Chapter 9

“You again,” the woman at the diner said to Sol, as he walked in.

“Me again,” Sol said. “That steak I had yesterday was great. Can I do that again?”

“Sure, but if you’re here for Nicole, I’d suggest you go eat somewhere else. We all know her here, and she could use some privacy,” she said to him.

“I’ll say,” Sol responded, chuckling. He was early.

So was she.

“Nicole” walked in a moment later. In contrast to when Sol saw her last, she was calm and collected. She didn’t run to greet him. But she did smile.

“Want to go?” she asked.

“Sure,” Sol said, smiling back.

“Give me a second, then,” she said.

She turned to the woman who had greeted Sol. “Thank you, Arianna,” she said.

“Are you coming back ever?” her friend asked.

“Probably not. But if I do, I’ll make sure to say hi,” Erinys responded.

“How can I get in touch with you?” Arianna asked.

“Here,” Erinys said, touching the com Sol had bought her, that she was wearing, like jewelry, on her ear. Arianna pulled out her handheld com. Her com sent her contact routing information to Arianna’s.

“Erinys ... nice name,” she said.

“Thanks,” Erinys smiled. “If you ever need anything ... we’ve been through a lot...”

Arianna saved Erinys the trouble of finishing the sentence. She reached out and hugged her old friend. Erinys hugged back. When they parted, she turned to Sol and grabbed his hand. “Time to go, Captain,” she said.

–

Sol wasn’t happy that Erinys had given her information to Arianna. The less connections Sol had to anyone, the happier he was. But he wasn’t about to hold Erinys to his paranoia. If the Milosians ever decided that Sol was their chief suspect in the murder of Dolgas, the fact that a restaurant owner’s wife in Kastro knew the alias of a shipmate wasn’t likely to seal his fate one way or the other. Letting go of his loner habits was part of becoming a better person, to the extent that Sol had any desire to do that.

They ate like kings, or – at least – tourists, in a cafe at the resort. The meal was quiet, other than a few small exchanges. Erinys was lost in thought, and Sol didn’t want to bother her. She finally opened up when they got into the tender together. “Thank you for coming for me, Sol,” she said to him, finally. “If you hadn’t, I’d have left on my own.”

“Things are that bad?” he asked.

“They have been. For a long time,” she said. “They aren’t worse now.”

“Freedom fucks a person up,” Sol said.

Erinys smiled at him. “Yes it does,” she said. “Once you’ve had a taste of it, its hard to let go.”

“Well, I hope to get you back to freedom as soon as I can. The problem we’re facing now is that Milos went into lockdown – they’re searching all of the outgoing boats,” he told her. “I told them I was here to meet with water importers before I realized that they were going to be doing full inspections on the way out.”

“Do I have a new ID?” she asked.

“Indeed,” Sol said, smirking and handing her a new ID. “I hope you don’t mind the last name.”

“Erinys Nyx ... its a little over the top, no?” she asked. She synced it with her com absentmindedly.

“Erinys was a little over the top,” he countered, smirking.

“I like it,” she concluded. Turning to other matters, she said “I know a guy in the industrial district of Placka ... he used to come into the bar where I worked. I’m pretty sure that he had sex with Arianna a few times.”

“And?” Sol asked.

“He works for Naxos Agricultural, which is...”

“ ... the company that owns the license to distribute water in Milos.” Sol finished her sentence. “Not bad. Do you think he can get us out of here?”

“There’s one way to find out,” she said.

–

Erinys’ contact was a man named Jefford. He was the foreman of a warehouse that was owned by a local, and that Naxos Agricultural rented out to store and distribute incoming shipments of food products. Erinys explained to Sol that he’d made money on the side by skimming some of the food shipments from the warehouse and selling them through shady local dealers. Sol laughed at the thought that this guy might indirectly owe him his livelihood, given that he’d eliminated a Milosian snitch who was helping the feds crack down on behavior that hurt, among others, Naxos Agricultural. With no love for the firm that employed him, Erinys thought that Jefford might be willing to get them onto a shipment bound for Naxos, which would make it easier to rendezvous with Sinaan Reis in a day or so. It would cost something, of course, but – at least for the moment – money wasn’t Sol’s problem.

Sol set the tender down in the industrial district, and waited while Erinys tried to figure out how to contact her old connection. Sol sat in the tender for twenty minutes or so before Erinys climbed back inside and told him that Jefford would be willing to meet them in an hour or so, when he got off of work.

He gave, as the meeting spot, Erinys’ old employer, a local dive bar.

–

“How are your kids?” Erinys asked Jefford when they got situated in the bar. Nobody in there noticed her, but she felt like she stuck out. She hadn’t seen Jefford in a few years. He was now the assistant manager of shipping at the aqua distribution division of Naxos Agricultural’s Milos branch.

“They’re alright,” he said. My Lisa is seventeen, can you imagine it?” he said. Erinys couldn’t. She remembered when he was complaining about their school teachers. “How’s Arianna?” he asked. Arianna and Nicole frequently dealt with the same customers, and so they’d gotten to know a handful. Arianna was always devoting time to extra-curricular activities – anything to help pay the bills, or get a free meal; and Jefford was going through a rough patch with his wife – a constant state of existence for many of the men who Arianna dealt with, somehow. However the men justified their actions didn’t concern Arianna, and definitely didn’t concern Erinys.

“Married, if you can believe it,” Erinys said.

“No shit. Does he have money?” he asked.

“More than we used to, that’s for sure,” she answered.

“Good for her. I knew she could put her many talents to good use,” he said. Erinys grimaced. “So, what can I do for you?”

Sol let Erinys do the talking. His role here was to pay for the drinks. So he sat and watched as Erinys gave their canned explanation: Nicole was running away from her abusive boyfriend, and she didn’t want to buy a ticket on any of the commercial ships because he worked for Cruise Naxos, and had access to passenger manifests from all of the commercial firms. It was a plausible enough story, but Jefford didn’t buy it immediately.

“Placka’s got like, what, a few million people? And there are a handful of other major cities on Milos alone. You need to leave the planet to get away from this guy?” He asked her.

“I’m taking her to my home,” Sol said. “And it isn’t on Milos.”

Jefford raised his eyebrows and smirked. “So you’re the other man in her life,” he said. “I don’t want to lose my job over your love issues, honey.”

“We can pay you,” she told him.

“I need something for me, and something to keep the pilot happy,” he said.

“What’s your price?” she asked.

It was close to double what Cruise Naxos charged, Erinys realized, and it wouldn’t be a cruise. She came close to balking. But Sol cut in, trying to split the difference between a luxury commercial flight to Naxos and Jefford’s price. Jefford met Sol halfway, and Sol put his hand out to shake on it.

Erinys was puzzled by Sol’s willingness to be ripped off. He just smiled naively and thanked Jefford for setting them up.

–

The flight, according to Jefford, left from a spaceport that orbited. The spaceport was, of course, owned by a subsidiary of Naxos Ag. They would be on a tanker, a ship that dwarfed Sinaan Reis in size, but only fit a crew of twenty, once the cargo space was accounted for; and only ten were working it from here to Naxos. The trip would take two days, which would set Sol back on his schedule by about a day. Luckily, the tanker was so used to making the trip from major space ports that it did not have a tender, but it did have a place to dock one. None of the cargo had to be displaced, in other words. But their presence on an industrial tanker was not something that could be explained away, other than to say that the captain approved it (he’d be paid to do that), and that there wasn’t anything else to it. If Naxos Ag used the same crews regularly, there was almost no way they didn’t regularly skim from the top by taking bribes and odd jobs like this one. So long as everybody got their cut, nobody in the brass had to know about anything.

“It is what it is,” he said to himself. The next flight went out in the morning, and Sol was instructed to be there before sunrise. Given that it was now a little after sunset, it became very obvious to Sol that he and his newly rescued date either needed to paint the town, or find a hotel room. But either way, they had some time to kill. The flight would leave the next day in the morning.

“Well, you lived here in Placka. Anything I should see before we leave Milos?” he said to Erinys when they left the bar.

“Not really,” she said. “There are some museums that are probably closed by now. The nightlife is better than Gia’s. But I didn’t go out much when I lived here.”

“Any clubs you know of? Its that or we find a hotel to shack up in for a few hours,” Sol said, screwing up his face.

“There’s a place near the business district that Arianna told me was pretty nice, though I’m not dressed for it,” she said.

“Want to go get a dress?” Sol asked, chuckling.

Erinys looked at Sol blankly then smirked. “Really?” she asked, half incredulously and the other half sardonically.

“Yeah,” Sol said. “Lets go have fun. Its nice to see you.”

“Ok ... there’s a place near here that Arianna always went to. She used to dress provocatively, and she got her best stuff at this place in the Twin Pines Mall. Its like ten minutes from here.”

“Lead on, Mistress Nyx,” Sol said, earning a blush and a toothy smile.

–

Erinys emerged from the dressing room in a bright red outfit that showed off her shoulders, and only came halfway down her thighs. It was the most conservative of the three outfits she had brought in there, and she quickly replaced the other two on their respective shelves. But she looked amazing all the same. It wasn’t low cut – the others were – but it still drew attention to her breasts. When she turned around, Sol saw that it exposed most of her back. She couldn’t have been wearing a bra, either.

She was beautiful, he thought to himself; and she seemed to be glowing. Sol paid for the dress, and she put on her overcoat. The two headed out into early evening.

They left the tender near an elevated train station and took the elevated train into the city center, where the club was located. Placka wasn’t the universe’s largest city – not by far – but it was home to millions of people, and its downtown area was as built up as any other major metropolitan area. The train let them off in the northern outskirts of the city center, a bustling sector filled with fancy design shops, bars, and clubs full of young businessmen and women mingling over drinks.

Sol saw what Erinys had meant when she claimed to be underdressed. Most of the women here were either getting off of work, or had come here hoping to get into bed with – and into the pockets of – one of the many well-dressed men. Sol had worn a more businesslike outfit, one that matched his cover story. Erinys didn’t look like a young professional. But her outfit was a far cry from some of the ostentatious pieces that some of the women were wearing. In other words, she fit in somewhere between the more conservative outfits and some of the showier dresses that the partygoers were wearing. When they arrived at their destination, a club called Olympus, the music wafted onto the street along with a couple of long-legged women who would have blended in at any bar in Kithira.

Erinys walked inside.

–

Nicole had never been confident. But now Nicole was dead. Erinys was confident. She didn’t feel confident. But maybe feeling confident wasn’t what being confident was all about. Maybe, being confident was about pretending you were confident when, in fact, you weren’t.

When Sol asked her to lead the way, Erinys tried to picture how a confident person would lead the way into a dance club wearing a sexy dress, and she tried to do exactly that.

“Coat check,” she heard, almost immediately upon entering. She looked towards where the voice had come from. A machine, built into the wall, advertised an electronic coat check for the low low price of more money than Erinys ever imagined paying someone to simply watch a coat. Looking through the double doors, which opened every second to let customers in and out, though, she saw no winter coats on the dance floor. Sol was taking his coat off, and holding his hand out take Erinys’ coat.

I guess this is what I’m supposed to do, she thought to herself. She tried to take her coat off confidently, as if she’d handed a coat to a machine in a fancy dance club a hundred times in the past. The machine produced two hangers to Sol, one for each coat. After Sol paid, the machine whisked the coats inside its metallic interior. The receipt synced to his handheld. That done, Sol held his hand out. Erinys tried to confidently take it in hers, and they walked into the room.

The music – some saccharine inoffensive crap that was easy to dance to – blared over the speakers, as the DJ offered silly commentary. The place reeked of opulence. From the bar on one wall, that didn’t advertise its prices, to the fine décor – a crystal chandelier with wax candles over the dance floor, paintings of the fabled Martian sunrise over Lake Freedom, and of beautiful people sunbathing on Kimolos – this place was definitely made for a certain class of people.

And it was not made for any other class of people – people like a former waitress at a little cafe in Kastro. Sol, as usual, could fit in anywhere. He looked like one of the Plackans, with simple but businesslike black pants and a no-frills light yellow businesslike shirt, with light blue diagonal stripes. He glanced around the room once as he walked in, and otherwise didn’t pay it any mind. He’d set his sights on the bar. Not a bad idea, Erinys thought to herself. That way. It would be easier to loosen up and not be so stiff.

She heard Sol ask for a whiskey – some fancy Kithiran thing, it sounded like – and then he asked her what she wanted.

“Rum,” she said.

“Anything with it?” the bartender asked her.

“Ice, I guess,” she said.

The bartender, a tall blond woman, smiled broadly. “My kind of girl,” she said. She pulled out a bottle of brown liquid and poured it into a cup with a couple of ice cubes. By the looks of it, she was being more generous with the rum than was strictly necessary. Sol must have already paid, she thought. Erinys noticed back on Piso that he tipped well – one of the reasons that he was always treated well at places like this.

Erinys let the rum sit for a few minutes before taking a sip. The sharp flavor of the alcohol took her by surprise, as it had the last time she’d drank – back on Piso, with Sol – but the flavor was nearly pleasant. Sol didn’t even grimace as he drank his whiskey. They grabbed a table just off of the dance floor.

Erinys sipped her drink and held it up to her cheek. She smiled at Sol expectantly.

“Its nice to see you smile,” he finally said.

“Its just nice to see you,” she said back to him. He smiled back at her. Not wanting to break eye contact, but feeling momentarily self-conscious, Erinys took a sip of her drink.

“So what did you do for the last week or so?” he asked her.

“Oh, God Sol,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything I want to talk about less,” she said.

“Suit yourself. Ready to get back to work? I’m supposed to make a delivery tomorrow,” he said.

“I doubt that’ll happen,” she noted.

“Being a day late ... in this profession ... I’ll be fine,” he said.

“Tell me what to do, and I’m happy to help,” she said, feeling very useless all of the sudden.

“For now, just sit here and smile,” he said. She did, then finished her drink.

“Want to dance?” she asked Sol.

As he grabbed her by the waist and walked her to the dance floor, the rum began to hit. Like that first blast of heat when you walk from an air-conditioned building into the sunlight – a feeling that Erinys remembered from before she moved to Milos – she felt her face slightly flush. She closed her eyes and took it in for a moment, halting her steps.

“Are you ok?” Sol asked her, tightening his grip on her.

She put her arms around Sol’s neck and looked up into his eyes. “Yeah,” she said. And they began to dance.

–

Sol cut himself off from drinking any more whisky after the second glass. They had some time yet, but Sol wanted to be airborne with plenty of time before the flight left. Erinys had no such requirement, and had a third rum. She held her composure well, but her cheeks were red and hot to the touch by the time she put the glass down.

On the dance floor, she’d seemed inhibited, at first. If she had natural rhythm, her body rejected it instinctively. But with the aid of the alcohol, she loosened up over the course of the night. She held Sol less tentatively, which made Sol more comfortable about holding onto her. She danced closer to Sol’s body. They began to brush up against one another more often. And, finally, she began to talk more openly with him.

“Thanks for coming to get me Sol,” she’d whispered to him at one point.

“Of course,” He’d answered.

“Why’d you let me go?” She asked.

“If I could do it over, I wouldn’t have,” he whispered back. He didn’t know whether that was true, but it was easy to say, and it seemed to put her more at ease.

Sol kept his arms wrapped around her waist for most of the time. Then, as one of the songs was on the wane, she leaned back so she could look into Sol’s eyes, and she kissed him. It was a soft kiss, on the lips. But it blossomed into something more. Her tongue tasted sweet like the rum. Sol pulled his body closer to hers. He felt her sigh. Then she pulled back and smiled at him.

Sol checked them into a hotel near the club. It was a higher end place, but nothing palatial. He asked Erinys before checking in whether she wanted her own room. She smirked and said “if you promise to be good, we can get one room.” The price that the machine in the lobby asked for a single room argued convincingly in favor of taking Erinys at her word.

Still, Sol found a room with two sizeable beds. Erinys held onto Sol the entire way to the room. If she needed his support to walk straight, she didn’t show it. But she didn’t let go either.

The room identified Sol’s com and the door opened to a dark room. The lights came on as he walked in. Erinys excused herself to take a shower. She took longer than Sol expected. Sol browsed the news on a large monitor. The news of Dolgas’ murder was not at the forefront of the news, but all of the local sites had it all the same. He navigated to something more vanilla when Erinys stepped out of the bathroom. She’d put her dress back on. Her wet hair was held in a towel above her head. Her shoulders and the tops of her chest glistened. Sol admired her for a moment.

“The shower is so hot,” she said. “I love it. Do we have to leave?” She laughed as she said it.

“Sadly...” Sol began.

“Yeah,” she said back perhaps defeatedly, but her smile didn’t falter.

Sol took a shower next. It was every bit as hot as Erinys claimed. When he got out, the fog on the mirror made it impossible to see anything. He grabbed a bathrobe, put it on, and went back into the dark of the room. Erinys sat in her bed and looked for all the world as if she was asleep. She was on top of the bedsheets. Her hair had dried enough that she’d taken the towel off. She was beautiful, even in the dark. Sol admired her for a moment before climbing into his bed.

“Where’d you go?” she asked.

Sol smiled. “I promised to be good,” he said, smirking in the darkness.

“I hope that’s not what you thought I meant,” she said.

Sol got up and got into bed with her. He had to climb over her in order to fit on the other side. As he straddled her awkwardly, she grabbed him behind the neck and pulled him into a kiss. Sol kissed back without thinking. He wrapped an arm around her. Their legs rubbed together beneath Sol’s robe.

Sol pulled away from her. “Erin, you’ve had a lot to drink,” he said. “Are you sure you want this?”

“Sol, I’ve wanted this since before that night in Thiaki. I regretted sending you back to your ship the moment the door close,” she said. “I couldn’t be more sure.”

“I don’t want to take advantage...” he started.

“I so wish you would,” she said.

When Sol demurred for a moment, Erinys’ eyes widened. “You’re falling in love aren’t you?”

“A little bit,” he said.

“Oh Sol,” she said. “You hardly know me.”

“I want to get to know you more,” he said.

“Believe me, we’ll have time for that,” she said. “Right now though ... I love the idea of you. I love the way you make me feel But I’m not read to love anyone the way you deserve.”

“I never asked you to,” he said.

“But I do want this one thing,” she said, and pulled him in for another kiss. As the kiss deepened, he felt her hands move to the tie on the front of his robe. When the robe gave way to her, she reached down and ran her hands up his shaft softly. Sol had a hard time coming up with a counterargument.

“You want me,” she said, squeezing him. He was hard to the touch.

“Yeah,” he said, unable to verbalize anything else. She smiled without opening her mouth. Her eyes teared slightly. Sol slipped down her body and put his hands on her legs. He ran them up beneath the dress. He grinned when he felt bare skin where panties should have been. Sol pulled the dress up and kissed her right above her slit.

“I shaved for you,” she said. On one had it was a silly statement. But Sol understood it to mean that she’d prepared for this moment. For a second, he had an imagine of her rubbing herself in some hovel over Kastro whole she dreamed of Sol putting his lips on her. He lowered himself down her body and kissed the top of her sex.

“Wait,” Erinys said. “Lie down.”

Sol looked at her quizzically, but did as he was told. He put his head down next to hers. She straddled him, her back to his face, and started to play with his shaft. She cupped his testicles with one hand and ran the tips of her fingers up the shaft. Then she scooted up his body. Sol grabbed her by the ass and pulled her back down on top him, resuming his kissing of her now glistening labia. He felt her lips tentatively close on the tip of his shaft. Even though he was expecting it, it still sent a jolt through his body. He inserted his tongue into her. She sucked half of him into her mouth and hummed to herself in contentment.