Dialene Read online

  "Yeah, suuuure ..." I snickered.

  "What did you uncover Cam?" Chuck asked.

  "Well, I had one of our own psych eval people go over it, as well as an old friend of Samantha's father who I remembered. And who coincidentally has some fairly good sources of information. Turns out our Mathew is something of a spoiled rich kid, with some strong prejudices about 'fraternization' as it were."

  "So why'd he stop when Sabre left?" I asked.

  "Maybe he thought she would straighten out."

  "Then why keep seeing her now that he's back?"

  "Cause he likes to get laid? I don't know. Read the reports if you want to know more." Cam replied.

  "Did you tell this old friend of her father’s about Sabre?" Chuck asked looking concerned. And when a large tiger looks concerned, I worry.

  "Of course, but don't worry about it. He's not about to say anything that would hurt Samantha. He was okay with it."

  "So how do we keep her from showing up, without raising his suspicions?"

  "Cold." I said.

  "Huh?" They both asked.

  "She gets sick, something mild, something that would make her want to stay home. Cold, flu, diarrhea. Come on we have access to a doctor, we just put something in her food Friday morning, by that evening she calls him, tells him she's sick and calls it off. Or if we haven't seen any signs at the beach house, we do it to her Saturday morning."

  They both nodded. "Good idea."

  I grinned. "Hey, that one was easy."

  We got the report Thursday that our surveillance team had picked up a crew moving into the beach house. The photos they provided were pretty damning. We dosed Samantha Friday morning, and by the time the evening came around she was so miserable that she called Mathew without prompting and called the whole thing off.

  What was even more damning was his trying to convince her that the beach would do her cold good this time of year, and he wouldn't even mind taking care of her if she didn't feel better immediately. He tried very hard to talk her into it, and I was listening in, hard not too when she called him from the kitchen. She was almost about to give in when I nudged her and shook my head. She turned him down and hung up and looked at me.

  "You know, that was almost starting to sound good. So tell me why I told him no."

  "Thirty percent chance of rain," I lied. "I saw it when I was checking my flight plans. If you go there and it rains you'll really get sick and probably miss work Monday."

  "Oh!" She smiled and ruffled my ears, "Thanks, yeah it's not worth the chance. I have that big kick off meeting to preside over Monday. I'd hate to miss it." And she shuffled off to bed, sneezing.

  Cam came up and snickered, "Now that, was quick thinking."

  I grinned, "A life of unclean living. So what's your excuse?"

  "Years of hard work."

  We both had a laugh and went to brief Chuck on what had gone down. As all estate calls were taped we had no problem verifying the phone conversation.

  "So what next?" He asked with a sigh.

  "We tell Sabre, what else?" I said.

  "Yeah, I guess you're right." He started to get up.

  "Hey!" I pointed to the chair, "I didn't say we tell him right away!"

  "So when do we tell him?"

  "I believe that we are all going to New York City for some charity affair next Saturday, and that our friend Matt will be attending as well. I say we get everyone in a room and tell him then."

  "You know what will happen, don't you?" Chuck said.

  "Do you have a better idea? Let's just be prepared to deal with it. Besides, he only takes two guards with him, and they're pretty pathetic compared to what we mount. A whole lot easier than letting an enraged Sabre lead a strike team to his estate, right?"

  "Good point." Chuck nodded. "I'll bring in our best trained, and make sure we're ready for anything."

  We made some plans after that. Most of them dealt with cleaning up the mess we were sure that would be left.

  Saturday came and the three of us were all very uptight. Sabre gave Chuck and me a look that made it clear he knew something was up. We just shrugged.

  The day went well, the whole charity thing went well. We were back at the hotel, Samantha and Matt had eaten dinner and retired to his room. Sabre came into the room we were supposed to share that night down the end of the hall.

  "Okay, now what the hell is going on? You and Chuck promised me an explanation, and I see you packed the entire Alpha team. So what's up?"

  "Don't take your jacket off, come on."

  "Where are we going?" he asked following me out of the room.

  "To answer all of your questions." I keyed my com unit, "Alpha Alpha check."

  "That was not the standard radio check," he said softly.

  "Nope, we have someone we want you to meet. Just remember that we have to clean up the mess you make, and try to be neat."

  "I don't know if I like the sound of that," he growled again.

  "Oh trust me, you will." I stopped outside of Samantha's room and knocked on the door.

  He looked at me strange. "Where are the door guards?"

  "Busy."

  The door opened, it was Samantha, she was still dressed. "Dialene? What's going on."

  I pushed the door open and Sabre followed me into the room. Matthew was standing on the other side of the room, his coat on the bed, a drink in his hand.

  "What's the meaning of this intrusion?" He said rather indignantly. "Samantha, you really give your pets way too much free range!"

  "I have no idea what's going on either Mathew, and please don't refer to them as 'pets' you know I despise that term."

  Well two points for Samantha, I thought.

  "Well Dialene, what's going on here?" Sabre asked.

  I noticed Samantha had had the good sense to close the door. I pointed to Mathew, "There's our man. He's the one who's been behind all the attacks on Samantha."

  "What?!" Cried Samantha, sounding very upset.

  "What!!" Roared Mathew, but his body language was more fear then outrage.

  "You positive?" Sabre asked in a very soft voice, his eyes narrowing on Mathew.

  "Yes. We've been onto him for several weeks now. The clincher was the trip to the coast, he was the only person Samantha told, and in private. Yet three days later a team of people mined that place with a lot of explosives. And when she canceled, he tried real hard to talk her into still going."

  "What are you talking about? I've done no such thing!" Mathew said sputtering indignantly. He turned to Samantha, "I've always told you they hated me Sam! Can't you see? Listen to these insane lies! I'd never hurt you, you know that!"

  "Dialene?" Samantha said, I turned to look at her.

  "Yes Sam?"

  "You're sure it's him, aren't you?"

  "As best as we can figure it out, he doesn't like your and Sabre's relationship, and that you're soiled goods, better off dead."

  She turned to Mathew. "Is this TRUE Mathew?"

  "Of course not Sam!" He was sounding desparate now, Sabre had move closer to him, and was softly growling and showing his fangs.

  "I've always told you what would happen if you didn't get rid of these animals! That they'd corrupt you! Now they want to kill me, after all I've done, they don't want me to save you!"

  "Alpha Beta Check" I whispered into my com.

  "You did it didn't you?" Samantha said shocked. She paused a moment as she walked closer and her voice changed, and took on a much nastier tone. "You Bastard! After all these years! I thought you were my friend Mathew!"

  "I could never be friends with someone who sleeps with animals!" He sneered.

  "I can't believe you would betray me like this Mathew! People died! How could you?

  "So some animal got killed, big ..." That was the wrong thing to say, Sabre growled and grabbed him by the throat, cutting him off mid sentence and dragging him to the center of the room.

  "Remember what I said about making a mess Sabre!" I h
issed.

  Samantha walked over to Sabre and placed her hand on his arm.

  "I'm sorry hon, this is all my fault. I didn't know any of this was going to happen. But I've learned my lesson." She looked up at Sabre, "Will you marry me Sabre? I can see now that you're the one who really cares."

  I was watching Mathew's eyes. He had thought I guess that she was talking to him. But when she asked Sabre to marry him, his eyes bugged. And from the smile on Sabre's face, I think he might have noticed it too.

  "Of course love." He leaned over and kissed her, still holding Mathew by the neck, at arm's length.

  "What do you want me to do with this piece of trash?"

  "Kill that bastard," she growled. "He needs to pay for what he did to Tigg, and what he tried to do to us."

  "Yes love," He smiled and I saw his arm flex and heard a loud cracking noise. Mathew started to jerk and kick, his whole body going into convulsions as his hands tried to tear at Sabre's hand.

  Sabre just stood there and smiled as Mathew suffocated, his windpipe crushed. I could smell it when he died and messed himself.

  "I need a kit Chuck," I said keying the com unit.

  "That clean enough Dialene?" Sabre growled.

  "Yes Sabre, thanks. Now pack your things Samantha, we have to move quickly now."

  She nodded, and Chuck entered the room with a body bag.

  "Gee, this wasn't as bad as we feared." And he took the body from Sabre and bagged it. He tossed me a small grenade. "Got this from one of his men."

  "Good, I'll pack his stuff. We're still on plan I guess."

  "Okay, see you back at the estate." And picking up the now full bag he left the room.

  I went and started to pack Mathew's stuff up, it didn't take me long before I was finished. I handed the bag to Sabre and set the timer on the bomb for fifteen minutes and slipped it under Mathew's side of the bed.

  "So what's the plan?"

  "Sam, you call the front desk now and inform them that Mr. Morrisey was called away suddenly and you've decided to check out early as well."

  She nodded and did exactly as I asked. I checked my watch, ten minutes.

  "Okay, head for the landing pad on the roof, we need to do this just right."

  I grabbed Mathew's bag, looked around to make sure we hadn't missed anything and followed them out. Sabre held the elevator door for me, and we made the roof in two minutes. We climbed in the aircar and the last two of the security team followed. I signaled Cam and he took us off. We'd gotten about a hundred meters when the bomb went off, blowing out the windows of that room and starting a fire there.

  I gave the code for an attempt on Samantha's life, and we set up our emergency routes and high-tailed it back to the estate. We only made one little side trip to drop some trash in a bin, that mysteriously burned up.

  "So what about his body? The car? His guards?" Sabre asked me quietly once we were back at the estate and alone.

  "Taken care of. There's nothing to be found, and only Cam, Chuck, Myself, and three of the team that was with us know anything about what happened. Everyone else thinks Mathew left early. The bomb was clearly planted on his side of the bed, and everyone knows someone has been trying to kill Samantha. We made sure a few clues were left around. It'll take them a while, but we think they'll figure out what Mathew was up to."

  "Yeah, but that makes us prime suspects!"

  I shrugged, "So? There's no body, and no evidence of a crime. He may have just gone underground because he knows how corporations react to people who try to kill their Vice Presidents. Anyway, once they figure out what he was up to, I have a feeling their whole investigation will lose steam."

  He nodded and gave me a hug, "I'm gonna miss Saturday nights with you hon."

  "You and me both," I sighed. "I'd try to talk you into one last fling, but I don't think you will."

  "Well the truth is Foxie," He grinned and picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder, "Sam told me to have one last night with you to thank you for everything."

  I smiled, "She's such a sweetie."

  "Isn't she though?"

  It was definitely a night to remember.

  I yawned and prodded Sabre's side with a foot, "You still with me Hon?"

  He yawned and opened a bleary eye at me. "Just barely. I think you've been rewarded for not only everything you've done, but anything you may have thought about doing as well."

  I snickered and yawned again myself. "Oh and you didn't enjoy that at all?"

  He snagged my foot and pulled me over for a hug. “Oh I enjoyed it all right. You small gals are deadly!"

  I laughed and ruffled him someplace private. "By the way, why is the fur down here a bit shorter the normal?"

  His ears splayed and he kind of grinned, embarrassed. "Well, Samantha kind of had me modified."

  "What?" I asked shocked.

  "Oh I agreed to it, I actually liked the idea."

  "Oh? I didn't notice anything different."

  "You won't. You know she wants children, right?"

  I nodded.

  "Well she had some work done on my genes. Pulled out all that was tiger, and replaced it with the closest human analog there was. Not that hard really, we're still like 60 percent human. She had a picture made of what I would have looked like as a human, not bad really.

  "And what does this have to do with shorter fur on part of your privates?"

  "Oh well," He did that tiger blush thing again. "She had them clone me a testicle with the new sequence and well I had one replaced with the new one last Monday."

  "So now you can get her pregnant?"

  "Yup. I had just suggested we go with in vitro, but she said she's an old fashioned girl and wanted to do it the old fashioned way."

  "Yeah right, 'old fashioned way', with a tiger no less."

  "Hey I didn't hear you complaining."

  "Good point," I grinned. "Well how about one last one for the road? Just to be sure the equipment still works?"

  "Well, maybe just one ..." he purred.

  Part III - Force Majeure

  I stood in line at the company spaceport waiting for my ship to board. It had been a tearful goodbye, but I had to leave for a while. Neither Sabre nor Samantha wanted me to go, not to mention Cam or several of the others. But seeing Sabre all the time and not being able to, well, do any of that anymore, was a bit rough. Three months had gone by and it still made me miserable and moody at times.

  So I told them I needed to leave for a while, work someplace else, some other assignment, until the fires waned a bit and I could get a little mental distance. 'Besides,' I had confided in Samantha, 'you two should have some time to cement things without anyone trying to distract you. And I know if I stay, I will try to distract!'

  She had smiled weakly and nodded and told me I was probably right. Though she hoped I'd come back when I found someone. I told her I would.

  As for her and Sabre, well, they were leaving earth, moving out to Hobson's Choice. It had the biggest company presence off of Earth, with several large shipyards, space docks and other operations. Samantha was taking over as manager of the whole operation. It wasn't as prestigious as being a Vice President here on Earth, but on Hobson she and Sabre could legally marry and no one would give a damn. Well, no one of any importance at least.

  She had gotten me an assignment as a shuttle pilot out at one of the company's deep space operations. This one was fairly tame as the mining operations went, plus it was near a settled planet as well as several other mining operations.

  I boarded the ship and settled in for what promised to be an unexciting trip. About four weeks was what my orders said. I was drafted by flight ops to work on their shuttles, and to do general maintenance like everyone else of course. And I was expected to get some sim missions in to keep current.

  One of the nice things was being treated like a regular person. Coming off a job working for a company VP and having several citations for duty 'above and beyond' and helping to save said VP'
s life several times did a lot to make the security types friendly, and even got me dinner at the Captain's table one night. Sure I've heard that a lot of the Captains at Tri-Star did that with guests, but it didn't change my feelings. I was grateful.

  What should have ended as a quiet trip however, didn't.

  Something I'd heard only rumored back at the mines, and which was rarely mentioned on Earth because it was so far away, was that Tri-Star was at war. Of course back on Earth they weren't referring to it as a war, just an unpleasant set of circumstances. There had been some ships damaged, some places hit, etc. I'd heard very little about it and paid even less attention because we were busy with more important things, and Samantha was not one to engage in idle talk about company business.

  When we got there, the first thing that happened was we were challenged by a small group of company fighters. As we got closer we found there were some more company ships, one was a destroyer, the others were freighters like ourselves. This I all learned at the all hands briefing later on. But basically the mine I was going to had been hit, and was severely damaged, it would be at least a year before it could function again. Several other mines had been hit, though not as bad. And the planet had been hit as well, though that attack had been repulsed with little damage.

  What it meant to me was that I suddenly didn't have an assignment. I was called into a meeting with the twenty five others who had been coming here with the equipment delivery to post to new assignments.

  "As you've all heard, the mine is closed, and will be for some time. Most of the survivors of the attack are heading over to the other mines to help get them back up and running sooner. But there are still too many personnel here for what needs to be done. So all of you, plus the excess personnel and the wounded, will be shipped over to the Luxembourg for transport to one of the company's central routing hubs."

  "What will happen there, any idea sir?" Asked one of the badgers in the group.

  "Sorry, I haven't a clue. You'll probably be re-assigned as per the best interests of the company. These attacks have destroyed or damaged a number of facilities. So I don't doubt that there'll be a number of choices for you, there's a lot of work going on."