it bothered him that she was worried about the thing. Given how he had felt lately, that ildn’t bother him at all, but it did. Was that a double
i? Probably, but-ah! She overrode his thoughts with her actions, and in the oment, he stopped worrying and was happy.
> the Bon Chance
i was satisfied, at least for the moment. He had made sy do some things she ordinarily did not do-and that > saying something. She would be sore in new places ow. He was not done punishing her, and Jackson ild not get off just because he had run away to Ger- ny, but he could wait. All in good tune. Did he trust her? No, certainly not. She was a slut, and was out for herself, that had not changed, no matter : she said. Her skill would only buy her so much, but ‘ now, it was worth enjoying. When he went home, he ild find younger women who did not know the arts of we , and teach them to please him in the ways Missy did. they would not have her devious mind and need to : in control. Smart women, ambitious women, they were to be avoided. Young, beautiful, and stupid,
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that was what he preferred. And if they got smarter with age? There were always fresh ones waiting to take their place.
As he showered, lathering himself with her hard-milled soap, he hummed a little tune. The next part of the project was about to start. There was only so much they could do with their computers and advertising, and soon it would be up to him and men like him to make things really happen.
He stepped out of the shower and dried himself with one of the huge towels Missy kept. He should go and practice his moves, now that he was relaxed. The ship’s gym had room once you moved all the equipment back out of the way. Making love, having a hot shower, those were things that made a man want to go to bed and take a nap, but discipline must be maintained. He worked out every day, no matter what, no matter where he was, he found a way to do something. The fighting edge was one that grew dull if not sharpened frequently. It would be easy to justify a day off now and then. But if you could do that, you could justify two days off. Then four. There was no end to that, and the next thing you knew, you were fat and lazy, meat for some lean and hungry player who did not fool himself into thinking he still had the moves when he had let them rust away.
He found his striped workout pants and rubber sandals, grabbed a clean towel, and headed for the door.
Lying naked on the bed, Missy saw him. “You’re not going to work out?”
“I am.”
“But you must be tired.”
“Yes. That does not matter.”
“Why don’t you come back to bed? You can work out later.”
“I could. I will. But I am also going to work out now.”
She shook her head, and he left. She could not understand. She was a woman. Women did not know the ways of men, not in the important things. Oh, yes, they knew
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what a man wanted in bed, but about honor and lipline and what made a man a man? No. They knew of these things. How could they? No more than i could know about bearing children. It was just not
24
Net Force HQ Quantico, Virginia
In the conference room bright and early, Michaels listened to his team give their reports. Toni was here, Jay, John Howard, and Julio Fernandez.
Toni said, “Police are certain that the car that rammed Senator DeWitt’s vehicle did so deliberately. There were no skid marks before the impact, and the hit-and-run car, which has been identified from paint and chrome chips, has been located, only a few miles away. Area residents got a glimpse of the driver, but he was wearing a helmet and heavy gloves, so no one got a look at his features. He could be white, black, or even a woman.”
Michaels said, “And Jay thinks this ties to CyberNation. Jay?”
Jay nodded. “Yep. Just one more log on the circumstantial fire, boss, but it’s burning pretty good right now. I’ve been poking around and have found some interesting stuff out about their gambling ship. It never puts into port
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at least it hasn’t since it was refitted and went I/sea more than a year ago.” pThat’s unlikely. How does it resupply and refuel?”
i asked.
|”Fuel, mail, food, everything comes in either by heli- or by special cargo ships that show up once a nth. Since the ship is in international waters, nobody bother it. There are no plans for the rebuilding and ng on file, nothing since the original vessel was char- Libyan registry means nobody pays any attention : as long as they pay the fees. There are webcams on- C, but only of the main casino and the outside. We don’t what all is on the ship. I’ve culled reports from us web pages, posts by tourists, and if you put them gether, you come up with a composite picture that is
ng a lot.” “Such as?” Michaels said.
*”Such as, half the ship. Here, take a look at the phic.” Jay touched a button on his flatscreen, and a : drawing wireframe holoproj lit the air above the pro- tion port. “There are passenger cabins here and here, : these decks.” Part of the 3-D schematic lit up in red. “The casino is here. This is the pool, here is a gym, tyer here a big dining hall, and an entertainment hall.” I More of the image came to life in different colors. 1 “If this area is crew quarters, and you allow for these cks to be dedicated to engines, supplies, miscellaneous age, fuel, all that”-more colors flashed on-“then throw in a couple more big spots for the hell of it, still have a fair amount of the ship that looks to be And none of the reports can fill in those unused cks.”
“Maybe they are building more casinos?” Fernandez ntured.
“Nope, no signs of construction, no construction stuff slivered on the supply vessels for at least the last six lis-I was able to get those manifests.”
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“So, what exactly are you trying to say here, Jay?” Toni said.
He shook his head. “I dunno enough about ships to be sure, but it seems to me you wouldn’t leave all that space empty.”
“That’s generally true,” Howard said.
“So, if that’s the case, what is on these decks? I’m betting it’s something connected to CyberNation and not to gambling per se.”
“Such as?” Michaels said.
Jay shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe computers. Some kind of production facility, for all those ads they run. They do those themselves, I found out, no outside agency involved.”
“Which means what, even if that’s so?” Toni said. “Nothing sinister about that. They had some extra room, they put it to good use.”
Jay shook his head. “They don’t need the room. CyberNation HQ is in Switzerland. They have a twenty- story office building in Geneva, and a big honkin’ warehouse there, too. What’s a ship half full of slot machines and card tables compared to that?”
“You have a theory, though, don’t you?” Michaels said.
“Yes, sir, boss, I do. See, if they were up to something illegal, the Swiss police could go and knock on their door and check out that building in Geneva. But what if they had something going on down in the Caribbean? Who has the power to go and check it out?”
Howard nodded. “Legally, nobody.”
“Exactly.”
“So you’re saying you think the net attacks originated on mat ship?” Toni said.
“I can’t say that for sure. But if they did, how would anybody be able to find out about it? Or do anything if they could find out? Why does CyberNation have a gambling ship anyhow?”
“Maybe we better find some answers,” Michaels said.
“I’m working on it,” Jay said.
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1 the meeting broke up, Jay found himself alone with i Femandez.
said, “Sounds’ as if you have your work cut out you on this thing.”
lay smiled. “Maybe not. I might be able to crack their nel database. If I can find out who is working for maybe I can locate those people by other e-trails. i know, get hits on where they used their credit cards, long-distance phone calls, like that. If they’ve got : crack programmers working on that ship, that would another finger in their direction.” ifou think you can blow past firewalls for a place like
Nation?”
f “Well, yeah, if I had a lot of time and a couple Urays to play with. But there’s an easier way. Social leering.”