Tandem Unit Read online

  “Calm down,” the blond man said, a little more gently. “My partner and I didn't come here for sex.”

  “Y … you didn't?” Sadie sank gratefully into the one chair in the room which was bolted to the far wall. Really, the rooms were more like prison cells than pleasure cubicles, she thought. She cupped her elbows in her palms and crossed her legs tightly, covering herself as well as she could.

  “No. We're after information and since you're not a prostie maybe you can help us.” The dark-haired man looked at her hopefully. “I'm Detective Sergeant David Blakely and this here,” he pointed a thumb at the other man, “is Detective Sergeant Christian Holtstein. But he just goes by Holt. We're a special unit assigned to Old Earth Vice to check into the prostie-borg racket.”

  “Tell her everything, why don't you?” Holt muttered, giving the dark-haired detective a dirty look.

  “Hey, the lady needs a little reassurance, Holt. Quit bein' such a sore-head just 'cause she got you with her tickler.” Blakely reached into the inner pocket of his black leather jacket and Sadie tensed but he shook his head. “'S all right, sweetheart, just goin' for my badge,” he reassured her. He withdrew a worn leather wallet and tossed it to her. Sadie fumbled it at first but managed to catch it and flip open the leather. Inside was a dull, titanium badge with a small blue and green holo of Old Earth floating above it. On it were printed Blakely's name and rank, Detective First Class.

  “Well.” Flipping the wallet closed she tossed it back. “It certainly looks genuine, although I'm sure you could fake that kind of thing.”

  “Great,” Holt muttered. “The lady's a skeptic. You know who we are, so who are you?” he asked, a little frown on his full lips.

  “I'm undercover here,” Sadie evasively replied. If they really were cops they would probably be reluctant to deal with the press in any form.

  “Oh yeah, what agency?” Blakely looked genuinely interested.

  “None of your business. Just don't blow my cover and I won't blow yours.” She shivered and rubbed her palms over her bare arms. Did they really have to keep these cells so cold? Holt's face was stony but Blakely got a sympathetic look in his dark blue eyes. He removed his leather coat, revealing the butt of a deadly-looking blaster hooked under his arm in a shoulder holster. Sadie wondered why he hadn't drawn it earlier when she was threatening him with the tickler. Must not think I'm much of a threat. She frowned. Making sure the pockets were empty, the detective tossed the jacket across the room to her.

  “Here, kid. Warm up a little.”

  “Thank you.” It occurred to her to refuse the generous offer but when she considered how cold she was and how much skin the mesh dress exposed, she decided the gesture wasn't worth it. She slipped the oversized jacket around her shoulders and snuggled into the body heat still lingering from the dark-haired detective. The faint, comforting scent of sandalwood soap clung to the leather making her want to turn her face into the collar and deeply inhale. She restrained herself and settled more comfortably on the chair.

  “I'm collecting information about the prostie-borg industry too.” She nodded at them. “I've been here two weeks and I was scheduled to ship out on the ne xt ore transport but my Overlook-Me chip failed. That's how you were able to see me during the line-up. I've got some inside information I'd be willing to share for the right price.”

  “What exactly would the price be?” Holt asked sourly. The dim overhead light glinted on his hair, changing it from silver to gold and back again.

  “I need a ride back to Io,” Sadie said coolly as though it was the simplest thing in the world. “As soon as possible, I might add. I don't want to have to go through this … scenario again.” She gestured to the three of them sitting in the sordid little metal room and shuddered delicately.

  “Oh, just a ride back to Io. Hear that, Blake?” the blond detective snorted in derision.

  “Sure did,” the dark-haired man replied shortly. “Don't want much, do ya, sweetheart?”

  “I am not your sweetheart.” She frowned as she snapped at them. “My name is Sadie Thomas, for your information.”

  “Well for your information, Sadie, we are not an interstellar taxi service,” Holt snapped back. “We've got a lot further to go before we're done with this mess. Titan isn't our last stop by a long shot.”

  “Why don'tcha call in your back-up?” Blakely asked more reasonably than his partner. “Can't they get you home?”

  “I … I don't have any back-up.” Her lips began to tremble. Resolutely she firmed her mouth. It wouldn't do to show any weakness.

  “No back-up?” the blond haired detective exploded. “What kind of agency sends in an agent without back-up?”

  “Well … I'm sort of freelance,” Sadie admitted. She sighed. “I'm with the Io Moon Times, all right?”

  “You're a reporter?” Blakely groaned out loud. “Oh man, do I ever know how to pick 'em,” he muttered under his breath.

  “You said it, not me, partner,” Holt replied, rolling his eyes.

  “Yes, but I can help you.” Sadie leaned forward in the cold metal chair and trying to look them both in the eye at once. “It's like you said, we're on the same side. We both want to put an end to this kind of sexual servitude.” She gestured to the door, thinking of the thousands of prostie-borgs and the sick things they were forced to do on a daily basis. “Think of these poor prosties. Just because they're grown in the flesh tanks and have synthetic brains doesn't mean it's right to enslave them, torture them—even kill them,” she said hotly, warming to the topic. “They feel pain the same way humans do.”

  “Ah … while I do agree with you, sweetheart, it's not quite that simple.” The dark-haired detective sighed and ran a hand through his thick curls. “Ya see, some of these gals might be more human than you think.”

  “Blakely.” Holt gave him a warning look, the light blue eyes flashing. “She doesn't need to know all that.”

  “Why not?” Dark blue eyes looked back at the blond man challengingly. “She said herself that she's been livin' here for the past two weeks. Maybe she can help us spot which prosties are synthetic and which are transplant. Besides, it's not like the BRC can hush it up forever. It'll be all over the news vids pretty soon.”

  “Transplant? As in illegal mind transplants? Black market brains? Mind rapes?” Sadie definitely smelled a story—a much bigger one than she had originally been after. There were always rumors about such things but so far no one had been able to provide substantial evidence. “I thought the whole mind rape thing was just an urban legend,” She tipped her head to the side and raised her eyebrows with skepticism.

  Holt sighed and mirrored his partner's behavior, running one large hand through his straight blond hair until it stood up in a golden halo around his square-jawed face. He shook his head as though deciding that he might as well give in and share their information. “Yeah, yeah. Well, three thousand bodies minus their temporal lobes and cerebral cortexes is no legend. Someone cleaned out a whole colony on Phoebe. And that's just for starters.”

  “Three thousand…” Sadie could barely wrap her mind around the concept. “But why…?” Phoebe was Saturn's smallest and most remote moon and it had only recently been fitted with atmosphere domes and cleared for colonization. Now these two were saying that someone had wiped out an entire colony there—an unheard of crime and possibly the story of the decade. Forget writing this up for the Io Moon Times—Sadie smelled a Solar Pulitzer. It made her mouth water.

  “For purely financial reasons, kid,” Blakely answered her unspoken question.

  “Do you know how much a synthetic brain, even a low end one, costs? Compare that with the average life span of a prostie-borg, especially at some of your rougher establishments and well … let's just say when you do the math it ain't pretty.” He shifted restlessly on the bed, causing it to bounce and earning himself a dirty look from Holt.

  “So you think that some of these prosties…” Sadie looked at the partners with wide eyes. �