Episode 1 - The Beam

knew about a client, the better she could satisfy him. If she knew, for instance, that a man who claimed to own a textile company was in fact up for a senate seat, she’d know those days he was in most need of relief and which topics she should and should not broach. Knowing a man’s true identity helped her know which opinions and leanings she should pretend to have, and guess at how empowered or subservient to be.
    And of course, if Kai knew a man’s true identity, she could attach video of the acts, infidelities and atrocities they committed together to those identities in her database. A bit of information like “A man calling himself ‘Ron Barber’ likes to dress in young girls’ panties” was of limited use, but “The Commissioner of Such and Such likes to dress in young girls’ panties” was quite valuable indeed. Kai had never, ever, ever revealed any of the millions of secrets she’d collected over the years… but a girl had to have a Plan B (or a nest egg) saved for the inevitable rainy day.
    She looked down at her client’s back, then rose up enough to turn him over onto his back. He had a handsome face with a square jaw, with a five o’clock shadow spread across it. He had hazel eyes and sandy blonde hair. His chest and arms were well-muscled. In most ways, he was an ideal client for Kai, if for no other reason than that she would probably have been attracted to him anyway. He’d come at her with such flair and bravado that she’d decided on impulse to quote him twice her normal rate. He hadn’t blinked. So he was rich, and probably connected.
    “Have you had enough?” said Kai.
    “Not even close,” he said.
    She slapped him across the face. “Speak when spoken to, Ralph,” she said.
    He smiled — not at her command, but at the name. He knew she knew, and found it hilarious.
    She hit him again, harder.
    The smile widened.
    He’d hired her for the entire evening and night. Seventeen hours. “Ralph” had picked her up at five, and she was his until ten in the morning. They’d gone to a ridiculously expensive dinner, and he’d become moderately lubricated with a multi-hundred-credit bottle of champagne. Then they’d headed to the Aphora, where they’d watched what Kai felt was perhaps the most raw, heartbreaking performance from Natasha Ryan she’d seen in all the years Kai had spent following her. Then those assholes had started booing, and things had quickly fallen apart. Kai had been totally shocked by the incident, but throughout it all “Ralph” had seemed totally nonplussed. That in itself was a clue to something. Kai wondered what her canvas’s AI would make of it, if anything.
    As she straddled her client with her hand cocked back, Kai looked down at the mystery man. She probably didn’t truly need to know who he was. She might never see him again, and he might simply be a horny man a ton of credits to blow. But Kai didn’t like a puzzle she couldn’t crack, and so far, she hadn’t been able to crack this one. She had a tiny nano-enhancement in the index finger of her right hand that allowed her to read Beam IDs without a scanner, but the man either didn’t have one (unthinkable; he was too conservative-looking to be an Organa) or had had it encrypted. So she’d used another enhancement to sample DNA from a piece of his hair, but again, she came up empty. It made no sense that he’d be off the grid. He had to be hiding something. But how? And why?
    “Take off that bra,” he said, reaching up to paw at Kai’s small breasts through the lace.
    “I give the orders here,” she said, then slipped her bra off and tied it around her client’s head at the mouth, halfway gagging him.
    Kai hid it well, but she was pissed. Or rather, she was indignant . After her years in this business (more years than she’d care to admit, though she looked twenty-five at most), she’d come to see information as an entitlement. “Ralph” wasn’t doing anything overt to keep her out, but the mere fact that he represented an impenetrable wall irked her something fierce. Kai wanted to hit him again to vent her frustration, but he’d like it too much.
    Even if she didn’t need to know who he was, she absolutely did.
    Kai climbed off her client. He twitched to the side, reaching for her ass. She dodged the hand, then slapped it away. Oh yes, he was quite the character. He couldn’t decide if he was the sub or the dom. Or perhaps he was the bad boy who was an asshole… and