Forced Compliance (The Galactic Outlaws Book 1)

by Bradford Bates

  The door rattled as the emergency response team thundered past our floor. I waited until their steps had receded enough they might not spot us as we made our mad dash for the ground floor. Opening the door, I sprinted for the stairs, my crew hot on my heels as we rushed down. The sound of our steps was drowned out by emergency response heading up. We made it to the lobby, and I sent Maze out first. She walked through the building slowly as if she was just going out for the evening, no one gave her a second look. I motioned for Gabe to join me and then we attempted to do the same thing.

  A couple of people looked at us. I nudged Gabe with my shoulder. “Did you see the game last night?”

  “I sure did, could you believe that shot?” He made shooting motion with his hands.

  “It was amazing, right?” I said forcing out a laugh that I didn’t feel.

  “The best I’ve ever seen.”

  The people stopped watching us as we crossed the lobby and made it out the door. Maze already had an autocar waiting for us. We couldn’t take it all the way back to the ship just in case the police searched the company’s record. The car would get us close enough that we didn’t have to worry. We made it. Hopefully we had what we need from the safe to find Kyra. Nothing was as important as getting our girl back. Just hold on Kyra, we’re coming for you.

  Chapter 3

  Captain Drake

  The Talon didn’t have the same light and bubbly atmosphere without our overly optimistic engineer. She was the glue that bound us all together. There was nothing that would make me feel better for letting her go to the market alone. I wasn’t even busy when she asked me to go, I just didn’t want to make the trip. It never should have happened on this shithole of a moon. The markets on these backwater berths were infested with the worst kind of scum. I knew better, and it might cost her life. If she died because I was being lazy, I’d never forgive myself. It was the captain’s job to protect his crew, and I let Kyra down. I’d never let that happen again. This was the kind of thing that could tear a crew apart. No one was blaming me yet, but that was because we still had a chance to make things right.

  “Maze, find out what Ice has for us. I’m going to see the Doc, and then I’ll meet you in the mess hall to go through the contents of the safe.” She just gave me a curt nod and walked away. I knew exactly how she was feeling, if we didn’t get her back soon, our chances of getting Kyra back at all were slim. Every second mattered, when someone had been kidnapped. You hit seventy-two hours, and it was all over. Twenty-four hours had past, and the only contact we could track down was dead.

  My back muscles were starting to seize up again as I walked back to our medical bay. I hoped the Doc was in the medbay. There hadn’t been much for him to do since joining the crew. A few scrapes and one broken wrist were all he had to deal with during the last three months. It almost felt wrong keeping a trauma surgeon on board doing such menial labor, but the Doc had his own demons to sort out. The loss of his family had hit him hard. It couldn’t have been easy watching them get murdered by pirates. I was sure one day he would figure out he deserved to be happy again, but that day hadn’t come yet.

  I stepped through the door and had to suppress a laugh. Doc was laid out on the gurney watching a movie. He was balancing a plate of chips on his belly and using an IV tube to drink some kind of juice hanging off the rack behind him. He looked bored out of his mind.

  “If you’re not careful Doc, I’m going to take you on one of our jobs.”

  He jumped and ended up rolling off the gurney. He looked up at me from the floor almost sheepishly. “I think we both know I’d be more of a hindrance out there than an asset.”

  “I’m not so sure about that Doc, a pretty face like yours and that cultured accent might win us a few favors.”

  The Doc looked down almost seeming to blush. “I’ve told you a hundred times to call me Richard, Captain.”

  “I’ll try and remember for next time, Doc.”

  “So I take it you didn’t just come to interrupt my vid. What can I do for you, Captain?”

  “I took a few blaster bolts across the back and a knife to the side. I need something to dull the pain, but it can’t be as strong as those pink elephants you gave me earlier.”

  “So you haven’t managed to track down Kyra yet?” he asked, moving forward helping to remove my jacket.

  The question was phrased innocently enough that I knew it wasn’t a dig at our efforts. That was my own guilt talking. As long as the Doc could numb me enough to get back out there, then I’d be able to ease my guilt soon enough. I stripped off my shirt next, and the Doc let out a little hiss as he looked at my back.

  I tried my best to shy away from his prodding fingers but to no avail. “We haven’t found her yet, Doc, but we will get her back.” He just made a non-committal noise as he continued to look me over. I had no idea if he was disagreeing with my statement or just mumbling to himself about my condition. The muscles in my back started to flutter, and the Doc let out a little tut.

  “I know you will. If I was lost out in the black, I’d sleep better knowing you’d be coming for me.”

  “Let’s hope she hasn’t made it out into the black yet. I’m holding out hope she is still on this moon with us.” He poked me a little harder than I would have liked, and I let out a grunt. When the muscles in my back contracted the grunt turned into a moan. I was either getting older, or I needed a new damn jacket. I didn’t remember the blaster bolts ever hurting this much.

  “I can give you a little something to stop your muscles from contracting like they are now. It will keep you loose as long as you don’t do anything crazy. It’s not going to do much for the pain though.”

  “Well the last thing I took for the pain left me almost not able to function, so this will be a step in the right direction. As for the crazy, you know I can’t promise anything.”

  I took out the bottle with the lone remaining pain pill and handed it to him. “Any chance you can make something kind of like this that doesn’t leave me reeling. It almost made me worthless out in the field today.” He looked up at me a crease of anger etched into his forehead. The Doc must have thought I was questioning his work. “Don’t get me wrong, Doc, it got the job done. Maybe, just a little too well.”

  “I’m sure I’ll be able to work something out,” he said, poking me with a needle. After he had administered the shot, he poked me several more times possibly slightly more vigorously than was strictly needed. “That should do it, Captain.” A little bit of a smile had crept into his voice.

  I shrugged my shirt back on and picked up my coat. After those pokes, I wasn’t about to leave without poking back at the bear. “I don’t care if you watch vids in here Doc, but no kinky stuff, ok?”

  “I’ll save the kinky stuff for my bunk, Captain.”

  Did everyone on my boat have a smart mouth, or was that just a personality trait I brought out of the people around me? I shook my head and headed towards the door. “That’s a good man, Richard. Keep up the good work.” I walked out of the room and laughed to myself. The Doc was so put together, I wondered what he would even consider kinky.

  Maze had the pillowcase on the table when I walked into the mess hall. Ice must have still been working on what she downloaded from Christof’s datapad. Gabe had his neon blue hat on again. I swear I thought this time he would never find it when I hid it, but he always did. Then he wore it all around the ship just to annoy me. I almost wondered if he had embedded the damn thing with a tracking chip. I thought the hat was ugly, but he loved the damn thing. Gabe always put it on when he needed to think or was feeling a little stressed out.

  I motioned for him to join us at the table. “Alright, let’s get to it.”

  Maze moved the pillow case to the far end of the table and slowly dragged it backward, leaving a pile of goods down the length of the table. I could tell right away that Christof wasn’t just some minor fixer. He had to have connections and big ones to have the amount of credits that had been
stashed in the safe. There had to be forty thousand credits on the table, along with two guns, and three fake I.D.’s. Just who was this guy?

  Maze looked over the Idents. “These are good, Captain. Not quite as good as Ice’s but I doubt they would get flagged during a scan.”

  “I always thought Christof was a two-bit twit, but I guess that was just a cover,” Gabe commented as he took a seat at the table and grabbed a couple of files and started looking at them.

  “That means, someone out there is going to be pissed when they find out he’s gone.” The last thing we needed was someone snooping. If anyone looked too closely at his death, it would lead back to us. We left through the front door, not through the window like the real killer. I sent Ice a quick message to see if she could run a search for our parachuting man. He had to have landed somewhere close by, hopefully somewhere with surveillance. We might need something to bargain with later, and it paid to have the information close at hand.

  Maze had her datapad out, and she was looking at a dark red card in her hand. She turned it over a few times and then scanned it. Her face made a frown, that meant she was onto something and didn’t like it.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “It’s a card for Club Morte.”

  “I can tell by the look on your face that whatever you read about the club isn’t good news.”

  “It’s a club that caters to the macabre. Suicides are screened for people to watch, they do some mild mutilation stuff, self and inflicted. There are a few rumors around on the Dnet that it goes much deeper than that. Some speculate that if you have enough credits, you can pay to do whatever you want to a person.”

  “So they are a bunch of sick fucks, what does that have to do with us?” I could feel my anger building, and I hoped she wasn’t going to tell me that was where Kyra was. If she was, then it might already be too late. I didn’t even want to think about there being a chance that she was already dead.

  “Apparently Christof was a recruiter for them,” Maze said.

  “A recruiter?” What in the hell did that mean?

  “He was in charge of bringing people into the club, the kind of people that wouldn’t be missed.”

  “That seems to be what these files are showing, but why would he keep the details on his crimes?” Gabe asked.

  Gabe and I locked eyes. The confusion on his face was replaced with a dawning of understanding. I knew we were both on the same track as soon as he spoke. “Undercover.”

  “Cop,” I agreed.

  “That explains a lot. If that bastard was a cop, it makes sense that he would reach out to us about our girl. He wouldn’t have been able to take direct action against them without blowing his case.” He frowned. “Maybe the club found out somehow and they took him out.”

  “If they think we’re coming, Captain, things won’t go well for Kyra,” Gabe said as the color drained from his face.

  “Then let’s go get these guys,” Maze said rising from her spot at the table.

  “My sentiments exactly.” Time wasn’t on our side anymore, we had to act now or risk losing Kyra forever. It was time to get our girl back. “Tell Ice to get us a location for the club and meet me in the cargobay in five.” These guys were in for one hell of a surprise.

  Chapter 4

  Captain Drake

  The club was the kind of place you couldn’t bring weapons into, so basically the opposite end of the spectrum from where we were yesterday. That wouldn’t stop us from trying to sneak a few things past security. We had a few tricks up our sleeves when it came to trying to skirt the law. Each of us had two plastoid knives and a gun. The guns were only good for two shots, but they were silent so hopefully that was all we would need. If we were really lucky, the data cards Ice made for us after cloning Christof’s would buy us a little bit of leeway.

  There was no way we could roll up to this kind of club in an autocar. The people that could afford memberships to this place would show up with a little more style. Average people weren’t members to this kind of elitist joint. This was for the cream of the psycho’s crop. So I sent Gabe to rent a car. Not just any car but something fancy and ridiculously expensive. We had to make an impression, the bigger the better. We only had one chance to get in and find out if Kyra was there.

  Maze walked down the stairs into the cargobay, and I couldn’t help but smile. She looked radiant, better than all the stars in the black. I knew that my jaw had dropped, so I picked it up off the floor and ran a hand through my hair to keep my eyes from roving over her body. She had on a skin tight dress that stopped low enough, it was an inch shy of being awkward. It was paired up with a tight leather coat, the kind that would have buckled just under her breasts but she was wearing it open. Where she hid her knives and gun…well let’s just say, I was too polite to ask, but not so polite I wasn’t thinking about it.

  Maze stopped in front of me and put a hand on my chest while she adjusted one of her shoes. I couldn’t help but thinking I liked the way her hand rested there, it felt right. We’d danced around the edges of being together for a while now, but neither of us had the guts to push our relationship past friendship with moments of insanity that led to us finding each other in the dark, or the shower, or maybe even in a pool. The way she looked tonight, I was starting to second guess that choice.

  She leaned back and tilted her head up until our eyes met, and I swear I saw a twinkle in them. I leaned forward thinking about how her lips might taste. A car rolled to a stop behind us and the sound of the horn broke me out of my salacious thoughts. Any thoughts that weren’t tied to getting Kyra back were crushed down mercilessly.

  “May I escort you to the club, Milady?” I asked holding out my arm.

  “Who could say no to such a dashing man?” she said, linking her arm through mine.

  Dashing, that sounded about right. I mean who was I to question Maze’s superior judgment? I knew we were being flippant in the face of uncertainty. It was something both of us carried with us from our time in the N.E.A. Soldiers couldn’t wallow in their feelings, so they joked even when they felt like crying. We descended the ramp arm in arm and headed towards the car. Gabe opened the driver’s side door and stepped out. He had that God awful hat on again, but at least this time it would fit in.

  He was playing the part of our chauffeur tonight. What kind of rich person didn’t want a chauffeur with a little flair? He ran up the ramp past us, to load the car with our actual weapons. That was the backup plan if everything went to shit. Dress in black and storm the castle. If we made it out of the club with Kyra in tow, we would be home free. Then we could get off of this moon and back on the job we had been contracted to do.

  I opened the door and let Maze slide into the car. I caught a nice view of a tanned thigh before I turned back towards Gabe. He hauled a huge crate of weapons down the ramp. “Gabe, we aren’t planning to start a war. Just a couple of rifles and a few extra blasters.”

  “Just because you say we aren’t starting a war, doesn’t mean it won’t end up as one, Captain.”

  “Just the rifles and the blasters.”

  He frowned, but pushed the crate back up the ramp and came down with only what I asked him to bring. He ran around to the front of the car, and I slid into the back next to Maze. We were ready to roll. There hadn’t been a lot of intel on the club out there. Even when Ice hacked into some of the black sites, we came up with almost nothing. These guys had good security and were well insulated.

  What little we were able to find out didn’t paint a pretty picture, if any of the information was even true. Employees were forced to sign waivers and non-disclosure agreements. The members had to pass a rigorous screening process and then they signed an NDA. All while forking over a huge chunk of credits, just for the privilege to bask in the inner sanctum. Most of the chatter on the Dnet was rumors and stories. It was hard to separate the hype from the truth. They either used the PR machine to keep up the mystic, or their fee’s. It also might have been possible
they really were a cult of psychos. My money was on a club full of crazy. Rich folks didn’t spend those kind of credits for a hoax.

  Gabe fired up the engine and soon we were cruising through the city. The club rolled into view, and the building didn’t look like anything special. It was a squat two-story structure. If there was anything shady going on here, it wouldn’t be happening on the main floor. We were going to have our work cut out for us. A couple of things made the building stand out from the others around it. The entire thing was painted black or made out of some kind of blackened steel, and the spotlights that crossed in front of the building were dark crimson in color. It gave the place an ominous feel which I am sure was exactly what they were going for.

  Our car rolled to a stop, and one of the valets opened the door. I got out first and turned back to help Maze out of the car. She might have been one of the most talented mercenaries that I knew, but climbing out of a car in heels and a dress that barely covered your ass took a whole different kind of talent. For once it made me happy to be a guy. My get up was a lot like my normal clothes although slightly tighter and more shiny. That was if you discounted the tight collared shirt and the soul strangling feeling of wearing a tie.

  Maze slid her arm into mine again, and we strutted up the carpeted walkway towards the front door. The flooring around the carpeting was some kind of onyx stone and the lights that bordered the path were a dull red. The lighting gave off just enough light that you wouldn’t stumble before entering the club, but not much else. A man waited by the front door, and he signaled for us to stop before we passed him.

  “Invitation or member’s card please,” he said it with just the right amount of subservience, but there was no hiding the slight edge he had to his voice.

  I pulled out the card we had cloned from Christof’s. If Ice had done her job right, and she always did, then my information would be in their system. We had a backup card with Maze, but I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to deviate from our first plan already. The goal was for her only to have to flash credentials if we had to split up for some reason. I truly hoped it didn’t come to that.