsome and utterly suave and
urbane, practically irresistible. But you accepted my invitation to dinner
knowing that it would lead here, and you accepted that because you want
something from me. What is it?”

Jade
blinked back tears.

“It’s
happened before, you know,” Raki said. His voice was still gentle, almost sad. “Women
seem so willing to offer their bodies in trade.”

“You
make it sound dirty.” “Oh no! Not dirty. There’s nothing dirty about making
love. It’s just... disappointing.”

“Disappointing?”

He
sighed like a heartbroken lover. “I had hoped that you liked me for myself, not
for what I could do for you. But I knew better, all along. You want something:
a raise in salary, a promotion ... something.”

Jade
felt her spirits sinking out of sight.

“Well,”
Raki said, “you might as well tell me what it is.”

Confused,
Jade stammered, “There ... there
was
something... I thought...”
She did not know what to say.

Raki
whispered, “You can tell me. I’m accustomed to being used.”

“It
isn’t like that!” Jade burst. “Yes, all right, I admit that I wanted something
from you—at first. But now, now that I know you ...”

Raki
smiled in the darkness and reached for her young trembling body. Jade flung
herself into his arms and they made love until they both fell asleep exhausted.

“AND THEN WHAT
happened?”Monica asked as they
walked down the busy corridor from the cafeteria toward her office. It was
nearly 0800 hours, the start of the business day. The women were dressed in
their business clothes: Monica in comfortably loose black slacks and
sweatshirt, Jade in a stylish auburn jumpsuit and glossy thigh-length boots.

“It
was morning when we woke up,” Jade answered with a small shrug. “I had to dash
back to my place to change for work.”

With
an unhappy shake of her head Monica replied, “And Raki’s in Jim’s office
bragging about how he screwed you all night long.”

“No!
He wouldn’t....”

“Want
to bet?”

Jade
could not look Monica square in the face. “I’ve got to get to work,” she said. “I’m
interviewing that architect at ten sharp.”

“Want
to bet?” Monica repeated sternly.

“Yes!”
Jade snapped, feeling anger surging within her. “I’ll bet he’s conducting
ordinary business with Jim.”

They
had reached the door to Solar News’s suite of cubbyhole offices. With a
sweeping gesture, Monica ushered Jade through, then led the way past the trio
of unoccupied desks to her own office. Gradowsky’s office door was closed, Jade
saw.

Monica
plopped into her chair and picked the keyboard off the floor.

Jade
remained standing, her back to the window that looked into the editing room. No
one was in there yet.

“Don’t you ever tell Jumbo that I’ve
bugged his office,” Monica said, frowning slightly as she worked the keyboard.

“Bugged it! Why?”

“I might marry the bum one of these
days, but that doesn’t mean I altogether trust him.” She pulled a pair of
wire-thin headsets from the cabinet in the corner of the room and handed one of
them to Jade.

Reluctantly Jade slipped the set
over her hair. Monica plugged them both in, then held one earphone to her ear,
her head cocked like a fat robin looking for a juicy worm.

“...
if I say so myself, I’m
a very good teacher.” Raki’s voice. Unmistakable.

“Well, uh, you know she’s just a
kid. Got some good ideas, though.” Gradowsky sounded uncomfortable,
embarrassed.

“Really? I’ll bet she’s got better
ones now.” Raki laughed. Jade heard nothing from Jumbo Jim.

After a brief silence Raki asked, “You
said she wants to do a biography?”

“Yeah. Of Sam Gunn. I think ...”

“Sam Gunn! No, that would never
wash.”

“I dunno, Raki. She’s already
gotten a lot of really good stuff. Sam’s good material. Sex, adventure,
excitement.”

Raki made a humming noise. Then, “You
think so?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“No, the executive board would
never buy it. Half of them hate Sam’s guts, even now, and the other half wouldn’t
give a damn.”

“But if you recommended it,”
Gradowsky suggested.

“Listen, my friend, I didn’t get
this far in the network by sticking my neck out.”

Jade sensed Jumbo Jim shaking his
head. “Then what’re you gonna tell her?”

“Me? Nothing?”

“You’re not gonna see her again
tonight?”

“Of course not. Why should I?”

Monica’s face looked like a stone
carving of vengeance. Jade felt her own cheeks flaming.

“I thought, well, after you had
such a good time last night.”

Raki laughed again. It sounded
cruel. “The thrill is in the chase, James. Now that I’ve bagged her, what is
there to getting her again? No, tonight

I’ll
go to Hell Crater and enjoy myself with the professionals. I’ve had enough of
little girls who must be taught everything.”

Jade ripped the headset off so hard
she thought her ears were coming off with it.

Monica looked as if she would cry. “I’m
sorry, honey. But you had to know.”

Jade went through her morning as if
disembodied, watching this redheaded young woman from an enormous distance as
she made her way down the gray tunnels of Selene, conducted a perfunctory
interview with a dull whining architect, then ate a solitary lunch in the
darkest corner of the Pelican Bar, speaking to no one, not even a robot waiter.
She punched up her order on the keyboard built into the wall of her booth.

There is no one you can trust, Jade
told herself. Absolutely no one. Not even Monica. She’s bugged her fiancé’s
office. Not one single human being in the whole solar system can be trusted.
Not a damned one. I’m alone. I’ve always been alone and I always will be.

A robot brought her lunch tray. She
ignored its cheerful programmed banter and it rolled away.

Jade could not eat more than a
single mouthful. The food stuck in her throat. The cola tasted flat and sour.

She leaned her head against the
back of the booth, eyes filling with tears, alone and lost in a world that had
never cared whether she lived or died. It’s not fair! she cried silently. It’s
just not fucking goddamned shitting fair.

Life is never fair. She remembered
somebody told her that Sam Gunn had often said that. No, not quite. Sam had put
it differently. “Life isn’t fair, so the best thing you can do is load the dice
in your own favor.” That’s what Sam had said.

Don’t get mad, Jade told herself.
Get even.

Grimly she slid out of the booth
and headed for the ticket office of Lunar Transport.

“THIS IS G0IN
G
to be kind of tough for me to talk about,” Jade said.