Cyborg Claude
Episode 6
In the previous episode, Claude heads out for a distraction on the spaceliner’s main concourse. He has a drinking contest with Angela, is tranquilized by Conrad, and gets away thanks to his biomechanics overzealous cleansing of his system and the spaceliner guards watching them. He heads into a restaurant to refuel his system where Min slips him matches with 3C written on them.
Cyborg Claude Main Page and Table of Contents
Claude strode back to the suite after a satisfying meal he ate too fast. His access via another stairwell caused him to walk by the room the Goeken woman had exited. He heard her voice loud and slurred, but not well enough to catch the words. The man’s reply came far quieter. He did not figure out more.
At his door, he stopped with his access card in hand. What was that peeking out from under the door? He squatted and carefully pulled out a small square of pink paper with the word clean written on it. He pocketed it as he rose.
Of course, they would have sent someone to get Salindra and clean the room of all traces of them. What had he missed in Min’s indirect phrasing? He played over their conversation, and it was the first words she had said. The bird was freed without a trace.
He walked down the hall to the stairs he had first used when on the expedition for any distraction. No whoosh of a door this time. Good. He took the steps two at a time up to the concourse.
A Spaceliner guard watched his every move while he headed toward the aft of the great ship, where smaller ships could dock during set periods of the space travel. Most were for supply vessels, but it was not uncommon for yachts to attach for some fun. 3C would be closer to the concourse level and on the starboard side.
He stepped into a Droeken clothing shop for men. While perusing some shirts on a rack, he took in the concourse. Only two spaceliner guards loitered and looked his way. Everyone else either had a destination picked or stood outside restaurants waiting for a seat.
“Can I help you, sir?”
Claude pulled his attention from the concourse and smiled at the well-dressed young salesman. He hadn’t changed his wardrobe since… He cut off that thought before the reminder of the past came to full fruition. However, it must have dampened his smile because the salesman’s brows rose.
Claude waved a hand. “It’s not you. I just realized how old some of my suits must be. I haven’t had a need and nothing quite works now.” He took in the suit the man wore. Casual with no tie and a couple buttons open in the shirt. He hated ties, so this sign proved hopeful of not being offered one.
“Perhaps we can find something new that suits you.” The salesman gave him an examining once over. “I have an idea.”
“Great.”
“Follow me to the back of the store.”
Claude watched as several things were draped over an arm while weaving their way through the store. The salesman hung two sets of attire on hooks in the room, so the pants hung below the shirts and jackets. He had found a higher class store that went to great lengths on presentation. The outfit on the right with a blue-gray shirt, dark jacket and black pants made him laugh.
He received the arched brows again.
Claude composed himself. “She is always trying to get me to wear things like the one on the right.”
“Then she has good taste.” The salesman flashed a grin. “Ready to try it on?”
“Why not? If it fits first try, I’ll tip you well.” His broad shoulders, but otherwise slimmer build usually threw them off. Not that he had spent a lot of time in such stores over the past few years.
That led back to memories of being shot close up and personal by the man he had wretched on earlier. Served him right. He forced his smile to stay on until the salesman slipped out and closed the door to the changing room. His fists clenched. It took several breaths before the desire to punch the wall subsided.
He changed quickly, knowing that time ticked away. Min would have words for him, so maybe he should show up dressed nicely. Though what did that matter? Nothing had come of their relationship over the past decade. No, make that nearly two now.
“I’m too old for this nonsense, but she’s right. I look good.” Maybe he could change his ways and get over the past. He sighed. “But it doesn’t matter, does it?”
He stepped out of the room. “You get a fat tip, but how about some proper shoes?”
The sales man held up a pair of shiny black leather shoes.
He slipped them on. “Yes, your boss needs to give you a raise.”
The salesman laughed. “Oh, I get paid well and love living on a spaceliner.”
“Hmm, shouldn’t have told me that. I might have to shrink the tip.” Claude chuckled. “I’ll be wearing this.”
Soon, he had everything packed up. He received a much higher brow raise for the amount of credits he added for a tip. At least he could make the kid’s day, but would this suit irritate Min? Time to find out and get away from the cats.
Salindra paced the parlor on the yacht. One pair of eyes steadily followed her. The third person sat at the table with his gaze going from the door to the antique clock on the mantle of the fake fireplace. A hologram of a fire would never do a real fire justice, no matter how well the artist designed it.
She could not hide in her room to work since they took all the information to upload it to the agency servers. For the first time in four years, she had absolutely no work to do and no idea what job she would do next. To make it worse, she could not figure out Claude.
She glanced at the man drumming his fingers on the table nonstop. Admiral Hawkins looked out of place in casual clothing, let alone off Droeken on anything other than a warship. If he would stop that drumming, she might find some semblance of calm.
She checked the time. She had paced for over an hour.
Her gaze went back to the younger fellow, who smiled at her. Chancellor Krollin dressed the part and looked totally at ease in his silk suit. He took a sip of his tea, but never stopped looking at her. If he did not help fund the agency so well, she would have slapped him by now. His unwavering gaze made her skin crawl. His reputation as a ladies’ man did not help her feel any better.
She stopped pacing when she heard voices at the door.
“Is he finally coming or what?”
“Yes, he is.”
“Maybe you should have told him we have to depart at sixteen hundred.”
“Maybe he knows what he is doing and is making sure he gets here unnoticed since they know what he looks like.”
Salindra did not recognize the man’s voice, but she knew Min’s. The petite woman from the Zen Free States only went into the field when things were not going well. Usually, she never got off the yacht, but she had just done so to talk to Claude. So, who was Claude to warrant such treatment? He fit the bill of tall, dark, and mysterious from head to toe.
She crossed her arms when a shiver ran up her spine. She had confined herself in her room because she did not trust herself alone with him. While still on a mission, it would have been taboo to go any further. She bit her lip. Four years in the field, with very few interludes to the space station for an agency meetup, did not bode well for her handling of social norms.
“You look like you could use a cup of tea?”
Chancellor Krollin waved a long-fingered hand at the teapot. What did women see in a man so thin, no matter how much money he had? She had no need of money. She shook her head slightly, and he lowered his gaze to his teacup. It was about time he looked at something else instead of her.
“Took you long enough.” The stranger’s voice paused as if waiting for an answer before going on. “You should have known it was important when Min showed up. Someone is searching for answers about you.”
“Probably Blondee.” Claude’s voice held a hint of amusement.
“This is not a laughing matter.”
“I’m not laughing. The guy about killed me on Goeken.”
Heavy steps in the hallway passed the door.
“And did you eat well?”
“If you can call the …”
Salindra heard the faint whoosh of a door not far down the hallway closing. She sighed and resumed her pacing. That snippet made Claude a bigger puzzle in her mind. Why did she want to melt when she looked at him? No one else got inside her barrier. Her resolve had unraveled at the safe house. She stopped before the holographic fire and stared at it, wishing it would give her the answers.
The yacht shuddered with the disengagement process. Claude had barely made it back in time. She put a hand on the mantle to prepare for the slight jolt that would come when the yacht’s hyper-drive kicked in. Her stomach lurched. She hated small ships for this reason. A few seconds later, the queasiness faded.
“I can’t let you out of my sight, can I? Your system is a wreck.”
“Enough, Stefen.” Min’s voice held a warning note, but her features portrayed calm when she stepped into the room. “Greetings, everyone.”
Salindra bowed to Min, but her gaze snapped to Claude when he stepped into the room in a fresh suit. She glimpsed a chubby man in a doctor’s uniform in the hallway. That had to be Stefen giving Claude a lecture.
“This mission was a success. However, it has several repercussions that could cause us issues in the future.” Min looked at each one of them and then at her scrivpad. “I’m hoping these minor incidents have not jeopardized the rest of the project. We need to know what the Goekens are up to and analyze designs of their bioengineering. They may have access to memory alteration and extraction. Just think what they could do if they could read your mind, no matter what you do. Galactic regulations will only go so far in managing such biotech.”
Salindra’s stomach knotted. She had way too much information in her head that could give the adversary the edge. This could mean she would get the desk job she loathed. She glanced at Claude to find him looking at the floor with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“The bad news is that both ops were compromised. The Goekens still have little more than pictures, but they search for the truth. We know two of their ops and have information about them. We win for now because we have more information than they do.”
Min picked up the remote from the table and pointed it at the blank wall to her right. A screen came to life with a picture of a blond man with piercing blue eyes.
“This man is Conrad Von Surlic. He rarely leaves Goeken, but he has sniffed out almost every agent we have had in the field. We hit too close to home this time, so he came out himself to get you. He nearly did.”
Min leveled her gaze at Claude. “You two have been going at it for years. I’m amazed you two don’t recognize each other.” She leveled her gaze at Claude, who shifted his weight against the wall. “Conrad runs a major arm of their secret service agency. Don’t get any ideas about bagging him. He is never alone even when he is working solo. Much like you two when you are in the field. There is always someone else there.”
Salindra gazed at the picture, but she had never seen the man before. He could have been the blonde in the building’s foyer they escaped from, though there were a lot of blonds on Goeken.
Min pressed a button on the remote and a new picture came up. The woman pictured had long strawberry blond hair and a fiery determination in her green eyes. Salindra did not recognize this one either.
Claude cleared his throat and shifted again as if he found a burr in his pants.
“This is Angela Ackernum.”
Claude snorted and smirked.
Min faced Claude directly. “You have something to say about her?”
Claude stiffened to attention. “I ran into her today, ma’am. I’m not sure what she will remember after five shots of Zen Clear. She spoke fluent Goeken once drunk. There is only a slight hint of accent in her trade language. It was enough to make me wonder when she followed me and came onto me.” His cheeks flushed and his gaze went to the floor.
“That explains why you are out of sorts.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll never hear the end of it from Stefen.”
“No, but he will get over it when he realizes what it proves.” Min looked at her scrivpad. “Did anything not in a public place happen between the two of you?”
“No, I let her win by forfeiting the little contest once she spoke Goeken. Of course, our favorite chum, Conrad, shot me with something in the bathroom. Stefen believes it was a mild tranquilizer to help me appear like the drink affected me more. It didn’t last long enough. My system is excellent at disgorging what is bothering it.”
Claude chuckled. “Blondee doesn’t like to be vomited on. He abhors getting dirty. The space liner guards took notice of us because of my reaction to keep from being hauled onto the elevator. I wonder if he got back to Angela before she fell off her stool. She definitely is not prim, like a lot of Goeken women, or at least has the guts to get out of that mode.” He cleared his throat again. “That is all I have to report on that one, ma’am.”
“Of all the ops, she is the only female that has a record of doing well in the field, though they all seem to go overboard in thinking how lewd women are in the Universal Alliance systems. They go for the women of Droeken commercials all too much.” Min frowned. “We know she changed positions in the agency, but could not figure out where she was for the past year. We can safely assume she was here to help Conrad bag our mystery man, Claude.”
“Gerald.” Min leveled her gaze at the chancellor. “You got away with your piece of this puzzle, but our inside man is now dead. Also, the Galactic Council has backed out of any talks we had started. They would love to have your head on a platter now.” Min crossed her arms. “I have a good idea how they figured it out. I want a full report no later than first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The chancellor sank into his seat and turned a pale shade of green.
Salindra arched a brow at how Min had control over this man who advocated their cause and kept them funded. Sometimes their little agency had to run rogue to pull off a significant find to prove itself to the Universal Alliance. Then again, she did not know the real setup. All she knew was her job and that it paid better than any like it. Planetary agencies did not come close to what this small group did.
“Admiral Hawkins, I apologize for the side trip. I know this information is needed for your part. Please work with Salindra in organizing the data the way you need it.”
“We’ll get right on it, ma’am. That’s if Salindra doesn’t need a break first.” The admiral stood with a knowing smile spreading his lips. “Though I think she has had it already, much like myself.”
“I’m ready to get right to it, sir.”
Salindra put herself at attention and gave him a salute. She always relished an information swap with the admiral. The Droeken Armada did most of the work on these missions, despite nearly fifty planetary empires in the Universal Alliance. History showed that Goeken and Droeken had a rivalry beat by none.
“Good. You two are dismissed. You as well, Gerald.”
Salindra walked out the door, glancing at Claude when she passed him. He nodded, but what was that look in his dark eyes? His gaze followed her to the door. Her cheeks burned. She hurried her step after the admiral.
So, he had left the cabin to have some fun and had run into both agents within minutes. He had a drinking contest with Angela. Wait. How could he be so sober when only two hours had passed since he left the room? Remembering the way he looked when the picture came up made her clench her fists. He probably went along with it for some fun and then quickly dumped her because she spoke Goeken. Why did she even bother thinking about him?
“You look like someone just tried to look up your skirt.” Admiral Hawkins kept a straight face, but his eyes glinted with glee.
Salindra gave him a sugary sweet smile and pushed the thoughts about Claude to a corner of her mind. “Shall we get started?”
“By all means.”
She followed him into a small conference room and activated the tabletop so it glowed a pale blue. In seconds, she found the blueprint Claude had given her during their last day on Goeken. It spread across the tabletop. They both bowed their heads over it and began comparing notes.
So what is so important about this latest diagram? The change to Claude as my contact had not followed protocol.
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