The Lowdown in High Town: An R.R. Johnson Novel

by DK Williamson

  I shoved a pair of shotgun shells into my scattergun and left the three would-be assassins dead or dying in the dark of the alley, then went to see if Leahy was still located where he was when we talked before.

  He was, waiting patiently for his attack dogs to drag my carcass to him.

  I leaned around the wall and put my shotgun sights on him. “Stand still.” I yelled.

  Leahy was startled, but he didn’t try anything. He held his hands in front of him and said, “You don’t do anything according to plan do you? So you evaded my guys? Pretty neat trick Johnson. They’ll be here soon though.”

  The sound of the shotgun blasts must not have reached his ears. “No they won’t, Leahy. Mr. William Leahy,” I said, using his real name. A look of concern and befuddlement flashed on his face, but then he quickly regained his composure. “They weren’t as good as they thought they were, or as good as you assumed they were,” I said. “I killed more guys in one afternoon during the war than any one of those kids had years on this planet.” That might not have been true. I had no idea how old any of them were. I just thought it was a fucked-up thing to say to Leahy. I wanted him off kilter.

  “So what now, Johnson?” he said. He was trying to sound calm, but there was fear in his voice.

  “I’m leaving. You best do the same. BluCorp and Arc Tau will be fully aware of your betrayal by now. Haphazard and company will have seen to that. Before I go, I need to decide whether or not to put a couple of loads of buckshot in your ass for that little dance you had Rex do on my face.”

  My words left Leahy shaken. I guess he didn’t have a plan B, so he made one up on the spot. He ran. A classic. He was seventy-five or eighty meters out. A little far for buckshot. I wished I had grabbed an assault rifle from one of his thugs.

  My first shot landed at least one pellet in his left leg, he grabbed the thigh and went down. He was up again in no time and I fired once more. He cried out as he grabbed his right arm and bent over in pain then disappeared from sight limping around the side of the building.

  I wasn’t going to chase him down. I was still on hostile ground and I was a long way from home, plus I had some wirehead hacker punks to help before I could get there.

  I went out the same way Leahy fled, topping off my shotgun as I walked. His blood trail showed he went to the right after he went through the gate, but that was the only sign of him.

  I folded the stock on my shotgun and slung it. There was no law that said you couldn’t carry a weapon at the ready, but it was generally considered bad manners to do so. I made my way toward the rendezvous point. A block or two from the utility sector I passed through a residential area, then into the shopping zone where I would meet the hackers. They were about one hundred meters from the cabstand. There was part of me that was surprised they didn’t bail on me.

  “Leahy and his boys got out of our trap,” I said.

  “Shit,” Worm replied. “Is he still after us too?”

  “No, I took care of it.”

  “What did you do?” Lolly asked.

  “I set another trap.”

  “Did it work?” Hap asked.

  “You might say that. Leahy is more worried about finding a doctor right now than looking for us.”

  “So you fucked him up for real,” Lob said with a smile.

  “Something like that.”

  “What about his three cavalrymen?” Lolly asked.

  “They won’t be riding to anyone’s rescue for awhile.”

  “That’s the good news,” Hap said. “You want to hear the bad?”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “BluCorp has a security alert on each of us. They have people covering all of the routes out of here. They somehow know we were in the compound.”

  “Leahy,” I said. “Part of his setup. They’ll be looking for us. Did BluCorp alert the cops?”

  “No. Just their security teams.”

  I nodded. “They’re worried the cops will get wind of what they’ve been up to. Let’s go.”

  We walked slowly toward the cabstand until we were close enough to see the open area where vehicles could drop off and pick up people. To the right of the twenty-meter square was the cabstand. On the opposite side of the open area were four BluCorp security goons in suits. A skycar was parked nearby.

  They didn’t have a sign that said BLUCORP SECURITY, but it was obvious who they were and what they were doing.

  I herded the kids to our right behind some small trees and bushes. “We need to find a way past those bastards.”

  “You got a plan, right?” Lob said.

  I nodded.

  “RR, you know you’re pretty wiz for a straight,” Hap said. “We would’ve been pizzled for sure if you hadn’t bailed us. For an old guy with nothing but grey matter between your ears, you are aces, man. Aces. We owe you.”

  Great. Teenage wirehead hackers owed me. I didn’t know how they planned to pay me back, but sometimes it pays to have friends in weird places.

  I pulled two buckshot shells out of my pocket and began opening the ends of them with my knife.

  “What are you doing, RR?” Lolly asked.

  “I’m creating a way for you guys to be able to get clear of BluCorp’s security teams. If it works that is.”

  “I don’t get it,” Hap said.

  I emptied the buckshot pellets from the shells into my hand and crimped the shells closed with my thumb.

  “We are going to split up and BluCorp’s security men are going to chase me. When we are gone, you four make your way to High Town, to the Red Light. I’ll take the data sticks with me. If they nab me they might think this is all the data we stole and give you time to get clear of them. If they don’t get me I’ll leave these sticks at a place called Pete’s Café Texian. That will allow us to get all of the data you pulled to the media. When you get there ask for Pete and tell him Doghouse MacArthur sent you and he’ll give them to you.”

  “Who is Doghouse MacArthur?”

  “An old and fictional army buddy.”

  “I still don’t get it,” Hap said. “How do we—”

  “I’ll break it down for you,” I said. “I walk out to the cab stand. You guys wait in the wings to the left until the BluCorp guys see me. As soon as they do, you four start cursing a blue streak about how I stole all the data from you. Say that you’ll kill me. I’ll shoot at you. Then—”

  “Wait a fucking second,” Lob said. “I trust you, but c’mon.”

  “I shoot at you with these.” I held up the empty shotgun shells. “There’s no pellets. All bang, no lead flying. You run when I shoot. I hope they will all come after me, but you might get chased. You don’t want them to catch you. Can you deal with that?”

  Hap smiled. “We can handle it.”

  “We’ve dodged cadres our whole lives. This ain’t no different,” Lob said.

  “Okay. They follow me and I lead them a merry chase. Hopefully I lose them and I’ll get to Pete’s and meet you there or leave the data if they are still on my tail. You make your way there when everything is clear, okay?”

  “How will you lose those guys?” Lolly asked.

  “Not anything you need to worry about.” The truth was I didn’t know yet.

  “Why are you doing this?” Hap asked.

  “Somebody has to. If not, we’re dead or worse.”

  “What’s worse than dead?” Worm asked.

  “Prison,” I said.

  “Okay, man. It just seems stupid you taking on all those guys,” Hap said.

  “Tell me about it,” I replied. “If I do it right I won’t be taking on anyone.”

  “If you say so,” Hap said.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  They all nodded.

  I loaded the two blank shells into my shotgun. “We’ll stay in touch by mobile phone. Let’s go.”

  We stood and began walking toward the cabstand.

  “Hey, RR,” Lolly said. “If we don’t see each other again, thanks.”
r />   “Sure thing, kiddo. Don’t let assholes lead you into trouble,” I said glancing at Hap.

  All four of them laughed.

  The hacker quartet fell behind me a short distance and moved to the left of the cabstand. As I watched them get into position a couple of alternate plans popped into my head, but they both required the BluCorp guys to be asleep at the wheel and us getting into skycabs without their notice. If that turned out to look possible I would kick myself.

  Once the hackers were ready, I walked out into the open area in front of the cabs and found my alternates never would have worked. Two of the BluCorp operatives locked eyes with me right off the bat and I knew they would recognize me quickly.

  As their eyes narrowed indicating their brains had figured out who I was, Hap began yelling about how I took all the data from them, followed immediately by the other three hackers hurling insults, cursing me to hell and worse. The BluCorp men were startled and looked back and forth between the hackers and I.

  “I’ll fucking kill you!” Hap yelled.

  I brought my shotgun up and fired, the report a little less loud than if I’d been pushing pellets down the barrel, but nobody seemed to notice the difference, certainly not the crowd.

  The hackers ducked and scattered while the BluCorp men dove for cover behind a large plascrete planter. The crowd panicked and fled in all directions while I ran for the nearest cab.

  I lost sight of the hackers and could hear the BluCorp assholes yelling, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  One of the BluCorp operatives stood and ran to my left. I thought he was chasing the hackers. I fired my second empty shell at the BluCorp team. I saw the empty wad that normally cradled the shot down the barrel bounce off the planter and fall to the ground. The pursuer fell clumsily and scrambled for cover. I hoped it might buy the kids some time.

  I climbed into the cab and said, “Let’s roll.”

  The cabby didn’t look pleased that I’d chosen his cab to make my escape, but he pulled the cab out of the stand and into the skyway. I looked out the back window and saw three BluCorp operatives piling into the skycar parked to the side of the cabstand. I knew they’d be following.

  “Where to, buddy?” the cabby asked as I reloaded my shotgun. He didn’t sound angry or scared. Considering I’d just capped off a couple of shots a few seconds before, I didn’t know what to make of that.

  “Swing toward High Town, but I may need to go somewhere else,” I said.

  “I get paid for the time and distance, man. As long as you pay, I’ll get you wherever you need to go.”

  “I always pay,” I said.

  As long as we were in the skyway, I wasn’t worried about getting caught. Exceeding the speed limit and reckless flying in the skyway were frowned on by the authorities, and for good reason. Tens of thousands of flying cars going wherever they want, as fast as they want, in any manner they want, is a sure-fire way to have skycars end up in places that they really should not be, like in the side of buildings. The police were strict as hell about it, and I doubted BluCorp would want the police attention. Until I stepped out of the cab, we were effectively stalemated.

  I asked the cabby to take me to the police station in High Town. He raised his eyebrows at that, but didn’t say a word.

  Once we were over High Town, I told the cabby to take it slow. I wanted to see how many vehicles were tailing me. A look out the back window made me regret my decision. Three skycars were following.

  “You got troubles, fella?” the cabby asked.

  “You might say that,” I said.

  “You going to the cops?”

  I laughed. “Not in High Town.”

  He chuckled. “I guess you know the deal. Where to then?”

  “I need to shake these guys,” I said gesturing at the skycars behind us. “You know any cabstands where we could jam them up?”

  He glanced at me in the rear view mirror with a grin. “I know a place. I could buy you a minute or so. Green Plaza.”

  The hack lifted the cab and we headed toward Old Houston, the three cars behind us tagging right along.

  “A minute? I’ll take it. How will you manage that?”

  “You ever been there?”

  “No. Green Plaza is the weird skyscraper with the rounded corner?”

  “That’s the one. Sixtieth floor, upper passenger deck requires the skycars to come in and leave nose to tail, one after another. You can’t set down. You set the left side of the car over the lip and let passengers out. If some asshole sits in the first slot without moving forward, the skycars behind just gotta hover till the asshole gets out of their way. I can be a real asshole sometimes.”

  “You pull it off and you’ll be a well-tipped asshole.” I leaned forward looking at the dashboard trying to read his information placard in the dark.

  “Name’s Klaxon. Woody Klaxon,” the guy said. “You know, my wife said my horoscope predicted tonight would be a night of strange convergences. I don’t believe in that crap usually, but every so often they get it right. Like a broken clock being right twice a day. Maybe tonight is a night of convergences.”

  “I hope it doesn’t mean I’ll converge with those bastards that are chasing me.”

  “I think it means you’ll encounter those you need to encounter.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t believe in that crap.”

  “I don’t,” he said with a smile. “I’m just telling you what I think it means.”

  The passenger deck was just as Klaxon described it. Two skycars could sit nose to tail at the edge and no more. He stopped the cab just shy of halfway along the unloading area and popped the door. The three BluCorp skycars were sitting right on the cab’s tail.

  I threw 250 creds in scrip onto the front seat as I slid out.

  “The fare’s only fifty-seven fifty, man,” Klaxon yelled.

  “I can read, Woody,” I said as I stepped onto the passenger deck. “I said you’d be well tipped.”

  “Convergences!” he yelled.

  I slammed shut the door and glanced quickly at the skycars full of killers waiting for their turn just before I ran inside.

  Inside the building and directly ahead was a bank of two elevators. On each side wall were entrances to stairwells. A ‘call-a-cab’ button was on one of the walls. One of the elevators was open, ready for business. I punched the key for the first floor and stepped out of the elevator. Woody was still sitting at the passenger deck.

  I ran into the stairwell on the right and found the stairs went both upward and downward from the landing. There was a door just inside. I tried the knob and found it locked tight. I dashed to the other stairwell, a mirror of its counterpart, but the door was open over there. It was an empty storage room, janitorial supplies used to be in there if the smell of it meant anything.

  I went in the room and closed the door. The lock on the knob could only be set with a key, which was not there. I was willing to risk it. I snapped the stock of my shotgun into the open position and leaned it against the wall beside the door. I grasped the doorknob firmly and pressed my shoulder and ear to the door. I waited and listened.

  After what seemed like forever, I heard footsteps, then voices. Woody must have bought me at least ninety seconds. Who says you can’t get good service.

  “Listen up,” shouted a man I took to be the boss. “We’ll have to split up. You two, that staircase, one up, one down. You two, the same thing on that staircase. The rest of us, except you will use the elevators and see if we can find our man.”

  “What do I do?” asked a different voice.

  “You’re staying here,” said the boss. “Johnson may try and double back here and get that asshole cabby to spring him. That isn’t going to happen. Got me? Let’s move.”

  I heard a scramble of footsteps. A pair of them coming my way. A hand grasped the doorknob and twisted.

  “It’s locked,” a man said from the other side of the door.

  “Fine,” said
another voice. “You go up, I’ll go down.”

  I heard the two men’s footsteps fade away.

  I waited a couple of minutes then I cracked the door and peeked out. There was no one nearby, so I stepped out with my shotgun at the ready. I looked around the edge of the door that led out of the stairwell and saw the guard they had left to watch the elevators slowly walking toward the passenger deck as if he was bored already.

  I ran at him, raising my shotgun as I closed the distance. I was three steps away before he realized what was happening, but it was too late for him to do anything about it. I arced the buttstock into his head and he fell into the wall and slid to the floor in a heap.

  I was worried the sound might have gone out over his headset alerting the rest of the BluCorp team. I pulled the unconscious man’s headset off and found it wired to a push-to-talk button on his waist. I hit the call-a-cab button with my elbow as I put the headset on, then folded my shotgun stock closed and threw the sling over my shoulder. I grabbed the unconscious BluCorp guard by the ankles and dragged him into the storage room and shut the door as I left.

  I moved to the passenger deck doors and watched the elevators and staircases until the cab arrived.

  A skycab slid up to the deck and I dashed outside and jumped in the back seat.

  “The Cog, in the Red Light,” I said to the hack up front.

  The driver looked at me in the rearview mirror like I was crazy. “Whatever you want, Mr..”

  A few seconds later, a voice came over the headset. “Bob, this is David in skycar one. Who was it got in that cab?”

  There was no answer. I guessed Bob was the guy I put out with my shotgun.