Chapter Ten 

"Do you think he believed us?" Dane Trenwith stood behind Callan, looking down at the top of his head as he sat behind his desk. He began to knead his shoulders, releasing the tension in those tight muscles. Callan closed his eyes for a second, enjoying the attention, then opened them reluctantly. 

"No, I don't think he did. He's nobodies' fool, we'll have to be careful." 

Trenwith slipped his hands down inside his shirt so he could touch his bare skin and continued the massage, rubbing and squeezing Callan's shoulders, digging out the knots. Mm, that felt much better. 

"He's pretty hot though, don't you think? I thought I might try my luck, see if I can turn him to the dark side." He smiled, waiting for Callan's reaction. His probing fingers caught the sudden slight tension that his eyes couldn't see. There was a small pause.  

"You think he's an om then?" 

"I'd bet on it, they way he was looking at me this morning." 

"Ah." Callan took the opportunity to change his position slightly in the chair. That was so not what he had wanted to hear. "I didn't think you liked him, he's not your usual sort," his tone was carefully light, faintly questioning.  

"It's true he's way more serious than I usually go for, intense even, but maybe that's part of the challenge, persuading him to let go and be wild could be a lot of fun." 

Callan swallowed. The image that conjured up had the blood rushing straight to his lap, but he didn't want it to be Dane who brought out the hidden passion in Oliver. He wanted that joy for himself. He knew Dane well enough to know that any hint of interest on his part would be enough to turn the whole thing into a competition. Dane was very competitive when it came to a contest between them over lovers, and what was worse, he usually won. 

Callan forced himself to relax and answer lightly, as if it didn't matter. "I honestly don't think he'll risk getting involved with anyone but good luck anyway. Just be careful though, remember who he is," he couldn't help adding. 

Out of sight behind his back, Dane hid his disappointment. That hadn't been the reaction he'd been hoping for. 

XXX 

Mike Oliver sat in front of his console unit. As he had hoped, the information about his four dead men had come through. Nathan Bailey was a freelance pilot with a history of slightly shady jobs but he was well known to the officials at Kapunda space port, it appeared he'd simply made a bad decision in choosing his last assignment. The other three men were another matter. Xiang Yuan was on the Patrol's wanted list for piracy and both Otto Bauer and Tony Reid were still under investigation for the murder of a businessman on Burra last year. Unfortunately all three men appeared to be available for hire to the highest bidder, there were no known ties to any particular gang or employer. 

He flicked across to check the latest news from Capella. The deputy governor of Moonta was now under arrest for tax evasion, two men had been found dead in the back streets of Kapunda under suspicious circumstances and more illegal diamonds had surfaced in Wallaroo.  

He had a closer look at the story from Kapunda, checking all the TriVid versions before accessing the official Patrol reports. It only took him a second to discover the case was not currently considered a Patrol matter. It was being investigated by the police, a Captain Pat Spier being the chief investigating officer. He thought for a minute. There was nothing obvious connecting the two cases but nevertheless his instinct told him there was something there. It was too much of a coincidence surely, that the very next day after the failed attack, two more men should be found dead.  

It was worth investigating further, at all events. He forwarded Captain Spier a copy of the information he had just received about his four dead men along with a request for access to any further information she might have about her two victims. Hopefully they could work together on this. 

XXX 

Jian Chang sat with pursed lips. He hadn't intended for the two men to die in his territory. Not that they hadn't deserved it, but unfortunately corpses had a bad habit of attracting unwanted attention. Now he had police swarming all over the area he worked in. Next time, if there was a next time, he would have to make it clear that when he asked for a tidy disposal he meant take the targets somewhere a long way away, preferably where they wouldn't be found at all, not stuff them in a nearby rubbish bin.  

He sighed and poured himself a small glass of Orion brandy, already thinking about his next move. 

XXX 

Cutter Levi sat opposite his boss, quietly watchful, waiting for him to make a decision. His boss didn't look especially intimidating, being small and thin, his dark hair greying at the temples, but Levi knew from personal experience those looks were deceiving. It was the eyes, he thought, the eyes were cold and penetrating, exposing the utter ruthlessness within, if you looked past the smiling lips. 

Not that Mo Khan was smiling today. He was furious. Not only had his highly priced assassins utterly failed to complete the job, but they had lost him an expensive ship in the process, worth several million credits. Reluctantly, he decided that it would be foolish to attempt to claim the ship, he couldn't risk any leads back to him. Even if he reported it stolen, it would turn a highly unwelcome spotlight on him and his affairs. 

And to top it off, despite his efforts at subterfuge by hiring men with whom he had no previous ties, Jian Chang evidently had no doubts about who had been behind the attack and had lost no time in hitting back. He had lost two men over night. One of the men, Denny Yokami, had been the very henchman he had ordered to set up the hit. In one way he felt it served him right for failing but he should have been the man to make the decision, not his rival. His first reaction to the news had been to order a hit on three of Chang's men in retaliation but luckily he had made himself stop and think first. 

Did he really want to escalate this into an all out gang war? Well yes, he did, but not by killing each other off in a messy blood bath. No, that would be not only dangerous but foolish. A random attack by pirates which happened to result in the death of his chief rival was one thing, he could have swept in and taken over a large part of Chang's territory while his underlings were still in shock, but a series of hits and counter hits would be more likely to destroy both of them.  

"We need to be cleverer than that," he told Levi, finally. "The last thing we want is to attract the Patrol's attention, have them moving in, imposing martial law, which they'll do if they think we've started an all out gang war. It's bad enough having the police investigating. We'll bide our time, let them think it's just an isolated case of murder, and in the meantime we'll take Chang down in a way he'll never suspect."