Cassandra: Same old routine

Cass was pole dancing in a cheap, tacky underwear setHook leg around pole lean back wave arms in time with musicReach up with one hand grasp pole, spin around pole holding with handShe was seethingPhilippe had effectively her trapped between the proverbial rock and the hard place; there was almost was no way she'd ever be able to raise such an extortionate amount of money in seven days without resorting to desperate measures, and he knew itPerhaps he was just toying with her before he had her killed, or perhaps as the accountant, Lilith, had suggested, Cass was actually worth something to them, raising the interesting possibility of her having some subjective leverage with PhilippeBrace one shin against pole, reach both hands up and hold, pull self off the ground, release one hand, hold free foot, hold poseReleaseSlide down pole to dismountTry to look sexy. Run hands over body, and up into hair while gyrating.Cass knew where this was leading with Philippe, and was adamant she wasn't going to be used by someone like him again; and although she knew he wasn't going to let her off the hook even if she did somehow manage to come up with fifteen thousand, she knew that doing so would probably buy her a bit of timeThe only problem was exactly where she was going to get the money fromThere had of course been those two from earlier on: Keto and that weird pervert - Omelette, or whatever the smeg his name was, bickering over their smegging insect; The critter was apparently worth fifteen thou of TransMed's money, possibly even more than that if she wanted to haggle, but stealing it and keeping it (and herself) out of harm's way until she brokered a deal with an organisation that had a reputation darker than even her own heart, was something she was only willing to risk if all else failed - Keto could just look after the damn thing until she needed itStand, reach high with one hand, walk around pole, scope assembled crowd of pervertsReach other hand up to grasp pole, mid air splitsFeet back down, hook one calf around the pole, rotate backwards down around the pole to come to a stop on knees on floorLean over backward, tease perverts with a glimpse down virtually nonexistent cleavageOf all the options open to her, she had to admit that simply killing Philippe was by far the most preferable, but for this, she'd need to lay her hands on some seriously heavy weaponry to even get near him; so with the absence of the time and necessary resources to construct a death ray, she'd reluctantly had to rule this option outSimilarly, nanoswarms, assassin droids, and tailored doom viruses also had to be discounted since she didn't have access to the facilities, or again, the time to construct and test these horrors Counterfeiting was another lower tech idea that she had briefly toyed with before discarding it, but even if she were somehow able to lay her hands on the right inks and plastics to make the notes: If Philippe somehow found out that she had simply printed the money off for him, she was pretty sure that she would have nothing other than a very short and painful future to look forward toMove hands over body, lean forwards, roll onto side, lift leg high above headRoll over onto all fours, sit up, grasp pole, and climb all the way to the topMid air splits again, twist position, perform inverted pirouette, and slide down slowlyBlackmail? Hostage taking?She almost snorted at the idea. Blackmail was such a quaint concept; nobody even cared about what other people got up to nowadays, and as for hostages: Queen Brittany, the only person worth taking hostage on the ship was long gone, and she doubted if anyone cared about anyone else on the ship enough to want to pay a couple of hundred, let alone fifteen thousandBesides which: Hostage taking was somewhat akin to painting a target on your forehead and inviting the local security teams to take pot shots while you insulted their mothers - none of them liked it on their turf, and you were really just asking for a whole heap of messy trouble by doing itTwist position again, mid air splits sliding down to the ground, land on arse, lay downTwist round pole, stand up, hook leg around pole, pull self up, hook other leg around, let hands go, hang at 90 degrees to the pole. Ignore painSo what else was there?Synthesising Crystal, loan sharks? Both of those involved dealing some very scary smeggers, and ultimately it was just another way to wind up very dead, very quicklyHow about discovering the philosophers' stone, or inventing a time machine? Doable, but both beset by the same practical problems as nano-swarms, death rays and doom virusesGrasp pole to dismount, twirl around pole, pull up into mid air splits again on the way to an inverted slide down the poleCatch hands on the floor, dismount from the pole into a sitting positionLeaving what? Asking Jay for help? Cass inwardly groaned at this; Jay wouldn't want to get involved in this kind of smeg for a stowaway - doubly so since he was likely to be in trouble with Katrina again after he and Cass had been out on the piss together last nightNo. There were no knights in shining armour for herThere never wereRoll over onto her front. Crawl on all fours in front of the punters. Hope none of the sleazy little creeps wanted to touch this timeCatch the eye of that officer spotted earlier, flash brief smile, avert eyes, sit up, raise hands over head, hang head, gyrate hips in time to musicIt was funny, Cass reflected, the way Katrina seemed to get angry (jealous?) every time Cass even went near JayIt might be that Katrina was worried her boyfriend would stray, tempted away by the exotic charms of a lithe but admittedly somewhat neurotic stripper - Or perhaps it was Katrina who didn't trust herself: Was she secretly in denial...?Cass almost grimaced at the thought, but kept her face impassive for her adoring audience. Katrina wasn't exactly a double bagger*, but she just wasn't her type - too stupid for one thing.Slow gyrating hips to allow note to be slipped inside knicker line. Feel cold inside. Tease with bra straps; smegger can pay more than that.How about common theft?Theft? - How grubby...Still - needs must; it was relatively risk free, and didn't generally involve having to get your bits out, so that would make a nice changeBut what could she steal? - Blue Dwarf wasn't exactly swimming in valuables; banks all tended to be pretty secure, and as for gems and jewellery, well, they hadn't had any significant value since that first eight mile long solid diamond asteroid was discovered back in 2058, buggering De Beers and the economies of several banana republic's in the processFeel skin crawl as hands linger slipping more notes into knickersStand back up, glance down, smile at perverts. Tease with bra straps Maybe, Cass pondered, the idea of lifting that dragonfly from Keto was her best bet, after all?She wasn't all that keen about having to deal with TransMed though - just look what had happened to that Rosette girl and Calvert; sure there was much to admire in the work that TransMed had done there, but since their morality was demonstrably questionable, who was to say that they wouldn't double cross her, and drag her off to be dumped in some bizarre transgenic experiment? - It was, after all, exactly what Cass would do if the shoe were on the other footBesides, she reflected, the dragonfly was probably just an excuse for TransMed to come aboard to try and recapture Rosette - so on that score alone, it was probably best she stayed well clear of the shady smeggersDeep breath. Undo clasp. Let straps fall, hold cups in place to teaseNo, what she needed was one or two small, very valuable items that she could steal, and fence off for fifteen thousand: art, antiques, or some other valuables like that; it would help as well if the person she stole the items from was pretty unpopular - the security services were less likely to want to investigate as thoroughly as they otherwise might want toWas there anyone like that aboard, who had a collection of eye wateringly expensive object d'art, but was about as popular as a turd in a Jacuzzi?Gyrate hips and body in time with music. Whip bra off in one smooth movement; try to enjoy adulation of assembled sleazy perverts. Toss still warm bra to officer. Ignore the look on his face; he'll be good for more money laterAh... Cass smiled broadly as she bowed The Ambassador - he would do nicelyShe turned and walked off the stage with as much of her tattered dignity as she could muster towards where Mr. Butler waited with a gown for herShe was worth so much more than all this*Double bagger: so ugly that not only does the person in question need a bag over their head, you need one over yours as well in case theirs falls off