Polaris Rising (Consortium Rebellion, #1)(31)

Marcus Loch was dangerous for more reasons than I’d initially thought.

I decided to go to bed fully clothed. It was safer for both of us that way. I wrapped the cloak around me, crawled between the emergency blankets, and huddled on one side of the bed.

It took a long time to fall asleep.



Once again I awoke alone. I had vague memories of Marcus in the night, but I wasn’t sure if they were real or imaginary. My dreams had been fraught, I knew that much. The emotional turmoil of the day had followed me into sleep.

I sat up and checked my com. Bianca had responded. Her response involved a lot of sentences in all caps and threats of death and dismemberment, but in the end, she said she’d find the codes for me, though it would take a day or two.

She also dropped some veiled hints that things with Rockhurst were not as they seemed, but the message required a lot of reading between the lines. If she was being this careful even on the secure House accounts, then things were bad. I needed to be extra cautious.

Then she proved once again that she was two steps ahead of everyone else by including the following: Locks can be good protection but shouldn’t be trusted completely. I stared at the screen for a solid minute in wonder. I hadn’t mentioned Loch in my message, so was she fishing or did she know?

Either way, she had felt it necessary to warn me not to trust Loch. But why? The problem with all of the reading between the lines was that it was difficult to communicate effectively, but this was vague even for Bianca.

I had no doubt she was frantically trying to find my location, but I’d bounced the message through several different systems to obfuscate the trail. It wouldn’t stump her for long, but maybe it would be long enough for me to escape without her sending in the cavalry.

With that in mind, I decided to see what I could do about a shower and laundry. I would need to hit a shop first. From what I saw yesterday during my wander about the downtown area, there were only two or three general goods shops left. And if I was Richard, I’d have a man watching each of them. Everyone needed food and supplies sooner or later.

I changed into the clothes I’d bought yesterday. A long-sleeved pale blue tunic went on over narrow dull gold pants. A blue and gold scarf wrapped around my head and neck until just my eyes were visible. It was a risk going out dressed as a woman, but I’d seen several women out on the busier commercial streets. My outfit wouldn’t attract undue attention.

The slit in the side of the tunic allowed plenty of movement and also allowed me to attach a knife to my belt and still access it relatively easily. The hard credits went in a pouch with my com. I attached the pouch on the opposite hip from the knife.

“What are you wearing?” Loch asked.

I’d heard him a bare second before he spoke, so I managed not to jump into next week in fright. My heart rate still needed a second to recover, however. It needed quite a bit longer when I saw he’d showered and shaved.

“Did you buy soap or shampoo yesterday?” That would solve one problem.

Loch looked at me like I was crazy. Okay, then. I guess I was the only one who cared that my shower involved actual cleansers.

“I’m going out. I need shampoo, even if you don’t. And laundry detergent. And food.”

“And you’re going dressed like that?”

“Yes. With the cloak, of course. What’s wrong with this? I saw several women dressed similarly to this yesterday and everyone left them alone.”

“That’s because the men all know those women belong to Mr. Goswami, who will break any man’s face who so much as looks at one of his wives or daughters wrong. You, however, are neither wife nor daughter. And before you try it, no. You’re much too tall to pass for either.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“I was warned,” he said, “when it appeared I’d been staring at the lady in question for too long. In fact I was watching the door behind her, but the merc who warned me didn’t know that.”

“Well, then I guess the men will have to learn that I, too, will break any man’s face who tries to start shit with me.”

“And you think a random woman wearing a full face veil and kicking ass is just going to fly right past Rockhurst? He’ll snatch you up before you set foot wherever you’re going.”

“Very well,” I said. “With the understanding that I will buy shampoo, laundry detergent, and food today, what would you suggest instead?”

“I suggest you eat an energy bar and give up on soap,” Loch said. “The more often we’re out, the more dangerous it is.”

He was right, dammit. But if I had to sit and dawdle in this room all day, I’d go crazy. And while I could think of one delicious way we could pass the time, that would complicate matters even more, especially with Bianca’s warning fresh in my mind.

I changed back into the clothes I’d taken from the escape ship. I was frustrated enough that I didn’t even care that Loch was in the room, though I changed my pants under the cover of the tunic and turned my back on him to change my shirt.

The drab camo and black mocked the beauty of my former outfit. Impatience and annoyance nipped at me. I needed to recenter myself before I did something stupid. And while seated meditation was always an option, I needed movement.

I moved to the center of the room, closed my eyes, and inhaled deeply through my nose. I held the breath for a few beats then released it through my mouth. Five more deep breaths and I fell into the beginning stance of my short, meditative martial arts form.