*Events of In the Rain*

[b]New Concordia - Day 4[/b]

Oanh small fist rapped on the door, drawing Rene back to the waking world. It was early by any reasonable standard, the light of the new risen sun barely slanting through the room’s large window, but later than he would have been allowed to sleep at the Rat Trap. Solae stirred beside him, a shaft of sunlight lay across her aurite hair, blindingly bright in its refraction. For a long moment he ignored the insistant knocking and simply looked down at her marveling at her beauty.

“Some time before the Succession,” Oanh called, her voice muffled through the door but clearly intelligible. Muttering a curse Rene rolled to his feet and, with some difficulty, found where he had flung his pants the night before. He was still pulling them on when Oanh opened the door. She glanced from the half dressed marine to the naked Solae and raised an eyebrow.

“I see she took my advice about lowering her market value after all,” the woman commented. Rene felt his face go blank, muscles relaxing into neutral planes equally useful for ignoring the berating voice of a superior or for firing a round down range. He didn’t think Oanh had meant the comment as an insult but it stung nonetheless. Solae was meant for better than him. Oanh either read the expression on his face or realised what he might be thinking and cleared her throat. Rene wasn’t sure what reaction he had expected, but the disheveled bedding, and the noise they had made during the night were hardly going to go unnoticed by two intelligence operatives on watch.

“Min Ho wants to see you both,” she said directly, dropping her eyes in as close as she was likely to come to an apology. Solae was awake and sitting up now, still naked but unconcerned. The nobility as a rule were less prudish, at least in private, than many of those they ruled over. Oanh didn’t look directly at Solae and Rene felt a surge of affection as he imagined she was deliberately making the other woman uncomfortable in subtle rebuke for her comment of a moment before.

“We will be down in a second,” he told Oanh and politely but firmly shut the door before turning and crossing the room to the bed. He pulled Solae to his chest and kissed her lingeringly, it was only with reluctance that he pulled away to get dressed.

Min Ho was standing in the kitchen when they came down. The gray haired old man wasn’t wearing his tactical armor but was dressed instead in a simple farmers smock and trousers with boots of soft synthetic leather. Rene was amazed at the transformation of hardened assassin into nondescript farmer, though he realised he shouldn’t be. Min Ho had spent decades in a career where blending in was literally the difference between life and death.

“Ah, feeling better?” he asked, his eyes flicking between the pair. Unlike his wife he choose not to offer any comment on the previous evenings activity. Rene nodded, and to his surprise it was true. Whatever drugs Min Ho had passed him had restored him remarkably. The blackened bruises on his body were already changing to the bilious yellow greens he wouldn’t have expected for a few days and his body was markedly less stiff than it had been the previous day. Even for as little sleep as he had gotten he felt remarkably refreshed. Of course there were other forms of rejuvenation that had played a role.

“The Gids are on your trail,” Min Ho declared with characteristic bluntness. He spread a map of green acetate out on the table. Rene recognized it as the satellite composite the marines themselves had used. Min Ho thrust a finger at a junction of roads which Rene guessed, from the land marks he had seen, represented Lord Armon’s manor.

“They have some sort of specialized tracking unit, police forensics and some off world types, probably came in on that ship yesterday afternoon,” the old man explained. Rene frowned trying to figure out how the Gids had landed on the manor, had the looters found something? It seemed unlikely, nothing they were carrying was identifiable enough to telegraph Solae’s presence. 

“Mia,” Rene breathed as the pieces fell together. He felt suddenly foolish and ashamed. Min Ho cocked an eyebrow. Rene shared a glance with Solae and then explained.

“The AI at the manor was shielding Solae’s CLTI,” he explained. Min Ho had doubtless heard of the trackers, probably even used them to track down nobles who he was contracted to surveil or remove.

“They must have deactivated her and got a ping off it. Stars I’m an idiot I should have smashed it,” he said with a shake of his head. He had considered exactly that when he had removed the thing but had decided against it. At the time he had planned to throw the thing in a river or hide it in a ground car so that its movements would lay down a false trail. The sudden arrival of the looters meant he hadn't had time to do anything but hope Mia could keep it shielded.

“I don’t like you moving about during the day,” Min Ho said soberly, “But I don't see that there is any choice.”