There was no time to risk guessing if this was a legitimate risk or not. Their nerves we so shot, they jumped straight into flight mode.
Vlad jumped ahead of Fred and Merry, his foot catching a wire and pulling it taut. Dozens of metal marbles shot across the room, rapidly pegging all three of them.
Merry screamed. “Ow! What the fuck is going on?”
A familiar voice shouted from above. “Oh, shit! I’m so sorry you guys!” Jayne hopped down from the ceiling, ran over behind the ticket counter and disconnected three cables. The hologram boxers disappeared, and the pinball machines-turned-cannons ceased their fire.
Merry felt the new welt forming on her neck. “Damn, Jayne. This really hurts.”
Jayne nodded admittedly. “I double-loaded the springs. I don’t know who’s after me. I booby trapped this entire arcade.”
Merry gave Jayne a doubtful eye. “Guess you learned a thing or two from Burrett?”
Jayne ignored it. She wasn’t about to waste time opening up a wound. Instead she hugged Merry and gave the same greeting to Fred and Vlad.
They hugged Jayne back, coldly.
But Jayne ignored that, too. She was too happy to see her friends. She knew she had a lot of explaining to do, but she tried to push it out of her mind. “It’s honestly good to see you guys. This place is totally safe. I’m assuming they bugged the office?”
Merry took out the snapped-in-half business card from Agent Danvers. “They definitely tried. They may have succeeded, but we haven’t found anything else yet.”
Jayne took the card. “A business card? Really? Talk about amateur.” She handed the card back to Merry. “Join me in my office.”
The fryer behind the arcade’s concession stand still worked. Jayne had been living off of frozen tater tots, French fries and the occasional chicken finger that she stole from super markets on different levels.
Fred and Vlad chowed down on some curly fries Jayne had scored out of a bodega on L29. She’d been saving them for a special occasion. Neither Jayne nor Merry had much of an appetite, however.
Jayne locked her fingers and looked down when she spoke. “This is a bad look, but I need you guys to know that I am innocent.”
Merry couldn’t hold it back anymore. Maybe she knew that, among Fred and Vlad, she was the only one who would speak up. Or, maybe, she felt like it was finally personal. “If you’re innocent, then why are you in hiding?”
Jayne wanted a reunion, not an intervention. The question caught her off guard. She stammered before finally mustering up a response. “Because… I’m marked… as guilty. By The Federation. Who’s going to believe me, Merry?”
Merry didn’t reply. Jayne turned to Fred and Vlad, but they wouldn’t look her in the eye. Jayne groaned. “I did nothing wrong!”
Merry pointed at Jayne. “That’s a lie, Jayne. As soon as all of this started, you’ve just fallen down this hole. Once you got labeled a criminal, you started living like one. You’re even stealing food?”
Jayne scoffed. “Since when does petty thievery and living against society’s morals bother you, Merry?”
Fred spoke up, calmly cutting into the fight. “Since it started affecting us, Jayne.”
Vlad nodded. “You’re hurting us, Jayne. It’s been hard. We keep defending you, but… it’s hard to stay on the side of someone who keeps putting us in danger.”
Merry nodded. “Yeah. I’ve tried so hard, but… I don’t know if I can trust you. If it starts here, how deep are you going to go? When do you officially become… I don’t know…”
Jayne could have finished Merry’s sentence, but she wanted to hear it for herself. “Become what, Merry?”
At last, Merry faced Jayne. “Become like Burrett.”
It was the cruelest thing anyone could have said to her, and Jayne knew it could easily become true.
She knew her team wasn’t about to abandon her entirely. Not yet, but she was hanging by a thin thread. She had lost their trust, and she had never felt such pain in her entire life. “I don’t know who is at the top of this, but they have more power than anyone we’ve faced. I’m protecting you guys, I promise.”
Merry wasn’t ready to forgive. “And why do you think you know what’s best for us? Tell me, Jayne.”
“I don’t!” Barked Jayne. She knew she shouldn’t have barked. She brought herself back down. Stay calm. These are your friends. “I don’t know what’s best, but I want to do everything I can to protect you. And I’m doing that the best way I can. I promise. But… if you would rather me leave you all behind, I will. But I won’t stop going after whoever is at the top. Because, ultimately… that’s the only way anyone will be safe.”
It was a tall order, but Jayne had dug deep and uncovered the truth for Fred, Vlad, and even Merry.
Merry saw that the real Jayne was still there, despite the shit she had gotten herself into. Despite the fact that Jayne had, per usual, created more problems than necessary.
Merry nodded. If not out of total confidence, out of an earned trust built on their shared past.
Following Merry’s lead, Fred and Vlad warmed up to Jayne. They all wanted Jayne to be innocent. They all wanted Jayne to be Jayne.
Maybe they were wrong, but right now they were willing to work toward justice alongside Jayne.
Jayne felt the air shift in the room. “Thank you.”
And a tear rolled down her cheek. No time for sentimentality, however. Time to do what she promised. “I catch the news in snippets, but it sounds like they’re spinning it as a double-cross? That I stole information about myself and sold it as a way to undercut Dean Geiger’s new security initiatives. That this was some kind of revenge. Right?”
Merry had seen the headlines that morning, every outlet repeating the same message. “Pretty much.”
Jayne took turns looking them each dead in the eyes. “I didn’t do that.”
Maybe it was the curly fries, but Merry’s stomach turned over. It was like Jayne to fixate on the past, to do anything but persist and move forward. Why insist so hard upon her innocence? Why would she doubt her team’s trust?
If the glimmer winked out of Merry’s eyes, Jayne didn’t notice. “I can’t lose you guys now. Whatever is going on… It’s bigger than anything we’ve dealt with. Are you guys with me?"
“Yes.”
“One-hundred and ten percent.”
Vlad and Fred had responded. Merry hesitated a split second, but the moment might as well have ripped the fabric of time. “Of course, Jayne. Always.”
Jayne breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you. I was so scared, by the way. When I went back to the office? It felt like a compulsion, like I had to return. And I don’t even know why. I was horrified of running into you guys. That maybe you had thought I betrayed you. I just needed… further confirmation. I’ve learned that I can’t fight for what’s right without you guys. I’m glad to have you on my side.” Her appetite came back. Jayne nabbed a thick, densely coiled curly fry. “Shall we get to business now? For old time’s sake?”
Smiles encroached on the solemnity, pushing it out entirely. Time to save the world. Again.
Jayne ate another fry. “Merry. What did you find about that lightning tattoo?”
No time for doubt now. Trust. Hold onto the trust. Merry pulled out her comm. “It took me a while, but I connected the lightning bolts to a tattoo artist named Zodiac Zelda.” She pulled up Zodiac Zelda’s website on her hologram projector. “She’s located out in Headless Hope—”
Fred choked on a fry. “H-Headless Hope? Like the setting for every showdown in every action movie ever Headless Hope?”
Merry nodded. “Seems like it has a deserved reputation. Lightning bolts are Zodiac Zelda’s specialty. And the bolt you saw is identical…” Merry pulled up a projection of the photo of cops loading two Bitch leaders into an armored car. She zoomed in on their wrists. “…to these tattoos. Symbol of a gang simply called The Bitch. I also found news stories referring to them as ‘
Band of Bitches,’ ‘Bitch Brigade,’ and ‘Bitch Bums.’”
Jayne furrowed her brow. “Bitch Bums?”
Merry shrugged, struggled for an explanation. “I think it’s a play on beach bum.”
Vlad shook his head. “There are no beaches in Headless Hope.”
Merry tossed her hands in the air, resigned. “I know, it doesn’t make sense! But that’s not important. I think this is the gang you need to track down. You find… The Bitch, or a member of The Bitch… One of the bitches, I suppose you can say, and I think you’ll have a big piece of the puzzle.”
Jayne reached out to Fred. “Fred, can I see your comm? I smashed mine. Couldn’t risk the signal.”
Fred handed over his comm. “Time for you to upgrade then, huh?”
Jayne pulled up a new hologram. “Eh, I wasn’t happy with my provider anyway. Okay, let’s see. Headless Hope is…” She pulled up a map of the area of Amaros surrounding Theron Techcropolis. “…Very far away, apparently.”
Vlad held up a joint. “Mind if I smoke?” Jayne shook her head. Vlad sparked up. “So that makes sense, yeah? Small time gang trying to make a big gesture, move in on the city business?”
Merry shook her head. “No, why be the little fish in the big pond? I think they were hired. Another trail of bread crumbs to lead us astray.”
Jayne quickly scanned through the information on Headless Hope. “We may have to follow this trail until we get to the witch’s candy house, I’m afraid.” She stopped her rapid scroll through a dense paragraph on the city of Headless Hope. “Interesting. Headless Hope is pretty much known for two things: its out-of-control crime rate, and gambling-focused tourism.”
Fred shoved the last handful of curly fries into his mouth. “I’ve been to a casino once in my life. I won 17,000 credits.”
Well, that stopped the conversation dead in its tracks. Jayne, Merry and Vlad all replied in stunned unison. “What?”
Fred swallowed. “Yeah, roulette. Lucky break, I guess.” He looked off, wistfully. “I wonder if I could have ever been a casino rat.”
Jayne closed her eyes in an attempt to comprehend this new info on Fred. “Fred… How? And what did you do with the money?”
Fred smiled, nostalgic. “I bought a gold encrusted donut, a foot in diameter, stuffed with marshmallow and melted cheese.” His eyes got misty, like he was remembering a long-lost lover. “It was the best 17,000 credits I ever spent. Well, it was actually only 15,000 credits, but I believe in tipping your waitstaff very well. And boy were they happy! I think--”
“STOP IT!” Vlad waved his hands frantically as if to clear the air of the stupid. “I can’t deal with this right now. I don’t want to think about that donut and how much you spent on it.”
Fred looked down and whispered. “I’ll love that donut ‘til the day I die.”
Jayne pulled up travel routes on the hologram projection. “Okay! Current priority: how do I, public enemy number one, make it out of Theron and get to Headless Hope?”
The crew mutually slumped into the booth. Transit Security was hard enough as an innocent citizen. How the hell were they supposed to sneak Jayne out?
None of them had to bring up the obvious idea, which would have been hiring an underground smuggler, or a charon as they were referred to in the lingo. Charons sold out to the highest bidder, and the Federation would shell out as much money as possible as soon as access to Jayne was made available to them. In addition to that concern, there was no way to know the full extent of a charon’s activities. Many smuggled anything from stolen goods to drugs while the worst of them dealt in human trafficking. Associating themselves with such would not exactly help their case.
The shared thought floated above them. What the hell are we supposed to do?
A tear in the booth cushion had been driving Merry crazy since she sat down. As she shifted in a desperate attempt at comfort, she felt Agent Danver’s broken monitoring-device-as-business-card dig into her thigh.
A lightbulb hanging over Merry flickered on.
Jayne looked up at the light. “Ignore that. The electricity in this place isn’t reliable. Old wiring, and I’m stealing energy from a construction site two blocks away.”
Merry reached into her pocket and pulled out the broken card. “I’ve got an idea.” She set the card down in front of Jayne. “We’ve got to think the way they think.”
They all leaned forward, waiting for Merry to reveal her scheme. “We hide you in plain sight.”
+++
Mabel Grumby Memorial Shuttle Port, Western Gate, Theron Techcropolis City Border, Amaros
The first of many annoying details about a plan that was already “cuckoo bananas,” as Fred described it, was timing. Jayne had to board a commercial shuttle to Percepticinia, the third largest city on Amaros, which stopped at Headless Hope en-route.
Merry worked her sick and twisted research magic to determine which day throughout history most hijackings and attacks occurred on. The answer would be, logically, the day security was the worst at their job.
That day was Tuesday, which happened to be this day, the day Jayne stood in line among a family of seven, an old woman arguing with her husband about whether or not his sweater was inside-out, an unreasonably muscular business man yelling in his comm about “dividends,” and a young couple returning from their honeymoon in the Techcropolis who had spent the last twenty minutes, Jayne could only guess, trying to get their tongues out of a knot.
The second annoying detail was that Jayne would not be able to bring any weapons. Not even a thermo-blade. Not even a knife, for that matter. She couldn’t bring any of the communication gear she had always relied on for working with her team, and she couldn’t bring any fruits, vegetables, or other embargoed goods, and no liquid containers larger than 4oz.
She also couldn’t bring any of her incredibly necessary tactical outfits, which was the third annoying detail, and for Jayne the worst.
She reached down and pulled up her tube sock, which kept sliding down to her ankle.
Dressing up as an oblivious tourist was Vlad’s idea. He pitched it as a joke, but Merry admitted it was a good idea and would be the perfect cover for the galaxy’s most wanted spy. Jayne had gotten used to donning exquisite gowns and showier dresses to blend in at high-society dinners and balls to rub elbows with the elite. She had become an expert at blending in with the blue bloods.
Oh, how far she had fallen. She was wearing Velcro sandals, tube socks, cargo shorts, a t-shirt with a cat on it, and a bright yellow ballcap to cover some of her hair that had grown back.
The tube socks served a practical purpose, however. They hid the skin-pliant ankle brace keeping her from limping everywhere she went. Her description mentioned the limp. It had become her trademark. A limp would be a dead giveaway.
Of course, every piece of the immaculate ensemble had come right out of Fred’s closet.
Jayne, however, took pride knowing she could boast credit for devising the master stroke of their entire plan, which was—
“Next!” The Federation Borders Management Officer waved Jayne to step forward.
Okay, Jayne, make ‘em laugh! She flopped in her sandals up to the officer. “Good morning! How are you?” She promptly handed him her identification chip and shuttle pass.
The Officer nodded, grumbled back a, “Not bad” and slid Jayne’s ID chip into his scanner. “Caroline Mayhew?”
“The one and only!”
The Officer took a deep breath and remembered what his therapist had told him. “Can you confirm your ID for me, Miss Mayhew? What is your address?”
Jayne smiled. “5753 Elizondo Court, Complex A, Tesla University of Technical Arts, Techro—”
The Officer pulled her ID chip out of his scanner. “Yeah, yeah, sounds good. What’s the meaning of your trip today?”
“Just figured it’s time I see the world, you know?”
The Officer did a double-take at her destination. “In Headless Hope?!”
&
nbsp; Good point. Jayne shrugged. “Yeah. You know… The road less traveled is, uh… the road for me.”
The Officer pulled her shuttle pass out of his scanner and handed it back. “You’ll find that some roads are less traveled for a reason. Have a good trip… I guess. Next!”
Jayne was starting to feel it. She was on a mission. She was a spy. She wished she could call her team on the old transmitter earrings so they could celebrate the first victory together. She was doing what she was born to do. She was sticking it to the man, putting up her fists and refusing to go down without a fight. Protecting those who need protection from those who—
“Remove all belts, shoes, comm devices, and jewelry and place them into the matter-scanner!”
Okay, Jayne thought, now it’s time for Phase 2.
She kicked off her sandals and set them on the tray beside her single backpack and placed them into the grav-field pulling everyone’s belongings into the matter scanner.
One of Jayne’s favorite classes in the academy was called Espionage Through Mindfulness. Jayne took the class three semesters in a row and would have signed up again if she hadn’t been kicked out. She found the curriculum and the course’s objective interesting alone, but she returned again and again for the instructor.
Her name was unknown. She had taken the letter ‘O’ as her signifier, just as all the other monks in her order had. ‘O’ represented the ever present state of wonder one must remain in to truly appreciate and harness the universe. Once you take it for granted, the universe owes you nothing. Owes. O.
The first week of class occurred in total silence. O sat at the front of class, meditating. Students of the Academy understood to arrive, meditate for the hour, and leave.
By the end of the course, students were using meditation to hold their breath for up to seven minutes, remember photographic details of complex blueprints, and regulate their body temperature one degree at a time.
Most students quit the course during the first week.
Exposed (Interplanetary Spy for Hire Book 2) Page 10