Children No More-ARC

by Mark L. Van Name

  The other three floors were far sadder, largely empty spaces with here and there a chair, a coat rack, scraps of electronics, and bits of fabric the only signs that anyone had ever worked there. I swept the entire space slowly and carefully, checking everything in both IR and visible light. Lobo ran a detailed scan with data from sensors in my shirt.

  The building was, as he'd promised, entirely empty.

  "Satisfied?" he said.

  "Yes. Contact them and tell them to meet me in two hours." As good as being early to a meeting is, arriving at the meeting location before anyone else knows about it is even better. "Get them to give you a comm for contact along the way. Give them the address of the bar three buildings over, The Wooden Dream."

  "In progress," Lobo said. "And if any additional people show up?"

  "I don't believe that will happen," I said. "Do you think anyone's going to be able to crack the encryption you're using?"

  "No," he said, "unless they have Maggie in custody, in which case they only have to crack her, not the transmissions."

  "I doubt either is happening," I said, "but to answer your question, if someone else does appear, I'll deal with the situation then. If it's a large group, I'll head back to you. If it's only a person or two, I'll try to snatch one for interrogation."

  "Finally," Lobo said, "a task on which I could get personally involved. Let's hope for someone with information we need."

  "Let's not," I said. "Let's hope for Maggie and Jack on their own. Time is short. Out."

  I left the building and walked down to The Wooden Dream. I made a quick pass through the place, bought a take-out glass of a tasty golden fruit juice, left a big enough tip to wipe the disgust off the bartender's face, and headed outside again. I scanned the other side of the street until I found a good spot in an alley midway between the bar and my building, a stretch of paved nothingness a couple dozen meters long that had a decent view of both locations, and slipped into it. The glow of the merchant lights penetrated only a few meters into the alley, so I could remain in darkness and still watch the front of the bar.

  If Maggie and Jack arrived alone and on time, I had a boring couple of hours ahead of me.

  If anyone came to secure the area, my time would be far more exciting.

  I sipped the juice slowly, making it last. I systematically and carefully scanned the bar and the surrounding buildings from top to bottom, checked both directions of the alleyway in which I stood, and hoped for continued boredom.

  Five minutes before they were due, Maggie and Jack strolled down the street to The Wooden Dream. When they reached its front walkway, Maggie turned to go inside, but Jack put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head. They looked like just another couple out for an evening drink. Maggie, her long red hair in a single thick braid hanging down her back, wore a fashionably tight one-piece suit whose fabric shimmered in different colors as light washed over it. Jack had clearly planned for the possibility of more action, because he was in matching pants and shirt that almost matched his night-black skin. The bar's signs and windows painted them in yellows and reds and blues that turned almost white as three couples burst out of the front door and the light from inside flooded the night.

  Those six had been in the bar when I'd taken up my watch, but I still focused on them and looked for signs they might be either with Jack and Maggie or monitoring them.

  They weren't: Without saying a word, the six of them veered away quickly.

  Jack faced away from the bar, scanned the area for a moment, and spoke, his voice loud enough to carry all the way to me. "We won't need to go inside. He's not there. He's watching us, to be sure we're alone." He held out his arms and smiled. "We are, Jon. It's just the two of us."

  I smiled despite myself. Jack and I had worked together too much for me to be able to fool him on something this simple. "Send them to the meeting house," I said to Lobo. "Tell them to go in the front and stay in the first room until I arrive."

  "Done," Lobo said a few seconds later.

  Jack took Maggie's elbow and guided her toward our building. As they walked, Jack said, "He won't be there, either, not yet, but we'll see him soon enough."

  Maggie's reply was quieter, but I could just make out her words. "Must you two make everything so difficult?"

  Jack laughed. His gentle humor reminded me of why he was such a superb con man: You couldn't help but trust and like him. Each person he met wanted to know him and, unless Jack was in a hurry, came away from even a brief encounter convinced that he truly was Jack's new friend.

  "This is entirely Jon's show," Jack said, "so don't lump me with him. His choices, however, are simply prudent. You've seen firsthand how badly some seemingly innocent meetings can go, so let's play along with Jon's obsessive security measures—measures that are," Jack raised his voice, "completely unnecessary in this case, because we are alone." He stopped Maggie, surveyed the area once, smiled, shook his head, and continued walking. "Have it your way, Jon," he said more quietly. "We'll be seeing you."

  Lobo monitored the data from my sensors while I spent ten minutes circling from my post in the alley to the rear of the house. I spotted nothing unusual.

  "Either you're clear," Lobo said, "or the people following Maggie and Jack are so good that I also can't spot any sign of them. That's possible, of course, but it's unlikely. The two of them are sitting in the front room, waiting for you as I told them to do. Jack is still and calm. Maggie is pacing and annoyed. In other words, both are behaving consistently with their past patterns. I thus have to conclude that Maggie contacted Jack, that they both came of their own free wills, and that all is well."

  "I agree," I said, "but he's called Slanted Jack for a reason, so I never want to assume that anything he does is straight."

  "This time, though, Maggie is involved," he said, "so you might be able to trust her."

  "Her group's agenda will always trump our relationship, so trusting her completely is not an option. I wouldn't even have asked for her help if I'd seen another way out of this."

  "But you didn't, so stop stalling, go inside the house, and ask them."

  I hate that Lobo is right so often, but I was stalling. Involving Maggie was bad enough, but having to rely on Jack was downright dangerous. Still, if all went well, I could make this profitable for him, and nothing garnered Jack's loyalty like money.

  "I'm on it," I said. I dropped short-term, degradable sensor dust as I walked; if anyone came this way, we'd know. "Yell if you spot anything."

  "As if I wouldn't," Lobo said, "though if you're wrong and someone did follow them, I could save you the interruption—and both of us a great deal of hassle—by blowing them apart before they reached the house."

  "No, thank you, but no," I said. "In addition to being completely unnecessary killing, it would draw attention to us and thus make the mission harder."

  "Fine," Lobo said. "I was just offering to help."

  "Now you're stalling me," I said, "so let me get inside and talk to them."

  "Out," Lobo said. The annoyance was still clear in his voice, but I ignored it.

  I slipped in the back door as quietly as I could, but from the front Jack's words were clear.

  "About time, Jon," he said.

  I walked to the front room.

  Maggie glared at me from the corner to the right of the door.

  Jack sat on a chair one meter away from the front wall. He smiled slightly as I entered the room but otherwise did not move. He'd always possessed an uncanny ability to be completely calm and still, a very useful gift for a con man working long-term angles. "I wanted you to have a clear view of me," he said. He tilted his head slightly toward the microcam. "That's where I'd have put it," he said, "and we're not so very different."

  "Yes, we are," I said. Jack also had a talent for quickly finding the best ways to tweak anyone.

  "And yet you sent your pet messenger to summon me," he said, "so clearly you need me."

  "Pet messenger?" Maggie said. For
a moment, she looked like she couldn't decide which of us to hit first. She shook her head, smiled, and walked toward Jack.

  "I'd rather you didn't," he said.

  She ignored him and put her hand on his shoulder. A few seconds later, she said, "He's trying to split us in the hope that doing so will increase his profit."

  "You don't have to be a mind-reader to know that," I said. "You just have to listen, or know Jack, or both." Maggie's smile vanished, so I added, "But, thank you for confirming it."

  Jack stared at Maggie. Though his smile never changed, his eyes hardened. "I hate when you do that. It's an invasion, a rape."

  She looked at him for a few seconds before responding. "You're right. It is, and I'm sorry for reading you. Though you may not believe it, I hate hearing what others are thinking. I did it, though, not because you provoked me, but because I trust that Jon wouldn't have asked me to bring you if it weren't important, and I had to know what you were planning."

  "Maggie," I said. I needed her to back off and let me run this, because the more we annoyed Jack, the more we'd have to squeeze him to make him help us—and the more we did that, the less we could trust him.

  Before I could say anything else, Jack broke the tension for me.

  "You could simply ask me," he said, "and we could have an open and honest dialog."

  Maggie looked at me.

  I glanced at Jack and back at her.

  She and I both started laughing.

  Jack joined us a moment later. For a short time, none of us could stop laughing.

  "Okay, okay," Jack said, gasping for air, "I guess that was a bit of a stretch." He calmed himself and said, "So what do you want?"

  "Your help, obviously," I said, "at the kind of work you do best."

  "You're running another con?" Jack said. "Why didn't you say so? I'd have come along without complaint."

  "No, you wouldn't," I said, "and it's not a normal con. For one thing, there's no money in it."

  Jack's smile vanished. "So we're back to doing good for good's sake, is that it, Jon?"

  I shrugged.

  "Sorry, old friend, but you know that's not what I do. If you need to sting some bad guy, sign me up—but make sure a big payday is waiting."

  "I didn't say there was no payday. I said there was no money in the con."

  Jack leaned ever so slightly forward. "So how do we get paid?"

  "We don't," I said. "You do." I faced Maggie. "You said your people had a great deal of money, and you'd do anything you could to help me and the boys if it came to that. It has. How much money do you have available, and how serious were you when you said that?"

  A sad expression washed over her face. I wished I could have briefed her first so she'd understand the way I had to play this for Jack, but there was no time, so once again I'd hurt her. "More money than you could need," she said, "and yes, I believe I can explain the situation to them. I wouldn't have offered otherwise."

  "My needs are many, vast, and expensive," Jack said, "so please never assume you have too much money."

  Maggie's sadness turned to anger as she faced him. "Surely even you, a man who would sell a child, must have limits on your greed."

  Jack's expression didn't change; Maggie didn't understand how important self-control was to a con man. "As I explained to you then," he said, "I never planned to sell or endanger the boy in any way. As for limits," he shrugged, "perhaps, but I've yet to encounter them."

  Maggie shot him a dirty look. She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, I stepped between them. I put my hand on her shoulder. "Maggie, I'm sorry for sounding like I doubted you. I did not. I know, though, that you're representing a larger organization, so I didn't want to take anything for granted. I appreciate your offer, and I feel bad for having to take you up on it." I stared into her eyes and hoped she could tell how much I needed her to follow my lead. "Are we good to go?"

  She smiled slightly and nodded. "Of course." The smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "There is one new development, though."

  "What's that?" I said.

  "My people have given me complete freedom to provide you with whatever you need, but you have to agree to one condition."

  When she didn't continue, I said, "Which is?"

  "You will owe them a job."

  Jack leaned back and smiled. He knew how much I hated owing anything to anyone, and he was enjoying watching me suffer.

  "What kind of job, and when?"

  "I have no idea," she said, "though I do know they don't have anything currently in mind, so it probably won't be soon. Based on past experience, I'd expect it could even be years from now. I'm supposed to reassure you by telling you that they won't ask you to do anything that I don't first approve."

  "That's my only option?"

  "Yes," she said. If you want their help, you have to trust that they won't ask you to do anything I don't vet." Her expression softened. "I'm sorry, Jon. If I'd known about this, I would have warned you."

  "So one day they'll find me and cash in this favor?" I said.

  She nodded. "That's it."

  "We could try to do this on our own," Lobo said privately over the comm. "If you make this deal, you know you're obligating both of us."

  He was right, and I knew it, but I wasn't going to let down those boys. "Okay," I said. "Deal."

  "Fine," Lobo said, "don't ask me. For what it's worth, I would have agreed."

  I ignored him and focused on Maggie.

  She nodded and said, "Again, I am sorry."

  Anything the Children of Pinkelponker might ask of me would be a problem for another day. I had to focus on the challenge in front of me. I faced Jack. "I need you to run a gig for me. I have the outline, but you have to make it happen. Maggie will provide the resources you need, and when it succeeds—and only when it succeeds—she'll pay you a fee we'll negotiate."

  "Perhaps she and I—" Jack said.

  I cut him off. "No. You and I both know how much different games bring, so we'll settle the amount."

  "And your cut?" he said.

  "Nothing. I'm not going to make any money on this one."

  "That's not like you," he said. "Even with the boy, you turned a profit—a healthy one, as I recall."

  "Yes, I did, but not this time."

  "Why not?"

  I pulled over two of the dusty chairs and motioned to Maggie to take one. I sat in the other.

  "Let me fill you in on what's happening," I said.

  "That man Wylak is disgusting!" Maggie said. "He can't believe he'll get away with putting those boys back into combat."

  "Of course he can," Jack said, "and he almost certainly will. People have an amazing capacity to ignore unpleasant facts. He needs more soldiers, and he's short on volunteers. As long as no one rubs their faces in what's happening, his constituency will happily ignore any little rumors they might hear."

  Maggie shook her head. "Your view of people is so cynical." She faced me. "Jon, I'm sure if you inform the Tumani newstainment groups, they'll—"

  "Do what?" Jack said. He looked at me and shrugged. "Are they going to believe their own Senator Wylak, whom they've almost certainly covered for years, or us?"

  "I can't believe they wouldn't want to cover the story," Maggie said.

  "It doesn't matter whether Jack is right or wrong," I said. "What we know for certain is that even if we found sympathizers in the Tumani media, Wylak would get us deported before their coverage could do any good. He'd then be in charge of the boys." I took a deep breath. "I wish there was another answer, but I can't see one. If I don't deal with this situation, there's every chance that those boys will be fighting in the jungle before anyone even knows it's happening."

  Jack smiled. "So it's a perfect highlight reel—" he paused "—except it's not, because he has too much control."

  "Would one of you—" Maggie said.

  I nodded and interrupted her. "He does indeed. Nothing on this world is safe for us." I waited a few
seconds.

  Jack got it. He stood and for the first time showed signs of excitement. "How long do we have?"

  "That's the problem," I said. "I don't know, but no more than a month, maybe less." I thought about how Wylak could take advantage of Nagy's death, as I'd warned Lim he would. "Probably less."

  "I'm glad you two are having so much fun," Maggie said, "but—"

  Jack cut her off. "You're going to have to help me," he said to her, "because on this timetable I can't do everything alone. And, of course, you're going to have to pay me. A lot."

  "Is money all you think about?" Maggie said.

  "No," Jack said. "It should be clear that I'm already considering a great deal more, including how to make this plan work. But, you said you had money, and Jon expected you to pay me, so I see no reason you shouldn't do so."

  "Yes," Maggie said, "I can pay you."

  "And can you cover a great many rather steep expenses?" Jack said. Facing me, he added, "You know that rushing this will be tough."

  "Yes," I said, "but not as tough as the timing. That's going to be even trickier."

  "I'll do all I can to be ready," Jack said, "but I'll need at least some notice. You know that an instant turn isn't possible."

  "I do," I said. I realized I was smiling. Despite everything, working with Jack was always a rush—at least in the early going, before anything could go seriously wrong. "I have some ideas."

  "That's it!" Maggie said.

  Her shout startled us.

  We both turned to her.

  "If I'm going to fund this," she said, "I am damn well going to understand what's going on."

  "I'm sorry," I said. "Of course. We were just caught up in the planning."

  "It is fun, isn't it, Jon?" Jack said. "You know you miss it. Come on, admit it."

  "No," Maggie said, "don't. Before you two do anything else, explain to me just what you're talking about and exactly what it is that you want to do."

  Jack and I sat.

  After a few seconds, Maggie returned to her chair.

  We told her.