Chapter 9

Mary stretched; it had been a long night. Ann, her sister, sprang from her bed, dressing in a hurry. “I start work at the palace today!!” She shrieked in glee. “Yeah, yeah, so glad, uh huh,” Mary grumbled, not quite ready to get out of bed. “Sister, get up! You have to see what I am wearing now! Come on, get up!” She shrieked again, grabbing her sister’s arm and almost pulling Mary out of bed. Groaning, Mary sat up sore all over last night’s job had been a hard one, “Alright, alright, I’m up, geez!” Mary almost growled. She loved her sister, but there were times when she could be a pain in the ass.

Trying not to upset Ann, Mary really didn’t give a rat’s ass about the palace or the empire, but this was a good start for her sister. At least she would be legitimate. Her sister never expressed a real desire to play the games Mary and their guardian did. She also never really wanted to know what Mary was doing when she was away. It seemed that because she could read at a high level, she was in demand for teaching and being a nanny. At sixteen, Ann was extremely beautiful. This slightly worried Mary, making Ann a target. Damn it! With the jobs she was starting to take off the world now, she was gone for days at a time.

Sighing, she knew she worried far too much, but then again, being that worried all these years HAD kept her alive. Thomas was finally starting to slow down, the years having finally caught up with him, but each day, he still stretched with Mary. Hell, Ann had even gotten into the stretching each morning with them. Now, her body was also starting to tone up, making her even more beautiful. This was what Mary was afraid of. A lovely young beauty like her, as innocent as she was, would be fair game to the many playboys among the not-caring royals. Mary listened with pretended interest as her sister Ann prattled on and on about the palace and palace life.

Preparing to leave soon after Ann did, Mary took Thomas aside, “You have to meet her each night, I won’t be here for a week this is the first real high paying job and will be the most difficult to date. If I do this I am afraid I will be in a much larger demand.”

“I don’t see how any job would be difficult for you Mary, your tech is far from anyone’s detection systems,” he said low so Ann wouldn’t hear.

“It’s not the tech I am worried about. It’s the mark he’s been known to pay assassins off. You know I’ll work for the highest amount. I have no loyalty except to my family and Jim, and I don’t really expect him to ask a favor for a long time. As I told him when we went our separate ways, it better be damn important, or I’ll come for you.” she answered.

“Look, Mary, you have a good head on your shoulders. You have been taught by the best of all in the city, hell, the whole world, girl. Oh yes, I know about all your training. I may be old, but I still have ears everywhere, as I heard you do.” Thomas said. Mary smiled slyly. Yes, she had also kept tabs on him. They both smiled and then Mary told Ann to be good as she would be gone for a week and wanted to hear all about it when she got back. Sighing Ann wished her luck and kissed her cheek. After they left, she contacted all her spies in the city to watch Ann. They’d be paid when she returned. With that, she set out to spaceport. She almost had enough to get her own ship. It had taken time, but this job was the one that would get it for her.

The trip out was boring as usual, giving her time to work on her tech. She had kept up with Jim, hearing about some of the improvements he had made. Damn it, he’d already passed her on the cloak, but she had far surpassed him on the voice configure box and the matter-through-matter transmitter. Shit, she felt she was back in the lab with him all those years ago, each trying to outdo the other, sighing she knew he would always outdo her with whatever he was working on. He was brilliant to a fault, and from what she had heard after the war, he had all but disappeared. It seemed his family had lost most of their holdings but was still prized by the emperor.

She had heard about a new space station on the outskirts of the empire with more advanced weapons than anything she had ever heard of. For some reason, she felt that Jim had a hand in that. Checking further, she was sure of it. Then she heard about the shields, son of a bitch. They were what really impressed her. Hell, with those, she could do her jobs directly and never be touched. Oh well, there was always wishing. The ship docked two days later, and Mary was ready. Heading to her contact, she again donned a disguise, this time an old poor woman. The contact wanted her to kill a high-ranking official, nodding she listened to everything. “Alright, first you pay me, but know this: if the man can offer me more, I will forego the job,” she said. Nodding, the man paid her ten times what she was going to ask for. Hmmmm, they obviously thought her tech was better than it was, or, here she sighed, this was a trap.

After the credits were transferred and then confirmed, Mary left on her way to kill the man. Mary had worked the whole time on the ship refining her MTM to pass through the castle walls, which were apparently made of a different stone that interfered with it. Mary had worked a week at home and almost had it, but she needed the real thing to test it on. Passing the castle, she went to a little used wing and took readings, satisfied she set her plan for that night. Checking her network, she found no messages about any traps but was still not sure. Something didn’t feel right.