Head Space

by Andrew Vaillencourt

  “Hey guys,” she greeted them. “I really don’t like that guy. Is he on the list of people I can hurt if I think they are leaking intel?”

  Lucia replied, “Absolutely. I hate that he was standing right here the whole time. Now we have to worry about what information he is going to sell to The Brokerage. He was probably wearing a wire with our luck.”

  “He totally was,” Manny said with bland confidence as he fiddled absently with his comm. “Or his comm was bugged, at least. There was an open audio channel running on his earpiece the whole time. Encryption was crazy tight, too.”

  “Shit,” Roland snarled and started to move toward the retreating detectives. Manny stopped him with a gentle tug of his arm.

  “Don’t sweat it, Mr. Tankowicz. Later he will find out that all he got was the audio from a self-help seminar on holo. I figured that would be better for his health than a recording of your conversation.”

  “You broke the encryption?” Lucia looked aghast.

  “Nah. It was some kind of multi-variable fractal recursion. It was designed to be more annoying than unbreakable, but I didn’t have the time. I just hacked his microphone instead. I turned it off and beamed the receiver the wrong audio. Whoever was on the receiving end heard an awful lot about achieving their goals through the power of positive visualization.”

  Lucia’s face split into a broad grin. “You are a treasure, Manny.”

  Mindy had to add, “I say we bury him, then.”

  Everybody ignored her. “You get anything from the transport?” Roland asked.

  “Just location data and comm chatter.”

  “That’s something at least.”

  Manny shrugged. “I wouldn’t have gotten anything if I didn’t get help from a mysterious caller.”

  “Jimmy gave you a ring, too, huh?” Roland asked.

  Manny looked confused. “Nobody mentioned a Jimmy. Called himself ‘Nosebleed.’ Says it’s because his reach is so high.”

  Roland’s disdain was stamped clearly on his face. “I bet it’s because he got his ass kicked a lot in training. He was giving me advice, too.”

  “Did he tell you to pick a fight with the UEDF?” Lucia said with a cocked eyebrow.

  “Believe it or not, that was his idea. He got the ‘no shoot’ order down to the squad and then told me to send the UEDF a message.”

  Lucia’s expression took a sharp turn toward pensive. “That kind of makes me nervous, Roland. I don’t like being steered into dangerous action by somebody we neither know nor trust.”

  Roland did not argue the matter. “Believe me, I’m with you on that. In this case it just happened to be a good call. We put the UEDF back on its heels today. They can’t afford to push us now, not after a big screw up in front of witnesses like this.”

  Lucia blew the magenta stripe of hair off her forehead. “Fine. I guess we only need to worry about The Brokerage, DECO, and dirty cops, then?”

  “Yup,” Roland replied. “Just that stuff.”

  “Piece of cake,” her response to Roland’s sarcasm was as dry as a desert wind.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “The Pride of Wayfair left Enterprise Station six hours ago, Boss.” Manny relayed the news in clipped tones. “Our runner was not on board. I’m sure of it.”

  “Shit,” Lucia hissed and put her coffee cup down on Roland’s counter. They had moved base to his apartment while the office was repaired, and quarters were somewhat cramped. Manny had set up his workstation at the kitchen table, leaving very few horizontal surfaces for the others to share. Lucia had commandeered Roland’s narrow kitchen counter and Mindy was reclining on his couch.

  Roland, sitting in his oversized easy chair, looked up from his DataPad. “Have we lost him?”

  “Not really.” Manny was tapping furiously at his own terminal. “Without money he can’t really stay on Enterprise, so it’s safe to assume he hooked up with a ship that doesn’t scan biometrics.”

  “Pirates?”

  “I’d bet on it, yes.”

  “Leads?” Lucia asked from the kitchen.

  “The Ripsaw left within thirty hours of Pride’s arrival. The smart money says he’s on that one. The Lusty Wolf and Bligh’s Revenge took off within a few hours of that, but I’m guessing he is in full jack-rabbit mode and took the first thing available. The Ripsaw is registered as a private escort ship, but nobody really buys that. Not that it matters, really. They are all Galapagos knorrs, so they are all definitely pirate ships. They’re going to end up in Galapagos either way.”

  “Okay, Manny,” Lucia said without looking up. “I’ll bite. What the hell is a knorr?”

  “It’s a small gate-capable freighter equipped for very long deep space cruises and light combat. It can punch up a little bit, enough to duke it out with corporate escorts and civilian craft, but real military ships will eat it for lunch. They usually have extra jump coils so they can flee further into deep space than regular gate ships. With their extended life-support capabilities, it means they can run far and hide for a long time in very dark corners. It’s a unique design that really only has one purpose.”

  “Timeframe?” The distant look in Lucia’s eyes told Manny that her brain was starting to build scenarios. His role was to feed her information until she had enough to sort out probabilities.

  “The Ripsaw is the smallest of the three at twenty-thousand tons. It stands to reason it can’t stay out as long as the other two. I’m not an expert on that stuff.”

  Roland interrupted, “Ten days to three weeks, depending on how many people are on board.”

  Manny and Lucia both gave the big man bemused glances. He shrugged. “I fought a lot of pirates when I was with the EF. Both before and... after. I’ve chased and boarded plenty of knorrs.” He went on as if this information was common knowledge. “The bigger ones, anything over forty-thousand tons, can stay out as long as three months.”

  “It’s good that we think he’s on the little one. How sure are we, Manny?”

  Manny tried not to look abashed and failed miserably. “Sixty percent, maybe? If he’s cagey and calm, he might have taken one of the bigger ones to throw us off...”

  Lucia did not let him finish. “He’s broke and hunted. He has no resources and no way to acquire them. He is not a skilled fighter or all that competent at anything, really. I’m willing to bet on panic.”

  “Agreed,” said Roland. “That means we have as little as ten days or as long as three weeks to get to Galapagos ahead of him. Anyone besides me have a handle on that terrain? My experience is three decades old at this point.”

  All three looked to Mindy, who took on an air of indignance. “Why are y’all looking at me? I never crewed a pirate ship. I served with Pike for one rotation fifteen years ago. We never got out that way during my time.”

  “No contract hits in that region at all?” Lucia sounded hopeful, though she had already guessed the answer.

  “Hunter’s Lodge does not work out in Galapagos. They have their own rules there.”

  “I don’t like this, team,” Roland grumbled. “We go in blind and start stomping around, we are going to spook the runner.”

  “Obviously I go first, Mr. Tankowicz,” said Manny with a tiny smile. “I’ll get it scoped out and find him. It’s what I do.”

  Lucia face twitched. “And that is why they want you dead.”

  “Really?” Manny asked. “They tried to kill me before the guy ran, Boss. How does that compute?”

  “They assumed we’d be going there, eventually.”

  “I’m lost, Boss,” said Mindy with a huff. “I am not following any of this. How did they know we would be heading that way before we ever had a reason to head that way? They got a time machine?”

  “No. But they showed their hand when they took that preemptive strike on Manny. Whatever they are doing, it’s obviously hidden in Galapagos.”

  “Now I’m lost,” Roland added.

  “The enemy is The Brokerage. Half the trade agre
ements they employ to obscure their operations route through Galapagos. Galapagos is a system with almost no law and very few rules. For a charter to have weight there, it has to be trustworthy. Corporations have to back their agreements with promissory notes or cash escrows when working there or the agreements won’t be worth the bandwidth they take up.”

  “They have a physical presence!” Manny crowed. “They have to have some kind of brick and steel base there for it to work!”

  “Exactly. Thanks to our little helper at DECO, we know they saw what you did to Fox’s operation in the Sprawl. We also know that they were behind that business on Venus, too. They probably have a file on all of us.” She pointed to the long-haired youth at Roland’s kitchen table. “And you, my little Venusian wonder, scare the hell out of them.”

  “It does make more sense. But why take a shot at me now?”

  “My guess is that they got wind we’d be going after the missing armature. They are worried we will track it back to them.”

  “But what about DECO and the UEDF?”

  Roland’s snort was equal parts derisive and incredulous. “Government operatives engaged in espionage in a frontier system, all because they lost control of a top-secret and illegal weapon that was never supposed to exist in the first place?”

  Manny’s face twisted in a comical wince. “Yeah, that does sound stupid, doesn’t it?” He was not ready to let go of his doubts, however. “They could hire contractors...”

  Lucia answered his riposte with a question. “How many people in the galaxy have the skills to go that far out of the way and sniff them out where they sleep?”

  Manny bobbed his head back and forth as he thought. “There are a few. I’m good, but I’m not the only guy out there with talent.”

  Mindy gifted the youth with a rare compliment. “I’ve met them all, kid. You’re better.”

  Manny looked at the tiny blond as if she had grown a second head. “Was that physically painful for you, saying that?”

  “It stung a little,” she replied. “They say it only hurts the first time.”

  This exchange drew a chuckle from Lucia. “Even if other contractors were available, why hire them at all? Manny, how many of those other guys already work for Roland Tankowicz?”

  “Good point, Boss. You win.”

  “Good. Moving on. We also know,” she continued, obviously enjoying herself at this point, “that the thing they are hiding is not a person, but an object or a commodity.”

  “How do we know that?” Mindy asked.

  This time, Manny answered. “Because if it was a person, they’d have tried to take you out, not me. If they were worried about someone being hunted or killed, they’d be scared of you.” He pointed to the assassin. “Because that’s what you do. They went after me because whatever this thing is doesn’t move around a lot and can be stolen.”

  “Because that’s what you do,” Mindy agreed with an emphatic head bob. “So what are we thinking?”

  “Smart money says it’s the missing armature,” said Roland.

  “Agreed,” replied Lucia. “So we are all off to Galapagos, but we have two objectives. First, we bring down our runner and squeeze him for information. Then we are going to stick around and go hunting.”

  “I like hunting,” said the tiny blond assassin with a predatory leer.

  Roland did not share Mindy’s enthusiasm. “We are still walking in there blind, and I hate that.”

  Lucia addressed his concern with a question. “Well, who do we have that knows the lay of the land out there?”

  “Nobody in town,” Roland replied. “Galop pirates and traders rarely get past Enterprise. The Free Trade Zone protects them on the station. On Earth, their warrants and bounties are all valid.”

  “There’s always Pike,” Mindy volunteered.

  “We can’t afford Pike,” Lucia shot back. “We got Gateways to pay his bill last time, but without a direct threat to the docks, I don’t see a way to convince them to shell out Pike-level cash.”

  “DECO,” Roland growled. “They can foot the bill. Or get the UEDF to pay it, at least. The last time I was in Galapagos, it was with Pike’s crew. UEDF paid for that one just to keep the job from looking like an official military action.”

  “Fine,” Lucia said. “Let’s ask our mysterious DECO guardian angel, then. How do we contact him?”

  “We don’t,” Roland countered with a disgruntled wave of his hand. “But he’s probably monitoring us from afar. He’ll find us. Especially if we bring in Pike. I assume he’ll crap his pants at that.”

  “Do we even have a way to contact Pike?”

  “I’m still a member of the Registered Order of Privateers, Boss,” said Mindy from the couch. “I can get him on the line.”

  “Do it.”

  Mindy began fiddling with her comm and the others waited. A moment later she put her handheld away and addressed the group. “Okay. He’s been notified that we are looking for him. When he is in range of an Anson relay he’ll get the message and hopefully he’ll call me. Best I could do.”

  “So we have a few days, at least. I suggest we use the time to get out to Enterprise as a starting point. With any luck we can pick up the trail there while we wait for Pike to call and DECO to jump in.”

  It sounded to Roland like Lucia wanted more of a plan, though he had waged war against all manner of foes with far less structure than this. He tried to be reassuring. “It’s a good place to start. There won’t be any action on Enterprise anyway, and Pike has a garrison there. A few days to stage up and gather more intel is a good thing.”

  “So you say. I assume you are going to want to bring an arsenal?”

  “Helmet, Durendal, maybe a few other things, yeah. Galapagos is a very dangerous place. You are going to want a full set of plates and something bigger than the CZ yourself.”

  Lucia sagged in her chair. “That is a lot of permitting to get sorted out.”

  “Manny should gear up, too,” Mindy suggested. “I keep a locker at the Enterprise Garrison full of bug-out stuff, so I’ll be fine to travel light. But the kid can’t keep blocking shots with his arm if he wants to stay in the game until he’s old enough to shave.”

  “Hey!” Manny whined, “I shave!”

  “Once a week, whether you need to or not,” she replied with a wink.

  “I can’t help it if I am naturally baby-faced. The ladies don’t seem to mind.”

  “What ladies?”

  “There are ladies. I just don’t bring them around you, for obvious reasons.”

  “Anyway,” Roland growled at the pair. “We’ll swing by Marty’s and see what he has in your size for armor. I’ve got a lot of hardware myself, but most of it is military spec and big. With your arm, I suspect you can handle a decent piece. Without a press point, you’ll have to aim the old-fashioned way. You learn to shoot on Venus?”

  “I’m not what you’d call a marksman, but I won’t shoot myself in the foot or anything.”

  “You got a preference in long arms?”

  “Not using them?”

  Roland’s face was all the answer Manny needed for his snark. He held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. Fine. I am pretty good with the old M-45’s the UEDF used to issue. We all were. There were a lot of those lying around after the war.”

  “Ugh. Those fossils?” Mindy shook her head in disgust. “No offense, Ironsides. I know you probably slept with one for years, but they suck.”

  Roland did not argue her point. “They were reliable and effective. But yeah, they were loud and heavy and they are all old now.”

  Manny tried again. “I had a short-barreled scattergun that I was fond of, too. It was easy to stash on scouting runs and did not require great skill or practice to be effective. I would make special payloads for the shells, too. A good scattergun is a very versatile tool.”

  Roland nodded. “I bet Marty has a couple of those lying around. Should be doable.” The young scout had shrunk into his chair and seemed
to be hiding his face behind the monitor at this point. Roland noticed and growled, “Out with it, kid. What’s wrong?”

  “It’s just,” his voice faltered. “I don’t want to give you guys the wrong impression. I know I was a Red Hat and all that but truthfully?” He shrunk even more. “I have very little direct gun-fighting experience. I carried the thing just in case I got caught but...” Now a self-satisfied grin split his face, erasing his sheepish frown. “...I never got caught. Even working for you guys, I’ve rarely actually had to shoot at anybody.”

  “You did fine on Venus,” Lucia said.

  “Yeah, but you did most of the gun stuff there. I just sort of fired in the direction you were aiming and hoped for the best.”

  “That is literally ninety percent of combat shooting, kid,” Roland snorted. “Outside of very specialized units, it’s a lot of one guy actually aiming and the rest blasting down range to help.” Roland considered Manny’s apprehension for a moment, then dismissed it. “Everybody has a first time. With any luck, you won’t end up in a firefight. But if you do, my advice is to shoot the bad guys before they shoot you.”

  “God, you suck at this.” Lucia’s exasperation was obvious. “Manny, you are our scout, and your role is not to get into gunfights. That will not change just because we are about to traipse off to a lawless hellscape filled with people who want to kill us.”

  “I suck at this?” Roland interjected. Lucia ignored him.

  “Nothing changes. Roland stands out in front to tank the hits, Mindy carves her way through the flanks, and I’ll cover the rear. All you have to do is find the people and things we need found. We are going to cover you in armor and get you your shotgun so you can defend yourself, but no one expects you to fight like Roland or Mindy or me.”

  Mindy chuckled. “Can’t have that baby face of yours messed up now, can we? We’d hate to disappoint all those ladies none of us have ever seen or heard about.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The life of a pirate turned out to be a far less interesting thing than Jean expected. If the stories and holos were to be believed, he should have been hip deep in treasure and women while guzzling exotic rum from a jug. Instead, he was mostly hip deep in garbage and sharing a berth with a man whose relationship with personal hygiene had fizzled years ago. He also learned that it took a lot of manual labor to keep a Galop knorr in fighting shape, and Jean had never been a fan of working with his hands. The ten-day cruise he had signed up for became an interminable nightmare of bad food, bad smells, and the company of very bad people. It was not without new and exciting experiences, at least. He tried his first belt of authentic Galop vino on only his second day, having traded his evening food ration for a half-flask of the homemade liquor. His crewmates assured him that quality vino was an acquired taste, and for the sake of fitting in the erstwhile drug pusher made a brave show of acquiring it.