But what got to Yasmin was that it was just too, too cruel of the bosses to make her go along on a “honeymoon trip” with Hafiz and that big cow he had married, thinking to replace her.
Never mind. She’d fix the wedded bliss stuff. It had never been all that blissful for her. All those cracks Hafiz had made about which end she thought with, all that worry about trying to keep her looks so her rich husband wouldn’t get ideas. Keep her looks, hah! To think of all the dieting she had done to keep her shape and here he was with that-that-rhino-whale in purple robes!
So even though she was supposed to keep a low profile and let the Shahrazcul lead her bosses to the unicorn people planet, where the bosses would then put her in charge of punishing Hafiz and his new playmate, Yasmin couldn’t resist playing a few little tricks. Well, if a girl couldn’t turn a few tricks, the least she could do was play some, huh?
She had, of course, bugged the boudoir. She really couldn’t imagine failing to do so. It was a standard security measure in the brothels. Kept the girls from cheating by keeping tips for themselves, or the customers from becoming enamored with a particular girl and trying to run off -with her.
She was delighted, on hearing the pillow talk between her husband and his new “wife,” that neither of them had told the other about their encounters with her. These little deceptions on their part opened many exciting possibilities for troublemaking on hers.
Her familiarity with Hafiz’s tastes and habits helped, as well as Karma s penchant for “meditation” and believing her superstitious nonsense about dreams and communication from the dead, that sort of thing.
Yasmin might not be a brain but she was a very practical woman, in her own way, with no sentiment in her makeup. She believed in the physical, and in what she could buy and sell. If anybody thought she was jealous of Hafiz’s new bride, or even of the lap of luxury Karina had fallen into, they should just think again. After all, she, Yasmin, had abandoned all of that to follow her personal star.
But she thought it was really insulting that Hafiz had been able to forget her, to replace her with someone he actually claimed to like better! She, Yasmin, was the unforgettable beauty, the succubus who haunted men’s dreams. How dare another woman think she could fill Yasmin s place in Hafiz’s bed!
Of course, despite her considerable premarital experience, Yasmin had been little more than a gifted amateur when she married Hafiz compared to what she knew now, but she couldn’t imagine how, after tasting her own charms, Hafiz could so much as bear to look at that fat, ugly, insipid cow who was not fit to fill Yasmin’s douche bag!
When Karina returned to her “meditation chamber” to consult her spirit guides, as she had done before, Yasmin hovered on the floor above, listening through the replicator that was connected in the same spot on the wall through both levels. She’d discovered how easy it was to hear ‘Karina’s spiritual rantings quite by accident while planting one of the transmitters in the replicator shortly after the journey began.
Karina tended to “meditate” out loud when nobody was around.
“Yoo hoo, Mr. Li! It is I, Karina, your dear friend and faithful follower. I ask you to manifest answers for me. Hafiz that’s my husband, you know him, Hafiz Harakamian, you did business together in life? He wishes to know what you would have us do. You see, -Mr. Li, I keep getting this image of you looking back over your shoulder. Are you disturbed, gentle spirit? Are you disoriented by this departure from your home planet? Or-” The fat woman paused and her voice quavered as she asked, “Are you trying to warn us somehow?”
Yasmin couldn’t think of any reply to that so she waited. And waited.
So did Karina until she said finally, “Mr. Li, you know you can tell me. Come on, what is it that’s troubling you? Funny, but I can’t even get an image. It’s as if there is some sort of interference in the ether. Oh well, perhaps you’re not feeling very sociable today. Hmm. Are there any other spirit guides who wish to make contact? I am here to help you.”