Spaceside

by Michael Mammay

  “I’m here to see Lieutenant Mallory.” I didn’t stop.

  “Sir, you can’t go back there without an escort.”

  I’d passed him by several meters before he came after me. I guess he didn’t expect somebody to break into a police station, but I didn’t want to give Mallory time to set up a plan with Burke. “Lieutenant Mallory!”

  The entire open office turned to look at me. Three officers, one a giant of a man, stood up from behind their desks.

  “Mallory!” I had already brought trouble for myself by blowing past the desk. I figured I might as well get my money’s worth.

  Two of the officers reached me at the same time and I put my hands up and let them grab me without resisting. My desire to not get roughed up outweighed my need to talk to the good lieutenant.

  “I can see myself out,” I offered, forcing a grin.

  They didn’t grin back, but they only dragged me a little bit on the way to the exit.

  “Butler? What’s going on?” Mallory walked in the main door right before we reached it, just arriving.

  “This jackass ran past the desk and started yelling for you inside,” said one of my captors, a stocky woman.

  Mallory shook her head. “If you’d called ahead, you’d have known I wasn’t here.”

  “I see the wisdom in that now.”

  She tried to hold in a laugh, but mostly failed. “Come on.” The two officers released me and I did my best not to look smug as I left them behind and followed Mallory to the interrogation room.

  “You want to tell me what this is about?” she asked.

  “I’m pissed,” I said. I wanted to put her on the defensive. “You’re keeping me as an active lead in the Gylika case when you know I’ve got nothing to do with it.”

  “Yeah? What makes you say that?”

  I hadn’t thought it through very well. “I know people who know things.”

  She considered it for a moment. “Didn’t I see you in the hospital the other day? Something about getting shot?”

  “That had nothing to do with Gylika.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “You sure?”

  “You know it doesn’t.”

  “I do? Why? How do you know it doesn’t? What do you want to tell me?”

  I wanted to kick myself. I should have known better than to come after a pro like Mallory with a half-assed plan. She’d turned it around on me without breaking a sweat. “Omicron was behind the ex-military types who shot at me.”

  “You can prove that?” she asked.

  “I can’t. But it’s true. Push on them a little bit and you’ll find it.”

  She shook her head. “Not how it works. I can’t walk into a powerful corporation and start throwing around baseless accusations. You say you can’t tell me, but you’re hiding things. I’d bet my badge on it.”

  “So you’re going to hold this case over my head to motivate me to give you something.”

  “I would never do that,” she said. “That would be unethical.”

  I shook my head. “You’re a piece of work.”

  “Yeah, well, likewise. But I’ve got a dead body and a cold case, so I can live with myself.”

  “What is it you want from me?” I asked. “I’ve told you about Omicron’s involvement. What’s it going to take?”

  “I’ll know it when I hear it,” she said.

  “Bullshit. What do you want?”

  She glared at me. “Fine. I’ll tell you what I want. I want to know what was so important at Omicron that a guy got killed for it.”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Fuck you, Butler. You’re a lousy liar.”

  I started to speak then cut myself off. I wanted to respond to her comment and defend myself, but that’s why she’d made it. The lady was good. I was lying. If nothing else, I knew exactly what was so important at Omicron. I took a few seconds to regroup. “I can go get my attorney and we can do this differently.”

  “You’re wasting my time.” She stood. It was a bluff, but it was a good one. I couldn’t call it. I wanted her to make Omicron uncomfortable. To make them react.

  “Okay, wait,” I said, then paused while she took her time sitting back down, making a show of it. “You’re right, there’s something I’m not telling you. I can’t prove it, but I’ve got some pretty good thoughts on why Omicron is involved in Gylika’s death. Gylika was working on a project called Phoenix. It’s groundbreaking medical technology, and it’s worth billions. They had a leak, and I have reason to believe that they suspected Gylika.”

  “Now you’re telling the truth.” She had a good read on me, that was for sure. “How sure are you?”

  “Very sure,” I said.

  “But you can’t prove it.”

  “Nope. But it gives you buttons to push.”

  She considered it. I tried to steady my breath, remain calm, give her time to think. I didn’t need her to make arrests. I needed her to ask questions that would make people nervous. Make them more likely to negotiate. They could kill Gylika to silence him, but they couldn’t kill Mallory. “That’s not enough.”

  I sighed. “Fine. Then I want a public statement saying that I’m no longer a suspect in Gylika’s murder.”

  “Not going to happen,” she said.

  I stood and walked to the door, then turned. “You’ve got twenty-four hours.”

  “Until what?”

  “Until I go to the press and tell them about the rogue police officer who is trying to make a name by harassing a well-known veteran.”

  “You’re full of shit. You don’t want to be dragged through the media over this.”

  “You said I was a lousy liar. Do I look like I’m lying now?” I turned and left before she could respond.

  It hadn’t gone the way that I’d hoped, but I learned something. Given my plans for Omicron, I had to know where I stood with Mallory. She’d said that I hadn’t given her enough, but the longer she thought about it, the more it would gnaw at her. Hopefully, I’d piqued her interest enough for her to poke around. Like she said, there was a body on her ledger that wasn’t looking good to her higher-ups. She needed an answer, and I’d at least provided her the right question.

  And if she publicly cleared me, Omicron would see it and it would put them on notice.

  When I got home, I called Ganos first, to see if she’d taken my advice to leave town, which, as I suspected, she hadn’t. I reiterated my advice, suggesting that it would be preferable that she got off the planet. Take some vacation. She’d insisted that she wanted to help me, and it took me almost twenty minutes to convince her that she couldn’t, and another ten to get her to acknowledge the danger I’d put her in and agree to do as I said. She’d promised to visit Parker’s mother off planet at some point, anyway, so she decided to move that trip forward. With that settled, I turned my attention to Plazz.

  I couldn’t call her because she’d get too much out of me, and I wasn’t ready for that stage yet. But I needed a backup in case things went to shit. My plan left me vulnerable, and I had to account for the possibility that I could be taken off the board at any time. That thought didn’t bother me much. Risk was part of any mission. But while I could risk myself, I couldn’t risk the information I held in my brain disappearing if I died. I typed everything I knew into an encrypted file, logging every detail, whether known or suspected, documenting things with sources where I could and explaining my thought process where I couldn’t. I wrote about the Cappan I’d met and the tracks I’d found for their ships in the database at SPACECOM. I detailed Javier’s meeting with Omicron, and my suspicions about Gylika. It took me almost two hours to finish it. Once I was done, I backed it up to a removable drive that I put in my safe, and then formatted an encrypted email to Plazz. I set it to send itself in three days if I didn’t stop it.

  Finishing that, I called Turkov at Omicron. It took his assistant three minutes to get him on the phone, and it took me five minutes to ream him out for the leak that got back
to Javier that got me in trouble. With that established, I told him I still wanted the job, and asked if he could keep it quiet if I came in tomorrow to talk about it. I planned to use him to get a meeting with Ellen Haverty, the CEO, but that part of my plan I kept to myself.

  That done, I finally allowed myself a drink. My mind was so keyed up that it took me more than usual to get to sleep. For me, that’s saying something. For the first time in a long time I didn’t dream.

  That said something more.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Turkov met me as I entered Omicron’s lobby, and I briefly wondered how long he’d been standing there waiting. “Good to see you again, Carl.”

  “Good to see you, too. You didn’t have to come down to meet me.”

  “Actually, I did. We’re not going to my office.” He walked toward the executive elevator, and I followed.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “The CEO wants to meet you.”

  “Uh . . . sure,” I said, tripping over my words. One of the biggest mistakes in any plan is failing to anticipate success. I’d let myself fall into that trap. I’d wanted to meet with someone who could negotiate, but I hadn’t expected it to happen that morning.

  “Top floor,” said Turkov, though the man waiting for us in the elevator had already pressed the button. The door opened some twenty seconds later into a small lobby appointed in dark wood and marble. I didn’t check closely, but I assumed it was all real, making the room extremely expensive.

  Ellen Haverty walked forward and met us as we disembarked. I should say she met me, as her eyes never released mine. I’d never met her, but I’d seen pictures, of course. She lived up to them in a gray blazer, her hair styled short, a cross between blonde and white. She’d once told a fashion reporter that she kept it short so it took less time to keep it neat, allowing more time for business.

  “Colonel Butler, so nice that we can finally meet. I’ve heard so much about you.”

  “Call me Carl. It’s nice to meet you as well, Ms. Haverty.”

  “Please. It’s Ellen. Can we get you something? Water? Whiskey?” She grasped my hand in hers, applying exactly the right amount of pressure, pumping twice and releasing.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t want to take up too much of your time.”

  She waved me off. “It’s no bother at all.” She was lying, of course, but she really excelled at it. CEOs of major companies didn’t have free time by accident. She’d moved something to make this meeting happen. I didn’t know what that meant, but it was significant. “Come in, let’s chat in my office, away from the noise.”

  I ignored the fact that it was silent, save for us talking, and followed her to her office. It had the requisite floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, buildings sprawled out below like soldiers of the queen. The polished hardwood floor almost glared back at six lights inset into the high ceiling.

  “Mr. Turkov tells me you’re interested in a job.” She said it casually, but I immediately marked it as her opening gambit. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what game she was playing, and it had me a bit off balance. I wanted to broach the Cappan topic, but it felt wrong to just throw it out there. Whatever her reason, something in her demeanor told me Ellen Haverty had me in her office, but that I almost certainly didn’t understand the reason behind it. She had her own designs.

  “Yes. Exploring my possibilities,” I said. Nothing to do at that point besides play it out.

  “I’m sure a man like you has many options,” she said.

  “Some. It’s a mixed blessing, you know?”

  She studied me for a moment. “I’m going to cut to the chase. You know why you’re here; I know why you’re here. But you don’t know why I’m here.”

  “Fair,” I said. I figured she didn’t know why I was there, but I couldn’t call her on it without giving something away.

  “I want you to do a job for me.”

  I hesitated. I hadn’t expected that. “I was under the impression that that’s why I came today.”

  “Not that job. Something else.”

  “I think—”

  “Hear me out. All you have to do is listen. Listen first, talk second.” She spoke with the assured tone of someone accustomed to getting her way.

  “Sure.”

  “Somebody stole something from me. I want it back. And I want your help getting it.”

  I wished for a second that I’d taken her up on the water she offered so I’d have something to hide my face behind for a moment while I regained my composure. I’m sure my surprise showed. The Cappans wanted me to broker a deal with Omicron, and it seemed like Omicron wanted me to do the same thing. It couldn’t possibly be that easy. “I’m pretty sure we’re on the same page.”

  “Are we now?”

  “I think so. Let me ask you this,” I said. “Why me?”

  “I think you’re uniquely suited to get it back.”

  Hearing almost the same wording that the Cappan had used gave me a chill. “How so?”

  “I think you know.”

  “I don’t think I do.”

  “Please, Carl. Dissembling doesn’t become you. I know who broke into my company, I know what they took, and I want it back.”

  “Let’s say I know what you’re talking about,” I said.

  “Yes, let’s.” She stood about a meter away and hadn’t moved since we entered the room. I was a few centimeters taller, but her commanding presence made her height irrelevant.

  “Again, why me?”

  “Who better to deal with the group in question?”

  “I want to hear you say it,” I said.

  “Say what? That the Cappans infiltrated our systems, somehow obliterated all trace of the ortho-robotics project we call Phoenix, and we can’t figure out how that’s possible? Is that what you want me to say?”

  I paused. I hadn’t actually expected her to say it. “Yes.”

  “I’ve said it. Can we move on now to the part where you help me get it back?”

  “Okay,” I said. “I have had some contact with people working with the Cappans.” Her face didn’t move. Perhaps she was so good as a negotiator that she could hide any sense of surprise, but my gut told me she already knew. She knew I’d met with the Cappans.

  “And?” she prompted.

  “And I’m willing to negotiate terms,” I said. “Be a go-between.”

  “Terms? The terms are this. They’ll return what they stole. After they do, I’ll be happy to discuss whatever issues they have and see what we can do to accommodate.”

  “I don’t think they’re going to accept your word on good faith,” I said.

  “Which is why I’m not really negotiating.” She finally broke eye contact and walked a few steps toward the window. “There are no terms that they’re going to propose that I’m going to accept. Because once I start making deals with them, they no longer have any reason to keep their deal secret.”

  I struggled to keep my face neutral. Threatening to release the information to the galaxy at large had been part of my plan, though I hadn’t completely worked out how I would do that while somehow preventing Omicron from seeking revenge against the Cappans. In fact, that was my problem. All my plans failed to solve that piece. I thought I’d have more time to work on it. I hadn’t expected to be here this quickly, standing in front of Omicron’s CEO. I’d made a bluff and they’d not only called it, they’d known my cards and raised the pot.

  “So we’re at an impasse,” I said.

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “I have a plan that’s already in motion. It may require some negotiation, but I intend to do that with significant leverage.”

  “So why involve me?”

  “You could make things easier. Get me the information now and save me the trouble of nuking their settlement.”

  “That’s a bluff,” I said. “If you nuke the settlement, you still don’t have the information.”

  She smiled, though it didn’t reach her
eyes. “Maybe. But even if it is a bluff, it comes down to who blinks first.”

  I wanted to tell her it wouldn’t work, but I couldn’t be sure what the Cappans would do if faced with that dilemma. They could evacuate the settlement, but Omicron would watch for that. They could shoot down ships leaving the atmosphere easier than firing down on the planet itself. “That’s a lot of risk,” I said, after a long pause.

  “It is. And I’m not happy about that. Which is why I want you to go to the planet with my team.”

  I started to respond, but stopped. “What?”

  “I want you to do the negotiation, but I want you to do it in a place that provides the greatest advantage. I think having you present—a man who has shown a willingness to exterminate their population—will add to our bargaining power. You’re not going to get the concessions I want if you negotiate from here.”

  “So you want me to negotiate with them at gunpoint.” I was still struggling to catch up, so I stalled.

  “I wouldn’t have put it that way,” she said, “but yes.”

  I stood silently for a moment, pretending to consider her demand while trying to come up with a way to turn things around. She’d put me on my back foot from the start, and I hadn’t even made her break a sweat. “I can arrange the deal without leaving Talca,” I said.

  She feigned a bored look. “I think I was clear that I’m not doing that. It’s not in our best interest.”

  “But it is,” I said. “Because I’ve left a file at VPC, and if I don’t return to it within two days, it goes out to the company directory.”

  She smiled. “Really. And what’s in this file?”

  “Enough details about your Cappan hybrid genetic program to make VPC a serious competitor. How many billions do you think that will cost you?”

  She was still smiling, which was not what I wanted to see. “Nice move. To be honest, if you’d gone down without a fight, I’d have been disappointed.” She walked to her desk and turned a screen around on a swivel mount to face me. Javier stared back at me from the display. “I trust you heard our discussion, Javier?”

  “I did,” he said.