Chpt. 6) Lazuli Academy

Opening the cockpit door fifty-five minutes later. With my clothes changed and a new haircut. I now wore a classy three-piece suit with a grey waistcoat, black jacket and pants, white dress shirt, high heels, and a red silk tie in an Eldredge tie knot. My hair had been cut into a short bob-cut with some blue highlights at the tips.

Sparky turned around and looked as I re-entered the cockpit, noticing the changes. “How did you cut your hair?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh, I built a machine to cut my hair. It’s in a hidden compartment,” I answered.

Sparky blinked a couple of times before saying, “Okay. But why did you build a machine to give you a haircut?”

“Because it’s easier to have a machine cut my hair than kidnapping someone and threatening them to cut my hair.”

Sparky blinked a few more times, then shook her head, “Whatever. We’re about to land.”

“Good,” I said, then looked down at Haru, who still slept soundly. My eyes drifted down to Haru’s magnificent breasts. Gods be damned. Those are perfect. Not too big, not too small, but just right. By all rights, those things are weapons of mass orgasmic destruction. I really want to touch them. I thought this, then considered it momentarily. I’m going to touch the booba.

Slowly, I reached toward Haru’s breasts. Then, an announcement sounded over the ship’s speakers, saying, “Now entering the final approach.”

Haru snorted awake at the announcement, and I quickly placed my outstretched hand on Haru’s shoulder, shaking her. “Hey, time to get up and disembark,” I said coolly.

Haru stretched and yawned, “Okay.”

“I’m going to stay here,” Sparky said, rolling her eyes at my antics.

“Nope! You’re coming with us,” I said with a sinister knowing smile.

“No,” Sparky said without turning around.

“Oh! When did I give you a choice on that?”

“You didn’t. But –”

“But nothing! You’re coming!” I cut Sparky off, pulling her from the chair forcefully.

Sparky yelped but didn’t fight back. My iron grip held Sparky next to me in front of the airlock. Haru soon joined us and noticed my new haircut, “Nice haircut. Who was the one who made that for you?”

“Oh, that would be … um … Ah, Thai.”

“Oh, Thai. He was good at what he did.”

“Yeah, but he did have that one flaw.”

Haru nodded sympathetically, “He was named Thai.”

“He was named Thai,” I agreed.

Sparky looked between them in confusion, “I thought you built a machine to cut your hair? And what’s wrong with someone named Thai?”

“I did. But, I needed to compile data about haircuts to program it correctly. So, I kidnapped hairdressers and threatened them to cut my hair. And we all know what’s wrong with the name.”

“Now, she doesn’t need to worry about finding a new hairdresser every seventy-two hours. And she’s right. We all know what’s wrong with the name.”

“Who knew you had to water them,” I shrugged.

Another announcement came over the speaker, “Thirty seconds till landing.”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Sparky asked incredulously.

“So many things,” I confessed with a smile as I pulled out a pair of glasses. Putting them on, my yellow iris turned blue. Then, the ship jolted as it landed. “Now, it’s time to prep,” I said, letting go of Sparky’s arm and straightening my tie.

The airlock opened, and I stepped out first. A young man immediately greeted me. He wore a three-piece suit like me but with a yellow tie and regular dress shoes, and he held a tablet in his left hand. “Welcome back, Ms.Ricme,” the man said.

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“Hello, Sam. Good to be back,” I said kindly.

Then Haru stepped out, and Sam immediately greeted her, “Welcome back, Ms.Castanza.”

“Good to be back, Sam,” Haru said, eyeing him as a predator would prey.

Then Sparky poked her head out, and alarms immediately blared in the hanger. Spherical security drones emerged from shoots in the ceiling and surrounded the ship, aiming machine guns at Sparky. She reluctantly raised her hands, “This is why I didn’t want to come here.”

I turned to Sparky slowly, a knowing smile still plastered on my face as I asked, “Sam, what is the meaning of this?”

Sam held up his tablet and tapped a few buttons, pulling up information, “Alexandra Monroe. Marked with security nanites as she escaped this facility with our military stealth suit schematics and the prototype. We placed a bounty on her one year ago as a result.”

“Oh, really!” I said, delighted and skipping closer to Sparky, “Drop the bounty and clear the charges. She works for me now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sam said, pressing a few more buttons, and the security drones put their weapons away and flew back up their shoots.

“Thank you, Sam. Would you mind giving us a moment to talk in private?”

“Of course, ma’am,” Sam said, walking away and standing next to an elevator entrance.

Sparky left the ship hesitantly and looked around to ensure no more alarms would go off. Then she said, “You’re the CEO of R.I.C.M.E. Inc.?”

“And you’re the little shit who stole my stealth suit,” I fired back, happy to have confirmation of the crime. “And yes, I am the CEO of R.I.C.M.E. Inc. My master wanted me to create a corporation that would bring in profits for us, so I created a weapons corporation to fund all my things.”

“I still can’t believe you made your corporation name a word scramble of C.R.I.M.E. Inc.” Haru chuckled.

“It works,” I chuckled as well. “Anyway, you have plans, so go to R&D and get to work building that thing. I’m sure you already know the way, but I’ll have Sam escort you.”

“Does he have to, though?” Haru asked, giving me big puppy eyes.

I glowered at her, “Yes,” then turned around and walked toward Sam. Haru groaned and followed, closely followed by Sparky. The four of us got in the elevator, and I gave Sam a few orders, “Show Alexandra to R&D, please, Sam. And after that, get my Freighter and HK-9 droids ready.”

Sam quickly jotted down all the orders on his tablet, “Yes, ma’am. How many droids will you need?”

Thinking momentarily, I answered, “I’ll need six.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll prepare them and let you know when they’re done.”

“Excellent. Are there any projects completed recently or in their testing phases?”

Sam pressed the button in the elevator for sub-basement four, then pressed a few buttons on his tablet again. “None so far. But there should be a test of the laser and Gauss rifles tomorrow,” Sam answered.

“Ooh, I’ve been wondering when those would finish.” The elevator stopped, and the doors opened to sub-basement four. “Alexandra has free reign over all people and resources for the project she’s working on. Let it be known,” I commanded as Sam and Sparky left the elevator.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sam said as I hit the button for the top floor. The location of my private executive office.

The doors closed, and Haru rested her head on my shoulder, “So, what are we going to do in your private office?”

I wrapped her arm around Haru and whispered in her ear, “We are going to waste some time and come up with a plan on how to locate and acquire the necessary materials for this job.”

“How are we going to waste time, though?”

“Well, honeybunch, we will open a bottle of very expensive wine and figure that out.”

Haru looked at me sidelong, “Honeybunch?”

“Pretty good, right?”

Haru chuckled and gently kissed my cheek. “It’s all right,” she said as the doors opened to the private office, “I still want that wine before anything happens.”

I entered the room first, disabling the security system. The office was a two thousand square foot penthouse, with the first floor having a small private office and a board room for confidential meetings. The penthouse’s second floor had a bed, a full liquor bar, several expensive bottles of wine in a state-of-the-art wine cooler, and a secondary secret room full of my assassination equipment.

Leading Haru up the short flight of stairs, I walked over to the wine cooler and pulled out a 2017 Chateau Lafite Rothschild bottle. The last one in existence. Haru made herself comfortable on a rather luxurious couch tucked away in a corner of the room.

“What wine shall I be tasting today?” Haru asked, taking off her fake glasses.

“One-thousand one-hundred twenty-four-year-old Chateau Lafite Rothschild red wine. The last one in existence,” I answered, pulling the cork out of the bottle and retrieving two wine glasses.

“Oh, that is special. How’d you know it’s my favorite?”

“Because you tracked down and drank the rest of them.”

Haru laughed as she accepted a wine glass from me, and I poured an acceptable amount into the glass and set the bottle aside. Haru swirled the red liquid in the glass and brought it to her nose, taking a small whiff. “It’s perfect,” she said, sipping the wine.

I didn’t drink mine and watched Haru. Examining every aspect of her face as she sipped the wine. I raised my wine glass and said, “I never really liked wine. I just got it so I can have it for the day someone tracks me down in the name of justice. I can have some wine in my hand and swirl it around my glass calmly while the self-important hero gives his speech.”

“Ha! I can see you doing that,” Haru said, taking another sip of wine. “Wine in one hand while petting an HK-9 droid in the other.”

“Yeah, that’s the dream,” I confirmed, removing her glasses and changing her eyes to blue and yellow. “Now I need some self-righteous person to barge in and do it.”

They laughed at this, and Haru downed the last of her wine. She set the wine glass on the arm of the couch since I had no coffee table and took my wine glass from me. Haru gave a mischievous grin as she sipped the wine in the glass. “You sexy little thief,” I mumbled and leaned in and kissed Haru a long, passionate kiss as we began wasting our time.

***