Eros at Zenith: Book 2 of Tales of the Velvet Comet (8 page)

“In Intensive Care.”

“Overdose?”

The Dragon Lady nodded.

“Let's take a look,” said the Black Pearl.

They walked to the Intensive Care Room, where a lovely young brunette was stretched out on one of the beds, a number of monitoring devices attached to her body. A middle-aged man, attached to an identical machine, lay on the next bed.

“How serious is it?” asked the Black Pearl.

“The doctors feel that they got to him soon enough.”

“What about Weeping Willow?” asked the madam, indicating the unconscious girl.

“She's a little worse off,” replied the Dragon Lady. “She was already comatose when we got there.”

“Will she live?”

“Oh, I'm quite certain that she will.”

“When she recovers, tell her she's fired,” said the Black Pearl.

“Are you quite sure?” asked the Dragon Lady. “There are extenuating circumstances in this case.”

“Because
he
brought the drugs? Show me a tape that proves he held a gun to her head and forced her to take them, and she can stay. Otherwise, she's out. She knows the rules, and considering what we're paying and who we're servicing, one offense is all anyone gets.”

The Dragon Lady shrugged. “What about
him
?”

“Have the hospital bill his account, keep him here for three days, and put him on the next shuttle to Deluros. And while Security is your concern and not mine, I'd sure as hell fire whoever was working the airlock when he smuggled that stuff aboard.”

“He brought it up more than a year ago,” replied the Dragon Lady. “I checked the readout of his luggage and his person, and it was negative, so on a hunch I went to the hydroponics garden.”

“Alphanella?”

The Security Chief nodded. “He must have brought up a packet of alphanella seeds when he was here last year. I found a pair of plants that seemed to be about 15 months old.”

“Well,
that's
a new angle.”

“I still don't know who tended them, though. I've got Oglevie and the computer scanning all our tapes from the garden, but they haven't come up with anything yet.”

“Maybe you ought to press Mr. Crane into service,” remarked the Black Pearl. “He likes a challenge.”

“Perhaps I will,” agreed the Dragon Lady.

“At least it'll keep him out of my hair,” said the Black Pearl. “By the way, where's Infante?”

“We moved his body to one of the private rooms.”

“Good. Well, there's nothing more to see here.”

The Black Pearl walked back to the waiting room, followed by the Security Chief. A moment later a male patron wandered in, explained somewhat disjointedly that he had had a bit too much to drink and was suffering from a violently upset stomach, sat down, and promptly passed out.

“How long before Weeping Willow is awake?” asked the Black Pearl.

“Three hours, possibly four.”

“I don't see any reason for sitting around here until she's cogent enough to fire,” said the madam. “Would you care to come back to my apartment for a drink?”

“Why not?” said the Dragon Lady, getting to her feet.

They walked out into the Mall, took the slidewalk to the airlock, and then rode the tramway back to the Resort. A few moments later they entered the Black Pearl's office, walked through it, and then entered her opulently-furnished bedroom.

“It's nice to get out of this thing,” said the Black Pearl, removing her intricately-woven beaded garment. “It itches like the devil!”

“Someday I must tell you about an outfit
I
used to wear,” remarked the Dragon Lady. “It was all leather, from the neck right down to the five-inch heels. The only things that were exposed were my breasts and my crotch. I must have sweated off ten pounds every time I wore it.”

“Then why did you bother?”

“Because I sweated off ten pounds every time I wore it,” said the Dragon Lady with a laugh. “I wonder if any of the patrons know just how uncomfortable most of these outfits are.”

“It would spoil the illusion,” said the Black Pearl wryly, as she slipped into a nondescript orange jumpsuit and uttered a sigh of relief. “Ah! That's better.”

A small chirping noise came from another room.

“Feeding time at the zoo,” said the Black Pearl, heading off in the direction of the sound.

“I'm not sure that
zoo
is the proper word for it,” said the Dragon Lady, following her.

“Maybe not,” she agreed, passing through a doorway into a warm, very humid room. “But you'll never convince me that
garden
is any better.”

When both of them were inside the room, the Black Pearl ordered the door to close.

“I don't remember it being quite this warm before,” remarked the Dragon Lady.

“I've been experimenting with the temperature,” answered the Black Pearl. “I think they do a little better if I simulate mild seasonal changes.”

The Dragon Lady came to a stop, and looked at the row upon row of delicate flowers that were carefully arranged on utilitarian tables, three dozen large ones potted individually and perhaps one hundred smaller ones laid out in flats. They were completely transparent—stem, leaves, stamen, calyx, petals—but they seemed to glisten and glow with life, as the fluid that flowed through them made hypnotic whirling patterns that seemed to catch and hold the room's artificial light.

Three or four of them were making tinkling little chirping sounds until the Black Pearl poured a reddish powder into a large container of water and began stirring it. Then suddenly the entire room became filled with more and more persistent chirpings that soon began to sound almost harshly insistent.

“In a minute,” crooned the Black Pearl, stirring the mixture. “I'm almost done.”

A moment later she began walking among the flowers, pouring perhaps two ounces of the water and additive at the base of each. The flowers that were so treated soon began uttering contented trilling noises, and then fell silent, while the others increased their musical jabbering to the point where it almost resembled panicky shrieking. It took two more containers of the mixture before all of them had been fed, and once more the room was silent, except for an occasional gentle trilling.

“Could you turn out the light for a minute?” asked the Dragon Lady.

“It's not time yet,” replied the Black Pearl. “I don't want to confuse them.”

“Just for a minute. Then you can turn it back on.”

The Black Pearl smiled and ordered the light to shut off—and an instant later the room was bathed in the living glow of the crystalline flowers.

“Just beautiful!” commented the Dragon Lady. “You know, sometimes when I'm on duty late at night, I activate the cameras in here and just stare at them.”

The Black Pearl commanded the light back on. “Do you really?”

“Yes. What are they worth on the open market these days?” asked the Dragon Lady curiously.

“There's no
open
market for them, unless you live on Doradus IV—but you can get, oh, maybe five thousand credits apiece for the big ones, and two each for the babies.” She paused. “You can have one for free, if you'd like.”

The Security Chief shook her head. “They take too much work to keep alive.”

“It's not easy,” agreed the madam.

“Then why do you bother?”

“I like to do it. I think when I quit here, I'm going to raise Night Crystals for a living.”

“That's a long time in the future.”

“Don't bet on it,” replied the Black Pearl. “I've saved a lot of money—and of course I get
very
good investment advice from some of our patrons. I plan to be off the
Comet
and out of the business within three years.”

“I think that raising flowers—even Night Crystals—for a living would bore you to tears,” said the Dragon Lady firmly.

“It hasn't yet.”

“You haven't done it full-time yet,” answered the Dragon Lady. “The
Velvet Comet
is a difficult habit to break.”

The Black Pearl laughed. “You think I have an insatiable desire to sleep with another 5,000 strangers?”

“You don't do that anymore unless you want to,” replied the Security Chief. “I'm talking about running the ship.” She paused, then added: “You have the capacity to be one of the best madams we've had.”

“It's nice of you to say so, but I've got more to do with my life than be remembered as a legendary madam.”

“I didn't say you
were
. I said you had the capacity to
become
one. You still need more seasoning.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. You're very much like Mr. Crane in that respect.”

“
Him
,” she said contemptuously.

Suddenly a number of the Night Crystals started moaning gently.

“Let's go back to my office and talk there,” said the Black Pearl. “They're very sensitive to human emotions, and if you plan to talk about the Republic's Greatest Detective any further, it's just going to get them all upset.”

She ordered the door to open and walked through it, followed by the Dragon Lady. It slid shut behind them, and a moment later they were seated on a pair of comfortable sofas in the office.

“Can I offer you something to drink?” asked the Black Pearl.

“A Cygnian cognac would be nice.”

“Coming right up,” she replied, searching through her stock of liquors. “Speaking of the boy wonder, how is his investigation coming along?”

“I suspect he'll be through with it in two or three more days.”

“That fast?” she asked, startled. “He knows his stuff; then?”

“He's
very
good,” said the Dragon Lady. “I don't think I'd want to be the killer right now.”

“Then in your opinion we still need him?” said the Black Pearl reluctantly, handing the Dragon Lady her cognac and sitting down opposite her with a mixed drink of her own.

“Absolutely,” said the Security Chief. “I would never admit it to
him
, but he has already discovered a number of things that I overlooked.”

“Such as?”

“Such as the fact that the body had been moved. I had been up and down that tunnel three times, even though I'd been ordered to wait for him, and I walked right by the ventilation shaft each time. I never ever thought to look into it. He's not just smart—he's thorough.”

“Now if he could just acquire a personality...”

“He isn't a finished product yet.”

“I don't think I follow you,” said the Black Pearl.

“He's like a very good wine,” replied the Dragon Lady. “He'll get better with age.” She smiled. “Just like you.”

“Maybe I'll get better—but unlike Mr. Charm, I already know how to conduct myself in public.”

“That's your job. His is catching murderers.”

“You sound as if you admire him,” said the Black Pearl.

“I admire his ability. And,” added the Dragon Lady, “I find him rather attractive.”

“You're kidding! Don't tell me you go for the gaunt, ascetic type?”

“I take it that you don't think he's good-looking?”

“He reminds me of Cassius,” replied the Black Pearl. “He's got a lean and hungry look about him.”

“I hadn't noticed,” said the Dragon Lady.

“I thought it was your job to observe people,” the Black Pearl pointed out.

“Possibly he only appears lean and hungry when he looks at
you
. You're a very beautiful woman.”

“This ship is overrun with beautiful women. Why pick on me?”

“Sexual chemistry isn't always predictable. One can't always choose the object of one's desire.”

“What are you talking about?” demanded the Black Pearl. “I don't even like him!”

“I wasn't referring to you,” replied the Dragon Lady.

“I think Mr. Crane is the one with the problem, and because he is a very private and very fastidious man, I think he resents it.”

“Why take it out on me?”

“I think he's taking it out on himself. You just happen to be in the way.”

“That's the silliest thing I ever heard.”

“If you say so.”

The Black Pearl was silent for a moment. “Do you really think so?”

“It's a possibility.”

“As if I didn't have enough problems!” she muttered.

The Dragon Lady merely shrugged.

Suddenly the Black Pearl looked sharply at her.

“If you find him so damned attractive, why don't
you
go to bed with him? It might make life a little easier on all of us.”

The Dragon Lady smiled. “I'd be happy to,” she said sincerely, “but I think he's much too conventional.”

“He has something against prostitutes?”

“No. But I think he looks upon me more as a mother figure than a bedmate. I'm too old for him.”

“You're not that old.”

“I agree. But it's Mr. Crane who will need convincing.”

“So convince him.”

“I don't want to shock him,” said the Dragon Lady. “After all, I have to continue working with him.”

“I wonder what he's doing now?” mused the Black Pearl.

“Well, considering that it's currently 0500 hours, I imagine he's sleeping.”

“Alone?”

“I have no idea,” said the Dragon Lady.

“It might be interesting to find out,” suggested the Black Pearl. She activated her tabletop computer and asked it who Crane had selected as his companion.

“Well, I'll be damned!” she exclaimed a moment later, looking up from a small readout screen. “Your Mr. Crane isn't quite as conventional as you thought.”

“Oh?”

“He selected Chocolate Pudding!” said the Black Pearl, amused. “I'll bet she's got him chained to the bed and is whipping the hell out of him.”

“I don't think so,” said the Dragon Lady.

“It's her specialty,” noted the madam. “That's why people ask for her.”

“I don't think that's why Mr. Crane asked for her.”

“What other reason could he have?” asked the Black Pearl.

“That should be obvious.”

“Not to me, it isn't.”

“Look at her, and then look at yourself in a mirror,” suggested the Dragon Lady. “You're both black, you're both tall, you both have large bustlines. In fact, she's even wearing her hair in a similar style these days.”

“There may be a vague superficial resemblance, but we hardly look alike!” scoffed the Black Pearl.

“Then let's just say that a vague superficial resemblance was the best he could do on the spur of the moment.”