0 comments/ 33244 views/ 8 favorites Acquisitions Ch. 02 By: Seneca Author's Note: Thank you all so much for being patient and offering words of encouragement for my writing. September 11, 2001 was horribly difficult for so many people in so many ways, and the way it manifested with me was in my writing. This is the first story I've completed in two years. I hope it is up to par with the expectations of my fans, and, as always, I look forward to hearing from you. -Seneca * * * The pages were spread out around me on the bed, a patchwork quilt in different shades of white. Some were edging toward dingy yellow, folded and rumpled with age, while others remained as pristine as new fallen snow. There were dozens of them, new overlapping with old, each sheet covered with notes in my own meticulous handwriting, each sheet a page in a story. Why had I kept these pages, these reminders of the men I've met over the years? What has compelled me to document, even if only for my own eyes, every acquisition I've ever made? A errant puff of wind from the open balcony doors caused the papers to stir, one of them fluttering like a broken butterfly to the floor. I leaned over the edge of the bed and snagged the runaway between two fingers, returning it to the fold. The name on the top of the page caught my eye, and I picked the paper back up to give it a better look. As I read over the information I'd carefully written out, the image of him the first time I'd laid eyes on him resurfaced. Thick, dark hair the color of chocolate, eyes the indigo of the twilight sky. He'd been a very attractive man, which is what had caught my interest in the first place. Tony. Where was he now? How was he? Was he happy with his new life? The last time I'd seen him, nearly two years ago, he'd been unconscious on a wheeled bed, being pushed out the door of the house over the cove by a Driel woman and her assistant. That had been what...twenty, maybe thirty men ago? What was it about Tony that kept drawing my attention back to him? I shook my head and gathered my pages up again, slipped them into the black binder I've carried with me everywhere I've gone for the last twenty years. After tucking the binder back into the bottom of my tote bag, I glanced down at my watch. It's eight o'clock. Time to go back to work. She hadn't changed as much as she would have liked to think she had. Oh, physically, she couldn't look more different than the woman he remembered. He remembered hair the color of flames and eyes the green of the ocean that lapped the shore outside his house back home. The woman who's photo he looked at now had short, platinum blond hair spiked into points that could put a man's eye out and silver-gray eyes gleaming with sexuality. But there was something about the look in those eyes, in the saucy posture as she gazed into the camera that reminded him so strongly of the woman he'd known that he would never had mistaken her for anyone else. "She goes by the name Sabela, now, and she's the best there is at what she does," the man across the table from him said. "We need her brought in, and we need her now, before the group she works for does any more damage." He shook his head in disbelief, and looked at the other man, the leader of this task force and a friend of long standing. "I still can't believe it, Shawn. She was always such a straight arrow. Honest to a fault. Are you sure this is the same woman?" "It's been years, Galen. People change." Shawn opened his folder and pulled out a second photograph. A-ha. This was the woman the girl he remembered should have grown into. "This is out of her personnel folder, from back when Acquisitions were legal." He latched onto that, almost desperate to attach some legitimate reason to her illegal actions. "Does she even know?" "Of course she knows. EVERYONE knows. The Anti-Acquisitions Act was the biggest and most controversial law passed in the last century. Caused riots on three planets. You'd have to be living under a rock not to know." That was, unfortunately, true. Had she changed that much? Galen didn't want to think so. But it had been years, a good many years, since he'd seen her. They'd been barely more than children when he'd decided to make law enforcement his life's path. He'd been shocked when, fresh out of the academy and back home for the first time in four years, he discovered that the little girl from next door had gone into Acquisitions. He glanced down at the sultry platinum blond gazing at him from the photo. No. She definitely wasn't the girl next door anymore. Galen sighed and placed the picture back on top of the file it had been pulled from and picked up a second photo. This one was of much poorer quality, showing the profile of a middle aged woman with close cropped, steel gray hair and a pair of dark sunglasses over her eyes. This was their ultimate quarry, the woman known as Control. She was in charge of this Acquisitions group. From what they could uncover, she had recruited all the acquirers who worked for her directly, gave them their orders and processed the men that were acquired. She was the one who would have been notified of the Anti-Acquisitions Act upon it's passage two years earlier. She was the one who had ignored the new law, and apparently several of her girls had followed her example. He put the picture down. "So, where do we go from here?" "As soon as you agreed to join this task force, Galen, we set up an Acquisition request. Our agent told her," he tapped a finger against the picture of the older woman, "that she is desperate and willing to pay any amount necessary to acquire the product, but only if Control's very best was put on the job. Almost immediately, Control contacted Sabela. We were very specific about the physical attributes of the man we want, making the description as close to you as we could, without being too obvious." Shawn looked concerned for a moment. "Galen, are you sure, absolutely sure, that Sabela will not recognize you?" "I'm positive." Galen studied the table for a long moment, then sighed. It wasn't something he usually talked about, but the task force needed the reassurance. "I was involved in the riots at the Marius asteroid mining facility five years ago. I was caught in the explosion when the mine detonated. The doctors put me back together very well, but I don't look anything like I used to. She won't recognize me." Shawn looked shocked for a moment -- he'd known Galen had been injured shortly prior to their acquaintance, but not what had happened or where -- then nodded. "Very good." He shuffled the papers and shoved them back into the file, then folded his hands on top. "We want these woman, Galen. This Control went completely rogue when the AAA went into effect. She'll sell men to anyone, for any reason, as long as the fee is right. We've had fifteen dead human males show up in various areas around the Alliance in the last eighteen months. Every one of them traces back to this group, and to this woman. You bring Sabela in, and I'd bet she'll have enough information to be able to lead us right to her Control." The open air dance club was packed with people to the point that the dancers could barely do more than sway and bop to the beat. The long bar behind the dance floor had people lined up three deep, those who wanted to listen to the band playing on the low stage to the right of the dance floor, but either didn't want to dance or realized the improbability of fitting even one more person on the floor. Three bartenders, two men and a woman, buzzed back and forth, taking orders and providing libations as fast as they could. The only seats available were the two dozen bar stools that had long since been claimed by early patrons -- if you wanted to sit, better find a spot in the sand to park it. And some people had, outside the pavilion that, during the day, kept the worst of the sun off the patrons. At night, the rice lights woven around the rafters gave the impression of a star filled sky, even on the cloudiest of nights. I had arrived earlier, picking a stool at the far end of the bar where I could people watch with relative ease. I was determined to finish this Acquisition tonight -- Control had informed me that after this Acquisition, we would be moving our operation away from this island. The local authorities were beginning to become suspicious of the number of men who had vanished without a trace from the resort. Disappearing men make for bad business. I thought I had caught a lucky break when a man who came very close to the description I needed sat down beside me early on. But there was something about him that gave me the creeps. Maybe it was the speed at which he was pouring alcohol down his throat. Maybe it was the way that he eyeballed the breasts of every woman who crossed his path. Or maybe, it was the pale white line on the fourth finger of his left hand and the scrapes on the knuckle where a ring of long standing had recently been pulled off. Whatever it was, when a young woman began to ogle him back, thrusting her chest out for his obvious appreciation, I vacated my seat to her. Let them have fun with each other. I was on business. Sipping my drink, I prowled the perimeter of the dance floor. Watching the people move, looking, always looking. Please, I thought, let me find him tonight. There had been something urgent in the last call I had received from Control. She was upset about something, and I got the feeling it was more than just the local police becoming suspicious of the disappearances. I was standing in what would be the corner if this club had walls, looking down across the beach toward the sea, when a movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. A man was approaching the club. At this distance, I could tell much more than his height -- very, very tall -- and what he was wearing -- khaki short and a brown polo shirt open at the neck. As he came closer, I notice the slightly too long golden brown hair. He wore black ray-ban sunglasses against the last of the late afternoon sunshine, which disguised his eyes, giving him a rather mysterious look. I wasn't the only woman noticing the man. Many heads turned and followed his progress, to the obvious amusement of many a girlfriend and the disgust of many a boyfriend. As unobtrusively as possible, I positioned myself next the roof support nearest the newcomer. From what I could see, physically he was almost a perfect match for what I needed. He was coming almost directly at me, so I turned slightly, as if watching the pair of twenty-somethings behind him tossing a Frisbee back and forth. As the man passed the female participant, she turned away from her male companion to watch the man walk by. I caught a look of disgust on the younger man's face, just before he pulled his arm back and whipped the Frisbee as hard as he could -- not at his girlfriend, but at the back of the head of the newcomer. His girlfriend caught the movement and gave a squeak of alarm. Whether that alerted him, or he just had exemplary reflexes, at the last moment just before the Frisbee hit him in the back of the head, he spun on his heal, snatched the plastic disk out of the air and flicked it back at the young man. He didn't seem to use too much effort, but the young man instinctively reached out and caught the disk, then howled in pain and dropped it, shaking his stinging hand. Then, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, he turned back and continued toward the bar. I watched in amusement as the young woman stalked over to her boyfriend snatched up the Frisbee out of the sand at his feet, yelled "serves you right, jerkoff!" and walked away. The young man followed, still holding his sore hand and talking frantically to the girl. I turned back to the crowd around the bar and immediately felt a little thread of alarm -- I'd lost him. No...there he was, on the other side of the dance floor, leaning over the shoulders of a pair of woman to pick up a drink off the bar. One of the women said something to him, and he grinned. He said something back -- there was too much noise in the pavilion, so I couldn't hear what he said -- and the young woman pouted slightly. By then I was close enough to hear her say, "well, I tried." I walked up behind the man, my eyes looking past him toward the small building marked "Restrooms." I timed it carefully so that as he turned toward me to walk away from the bar, I deliberately stumbled a bit, bumping his arm and causing him to dump the contents of his glass right down the front of himself. "Oh, my God!" I cried, feigning horror. "I am so sorry!" I snatched up a handful of paper napkins off the bar and began to blot at the front of his shirt. "I stumbled...I'm sorry...I'm such a klutz..." I babbled. Suddenly, I felt the warm chest under my hand vibrate as the man chuckled. "It's okay," he laughed, trying to catch my hand as I darted it around the damp spot on his shirt. "It's only water. It'll dry. No harm done." I bit my lip and gave him an unsure look. "Are you sure?" He finally pinned my hand. "Positive." I looked up at him. He'd pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head and was looking down at me with green eyes sparkling with mirth and the tiniest bit of attraction. Oh, yea. He was just getting better and better. With a thought I let off a little bit of pheromones, just enough to fan that slight spark. I could tell it had worked when he set his now empty glass back on the bar and grinned at me again. "Come on, let me buy you a drink, just to show that there are no hard feelings." "Shouldn't I be the one offering to buy you a drink to replace the one I spilled?" I asked as he placed a hand gently at the small of my back to guide me through the press of people. "I told you, it was just water. Didn't cost me anything to get." "Oh, right." He was guiding me out of the bar and out onto the twilight lit beach. "Thought you were going to buy me a drink," I murmured, glancing back over my shoulder. "I am. I was hoping, though, I could convince you to add a little dinner to that drink." He looked back at the bar, too. "Someplace a little less crowded than that." "I'd like that," I said, linking my arm with his as we strolled slowly across the sand. Dinner was a nice affair. We chatted like old friends through two servings of thick, cheesy lasagna, homemade apple crumb pie and the best coffee I've had in a long time. He told me his name was Derek Thomas, and that he was on vacation after a particularly hard year. The grandmother who'd raised him from the time he'd been a baby had finally passed away at the ripe old age of 97. He'd lost a job he'd been absolutely miserable in ("hey, it paid the bills."), and had finally landed a new one, but the new company wouldn't be needing his services for another three months. So it had seemed like the perfect time for a long overdue vacation. I smiled, offered my condolences on the death of his grandmother, commiserated over the lost, miserable job. I told him my name was Natasha, and we talked about me only a little bit--I gave him cover story about being the daughter of a wealthy business man who's best friend had agreed to loan me his beach house while I chase my dream of being a professional writer. Sweetly, Derek promised that he would buy my book when I finally got it published. By the time we were finished, night had fallen completely and silvery moonlight sparkled off the waves breaking against the shore. As soon as we were outside, away from other people, walking arm in arm along the beach, I pumped up the pheromones, and almost instantly we went from arm in arm to cuddled side to side with his arm pressing me tight to him. A sideways glance told me that he was already highly aroused. All it took was my veiled suggestion that he come to my place, and the next thing I knew, we were closing my front door behind us, and he was practically inhaling me. It was happening very, very fast. He kissed his was across my jaw and down to my neck, holding me so close to him that it was like he was trying to pull me inside his body. Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that at this rate we were never going to make it upstairs to my bedroom, but before I could pull away, he had me pinned against the wall, locked his lips to mine again and was fumbling for the edge of my skirt. In the moment he pushed my panties down my legs, I surrendered to the inevitable--this first time between us was just going to be for us. I kicked my underwear off my ankle and wrapped my legs around his waist. I realized that somewhere along the line he had dropped his own pants and shorts into a wad around his feet, and from the waist down we were now bare skin to bare skin. He growled as he grabbed my hips, and I latched onto a handful of his hair as he bit down, hard, on my shoulder and pushed himself inside me at the same time. Oh... I screamed. At least, I think I did. Whether it was from the pain of the bite to my shoulder or the pleasure of my body expanding over his thick, heavy male flesh, I don't know. All I could be sure of as he began to thrust was that in all the years I'd been in acquisitions, never had being with a man felt quite so...right. It was horribly difficult to remember that this was just another acquisition, that before the night was out, this man could very well be on his way to a new owner, a new life. The idea repulsed me. But I had other things to think about, though any kind of thinking was becoming more and more difficult. Derek licked at the bite mark on my shoulder, and I purred. It felt so good, so right. I barely noticed the door frame biting into the back of my right shoulder and hip, only the tight clasp of his hands on my body, the heavy, tight thickness of him inside my body. When he raised his lips from my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "come on, baby. Fly for me..." I groaned and gave myself totally over to the moment. For the first time in...years, my climax took me by surprise. One moment I was climbing the steep hill to bliss, and the next I was taking him at his word and flying. I locked my legs tightly around his hips and arched my back as the spasms took me. Derek gave a rumbling growl from deep in his chest, vibrating wonderfully against my breasts as he joined me in climax. Somehow, we ended up in a tangle of limbs on the floor. Derek's legs appeared to have slid out from under him, and I'd landed on his lap...kind of. We were both shaking and sweaty, making feeble attempts to disentangle ourselves from one another and the moment suddenly struck me as funny. My laughter triggered his, and as his deep chuckles surrounded me, I realized that he was still inside me, and still more than a little hard. And it felt so good. He sighed. "Man, I haven't done this since I was a teenager." "Really?" I asked. He leaned his forehead against mine. "What I meant is, I usually have more finesse than to make love to a woman in her front hallway." "Oh, that." I chuckled again, and felt him harden even more. Oh, yea, he was more than ready for a second round. "Well, Mr. Caveman, if you want to try for the bedroom, it's up the stairs, second door on the left." He laughed. Then he stood up, took her hand in one of his, grabbed their scattered clothing with the other, and led her up the stairs. Galen felt the mattress sag a bit as she climbed quietly out of bed. Continuing to feign sleep, he cracked his eyes just a bit and watched her retrieve the discarded condom out of the trash and walk into the bathroom. The soft snick of the lock and the sudden sound of the shower coming on told him she was about to run the "tests" he'd been warned about. Under ordinary circumstances, he'd been told, Sabela would test his semen to make sure he was healthy and, if needs warranted, fertile, and then a second rendezvous would be set up where she would drug her victim and turn him over to Control for processing. He had no intention of letting it go that far. Acquisitions Ch. 02 He slipped from bed and approached the door. Over the steady hiss of the shower he could hear her puttering around the bathroom. He held his breath, forced himself to wait the extra critical moments that would ensure that she was in the middle of the testing process and would not be able to deny what she'd been doing. Possession of testing equipment by persons outside the medical field was illegal under the tenants of the AAA, and would be grounds enough to arrest her. For a split second, Galen remembered Sabela as she'd been when they'd been growing up together. Even then, she'd been a beautiful little girl. She had obviously grown into a beautiful woman, if her personnel photograph was anything to go by. He really, really wished he didn't have to do this. He slipped into his khakis and pulled the small electronic lockpic out his pocket. He pressed the thin wire into the lock, which popped open with only the slightest click. In case she'd been listening for a sound from the bedroom, Galen swung the door open quickly. She stood in front of the vanity, a small white box sitting on the vanity before her. There were numbered keys on one side of it, a small opening at the other side, and a row of lights across the top. As they stood there for a frozen moment, the green light at the top of the box flashed on, with a small electronic beep. Galen quirked an eyebrow at her. "Guess I passed that test," he murmured. He had to hand it to her, she recovered quickly. She flashed him a quick, slightly sheepish smile. "Just testing my glucose levels," she murmured, moving to tuck the testing equipment back into the black bag on the counter. "Diabetes sucks." "I imagine it does. Not that either of us would know from first hand experience, would we Tyna?" "I...what did you call me?" Her voice had risen, even as the color in her cheeks fled. "Who are you?" Galen pulled a restrainment cuff out of his back pocket and slipped it around her wrist before she managed to pull herself together. He slipped the controlling cuff onto his own wrist and activated the controller. Now, if she tried to escape, the stun mechanism would render her unconscious before she could get away. "Tyna Grayhawk, you are under arrest for violations of the Anti Acquisitions Act," he told her formally. She glanced down at her wrist, then back at him. "Who are you?" she asked again. "What's going on? I haven't done anything wrong! I'm a fully licensed acquirer in this quadrant!" So, she was going to play dumb and try to bluff her way out of this. "I'm Marshall Galen Tybolt, Ms. Grayhawk. I'd recommend you go get some clothing on before I take you in. Full charges against you will be read once we reach my ship." She looked stunned. Too much information in too short a time. As she moved to walk past him, he grasped her arm. "Don't try to escape, Ms. Grayhawk. This is a stun cuff." She nodded dazedly as she walked back into the bedroom. Under arrest. I was under arrest. I sank down on the edge of the bed and shook my head slightly. What was going on? How did this man know my given name, a name I hadn't used or even heard in more years than I could remember? Of course, if he was a Marshall, he would know all about me. It wasn't like my career had been a particularly secretive one, at least not within the Alliance. I picked up a pair of cotton shorts and slipped them on, but as I started to pull on a tank top, something that he'd said replayed itself in my mind. Galen Tybolt. Marshall Galen Tybolt. I dropped back down on the edge of the bed, and remembered. Galen... "I don't want you to go!" He sighed and sat down on the sand beside me, heedless of the sand that would soil his neatly pressed slacks. "I know, Red. I'll miss you, too. But this is the chance of a lifetime, and something you know I've always wanted to do. You'll understand when you're older." I gave him a dirty look, pushing my unruly red hair out of my face. "I'm old enough, thank you very much." Unable to resist the urge, I reached out and took his hand. "It's dangerous, Galen. You're my best friend. I don't want you to get hurt!" I said earnestly. "Oh, Red." He rose to his feet and pulled me up to stand before him. "I won't get hurt, Tyna. I promise." Wrong thing to say. I knew how easily people in Law Enforcement could get hurt...or killed. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Galen," I told him fiercely. To my horror, I felt tears well in my eyes, so I stepped forward and buried my face against his shoulder. "Just promise me you'll be careful. And that you'll write me every day." He laughed a bit. "Every day, Red. I'll write every day..." He had, at least while he'd been in the Academy. He didn't always transmit the letters every day, so sometimes I'd receive a week's worth of letters at one time, but he always wrote. I'd faithfully written back, until the day I'd made my decision to go into Acquisitions. I don't know why I'd stopped writing at that time. It's not like I was embarrassed by my career choice--it was a perfectly respectable job. But by that time I hadn't heard from Galen in almost a year, and I guess I supposed we had grown apart. He walked into the bedroom and picked his shirt up off the floor, and I looked hard at him. He really didn't look anything like the Galen Tybolt I remembered, except for the color of his hair and eyes. Those hadn't changed. But the face was completely different. He had gathered up my equipment, including the fake cell-phone that was really the transmitter I used to communicate with Control. It was all shoved into a box he marked "evidence." It was then that I realized, whether or not this was the same man I remembered so fondly from my youth, he was also an officer of the law, and his job, apparently was to arrest me. But if his job was just to arrest me, why had he had sex with me, first? He took my arm and led me out of the house, warning me again about the futility of trying to escape. I wanted to tell him that I wasn't an idiot and that I knew about stun cuffs, but I held my tongue. No sense in picking a fight with him, not until I understood just exactly what the hell was going on. And what the hell the Anti Acquisitions Act was. He was surprised that she came so willingly. At first, he thought it was because she'd recognized his name, but she hadn't made any attempt to talk to him, and that made him wonder just exactly what she was up to. She watched silently as the blue globe that was Earth receded behind the ship, followed a few minutes later by the moon. Galen set the auto course to take them to the jump gate on the far side of Jupiter's moon, Io, then turned and looked at Tyna. She was gazing out the front view port, her face sad but not scared. How odd. The woman was being arrested on charges that could put her in prison for the rest of her life, but he didn't see any fear in her. "Why am I being arrested," she asked without looking at him, as if reading his mind. "You're going to be charged with violations relating to the Anti Acquisitions Act. Possession of unlicensed instruments," he said, motioning toward the "evidence" box. "Kidnapping, possibly murder." That got a reaction out of her. "MURDER!? What are you talking about? I've never killed anyone!" She took a deep breath. "I told you before, I am a licensed acquirer--this planet is my territory, and I've been here successfully for seven years! I've never killed anyone, nor cause anyone to be harmed or killed through my actions. You must have the wrong person!" Galen gave her an incredulous look. Maybe she hadn't killed anyone directly, but she was responsible for the deaths his task force was investigating. "I can't believe you're actually trying to convince me of this load of crap, Ms. Grayhawk. You and your little organization are responsible for at least a dozen deaths." "Now that's crap." "Really?" "Really." He pulled his binder out of it's storage compartment and pulled out the crime scene pictures. Giving her a venomous look, he began tossing the graphic pictures one by one into her lap. She stared in horror as the pictures piled up. "These are the ones we know can be traced back to you. How many more of them are out there that we can't track back to you? How many more innocent men are dead because you and your Control are too greedy to find yourself legitimate jobs?" With an angry flick, he tossed the last photo at her and turned away. They were both silent for a moment, then Galen heard what sounded suspiciously like a whimper. He turned back to find her on her knees in front of her chair, holding that last photo in her hands. She was so pale that her skin looked translucent, and tears ran in silent streams down her cheeks. Suddenly, she darted to her feet and dashed toward the head. Galen stood, stunned, at the distinctive sound of retching reached his ears. A few moments passed before she stepped back into the cabin. She stood beside the head door, far enough away from the photos he'd shown her that she couldn't make out the images. "Can you please pick those up?" she asked in a small, weak voice. She'd wrapped her arms around herself, as if to hold herself together. As soon as he'd scooped the pictures up and put them back in their file, she staggered to her chair and sank weakly into it. "I don't understand," she said in a small voice. "They were supposed to be reeducated and returned to Earth. I don't understand." Galen felt a tug of sympathy in his heart. He wondered if his own first instincts had been accurate, that it was possibly that Tyna didn't know about the Anti Acquisitions Act. He walked over and stood in front of her until she looked up at him. "I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that you did not know that this was going on, Tyna. I want you to tell me the truth, right now." Tyna. He called me Tyna, not Ms. Grayhawk. It was the same man. It had to be. I stood up and looked him in the eye, or at least as close to in the eye as I could considering the man was probably four or five inches taller than me. "I swear to you that I had no idea this was going on. I swear to you on the friendship we shared when we were children, Galen. I had nothing to do with those men's deaths." That vow seemed to work in a way that nothing else would have. A light flared for a second in Galen's eyes. Yes, it was the same man. He persisted in asking questions, though. "Did you know about the Anti Acquisitions Act that was passed in the Alliance two years ago?" I shook my head. "I've never even heard of it. I haven't had any contact with anyone in the Alliance in more than three years." "Except Control." I nodded. "Yes, except Control, and the occasional customer who had come to pick up her order. But I never spoke to the clients." He walked away from me, hands tucked into the pockets of this khakis. "I hope I'm not about to make a major mistake here," he murmured. Then he turned back to me. "Okay, I believe you. Sit down. We have some things to discuss." I sat back down, feeling like a massive weight had been lifted from my shoulders. There would be time to grieve for the men I'd apparently sent to their deaths later. Now, I had to do everything in my power to make things right. "It's not really you the Alliance is after, Tyna, though you are still in a boatload of trouble. It's your Control that they're after. But if you are willing to help us out, we may be able to get you a reduced sentence." "I'll help in any way I can." He nodded. "Good. Now, about two years ago the Alliance adopted the Anti Acquisitions Act. It expressly forbade Alliance members from taking persons from less technologically advanced cultures for any reason. It was an immensely unpopular law, and caused rioting on at least three Alliance worlds. But it's held for two years now, and it seems that more and more people are coming to believe it's the right thing. Our advanced culture does not give us free rein to do whatever we want with lesser developed cultures. Notification was sent out to the owners of all companies, and most of them immediately shut down, but a few didn't. There wasn't a serious crack down on these rogue companies, until about a year ago, when the dead bodies of three human men turned up. There was an immediate outcry, and the Marshals began rounding up and shutting down the remaining Acquisition companies. Unfortunately, the more we seemed to shut down, the more dead humans turned up. Process of elimination led us to your Control. She appears to be the only one left, and it's gotten to the point that she doesn't give a good damn who she sells to, as long as the price is right." "I don't understand, Galen. If you know Control is responsible for this, then why don't you arrest her? Why this whole farce with me?" "Several reasons. One, we can't find her. She's a chameleon, even more than you are. Two, we don't have direct proof that she's the one responsible. We have suspicions, but any evidence is circumstantial. Your testimony can be the direct proof of the link between her and the dead men, between her and some of the buyers we have in custody. We want this woman locked away for a good long time, Tyna. She's completely amoral, and she needs to be stopped." I stood up and walked over to look into a viewing port. Outside the ship the dusty red and white ball that is Mars was shrinking into the vast darkness of space. Beyond the rocky rubble of the asteroid belt, Jupiter glowed like a giant, multicolored Christmas tree ornament. We would be reaching the jump gate very shortly. "I think I can give you better than just testimony, Galen." I turned to face him. "I've kept logs of the acquisitions I've made over the years." He looked shocked, then excited. "Very detailed descriptions of the men I've acquired, the orders that came down from Control, in some cases even who bought the men, when and where, etceteras "That last picture you showed me," I gestured toward the cabinet where he'd locked the horrible photos. I took a deep breath. "His name was Tony. I acquired him about nine months ago. He was SUPPOSED to go to a Driel woman who'd bought him as a breeder for her daughter. Two years in service and he would be reeducated and returned to Earth. That's what Control told me. How the hell did that happen?" Galen pulled another file out of the cabinet and showed me a photo inside. The familiar face of the Driel woman I'd seen wheeling Tony away looked at the camera with a vicious snarl on her face. She was wearing a prison jumpsuit and a restraining cuff on her left wrist. "As far as we can tell, she doesn't have a daughter, or a family of any sort. She's a slaver, who apparently sold this Tony for manual labor on a hydroponics farm. When he attempted to escape, he was sent back to the Driel, who did that" he waved toward the other folder "to him. She was arrested when she attempted to dispose of the body." I cringed at him describing Tony as "the body." In my mind he was still that handsome, stong, sensual lover I'd met nine months earlier. For him, if nothing else, I was going to make sure Control burned. "If you have information along with personal testimony that can link Control with this woman and the deceased man, we have her by the short hairs. Way to go, Tyna!" A huge grin split Galen's face. "Where is this documentation?" That took the wind out of my sails. "Oh, God, it's back at the beach house, Galen. We have to go back and get it. If I don't have that paperwork, it's just my word against hers!" Galen slid back into his control seat and disengaged the auto course. He recorded a quick message informing Marshall Headquarters that he and the prisoner would be returning to Earth to retrieve some vital evidence, and turned the ship around. It was after dark when we arrived back at the bungalow. I checked the sensors just inside the door that would have told me if anyone had been inside the house since Galen and I had departed, and breathed a sigh of relief. The house was undisturbed. "This way," I murmured, leading him back upstairs to the bedroom. While he waited just inside the door, I pulled my tote bag out from under the bed and yanked out the binder. What had once been just my own quirk had suddenly become of much greater importance. I handed the binder to Galen, who flipped it open and glanced at the pages. "It's all there, everything you should need to put her away for good." He nodded and slipped the binder into the bag he'd slung over his shoulder. The bag also contained all the other evidence he'd collected from me. We were just getting ready to leave again when there was a familiar buzzing ring from his bag. I stiffened. It was Control, trying to get in contact with me for an update. I said as much to Galen. "Will she become suspicious if you don't respond?" "Depends on how many times she's tried to contact me already. If this is the first time, no, she won't be suspicious. If more than that, maybe." He set down the pack and pulled out the buzzing communicator. "How can we tell?" "It will list incoming contacts on the screen." I looked over his shoulder as he checked the screen, and my stomach sank. "Three times," I murmured. "She'll be suspicious if I don't pick up." I said it matter-of-factly. I was, after all, still his prisoner. He hesitated for only a moment before handing it to me. "Where have you been, Sabela?" "I'm sorry, Control. I haven't been able to get away from him to call in. He's rather...vigorous." I felt my cheeks heat as Galen raised an eyebrow at this. "He's sleeping in the other room." I turned my back on Galen before my face turned any redder and forced myself to imagine that he was actually asleep in the other room, unable to hear me. "Have you run the tests?" She sounded even surlier than usual. Did she suspect something? I hoped not, as an image of Tony flashed in my mind. "Yes, ma'am. He's perfectly healthy. I think he'll meet with your approval." "Excellent. Prepare for phase three. I'll have the boat ready tomorrow, and the client will be here around two o'clock." "Yes, ma'am." I disconnected and handed the communicator back to Galen. "I think it's okay." He smiled at me. "I'm vigorous?" I returned his grin. "Very." As soon as everything was tucked into the bag, I brought up the subject that I'd been considering since we'd returned to Earth. "Galen, I think we should follow through with this." He looked surprised. "What do you mean?" "Well, you've already passed the first two phases of testing for a standard Acquisition: You meet the physical requirements of the client, and you're physically healthy. Control just gave the green light to proceed with phase three." "And what is phase three?" "Well, as far as I'm supposed to know, all my acquisitions are made for intimate reasons. Breeders, sometimes court pleasurers. Phase three is a...demonstration of your...sexual prowess." He looked taken aback. "You mean, you put on a demonstration of the acquisition's sexual ability?" Oh, I was really uncomfortable talking about this with Galen. "Yes. We would give the demonstration for the client, then I would drug you, and you'd be turned over to the client." "That's barbarous!" he said with a disgusted snarl. For the first time since I'd gone into Acquisitions, I felt ashamed of myself. He seemed to realize what he'd said an placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Tyna. I didn't mean that the way it sounded." "Don't be sorry. You're right, it is barbarous." I cleared my throat. "As I was saying, Control has given me the go to proceed with phase three for this acquisition. If I don't show up in the grotto tomorrow with you for her and her client to view, she'll know something is up, and will bolt. You will lose your last, best chance to nab her. If she's as good at disappearing as you say, it could be years before she turns up again." Acquisitions Ch. 02 "The client she's entertaining is one of our agents, Tyna. She won't get away tomorrow." I felt the back of my neck prickle. "I don't know, Galen. I have a really bad feeling. Please, contact your superiors and get their opinion. If they say no, we can leave tonight, but I really don't want to pass up the opportunity to get Control." He was giving me a strange look. He stepped up close to me, looking down at me with green eyes practically glowing. "Is that the only reason you don't want to leave yet?" he murmured. I felt my heart sink--he thought I was trying to work out a way to escape. I opened my mouth to protest when he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me gently against the front of his body. Oh, lady, he was aroused! "Or is there another reason?" My heart pounded at the very idea of crawling up that magnificent body and taking him within me again, but I forced myself to step away from his embrace. "The last thing in the universe I want is to put on a peep show for that bitch," I snarled. "I want her to pay for what she's done, Galen, and I believe that following through on this is our best chance. We can fake the sex tomorrow, if we have to, but I think we need to be there." He looked at me for a long moment, before digging his own communications device out of a pocket inside his bag and sending a short transmission to his Alliance superiors. I knew it would be several hours before the response returned to us, several hours alone in this house with a man I'd loved since I was ten years old. As soon as he'd safely stowed his communicator, I made a decision. I may only have a few more hours before I would be handed over as a prisoner of the Alliance, and I was not going to waste that time. As soon as Galen straightened up, I stepped close and wrapped one arm around his neck. The other hand I used to gently stroke the erection tenting the front of his trousers. I leaned in close and whispered in his ear. "For you and me, this time." Galen's eyes closed as I caressed him. I felt his heart race, his body tremble, but when he opened his eyes and looked into mine, I could see that something was wrong. He stepped back away from me, but caught my hands in his. "I don't want to make love to Sabela," he murmured. "I want Tyna. I want the woman the girl I knew would have become. Do you remember her?" Oh, heavens. I stared at him for a long moment, trying to remember the girl I used to be. "It's been a long time," I admitted. He kissed me then, softly, gently. "She's still in there, somewhere. Can you give her to me?" At that moment, I would have given this man anything he asked for. "I'll try." I walked into the bathroom and sank down on the edge of the bathtub. I hadn't been kidding when I said it had been a long time since I'd allowed my true form to emerge. When I'd entered acquisitions, I had adopted not only a new name, but a new image, too. At first, it had been a real trial just to keep Sabela's form--I'd always had to keep the image in the back of my mind. But over the years I'd become adept at keeping the new form, and the old one, Tyna's form, had faded until it was barely a dim memory. I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror. I tried to force myself to change, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do it. By the time I gave up on forcing myself to change, I was bathed in sweat and shaking. I sank to the floor and buried my face in my hands, sobbing. What had I done to myself? I don't know how long I sat there and cried, but eventually, I stood up and climbed into the shower. I turned the water on as hot as I could stand and let the pulsing jet wash away the sweat and tears. I could feel this big, empty hole inside me. Galen didn't want Sabela. He wanted Tyna, and I couldn't give her to him. Despairing, I let myself remember every moment we'd spent together as children, games and parties and school events. We'd been best friends from my earliest memories, two green-eyed children who'd frequently been mistaken for siblings. Friends through good times and bad. Tears threatened again as I remembered the two of us as children. Finally, the water started to go cold and, shivering, I turned off the shower and wrapped myself in a towel. I sat down on the closed toilet lid and contemplated what I would tell Galen when I reentered the bedroom. Nothing came to me. I'd done my best, but I guess Tyna was too deeply buried for me to ever find her again. I grabbed another towel and briskly rubbed my hair. I swiped my hand across the foggy mirror, and almost screamed when my reflection appeared in the mirror. I gaped at the red hared, green eyed woman gaping back at me. I leaned forward until my nose was nearly touching the mirror, examining myself more closely. Somehow, I'd done it. This was me, the real me. Heart pounding, I pulled a brush through my short red hair and dug under the sink until I had located an old bottle of body splash--it wasn't nearly sexy enough for Sabela, Control had told me. But for Tyna, it was perfect. Primped as much as I could, I took a deep breath and opened the bathroom door. * * * Galen stood by the window, listening to Tyna move around in the bathroom and watching the moon's slow advance across the night sky. He heard the shower turn on, then off a while later. He didn't know what was taking her so long. When the door opened, he turned, and felt as if he'd taken a blow to the chest. A cloud of steam, aglow with the bathroom light, poured out. From the cloud stepped a dream. She hadn't bothered to re-dress after her shower, and was back lit by the bathroom light, so that her damp red hair haloed her head, and her skin gleamed. Galen's body snapped back to immediate attention. She walked toward him slowly, shyly, stopped at the foot of the bed and gave him a tentative smile. Galen couldn't remember moving but was suddenly around the bed and standing before her, not touching with anything but his eyes. Then he reached out and tipped her chin up until he could look her in the eyes. "Hello, Tyna." She gave him a tremulous smile. "I didn't think I could do it. At first, I couldn't, but then, it just happened." "And I'm so glad it did. You are so beautiful." He gave her a roguish grin. "Now, where were we?" He took her hand and stepped closer, pressing her palm against his groin. "Make love with me, Tyna." He waited for an eternal moment while she seemed to consider his words. Then she raised her free hand and threaded it through the back of his hair, pulling his head down so she could reach his mouth as she rubbed and gently squeezed his erection through his pants. She kissed him long and thoroughly, and when she finally pulled away, they were both panting. "One of us is wearing way to many clothes," she whispered as she nibbled along his jaw. He laughed a little raggedly and pulled back, swiftly stripping off his shirt and pants. While he disrobed, she crawled across the bed and lay back against the pile of pillows, spread out before him like a pagan goddess. With hunger boiling his blood, he followed her. He growled playfully and gave her a wicked look as he took her slim ankle in his hand and nuzzled her instep, then licked the inner edge of her ankle, then up her leg, higher and higher. Tyna writhed as he paid particular attention to the sensitive spots at the back of her knees, the point of her hip, the dip of her navel, the valley between her breasts. By the time he reached her ear and began sucking on the lobe, she was shaking as if she would come out of her skin. Suddenly, with more strength than was apparent in her slim body, she bucked him off, and the next thing he knew, he was flat on his back and he was straddling waist. She gave him an evil smile, and then ran her fingernails over his chest, ducking her head to lick and nibble at his throat. Then she began to reverse his course, checking and licking all his own highly sensitive places. Before she'd even made it half way down his body, Galen couldn't take a moment more. He grabbed her by the hips and held her steady while he rubbed his organ in the moisture that had gathered between her legs. She gasped as he rubbed against her time and again, deliberately stimulating her until she was shaking as much as he. Then she grasped his wrists and wiggled until the head of his penis pressed against the opening to her body. "Now, baby. Now," he murmured as she slowly sank down on him, taking him as deeply as she could. He released her hips and clasped her hands as she flipped her head back and began to ride him, slowly, oh so slowly. "Oh, Tyna, you're killing me," Galen groaned, trying to get her to move faster. She just shook her head, and kept with her slow, sensuous rhythm. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, so to speak, he raised his legs and planted his feet against the mattress, giving him the leverage he needed to thrust into her four or five times in rapid succession. She shuddered over him, and he took advantage of her inattention to flip her onto her back. She raised her legs and locked her ankles against his lower back as he lowered his chest against her soft breasts and began a rhythm that not only rubbed her breasts against the wall of chest, but brought the base of his shaft into contact with the point of her pleasure. It only took a few more thrusts to send her into orbit. She screamed in pleasure and gouged his back with her nails, her body throbbing against his. Just as she was coming down, his orgasm began, and the hot pulse of his seed within her set her off again. I held him in my arms, and knew in that moment that I loved this man. Had probably loved him since we were very young. He nuzzled the side of my neck and my heart skipped a beat. We lay side by side, cuddled into each other's arms, not sleeping, just absorbing the nearness of each other, waiting for sunrise. Dawn came in a wash of golden light. I hadn't drawn the curtains, so the bedroom was awash in light. I felt Galen sigh, and rolled away from him to sit against the headboard, my comforter pulled up under my arms. Galen sat up on the edge of the bed and gazed out the window into the sunrise. After a few minutes, he got out of bed and walked to the dresser, where he'd left his communications unit. He checked his messages quickly, then returned to bed. "Well, my superiors agree with you, Tyna. We shouldn't waste this opportunity to make sure Control is apprehended." He didn't sound happy about it. I lay my head on his shoulder, trying to offer comfort. "It's going to be okay, Galen. We can do this." "I don't like putting you in the line of fire. You could get hurt." "There's no reason to think that. If we play this right, she'll never know I was involved until after she's arrested. By then it will be too late for her to hurt any of us." I cupped his cheek and forced him to look at me. "We CAN do this." He didn't look convinced, but nodded anyway. "So, where do we go from here?" "I gave you the general idea yesterday. We go out on a boat "loaned" to my by a family friend and anchor in this little cove a few miles up the coast. There's a little house up the cliff overlooking the cove, and as soon as Control gives me the go-ahead, I would seduce you, we'd have sex, then if the performance was approved by the client, I'd drug you and take you in." I stopped, pondering the situation. "The only changes we'll have to make to this scenario is I won't actually drug you, and we won't actually have sex." "How are we going to fake having sex so Control doesn't get suspicious?" That was a very good question. I didn't believe that Control watched--usually, there was only one telescope in the room, the one used by the client to view the action, but I couldn't guarantee that there wasn't another in another room, where Control could monitor what was going on, too. "Can you get in contact with your agent acting as the client? I mean, if she can be sure to be the only one watching through the telescope, we'll only have to do a little bump and grind. From the distance from the cove to the house, Control won't be able to tell what's going on, provided she's not watching through a telescope or binoculars herself. If she is, we may actually have to go through with it." I felt a shiver of revulsion crawl up my spine. Not so much for myself--I'm fairly certain Control has seen me in the act on more than one occasion, but for Galen. I really didn't want that woman looking at him. He pulled out his communications unit and relayed a message through his task force to the woman acting as the client. He set up a quick signal that would tell us whether or not it was safe to fake it. While he was doing that, I made a call myself, to make sure the boat would be ready to go out at 1:30. That way, we'd be anchored in the cove at the time Control had told me the client would be there for viewing of phase three. Then I puttered around the kitchen, setting up the customary picnic basket that would be a key part of the fake seduction I'd be performing. At least, I hoped it would be fake. Once everything was set, Galen and I sat and waited. It was one of the longest mornings I'd ever experienced in my life. We didn't talk, didn't watch TV or listen to the radio. We just sat, each lost in our own thoughts. One o'clock finally rolled around, and we prepared to set out on the last leg of our journey. I slipped into the bathroom and forced myself to change back into my Sabela appearance. I dug through my collection of swim wear and found a bikini in a pale tan, not the sexiest one I owned but the color just might fool a distant viewer into thinking I was nude, topped it with a gossamer sarong in a vivid shade of violet, and walked back out to join Galen. He looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. He insisted on carrying the picnic basket. Just in case, he said, someone was watching. We had to appear to be a happy couple out for a day on the ocean. Before I could swing the door open, Galen caught up my hand and quickly punched a code into the lock of the restrainment cuff I'd almost forgotten I was wearing. It popped off my wrist and at the same moment the one he was wearing clicked open, too. I was shocked. "I trust you, Tyna." I smiled broadly, feeling some of the pressure deep inside me release. Somehow, we were going to make this work. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, putting on the appearance of happiness amid the madness my life had become. I steered the boat out of its slip and motored it up the familiar waterway out of the marina. Galen sat beside me, twirling the stem of a wineglass filled with sparkling white grape juice, making small talk and gazing at me like a man totally besotted with his companion. "How are you managing this?" I asked, flashing a smile I didn't feel. He gave me a look that curled my toes. "I'm remembering last night," he admitted. "And anticipating more nights like it." My heart gave a hard thud and I shivered. This was the first time he'd made any sort of reference to a future between us. But what kind of a future did we have? I was still, technically, a prisoner of the Alliance, who would probably spend at least a little time behind bars. Not exactly the type of woman a lawman should be tying himself to. Then I gave myself a sharp mental shake. Fool, I thought. He's not talking about marrying you, he's talking about sleeping with you. I tried not to let my thoughts show as I slid my sunglasses up my nose and smiled. "Me too," I said. Before too long we were dropping anchor in the cove. In a low voice I told Galen how to go about spotting the little house on the cliff. I could see him searching out of the corner of his eye, saw his eyes dilate as he spotted the flash of red that was my signal to proceed. While I spread out picnic out on the deck, he excused himself to "go to the head", in reality to check for a signal from the agent inside the house. He returned as I was refilling his glass from the wine bottle I'd filled with grape juice. We'd decided to skip anything that might turn out to be inebriating. He sat down beside me and pulled me into his lap, leaning forward as if to kiss me. Instead, he slid his lips against my ear and murmured, "We're in the clear. Control's not watching." The relief was almost overwhelming. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a kiss for real. He laughed and carried me down to the deck. "You do that again, and I won't give a damn if the bitch is watching, I'll take you right here." I was able to relax and get into the mood of what we were doing. From somewhere, Galen had produced a pair of flesh colored swim trunks, just a few shades paler than my own suit, and as he stripped of the jeans he was wearing, I was sure that from a distance no one would be able to tell either one of us wasn't completely nude, especially if Galen kept his back to the house on the cliff. We clasped and grappled on the blanket, working each other into an absolute frenzy, but not following through on the heat we were generating. Finally, Galen threw his head back as if in the throes of orgasm and then collapsed on top of me. My heart started to pound with more than unfulfilled sexual energy as I slipped out from under him, dropped a kiss on his bare shoulder, and walked into the cabin to check my messages from Control. I literally held my breath until the code appeared accepting Galen. I heaved a sigh of relief and walked back out onto deck. As I sat down beside him, Galen rolled onto his side, back facing the cliff, and propped his head on his hand. "So?" "It worked," I said, not having to force a smile this time. Galen grinned back and sat up to kiss me. I leaned over and picked up our wine glasses, mimed pouring something into his, and handed him his glass. "The drug normally takes about five minutes to work, and you would doze off slowly, not drop off quickly," I told him. He nodded and proceeded to drain his glass. I smiled at him as he slowly pretended to drift off to sleep. I shook his shoulder lightly, but he continued to feign sleep. "Excellent," I murmured. Within ten minutes, I'd raised anchor and motored around the spit and up to the dock. As usual, Control was waiting for me there. Quite unusual was her appearance. I'd never seen her look anything less than the pristine businesswoman, but today she looked as if she's slept in her cloths, but her eyes were bloodshot and had dark circles under them as if she hadn't slept in days. She was lacing and unlacing her fingers nervously as her assistants boarded the boat and lifted Galen onto a gurney. I joined her on the dock, plastered a phony smile on my face and resisted the urge to dump her right off the side of the dock into the water. "The client is going to be very happy with this one," I said as we followed the path up the hill to the house. "Yes, yes. I'm sure she will," Control said in a distracted voice. "This is our last Acquisition here, Sabela. We're going to have to be moving on." "Moving to a different port, or a different country?" I asked, as if I didn't already know. "Moving off planet. Things are getting too...hot here. People are starting to get suspicious." "Off planet? Where will we go?" We walked into the room where the "client" was looking Galen over. Control walked over to the window and looked out, but I continued to watch Galen and the other agent. I saw her press something into Galen's hand, then she walked around the gurney and held a hand out to me. "You did a marvelous job, my dear," she said in a slightly lispy voice. "I hope we can do business again sometime." As I took her hand, I felt her press something against my palm, and when I glanced down, I realized she'd given me a stunner. Apparently, Galen wasn't the only one who trusted me. I looked into the woman's eyes, and she darted a quick glance toward one of Control's two assistants, telling me silently that when it started to go down, he was the one I was to take out. I smiled. "It was my pleasure," I said, giving her a slight nod to tell her I understood.