15. Recovery
Chi walked after John down towards the launch bays, taking care that he didn't see her. Fortunately he seemed to be deep in his own thoughts and so it was no trouble for her. Almost too easy. As he walked around the last intersection, she moved faster to catch up, and ran directly into Hortan who apparently had not seen her. She started to backtrack, but for some reason or other she caught his eye. He looked straight at her, frowned, and then smiled broadly.
"Hi Ms. Chi. What's with the orange hair?"
"Ehm, Hi Hortan," she looked after John, but he had disappeared completely. She stepped back in the corridor she came from before smiling to the young man. "So, what brings you here my dear?"
Hortan blushed slightly. "I am here to speak with NP, he told me to come here and meet him on something with CLM. Didn't read it too closely." Hortan smiled even more, he looked really happy to see her.
"Oh, okay, then I really shouldn't keep you here. Say hi to NP for me, and take care." She squeezed his shoulder and walked back the way she had come. Just making sure that John didn't see her. She needed to get back to Dau before him, and she already knew how. She sent the messages, paid the right people and moved to the launch bay. She would have to get into her training outfit again, John would want to blow some steam off when he came home with all those delays that had incurred on his trip.
Hortan looked admiringly at the lithe orange topped woman as she manoeuvred deftly in and out of the crowd of people in the corridor. Shucks, now he forgot to ask her why she was wearing a wig. He had almost missed her when he walked down the corridor, but he would recognise her brown eyes anywhere. Ah well, better go and meet NP. He walked with no hurry towards the Priggly Pear, smiling with the memories of the stag party. Somehow the bar had grown more gritty since he was there last, and the lights weren't quite as enticing. Maybe it was due to the large amount of alcohol he had drunk last. He turned into the corridor to the right of the bar and almost ran away again. Azumi, fiddling with a stun gun, not exactly what he expected. Why was she here, and what had happened to NP? In usual Hortan fashion, he couldn't decide what to do, and so froze in place like a deer in the headlights. Or in this particular case, like a mouse in front of an extremely hungry Eo Pit Viper. Azumi finished what she was doing with the stun gun and looked up. She must have missed his big entry, because she took an instinctive step back and rose one hand before laughing out loud.
"Dammit Hort, you scared the shit out of me. Thought you would be Vehement or some other VPR."
"Ahm, eh. I ah am sorry Ms. Azumi, I didn't, eh" he managed to croak before she walked one step closer, effectively stopping his ability to speak at all.
"What, cat got your tongue"
"Mh, I, what, no, I mean" Hortan managed to squeal out before she wiggled her eyebrows at him. His face colour turned from slightly pale with small freckles into a landscape dedicated to the colour red.
"What exactly " she drew her words out long and looked at the floor while moving even closer until she was very close, and then looked up at him directly into his eyes, "is it you are trying to say?" The last came out almost whispering. She reached out for him and played innocently with the zipper on his flight suit, twirling it between thumb and index. She drew it a centimetre down and up again.
"Mh, need, ahem, NP," he managed to croak.
"Hun, you have all of me, and you think of NP?" She released his zipper with a flick of her wrist and pushed him back one step. She looked at him before slowly shaking her head and pushing Hortan to the side so she could exit. She moved with the grace of a ninja-ballet dancer, sliding past him like wind through a grassy field. She looked back and up at him, smiling that special Azumi smile he had only seen once or twice. The real Azumi.
"Later hun, take care now, you hear? And stay away from Lebermac for a while, he is slightly mad. "
And with that she was gone in the crowd, and Hortan regained his vocal faculties.
"..because he had sent me a message." Hortan looked in vain for another glimpse of the piratess, but to late. He put a hand in his pocket to look for his pda, but came up with the pda as well as a TGFT cred stick he had thought he had lost. Strange, he was dead certain that he had checked his pocket earlier that morning, but at least now they didn't have to look for it anymore. He checked the message from NP.
"Meet NP contact from CLM in the corridor next to Priggly. Take care, NP"
Oh, he had read wrong, NP wasn't going to be here after all. He was supposed to meet a....
The wheels inside Hortan's head slowly turned, switches connected, power turned on. "Oh!"
Chi left the small self adhesive spy cam on a pillar facing the docking area. Once it had recorded the next twenty minutes, it would code and then squirt the file to her pda before self de-assembling. Only a grey dust would be left. These gadgets were hideously expensive, but she absolutely needed to record John's face when he once more arrived on station. The delays in Sedina and the malfunctioning storm tracker would probably have him somewhat annoyed, if no absolutely furious. She sent an invite to his pda, asking for some more Krav Maga training. She then hurried to her room to change, better be ready when he arrived.
