by M. G. Herron
“We sure did, Boss,” Hix replied somberly.
“So it is the Tetrad,” I said.
Rashiki chuckled and shook his flabby jowls.
“Don’t be naive, Earther. Do you think the Federation of Lodi is above base threats and intimidation? If you think that, you have far too high an opinion of them.”
I frowned. “The Tetrad is the only thing that makes sense. Since the Gatekeeper works for the Federation, they warned me off because everyone thinks I’m working with the Gatekeeper.”
“Aren’t you?”
“I work for myself. Just because I’ve worked with the Gatekeeper in the past doesn’t mean I work for him now.”
“A fine distinction,” Hix said in a dry tone.
“I’m a free agent.” I glared until Hix shrugged.
It boiled my blood to admit they were partially right. As much as I hated to be aligned with the Gatekeeper, I had committed to helping him find the source of the Ora. I’d said as much to Samael before he was kidnapped. My word was bond, and I intended to follow through with it.
But one problem at a time.
“Here’s what you’re wrong about,” Rashiki said, “The Gatekeeper doesn’t work for the Federation. They tolerate him because they can’t afford the power vacuum his absence would create, or the cost of the cleanup crew that would be required to depose him—not while their resources are committed to rooting out the Tetrad. Which is why I think you’re right… it probably was the Tetrad who sent you the warning.”
I nodded. That made sense to me. The Gatekeeper clung to his power the same way Chicago mobsters and corrupt leaders of small towns in the Old West had held onto theirs. By being too much trouble to depose. By staying just out of the reach of the long arm of the law.
“I don’t like it,” Rashiki said. “Is bad for business.”
“Let me help you find who’s responsible. Please.”
Rashiki’s frown deepened. He regarded me beneath his low-hanging eyelid as he took another drag from the hookah hose.
Finally, he nodded.
Crisis averted. I could work with that.
“But I’m watching you,” Rashiki said. “I wouldn’t run a betting establishment if I couldn’t spot a liar from a Torlikian parsec. If you lie to me about anything, if you try to cheat me, if you try to steal from me… I will enjoy watching as my Jel’ka rip the flesh from your bones.”
I laughed nervously. Rashiki did not join me in my laughter.
Then, before I lost the nerve, I said, “I’ve got a plan. Hix, you said you narrowed down the suspect list to fourteen.”
Hix clammed up. Only under Rashiki’s gaze did he finally relent. Obviously, the head of security had more reservations about working with me than Rashiki did.
“Only four now,” Hix said. “My security team has been combing through the footage all day, and only four of the Pangozil couldn’t be located during the window of time that Vinny was drugged.”
“Hix, that’s great news,” I said. “If we can get the four of them in a room together, we could get some answers.”
“And how exactly do you intend to do that?” Rashiki asked.
I grinned. “Make them an offer they can’t refuse.”
With the dead Jel’ka’s body lying on a gurney between us, I laid out the rough plan I’d cobbled together, starting with Gonzalez’s idea to get all the suspects together.
“We need a good reason to invite them,” I said. “Something worth coming for.”
A sly smile spread across Rashiki’s face. “I was already planning to make amends to my customers for the unfortunate way last night’s festivities ended by reducing our rates.”
I shook my head. “Not enough.”
“What if we offered a private tour of the Jel’ka stables? We rarely give private tours of the training facilities. Yarnow hates to have rich, entitled offworlders gawking at his flock. Trust me, it will be seen as great privilege to have opportunity to be invited. No one would miss it.”
“Can you send personal invitations to each of them?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“What if one of them decides not to show?” Hix asked.
I shrugged. “Then they stay on our short list. We’re just trying to narrow down the possibilities.”
“We’ll have to invite others, too,” Hix suggested. “Who aren’t suspects. To dispel any suspicion.”
“Good idea. We don’t want it to be too obvious.”
Hix resisted the idea for a while longer, explaining that his security team was already expecting to be over-extended this evening. He predicted that a larger group than normal would come to Rashiki’s to gossip about the unexpected explosion at Harbor.
“If you have a better idea,” I said, “I’m all ears.”
Hix tapped his finger against the neon green weapon on his belt where he’d re-holstered it during the conversation. “Nothing comes to mind.”
“Okay then. Now for the final unanswered question,” I said. “What do we do if the Tetrad—or whoever—decides to send more of those robot attack dogs after me, for real this time?”
“We let them take you,” said Hix.
“What?” I asked, my voice pitched higher than even I expected.
Hix shrugged.
“Seriously? You won’t even help me?”
“Ain’t my job,” Hix said.
Rashiki raised both hands to show he was also abstaining. “I’ve got to think about the business. You know how many offworlders rely on this establishment to earn their living? If the Tetrad comes after you, you’re on your own.”
I sighed and passed my hand over my face. Anna was right. I really did need someone to watch my back.
“This was your plan,” Rashiki reminded me. “We’re doing more than enough to hold up our end of bargain. I’ll play along if it means finding out who murdered my Jel’ka. But if the Tetrad comes knocking, I’m wiping my hands clean of you, Earther.”
I swallowed a hard lump that had formed in my throat. “Fine.”
“Don’t take it personally.”
“Whatever. Send the invites out.”
Rashiki nodded. “I’ll get it done,” he said as he floated out of the room.
Hix turned to me. “I’ve got my eye on you, Earther.”
“Right back ’atcha pard’ner,” I said jokingly, making a gun with my finger and a clicking sound with my tongue.
Hix narrowed his eye, a far more dramatic and meaningful gesture for the cyclopian Torlik than it would ever be on a human.
“If we’re gonna do this,” I said, “I need to see that suspect list. You got it narrowed down to four, you said?”
Hix took me back to the security room, where we reviewed the images and information his team was able to cobble together.
Thank God for that scanner at the door. It catalogued every person that entered Rashiki’s Racetrack. If a Pangozil among the fourteen could be located during the moments when the hooded attacker was also visible, they had been eliminated from the list.
Hix also explained that each of the storefronts was considered private rental property. The shopkeepers were responsible for security inside of their own stores, while Hix’s team was responsible for security on the boardwalk itself, as well as inside the racetrack.
I got the impression that some of the vendors dealt in illicit goods, but that was none of my concern beyond the fact that it meant that there were obviously a great many blind spots in Rashiki’s.
A great many nooks and crannies for our suspects to disappear.
But four suspects was still a fine place to start. Better than I’d been hoping for.
I got Hix to show me the images of each of the remaining four. For the next three hours, I sat down to study my suspects.
It didn’t take long to spot the superficial differences—I studied the color of their fur, their scars, their various modes of dress. I memorized each of their strange, multi-syllabic names—provided by Hix, along with a short
background dug up from some Federation database his security team had access to—and came up with mnemonic devices to remember each of them. I needed to be able to keep them straight in my head before they ever walked through the door. I needed to be able to spot them on sight in a crowd. I even needed to be able to read rapid changes in their micro-expressions.
A tall order for four offworlders of a different species I hadn’t even met.
I really wished Vinny were well. No matter how long I studied, no matter how many replays of these suspects on last night’s footage I replayed, I would never come close to being as expert with Pangozil expressions or body language as he would be.
As the evening wore on, offworlders began to arrive at the track. Only a trickle at first, but soon a stream, and then a deluge.
Hix left to check on his security team. Sitting next to one of Hix’s security men, a skinny, twitchy little Torlik named Wally, I watched the offworlders enter in singles, pairs, and groups.
Wally had the computer ping each time one of our suspects arrived. Soon they were all in the building. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. My hands kept drifting to my belt, where I normally wore a weapon, or under my left arm, where my Kimber would be if I was wearing a shoulder holster I sometimes wore in especially dangerous situations. I was desperately missing the cold comfort of a gun on my person.
Hix came back a moment later with his hands full of equipment. With my mind on weapons, I asked, “Protection?”
“Not exactly. Your tickets.” He handed me two clear plastic chips that had seat numbers glowing on their faces. I pocketed them. He handed another item, rectangular with a hinge in the middle.
“Those are binoculars,” Hix said. “So you can study the suspects during the race.”
“Good thinking,” I said.
“I’ve been known to have a decent idea from time to time,” Hix said, the sarcasm heavy in his voice. He held out his hand. A round, metallic pill was gripped between his thumb and forefinger.
I held out my own, and what looked like a roly poly dropped into my open palm.
“It’s a communication device, so you can reach me, or Wally here, during the race.”
“Makes sense,” I said, turning over the roly poly ball in my palm. Enough access to tell them what they needed to know, but not enough to throw off the entire team. Hix would filter my messages and relay them to his team, if needed.
“How do I use this thing?”
“Put it up to your ear.”
It didn’t look like any earpiece I’d ever seen. With some trepidation, I pinched the little ball like Hix had done and raised it to my head.
Suddenly, it folded up and jumped into my ear canal.
“Agh!” I cried out, scratching at my ear. Hix’s hand shot out and caught my wrist.
“Don’t,” he said, his voice echoing simultaneously in my head and in the room like it was coming out of two different speakers. “That was supposed to happen.”
I blinked up at him. “Oh.”
“You can hear me?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Good. I’m going back up to the boardwalk. You should, too. If you walk up to the stands from beneath the track, it will seem suspicious.”
That made sense. I pocketed the binoculars and ticket chips, then made to walk out the door, when a different chime sounded on the computer, insistent and loud. The sound caused fight-or-flight chemicals to flood my body, and I turned back to the monitors.
My first thought was the robot attack dogs.
My second was the Gatekeeper.
Both were wrong.
Wally frowned, and zoomed in on the front door as an attractive blonde woman wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses walked in.
The glasses did nothing to hide the look of surprise on her face. Anna’s mouth gaped open. Aliens coming in the door streamed around her where she had come to an abrupt stop right in the middle of the flow of traffic, gawking.
When the shock passed, it was impossible not to notice her giddy, almost childlike expression of enraptured attention.
The joy suffusing her face was self-evident. But I couldn’t share in it.
All I felt was a cold prickle of fear.
17
I found Anna staring in the window of a shop displaying jars full of pickled eyeballs, tails, and other organs whose source I didn’t want to guess at. Nearby, at a tasting bar, fish-faced aliens sucked at paper ramekins filled with samples of pungent delicacies.
When I touched her arm gently, trying to be discreet, she flinched and turned, bringing up her hands in a defensive posture. Fortunately, her startled yelp was lost in the bustling noise of the boardwalk, and we didn’t draw too much undue attention—for a pair of humans among a sea of offworlders, that is.
“Gunn! There you are.” Anna lowered her hands, relaxing. “Didn’t take you long to find me.”
“Anna,” I said, unable to keep the exasperated tone from my voice. “What the hell are you doing here? How did you even find this place?”
She scoffed and then pulled her sunglasses down and peered over the tinted lenses. “I planted a tracker in your truck, dummy.”
“What! When did you…”
My words trailed off as a groan escaped my lips. Of course. She had plenty of opportunity. She could have planted it when she’d gone outside to make phone calls at my office. She could have planted it at Vinny’s house, before she’d found me unconscious and trapped.
I’d been so worried about the other threats being thrown my way that I hadn’t considered the possibility of being pursued by Anna.
She’d located me at Vinny’s. She’d done her own surprisingly thorough investigations into her missing memories. Of course she’d followed me here.
“I’m an idiot,” I said, passing a hand over my face. “And you’re too resourceful for your own good.”
She jutted out her chin. “I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses, on both counts. Did you really think I would just totter off on some errand for you, no questions asked? After all those weeks you avoided me? Please. It was obvious you were trying to get rid of me.”
My teeth clamped down on the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood. “I was trying to protect you. And I really do need to find Spider. I have questions for him.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
She turned away from the shop window and stared at the ever-moving river of offworlders streaming along the crowded boardwalk. It seemed to me that Hix had been right. It was even more crowded than it had been last night, if that were possible.
“And look what you were keeping from me,” Anna said, wonder filling her voice. “This is… this is incredible, Gunn. I mean, I know you told me about them, but… seeing is believing.”
I stood beside a thoroughly impressed Anna Summers, who in the moment, was more Marsha Marshall. We watched as the motley gathering of offworlders of all shapes, colors, and sizes streamed by us. Gray-skinned Lodians mingled with orange-skinned Torliks. Furry creatures zig-zagged among them, including Pangozil and other races I couldn’t name. I took note of an interspecies couple—one Lodian and the other looking almost like a Wookie.
“No…” I said, eyeballing Chewy and then turning to Anna. “You think?”
The thing leaned back and bellowed loudly. It drew stares from the nearby crowd and gained the duo a bubble of privacy at the bar where they chose to sit and paw at each other.
Anna and I laughed, but only for a second. The scene was too serious for levity.
Neon lights over each storefront reflected shifting colors in Anna’s tinted lenses. She’d managed to close her gaping mouth while we watched, but the wonder was evident. She held her phone in her hand and surreptitiously snapped a few dozen rapid photographs.
A particularly toothy offworlder with leathery skin and deep-set black eyes noticed. He growled deeply at Anna as he stepped out of the crowd and moved toward us.
“Get rid of those,” he rum
bled in a deep bass voice.
“Whoa, easy fella.” I stepped forward and caught the eye of a Torlik security guard standing by a hookah lounge down the way. I didn’t touch the offworlder in case it would set him off. The last thing I wanted was to draw more attention right now.
“I said, delete them, human.” The word was filled with scorn.
“S-Sorry,” Anna stuttered, fumbling her phone in her hand. “Look, here, I’m deleting them. They’re gone. See?”
The leathery-skinned offworlder grunted, used a finger obviously accustomed to the controls of a smartphone to make sure there were no photos of himself left. He deleted a few more for good measure. Anna gave me a protesting look, but what was I supposed to do about it?
“There,” he said. Then the offworlder spat a stream of saliva through his teeth onto the boardwalk. “Humans,” he muttered, and walked off.
Anna stared after him, then turned to look at me. “What was that all about?”
“Offworlders don’t take kindly to being doxxed,” I explained. “Plus, going public with their true identity is against Federation bylaws, even on Earth.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. “Okay then, I’ll just take notes.”
She pulled out a notebook and began writing stuff down. Looking around, I began to notice how she was drawing more uncomfortable stares from the offworlders stalking by. She seemed oblivious, too caught up in capturing the excitement she felt.
“Anna,” I whispered with a rising inflection that I hoped indicated warning. “Put the notebook away.”
She glanced up, seemed to notice people staring, and slowly tucked the notebook and pen into her back pocket.
“You need to leave,” I said. “It’s too dangerous for you here.”
She scowled darkly at me, then crossed her arms. “Make me.”
I sighed. So it was going to be like that.
“I can’t protect you.”
She snorted with disdain. “I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”
A part of me definitely did not want Anna there. Another part of me, however—let’s call it the sensible part—knew that I needed someone to watch my back. With Vinny unconscious, with Gonzalez doing desk duty at the police station, with Hix and Rashiki ready to give me up to the Tetrad at the first sign of trouble… Annabelle Summers was my only option.