by Clay Moore
He went down to the first door where there were a stylish Barber and Hairdresser. Harminio changed the color of his hair to chestnut brown. The hairdresser did a first class job, as did the manicurist.
He returned to his apartment a new man. Tomorrow he would finish the tasks and make his acquaintance with Julie Brio.
ALERT
Carla Sylvester does not move with the ton of beef that call themselves her bodyguard. They are really only for those times that she is recognized as the Director of the Secret Service. She hoped that the Bodyguard unit was scary enough. She already has seen how effective they were making a mock attempt on her life. She had been bodily picked up and moved out of the line of fire leaving three Guards including the newest member, a woman, to delay the attackers. The man who had picked her up was the most junior member. The former mercenary was chosen by the other members of the unit to be in command. She sustained the promotion because there was no dissent. When she traveled out of context, security was satisfied with the One person team.
Today she was wearing a mid-thigh skirt. Carla was known for wearing pants and shirts and feminized suits. Wearing a dress made her seem like one of the hundreds of women who worked in the Eridani Secret Service. If the women knew that the Director of the Secret Service was walking in with them, they would lose it. She passed the Bench that she had noticed the old man was sitting. He was there for the past three days. Now he was not there. Instead of bypassing the guard table she pulled out her badge.
The guards all saluted her. She then asked them if the old man had come today. They said no. She took out her personal com and dialed her Assistant.
“Millicent, Call the police, specifically Brian’s old flame. Ask her to come over, please.” She cut the connection. She walked into her office and started to disrobe as she was escorted into her office. Not one member of the guard said anything, eyeballed her, or moved their head. She asked the new chief how he did it. Scott replied that he asked some Marines to come over and strut their stuff in front of the men and women.
She put on her version of the black suit. Her uniform always included a pistol. Her Com unit on the desk rang with the ring code for the Personal Assistant. Millicent was just informing her that Felicity Danforth was here. Carla had her shown into the office.
Felicity had never been in the nerve center of the Eridani Secret Service before. She even touched the wood paneling.
“My Office is not like this.”
“I suspect the chief of Police has an office like this.”
“Paneling, yes, but not real wood.”
“Just a minute Captain Danforth.” Carla picked up her desk com again. “Millicent, could you have the sub-director come over. Have him walk right in.”
“Wow, I just noticed the two bulls in the corners of the room.”
“They are always there when I am here. I have no doubt that they shadow me. They are pretty good at not being noticed by me. Ahhhhh, Chief of Staff John Petrole. This is Captain Felicity Danforth she commands Special Investigations for the Police.”
“Brian’s former Felicity.”
“Yeah, that’s me. I goofed up when I got promoted. Now Brian has taken up with that harlequin who calls herself Kandi Kane.” Felicity expectorated when she said each of the Ks.
“Now to the reason that I called you here?”
“Yes, sorry Director.”
“Out front of our main entrance area is a single bench. It’s a good place to rest. I’ve noticed an old man, probably newly retired. Carefully mended clothes. He keeps them as clean as he can.”
“Are you saying that you get that much information about him by just looking at him.”
“Normally no. I may be able to get 2 items, but not his entire life. I would say that man was a carefully crafted fiction. If that is true, that old man if an old man he was, is an Intelligence Agent.”
“Could he be one of ours, an agent in training who is hoping to be invisible and trying it out on his own people,” asked John.
“Let’s find out.” Carla picked up her desk com. She dialed a number which was her direct line to the Chief Agent instructor.
“Lenny, any exercises for costumes and makeup been done outside the building? None. Okay. Do you have anyone who knows this so well that he can educate the police in our techniques? Franlin Sincy. Have her ready to consult with the police over the next few days. Thank you.”
“Why does this bother you Carla?”
“We are lucky. No other agency has run an op against us yet. This may be our first, and luckily I picked up on it. Let’s let the police develop what they can. Make everybody available to Felicity’s team.”
Felicity stepped to behind Carla’s desk. “Can you punch up that area on your surveillance. “
“It wasn’t considered a hot zone.”
“Then can you send any surveillance camera’s that might have seen him on the plaza. You know—also include the front desk. He might want to know how far you take this Pendit Corporation masquerade. If I can borrow your com?”
Carla handed Felicity the desk com.
“Number to call?”
Felicity gave her the number. Felicity put the com to her ear. “Statement, this is Felicity. I need a complete sweep at the bench in front of the Pendit Building. You have permission to be destructive. This has to be low key. Make the distance a yard around the bench.”
“We will be low key.”
Felicity handed the com back to Carla.
“What is low key.”
“The team looks like construction workers. He cleans the whole area sucking up anything. We have some spectrographic analysis equipment. We can find a single Radamite molecule. We can find others.”
“John, Remind me to include the police on more.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Carla’s desk com buzzed. She picked it up. “Yes, Z02—” She paused to listen. “Ok, I am gonna need the office cleared.
CONFESSION OF THE SOUL
Brian sat at least a good thirty minutes. He was coming up on the six pm departure time for the casino. Brian did not know if he would get chewed out by Carla, but Brian had to report it. He went to the drawer and pulled out the Hypercom. He set it up on the small breakfast table. He turned it on. He waited for the ten seconds or so that were required for the device to find the relay station somewhere in the system. Once found the machine had to pair with the station and build the encryption keys that gave Hypercom the most secure transmission service in the galaxy. A green light on the base of the unit meant he could begin.
Brian keyed in the number to Carla’s direct Hypercom line. Instantly the Pendit Corporation’s “Please wait” sign was shown. Then it was removed. He could see that Carla ran back to her chair. He could also hear the sound of other people leaving.
“I hope I did not cause a meeting to break up.”
“Actually no. Your sudden desire to talk got us on the stick. What can I do for you?”
“I think I may have overstepped the bounds of my authority.”
Carla was worried. “You know that you have no boundaries to your authority when on a mission. However, you accomplish your mission is acceptable to us.”
“Even if I have to kill a 15-year-old woman?”
“What’s this?”
“Dag Dankly has a Giesling slave girl. He took her virginity by force last night.”
“You are going to kill him. That should help her with Vendella's recovery.”
“She feels sullied. I think this may involve something about Giesling.”
Carla felt at a loss for words. She felt that the Rape training should have been given to her Knights to help them sort out their own feeling as well as help the victim. She did think of her Z Special Agents as Knights even the women. She had taken took too long to respond to the previous statement.”
“What did the woman child want from you?”
She watched him bow his head. She hated the lack of resolution. She could not make out
what he was doing. Finally, he seemed to get a hold of himself.
“She asked me to kill her when I come to kill Dag Dankly. I told her I could not. Carla, I have no moral authority to kill her.”
This what why she liked Brian. He may have no limits by law, but he is inhibited by his own moral code.
“She did not accept that. I did not know that she was from a sect of Purists on Giesling. She feels sullied. The only way I found that I can accept it is to give her the ability to take her life without fail.”
“The poisons.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Have you thought of one?”
“I have a needle of Bonjaleez. That drug from Lovat. It kills by stopping respiration, but the first part of the drug is a dreamless sleep.”
“Painless death.”
“I also made sure that it is consumed in its entirety. I want to add one more pain to Alphacent who cannot even enforce their own laws concerning slavery.”
“What is your intention.”
“I was given an Alphacent pistol that belonged to a very high Person. I’m going to kill Dag and everyone in his new home with it. I will put the last bullet through her head. The gun I will drop at the scene.”
He was using the Alphacent Social Stratification against them. The News Flashes will play this up. A whole Upper house killed including a diminutive woman child. That was the Alphacent phrase. Everyone would demand “that something is done!” They will follow that weapon to the Upper who owned it. They might even arrest him in the board room, or council chamber whatever his power.
“Do you need me to okay what you want to do?”
“No, I just wanted you to know the reason for the barbarity I will be performing. It has gotten personal.”
“I understand just do not do anything to jeopardize the mission.”
“On that score, Dag Dankly does indeed own a smelter, and I found it. I also discovered that the major stockholder is Planetary Interests. I have not found where the smelted gold is transferred to. According to public filings, the gold just vanishes.”
“You still think you can still convince him to sell you the gold?”
“Yes, ma’am. If I play my cards right, I should be able to get Dag to owe me money. I will tell him to give me gold, and I’d like the rest of the gold. That kind of thing.”
“You rob him, and he will thank you for it. I did get a retake of a medium Freighter on Central Freight Lines. The Captain sounded excited.”
“A return trip with a full cargo hold. The Freighter Captain might make his quarterly quota.”
“And Then Some. I’ve informed the Bank they are sending a platoon of the 32nd battalion of Marines to The Central Terminal. I did not know that there was an entire Battalion of Marines tasked with protecting the gold.”
“It’s an honor to serve as a Goldsuit. Get to wear gold-colored Battlesuit. Do a full two years, and you were guaranteed promotion and your choice of assignment.”
“Did you?”
“No, we captured some ships which were sold. Mine was enough to buy the light freighter of mine. I bought the ship and stepped out of the suit. The rest you already know.”
“I understand your feelings. I applaud them. However, the mission cannot be ignored. Your plan is sound. Carry it out. Director out.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Texas Hold Up
SHARP DRESSED MAN
His talk with the director did make him feel better. The confession did a lot for him. He removed the Gift Tuxedo from Dona.
Perhaps Manolito Bosch could use it, or he could sell it. Brian slipped the old tuxedo into the laundry bag. He set that bag on the Table next to the door.
Brian took off his golf clothing. He looked at his shave kit. In the kit was a can of Eliminator, which eliminated biological evidence. It worked like an old fashioned Bug bomb, except this Eliminator did not kill bugs it destroyed chemical based physical evidence. After its use, there would be no trace of any kind of DNA. It even broke down the oils that made fingerprints. This was his goodbye kiss to Alphacent.
Brian put on his underwear. He then put on a fresh dress shirt. Brian put on the pants. Then he took out a leather jewelry kit. Brian Butler put on the button covers and the cufflinks. Brian bent the cuffs back and stuck a cufflink in it. He took a quick glance at himself in the mirror. Brian Butler, a dapper man of action, was coming together. He put on his stockings and slipped his feet into a highly polished black shoes. He tied a black bowtie. Yes, he could tie a bowtie
Once more He looked into the mirror. The man looking out at him he knew was a True lady killer when circumstances demanded it. He took another laundry bag. He tossed the hundred thousand Marks, plus his winnings from this morning which totaled one hundred seventeen thousand Marks. The game had a one hundred thousand marks buy-in which meant you had to put the one hundred thousand Marks on the table and take the casino poker chips. You could play a couple of hands and then cash out. Brian had to keep everyone in the game until the blinds were substantially higher.
For his plan to work Brian had to take everything that Dag had, or close to that. Then Brian had to make the offer. It all depended on how grasping Dag was. Brian read a little on the Gieslings.
Life was tough on Giesling. The star was a main sequence yellow star. Giesling, itself, was not normal. Giesling’s Axial tilt was much larger than Eridani. Summer in the northern hemisphere was a mean temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Winter was a mean temperature of 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the Southern Hemisphere. There was a band near the equator where it remained 80 degrees plus or minus 4 degrees depending on which hemisphere had to summer. This band was where most of the population.lived.
About a hundred years ago Giesling discovered metals used in a technological society. Rich men came and built the first mines and smelters. All these robber barons did was pay low pay to the natives. When there was a rumbling about inequity, these wealthy men spiked their equipment and took their money elsewhere.
The Miners guild members pooled their money and were able to get a couple of mines up, and just one smelter. The Miner’s guild paid a decent wage. That attracted a lot of immigration to the world.
Growing food on a planet with such variable weather was a problem. Any attempt at hydroponics was doomed due to the lack of sunlight in the hemispheres far from the equatorial belt.
All of that ingrains itself on the Gieslings personality. They are a grasping people. A Giesling person thought it was his bounden duty to take as much money that he could. Most Gieslings that live for any length of time away from Giesling are fat, some are morbidly obese. Since they did not produce their own food, it was expensive. At least when Foodbase was developed by the Eridani High Guard, the price of food was coming down. Most of Giesling's food was foodbase made from food on Corrigon and shipped by the barrel. A cottage industry broke out in how to prepare foodbase with flavors, textures, and aromas. That cottage industry now gives Jobs to nearly 30 percent of the population.
From the few times that he was around Dag, Brian figured that Dag was a typical Giesling man. Out here life was easy to live. He could have anything he wanted. On Alphacent he could even keep a slave from Giesling where it was legal.
Brian stopped his thoughts from going down that road. It would only bring up feelings that he cannot support at a time when he wanted his mind at its sharpest.
He picked up the laundry bag with the cash. Brian walked out of his room. He saw a black, highly polished grav-car limo standing under the portico roof. Brian got into the limo. Manolito wondered at the two bags. He knew what one was. The other was something he had never seen before.
When Manolito entered the limo, Brian dropped the divider. He held out the laundry bag. Manolito took it and looked inside. What he saw was a high-quality tuxedo in perfect condition.
“I think you might need a leg up. Look like an upper…”
“Be an upper. Thanks, man.”
“I want to warn you. After tonigh
t it gets dangerous. You still want to carry me around?”
“You are not going to be coming back dripping in blood are you?”
Brian laughed. “No, there are going to be some unpleasant things.”
“Like—?”
“I will have to assist in a suicide.”
“That little girl what is that fat slug’s slave?”
“He raped her last night.”
“You gonna get him?”
“I will shoot him and drag him on the Grav-car porch. I’m gonna wait until I do the deed to decide what to do. I need to send a message to this one’s boss.”
“So tomorrow I drive you around while you mop things up?”
“Yes.”
“Then I want to see the end of this. If you don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind. Let’s get to the Casino.”
“Anything you say, boss.”
Manolito got the limo going. Brian liked Manolito’s care he took over his equipment. That was something drilled into his head by First Sergeant Sarah Wavely. The second thing she drilled into his head was women climax first. He smiled at that memory. She asked him if he would care to spend his pass with her. She was tough as nails. When she put on a dress and makeup, she was as soft as a woman could be. He respected the First Sergeant and loved the woman.
Manolito brought the Limo up to the front entrance of The Modus Club Casino. There was a doorman who opened the door of the limo. Brian got out and looked around
His sudden stand-up and pause to survey were intended for him to be seen. He saw a lot of eyes staring at him. The tuxedo cut and styles were foreign, but the material was high end. Whoever he was, he was an upper from another world.