by Kal Spriggs
“Ahhh,” Terrence said, “That's for friends, Bob. Last people I set you up with on a deal, they ended up pretty upset with me for vouching for you, said they caught you snooping in things you weren't supposed to be, cost them some business.” He shrugged, “Gina won't deal with me anymore... so this is you paying me back for all that lost business.”
Mel heard Marcus clear his throat behind her and mutter, “I told you we shouldn't trust him.”
Bob's smile grew pained. “Look, Terrence, this isn't a payoff, this is just me wanting to do business. Hell, I'm just the middle man, like you, doing an introduction for the real money men. How does it look for me when you're cutting them out of seventy percent of their hard earned money? For that matter, you said earlier that it was cash on delivery... you showed me the money.”
Terrence shrugged, “I lied. Just part of doing business. That cash I showed you is for another deal... and I could care less how this hurts you, this is my retirement money. You think you'll get a better deal with anyone else, feel free to walk away...” He smirked as he said that, as if he knew they wouldn't walk. “I'm betting this money is too hot for anyone else to handle, anyway.”
Bob's smile faded. “Terrence, this isn't good business. You gave me your word.”
Mel caught moment out of the corner of her eyes and saw that Brian had slowly eased his machine pistol out of its holster and held it behind his leg. Beside her, she heard a slight click as Lace cocked her pistol, the woman gave her a slight wink and then rolled her eyes upwards.
Mel spared a glance upwards and saw movement in the shadows of the gantry. It seemed that Terrence wasn't as willing to let them walk as he had suggested... or maybe he just thought that a hundred percent was better than seventy.
“Okay,” Bob said raising one hand. Mel saw his other hand drop to his back holster and his BFR's pistol grip. “How about this, fifty percent, and you give us the payout now?”
“This isn't a bargain,” Terrence said with a snide tone.
Note to self, Mel thought, don't use Bob to launder money ever again. “You take my offer or leave it.”
“Come on, now, buddy,” Bob said with a fake smile, “I know you've got the money there. My friend and I counted it. This is the kind of deal that makes enemies, no point in that, now right? Let us walk away with something to ease the pain a bit, right?”
“I said, no deal,” Terrence snarled. He nodded his head back in the direction they'd come. “Walk or accept my terms.”
Mel shifted slightly as her own hand dropped to her holstered pistol. She knew that if they turned their backs to walk for the doors it would be the last thing they did. Terrence's men would shoot them down from behind and take the handheld and their money.
Yet she hesitated to draw her pistol as she remembered Giles, the man she had killed inadvertently aboard the Fenris, the only life she had taken. Bob had later said that he was a pirate and it was no loss, but still, she had been the one to take his life while firing at one of Fenris's robots.
“Buddy,” Bob said gingerly, “I'm just trying to make a deal—”
Mel looked up in time to see one of Terrence's men stand up to fire, his weapon aimed at Bob. “Look out!” Mel shouted, even as she drew her pistol.
Brian Liu moved so fast that Mel didn't even see his pistol come up. He fired at the men above them and then all hell broke loose.
Marcus tackled her from behind and her pistol bounced out of her hands. He grunted then as someone shot him in the back. She rolled out from under him and scrabbled to grab her pistol.
She saw Bob fire, his big BFR sending out a column of fire almost a meter long as he fired the oversized pistol. The flash blinded her and she turned her head away too late to save her vision in the gloom. She heard multiple sharp bursts from Brian as he fired at Terrence's men. Then her grasping hands finally found the butt of her pistol.
Mel grabbed it, only to let out a howl as someone stepped on her fingers. “Sorry,” Bob said. He hoisted her to her feet even as he fired again. “Didn't see you down there.” He leaned around the machinery he had used as cover, “Terrence, you still alive?”
“Fuck you, you–”
Bob, Brian and Lace all fired at the same time and then there was silence.
Mel shook her fingers, “Marcus, you okay?”
“Depends,” he said with a groan, “will you lot shoot me if I say so?”
She could practically hear Bob's smirk, “Not unless you'd like me to...”
“I'm okay,” Marcus growled, “I'd like to stay that way.” She saw him stand and work his shoulder, “Vest caught the rounds.”
Mel stepped forward and swatted him on the shoulder, “Be careful.”
“I was being careful, he was aiming at you,” Marcus said.
Mel frowned at that, “Oh. Thanks, then.”
She heard Lace speak up from across the room, “Well, your friend's money is here. I'd make it as something around the going exchange rate, maybe only sixty percent. Should we leave the handheld?”
“You kidding?” Brian said, “We almost doubled our money. I haven't had a chance to kill anything in weeks, I say we do it again, we could probably be billionaires and clean out a lot of bottom feeders in the process. Half of them will try to kill us first, so it's fair.”
“Um,” Mel said, “That would be illegal. You know, entrapment, murder, that kind of thing?”
“My very existence is illegal and punishable by death,” Brian said nonchalantly, “so legality doesn't mean much to me.” He picked over the bodies of the dead goons as he spoke and gave a low whistle as he plucked a subgun off one of them, “A Kendriks Easy-Action? I'm definitely keeping this.”
“I think it would also be somewhat disingenuous,” Bob said. “Not to mention the fact that word would get out sooner or later. Terrence was an independent with no ties to anyone who might ask questions about us, which is why I used him. Thankfully, that also means that no-one will miss him. Most of these money men work for one of the big crime syndicates. So not only would it be immoral, but probably extremely dangerous in the long term.”
“Sounds fun,” Brian shrugged, “but I take your meaning.” He sighed, “Mercenary work it is then... I hate not being the bad guy.”
Time: 1200 Zulu, 27 July 291 G.D.
Location: Blisken Station, Hanet System
“Well,” Majors said as he stepped aboard Fenris, “I guess your payment cleared, so we've moved past the basic repairs and onto some of the heavier stuff.” He pointed nonchalantly at the screen where they could see several tugs as they maneuvered equipment in the dock. “We brought up the new primary armament as well as the new emitters, but I wanted to wait for your go-ahead before I brought up any of the other big installs.”
Behind the engineer, Mel saw a small host of supervisors and technicians, many of them loaded down with equipment.
Mel hesitated, “Fenris...” The new primary armament was something she could agree on. The new, heavier disruptors would be extremely useful. The disruptor cannons were normally used to take down an enemy ship's warp field. They fired concentrated beams of exotic particles in pulses that could destabilize a warp field and do moderate damage to the ship underneath. They were long range and could take down even the most powerful of drive fields... and Fenris mounted two turrets of four.
His secondary armament was mass driver rounds with antimatter warheads. While that was standard for many Guard Fleet ships, his older-style mass drivers were only the equivalent of what a cruiser would mount. While he mounted four turrets of four mass drivers, far more than most cruisers, replacing those with something a bit more powerful would give them significantly more firepower.
“I know, Mel,” the warship growled. “Money is tight.” The AI paused a moment as it evaluated what they had in their accounts here at Hanet versus what they would need. “I think the secondary armament can wait. The new defensive systems are a priority, but I don't think we can afford them either.”
&nb
sp; “Okay,” Majors said. “Well, we'll get to work on these installations. I think that shuttle coming up is for you folks, though.” He waved a hand in farewell as he led his supervisor team away.
Mel called the others in as the shuttle and it's passengers disembarked. At their lead was the man introduced as Malekith. Following behind him was a pair of men in business attire, but there was no hiding the hard lives they had lived. One man's face was a woven network of scars and his expression was wooden enough that she could guess he'd had extensive reconstructive surgery. His companion carried fewer scars, but his dark skin was weathered from years spent in the sun and rain and his dark eyes were cold and pitiless.
“Greetings,” Malekith said. “This is Mr. Wilson and Mr. Wolters. They're senior representatives of the Mercenary Guild.”
“Gentlemen,” Mel nodded. She felt her stomach sink as she felt both men evaluate her. Their gazes lingered just long enough to make her feel like she had been weighed, but not long enough for her to feel confident that they had found her of worth.
Their gazes similarly lingered on Marcus, Brian, and Bob. They utterly dismissed Swaim who slouched in the back with an uncertain expression on his face. “Can we show you to our lounge?” Mel asked.
They nodded and Mel led the way. As they entered, Malekith pulled out a sensor wand and swept the room, before he looked skyward, “Fenris, can I ask you to keep everything we say here secure? Normally we would shut down all electronic monitoring for this level of discussion.”
“Absolutely,” Fenris growled, “I can compartmentalize it so that even if I'm hacked, it won't show up on my file index.”
“Really?” Malekith asked, “That's a useful skill to know about.” He nodded at the two representatives. “Gentlemen.”
It was Wolters who spoke first, “Earlier this year, we received a very lucrative contract, kept confidential, of course, for a corporate infiltration mission.” He gave a tight smile, “It was a mission from Guard Intelligence, they wanted us to infiltrate Odin Interstellar.”
Mel's eyebrows shot up. Odin Interstellar was the preeminent transfer company for information, data, and money. They were headquartered in the Parisian Sector, but they had sector headquarters in all of the Guard Military Sectors and system headquarters in almost every inhabited system in Guard Space. They even had a small headquarters out on Century, Mel knew, though they had stiff competition on the Periphery from Champion Enterprises.
As far as she knew, they had never had a security breach in over four centuries of operations. In fact, that was their byline... no-one carried as much trust as they did. Their courier ships were well armed and they were fast, faster than most military vessels. They also timed their schedules to line up with Guard Fleet and Planetary Militia patrols, so there had never been an occasion where their ships were successfully attacked by pirates.
For that matter, their corporate headquarters were fortresses. She'd picked up data from them before and been subject to rigorous scanning procedures and a full identity verification just to gain access to their outermost level of security.
“What was the mission?” Marcus asked. He tried to keep his voice level, but Mel heard a note of interest all the same. It seemed that this was something that interested him.
“Guard Intelligence heard a rumor that Odin Interstellar had developed new predictive security algorithms, under the project name Odin's Eye,” Wilson said, his voice a dry rasp. “These algorithms would not only make it impossible to hack most secure data systems, but they would also track movement of personnel, transfer of resources, and utilize the data that Odin Interstellar was paid to store and transfer... all of which would not only prevent access to their secure databases, but would allow them to predict the moves of their competition, to see the intent and goals of politicians at the Security Council, and even to monitor the actions of Guard Intelligence.”
“I'm sure which one of those bothered Guard Intelligence the most,” Marcus grimaced. “Though if Odin Interstellar is peeking at people's information, that's pretty damned dirty.”
That was an understatement, Mel knew. People paid extra for the privacy and security that Odin Interstellar provided, only apparently that package didn't include security from the people guarding the information.
“Indeed,” Wilson said with a dry grin. “Guard Intelligence wanted the program infiltrated, the security algorithm destroyed, and files adjusted so that it appeared to be a non-functional ruse set up by its creator, Doctor Axel Farber.”
Marcus snorted, “Typical.”
“It was a confidential contract, so we hired it out to a selected Company. They had the resources to accomplish the mission and a good reputation of getting things done quietly,” Wolters said. “They went undercover in April with a high probability of success. In May, they reported that Odin Interstellar had locked down their resources in the system. By June, Odin Interstellar had captured or killed the entire Company and they had already made a media storm of the situation, though they haven't yet made public that they were a Guild Company.”
“Jesus,” Brian said, “sounds like somebody fucked up.”
“We ran a full analysis of their actions,” Wilson said, his raspy voice cold. “They went in under full cover, no external leaks. The only information that got out was secondary data that is 'free' information to be found on planetary and system data networks: information such as account transfers, personnel movement, and data on electronic recon and surveillance. In short, Odin's Eye picked up on all of the small factors and was able to do exactly what Doctor Farber and Odin Interstellar said it could: identify a security threat and neutralize it.”
“So it works,” Brian said, “that's annoying, but how bad can it be?”
“Bad,” Malekith said. “As someone who operates in the shadows, you should know that. Guard Intelligence decided to step in more openly after the mission blew up. They're in talks to purchase rights to Odin's Eye. One can easily imagine them implementing it across systems, not just in private databases, but across all databases. The predictive analysis it provides would give them unprecedented levels of access to information. Right now their biggest issue is not access but processing.
“As an example... well, the information that the Colonel here was going after Fenris was leaked to Guard Intelligence by Odin Interstellar. Our employer has gone as far as to suggest that they knew how much she'd been paid and which planet she disappeared on before taking the mission. If they can do that with just public data, think about what they could do with complete access to all data networks. With the Odin's Eye, they could see the future, just like the Norse god of old.”
No one spoke as they thought through the repercussions... particularly for themselves.
“Yeah,” Bob said, “we should probably try to prevent that.”
“What we have on data is that Odin's Eye works best on solid data points,” Wilson said. “It picked up on money transfers to Hanet to pay for the Company. It noticed their recon and surveillance teams and then the movement of personnel to conduct the operation. In short, it had a large enough sum of data that it could work with.”
“Which is where we come in,” Mel said with narrow eyes. “We aren't in the system, we're ghosts.”
“Exactly,” Wolters said. “More than that, you're negative data. Anything it sees on you it should process as the actions of someone else. You aren't affiliated with the Mercenary Guild. You've been reported dead. It should have no way to tie into this.”
“Except we're going against the best corporate security in Guard Space,” Bob said. “There are Guard Fleet bases that we could walk through without setting off an alarm, but the moment someone with unauthorized access tries to get in the building at one of their headquarters, it's going to set off every alarm they have.” He frowned, “For that matter, this isn't something they'd have at a system headquarters, this would have to be at Sector or even...”
“It's located at the Parisian Sector Corporate Headquarters,
” Wolters said with a nod. “Their tightest security... but that actually works in your favor.”
“Oh?” Brian asked with narrow eyes. “Whenever someone tells me that maximum security works to my benefit I tend to question their sincerity.”
“What he means,” Mel said, “is that since it is the Corporate Headquarters, they'll have the master database there. We could upload new identities while we're there to access the Eye. Odin Interstellar is the standard for information security. In a matter of months, our identities would disseminate across human space.”
Wolters gave her a nod, but his cold eyes locked on her with a look of calculation that made her want to shiver. Clearly he had upped his estimation of her. She wasn't certain that was entirely a good thing. She felt like a mouse being examined by a snake.
“Exactly,” Wolters said.
“Well,” Marcus said, “That is useful. But this is going to cost money, a lot of money. And while we'll be helping ourselves, this is the kind of job that people pay hundreds of millions for.”
Wolters gave him a slight nod. “Indeed. Right now, we can't give you anything.”
“What?” Brian asked, “Can't or won't?”
“Can't,” Wilson said. “Odin's Eye would pick up on money transfers, possibly even cash transfers and would realize that another Company had been selected. Same goes for transfer of material goods or even bullion, all our other contracts are different parameters.”
Mel nodded, “But we happen to have a cash reserve, not affiliated with Hanet.” She pursed her lips, “We'll have to stretch it a lot more finely than we expected.”
“Yes,” Wolters said. “For now we can offer you access to our shipyards and some access to our planetary network to purchase what you need. But after you complete the mission, we'll offer the total sum of the contract balance, minus guild fees. It totals almost two hundred and fifty million, kept in equity until mission termination or completion.”