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extending from a perfect backside. When David forced one of the
contractors to back up ever so slightly, Mari’s heart beat a little faster.
    His confidence amazed her. She
wanted to command control of a situation, any situation, like he did.
    Raised voices reached her ears
from the scene in front of her the same time they echoed from the nearest Media
screen. “You need to move your ship out now.” It was one of
the original male contractors speaking. His ebony hair and brows matched his
clothing. Like all contractors he was perfectly beautiful with olive skin and
icy blue eyes.
    The shot switched to David, whose
features were more masculine than delicate. “As soon as we inventory
our supplies. I’m thinking that could take a couple of days.” His
slight accent came through in the way he pronounced his vowels.
    The camera zoomed in on his face
and Mari took a deeper breath. His tan skin stretched over a square jaw and
angled planes, though the screen didn’t do his eyes justice. There they looked
like the pale grey of the winter sky back in her home territory, but they held
a slight tint of deeper blue if you got close enough to notice, and she’d been
close enough plenty of times.
    “What the hell is he talking
about?” Sean grumbled. “I’m not staying here just so he can prove a
point. I have stuff to do.”
    Sean always had stuff to do .
He had a brilliant mind, especially when it came to the ship’s systems and
techy gadgets, probably why they called him a mech tech, but Mari believed
Sean’s intelligence was his biggest enemy. He thought too much and tried to
lose himself in his work or the virtual arena of the V-side to avoid
interacting in the real world. And he hated to be docked here at the Embassy
Hub. Mari found it exciting to be in the middle of the busiest city in the
system—well, usually.
    She was already worried about
losing another client this week, adding to her mounting financial problems, and
today’s situation compounded her nervous energy, yet no one else paid the
slightest attention to what was happening. The bustle around Shiraz never
slowed for anything.
    Another exchange between David
and the contractors played on the Media screens. Among the frenzied music
dubbed over the scene to add excitement, Mari heard David say, “ The way
you’re stroking that piece makes me think Killian here should be watching his
ass.”
    The contractor leveled his pistol
at David. Mari’s mouth went dry.
    David ignored the cender and
stuck his finger in the younger guy’s chest, bending down to face him. His
voice echoed from screen to screen. “You keep pointing that weapon at
me and I’ll show you how to use it.”
    Mari’s focus bounced from David and
the contractor to their images augmented on the Media screens. She missed
whatever David said next, but suddenly all but one contractor had a gun pointed
at him.
    Sean snagged the knife from
Mari’s hand and tucked it discreetly against his side as he walked down the
boardwalk toward the action.
     
    That pissed them off .
    David’s verbal sparring with the
armed group had taken a turn for the worse. Maybe he shouldn’t have used the
word inbred , but they did like to keep it within the family. It would
have been a good insult even if the voyeurs hadn’t broadcasted it loud and
clear for the whole system to hear. He could have thrown in illegal gene
manipulation, but that would have just been petty.
    “Don’t get me wrong,”
David said, raising his hands in front of him as though he meant no offense.
“It’s a good look, a little cold, like your personalities.”
    Killian motioned for the others
to lower their weapons. “You have half an hour to get that ship out of here.”
    “If you have that big of a
problem with my ship being here, take it up with the dockmaster.” David’s
words snapped through the Media speakers. He didn’t let on that hearing his own
harsh tone startled him.
    Apparently it made the
contractors uneasy as well.