The UN embassy had been built under the orders of an earlier Security Council, one still coming to terms with its new status as the most powerful organization of the most irrelevant species in a terrifyingly expanded multiverse. China and the USA especially had exercised a heavy hand.
In addition to the official cameras in every room and the system for encoding and transporting their footage back to Earth, there were at least three other surveillance systems. Like competing colonies of polyps on a coral reef, these systems gave up long-term stability for short-term competitive advantage.1
On Laura's first day on Quotidia, Ambassador Li had told her to "take care of all those wires in my closet." She had confirmed that the jammer was still working correctly and built the planned surveillance blackouts into her boss's schedule.
Mark's experience had been filled with much more pomp and circumstance. After he'd been sworn in, the American representative to the UN, the President, and the chief of the CIA had presented him with a list of codes to memorize. He'd been very proud at the time.
Now, though, Mark needed some social engineering to facilitate the electronic kind.
He rapped on Severo's office door. It opened, releasing a heavy floral perfume.
"Wuh," said Mark, "would you like to have dinner with us?"
"'Us'?" A moment of narrow-eyed calculation as Severo spun her chair slowly around to face him. "You Americans and your orgies. I refuse." She grinned. "I am greedy."
It's a distraction, thought part of Mark's brain, even as most of the rest of it said she wants me all to herself and tingled. He breathed in sharply, filling his vomeronasal cavity with her pheromones. The terminal nerve (also called zeroeth cranial nerve) activated, releasing gonadotropin-releasing hormone,2 which triggered the production of hormones in Mark's anterior pituitary, which told his gonads to ramp up manufacture of testosterone.3 The tingling got worse and Severo was still grinning at him.
"Ha ha," said Mark. "I mean real dinner. With Koen and Laura and me."
"I understand." Severo placed a gold, sharpened nail to the corner of her mouth. She did them herself every two weeks, using a special ultraviolet lamp. "Koen and Laura make you envious."
They don't. It was strange how close Mark came to saying that, and even stranger that it was true. He was glad of Koen and Laura's soap-opera sexual tension; it made them easy to control. And Laura wasn't his type, either. Too short, too soft-edged, she didn't let her hair grow long enough, and she wasn't mean enough to him.
"I'm inviting you because I think it'll be fun for you," said Mark. And, buoyed on a surge of endogenous anabolic steroids,4 "I think it'll be fun for you, too."
Severo raised her brows. "And if I give you myself for the evening, what will you give me?"
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Whatever you want! Mark shook his head. This was so inappropriate. Severo could do whatever she wanted with her own reputation, but what if the footage of this conversation got out? If Mark and Severo contravened embassy guidelines with a torrid, sweaty, biting, clawing …
Mark shook his head again. If news of their relationship got out, that would be an excellent cover for what he was actually doing. A distraction.
"Ideas," Mark croaked, still extremely distracted. "An interesting…" he swallowed, "idea you'll want to know about." He leaned in closer. Closer. He forced himself to stop. "Over dinner in Koen's apartment."
"You Americans. Always acting. You watch yourselves as if you're on television." Severo's golden claw, still at the corner of her lips, twitched upward, pointing at the ceiling.
Will you each block your part of the surveillance system?
"Yes," answered Mark.
"And what about Miss Steiner? Is she invited?"
Mark had actually considered that, but he wasn't confident in his levers on the system administrator.
"No."
Nelly would have to be dealt with at some point, but not yet. For now, Mark wanted Severo. For his plan. Mother of god, the woman was like a steel rod wrapped in plush leather. He could wear her on his hip like a weapon.
"I see." Severo drew her finger down her long, corded neck and flipped it into an elegant twirl of the wrist. "Why not? I haven't got any other date tonight. An interesting conversation and good food are better than nothing. What should I wear?"
High heels and tanning oil...Jesus Christ! Mark was furious at how easily she could press his buttons. It was asymmetrical. Unfair. He had to find a way to get back at her. What would Severo hate most?
"Casual, of course," he said. "Sweat pants and ugly sweaters."
"Ugly sweaters?"
"The uglier the better."
"Oh ho," she said, "a challenge. I like it. I'll see you, my boy. Now, if you'll excuse me."
Severo had no work-related reason to leave her office and walk down the hall away from Mark, so she did it for other reasons.
Mark watched her for just a beat too long. "Ah, at seven!" he called after her.
"I'll be late," she sang back, still swaying.
Mark turned away, glanced up at the nearest camera, and controlled his expression.
1 Álvarez-Noriega, M. et al. (2018), Negligible effect of competition on coral colony growth. Ecology, 99: 1347-1356.
2 Wirsig-Wiechmann CR. Function of gonadotropin-releasing hormone in olfaction. Keio J Med. 2001 Jun;50(2):81-5. doi: 10.2302/kjm.50.81. PMID: 11450596.
3 Stoléru SG, Ennaji A, Cournot A, Spira A (1993). "LH pulsatile secretion and testosterone blood levels are influenced by sexual arousal in human males". Psychoneuroendocrinology. 18 (3): 205–18. doi:10.1016/0306-4530(93)90005-6. PMID 8516424. S2CID 23595343.
4 Waterman MR, Keeney DS (1992). "Genes involved in androgen biosynthesis and the male phenotype". Hormone Research. 38 (5–6): 217–21. doi:10.1159/000182546. PMID 1307739.