Fic: Red Petals [7/10]
Fic: Red Petals [7/10]
Previous: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Disclaimer: Sometimes I think this show was created just for me, but alas, still not mine. Definitely for the best, in this case.
Rating/warnings: NC-17. Sex pollen and sex slaves, dub-con and non-con (though mostly off screen), plus violence, cursing, lots of nudity, and forced druggings.
Pairings: (In order of apperance, not necessarily importance) James/Camille, Mercedes/Kendall, Kendall/Jo, Kendall/James, Mercedes/Kendall/James, James/Logan.
Notes: As always, enormous thanks to lielabell and her terrifying red pen of doom. Also, pay no attention to the science. Er, "science." Because it deserves the sarcastic quotation marks.
Summary: Kendall and his crew are supposed to be on a rescue mission, searching for someone on a black market planet. But he's the one who ends up needing to be rescued...
Seven.
Jo's cheeks went pink and she looked away from the screen. "Well, that's that. Obviously it's him, so... you want me to go break that up, or...?"
"Why would I want that?" Mercedes relaxed on the couch. "This is, like, the hottest thing ever."
A moan drew Jo's attention back to the screen, where the party favor -- Diamond, she reminded herself -- was sucking Knight off, head bobbing up and down so slowly Jo was frustrated just from watching. Knight's hands were buried in his hair, his eyes shut, nonsense spilling from his lips. Mercedes was right: it was the hottest thing she'd ever seen. She remembered how Knight had kissed...
Except this was wrong. They were drugged. The whole thing was so fucked up. Jo turned away again. "I'm not watching."
"Suit yourself. Shut the door on your way out. I'll yell when I need you."
"Are you at least going to figure out what you're going to do about," she gestured at the screen, "all that?"
"I'll come up with something. Maybe they'll inspire me."
Jo somehow doubted that. She let herself out and paced the corridor.
Knight was telling the truth, at least about James Diamond -- she believed he had a truly ludicrous amount of willpower, but he'd obviously broken down when Diamond touched him. The way he looked at Diamond, the hungry tone in his voice... No way Knight was lying about that. So maybe he wasn't lying about the other part, either, and there really was a bounty on him.
A half a million bounty plus whatever Brooke Diamond would give her for as a reward for rescuing her son. Jo nodded to herself as she took up a position waiting outside Mercedes' screening room. Knight was a captain with a crew and a ship. All she had to do was get the two of them out of the brothel and get them off planet quickly... she just needed to figure out how.
It took awhile before Mercedes walked out, but she didn't stop to talk to Jo, just slid into the room with the two men. Jo waited, disgusted, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. The door stayed shut for quite awhile after that -- and when it opened, Mercedes' usually perfect hair was mussed. She sighed contentedly, pulling the straps of her dress up as she walked.
"They really are nice boys when they're like that. Even Knight -- he seems to be in a much better mood now." She pulled her hair up off her neck, and made a slight face. "It's a shame I have to kill him after all. He'd be so popular if I could keep him." She shook her head a little. "For now, you can take him back to his room while I freshen up."
"Wait, but you can't just..." Jo stared at her. "Why do you have to kill him all of a sudden, if you like him so much?"
"Because he's going to cause trouble. Look, Diamond had no idea who he was or that anything was wrong before seeing him. And now... well, whatever he was remembering seems to have vanished again, thank god, and Knight's pretty out of it, but I can't risk that. I need Diamond, Rebecca's got plans for him, but it won't be safe to keep him here if he knows who he is. All he'd have to do is tell a client to get word to his family, and then I'd wind up in deep shit. I can't take that risk. So Knight's got to be the one to go."
Jo's mind went into high gear as they walked, and a plan struck her suddenly. "I'll do it."
"It's about time you started showing some initiative," Mercedes said approvingly. "Keep it up, and you can really go places around here... Hmm. Before you off him, find out about his crew. If you can take care of them, too, that would be great. One woman is a lot less conspicuous in a spaceport than a whole squadron. I don't want to have to send in the police if I can avoid it."
"Right. No problem," Jo agreed. She knew Mercedes owned half the police on the planet, but it was true enough that Jo would be a more effective assassin. If she were going to do it. But this was actually perfect: she could sneak Knight back to his ship, come back to the brothel claiming he was dead, and wait until she had a chance to get Diamond out. No one would be the wiser until it was too late and they were on their way out of the system.
As Mercedes headed off to get cleaned up, Jo let herself into the boys' room. Knight and Diamond were still wrapped around each other, making out, bodies grinding into one another. She cleared her throat loudly.
Knight looked up and smiled widely, though there was no hint of his usual intelligence or attitude behind his expression. Diamond pouted when Knight stopped kissing him, but when he looked over and saw her, he smiled too. He crooked a finger. "Best day ever. Come on in, we've got room."
"I can't do that," Jo said. "Knight, come on. Get up. I've got to find you some clothes."
"Clothes?" Diamond pouted. "But he looks so good like this. Can't keep my hands off him."
As if to prove his point, Diamond dragged his fingers down Knight's torso, and Knight sighed happily and agreed, "I'm good here."
"No. You're not." She put a hand on her hip. "We have to go."
Knight frowned, brows furrowed. He squinted at her, confused, and Diamond insisted, "I'm telling you, you should stay here with us instead."
"Yeah. Yeah," Knight said. "I mean, come on. You've got to want to try this." He reached around to goose Diamond's ass, and Diamond laughed brightly and arched into the touch.
Jo frowned. "No. I don't. And you -- do you remember what you asked me to do? Before you came in here?"
Knight blinked a few times and shook his head. "Nah. But I can think of some things I'd like you to do now, though."
Fuck. She didn't know how many doses of the serum it took to really mindwipe someone, but if Knight's memories were going, she might be too late. Maybe she could still get the bounty for him, but... Guilt stabbed at her, sharp and demanding. She wanted the bounty, yeah, but she hated the idea of him looking at her like that, totally mindless.
But maybe it wasn't permanent yet. She hoped not, anyway. Steeling herself for the worst, she strode forward and pinched his arm at the bandage. He yelped with pain, jerking away from her. Diamond wrapped his arms around Knight protectively as she hissed, "Think. Hard. You remember anything now?"
His face was screwed up in pain, but then his eyes widened with surprise. "You -- wait, you shot me. And then I -- oh. Oh."
"You asked me to do something. Remember?" He nodded, so she continued, "I will. But..." She glanced at Diamond, and thought about Mercedes, watching from the camera. "Not here. In private."
Either he understood, or he was intrigued. He squirmed out of Diamond's grasp, but turned around to kiss him. Jo stood ready to grab his arm again, to hurt him if she had to, but he slid off the couch, leaving Diamond pouting up at him.
"You have to go?" Diamond asked.
"He does," Jo interrupted, pulling Knight back a few steps, just to be sure. She added wryly, "Don't worry, I'm sure someone will be in to play with you soon."
"Oh. Well, that'll be nice." He scowled a little, though. "But I like him. Unless that girl is coming back. She was... she was beautiful. And she said she'd come back. I think she said that. I've had some problems remembering things lately..."
For the first time, Jo let herself really look at him, think about him. She hadn't bothered to before, when she'd thought he was just some druggie, so desperate for a fix he'd agreed to test Mercedes' new drug. But that wasn't him at all -- Mercedes had done this to him on purpose, turned him into this husk of a human being. He'd always seemed pleased enough about it, but now Jo wondered how he might really feel: baffled and used, always desperate and never satisfied, and he sounded... well, he sounded scared.
Jo looked away from him guiltily. She had to get Knight out first, but she'd come back for him.
"Come on," she said to Knight, and pulled him out of the room. She kept her grip tight on his arm, right around the bandage so she could jerk him back to consciousness if she had to, and mumbled in his ear, "Mercedes wants you and your crew dead."
"What?" he gasped.
She hoped his shock was at what she'd said, not because he couldn't remember. She couldn't exactly ask him to clarify. In fact, she shouldn't be saying anything at all, with as many cameras as Mercedes had around them. Unless she could cover it somehow...
Well, this had worked last time. Keeping a hand on Knight's shoulder to make sure he stayed focused, she shoved him up against the wall. He moaned, first with pain, then with something else. She squeezed his arm trailed a line of kisses up his jaw to his ear. "Dead. Them and you. You need to trust me. I'm going to get you out."
"Wait, but..." He frowned, clutching her, obviously trying to concentrate. He breathed in her ear, "Help James first."
She pressed up against him, body to body, saw him blinking rapidly even as she felt his dick against her hip. He thrust against her, just a fraction of an inch, but the way he gasped made it clear she was losing his attention. She slammed his shoulder against the wall and he moaned.
"He's perfectly safe here," Jo said, ignoring the memory of his confused tone of voice when he'd talked about that girl and the heartbroken look on his face when she'd pulled Knight away. "But she'll kill you," Jo added, as Knight ran a hand down her side to her hip, and then back up and around to cup her breast. She squeezed his arm, in case he was getting any ideas.
"Don't care if she does," Knight answered, finger brushing over her nipple through her shirt. "Just -- just take him and tell the guys to get out of here."
"No." She grabbed his hand off of her body and slammed it against the wall. "You promised me your bounty if I help." He moaned, hips stuttering again, and she bit his neck sharply. "No way am I losing that. And she will kill you, Knight."
"I know," he said, his voice going high. "I -- I know, but -- I won't go without him and -- I -- fuck, I need -- need to..." She let him pull his hand free and he shoved it between their bodies, fingers working around his erection.
"Knight," she snarled, shaking him.
He screwed his eyes shut. "Rather -- I'd rather die than -- won't be her slave. I won't. Ohhh, god, please, it feels so much better when you touch me..."
She took his hand and he whimpered when she forced it away from his dick. "You don't know what you're saying. You --"
"I do know. I just, I, I can't let anything happen to James. Everything I've done is to, to find James. Please. I won't go without him." He actually jutted his chin up defiantly. "I won't."
A thought flickered through her mind: as cuddly as the two of them had been, as adamant as Knight sounded now, maybe there had been something between them before they'd been drugged. She raised her eyebrows. "I'm not kidding, this is your only sure shot of getting out alive. If Mercedes finds him gone before I can come back for you..."
"Just take him and go," Knight said. "Just -- just go. My crew -- get them safe and -- please. Promise me." He brushed a finger across her cheek. "Promise."
Jo knew it was the wrong thing to do. She knew it was completely stupid. But she wasn't made of stone, and with the way Knight was pleading with her, his broken tone of voice, she couldn't bring herself to make the right decision. She put a hand over his and gently moved it away. "Fine. But I'm coming back for you."
"Don't --"
"For the money," she interrupted him. Which wasn't really entirely true, but she didn't need to tell him that. "Okay? I'll take him. But I'm coming back. So do whatever you have to to keep Mercedes from murdering you. Promise me that. And don't forget it."
He put his hand over hers on his arm and squeezed, flinching, but managed to murmur, close to her skin, "I will. I'll remember." He moaned, but gathered himself up again and added, "Ship's in a public yard, south of town. Ship's called, mm, the Rush."
"The Rush," she repeated. "Okay. Okay." She moved his hand and he leaned forward to kiss her. She let him, waiting for him to give her another mumbled message, but he didn't. It was just a kiss.
She got the message anyway. It was thank you.
She pulled herself away and nudged him to start walking again. So much for perfect timing and an easy plan. Now what the hell was she supposed to do?
--
Camille finished transferring the data the deserter crew had gathered on Rebecca to a protected area of the Repository, just in case something happened to her. Then she read through it, frowning, pausing to look up each planet where Rebecca had landed, searching for any hint about what she was doing. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, though. At least, nothing obvious. Maybe another inspector would be able to make sense of it, or maybe the White Knight would see a pattern and put it all together. She was good at that kind of thing.
Her biomech pinged and the White Knight's voice rang in her ear: "Do I even want to know how you found that deserter crew?"
"They've been following Rebecca for months," Camille explained. Across the bridge, Carlos looked up at her, startled. She waved him into quiet. "I found one of them following her. Did all the data transfer?"
"Yeah. I'll get someone busy analyzing this right away. So, wait -- they were following Rebecca because she was the last person seen with James Diamond, right? Does that mean they found him?"
"Yeah," Camille confirmed. "He's the anon mindwipe case I reported last night."
"Oh, god. That's..." The White Knight cleared her throat, the noise reverberating awkwardly in Camille's ear. "And about that crew, they're all there? The three of them?"
Camille glanced at Carlos again, then said, "No. Their captain's missing, they're trying to find him, too."
"Shit," White Knight murmured. "Can you do me a favor? Off the record?"
Camille sat up straight, surprised. Usually, the White Knight was all business; sometimes Camille even suspected she was talking to an AI. She'd never heard the White Knight say anything personal before, let alone anything off the record. Intrigued, Camille answered, "Sure, I guess. What...?"
"Help them find their captain. He's the type who's probably in the thick of things, but even if he's a little out of your way, I'd really appreciate it."
"Why? What's... who is he?"
"He's just an officer. But I've been keeping track of him. He's got... hmm, potential, let's say. If you can find him, I'll owe you."
The White Knight owing her a favor? That would be definitely come in handy someday. "I'll see what I can do. I won't blow my cover for it, but I'll try to find him."
"Thank you. And for what it's worth, you can trust that crew to help you. They're good guys, and they were excellent Corps officers. And when it comes to Ja -- Diamond, or their captain, they'll do anything they can to help."
"Yeah? You sound like you know these guys."
"Like I said, I've been following their careers. If they come out of this okay, I promise you you're going to see big things from them in the future."
"Oookay," Camille drawled. "I'll do my best."
"Thanks. I really do appreciate it. Do you need anything else?"
"You contacted me," Camille reminded her. "But as long as I've got your attention, any luck on the Mercedes file?"
White Knight made an exasperated noise. Camille had been asking her that since she'd first gotten close enough to Mercedes to lift a fingerprint -- she hadn't tried for a retina scan, paranoid that Mercedes would figure her out. She'd sent the print scan to match against the whole Repository, but the file it had pulled up had been totally destroyed. It was damn near impossible to delete something from the Repository entirely, but someone had tried. All that remained was some mangled code, and absolutely no information, which meant that Camille had no idea where Mercedes had come from, no confirmation of her age or experience, no idea how she'd ended up running the Red Petals. It was maddening, especially because no one should have been able to burn a file like that.
"I'm still working on it," White Knight finally muttered. "But it's not looking good. And when I find out who managed to screw with my data like that, heads will roll, I promise you that."
"Good luck," Camille said.
"You, too. I'm out." The connection went silent.
"What was that?" Carlos asked.
Camille stretched. "Biomech -- I can send and receive on some inspector-only frequencies. Useful stuff." She glanced at the console's time display, and tapped her fingers against it. Her read through of the gathered data on Rebecca had taken awhile; it was creeping up on her stage call. She couldn't afford to miss it and have people asking questions about her cover, which meant she had to figure out what her next step was now.
"Is Logan still in his lab?" she asked.
Carlos nodded. "He loses track of time when he's doing science stuff. Sometimes he forgets to eat and sleep until he pretty much passes out."
"Lead the way."
Carlos did. There wasn't far to go, since the ship was so small. She peered through a window into the ship's small medical bay/science lab, and she could make out Logan wearing a labcoat, staring down at a microscope. He shifted to frantically type something into the computer console, then went back to the scope.
"Just so you know, he's a little jumpy when you interrupt him mid-science," Carlos warned.
Camille hit the button to open the lab door. "Logan?"
Logan yelped, jumping, and flailed for balance. He whirled around, crashed into a counter, caught himself, tried to pull off his goggles but accidentally snapped them back onto his forehead, and yelled again. Then he swallowed and said, "What's... what's up?"
"Are you okay?" Camille asked, as Carlos said, "Told you so."
"Yeah, just, uh, this drug is really interesting. It stimulates areas of the brain by altering all of the sensory input and activating the wrong synapses, and that in turn inhibits certain kinds of nerves --"
"In English, maybe?" Carlos interrupted.
Logan gestured, searching for the words. "Basically, the petal dust redirects traffic in your brain away from things like your memories and into the pleasure center, so just, like, breathing is enough to turn you on. Anyway, the upshot is that something about the serum actually rewires your brain, but I don't think it obliterates anything. It just makes certain pieces -- like your memories -- really, really hard to reach."
"So can you do anything about it?" Camille asked.
"Well..." Logan hesitated. "I mean, maybe? I've got a pretty good idea how the petal dust works, but I don't know what it's cut with to make the serum, and that's the part that's causing the rewiring to become permanent. So I can think of a few different things I could try, but I can't know which would actually work without a sample of the serum itself. Or at least a blood sample from someone who's been dosed."
"So let's go get one," Carlos said. "I mean, we know where James is. We go get him, we bring him back here. You fix him while I find Kendall."
Camille frowned a little. She hadn't really planned to let the two of them get any further involved in this operation, but after her major screw up the previous night, she owed James Diamond anything she could do to help him -- that definitely included reuniting him with his friends. Plus, the White Knight had said she could count on them, and she knew just about everything. Camille was willing to put her faith in that.
"I can get us into the brothel," Camille said. "I'm friends with Mercedes -- it's my cover -- no one will look twice if I'm there. It shouldn't take much to get in to see your friend, either."
"Really?" Logan asked.
Camille nodded. "Mercedes is using him as a... a prostitute. He doesn't know who or where he is, and thanks to that drug, he, well, he's happy to do whatever he's asked to."
Logan frowned, and Carlos stared down at the floor.
"I know, it's awful," Camille told them. Her stomach twisted, guilt wrapping around her insides as she remembered how crushed he'd sounded when she'd left him there alone. The thought of confessing what had happened to these two strangers -- strangers who'd given up everything to find James -- made her feel ill. But if they were going into the brothel, people would recognize her. She'd have to talk to Mercedes, ask Mercedes where James was. Better they find out now that she'd messed up than in the middle of things, when a surprise might blow their cover.
She looked up at the two of them, straightened up and tried to look more confident than she felt. "You should know that I was drugged, when I was investigating. I was dosed with petal dust."
She waited. It obviously sank in for Logan, who frowned slowly, brows drawing together in the most judgmental look she'd ever seen. Carlos took longer, and he asked, "Did you... you and James...?"
She nodded.
"Oh. That's..." He frowned.
"Mercedes drugged me," she repeated. "But the... the good thing is that the clients who go in to see him tend to stay for quite awhile. There'll be plenty of time for me to slip out and snoop for your missing captain."
"You didn't see him, but do you think he might be there?" Logan asked.
"I don't know, but it's worth checking. If he's not, Rebecca controls at least two other locations in town, the mansion where she's staying and an office building not far from the brothel. If he isn't being held by the Red Petals, he's probably in one of those." If he was even still alive. Rebecca was ruthless, and if she'd caught him... Camille decided not to think about that, and instead concentrate on what she knew for sure, things they could definitely do. Which was check the brothel, and get James Diamond out. "So let's hope we're lucky, because breaking into Rebecca's place will be a lot harder."
"We haven't had a lot of luck lately," Logan mumbled wryly. "If he's not in the brothel, can you go after him tonight? If Rebecca has him, she won't let him live for long."
Camille nodded. That hadn't been on her to-do list, but she'd told the White Knight she'd help them. Still, one thing at a time. "We get Diamond out first, no matter what. I'll send him back with him," she nodded at Carlos, "and then hit the other buildings."
"Alone?" Carlos asked.
"You'll just slow me down." She looked back and forth between them. "I'm an inspector. This is my job. But you should know up front -- my highest priority will always be protecting Civ. I can't blow my cover, and if it's a choice between your captain and bringing down Rebecca..."
Carlos nodded. "Kendall would want you to take out Rebecca. If that's what it comes to."
"Good." She straightened up, then opened her purse and took out his gun. "But let's try to make sure it doesn't come to that."
--
Clothing wasn't exactly hard to come by in the brothel, Jo realized. The whole place was teeming with naked people who'd been dressed when they arrived. Drunk or high, they'd shed their clothing somewhere, and most of them didn't bother to keep track of where. Finding clothes was easy.
Finding clothing that would keep anyone from noticing Diamond was a different matter. He was by far the most popular of Mercedes' hookers, and plenty of clients had been to see him. Not to mention the fact that he was really tall and really handsome, and that made him really hard to miss. So Jo had to find something to disguise him.
A flash of red on the dark floor caught her attention. She stooped and picked it up, shook it out, and held it up to get a good look. Someone had abandoned a red dress, something long and flowy and, more importantly, stretchy. She balled it up in her fist and made her way back to the room where Mercedes kept Diamond.
Of course he wasn't alone. There was a client in with him. Jo waited, and waited, and waited, tapping her foot. They really didn't have all night, but --
Finally, a curly-haired girl came out, still flushed and laughing. Jo caught the door and let herself in, then pulled it shut after her. She didn't have long, and could only hope Mercedes wasn't watching on her creepy spy cam.
"Hey, pretty lady," Diamond drawled. He was in the middle of mopping up after whatever he'd just done, but he dropped his towel and grinned at her, twisting into a pose with his head propped up on his chin.
She tossed the dress at him, and he snatched it out of the air. Huh. Apparently, the drug didn't inhibit his reflexes much. "Put that on," she instructed.
He examined it, then repeated, "Put it... on?"
"Yeah. Quickly."
"But..." He frowned. "I don't really like wearing clothes. I mean, why would I? Look at me." He skimmed a hand down his body and sighed blissfully.
"Yeah, yeah, you're very pretty. Put the dress on."
"Seriously?"
She sighed, exasperated. "Yes. Seriously. You need to..." No, no point in explaining it to him. She settled on a better tactic: "It would be so hot."
"You think?"
"Mmm, yeah. I want you to put it on, and then we're going to do something... really exciting."
"Oh, that sounds fun. What are we gonna do?"
Damn it. Of all the times for him to ask questions, he had to do it now? But he looked intrigued, and it would be easier if he'd go along with her without a fight, so she improvised, "I've always had this... fantasy. I really, really want to do it somewhere I might, uh, get caught. You know. Like... in public. So I'm going to take you out. But you need to get dressed."
"Well, then." He winked at her and sat up, pulled the dress on, shimmying until it was in place. He stood up, swayed on his feet, but stayed upright. "How do I look?"
He looked ridiculous, but she gave him her best smile and said, "So hot. Just let me..." She made him sit down again so she could try and finger comb his hair across his face, hiding some of it. She also grabbed him a pair of shoes, which didn't match the dress at all -- no woman's heels were going to fit someone his size -- but hopefully no one would notice. "There. You look great. Now come on."
She put an arm around him and he returned the gesture, looping one over her shoulder. She let them out and kept her free hand on a weapon as they walked. Most of the people only glanced up and saw the dress. Maybe they registered that it was weird for a man to wear it, but if they were so surprised by his gender they didn't really pause to look at his face -- plus the halls were all dim. She hustled him towards a back exit, rather than the front where Mercedes' dealers circulated, and after a few nervous minutes, they stepped outside.
Diamond blinked, looking around. "I don't think I've been outside in a long time. Mercedes doesn't usually let me..."
"This is a special occasion. Fantasy, remember? We're going somewhere really," she pulled him along, "really special."
"I'll do you right here if you want," he offered, straightening his dress as they walked. "It would be exciting."
"This'll be better," she said, trying to sound more cheerful than she felt. It wasn't his fault he was like this, she reminded herself. Though if she were to be honest, when it came to dealing with men so doped up they compulsively hit on her, she preferred Knight's direct approach. Not that she'd been thrilled at him groping her, but, well, she had the feeling he knew what do with his hands. Maybe someday, if he recovered...
Not that it mattered right now. Right now, she had to get Diamond to his ship safely.
--
Camille parked Carlos in a reserved seat. When the stage lights came up, she couldn't see the audience at all, but if she checked the monitor in the wing, she could see that he hadn't tried to run off or anything. Not that she really thought he would, when she was his best ticket into the brothel.
The show went well. She'd been doing it for a month, now, and was actually incredibly bored by it. Her acting skills were a large part of why she was such a good inspector, so it had been a natural fit for a cover job: high profile enough to get her onto Mercedes' radar and get her invited to parties.
She retreated to her dressing room immediately after the curtain call, knowing Carlos was waiting. She needed to check in first, though. She made sure her room was still secure, then paged the White Knight that she was going dark. A return message appeared on her in-eye: Good luck. Smiling grimly, she met up with Carlos and got them one of the fancy transits to the Red Petals' brothel.
Mercedes wasn't expecting her tonight, but Camille waved at the bouncer and giggled. Her name was on the list of Mercedes' friends, which meant she had access even if she wasn't expected, so after he double-checked that he let her right in. She kept an arm curled around Carlos, and though the bouncer looked a little more skeptical at that, he apparently decided that keeping Mercedes' friend happy was part of his job description.
"Whoa," Carlos mumbled, looking around. "This place is..."
"Yeah," Camille agreed. Leaning close, she whispered, "Don't eat or drink anything here. It's all spiked."
He nodded.
She shifted to take his hand and pulled him through the partiers. There weren't as many as the previous night, but they were just as shameless. Finding her way though was easy enough, though. Another guard stood at the hallway entrance, but again, waved the two of them through after recognizing her and seeing her name on the list.
"Cammy! I didn't know you were coming!"
Camille looked up and saw Mercedes waving to them. She waved back and tugged Carlos with her, turning on the giggles and smiles. "Hi, Mercedes, after last night I just had to come back." She leaned over and kissed Carlos' cheek. "And I just had to bring him with me, isn't he the most precious?"
"Boyfriend?" Mercedes asked, giving him the once over.
"Just a fan, but he's so sweet. I promised him a good time, I know you can find us one."
"Good times are my specialty. Let me grab someone to get you a treat --"
"Oh, no, we couldn't," Camille interrupted. "You were so sweet to give me a sample last night, but what I actually..." She giggled, and the blush came naturally when she remembered the previous night, even though it had been wrong. "What I actually was hoping was, um, the... the man I was with..."
Mercedes chuckled. "You two were in there all night!"
Carlos frowned a little and Camille giggled brightly and elbowed him subtly. "Yes, well, I just... I was hoping he might be free. Just for a little while. He was very... sweet. I think my friend," she ruffled Carlos' hair, "might like him."
Carlos smiled, obviously strained, and ducked his head, not saying anything. Probably for the best; he apparently wasn't much of an actor.
"Wellllll, for you, Cam, I suppose we can work something out," Mercedes said. "I don't mind loaning you my very best, of course, but for other people he's very expensive. I love that you're brining in fans, though -- I'd love it if you could bring in some more partiers next week. You know so many cool people from your show."
Of course. Mercedes was a business woman, after all, and Camille knew Mercedes had befriended her because she was a minor celebrity. Camille nodded. "Oh, of course, and after last night... well, I'll be here all the time!"
"That's what I like to hear." Mercedes clapped her shoulder as she walked by. "Now let me go get your friend ready for you. Chill out in the lounge, help yourself to anything."
Camille nodded as Mercedes walked off, and as she pulled Carlos to a couch, she said, "See? I told you everything would be fine."
He let Camille cuddle up against them as if they were a couple and another wave of guilt hit her. She should have found a way out of taking that drug; she should have controlled herself. She should never even have touched James Diamond. She was an inspector, and she knew better than that. She'd taken advantage of him.
She was going to make it up to him, though. She was going to save him.
Mercedes came back towards them, frowning a little. "Hang on," she said to Camille, before Camille could even get to her feet. "One sec. Hey -- you! Have you see Jo?" she called to one of the guards
Camille caught Carlos' concerned look, and just cocked her head curiously. "Everything okay?" she asked.
"Fine, fine, of course," Mercedes answered, and turned towards the guard. Camille elbowed Carlos as he started to say something, and concentrated. Enhanced senses were standard biomech for inspectors, and she could hear easily enough from across the room. "Well?" Mercedes demanded of the guard.
"I haven't seen her," the guard answered.
Mercedes made an annoyed hmm noised. "What about the party favor? Anything?"
"No, ma'am."
"Then where the hell did he go?" She put a hand on her hip. "Well?"
"I have no idea! I haven't seen him!"
"Then find out who has. Find Jo and tell her I need to see her now. And be subtle! I don't want the clients upset." She crossed her arms, and the guard ducked his head and scurried off.
Camille's mind raced. He was missing...? She glanced at Carlos, though of course he hadn't been able to hear over the din. They'd been assuming Knight's disappearance meant he was in trouble, but they had no proof of it. What if he'd been up to something, and James was already safe?
She didn't have a chance to let Carlos in on any of that. Mercedes walked back towards them, perfect smile in place. "Just hold tight, he's with a client right now, but as soon as he's free, he's all yours."
"Thanks," Camille answered, just as brightly.
"Let me get you some refreshments," Mercedes said, and hurried off.
Camille tucked in close to Carlos and murmured, "Something's going on. She doesn't know where he is." That was all she had time for before Mercedes was back, a drink for each of them before she sauntered away to follow the guard out.
"Huh?" Carlos asked, as Camille casually reached out and emptied both of their glasses into a plant at the edge of the couch.
"She just got the news that he's missing. We're going to have to go looking soon, but give it a few minutes in case."
He nodded. So they waited.
Camille listened carefully for anything else, any hints. She saw the guard carefully questioning partiers, but only one person had any information. Some woman with curly hair said she'd partied with him, that he'd been fine and totally into it, but that they'd finished up almost an hour ago. Apparently no one had seen him since.
She waited as long as she could stand, while Mercedes grew visibly more frustrated every time she walked by. Finally, Camille decided he wasn't going to just turn up, which meant something was going on. Whether Knight had sprung him or something else had happened, she needed to know what. "We're going to make a move. Follow my lead, pretend you're into me, and we'll see what we can find."
Carlos nodded and stood, offered Camille a hand up. She kissed his cheek and they giggled, and Camille led him off, as if they were looking for a private room. All the while she watched and listened carefully, searching for any hint of James Diamond or Kendall Knight.
--
The ship's whistle sounded. Logan ignored it until it sounded again. And again. Annoyed that his research was interrupted, he finally looked up from his equipment and flicked the ship's display open to see who was calling.
Two women stood outside the ship, waiting for someone to lower the entrance ramp. He didn't recognize either one at first glance. The ringer had one hand clenched around the other woman's arm, and lots of guns, which was a little alarming. The other was smiling blankly, staring around the space port, wearing a wrinkled red party dress.
There was something kind of weird about her. Logan frowned, staring into the display. She was tall and short haired, and either the least appealing woman he'd ever seen or not actually...
He actually gasped aloud and turned, sprinted for the loading bay and hit the release for the ship's ramp. A moment later, the blond woman started pushing the... the man in the red dress up the ramp. And this close, there was no way to mistake it, no way Logan could possibly be wrong.
"Hi," the blond woman greeted him. "I think I found something that belongs to you."
Logan breathed, "James...?"
Part Eight
Previous: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Disclaimer: Sometimes I think this show was created just for me, but alas, still not mine. Definitely for the best, in this case.
Rating/warnings: NC-17. Sex pollen and sex slaves, dub-con and non-con (though mostly off screen), plus violence, cursing, lots of nudity, and forced druggings.
Pairings: (In order of apperance, not necessarily importance) James/Camille, Mercedes/Kendall, Kendall/Jo, Kendall/James, Mercedes/Kendall/James, James/Logan.
Notes: As always, enormous thanks to lielabell and her terrifying red pen of doom. Also, pay no attention to the science. Er, "science." Because it deserves the sarcastic quotation marks.
Summary: Kendall and his crew are supposed to be on a rescue mission, searching for someone on a black market planet. But he's the one who ends up needing to be rescued...
Seven.
Jo's cheeks went pink and she looked away from the screen. "Well, that's that. Obviously it's him, so... you want me to go break that up, or...?"
"Why would I want that?" Mercedes relaxed on the couch. "This is, like, the hottest thing ever."
A moan drew Jo's attention back to the screen, where the party favor -- Diamond, she reminded herself -- was sucking Knight off, head bobbing up and down so slowly Jo was frustrated just from watching. Knight's hands were buried in his hair, his eyes shut, nonsense spilling from his lips. Mercedes was right: it was the hottest thing she'd ever seen. She remembered how Knight had kissed...
Except this was wrong. They were drugged. The whole thing was so fucked up. Jo turned away again. "I'm not watching."
"Suit yourself. Shut the door on your way out. I'll yell when I need you."
"Are you at least going to figure out what you're going to do about," she gestured at the screen, "all that?"
"I'll come up with something. Maybe they'll inspire me."
Jo somehow doubted that. She let herself out and paced the corridor.
Knight was telling the truth, at least about James Diamond -- she believed he had a truly ludicrous amount of willpower, but he'd obviously broken down when Diamond touched him. The way he looked at Diamond, the hungry tone in his voice... No way Knight was lying about that. So maybe he wasn't lying about the other part, either, and there really was a bounty on him.
A half a million bounty plus whatever Brooke Diamond would give her for as a reward for rescuing her son. Jo nodded to herself as she took up a position waiting outside Mercedes' screening room. Knight was a captain with a crew and a ship. All she had to do was get the two of them out of the brothel and get them off planet quickly... she just needed to figure out how.
It took awhile before Mercedes walked out, but she didn't stop to talk to Jo, just slid into the room with the two men. Jo waited, disgusted, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. The door stayed shut for quite awhile after that -- and when it opened, Mercedes' usually perfect hair was mussed. She sighed contentedly, pulling the straps of her dress up as she walked.
"They really are nice boys when they're like that. Even Knight -- he seems to be in a much better mood now." She pulled her hair up off her neck, and made a slight face. "It's a shame I have to kill him after all. He'd be so popular if I could keep him." She shook her head a little. "For now, you can take him back to his room while I freshen up."
"Wait, but you can't just..." Jo stared at her. "Why do you have to kill him all of a sudden, if you like him so much?"
"Because he's going to cause trouble. Look, Diamond had no idea who he was or that anything was wrong before seeing him. And now... well, whatever he was remembering seems to have vanished again, thank god, and Knight's pretty out of it, but I can't risk that. I need Diamond, Rebecca's got plans for him, but it won't be safe to keep him here if he knows who he is. All he'd have to do is tell a client to get word to his family, and then I'd wind up in deep shit. I can't take that risk. So Knight's got to be the one to go."
Jo's mind went into high gear as they walked, and a plan struck her suddenly. "I'll do it."
"It's about time you started showing some initiative," Mercedes said approvingly. "Keep it up, and you can really go places around here... Hmm. Before you off him, find out about his crew. If you can take care of them, too, that would be great. One woman is a lot less conspicuous in a spaceport than a whole squadron. I don't want to have to send in the police if I can avoid it."
"Right. No problem," Jo agreed. She knew Mercedes owned half the police on the planet, but it was true enough that Jo would be a more effective assassin. If she were going to do it. But this was actually perfect: she could sneak Knight back to his ship, come back to the brothel claiming he was dead, and wait until she had a chance to get Diamond out. No one would be the wiser until it was too late and they were on their way out of the system.
As Mercedes headed off to get cleaned up, Jo let herself into the boys' room. Knight and Diamond were still wrapped around each other, making out, bodies grinding into one another. She cleared her throat loudly.
Knight looked up and smiled widely, though there was no hint of his usual intelligence or attitude behind his expression. Diamond pouted when Knight stopped kissing him, but when he looked over and saw her, he smiled too. He crooked a finger. "Best day ever. Come on in, we've got room."
"I can't do that," Jo said. "Knight, come on. Get up. I've got to find you some clothes."
"Clothes?" Diamond pouted. "But he looks so good like this. Can't keep my hands off him."
As if to prove his point, Diamond dragged his fingers down Knight's torso, and Knight sighed happily and agreed, "I'm good here."
"No. You're not." She put a hand on her hip. "We have to go."
Knight frowned, brows furrowed. He squinted at her, confused, and Diamond insisted, "I'm telling you, you should stay here with us instead."
"Yeah. Yeah," Knight said. "I mean, come on. You've got to want to try this." He reached around to goose Diamond's ass, and Diamond laughed brightly and arched into the touch.
Jo frowned. "No. I don't. And you -- do you remember what you asked me to do? Before you came in here?"
Knight blinked a few times and shook his head. "Nah. But I can think of some things I'd like you to do now, though."
Fuck. She didn't know how many doses of the serum it took to really mindwipe someone, but if Knight's memories were going, she might be too late. Maybe she could still get the bounty for him, but... Guilt stabbed at her, sharp and demanding. She wanted the bounty, yeah, but she hated the idea of him looking at her like that, totally mindless.
But maybe it wasn't permanent yet. She hoped not, anyway. Steeling herself for the worst, she strode forward and pinched his arm at the bandage. He yelped with pain, jerking away from her. Diamond wrapped his arms around Knight protectively as she hissed, "Think. Hard. You remember anything now?"
His face was screwed up in pain, but then his eyes widened with surprise. "You -- wait, you shot me. And then I -- oh. Oh."
"You asked me to do something. Remember?" He nodded, so she continued, "I will. But..." She glanced at Diamond, and thought about Mercedes, watching from the camera. "Not here. In private."
Either he understood, or he was intrigued. He squirmed out of Diamond's grasp, but turned around to kiss him. Jo stood ready to grab his arm again, to hurt him if she had to, but he slid off the couch, leaving Diamond pouting up at him.
"You have to go?" Diamond asked.
"He does," Jo interrupted, pulling Knight back a few steps, just to be sure. She added wryly, "Don't worry, I'm sure someone will be in to play with you soon."
"Oh. Well, that'll be nice." He scowled a little, though. "But I like him. Unless that girl is coming back. She was... she was beautiful. And she said she'd come back. I think she said that. I've had some problems remembering things lately..."
For the first time, Jo let herself really look at him, think about him. She hadn't bothered to before, when she'd thought he was just some druggie, so desperate for a fix he'd agreed to test Mercedes' new drug. But that wasn't him at all -- Mercedes had done this to him on purpose, turned him into this husk of a human being. He'd always seemed pleased enough about it, but now Jo wondered how he might really feel: baffled and used, always desperate and never satisfied, and he sounded... well, he sounded scared.
Jo looked away from him guiltily. She had to get Knight out first, but she'd come back for him.
"Come on," she said to Knight, and pulled him out of the room. She kept her grip tight on his arm, right around the bandage so she could jerk him back to consciousness if she had to, and mumbled in his ear, "Mercedes wants you and your crew dead."
"What?" he gasped.
She hoped his shock was at what she'd said, not because he couldn't remember. She couldn't exactly ask him to clarify. In fact, she shouldn't be saying anything at all, with as many cameras as Mercedes had around them. Unless she could cover it somehow...
Well, this had worked last time. Keeping a hand on Knight's shoulder to make sure he stayed focused, she shoved him up against the wall. He moaned, first with pain, then with something else. She squeezed his arm trailed a line of kisses up his jaw to his ear. "Dead. Them and you. You need to trust me. I'm going to get you out."
"Wait, but..." He frowned, clutching her, obviously trying to concentrate. He breathed in her ear, "Help James first."
She pressed up against him, body to body, saw him blinking rapidly even as she felt his dick against her hip. He thrust against her, just a fraction of an inch, but the way he gasped made it clear she was losing his attention. She slammed his shoulder against the wall and he moaned.
"He's perfectly safe here," Jo said, ignoring the memory of his confused tone of voice when he'd talked about that girl and the heartbroken look on his face when she'd pulled Knight away. "But she'll kill you," Jo added, as Knight ran a hand down her side to her hip, and then back up and around to cup her breast. She squeezed his arm, in case he was getting any ideas.
"Don't care if she does," Knight answered, finger brushing over her nipple through her shirt. "Just -- just take him and tell the guys to get out of here."
"No." She grabbed his hand off of her body and slammed it against the wall. "You promised me your bounty if I help." He moaned, hips stuttering again, and she bit his neck sharply. "No way am I losing that. And she will kill you, Knight."
"I know," he said, his voice going high. "I -- I know, but -- I won't go without him and -- I -- fuck, I need -- need to..." She let him pull his hand free and he shoved it between their bodies, fingers working around his erection.
"Knight," she snarled, shaking him.
He screwed his eyes shut. "Rather -- I'd rather die than -- won't be her slave. I won't. Ohhh, god, please, it feels so much better when you touch me..."
She took his hand and he whimpered when she forced it away from his dick. "You don't know what you're saying. You --"
"I do know. I just, I, I can't let anything happen to James. Everything I've done is to, to find James. Please. I won't go without him." He actually jutted his chin up defiantly. "I won't."
A thought flickered through her mind: as cuddly as the two of them had been, as adamant as Knight sounded now, maybe there had been something between them before they'd been drugged. She raised her eyebrows. "I'm not kidding, this is your only sure shot of getting out alive. If Mercedes finds him gone before I can come back for you..."
"Just take him and go," Knight said. "Just -- just go. My crew -- get them safe and -- please. Promise me." He brushed a finger across her cheek. "Promise."
Jo knew it was the wrong thing to do. She knew it was completely stupid. But she wasn't made of stone, and with the way Knight was pleading with her, his broken tone of voice, she couldn't bring herself to make the right decision. She put a hand over his and gently moved it away. "Fine. But I'm coming back for you."
"Don't --"
"For the money," she interrupted him. Which wasn't really entirely true, but she didn't need to tell him that. "Okay? I'll take him. But I'm coming back. So do whatever you have to to keep Mercedes from murdering you. Promise me that. And don't forget it."
He put his hand over hers on his arm and squeezed, flinching, but managed to murmur, close to her skin, "I will. I'll remember." He moaned, but gathered himself up again and added, "Ship's in a public yard, south of town. Ship's called, mm, the Rush."
"The Rush," she repeated. "Okay. Okay." She moved his hand and he leaned forward to kiss her. She let him, waiting for him to give her another mumbled message, but he didn't. It was just a kiss.
She got the message anyway. It was thank you.
She pulled herself away and nudged him to start walking again. So much for perfect timing and an easy plan. Now what the hell was she supposed to do?
--
Camille finished transferring the data the deserter crew had gathered on Rebecca to a protected area of the Repository, just in case something happened to her. Then she read through it, frowning, pausing to look up each planet where Rebecca had landed, searching for any hint about what she was doing. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, though. At least, nothing obvious. Maybe another inspector would be able to make sense of it, or maybe the White Knight would see a pattern and put it all together. She was good at that kind of thing.
Her biomech pinged and the White Knight's voice rang in her ear: "Do I even want to know how you found that deserter crew?"
"They've been following Rebecca for months," Camille explained. Across the bridge, Carlos looked up at her, startled. She waved him into quiet. "I found one of them following her. Did all the data transfer?"
"Yeah. I'll get someone busy analyzing this right away. So, wait -- they were following Rebecca because she was the last person seen with James Diamond, right? Does that mean they found him?"
"Yeah," Camille confirmed. "He's the anon mindwipe case I reported last night."
"Oh, god. That's..." The White Knight cleared her throat, the noise reverberating awkwardly in Camille's ear. "And about that crew, they're all there? The three of them?"
Camille glanced at Carlos again, then said, "No. Their captain's missing, they're trying to find him, too."
"Shit," White Knight murmured. "Can you do me a favor? Off the record?"
Camille sat up straight, surprised. Usually, the White Knight was all business; sometimes Camille even suspected she was talking to an AI. She'd never heard the White Knight say anything personal before, let alone anything off the record. Intrigued, Camille answered, "Sure, I guess. What...?"
"Help them find their captain. He's the type who's probably in the thick of things, but even if he's a little out of your way, I'd really appreciate it."
"Why? What's... who is he?"
"He's just an officer. But I've been keeping track of him. He's got... hmm, potential, let's say. If you can find him, I'll owe you."
The White Knight owing her a favor? That would be definitely come in handy someday. "I'll see what I can do. I won't blow my cover for it, but I'll try to find him."
"Thank you. And for what it's worth, you can trust that crew to help you. They're good guys, and they were excellent Corps officers. And when it comes to Ja -- Diamond, or their captain, they'll do anything they can to help."
"Yeah? You sound like you know these guys."
"Like I said, I've been following their careers. If they come out of this okay, I promise you you're going to see big things from them in the future."
"Oookay," Camille drawled. "I'll do my best."
"Thanks. I really do appreciate it. Do you need anything else?"
"You contacted me," Camille reminded her. "But as long as I've got your attention, any luck on the Mercedes file?"
White Knight made an exasperated noise. Camille had been asking her that since she'd first gotten close enough to Mercedes to lift a fingerprint -- she hadn't tried for a retina scan, paranoid that Mercedes would figure her out. She'd sent the print scan to match against the whole Repository, but the file it had pulled up had been totally destroyed. It was damn near impossible to delete something from the Repository entirely, but someone had tried. All that remained was some mangled code, and absolutely no information, which meant that Camille had no idea where Mercedes had come from, no confirmation of her age or experience, no idea how she'd ended up running the Red Petals. It was maddening, especially because no one should have been able to burn a file like that.
"I'm still working on it," White Knight finally muttered. "But it's not looking good. And when I find out who managed to screw with my data like that, heads will roll, I promise you that."
"Good luck," Camille said.
"You, too. I'm out." The connection went silent.
"What was that?" Carlos asked.
Camille stretched. "Biomech -- I can send and receive on some inspector-only frequencies. Useful stuff." She glanced at the console's time display, and tapped her fingers against it. Her read through of the gathered data on Rebecca had taken awhile; it was creeping up on her stage call. She couldn't afford to miss it and have people asking questions about her cover, which meant she had to figure out what her next step was now.
"Is Logan still in his lab?" she asked.
Carlos nodded. "He loses track of time when he's doing science stuff. Sometimes he forgets to eat and sleep until he pretty much passes out."
"Lead the way."
Carlos did. There wasn't far to go, since the ship was so small. She peered through a window into the ship's small medical bay/science lab, and she could make out Logan wearing a labcoat, staring down at a microscope. He shifted to frantically type something into the computer console, then went back to the scope.
"Just so you know, he's a little jumpy when you interrupt him mid-science," Carlos warned.
Camille hit the button to open the lab door. "Logan?"
Logan yelped, jumping, and flailed for balance. He whirled around, crashed into a counter, caught himself, tried to pull off his goggles but accidentally snapped them back onto his forehead, and yelled again. Then he swallowed and said, "What's... what's up?"
"Are you okay?" Camille asked, as Carlos said, "Told you so."
"Yeah, just, uh, this drug is really interesting. It stimulates areas of the brain by altering all of the sensory input and activating the wrong synapses, and that in turn inhibits certain kinds of nerves --"
"In English, maybe?" Carlos interrupted.
Logan gestured, searching for the words. "Basically, the petal dust redirects traffic in your brain away from things like your memories and into the pleasure center, so just, like, breathing is enough to turn you on. Anyway, the upshot is that something about the serum actually rewires your brain, but I don't think it obliterates anything. It just makes certain pieces -- like your memories -- really, really hard to reach."
"So can you do anything about it?" Camille asked.
"Well..." Logan hesitated. "I mean, maybe? I've got a pretty good idea how the petal dust works, but I don't know what it's cut with to make the serum, and that's the part that's causing the rewiring to become permanent. So I can think of a few different things I could try, but I can't know which would actually work without a sample of the serum itself. Or at least a blood sample from someone who's been dosed."
"So let's go get one," Carlos said. "I mean, we know where James is. We go get him, we bring him back here. You fix him while I find Kendall."
Camille frowned a little. She hadn't really planned to let the two of them get any further involved in this operation, but after her major screw up the previous night, she owed James Diamond anything she could do to help him -- that definitely included reuniting him with his friends. Plus, the White Knight had said she could count on them, and she knew just about everything. Camille was willing to put her faith in that.
"I can get us into the brothel," Camille said. "I'm friends with Mercedes -- it's my cover -- no one will look twice if I'm there. It shouldn't take much to get in to see your friend, either."
"Really?" Logan asked.
Camille nodded. "Mercedes is using him as a... a prostitute. He doesn't know who or where he is, and thanks to that drug, he, well, he's happy to do whatever he's asked to."
Logan frowned, and Carlos stared down at the floor.
"I know, it's awful," Camille told them. Her stomach twisted, guilt wrapping around her insides as she remembered how crushed he'd sounded when she'd left him there alone. The thought of confessing what had happened to these two strangers -- strangers who'd given up everything to find James -- made her feel ill. But if they were going into the brothel, people would recognize her. She'd have to talk to Mercedes, ask Mercedes where James was. Better they find out now that she'd messed up than in the middle of things, when a surprise might blow their cover.
She looked up at the two of them, straightened up and tried to look more confident than she felt. "You should know that I was drugged, when I was investigating. I was dosed with petal dust."
She waited. It obviously sank in for Logan, who frowned slowly, brows drawing together in the most judgmental look she'd ever seen. Carlos took longer, and he asked, "Did you... you and James...?"
She nodded.
"Oh. That's..." He frowned.
"Mercedes drugged me," she repeated. "But the... the good thing is that the clients who go in to see him tend to stay for quite awhile. There'll be plenty of time for me to slip out and snoop for your missing captain."
"You didn't see him, but do you think he might be there?" Logan asked.
"I don't know, but it's worth checking. If he's not, Rebecca controls at least two other locations in town, the mansion where she's staying and an office building not far from the brothel. If he isn't being held by the Red Petals, he's probably in one of those." If he was even still alive. Rebecca was ruthless, and if she'd caught him... Camille decided not to think about that, and instead concentrate on what she knew for sure, things they could definitely do. Which was check the brothel, and get James Diamond out. "So let's hope we're lucky, because breaking into Rebecca's place will be a lot harder."
"We haven't had a lot of luck lately," Logan mumbled wryly. "If he's not in the brothel, can you go after him tonight? If Rebecca has him, she won't let him live for long."
Camille nodded. That hadn't been on her to-do list, but she'd told the White Knight she'd help them. Still, one thing at a time. "We get Diamond out first, no matter what. I'll send him back with him," she nodded at Carlos, "and then hit the other buildings."
"Alone?" Carlos asked.
"You'll just slow me down." She looked back and forth between them. "I'm an inspector. This is my job. But you should know up front -- my highest priority will always be protecting Civ. I can't blow my cover, and if it's a choice between your captain and bringing down Rebecca..."
Carlos nodded. "Kendall would want you to take out Rebecca. If that's what it comes to."
"Good." She straightened up, then opened her purse and took out his gun. "But let's try to make sure it doesn't come to that."
--
Clothing wasn't exactly hard to come by in the brothel, Jo realized. The whole place was teeming with naked people who'd been dressed when they arrived. Drunk or high, they'd shed their clothing somewhere, and most of them didn't bother to keep track of where. Finding clothes was easy.
Finding clothing that would keep anyone from noticing Diamond was a different matter. He was by far the most popular of Mercedes' hookers, and plenty of clients had been to see him. Not to mention the fact that he was really tall and really handsome, and that made him really hard to miss. So Jo had to find something to disguise him.
A flash of red on the dark floor caught her attention. She stooped and picked it up, shook it out, and held it up to get a good look. Someone had abandoned a red dress, something long and flowy and, more importantly, stretchy. She balled it up in her fist and made her way back to the room where Mercedes kept Diamond.
Of course he wasn't alone. There was a client in with him. Jo waited, and waited, and waited, tapping her foot. They really didn't have all night, but --
Finally, a curly-haired girl came out, still flushed and laughing. Jo caught the door and let herself in, then pulled it shut after her. She didn't have long, and could only hope Mercedes wasn't watching on her creepy spy cam.
"Hey, pretty lady," Diamond drawled. He was in the middle of mopping up after whatever he'd just done, but he dropped his towel and grinned at her, twisting into a pose with his head propped up on his chin.
She tossed the dress at him, and he snatched it out of the air. Huh. Apparently, the drug didn't inhibit his reflexes much. "Put that on," she instructed.
He examined it, then repeated, "Put it... on?"
"Yeah. Quickly."
"But..." He frowned. "I don't really like wearing clothes. I mean, why would I? Look at me." He skimmed a hand down his body and sighed blissfully.
"Yeah, yeah, you're very pretty. Put the dress on."
"Seriously?"
She sighed, exasperated. "Yes. Seriously. You need to..." No, no point in explaining it to him. She settled on a better tactic: "It would be so hot."
"You think?"
"Mmm, yeah. I want you to put it on, and then we're going to do something... really exciting."
"Oh, that sounds fun. What are we gonna do?"
Damn it. Of all the times for him to ask questions, he had to do it now? But he looked intrigued, and it would be easier if he'd go along with her without a fight, so she improvised, "I've always had this... fantasy. I really, really want to do it somewhere I might, uh, get caught. You know. Like... in public. So I'm going to take you out. But you need to get dressed."
"Well, then." He winked at her and sat up, pulled the dress on, shimmying until it was in place. He stood up, swayed on his feet, but stayed upright. "How do I look?"
He looked ridiculous, but she gave him her best smile and said, "So hot. Just let me..." She made him sit down again so she could try and finger comb his hair across his face, hiding some of it. She also grabbed him a pair of shoes, which didn't match the dress at all -- no woman's heels were going to fit someone his size -- but hopefully no one would notice. "There. You look great. Now come on."
She put an arm around him and he returned the gesture, looping one over her shoulder. She let them out and kept her free hand on a weapon as they walked. Most of the people only glanced up and saw the dress. Maybe they registered that it was weird for a man to wear it, but if they were so surprised by his gender they didn't really pause to look at his face -- plus the halls were all dim. She hustled him towards a back exit, rather than the front where Mercedes' dealers circulated, and after a few nervous minutes, they stepped outside.
Diamond blinked, looking around. "I don't think I've been outside in a long time. Mercedes doesn't usually let me..."
"This is a special occasion. Fantasy, remember? We're going somewhere really," she pulled him along, "really special."
"I'll do you right here if you want," he offered, straightening his dress as they walked. "It would be exciting."
"This'll be better," she said, trying to sound more cheerful than she felt. It wasn't his fault he was like this, she reminded herself. Though if she were to be honest, when it came to dealing with men so doped up they compulsively hit on her, she preferred Knight's direct approach. Not that she'd been thrilled at him groping her, but, well, she had the feeling he knew what do with his hands. Maybe someday, if he recovered...
Not that it mattered right now. Right now, she had to get Diamond to his ship safely.
--
Camille parked Carlos in a reserved seat. When the stage lights came up, she couldn't see the audience at all, but if she checked the monitor in the wing, she could see that he hadn't tried to run off or anything. Not that she really thought he would, when she was his best ticket into the brothel.
The show went well. She'd been doing it for a month, now, and was actually incredibly bored by it. Her acting skills were a large part of why she was such a good inspector, so it had been a natural fit for a cover job: high profile enough to get her onto Mercedes' radar and get her invited to parties.
She retreated to her dressing room immediately after the curtain call, knowing Carlos was waiting. She needed to check in first, though. She made sure her room was still secure, then paged the White Knight that she was going dark. A return message appeared on her in-eye: Good luck. Smiling grimly, she met up with Carlos and got them one of the fancy transits to the Red Petals' brothel.
Mercedes wasn't expecting her tonight, but Camille waved at the bouncer and giggled. Her name was on the list of Mercedes' friends, which meant she had access even if she wasn't expected, so after he double-checked that he let her right in. She kept an arm curled around Carlos, and though the bouncer looked a little more skeptical at that, he apparently decided that keeping Mercedes' friend happy was part of his job description.
"Whoa," Carlos mumbled, looking around. "This place is..."
"Yeah," Camille agreed. Leaning close, she whispered, "Don't eat or drink anything here. It's all spiked."
He nodded.
She shifted to take his hand and pulled him through the partiers. There weren't as many as the previous night, but they were just as shameless. Finding her way though was easy enough, though. Another guard stood at the hallway entrance, but again, waved the two of them through after recognizing her and seeing her name on the list.
"Cammy! I didn't know you were coming!"
Camille looked up and saw Mercedes waving to them. She waved back and tugged Carlos with her, turning on the giggles and smiles. "Hi, Mercedes, after last night I just had to come back." She leaned over and kissed Carlos' cheek. "And I just had to bring him with me, isn't he the most precious?"
"Boyfriend?" Mercedes asked, giving him the once over.
"Just a fan, but he's so sweet. I promised him a good time, I know you can find us one."
"Good times are my specialty. Let me grab someone to get you a treat --"
"Oh, no, we couldn't," Camille interrupted. "You were so sweet to give me a sample last night, but what I actually..." She giggled, and the blush came naturally when she remembered the previous night, even though it had been wrong. "What I actually was hoping was, um, the... the man I was with..."
Mercedes chuckled. "You two were in there all night!"
Carlos frowned a little and Camille giggled brightly and elbowed him subtly. "Yes, well, I just... I was hoping he might be free. Just for a little while. He was very... sweet. I think my friend," she ruffled Carlos' hair, "might like him."
Carlos smiled, obviously strained, and ducked his head, not saying anything. Probably for the best; he apparently wasn't much of an actor.
"Wellllll, for you, Cam, I suppose we can work something out," Mercedes said. "I don't mind loaning you my very best, of course, but for other people he's very expensive. I love that you're brining in fans, though -- I'd love it if you could bring in some more partiers next week. You know so many cool people from your show."
Of course. Mercedes was a business woman, after all, and Camille knew Mercedes had befriended her because she was a minor celebrity. Camille nodded. "Oh, of course, and after last night... well, I'll be here all the time!"
"That's what I like to hear." Mercedes clapped her shoulder as she walked by. "Now let me go get your friend ready for you. Chill out in the lounge, help yourself to anything."
Camille nodded as Mercedes walked off, and as she pulled Carlos to a couch, she said, "See? I told you everything would be fine."
He let Camille cuddle up against them as if they were a couple and another wave of guilt hit her. She should have found a way out of taking that drug; she should have controlled herself. She should never even have touched James Diamond. She was an inspector, and she knew better than that. She'd taken advantage of him.
She was going to make it up to him, though. She was going to save him.
Mercedes came back towards them, frowning a little. "Hang on," she said to Camille, before Camille could even get to her feet. "One sec. Hey -- you! Have you see Jo?" she called to one of the guards
Camille caught Carlos' concerned look, and just cocked her head curiously. "Everything okay?" she asked.
"Fine, fine, of course," Mercedes answered, and turned towards the guard. Camille elbowed Carlos as he started to say something, and concentrated. Enhanced senses were standard biomech for inspectors, and she could hear easily enough from across the room. "Well?" Mercedes demanded of the guard.
"I haven't seen her," the guard answered.
Mercedes made an annoyed hmm noised. "What about the party favor? Anything?"
"No, ma'am."
"Then where the hell did he go?" She put a hand on her hip. "Well?"
"I have no idea! I haven't seen him!"
"Then find out who has. Find Jo and tell her I need to see her now. And be subtle! I don't want the clients upset." She crossed her arms, and the guard ducked his head and scurried off.
Camille's mind raced. He was missing...? She glanced at Carlos, though of course he hadn't been able to hear over the din. They'd been assuming Knight's disappearance meant he was in trouble, but they had no proof of it. What if he'd been up to something, and James was already safe?
She didn't have a chance to let Carlos in on any of that. Mercedes walked back towards them, perfect smile in place. "Just hold tight, he's with a client right now, but as soon as he's free, he's all yours."
"Thanks," Camille answered, just as brightly.
"Let me get you some refreshments," Mercedes said, and hurried off.
Camille tucked in close to Carlos and murmured, "Something's going on. She doesn't know where he is." That was all she had time for before Mercedes was back, a drink for each of them before she sauntered away to follow the guard out.
"Huh?" Carlos asked, as Camille casually reached out and emptied both of their glasses into a plant at the edge of the couch.
"She just got the news that he's missing. We're going to have to go looking soon, but give it a few minutes in case."
He nodded. So they waited.
Camille listened carefully for anything else, any hints. She saw the guard carefully questioning partiers, but only one person had any information. Some woman with curly hair said she'd partied with him, that he'd been fine and totally into it, but that they'd finished up almost an hour ago. Apparently no one had seen him since.
She waited as long as she could stand, while Mercedes grew visibly more frustrated every time she walked by. Finally, Camille decided he wasn't going to just turn up, which meant something was going on. Whether Knight had sprung him or something else had happened, she needed to know what. "We're going to make a move. Follow my lead, pretend you're into me, and we'll see what we can find."
Carlos nodded and stood, offered Camille a hand up. She kissed his cheek and they giggled, and Camille led him off, as if they were looking for a private room. All the while she watched and listened carefully, searching for any hint of James Diamond or Kendall Knight.
--
The ship's whistle sounded. Logan ignored it until it sounded again. And again. Annoyed that his research was interrupted, he finally looked up from his equipment and flicked the ship's display open to see who was calling.
Two women stood outside the ship, waiting for someone to lower the entrance ramp. He didn't recognize either one at first glance. The ringer had one hand clenched around the other woman's arm, and lots of guns, which was a little alarming. The other was smiling blankly, staring around the space port, wearing a wrinkled red party dress.
There was something kind of weird about her. Logan frowned, staring into the display. She was tall and short haired, and either the least appealing woman he'd ever seen or not actually...
He actually gasped aloud and turned, sprinted for the loading bay and hit the release for the ship's ramp. A moment later, the blond woman started pushing the... the man in the red dress up the ramp. And this close, there was no way to mistake it, no way Logan could possibly be wrong.
"Hi," the blond woman greeted him. "I think I found something that belongs to you."
Logan breathed, "James...?"
Part Eight