Blood Double (God Wars #1)(42)

"SouthStar is looking for another picker," the dark-skinned man announced. The others walked toward the road where a hoverbus would come along to pick them up.

"Come on, we'll see what you have," the tallest man said and the three of us obediently followed him and the broad-shouldered black man toward a building nestled among endless rows of gishi trees. At least we weren't walking over a dusty path—the narrow lane was made of carefully fitted stone and led right to the building.

"My name is Trace, this is Lion," the tall man introduced himself and his companion. "We'll let you watch one of our best cutters and then see if you can make your quota and keep up with the other employees."

Great—a tryout. Squaring my shoulders, I lagged behind the other two—I was nearly a block shorter than both my competitors and easily overlooked since I still wore my hat. The building we entered was filled with workers lined up at stainless steel tables, each one wearing a white coat and cap to hold their hair back. White, disposable boots were worn over shoes and the place was clean to the point of sterility.

Hands of workers moved quickly to cut bruised flesh away from gishi fruit; even from a distance the smell of the fruit permeated my senses and I nearly closed my eyes in pleasure. Forcing those thoughts away, I concentrated on watching each worker as they swiftly cut away bad portions of the fruit before removing the stem and large seed. Those things were tossed into buckets, which were lifted and carried away by other workers once they were filled. Bruised flesh went into one bucket, seeds in another.

"Got it?" The one called Trace asked. I nodded with the other two. My female competitor was perhaps five and a half blocks tall, weighed half again as much as I did, had brown hair down to her shoulders, blinked hazel eyes suggestively at Trace and smiled provocatively at him, throwing her hip out as she walked toward the table Trace indicated.

I could have told her that Trace preferred men—she might have had a better chance throwing herself at Lion, although he was happily mated. As I said, I always know. My male competition was young—barely old enough to search for a job. He was thin, dark-haired and eyed and swallowed nervously as we followed Trace to a cutting table.

We were garbed like the others in no time; a white cap had replaced my tourist hat and a securely buttoned white coat covered my clothing. I also wore white, disposable shoe covers. A woman stood before us on the opposite side of our cutting table, knife in hand. Two gishi fruit were cut, deseeded and de-stemmed in a blink while we watched.

"Now, you try," she grinned malevolently at us. The young man to my left swallowed nervously again. Small knives were handed over and we were instructed to start. I think the young man and I would have had the job if he hadn't sneezed at the end of cutting up his fruit—all over the stainless steel table. He was dismissed immediately, leaving me with the brown-haired woman. Yes, I knew she would be trouble; I just had no idea how much.

*

"Dee, I had to." Teeg rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. "Stellan wouldn't talk to me, so I had to do something."

"Child, this should not have been." Dormas, known to Teeg and many others simply as Dee, pointed out in a clipped voice.

"Look, I know I promised them that I'd never place compulsion, but I never dreamed something like this would happen. That woman has been nothing but trouble. Dad growls every time her name is mentioned."

"Yet he was the one who turned her. I disagree with your father's treatment of her—this is not the way to handle your vampire offspring, child."

"Dee, this conversation will not continue. It's bad enough that I had to place compulsion on all four brothers, starting with Stellan. I had to place compulsion on Trevor and Kooper, too, so they won't bring her up with Stell. I don't need this, especially when there's another bounty on my head, right along with the one on Ildevar."

"Someone wants to throw both Alliances into chaos, and then take advantage."

"You think I don't know that?" Teeg rose to pace behind his desk. "The worst part of it is, I need Breanne's services again, and she'll know something's up when Stellan doesn't even look at her."

"Child, you will regret this action, I can promise that. Undo it now, and minimize the damage."

"I can't do that, Dee. Forget that idea now."

*

Breanne's Journal

Five days passed and still there was no word from Kooper. I sat through another boringly aggravating Council meeting while new streets were mapped out for yet another addition to Casino City. The architecture and engineering teams had come to display electronic drawings, overlapping three-dimensional images of buildings to be constructed over water pipes and energy lines. Grateful that we'd solved the problem of the additional water needed in Casino City already, I worked to keep my eyes wide and feigned complete interest in something that threatened to put me to sleep.

*

Kay's Journal

Just as I feared, Yinza, my brown-haired competitor, talked and gossiped the entire time she worked and just as I imagined, I was heartily sick of hearing her voice by the end of every workday. She asked incessant questions until she received answers. I learned that several of the owners resided in the almost-palace sitting atop a nearby hill. I also learned that the owners were all quite attractive and sometimes came down to inspect the facilities or visit the groves. I knew names—my research had given me that; I'd just not seen any images. No photographs were posted on any of the company sites. Griya, our supervisor, walked through several times, but Yinza curtailed her gossip while the boss was on the floor.