The captain’s quarters on Aurora included a sitting room, a bedroom with a bathroom en suite, and a study. The sitting room was painted a bright, happy cyan, while the bedroom and study were done in soothing shades of pale green and blue, respectively.
My closet was stocked with pants and shirts in darker colors. I selected a pair of black pants and a crimson shirt. A heavy pair of boots with thick soles completed the outfit. They wouldn’t give me as much height as my heels, but they were far more practical.
I slung a holster around my waist and added a blast pistol on my right hip and a combat knife on my left. The knife was not likely to save me if it came down to that, but in Brava it was better to be prepared for everything. I still wore the shielding cuff I’d put on for my meeting with Evelyn. That meeting felt like a lifetime ago.
I packed extra clothes and toiletries in a small backpack. I could stay on Aurora, but if Ian posted a bounty on me, then the mercenaries would tag my ship within a few hours. It was safer to find a shabby hotel that accepted anonymous credits and didn’t ask questions.
I debated taking the silencer. It would help if the signals become overwhelming, but none of my other identities had permission to carry one. If I got caught with it, I would have to prove I was Bianca von Hasenberg or face an automatic ten-year sentence. Normally, proving my identity wasn’t a big deal, but I was trying to stay under the radar, so I left it in my purse.
I pulled on the backpack and added the final piece of my wardrobe, a waterproof hooded cloak that covered me from head to toe. It would protect against the rain and help to disguise my identity.
I put several hard credit chips into separate internal pouches to protect them from pickpockets, then headed to the cargo bay to look through the supplies Ada had brought for me.
The four pallets were stacked high with individual crates. I removed the straps and pulled the crates free. Each crate had a neat electronic label indicating the contents. It was a far more organized system than Ada normally used, so I bet Veronica or Rhys had helped.
Ada really had outdone herself. She’d gotten everything I requested plus a bunch of useful stuff I hadn’t. I grabbed an extra com and a few trackers and bugs. I considered the blast rifle but decided it would be a little too conspicuous, even with the cloak over it. There was a fine line between being armed enough to not be an easy target and being so heavily armed that you obviously carried something valuable.
I checked the outside cameras with my smart glasses. The weather remained terrible, but it was unlikely to change any time soon, so I’d have to deal with it. I closed the front of my cloak and raised the hood. I set an alert to scan the news for any mention of my name. With nothing left to do, I opened the cargo door and stepped into the rainy, midmorning dark.
I tightened the ties on my hood as the wind tried to rip it away. Rain pounded down, overwhelming the hydrophobic coating on the glasses. Water was supposed to slide right off the lenses, but the rain was coming down hard enough that it looked like I was peering through a waterfall.
The cold, wet air smelled of thunderstorms and industrial chemicals. This spaceport was on the edge of the city’s ore-processing facilities and other factory complexes. The proximity to the factories was one of the reasons this spaceport was safer than most; company travelers paid well and regularly, but only if their ships remained in one piece.
The wireless signals were moderate in this part of the city. I listened in for a few seconds and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. I zeroed in on the spaceport’s signal and heard someone say they were going to check on the new arrival.
A minute later, a security guard emerged from the gloom while I was double-checking Aurora’s security protections. The guard wore a full set of combat armor bearing the spaceport’s name and logo. When he saw he had my attention, he touched his fingers to his helmet. “Ms. White,” he said, his voice tinny through the helmet’s speaker, “we have you registered for two weeks.”
“Yes. This ship means a great deal to me. I would appreciate it if you kept an extra-close eye on it,” I said. I slipped him a credit chip with a thousand credits on it. “I’ll double that upon my return to an intact ship.”
The chip vanished into a pouch on his belt, and he inclined his head in agreement. He faded back into the darkness. I was still monitoring the wireless signals, and I heard him report that my ship was to receive extra protection.
Ship as safe as I could make it, I let the signal monitoring go before my headache turned blinding. I headed for the exit. A series of large, illuminated signs warned that the spaceport was no longer responsible for your safety once you left the premises. They meant it, too. Spaceport personnel might take a potshot at a mugger if they were in range and you’d paid extra protection money, but even that much effort wasn’t guaranteed.
The lack of security made ground exits a little dicey. Company representatives were advised to contact their business and wait for an armed transport before exiting.
The hulking, brown-haired armed guard working the exit building raised an eyebrow when my head only came up to his chin. “Have you called a transport?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
Surprise and concern lit his face when he realized I was a woman. “You’re not going to try to walk, are you? You armed?”
“No and yes,” I assured him. “This is not my first visit,” I said with more confidence than I actually felt. I used my smart glasses to order a transport. I wasn’t stupid enough to try to walk anywhere near the spaceport, even in what passed for morning here.
“If you need a clean place to stay, hit up Jade’s. It’s in the flower district.”
“Thanks.” Recommendations in Brava always came with a grain of salt. Likely the person recommending either got some sort of kickback or was sending you into a trap. The flower district was one of the nicest parts of this city, which wasn’t saying a whole lot, but it was less likely to be an outright trap. My contact, Peter Guskov, had his storefront on the edge of the district.
I tracked the transport’s progress on my smart glasses. The landing pad was on the roof. When it was thirty seconds out, I drew my blaster and kept it visible. I shouldn’t need it on the roof, but one never knew for sure.
At the top of the straight staircase, the transport exit consisted of two doors, like an airlock. The outside door wouldn’t open unless the inside door was closed and locked. I stepped through the first door and let it close behind me. The lock slammed home. The second door release button glowed green.
The transport settled outside. The roof was lit with floodlights that fought against the dark and rain. Nothing moved. I pushed the door release and the door slid open.
I moved for the transport, staying alert. No one attacked and I breathed a sigh of relief when the transport door locked closed behind me. I searched for Jade’s and found it near the middle of the flower district. It was close enough to Guskov’s shop that it would probably be safe to walk as long as I was careful.
I selected the address and the transport lifted off. I sighed and leaned my head back against the seat. I was cold and damp, despite the cloak. Welcome to Brava. Ada would have a heart attack when she learned where I was.
The transport stayed fairly close to the ground because most of the buildings were stone and not more than three or four stories tall. The wind made the ride a little bumpier than I’d like, but I arrived in one piece.