The Complete Razia Series, page 34
Razia shifted uncomfortably as Relleck's eyes passed over her. She still hadn't forgotten the way he had propositioned her, nor the way that he and Dissident had conspired to capture her for Pymus. Then again, he hadn't told anyone what really happened between the two of them either—so perhaps he was worried that she'd tell everyone that she nearly captured him.
Lucky for her, his attention was directed immediately at Lizbeth, who was giving him the most obvious pair of come-hither eyes Razia had ever seen.
"And what's your name, sweetcheeks?" Relleck cooed.
Razia vomited a little in her mouth, but Lizbeth giggled and tossed a curl behind her shoulder. Razia finally noticed that she wore a very short skirt and a shirt that showed more than a little bit of cleavage. It was no wonder that Relleck and almost every other man here were acting like morons.
"Lizbeth," she said, girlishly sipping her drink. "What's your name, other than handsome?"
"Name's Relleck," he said, leaning against the bar. "I'm one of the best pirates out there."
"Oh?" Lizbeth said, playing with the straw on her drink and biting her lip. Razia couldn't see why Lizbeth didn't burst into laughing fits, as Razia was about to. "I didn't see you at that party last week. I thought that was for top pirates." She punctuated each word with a sultry glance.
"Heh," he laughed, touching her hand on the bar. "Well, you see, I'm too good for those idiots. I got my own deal worked out. Going tonight to make another run, in fact."
Razia's eyes bugged out of her head, and beside her, Sage's mouth fell open in surprise.
"Think I could distract you from that?" Lizbeth asked, letting him gently rub her hand.
"Baby, not even you could get me to miss this run tonight." Relleck grinned before licking his lips slowly. "Though, maybe…if you make it quick."
Lizbeth then laughed girlishly. "Slow down there, big boy. You gotta buy a girl a drink, first. So what's this big deal about, huh?"
"Baby, you're going to have to promise a lot more than a drink to get me to talk about that," Relleck said, his hand intertwining with hers. "Working with some big movers and shakers. Can't just spill my secrets over a drink…"
"Well, why don't you buy me that drink, and we can," she laughed and gave him another come-get-me glance, "talk in private."
"You got it, baby," he said, brushing his finger on her cheek as he turned to find a bartender.
"Well, that was interesting," Lizbeth said, dropping her sexy glance.
"Sickening is what that was." Razia made a disgusted face.
"Oh please, like you've never sweet talked your way into a bounty," Lizbeth said, before stopping to look Razia up and down. "On second thought, I don't know if you know how to be nice."
"I dunno. She did let him go last year," Sage mumbled.
Razia snapped her head around so fast it nearly cracked. "Ex-cuse me?"
"I'm just saying. First with VJ, and then all of a sudden—"
"Oh, do you think I just showed him my boobs and he let me go?" Razia seethed with anger.
"I didn't show him my boobs," Lizbeth said sounding offended, but she was obviously not a part of this conversation.
"I'm saying that you let him go," Sage retorted. "And there's no good reason why you should have done that, so I can only assume—"
"Assume what?" Razia's face heated up in anger and embarrassment.
Sage's face also turned red. "I'm just saying that you fight with him a lot."
"I also fight with you, asshole," Razia growled, pointing her finger at him. "I seem to be surrounded by people who piss me off!"
"So you're not…?" Sage sputtered.
"Not what?"
"Ugh, forget it!" He stormed off, leaving Razia completely confused.
"Where'd she go?" Relleck said, standing in front of them with two drinks in his hand. Razia looked around and realized Lizbeth had disappeared during her tête-à-tête with Sage.
Razia got a whiff of one of the drinks and coughed. "God in Leveman's Vortex, Relleck, why don't you just skip the alcohol and drug the poor girl?"
"Yeah, and maybe if you'd get drunk, you'd quit being such an annoying bi—OOF!" Relleck wasn't able to finish his taunt as her fist connected with his stomach.
***
Razia very quickly found herself lying face up in the street, having been unceremoniously dumped there by the two bouncers.
"Worth it," she smirked, pulling herself upright.
She dusted herself off and turned back to the club. She still had questions, such as why the runners weren't posting the announcements of the government ship hijackings and where the money was coming from. But at least she'd figured out why she hadn't seen any activity in the intraweb.
She stuffed her hands in her pockets and began the walk back to her ship when she heard a familiar voice.
"Yo," Lizbeth said, walking out of a dark alley with a grin on her face. "Have fun in there?"
"What are you still doing here?" Razia asked. "I thought you'd be long gone by now?"
"I'm waiting for Relleck to come out. I want to see what kind of 'special deal' he's got."
"So why don't you go wait at his ship?" Razia asked, unable to hide the disgust on her face.
"If I could find it, I would," Lizbeth said. "But since my bounty hunter quit on me…"
Razia sighed and unhooked her mini-computer, making a dramatic show of finding Relleck's last parking transaction. This was the last bit of help she was going to give this Lizbeth woman, especially if she was going to sleep her way to getting what she wanted.
"He's in a parking deck four blocks away. Under the name Owen King."
"Thanks," Lizbeth said, pushing off of the wall and walking down the street.
"Use a condom," Razia said, unable to stop herself.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, use a condom," Razia replied. "He sleeps around a lot."
"And you would know?"
"I've seen him with a different girl every night."
"Well thank you for that astute observation," Lizbeth said with a warning tone that Razia missed entirely. "I'm so grateful that you're looking out for a fellow female."
Razia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right, just make it quick so you can quit slutting it up around pirate bars. The sooner you finish your stupid investigation, the better."
"Are you jealous of all the attention I'm getting?" Lizbeth asked sweetly.
"I'm not jealous, I'm disgusted," Razia replied, unable to hold back. "You walk in here with your tits and your ass hanging out, and you expect me to respect you in any way?"
"Wow," Lizbeth said, shocked. "Just because I like looking like a woman doesn't make me a slut. And just because you don't respect my methods doesn't mean you can't respect my results!"
"And what kind of result are you going to get by sleeping with Relleck?"
"God in Leveman's Vortex, I'm not going to sleep with him," Lizbeth exclaimed. "I'm going to hide out on his ship! So I can figure out where he's going!"
Razia opened her mouth and then closed it again.
"It's a miracle," Lizbeth gasped sarcastically. "You finally shut up."
"Hey, you can get sucked," Razia growled.
"You know, for a girl who spends a lot of time with men, you are awfully catty," Lizbeth said, squaring her shoulders and placing her manicured hands on her hips. "Did you have some bitchy sisters or something?"
Razia blinked at her, remembering with vivid clarity the Peate sisters. They were catty, and had nothing else to fill their days but gossip about each other and everyone else in the family. She remembered the way they circled her like feeding sharks when she was at the Manor last year, commenting on everything from her skin to her clothes to her apparent loneliness.
The thought that she was anything like them was enough to shame her into silence.
"And besides that," Lizbeth said, steeling her glare. "You, of all people, should appreciate what it feels like to be the only person on your own team. I know what the other pirates say about you."
Razia shifted uncomfortably.
"Funny enough, it was the exact same thing you said to me," Lizbeth continued humorlessly. "'Why doesn't she quit while she's ahead? Can't she take a hint?'" She paused to smile. "'Somebody just needs to bed her so she'll stop causing so much trouble.'"
Razia's eyes widened; she hadn't heard that last one.
"I've heard worse, trust me," Lizbeth said. "But you know what keeps me going? I know when I'm right, and I want to shove it in their sweaty faces when I show them all up. Because I know I'm better than all of them anyways."
Razia clenched her jaw, repentant but unsure of what to say.
"So I guess I'll be proving it alone," Lizbeth said, turning to walk away.
Razia couldn't let her walk away. "Lizbeth, wait. You can't sneak onto his ship by yourself."
"I can handle it—"
"No," Razia said, jogging after her. "Relleck rarely does anything alone, and he never plays fair. Trust me I…know from experience. He wouldn't hesitate to…well…" She remembered the way Sage berated her the year before. "It's never a good idea to go up against him without some kind of backup."
"So what, you want to come with me now?" Lizbeth asked.
Razia shrugged, adding, "I would feel kind of bad if something bad happened to you."
"Is that as close to an apology as I'm going to get from you?"
"Why in Leveman's would I apologize?"
CHAPTER EIGHT
Relleck's ship was a monstrosity, the biggest ship in the reserved docking station near Eamon's. And with all the other pirate ships nearby, that was saying something.
Razia and Lizbeth waited until one of Relleck's drunken crew members came stumbling out of another lift with a new female friend, offering them an opportunity to slip on behind him. They hid in the first open room they could find, an expansive gym with state-of-the-art weight equipment. Razia figured that it would be a safe place. None of Relleck's crew would be interested in working up a sweat in here after drinking heavily; though, based on the noises coming from upstairs, she was sure they were working up a sweat in other ways.
Razia did her best to ignore the sounds, as she was more interested in counting each of the inebriated members that stumbled back to the ship. She wasn't sure if Relleck was sporting eight or nine crew members now, but she'd counted six so far. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Relleck was shoving the last of the three crew members onto the ship, berating them for getting so drunk they could barely stand up. For spending so much time at Eamon's, Relleck seemed mostly sober, which was strange to Razia.
Soon after he arrived, the ship rumbled to life and D-882 disappeared out of the window.
"I'm sending you a bill for my parking fees," Razia muttered to Lizbeth. Razia was a bit nervous about being on Relleck's ship. Even though his crew was drunk, they wouldn't be drunk forever. And what if Relleck was bluffing about his "run" tonight?
"Do you think we'll be safe in here?" Lizbeth whispered.
"You should be more worried about how we're going to follow Relleck onto whatever ship he hijacks," Razia said, unwilling to let Lizbeth know she was nervous.
Lizbeth seemed wholly unconcerned. "I thought maybe we'd just slip in behind them onto the ship?"
"It'll be kind of hard to do that with all of Relleck's goons hanging around," Razia said, wondering if this was the worst idea she'd had in…well, ever. "I'm not even sure how long we're going to be on this ship. They looked pretty drunk."
"Relleck said he was leaving tonight," Lizbeth said. "Do you think he can hijack a ship without his crew?"
"I wouldn't think so." Razia again wondered if Relleck had been bluffing about his run that night to get in Lizbeth's pants, and began to feel even stupider for offering to help her.
"I thought you'd be an expert at this kind of thing," Lizbeth said.
"I haven't hijacked a ship in years. Not my cup of tea."
"Oh, do you have moral fiber or something?" Lizbeth teased. "Pirate?"
"Getting hijacked is considered an inevitability by most transporters, cost of doing business," Razia said, repeating what Tauron used to say to her. "It's not moral or immoral. Just happens."
Lizbeth was about to respond when they heard voices. Or one voice, in fact.
"Yeah, no, they're not coming. Stinking drunk, the whole crew. No, I don't need them. I'll have the stuff and be back before they even sober up."
As quietly as she could, Razia slid open the gym door and saw Relleck talking on his mini-computer with someone. He was stuffing some supplies into a bag and slinging it around his shoulder. The ship shuddered to a stop and the hatch opened, revealing a docking station.
"C'mon," Razia said, motioning to Lizbeth to creep closer to the open hatch. Relleck stood at the foot of the ship, engrossed in conversation with a man on the dock. Neither man noticed the two girls as they hurried off and hid behind some nearby shipping boxes. Razia strained her ears to hear what Relleck was saying.
"...just leave it here....it'll be okay..."
"...ain't got no business....need to get it approved..."
"...approvals....up your ass..."
After a few minutes of heated conversation, Relleck went to close up his ship, but stopped and glanced around curiously. He shrugged and shut the hatch, shouldering his bag. Razia and Lizbeth followed close behind.
The station was huge, and although Razia had no idea which planet they were close to or which system, this place was obviously heavily used by transporters. As they left the docks into another hallway, Razia realized that this station was also an inter-system shuttle hub—a place where those without ships could purchase tickets to ride to different systems. The UBU had established a system of shuttles between S-864 and the most inhabited systems for the rather large sub-section of the population without a means of transportation.
The open room smelled of body odor and old fuel and seemed much smaller with all the people packed into it. They bumped into each other as they moved about, headed for their ships or shuttles to other transport stations or planets.
It was difficult for Razia to keep an eye on Relleck, walking ahead of them. He strolled through the throngs of people, twisting and turning as he made a beeline for the main terminal area. Here, there were sundries and small restaurants selling everything from cups of soup to pillows for transporters to sit on during the long days traveling through space.
Relleck seemed to be in no hurry, stopping to grab a cup of coffee and chat with a cute girl at the sundries place. When Razia saw his C-card slide through the reader, she immediately searched her list of aliases for him. After a moment, she found what she was looking for:
Passerini, Zachery
Time of Transaction
Location
Amount
UT20015-04-10-90:43
Transport Station
G-279
15C
UT20015-04-10-85:06
Eamon's
D-882
50C
UT20015-04-10-84:98
Eamon's
D-882
50C
"We're on a transport station near G-279," Razia whispered. Relleck was still sitting at a table as if waiting for someone.
"So we're near G-245?" Lizbeth asked.
Razia rolled her eyes. "Leveman's, don't you know anything about how planets are named?"
"No," Lizbeth snapped at her. "It's not something you generally learn in school."
"They're not named for the system. They're named for the type of planet. G-2 planets have high concentrations of iron ore," Razia replied, as if it were obviously common knowledge. "So no, obviously, we're no where near G-245."
"There's no government contract with G-279 to my knowledge," Lizbeth said, watching Relleck stand up to greet a transporter. The other man was older, with a potbelly and a scruffy beard. Relleck offered his new friend a seat, and the man sat down with considerable effort. Razia smiled as the man ordered something from the pad at the table and slid his C-card through the reader.
Transport Station - G-279
Time of Transaction
Account
Amount
UT20015-04—10-90:45
Moses, Angelino
15C
UT20015-04—10-90:45
Agertop, Esaw
20,000C
UT20015-04—10-90:44
Solokov, Cynesige
20C
UT20015-04—10-90:44
Eliphelet, Maier
50C
UT20015-04-10-90:43
Passerini, Zachery
15C
"Angelino Moses," Razia murmured. She searched on his name in the Universal Bank and pulled up his last transactions:
Moses, Angelino
Time of Transaction
Location
Amount
UT20015-04—10-90:45
Transport Station
G-279
15C
UT20015-04-10-90:40
Transport Station
G-279
100,000C
UT20015-04-07-60:45
PAYCHECK
SALAZAR SHIPPING
45,000C
UT20015-04-01-50:47
Universal Savings Grocery
W-346267
4000C
"Looks like he works for Salazar Shipping," Razia said watching them continue to talk. "Is that one of the shipping companies on your little list?"
"Oh sure, because I've memorized all six hundred of them."
"What, you don't have a list of them already in your mini-computer?" Razia asked, eyebrow raised.
Lizbeth still didn't seem to understand. "Why would I do that?"
