Milky Way Repo

by Michael Prelee

  “Damn it, Jack, it’s nothing like that. I would never cross you but you have to let me take him inside.” His eyes were a little fearful. “Jack, my life depends on it.”

  Jack looked him over. “Your eyes are bloodshot. Hell, they’re bleeding.”

  Kinty leaned against the door of the van. His weight sagged against the frame. “Jack, trust me. I have to call an audible here. Change of plan. Let me take him in and I’ll explain everything later.”

  Jack looked him over and slowly shook his head. “I’m going in there. You stay here with him.”

  Kinty came up off the door frame. “Can’t let you do that, Jack.” He grabbed Arulio and pulled him from the van. The wetjack stumbled. His hands were still tied and Kinty started pulling him away from the van.

  Jack fairly exploded from the van. “Hold on there, Kinty. You ain’t runnin’ this deal. Let him go.” He grabbed Arulio with a gloved hand.

  Kinty turned, blood streaming from his nose. “Jack. Listen to me…”

  “No you listen, Kinty. I’m going in there and straightening out whatever’s got you all twisted up. Get in the van and watch him.”

  “Can’t do that, Jack.”

  “Don’t have a choice, Kinty. I’ve never seen you like this before and I damn sure better never see you like this again.”

  They stood in the parking lot, eyeing each other. Arulio backed away from between them slowly. He looked around but there was no one else around; no one to see, no one to help.

  Jack crossed in front of him and started to cut around the back of the van. Kinty reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. He gripped the pressure suit and stopped the big man in his tracks. “Let it go, Jack, just this once. Let me handle this myself.” Jack turned.

  “It’s all good, Jack. I’m going to take him in and I’m going to come out with everything we need. Every damn little thing.”

  Jack shoved him against the van, hard. His big gloved hand took up most of Kinty’s chest and he bounced him off the van again. “Don’t know what’s gotten into you, Kinty, but you better do as I say. Put the damn wetjack in the damn van and sit tight until I come out.”

  Kinty bowed his head against Jack’s hand. “She poisoned me, Jack.”

  “Who? The girl?”

  Kinty nodded. “Something like Ebola she said.”

  “Oh, bullshit. It doesn’t work that fast.”

  Kinty opened his hand and held up the blood soaked napkins. “Look, Jack! I’m bleeding out here. She said it was something from one of their labs. I can feel the fever climbing up in me. My gut’s on fire, Jack. Who knows what kind of stuff they make. She works for Saji Vy, for God’s sake.”

  “And the deal is, trade the wetjack for what? An antidote? She gonna fix you up if you walk in there with that white skinned bastard? How can you trust her?” He pushed Kinty back against the van but gently this time, and leaned in until his glass dome touched his forehead. “I got this Kinty. I got this. I go in there and I solve your problem and I get our money. Believe me. No way does that little girl in there get one over on us. Not happening. I got this.”

  He leaned back and let Kinty go. “Stay here.”

  Arulio looked at Jack and then at Kinty. The thug leaned against the van and wiped his nose. Fresh blood poured out and overwhelmed the napkins. Kinty looked startled. He pinched his nose and yanked his gun loose from the holster under his jacket. Arulio was dumbstruck. Kinty raised the gun and pointed it at Jack’s back. “Sorry, Jack.”

  The gun kicked twice, paused and then kicked again. Jack turned his head in the great glass dome and with a stunned look on his face. Then he exploded in fire as air rushed into the pressure suit. The oxygen in the air overwhelmed the carefully controlled environment and Atomic Jack burned. Arulio took a step back from the heat.

  Jack stumbled and fell against the van, screaming as he went down. Arulio felt someone grab his arm. He looked up and saw Kinty.

  “Let’s get inside,” he said.

  “What the hell?” Nathan said.

  “Looks like that capo just took out the kingpin,” Duncan said. “Why would he do that?”

  Nathan looked at Duncan. “Let’s get them before the cops show up.”

  They hustled out of the alcove and crossed the street. Nathan kept the rifle tucked up under his coat. Duncan had a pistol in his hand hidden up his sleeve. They dashed into the diner a step after Arulio and the mob enforcer.

  Nathan took a quick look around with a practiced eye and saw who was sitting. A waitress started toward them but Nathan waved her away and pulled out his rifle, keeping it pointed at the floor. “Hold on there, Kinty.”

  He turned and looked frightened, Nathan saw, which was bad. Scared people made terrible decisions. It looked like he wanted to go behind the curtain in the back. It moved slightly. Someone was watching them.

  Kinty tightened his grip on the pistol he carried. Nathan raised his rifle. “Hold on there, don’t…”

  Kinty’s armed flinched and Duncan fired at him from Nathan’s right. It was quiet, like it was silenced. The shot took Kinty in the hollow of his throat and he fell to the floor gasping. People in the diner jumped up from their seats. Nathan pointed the rifle in their general direction.

  “All of you sit back down!” He said. “We’ll be leaving shortly. Just relax and eat your eggs.” The customers slowly lowered themselves to their seats.

  Cole came out from behind the curtain with Kimiyo and the other enforcer from the alley. Bonto looked just as bad as Kinty. He was bleeding from his nose and eyes. Cole shoved him down to the floor beside Kinty.

  “Did you shoot him?” Cole asked.

  Nathan pointed at Duncan. “He did.”

  “Duncan shot someone? Really?”

  “You don’t have to sound that surprised,” Duncan said.

  “Well, we had this under control,” Cole said. “You didn’t have to shoot anyone.” Kimiyo was on the ground, spraying something in the men’s faces. She picked something out of Kinty’s throat and held it up.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s an info dart,” Duncan said. “It does a hard data dump into the subject’s subconscious, imparting short term knowledge in a massive dose. It’s good for learning complicated subjects in a short time. The effect takes up a lot of brain processing power so the subject is usually unconscious during the data transfer.” He pointed at Kinty. “He’ll wake up with a very good working knowledge of Calculus.”

  Nathan nodded. “Well I was just going to shoot him with a regular bullet so your way is better.”

  Cole leaned down and spoke to Kimiyo. “Is that the antidote?”

  She nodded. “We’re all set here. They’ll be fine in a few hours.”

  “Nathan,” Cole said, “We should go.”

  “So let’s go,” Nathan said.

  They walked out of the diner and Nathan pointed to a non-descript green van down the block and across the street. “That’s us.”

  Cole looked back into the parking where Atomic Jack lay with smoke rising from his suit. “My God. What did you guys do out here?” He said.

  “Wasn’t us,” Nathan said, pausing to take a good look. The bookie’s body was rolling around. Nathan couldn’t believe that he might still be alive but he was moving nonetheless. That suit was really something. The van was on fire now and appeared to be melting into the surface of the parking lot. “Kinty and Jack got into it and he popped him. Went up like a mushroom cloud.” They walked quickly. “We should get out of here before protective services arrives.”

  “Got that right,” Cole said.

  The van pulled up to the Blue Moon Bandit’s landing pad and they piled out. Nathan tapped a code into the security panel and lowered the entrance ramp. “Everyone inside. I don’t know if anyone back in that joint can identify us but there’s no reason to take the chance. Hurry up.” The crew hustled in. Kimiyo helped Arulio up the ramp. The wetjack moved slowly and a look of irritation crossed Nathan’s face. Kimiyo
saw it and ignored him.

  When they were aboard Nathan sealed the ramp and pushed a button on the ship’s intercom. “Let’s roll, Marla.”

  Nathan ran up the corridor. Everyone had gathered in the galley. “Buckle in,” he said. “We’re lifting off.”

  The engines whined as they started up. Nathan felt the ship lift off with a slight jerk and he gripped the table. “While we were off getting Arulio back I had Marla settle our bill and book us space at another ship yard. We still have to lay low for a few hours before our meeting with the Children of the Apocalyptic Rainbow.” He looked at Kimiyo. She was sitting in the corner tending to Arulio. “How is he doing?”

  “He’s doing well enough to answer for himself,” she said. Nathan could sense her irritation. He ignored it. “Arulio?”

  “I am fine, Captain Teller. The bandits did not harm me.”

  “I have to take him back to his room for a full diagnostic test,” Kimiyo said. They got up, Kimiyo leading Arulio by the arm, though he didn’t seem to need the help. “Can you let me know when you need to talk about the meet?”

  “One hour,” Nathan said. “We’ll have a little briefing set up.”

  “We’ll be there.”

  19.

  Caleb Wooburn put his feet up on the desk of the newly opened office of the Children of the Apocalyptic Rainbow Cleaning Service in Great Moto City on Olympia. The office already had three contracts for cleaning services and was staffed by forty-three employees. The reputation of the organization’s services as being very effective and cheap assured the continued growth of the office Caleb had set up. He smiled at the day shift manager, a pretty brunette named Melissa, and asked her if the crew at the Happy Time Sleep Hotel had checked in yet. It was their first day on their own.

  “Yes,” she said. “Diana and the girls are doing fine. Do you know that we’ve had three more calls today for quotes? I’ll be heading out this afternoon to bid on the jobs.”

  “You need help?”

  Melissa wasn’t crazy about spending time alone with Caleb. He leered too much and was so very, very obvious about it. Plus he was old, at least forty or so. She was looking forward to bidding the new business and spending the afternoon away from him.

  “No,” she said, popping a piece of chewing gum in her mouth. “I got it. We have to learn to fly on our own sometime and you’re leaving soon, right? Heading back out to Port Solitude?”

  He relaxed in his chair, settling in deep. “Oh sure, I’ll be heading back just as soon as things are solid here. I do this a lot, you know. Travel around from office to office, setting things up. I’ve been with the group a long time.”

  Melissa nodded. “Yeah, I remember you said something about that.” The first day Melissa had met Caleb, a couple months ago, he had spent a half hour talking about how long he had been with the Rainbow group and all the great things he had accomplished. She had worked her ass off learning the ropes so that he would be off on his merry way soon and out of her hair. Managing this office wasn’t going to be so hard that she need him around. She had a masters degree in business for Christ’s sake. If she hadn’t had a bad break up with her boyfriend ten months ago she wouldn’t even be here.

  “I guess I should be getting back, though. Lot of irons in the fire back at Port Solitude.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. I like to put my experience to work for the group, you know? Keep an eye on things. Make sure we’re all keeping to the seven paths of enlightenment.”

  Melissa knew Caleb had his own little group within the larger group. A few dozen folks who scurried back to Caleb whenever some gossip needed spreading. She had shared a room with one of them, a girl named Linda when she first arrived at Port Solitude. Linda had an enthusiasm for the Children of the Apocalyptic Rainbow that bordered on the manic, staying up late reading group literature and starting her day early. Melissa knew that Linda was one of a few girls that Caleb kept on the hook.

  It was inexplicable to Melissa that women in the group were drawn to him but she had met a few of them. He was stubby, stocky, going bald and wore his shirts open too much at the neck. He also favored a mustache that was always a week away from coming in fully. It was just a thin, blondish fur that covered his upper lip. Hell, even his eyes were beady and too close together.

  His private phone beeped. He dropped his feet off the desk and reached into his pocket. “Excuse me, sweetheart. I have to take this.” Caleb got up and walked out of the office to the sidewalk.

  The street noise wasn’t too bad and the air here was fairly clean. Caleb stepped into the sunshine, popped a cigarette in his mouth and lit it before putting the phone up to his ear. “Hey, babe, what’s up?”

  “Just checking in, seeing what you were up to,” Linda said.

  “You still at Port Solitude?”

  “Yes,” she said with a little pout in her voice. “I still don’t know why I couldn’t come to Olympia with you.”

  He flicked ash off his cig into the street. “Just the way it goes, honey. Montario must have needed you there for something. I’ll push harder next time, I promise.”

  “Really?”

  “I swear, babe.”

  “Okay,” she said, sounding perky again. “I don’t know what Montario could have needed me for. All I’ve been doing is taking care of some people whose ship broke down.”

  Caleb looked up from watching the traffic. “What do you mean? We have guests at Port Solitude?”

  “Yeah. A ship floated in here a couple days ago with engine problems or something. Montario has some of the guys helping them.”

  “Is everything all right? Something bothering you?”

  “Well, one of them hit me.”

  He dropped his cig on the street. “What? What do you mean?”

  Her voice dropped a little, like she didn’t want anyone to overhear her. “I took one of them lunch, and she hit me. Knocked me out. The food spilled everywhere.”

  “Why would she hit you?”

  “Montario doesn’t want strangers roaming the facility, you know? So we’ve asked them to stay in their rooms until the repairs are complete. I guess this woman just wigged out. It’s not like they’re locked up in a jail or anything. I mean, we’re helping them, right? Is staying in their room that much to ask?”

  “I guess not. Look sweetie, I have to get to a meeting here. I’ll get back to you tonight, okay? Just be careful.”

  “Okay. Can’t wait to see you again, Caleb. Do you know when you’ll be back?”

  He looked back into the office. It seemed to be running just fine. “Probably soon. I’ll let you know tonight.”

  After he hung up he walked back into the office, sat down at the desk and threw his feet up on the desk again. He picked up a pen and chewed on it. It wasn’t unusual for visitors to be at Port Solitude. Ships broke down, people toured the place and guests visited from time to time. Why were these folks locked in their rooms though? In the two decades he’d been with the group no one had ever been locked up, aside from the kids who had a bad reaction to drugs. Why would Montario break the rules of hospitality and put people in locked rooms? He picked up his phone. A call to another one of his friends at Port Solitude was in order.

  20.

  Marla steered the Blue Moon Bandit toward a landing pad at a nearby ship yard. The big, converted freighter did a pylon turn over a landing pad affording Marla a view of the area. Satisfied the area was clear, she dropped the ship to the reinforced concrete pad. Its bulk settled softly on its landing gear.

  Cole looked out a porthole from the operations deck located behind the cockpit. “Y’know, I thought the last place was bad but this looks like another few rungs down the ladder.” A group of men were sitting on shipping containers at the next pad over, passing a bottle around. At least one of them appeared to be passed out on a metal container. Another one sitting on an industrial floor cleaner wore coveralls adorned with a rainbow logo, Cole took note.

  Nathan looked out t
he porthole. “Our last parking spot was respectable enough but once things got loud,” he looked at Cole, “we had to go.” He straightened up. “This will do until we meet our contact in a few hours.”

  “You’re blaming me for what happened at the diner?” Cole said.

  “You were supposed to keep an eye on Kimiyo at the meeting. The next thing I know we’re dealing with engineered viruses and a mob enforcer doing an imitation of a candle as he melts in a parking lot. Oh, and if anyone in that diner decides to talk or someone snapped our picture, we’ll probably have Olympia’s Protective Services after us.” His voice didn’t rise, it rarely did. Sometimes that drove Cole crazy.

  Cole threw up his hands and walked down the short corridor from the operations deck to the galley. “I’m not listening to this, Nathan.”

  Duncan’s head lolled back in exasperation. “Come on, Nathan. None of this was Cole’s fault.”

  Nathan turned to face the engineer. “No more than yours, right Duncan?”

  “I was with you. How is it my fault?”

  “You’re the one who recommended we take Richie on the crew and he’s the reason we had those guys chasing us in the first place.”

  Marla came out of the cockpit, a cross look on her face. “Don’t you blame him, Nathan. You took Richie on the crew. You took this job and she’s your ex-wife. All we’ve done is what you asked.”

  Nathan slammed his mug down on a workstation, spilling coffee over the rim. “This isn’t about Celeste and don’t pick sides Marla. Duncan can take care of himself. And so can Cole!”

  “He’s my husband. Who else’s side would I be on?”

  “It gets old is all,” Nathan said. “It should have been a nice easy meet and now we’ll be lucky if we’re not in jail by the end of the night.”

  Cole walked back up the short passageway. “Nothing about this is easy. Nothing about what we ever do is easy. There are always complications. That’s why we get jobs that pay well. We manage the complications.”