Freedom Incorporated (22 page)

“
I don’t want
to turn you in,” Dan said, his selfishness contrasting with her
altruism.

“
Huh? What
kind of bounty hunter are you?” Jen squinted past the lowering sun,
shading her eyes with her palm.

“
I mean…” It
clicked. There
was
a way it could be done, or so he though. “We can keep both of
you safe without handing you over, if you’re willing to trust me
again. Will you?”

“
I don’t think
I have a choice,” she said uneasily. She just hoped he was right
and that Samantha and Cookie wouldn’t be in danger.

“
Good.” Dan
swerved too late and the car shuddered on a pothole masked by the
slanting light. “Where do you live?”

*

Wednesday, September 15,
2066

UniForce
Headquarters

22:07 San Francisco,
USA

Esteban’s head
lolled back as Michele worked her mouth over his erection. He
clenched a fist so tight it whitened his knuckles and gouged
fingernail grooves into his calloused palms. Shivers of delight
coursed through his body as she crafted her splendid magic. And he
moaned, “Oh, yes.” His whisper slithered through the air but fell
on deaf ears. Michele was busy. She was concentrating on her
pleasuring herself just as much as she was pleasuring him. She
worked her free hand down between her legs, rubbing
with
her fingers and
moaning in time with Esteban. She had to restrain herself from
mounting him. The last time she’d tried that he’d beaten her,
ending their orgy of pleasure.

It was their
typical Wednesday ritual, though it would happen on any evening
that Esteban was horny enough to stay back for a lube-job. They
were in Michele’s office, an odd combination of forged
sophistication and childish trinkets. The contrast was almost
perverse
.
A
long the eastern wall there was a
floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that she’d somehow managed to fill with
literary masterpieces – none of which she’d read. The last piece of
Esteban’s mind that wasn’t chasing his orgasm wondered whom she’d
asked for help in selecting the books. He knew she didn’t have the
schooling to understand the difference between
Dr Seuss
and
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
.
Encyclopaedias and a myriad of other reference tomes helped fill
the remaining space, though none of them showed signs of ever
having its cover opened. It reminded Esteban of a slow-witted
neat-freak’s Mecca.

Her desk was
somewhat less studiedly urbane. A pencil holder collected colourful
pens that had metallic chains and luck-charm
s
attached to their
end
s
. There was a
cube sitting next to her mouse that had fragmented UniForce
pictures on it, part of an advertising campaign the company had
launched eight months earlier. Esteban remembered that his own cube
had lasted about five minutes. But it’d been very entertaining;
he’d been enthralled for at least two of those five minutes. Then
he’d promptly torn it apart and chucked it in the bin, enjoying the
destruction even more than the intended entertainment. The purpose
was –
Uh…
Esteban
thought,
there was no
purpose
– to keep flipping the little cubes
and watch as picture after UniForce-pro picture formed and
dismantled. Michele’s cube looked as though it had received just as
much attention as her mouse, if not more. And Esteban wasn’t
surprised to see a
standard
Q
werty keyboard on her desk; she hadn’t
grasped the significance of any other input device. Besides, all
keyboards were equally slow if you had to comb them for every
key.

Esteban was close and he
pulled Michele by the back of the head to hurry it along. She
moaned, sending vibrations through his flesh.

The western wall was
electric-fibre glass. Touching a button on the control panel would
have provided the squirming pair with a brilliant autumn skyline,
complete with stormy clouds and heavy rain over San Francisco
harbour in the distance. As it was, the electrical impulses zipping
through the opaque material stained the wall with colourful
blotches, transforming it into a garish tapestry. Esteban had never
deciphered what the picture was supposed to be, and he didn’t want
to ask Michele because he feared she’d bore him senseless with her
reply. Whatever it was, he knew it kept Michele spellbound. He’d
caught her staring trance-like at it on more than one occasion,
including tonight when he’d entered her office for his sexual
sortie.

He massaged
the sensitive spots behind her ears just as he
climaxed.

“
That was
good.” It was the closest he intended to get to intimacy.
Why bother?
As far as
Esteban was concerned, intimacy was a tedious tool sometimes
required for seducing a woman. But Michele was easy prey; she even
enjoyed it, so counterfeit intimacy was out of the
question.

Michele rocked
back onto her knees, her plump breasts pointing in opposite
directions. “Yeah, it was.” She’d enjoyed it, that was true, but
she was disappointed that she hadn’t
orgasmed
as well.

Esteban
lurched off the desk, leaving behind a streak of sweat that he’d
let Michele clean up. Then he collapsed onto the couch, which she’d
strategically placed in the far corner of her oversized office, and
invited her to sit opposite. She would
’
ve preferred to sit on his lap
but she knew he wouldn’t allow it.
Michele was surprised he hadn’t left already; he
usually departed quickly after their sinful act.

Look at her,
sitting there.
A wave of contempt crashed
inside Esteban’s mind and he had to repress the sudden and
immediate urge to needle her with what he really thought. He
would’
ve equally
enjoyed urinating on her, but he figured there was a limit to
what she could effectively clean up – the stink of urine was hard
to remove. She revolted him.
That
dim-witted smile…
How he hated it when she
smiled. It highlighted her stupidity.
What
a dumb fucking cunt.
He personally believed
that people as stupid as Michele shouldn’t be allowed to breed. And
he had a knife that he
would’ve
enjoyed plunging into her
throat to rid the world of another brainless bitch.

Even tactfully
sensitive people had to admit that Michele wasn’t first in line
when the Great Maker was handing down intelligence. She’d only
received half a helping. She’d found school utterly
bewildering
and
had
dropped off the Department of Education’s radar in year ten.
Afterwards she’d waited on tables to save up enough money to attend
secretary school. She’d passed without knowing how to type by
giving the instructor a night he’d never forget, one that left him
grinning stupidly until she showed him her videotape of the
encounter and asked what would happen if somebody mailed a copy to
his wife. So, with her newly framed certificate of secretarial
competence, she applied for a job in UniForce and commenced work in
the mailroom. Not only did that give her a toehold into the
giga-corporation, the mailroom provided her with the perfect place
to have sex with anybody who could help her climb the corporate
ladder. She was so sexually proficient that in five short years
she’d shoot straight to bounty co-ordinator. Now, aged 26, she was
at the apex of her sexuality and positively oozed pheromones,
wafting them with potent experience. But considering the sheer
number of her sexual partners, it was little wonder that Esteban
didn’t trust her to initiate intercourse.
She’s probably diseased.
It left a
sour taste in his mouth.
What a
waste.

But not even Esteban had
guessed he was sharing Michele with Jackie Donald. And, thankfully,
Jackie assumed she was the only one in Michele’s epidemic love
life.

“
How’s our
little side business going?” Esteban watched the sparkle in her
eyes and took it as a sign that she’d at least understood his
question.

“
Great,” she
said, smiling benignly. “I’ve been doing what you said, putting 75
percent back and keeping 25 percent for us.”

Esteban
snuffed a sneer before it could rise to his lips.
Us? Uh, yeah, okay whatever you
reckon.
He didn’t intend to share
any
thing
with her.
“What’s it up to now?”

She frowned for a long
time, tracing a perfectly painted fingernail across her cheek. The
action squeezed her breasts together and they bulged forward,
snaring Esteban’s attention despite his satisfied libido. “A bit
more than three million, I think.”

He nodded. His
target was five, and he wouldn’t make his move before then. He’d
helped her establish the accounts in such a way that it would be
easy for him to make the money disappear
.
And nobody’ll be the
wiser
. He
intended
to
tell Michele the
UniForce
accountants had
discovered
their money,
assumed somebody had made an
innocent
error
,
and absorbed it into the company’s
coffer. Then he’d warn her to keep her mouth
shut.
If she posed even the slightest
threat, he’d arrange for her to have an accident. But for now, she
was useful: they’d set everything up from her computer so Michele
would take the rap if anybody noticed their creative accounting.
They’d had to fiddle with the numbers to make it work, but Esteban
had made it possible with his thoroughly diabolical idea of selling
exclusive lists twice. But it hadn’t stopped there. They’d oversold
all the lists, even the amateur ones. “Well, that’s good,” he
finally said.

Michele had
plans of her own. She wasn’t quite as stupid as Esteban assumed;
she knew he’d never move away with her. Besides, she liked working
for UniForce. She liked the mural on the glass, the promotional
cube, and the large office.
And the
sex,
her mind added as an afterthought.
There was a guy down in marketing, Luke, who was really in love
with her. She beamed another smile at the idea, another grin which
Esteban took for vacant thoughts. Michele was
still
working on
Luke
; she nearly had the courage to
tell him about the money. She wanted to tell him the stash could
all be theirs if they just eliminated Esteban Garcia
Valdez.

“
How about the
top level lists?” Esteban asked pointedly, directing her obviously
wandering attention back to what he really wanted to know. The
money was incidental; he had plenty of money and little need for
more.
More is nice…
But it wasn’t the reason for hatching this particular
scheme.

“
What about
them? They’re selling just as well as the others…”

“
I mean,” he
said, doubting whether someone of Michele’s inferior mental
attributes would twig to his true interest, “Dan Sutherland and the
Raven. Are they still the only two who’ve bought double-sold
exclusives?”

She nodded
mutely.

“
Then they’re
the only ones who’re in a position to see what we’ve done. The
other top hunters are still working on private lists and losers
share theirs anyway.” He saw that she didn’t understand and it
frustrated him that he had to explain so much. “Well have they
complained? How are they going? They’re our pilot group. If they
don’t show signs of misbehavi
our
then we can start
double
-
selling the
others.” Esteban
didn’t intend
to double
-
sell exclusive lists
to anyone
except
Sutherland and the Raven, but he wasn’t about to share that
information with Michele. He’d meticulously chosen a list-partner
for Sutherland. And since the Raven had the most ruthless record,
he’d deliberately stitched them together. Now he was wondering how
long it would take before they cracked, and who would crack
first.

“
No, they
haven’t complained. Oh… do you think they will?”

Esteban
couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “Eventually they’re going to say
something. They’re paying for exclusive lists
and
surely they’ll notice we’re not
giving them what they’ve paid for.”

“
But won’t
that blow the whistle?”

Esteban was
trying to mask his keen interest in Dan Sutherland. “That’s what
we’ve got to find out. Don’t worry about it; I can take care of
them if they make
any
trouble. Okay?”

She nodded,
wishing he’d never talked her into doing something so risky.
It’d be smarter to leave the exclusive lists
alone.
Though she had to admit she was
enjoying the praise Jackie lavished on her for transforming the
bounty-hunting branch into UniForce’s strongest growth sector. It
made her feel useful and she prized that more than anything.
Finally she had something she was good at.