Rene woke in the early hours, though in truth he had done little enough sleeping. Solae shifted her naked form against him and he instinctively tightened his arms around her. They had retired shortly after dinner, both being exhausted and in the rare circumstance of not being in immediate fear for their lives. They were also both very cognisant that their luck was likely to run out in the near future and making love had seemed far more important than sleep to either of them. It was possible, perhaps even probable that Ten was recording them, but in a galaxy where sophisticated video editing could conjure people more realistic than the original models, the value of such footage was minimal. Even in peace time, the fact that a noblewoman might take a common soldier to her bed would hardly have caused titillation, much less been cause for blackmail. Given the fact Solae wasn’t yet married, it wouldn’t attract enough attention to make it worth the effort.

“Time to wake up?” Solae asked sleepily, roused by the pressure of her lovers arms around her body. A soft musical chime sounded as the alarm they had set to wake them cycled on for a moment, detected their wakefulness and disengaged. Waking before an alarm was a trick that most Marines mastered early on, afterall it was better to be awake before a segment kicked you awake for a watch. 

“I’m afraid so,” Rene told her leaning down to kiss her lips lingeringly. They hadn’t made any detailed plans last night, agreeing that there was little to be gained by speculation until they knew what was in the Falia vault. Judging by the fact they had already been ambushed once, even getting that far was likely to be a good deal more complicated and a good deal more dangerous than it sounded. The room, or rooms more accurately, they had been given, were luxuriously appointed. There was a bedchamber, a bath and a general purpose room that seemed to combine closet and communication center that opened raidally of a central sitting room paved in cool stone tiles. Several plants, expensive ultra realistic synthetics, rather than the real thing, were artfully arranged to give the impression of a garden, despite the fact it was completely in doors.

Reluctantly, Rene climbed out of bed stepped into the discrete refresher unit, the water ran hot over his naked body for several long minutes,  the warmth easing his muscles and enhancing the sense of well being that suffused him following a night in Solae’s arms. By the time he emerged from the refresher Solae was up, sitting naked on the edge of the bed watching him with a smile as he emerged. He offered her a courtly bow and then swept her up into his arms, ignoring her squeal of mock protest as his damp body touched hers. He kissed her lingeringly for a long moment, stealing an intimacy even though they knew that they had no time to indulge it. Reluctantly he allowed her to step into the shower and turned to his own duties.

As per the discussion last night, Rene’s clothing was already laid out for him. Ten had provided a suit of expensive black and gray silk, the kind which was currently in vouge with the type of high end security a noble might keep on retainer for conducting business in dangerous regions. It was stylish, but the weave was reinforced with carbon fibre and discrete ceramic plates. It wasn’t armor per se, but it provided a man a modicum of protection and more importantly gave Rene an excuse to stay close to Solae as she played the part of a minor noble woman. He pulled it on carefully surprised to find that it had been tailored to fit him, possibly from scans made by concealed electronics in the building. A pistol had been provided, a civilian variant of the standard marine side arm. With mechanical reflex he snapped open the action and checked the load, thumbing one of the plasma cartigges free and replacing it at the bottom of the clip before tucking the pistol into the concealed shoulder holster. A pair of reloads balanced the weight in the right inside coat pocket, but if he needed them things would have already gone badly wrong.

By the time he had finished dressing Solae was emerging from the refresher. He turned to face her with a wry smile. He supposed private security was a step up in the world from a marine private.

“Well?” he joked, “How do I look?”