Remy tapped the same code with the same stupid joke into the Freeworker’s lift and it rumbled down to the speakeasy. He checked his Vasc for what had to be the tenth time since leaving home. He had turned down the man at the coat check tonight to keep his jacket as a cover for his arm unit. It might be warm, but it would be better than wearing an illegal cloaked Vasc in public. Josie’s Shusher was still loaded and he felt charged enough to use it if necessary. Swapping it out might knock him unconscious, of course, but the Shusher itself had already been loaded. He took a cigar from the doorman and tipped him with a chip.

  The lounge was busier on a Saturday night, standing room only, in fact, with local politicians and business leaders hobnobbing at tables next to starlets and all manner of dogs begging for scraps. Groupies for all three hoping to land someone important to go home with flitted about. Except, given the speakeasy’s exclusivity, the groupies were of various importance too. Such a sad, little rat race, he thought. Remy flicked the end of his cigar to light it and pulled on it deeply. He worked through the crowd and went to the Gallery.

  Claire was no where to be found but it was a busy night; she’d be around eventually. The Gallery was also more crowded than it had been earlier in the week, but he tried to look for new clues that he had missed before.

  Remy found himself staring at the paintings more thoroughly tonight, lingering over the canvas instead of hunting clues. A sad clown with a bundle of balloons, an empty pasture with a lonely horse and a falling down stable, two women dancing in the park under parasols. He couldn’t think of something profound or important about all of them but he could pick out little things he liked in each. The clown’s nose looked a lot like Alvin the School House drunk’s, for instance. Progress.

  He took a step and nearly fell into a painting of a bunch of splattered paints before catching himself. Glancing around, everyone was still engaged in their own conversations. No one had noticed his literal social misstep. Looking down, he found his first clue since arriving. A thin black line ran across the floor, meeting a perpendicular one near the splatter painting. Remy nudged it with his foot and it was raised, just a bit. Thank God for a shuffling habit.

  “That’s for auctions.” Claire’s voice spun him around. She was holding a gin in her hand, wearing the same cocktail dress with a neckline that plunged all the way down, and a sparkling necklace nestled in the middle. It certainly drew the eyes. “Thought I saw you sneak back here. Brought you something.”

  He took the glass from her and fumbled for a credit chip. She shook her head.

  “First ones on the house today. It’s Brandon’s birthday, he’s the owner.”

  “Well, then, to Brandon, I guess. And to you for finding me.” He took a drink and she stepped up close to look at the splatter painting behind him. Remy fought not to glance down her dress as he turned too. She was over a foot shorter than he was, blessed by whatever Lord you wished in her womanly fortunates, and smelled like danger. Like his father before him, Remy knew he was a weak man.

  “What do you think about this one?” she asked pointing to the splatter painting. Remy tried to take it in. Some parts were splotchy, as if the artist just flicked their brush against the canvas, while other strokes were longer, like the artist just did the same thing but with more paint. The more he looked, there seemed to be a pattern to the mess. Every time Remy thought he’d picked out the pattern, it dissolved in front of him into disorder.

  “Well, uh, I think it’s about something like order and chaos. Like, even if things look messy, there’s probably some order to it and it’ll make sense if the pieces come together. Or something like that.” There must be some pattern to it.

  Claire nodded and took in the painting.

  “Huh, I always just liked how the color contrasts and how they stand out against the white.” She grabbed his elbow. “If you’re not careful, you’ll get good at this. Come on, what about this one?”

  They moved to the dancing women with parasols. It was nice to have Claire at his side. Remy could listen to her talk about the paintings for hours. A serving man came up with a fresh drink for Remy, this time accepting a credit chip for the drink. Remy frowned, considering a gaudy neon-colored painting with towering buildings. There were other serving men and women moving throughout the Gallery and no one else lingered with the patrons. Why was Claire? His stomach lurched as he considered it. Was he a mark? Did they figure out why he was there? No, they couldn’t have. He hadn’t told anyone but Josie and Franklin, and both could be trusted. He started to sweat under his jacket and wished he hadn’t taken it past the coat check. He caught her watching him out of the corner of her eyes and he fumbled to fill the silence.

  “Oh, my name’s Remy, by the way. I didn’t give it to you last week.”

  She smiled. Her face was great for smiling. “I know. Though, you not mentioning it the first time made me interested. A mystery, you know? Hey, what are you doing?” her voice changed and rose at the end and Remy saw her spin away out of the corner of his eye. She scowled.

  “Think you can just leave like that? We paid you, girl, and we expect services rendered, you get me?” Remy knew that voice. He turned. Fucking JD. This guy was like a cockroach, always scurrying around everyone Remy wished he wouldn’t. Claire wrenched her arm back from JD’s hand.

  “I’m not one of those girls and you know that. I didn’t take your money, so just leave me alone. You know the rules.”

  “You know who I am, right?”

  Remy hadn’t wanted to get into a fight today but it was looking like the prospects for that were dimming. He gulped a drank and spoke before Claire could respond.

  “Aren’t you a bit old to be harassing the staff, JD?” Remy stepped between Claire and JD. His face flashed in recognition and he scowled. Remy just hoped he wouldn’t Vasc him right there. It would be embarrassing to be taken to the hospital with a hundred years of illicit Vascs loaded up. JD didn’t flinch. Small victories.

  “Remy. I would think a man in your situation would want to avoid me, eh?” The man looked like a dog with a thorn in its foot.

  “Well, I figured you’d be in your own little club beating up your own girls down there. Tired of ‘em not hitting back?” Remy glanced at his glass and wondered for a moment where this backbone was coming from. He never figured himself a coward, of course, but staying alive was always better for business than the alternative.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Does your girlfriend know you’re here alone? With a pretty young thing like this? I’d hate for you to hurt Josephine simply for a dip into the hired help.” JD sneered. He had one of those faces you couldn’t help but want to punch. Remy clenched his free hand.

  “Look, man, she said ‘no thanks’, get lost.” It was too late to get back in JD’s good graces and he didn’t really care if he was firming up a place on the thug’s shit list. With any luck, Remy would be on a shuttle far away from here this time next week. Without luck, well… It was better to think that the luck would find him.

  JD looked around the Gallery and noticed a few nearby patrons beginning to pay more attention to their exchange under raised eyebrows. A few shuffled from the room, eager to be away from any chance of violence. He chewed on his cigar and blew smoke into Remy’s face. He fought the urge to cough. Petty son of a…

  “See you around, Remy.” He spared a last glance to Claire and snorted. Two people, a man and a woman, followed JD from the room. Remy hadn’t seen the bodyguards before he started getting in JD’s face.

  “You too, bud.” He said to no one.

  Claire looked like she had seen a ghost and the other folks who’d seen the exchange didn’t hide their open appraisal of Remy. Guess JD’s reputation was known even in respectable quarters. As respectable as anyone could be, he supposed. So much for subtlety.

  “You didn’t have to do that.” Claire said quietly. “But thanks. Some guys are creeps.”

  “Don’t I know it.” Remy muttered, staring after JD. He took a long pull of gin and wiped a dribble from his stubble with the back of his hand. “Look, we should probably get out of here and let JD’s boys cool down some.” He could always try again in the next week. The auction was still a week out and there would be other chances to get some information. It wasn’t worth an alleyway beating on his way home. Or worse for her. Just a beating would be pleasant comparatively. Claire shook her head.

  “No, I have another hour here. It’ll be okay.”

  “You know JD, then, I take it. I’ve had that displeasure as well. He’s liable to do something stupid tonight and I think it’d be better if you weren’t here when he did. I can walk you out.”

  She chewed her lip, like she did when looking at a painting, and finally nodded.

  “Let me grab my things.” He followed her through the crowd and tried not to look into JD’s private room as they passed. Maybe he and Josie should stay in a hotel for a few days. His apartment was in a fake name, of course, but no sense taking the risk.

  She popped behind the bar and whispered to a burly man in suspenders who glanced at Remy and nodded. Claire and Remy entered the lift and the doors rumbled shut.

  “We can go out the back.” She started to punch a code he didn’t recognize into the panel. Remy scrambled to remember it. The panel accepted the code and they rumbled further down. He repeated the code to himself over and over. Finally a stroke of luck.

  It opened into a locker room of sorts and Claire told him to wait while she changed out of her serving dress. He tried to take everything in. This could be their best chance. Take the code into the employee area below the speakeasy, find where the vault room was, break in, make the swap. Golden. Claire reappeared wearing a woolen black coat and a hat pulled down to cover her ears. Remy straightened quickly from where he was examining the lift’s panel for hidden bio-scanners.

  “You got everything?”

  She nodded. Keeping his coat turned out to be a great idea. He hadn’t needed the Vasc but it was convenient now that he didn’t have to go back to the lobby. She grabbed his hand and pulled him down a narrow corridor in the left corner. A similar one ran to the right.

  Remy focused on mapping the path in his head. Extra kitchens sat dark and unused to the side of their path and doors marked “Storage” and “Electrical” lined the other. Should’ve worn a Quant, he thought dimly. His memory would have to do.

  “Pretty dark down here. These used often?” Small-talk that he hoped was natural enough not to sound suspicious. He was having a hard enough time mentally mapping the place without losing track himself. Any little detail might be crucial. He just hoped she was distracted enough to ramble without suspicion.

  “Not really. Mostly extra space now. Guess the better appliances upstairs cleared up enough room to close these down. Up here, there’s a room we use for special event storage but I don’t really go in there.”

  “Huh.”

  They passed a thick door looking markedly different and Remy was sure they’d passed the vault. In a week, the prototype would be there before auction and it might be their best chance to get it. If not, stealing it from the buyer could be a lot harder.

  After walking down increasingly sparse hallways, they finally reached an advanced door with two security panels. One was a code that Claire didn’t bother to cover. It was the same as the lift code. Thank God. And a retinal and fingerprint scanner combination on the other. He frowned. It would be tough to load enough Vascs to spoof that combination. He hoped Josie would have an idea. She was so much better with this sort of thing.

  They popped out into a refreshingly cold night, several blocks from the Freeworker. The door was unremarkable unless you knew where to look, and tucked into an alcove hidden from the alley. Worth keeping in mind.

  Claire turned to him and grabbed his coat lapels. She was strong, and he let her pull him closer. He was a weak man.

  “Hey, I know I said it before but, really, thank you. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t there.” Her eyes glistened and he noticed for the first time how incredibly blue they were. Piercing, like shards of ice.

  “Don’t mention it. Happy to be there.” Thank you’s always made Remy uncomfortable. In his world, thanks implied a favor owed but doing the right thing to earn a favor was a bit sleazy, even by his own standards. Fortunately for Remy, she didn’t mention it again. Instead, she smiled quickly and glanced down the alley before setting off. Remy followed at her hip.

  After that, Claire and Remy shared the idle chatter of new friends on a walk. The weather was cold. She really liked that sushi place down Park Street. No, Remy didn’t order anything but gin if he could help it. He didn’t really know why. Mild truths, and harmless lies. Stuff like that. Topics shifted as they grew close to her place.

  “So, your girlfriend, huh? You and JD must have some history if he knows you like that.” Claire asked as they reached her block. Remy coughed into his hand. He hadn’t thought of Josie like that but supposed it would be tough to explain the distinction. Friends with benefits? Woman he used to and sometimes still does sleep with? It was a fine needle to thread. Claire jumped into the pause and smiled. “Hey, listen, I don’t care. We all have our own arrangements.”

  Arrangements?

  “No, no, it’s not, not like that. It’s…well…complicated.”

  They reached her door as he was still stammering a response. She quieted him with a look.

  “Want to come inside?”

  Claire unlocked her door and opened it a bit. Warm air rushed out and it melted the frost from the stubble beneath his nose. He shouldn’t. Couldn’t. No, not before a job like this. Business. Yes, business.

  “I shouldn’t tonight, Claire.” Even as he said it, he knew it sounded like the most wishy-washy rejection he could muster. He was leaving in a week, why leave the door open for something here? The girl was ten years his junior, at least, and could do much better than a man gone soft about the middle and going gray. She smiled and shrugged.

  “Sounds like a lucky girl. Maybe, I’d like to meet her too sometime. Night, Remy, thank you again.” She reached up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek and her perfume nearly pulled him down. Mercifully, it was short and she closed the door behind her.

  He spent the surprisingly short walk to his apartment hoping the wind would take care of the perfume and trying not to imagine Claire taking that jacket off. Business, indeed.

  Josie was already sleeping when he got home and he decided they could wait until tomorrow before moving to a safer place. JD seemed busy enough tonight. Their room smelled faintly of cherry blossoms. It was soothing. He slipped under the covers next to her and kissed her shoulder. He didn’t remember when he’d started doing that either. Maybe she was his girlfriend. He tried not to think about how his night with Stefanie fit in, or what she might think of the strange perfume on his body.