Lasers, Lies and Money

by Alex Kings

  “Really?” said Rurthk. “That's a shame. Because if you were, I'd have a way for you to capitalise on the recent theft.”

  There was an even longer pause this time. Then, “You're the thieves, aren't you?”

  “Pleased to meet you,” said Rurthk. “Now before you start trying to track us down …”

  The man laughed. “I wouldn't dream of it. Not yet, anyway. You kept us on our toes, you know. And it was a clever trick you pulled with the maintenance car. I very nearly missed it.”

  Rurthk caught sight of Mero beaming.

  “And it was an impressive fight,” the man went on. “Tell me, what happened to the lady who got shot? Eloise, I think her name was. Did she get out?”

  “She's fine.”

  “I'm glad.”

  Rurthk leaned back and suppressed a growl. He could see the man was trying to needle him, and he had no intention of rising to the bait. “How much would Egliante reward you for catching us and returning the hard drives?” he asked. “Would it be anywhere near a fraction of his actual wealth?”

  “You know, I don't think it would.” said the voice. “On the other hand, if you're proposing to pay me a cut of the money for helping you, I can see a problem right away. You should have noticed by now it's encrypted.”

  “We knew that before we started,” said Rurthk. “And we have a way around it.”

  “Good man. I can see this isn't amateur hour. Do you have access to the money now?”

  Rurthk sighed. “No. We need to be off-world for that.”

  “So I'd have to get you off-world, let you run off with the loot, and then wait for you to wire me payment? See, now that's a problem. I don't want to say I don't trust you, but you did just steal from my boss …”

  “Then it looks like we'll have to find another way,” said Rurthk.

  “I'm all ears, my friend.”

  Rurthk sat back, thinking. The idea came to him in a flash. He realised the consequence right away. Indeed, perhaps it was the consequence that led him to the idea: Sukone likes to clear up loose ends.

  “Would you,” Rurthk said slowly, “like to speak to my employer? He's responsible for the decryption, and he wants these hard drives off world as much as we do. I'm sure he could arrange something.”

  The crew stared at him.

  He went on, “Perhaps, a down payment now, another when we're free, and then the rest once it's decrypted?”

  “Yes, that could work,” the man said. “Who is he, and how do I talk to him?”

  “The name is Sukone. He works for Sweetblade. I have his contact details. Tell him Rurthk sent you.”

  “Ah …” The man had clearly heard of Sukone.

  “Are you in?”

  “Yes.”

  Rurthk gestured at the tablet to send Sukone's contact details.

  “Excellent,” said the man. “I'll talk to Sukone, then, see if we can hammer out a deal. You sit tight, okay?” The line went dead.

  Chapter 38: Killers

  There was silence as Rurthk contracted his tablet and put it in his coat.

  “We should move again,” he said. “Just in case.”

  “Agreed,” Mero said, standing up. “Next city over?”

  “That'll do,” said Rurthk.

  They gathered their things and silently filed out.

  Eloise was walking better now, but Rurthk could see there was some awkwardness in her movements even though she was trying to hide it. There was damage there that the medical gel was struggling to fix.

  She moved into step alongside him. “So, he'll be talking to Sukone, huh?”

  Rurthk nodded. “Let's hope so.”

  “And when Sukone decides to clear up some loose ends?”

  They were speaking in hushed voices, but that couldn't escape Mero's sensitive hearing. “That's when the guy's life gets really interesting,” he said with glee.

  “Mero,” Rurthk growled softly, “Why don't you try listening out for things that might be approaching us, instead of in on this conversation?”

  Mero snorted, but said nothing.

  “Well?” Eloise asked.

  “I had no choice,” said Rurthk. “He wouldn't be interested without money in his hand – he insisted on that himself! And there was no other way but to forward him to Sukone.”

  “You didn't spend too long looking for alternatives, did you?”

  “No,” Rurthk admitted. “But you know, if the information is right, Sukone is after us too. If by some miracle we manage to stop him, we'll be saving this bastard too. But if we don't … you know what? I'm not too cut up about it.”

  “That's what's bothering me,” said Eloise. “Look, I've killed people. You've killed people. That's how it is in the business. I know the score. But this wasn't a fight. You were almost smiling when you made him that offer. I'm not worried about him. I'm worried about you.”

  Rurthk grunted. “I'll be fine,” he said. And then, after a moment, he added, “The idea only came to me because he made light of you getting shot. And that he was responsible for it.”

  Eloise looked at him for several seconds, but said nothing.

  *

  Olivia walked alongside Ikki and Rayne.

  “The greatest theft,” opined Rayne, “is to help another thief.”

  “Hey, Rayne?”

  “Yes, Ikki, my dear?”

  “How does that work?”

  “By helping others we gain honour. In other words, Ikki, we take honour from the universe. We steal a moral concept from the totality of all that is and ever shall be!”

  “Wow, Rayne, you're so smart.”

  “And that is what they call …” Rayne took out a pair of sunglasses and put them on, though they didn't fit. “ … honour among thieves!” After a moment he took the sunglasses off again, explaining, “These make it difficult to see.”

  Olivia looked at him, smiling faintly. “Thank you,” she said. “For all your help.”

  “You are very welcome,” Rayne said, bowing.

  “Very welcome indeed!” said Ikki.

  “Will you be coming with us?” Olivia asked.

  “I think not,” said Rayne. “Our place is here. We have unfinished business on Volpone.”

  “We're going to throw a party!” Ikki said.

  “Or two,” added Rayne. “I believe we decided on two.”

  “Well …” said Olivia. “Stay safe. Make sure Egliante doesn't catch you. I'll miss you.”

  They fell silent for a moment. Olivia looked up at the mirrors atop the buildings, and their reflections of the giant swollen sun on the horizon. It was the colour of blood. She sighed.

  Then she heard Rayne speak again. “What is it?”

  She looked at him. “What?”

  “Olivia, my friend, it is clear something is troubling you. Can we help at all?”

  “I … I don't think so. I killed someone.”

  “Ah …” said Rayne. Ikki looked up, but said nothing.

  “In the fight outside the station,” Olivia said. “I picked up a gun and shot a man.” She sighed. “It's ridiculous! They were the ones attacking us. And he was about to kill Mero. It was obviously the right thing to do, and in the same situation I would do it again. But … I still can't stop thinking about it.”

  “Hey, kid,” Mero said, coming up from behind them. “You know the main thing that happens when you kill someone? They stop being a problem.”

  Olivia stared at him.

  “Well, sometimes their friends and family come after you, but hey, nothing's perfect.”

  “You're not helping,” Olivia said.

  Mero shrugged. “Well, thanks for the save. And for what it's worth, you pulled your weight out there.”

  Olivia gave him a brief nod to acknowledge this. Mero shrugged, and fell back.

  After a moment, Ikki put a hand on Olivia's arm.

  Chapter 39: Glass Beach

  The GEA headquarters were converted from an old Tethyan battleship, a floating crystal
line blue ovoid three kilometres long, in orbit over Tethya. It had never been threatened during its twenty-year history but if it ever was, it could jump away to safety or even fight back with monopole cannons and gamma ray lasers.

  Inside, the workspaces were regularly divided by effector fields. Laodicean's section was filled with water. Illipa's section was filled with air, and all the other paraphernalia air-breathers liked – computer terminals, chairs, ceiling gratings.

  One of their colleagues was also in the air segment: Rak, a garrulous but surprisingly competent Varanid.

  “New project, then?” said Rak. He lay sprawled out in front of a computer terminal.

  “Effectively, yes,” said Laodicean. “I have cleared it with our superiors.”

  “A patchwork ship,” said Rak. “That shouldn't be hard to find. How many DIY modded ships are there out there? Can't be more than a million?” He laughed.

  Illipa hung from the ceiling grating. She laughed too. “More than modding!” she explained merrily. “Obsessive modding by the sound of. Get a ship. Replace the reactor. Replace the sublight and jump engines. Replace the living space. Replace the bulkheads. Is it still the same ship?”

  “More importantly, does it look like a piece of shit?” Rak wondered. He shrugged. “I'm sure you'll find it, anyway. I've got a new project too.”

  “I do hope it's not tedious,” Laodicean said. “Last time you spent six point three hours explaining the minutia of human interdepartmental policy difficulties.”

  “A big Sweetblade deal on Cantor. Everybody massacred. How tedious is that?” said Rak.

  “Consider my curiosity piqued,” said Laodicean.

  “Weird things are going on with Sweetblade,” said Rak. “Internal politics getting a bit messy. The big guns are at each other's throats to get the top job when the current guy dies. But this is something else. Whoever did this killed Sweetblade guys and the people they were trading with indiscriminately. And they left the goods – half a million cryptcred worth of scanner-resistant guns.”

  “Who were Sweetblade trading with?” Laodicean asked.

  “That's the weird thing,” said Rak. “We don't know. We've searched, and they don't match any known criminal organisation. The ones doing the trade were Glaber, but they could be working for someone of any species. All we have is a possible name from an intercepted communication. Glass Beach.”

  Illipa's ears perked up.

  “Glass Beach?” said Laodicean. “No … the phrase is new to me.”

  “I did a search on it. There's one other instance on something totally unrelated,” said Rak.

  “Vihan Yvredi,” said Illipa.

  Rak and Laodicean looked at her.

  “What?” said Rak.

  “It's a phrase in Old Petaur,” she said. “Literally it means a landscape of sand turned to glass.”

  “I didn't know you spoke Old Petaur,” said Laodicean.

  “I don't. It's just one of those phrases you pick up,” she said. “Like how most humans know some Latin phrases, or Varanids know Ancient Ghrogan.”

  “So you think the two might be related?”

  “I'm certain of it,” said Illipa. “A hundred years ago, when Petaurs were still under the rule of the Albascene, there was a resistance group. They caused the Albascene Nation a lot of problems. When the military found the island they were based on, they attacked it with an orbital laser. They killed the resistance, plus a thousand innocent Petaurs and Albascene. It was hot enough to boil some of the surrounding oceans and create a giant storm. When people went back to the island, they found the entire beach had melted and turned to a solid belt of glass. It became symbolic of Albascene oppression, and Vihan Yvredi is used to refer to the event.”

  Laodicean considered this for a moment, the called up his neural link. He did a search for all events in the GEA database linked the phrase Glass Beach – and Vihan Yvredi, including all phonologically similar terms.

  Four results.

  He piped them through to Illipa's and Rak's terminals.

  The first result was the one Rak had just told them about: The group had been trading with Sweetblade.

  In the second, a corrupt civil servant on Mars had given the name of his paymasters as Glass Beach.

  “That's the one I found,” Rak said.

  Then there were two results for Vihan Yvredi. They had been mentioned as the buyers of weapons in a smuggling run, and as hiring an assassin in the new Albascene Federation.

  In all four cases, the name was the only information the GEA had been able to find.

  “Well, shit,” said Rak.

  Laodicean's instincts urged caution. “If this is a common phrase among Petaurs,” he reminded them, “we may be dealing with two or more groups that chose the name independently.”

  “But if we're not …” said Illipa.

  “Then there is a large, extremely well-funded criminal organisation out there, willing to go as far as assassination, that has escaped our attention until now.”

  All three of them were silent.

  Laodicean turned to Rak. “This is rather more interesting than your last assignment,” he added.

  “You're damn right it is,” said Rak. He scratched he chin with a giant, scaled hand. “We'll have to tell the Free Petaurs about this,” he said. “And possibly the Albascene Federation, and –”

  An alert came through Laodicean's neural link. At the same time, Rak's and Illipa's terminals chimed. The news was tagged urgent for everyone in the department.

  The planet Volpone, a considerable hub of criminal activity, had been locked down.

  “What the hells?” said Rak. “The entire planet?”

  “No reason given,” Illipa read.

  “Another scuffle?” said Rak.

  The next hour was a flurry of activity. They gave and received orders, studied old records and watched recent footage, trying to figure out what was going on. The first hints emerged slowly. The well-known but not particularly active thug Tommy Egliante seemed to involved, but it wasn't clear how.

  Gradually things calmed down. Rak was still reviewing footage. “Hey,” he told Laodicean. “You might want to have a look at this. A view from the outer system.” He sent a clip to Laodicean's neural link.

  Space. A reddish glowing planet in the corner. A ship cruised past in the distance.

  A patchwork ship.

  “That's it,” said Laodicean. “They're at Volpone.”

  Chapter 40: Past the Wall

  They were waiting in the next city over when the call came a couple of hours later. It was just past 4.00, but the stationary sun made it feel like they were trapped in a single, unending moment. In the third hotel, Rurthk remained seated at his desk while the rest of the crew stole small snatches of sleep where they could.

  Rurthk extended his tablet. “Well?”

  “Sukone was very accommodating,” said the operator. “He gave me a generous advance. And, you might be happy to know he didn't deduct it from your cut.”

  “Ah, good,” Rurthk murmured. “So what's the plan?”

  “I've got someone who'll do it, no questions asked. Go to the dayside wall in the town of Arika in the next hour. He'll meet you in the old shipyards, factory 18B, and escort you to an automated shuttle. Once you're away from Volpone, you can call in your ship.”

  “I'll be there,” Rurthk said.

  “Good. Don't be a stranger, now. Goodbye.” The call ended.

  Rurthk contracted the tablet and started rousing the crew.

  He explained the plan to them as they got ready. Five minutes later they were heading out the door.

  “So,” said Mero, “let me go this straight. We're going together to an old shipyard. Alone, exactly where he asked us to be.”

  “I know,” said Rurthk. “It could be a trap. But we don't have many options here. Any method of getting away involves him leading us somewhere. We just have to be prepared and hope he hasn't decided to turn us in. If Sukone's talked to
him, I don't think he'll want to stop us.”

  “On the other hand, he could have not even bothered talking to Sukone,” said Mero.

  “Yes, that's possible too,” growled Rurthk.

  *

  The atmospheric wall, keeping out savage winds, dwarfed the town of Erika. It was transparent, with a faint blueish sheen, half a mile wide and ten miles high – billions of tonnes of sapphiroid. It looked out onto a desolate landscape, broken only by silver magtubes and thick black superconductor cables stretching off towards the horizon, carrying energy from solar power stations thousands of miles away on the sun-baked dayside.

  The shipyards were on the far side of the wall, recessed into it. Openings in the wall led directly to them. Back when Volpone had been an industrial outpost rather than a playground for the elite, thousands of ships for the Solar Alliance Navy had been built here by the old megacorporation Interstellar Liners. On the dayside, solar furnaces had smelted parts, supercolliders had made monopoles, and factories in orbit had grown bulkheads with vacuum deposition and nanotech. The parts had come together here, in the shipyards. And then history had moved on, IL had flared briefly to prominence, and then vanished forever. The shipyards had been shut down.

  Rurthk and his crew had taken their leave of Ikki and Rayne at the station. Olivia hugged them. Eloise and Rurthk shook hands. Mero did nothing. Then they come straight to Arika.

  Now Rurthk led his crew through factory 18B

  The remains of giant robot arms, stripped for parts decades ago, lined up on all sides, coated in shadows. He had a pistol ready. Beside him, Mero scrambled up one of the arms, then jumped and glided to another. He kept to the shadows. Just in case.

  His voice came through the comm: “Someone's coming. I hear footsteps.”

  “How many?” said Rurthk.

  “Just the one.”

  By then Rurthk could hear the footsteps too. A human strode towards them, arms outstretched.

  “There you are!” he announced, his booming voice echoing through the factory. “Right where we want you!” He held up his hands, grinning. “Now you just wait there for a moment. Mr. Egliante will be here any moment.”