Kinsmen 01 - Silver Shark

They'd been working on the establishment phase for the past three weeks and it was completed this morning. Giving it up would mean DSS would reap all of the benefits of their groundwork.
    A clause in the contract gave Sangori legal means to terminate it after the establishment. The clause was standard, but in every meeting Venturo and Savien had, the head of Sangori family had asserted his intention to continue with the maintenance phase. He broke his word.
    The anger in Ven's mind told her they had no legal recourse.
    "How much do we stand to lose?" she asked.
    "Two million credits," he said. "It's not the money."
    "I don't understand," she said.
    "Savien Sangori doesn't have the expertise to engineer this scheme on his own. He knows money; he doesn't understand bionet. This took a psycher, someone who had looked at the amount of work involved and quoted him exact numbers prior to him ever walking into my building. DDS had conspired with him. They must've offered him monthly maintenance at a lower price if he managed to get the establishment out of me. They set us up."
    Now she understood. "It's about pride then."
    He faced her. "Yes. More, it's about business. I've been double-crossed. Suckered like a fool. I provide security. Would you want a gullible fool to protect your data?"
    "A psycher's gullibility has no bearing on the destructive potential of his mind." She almost bit the last word. She shouldn't have said this.
    Ven looked at her, his mind focusing on hers. If he looked too closely, she would be outed.
    "Forgive me," Claire said. "I've been trying to read some research in my spare time. I may have misunderstood."
    He considered it for a long second and let it go.
    "You understand perfectly," he said. "But not many other people do."
    He pulled his doublet off the back of his chair.
    "Where are you going?"
    "To have a conversation with Savien Sangori. I'm going to attempt to explain the facts of life to him."
    "Those facts being?" she asked.
    "I make a dangerous enemy," he said, "and Sangori is an old provincial family. They had never before betrayed the integrity of their family name to make a credit. I'm curious why they decided to start now."
    "What if he refuses to talk to you?"
    "I'm not planning on giving him a chance to decline."
    Alarm dashed through her. She set her pseudopapers in the chair and plucked her tablet out from the bottom of the stack.
    "What are you doing?" he asked.
    "I'm coming with you."
    "Why?"
    "Because you shouldn't go alone."
    He peered at her incredulous. "And you're planning to come as my bodyguard?"
    "I am."
    It would take her at least three minutes to break through the shell over her mind, bringing her to combat readiness. It would be an eternity in a psycher fight, where death was instant. Still, she couldn't let him go alone and she didn't need to listen to his mind to realize he wouldn't take anyone he considered capable of delivering damage to watch his back. Venturo Escana, arrogant beast that he was, would consider backup beneath him.
    "Just out of purely academic curiosity, how exactly are you planning to defend me?" Ven asked. "You have no weapons, no combat enhancements, and your mind is inert. Are you planning on beating Sangori's assassins off with that tablet or were you thinking of a more theoretical approach? Should I look forward to you giving me a detailed analysis of a knife sticking out of my back? If I happen to die, will you deliver a slide point presentation describing my valor at my funeral?"
    "Are you finished?"
    "Possibly."
    "Very well." She raised her chin. "I'm ready when you are."
    "You do realize that this is foolish?"
    She simply looked at him, loading her gaze with as much scorn and sarcasm as she could manage.
    As they were walking down the hallway, Ven leaned to her. "Thank you."
    "You're welcome. I hope you don't get us killed."
    "They wouldn't dare touch you," he said. "You're a noncombatant."
    They stepped into the elevator.
    "Can you kill outside of bionet?" she asked.
    "If the Sangori are smart, you will never have to find out," he said.
    *** *** ***

    Ven marched into the lobby of Sangori Investments. Claire followed him, a step behind. Inside, white columns rose up, five stories tall and lit from the inside with a warm yellow light. An ornate lacy relief of vines and flowers sheathed the columns, blocking the illumination, so the spaces between leaves and flowers glowed with white. Delicate golden chairs sat in groups by ornate tables,