“How many?”
“Six. In less than three hours.”
Eva whistled. “Coño. That’s some devotion to hospitality.”
“Hospitality my sweet ass. This whole place is bugged to hell and back.” Pink sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Where did you go and what happened?”
Eva explained as quickly as she could, because she didn’t think the eating ruse would last forever, and if the building’s staff were checking in all the time, they’d be arriving any minute. Pink listened intently, interrupting for questions once or twice, then settled into a pensive stance with her arms loosely crossed, fingers drumming on her bicep.
“So do we help them or not?” Eva asked.
“You think we should,” Pink said, even though Eva had tried to present the whole situation as neutrally as possible.
“I think we could use their help to get to Josh without dealing with Damaal.” Eva wrinkled her nose at Sue, who had made an excited noise and flipped her visor up to sniff something, for whatever reason. “Our other option is to keep poking around on our own. We might be able to find someone willing to talk about Josh, or the lab where they work on the Ball Buddies—”
“Do we really need to keep calling them that?” Pink asked.
“Fuck yes, it’s hilarious.”
“Fine, so we can try to find our own way to Josh, or we can go straight back to Lashra Damaal and give her the business, or we can help these folks and maybe start another pussy riot in this club.”
Eva nodded, then snarled. “We can also leave. That’s always an option, but then we don’t get paid.”
“And Sue doesn’t get to see her brother.” Pink shook her head. “Nah, that’s not on the table. Just the other shit.”
“You think Damaal will bite?” Eva asked.
“Nope,” Pink said. “I’m surprised she hasn’t shipped our asses off-planet yet.”
“Me too. So we keep busting ass alone or we take the deal.”
Pink shrugged, uncrossing her arms. “Let’s see where these resistance folks want to take us. If it’s ugly, we can back out and let them do their own dirty work.”
Eva raised her eyebrows. “You think we can trust them?”
“Girl, I don’t trust anyone, you know that. We find out what they’re up to and we watch our own backs.”
“All right.” Eva pensively eyed the rest of the crew. “Vakar is in, too. Let’s make sure Min and Sue are on board and go from there.”
A delicate sound like a combination wind chime and whistle echoed through the room, accompanied by a psychic projection outside that was like if courteousness were a knuckle gently rapping on the door.
“There’s our chaperone checking in,” Pink said sourly. “Careful getting out of the holo.”
“Yeah, don’t want to walk out of a table,” Eva said. They deactivated their isohelmets and Eva took her sweet time strolling over to the door.
A cream-furred xana with dark stripes awaited her. “Greetings, honored guest,” he said. “May I inquire as to whether our accommodations continue to meet your standards?”
“You just did, mijo,” Eva replied with a smile. “And yes, they’re fine, thanks.”
“We are pleased to know this. We humbly request that you do not hesitate to reach out to us should you require anything whatsoever.”
“Sí, bueno, gracias, muy amable,” Eva said, sliding the door closed manually. The xana leaned slightly to the side to continue looking into the room until his view was completely obstructed, the translucent material clouded to mask the interior for privacy.
As if that made a difference, given that the room was bugged. Eva flopped down on the couch-like chair and sighed. Mala leaped up and began to knead Eva’s thighs, purring softly.
“Like you haven’t been all over me all day,” Eva muttered. Mala paused and looked in Sue’s direction, growling low in her throat at the disassembled Ball Buddy.
“Yeah, she’s made quite a mess,” Eva said, but what she wanted to say was: That thing is bad news, for sure, if even a cat knows enough to hate it.
Not much they could do about it now, though. Stay vigilant, trust nothing, and hope they didn’t get marched out by Watchers at some point. At best, they’d get escorted back to their ship, but at worst . . .
Eva slouched lower in the seat and closed her eyes. Might as well rest while she had the chance.
Her stomach growled louder than Mala, eliciting a grumpy chirrup from the cat.
“Fine, that first,” she muttered to herself. She had a bad feeling this was going to be a long night.
Eva was awakened from her moderately comfortable nap in one of the hammocks, by the weight of a furry body on her chest and a paw gently patting her nose. Mala stared directly into her face, whiskers trembling, the hazel of her eyes nearly eclipsed by wide, black pupils.
“Qué bola?” Eva murmured.
“Miau,” Mala replied, leaping to the ground. She turned in a circle, tail lashing back and forth, as if asking Eva to follow her.
The room was dark, lit only by the distant glow coming from other rooms around theirs, ones likely occupied by people less inclined to sleep at night. Everyone else was asleep, except Vakar, who didn’t sleep so much as quietly meditate while his body rested. With some awkwardness, Eva climbed out of the hammock and trailed after the cat, who stopped in front of Min’s backpack. Eva squinted, crouching and leaning closer. Mala growled and pawed at the bag, then made a figure eight in front of it and shook her tail angrily.
Eva hesitated. She didn’t want to go through Min’s things, but she also didn’t want to wake the pilot up over a cat being weird.
Mala patted the bag once, twice, in what seemed to be a specific place. “Miau,” she repeated.
I guess I’ll apologize later, Eva thought. She carefully opened the bag where Mala indicated, a small outer pocket that contained only one item.
The Pod Pal. Ball Buddy. Whatever.
Eva removed the container and examined it. Seemed easy enough to operate: simple button press and out popped the robot. She still couldn’t believe something the size of a cat could fit into a ball that she could grasp with one hand, but the proof was right there.
And so was Mala, growling and lashing her tail back and forth, her ears nearly flat against her head. This was definitely what was bothering her, but why? It was just a robot; weird, maybe, but Mala had never been this aggressive toward Sue’s little yellow bots.
Eva turned it over carefully and rubbed it with her thumb. She brought it to her face and sniffed it, as if that would yield some clue. It smelled like Min’s backpack, for one thing—apparently she’d stashed a half-eaten container of spicy rice cakes somewhere—but underneath was a standard metallic polymer scent. Something else, too, something familiar that Eva couldn’t place . . .
The barest hint of a psychic emanation touched Eva, like the stray brush of fingertips against skin, except in her mind. Mala hissed, as if she felt it, too. Was it coming from the robot?
Psychic spying, on top of everything else? Eva didn’t want the damn thing anywhere near her for another minute.
The room didn’t have windows, so she couldn’t very well throw the ball out that way. If she tried to leave it somewhere in the building, she had a feeling the extremely helpful staff would bring it right back to her. And if she told them she didn’t want it anymore, they’d probably want to know why, and that might be the cue for the Watchers to swoop in and escort them away.