Under Dark Sky Law

by Tamara Boyens

  “That’s a tough situation. Well, I can certainly help with almost all of that part of the equation. I can pass your psych eval and grease a few palms to get the supply mission cleared again. That part shouldn’t be too difficult considering they are already probably desperate to get that back on the road again. The rebel attacks have really messed up some of the shipments, so that shouldn’t take too much to convince someone to get that back on the docket, despite what happened yesterday. I should also be able to help smooth over some of the smuggling process in Yuma. I’m not on close terms with the Yuma officials, but I have my ways,” he said.

  She never would have guessed that one of the largest dome-based drug distributors in the country was actually a practicing Phoenix psychiatrist. He was literally almost a male copy of herself. Trippy. Fucker even just about stole her moniker. Guess the profession really did attract all sorts. Knowing how people’s minds worked really was a valuable skill, so it wasn’t so surprising that they would be drawn to using it for less than virtuous purposes, especially in that day and age. Playing by the rules usually meant you were the first to die.

  “Sounds too good to be true, to be honest,” she said. “So, now you know what I want—all my cards are on the table. I know who you are, you know who I am. Now’s the part where you make your unreasonable demands, and we dance around making threats and counter offers.”

  She was in something of a vulnerable position, given that he had managed to keep his dome job despite being someone that had been relegated to the flats at birth. She was under his care for passing an essential psych eval to be cleared for business. She could cook up a fake passing eval, but it would take weeks or even months for all of that bullshit to get pushed through the cumbersome system. Same deal for smuggling some Ketocillin directly from the black market. It was possible, but it would take way too damned long. He had leverage and he knew it.

  He clucked his tongue. “I’m sad that you think so little of me. I have no intent to manipulate you in that way. In my opinion, a truly successful relationship is built on trust, just like they taught us in school, right? And a good businessman always lets their customer taste the milk before buying the cow, right? That would be bad faith on my part to take advantage of you. I will help you do these things that you’ve asked for. If you’re satisfied with my services, then perhaps we can work on some longer term business strategies,” he said.

  She chuckled and pointed a bruised index finger at him. “You’re good, I’ll give you that, you’re good,” she said. And he really was. This was probably the only way that she would even consider taking him up on any offers—threats and coercion would have just made her literally punch him in the face and walk the other way.

  “You know as well as I do that forcing someone to do something involuntarily is no way to form stable alliances. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” he said.

  “So you’re the guy that basically stole my name, huh? At least you seem to have some good sense about you—you’re not running around fucking up my reputation or anything, are you? Why’d you decide to model yourself after me anyway?” she said.

  “With all due respect, I’ve actually been in business about as long as you have, albeit on a much smaller scale due to the limitations of working within the domes themselves. It’s taken me much longer to grow my empire, but it’s come a long way. As far as I know we actually formed our monikers separately. I started calling myself Xed a long time before I ever knew about you and your smuggling ring or your territory down in Tucson. It was a childhood nickname from the flats, actually. Perhaps it’s fate that we seem to be so similar, and you’ve come into my sphere of being in this time of need,” he said.

  She pursed her lips and drummed her battered fingers against the desk. It hurt, but she didn’t give a fuck. Sometimes a little pain brought clarity, brought you back down to earth.

  “It’s odd that we’ve never run into each other before. You’re good. I’ve had people look for you, I think even tried to contact you a time or two, but the message I always got was that I don’t fuck with you, and you don’t fuck with me, and everyone stays happy. Why do you want to work with me now?” she said.

  “To be totally honest, I was intimidated by you. You’re quite famous around here. Everyone knows not to fuck with the Grease Weasels, and like I said, due to the nature of my own business in the dome, it took me much longer to grow into a successful operation of my own. I didn’t want to risk being crushed or overtaken by your pits enterprise if I revealed too much,” he said.

  She squinted her eyes and continued tapping her fingers. “And now you’re big and bad enough that you’re not threatened by us?” she said.

  He took off his glasses, laid them on the desk and grinned, “Not in the slightest. That’s not to say I want to go picking a fight. I think our organizations are probably equal in destructive force right now. I don’t know who would win in the fight, but no one would come out a winner in that battle, and I’m not eager to destroy everything I’ve worked so hard to build,” he said, and she believed him again. Everyone knew that purposely fucking with the Grease Weasels was a fool’s errand.

  She sat quiet, thinking, and then broke out in another ironic laugh. “The Alphamine. That’s what you want,” she said.

  He smiled wrly and rubbed his hand against his shaved head. “Among other things, yes, that is a piece of valuable capital that I don’t have direct access to. It is a product I would like to help get you a larger distribution for,” he said.

  “I must have gotten hit in the head too many times last night, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before,” she said.

  He put his glasses back on. “Does that change your mind?” he said.

  She shook her head. “No. Now this all makes more sense. That’s what I’d want in your position too. I can’t promise you anything about the Alphamine or anything else without getting more details or discussing it with my team. I’m not a one man band stand, despite what some people may think about me. But, I will gladly suck on your milk before buying the cow. So. What do we do now?” Xero said, laying both her hands on the table and leaning in towards Xed.

  He nodded happily. “Good. Now, I say I put the paperwork in motion to get you out of this pickle, and we retire to my place where I can help you with your first demand: a hot shower,” he said.

  “I will not argue with this plan,” she said. Hey, spending the night at a possible rival’s house was totally worth finally getting into some literal hot water.

  He held out a hand for her to shake. “What a nice name for a partnership,” he said. “Xed and Xero—X marks the spot.”

  CHAPTER 12

  “Nice place you’ve got here,” Xero said.

  They had traveled in some ridiculously fancy car that was two shakes shy of being a limo through the main stretch of downtown and up to the northern section of the dome. Before Phoenix had obtained a dome, the area had been filled with expensive ranch houses and golf courses for wealthy Republicans. It was still much the same, which was impressive given the limited occupancy and space of the domed areas. It took some serious cash to keep that much land.

  Xed smiled and motioned her inside the high-ceilinged parlor. Everything was white marble and sparkly chandelier crystal. “Thank you,” he said. “And in case you’re wondering, despite what it looks like, there are a lot of security features in this place. Even if the skeletons were specifically tracking you, we should have enough armaments in place to fend them off. There’s a full doomsday switch for this building.”

  Meaning there was a near-flawless security measure that would keep everything out. It could also keep everything inside, and the fact that he specifically mentioned the doomsday switch wasn’t lost on Xero.

  She sat on the arm of an all white couch. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to try and run away. It wouldn’t help my cause in any way. If it turned out you were actually just planning on raping and killing me in the comfort of your own ho
me, that’s not a problem either. I’d just kill you first,” she said and grinned, but they both knew she was serious.

  He stood facing her in the entryway, his hands on his hips. “I meant more for capturing and interrogating someone if we were to be attacked,” he said. “Besides, I’m pretty handy with a firearm, but I'm not all that much good in terms of hand to hand combat. I’m more of the man behind the desk, the guy behind the computer, if you would. Trying to physically overpower you isn’t something I’ve got on a list of smart things to try.”

  “Duly noted,” she said. He was probably telling the truth, but she wouldn’t even think of trusting that statement until she’d tested it for herself. The most surprising of people ended up being decent in a fight, and it was never a good idea to underestimate someone before you had a chance to size them up in the heat of action.

  She looked around at the grandiose furnishings. “Isn’t all this wealth a little bit suspicious?” she asked. The piece of land they were on had been an exclusive golf club at one point in time. Real, live unmutated saguaro cactus dotted the landscape, and an oversized moon had been rising over sculpted red rock formations when they’d pulled up to the estate. It had to have been worth millions.

  He shook his head and shrugged. “Not really. I make a lot of money in my legitimate practice, especially since I have active government contracts now. To be honest most of this was bought with clean money. Now, if I used my dirty money to buy something, well, now that would be conspicuous. I could almost purchase this entire dome,” he said.

  She nodded her head slowly. “Not bad. I’ll have to spank myself later for not knowing your organization had gotten so prolific. I must have some people asleep at the switchboard or something,” she said. She would have liked to blame her ignorance on their recent dysfunction, but if his organization was as big as he said it was, he’d been flying under the radar for a long time. Or he was bluffing.

  He saw the skepticism in her eyes. “Not that it really matters, but if you’re concerned that I don't have a sufficiently big organization, I can show you my bank statements,” he said. It was a joke, but she got the sense he would show her evidence if she asked.

  She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. “Nah, I’ll take your word for it. It’s not really that important anyway. If you hold up your end of whatever bargain we end up making, that’s all that really matters. Anything else is just grand-standing and chest-beating,” she said.

  “We can talk more about that over dinner, perhaps?” he said.

  Her stomach bunched just thinking of food. The last thing she’d eaten had been nearly twenty four hours before, at The Niagara. Granted, it had been a hell of a meal, but even the best of food wouldn’t keep her sated for that long, and she was injured. She needed fuel to heal.

  “I don’t give a fuck what you want to talk about as long as it’s over food,” she said.

  He folded his arms and leaned against a sculpted column that framed the entryway. “Whatever the lady desires,” he said.

  “You always this fucking formal?” she said. She had this sense that there was still a big barrier surrounding Xed. Like there was a molten, raw center covered by a thin candy shell, and if she tapped him just a little bit more it would spill out.

  He blinked slowly and didn’t change his position, but his face went blank. “No, no I am not. However, as I’m almost always in a dome area, and there are cameras everywhere, I’ve practiced keeping my official self ‘turned on’ whenever possible,” he said.

  “Even in your own goddamn house?” she said. “Seems like a pain in the ass.” If she had been back at her home in the pits, she would be letting it all hang out. Not that being away from her home stopped her from doing that most of the time anyway, but she put a little effort in now and then when it was really required.

  “When I’m in my own house and a stranger is with me, yes,” he said.

  Xero smirked. “Well, Xed, maybe you just need to get to know me better, so I’m not such a stranger anymore,” she said.

  He smiled. “Would you like to take a shower or a bath and get cleaned up?” he said, looking surprised that she continued to be so careful of his inanimate possessions. Certain things were really hard to come by in the pits, and you didn’t fuck shit up just for the fun of it.

  She looked down at the small patch of couch arm she was sitting on carefully so as not to accidentally stain anything with blood. They had cleaned up her wounds, but her clothes were still filthy with bodily fluids and probably worse things.

  “You have no idea how much I would pay you for that,” she said.

  “The first one’s always free,” he said.

  They both smiled.

  She proceeded to take one of the most amazing showers of her life. Well, that was probably an exaggeration, considering the type of work and situations she often got herself into, but it was still definitely a top 100 ranked shower. Xed’s house was making The Niagara look shabby. The master bathroom was huge and outfitted with a separate whirlpool tub not so unlike the one at the hotel. She loved second chances. After spending damned near an hour languishing in the seemingly endless hot water of the shower, she managed to feel like she’d gotten most of the prison grime out from all the nooks and crannies, and the smell was banished from her lock of hair. That was one of the good things about the mohawk—not as much hair to absorb some of the unpleasant smells she was around far too often.

  Once sufficiently de-skunked enough not to pollute the bath, slipping into the hot water of the whirlpool was the best thing she’d felt since fucking Argon back in the flats. That gave her an idea.

  “Hey Xed!” she yelled, hoping that it was loud enough to hear over the roar of the whirlpool. She figured there was probably a security camera set up in the bathroom anyway, and just assumed he was watching. She didn’t give a fuck.

  It didn’t take long before he knocked at the door.

  “Get in here!” she yelled.

  “As you wish,” he said, but only poked his head through the door. The steam fogged up his glasses so he removed them.

  “You don’t have to worry about being polite, just come over here,” she said.

  Something changed in his face, and he walked with purpose to the side of the tub.

  “Yes?” he said. He was still wearing his clean slacks and blue-checked dress shirt.

  “Why don’t you pull the stick out of your ass and take off your clothes,” she said.

  He raised an eyebrow. Setting his glasses down on the side of the tub, slowly, he unbuttoned that crisp and perfect shirt.

  CHAPTER 13

  The oversized crawler rumbled as it rolled over the rocky desert soil, vibrating her bones and making her grip the corrugated steering wheel tighter. It felt good to be back in charge of the convoy again. They were on her run, and the personnel had to hold off accompanying the shipment, Yuma being too far to travel without oxygen for anyone that wasn’t a pit dweller. Once upon a time they tried to have a few gas-masked soldiers follow them on all runs, but that simply wasn’t possible anymore with the increasingly dire supply shortages.

  She had one other armed accessory vehicle rumbling along behind her stuffed with two of her own employees, and that was it. She had Milo and Xed both to thank for getting the extra manpower shipped over and cleared in time for the run. Even though their firepower was reduced, it was actually much safer. With her at the helm, and a reduced body count to be concerned about, she would be much better equipped to quickly react to any incidents in the field. Fucking skeletons wouldn’t get the drop on them this time. Not on her watch.

  The other great thing about getting free of the dome was that she could freely communicate with her crew in the pits. Unfortunately, as nice as it was to talk to Milo again, he didn’t have any new information for her. Argon and Calavera were still both AWOL, no additional news about the rogue skeletons had surfaced, and Trina was still dying.

  Back out in the peaceful desert again, wa
tching the winds blow the seemingly endless sand around in undulating waves as they journeyed through the empty wastelands was a perfect place to clear her head and think strategically about what had happened over the last week. The only real conclusion she had was that shit was fucked. She’d been ignoring the issue of Argon’s disappearance, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she got—angry at herself for letting it happen, angry at Argon for not getting himself out of the situation, angry at Calavera for not controlling her fucking personnel.

  At least she was finally making headway towards getting to Yuma and getting the Ketocillin for Trina. She had no idea if Argon was still savable, but there was still hope for Trina. Milo had tried to sound calm when she spoke with him, but there was an undertone of desperation that he couldn’t hide. She was coughing up too much blood, and they were low on plasmasynth, another item she was supposed to bring back from Yuma that the feds were keeping a tighter lock on in recent days. Time was running out, and everything depended on the success of this run.

  Paranoid, Xero kept her eyes constantly darting across the fried brown and red landscape, in search of skeletons or other signs of trouble. Everything was going smoothly until she noticed agitation on the horizon. Sands were blowing and creating a dusky glow in what should have been a totally clear sky.

  She picked up the radio. “Hey, Delta, Echo, keep yourselves sharp—I think we’ve got a haboob on the horizon, looks like a big one. Be ready to dig in and bunker down if it shifts in our direction,” she said.

  “Roger that,” Delta said. She preferred not to know the real names of her operators—it was safer that way for everyone involved.

  She adjusted their course slightly so that they were still on track to make it to Yuma in good time, but so that they were headed away from the area where they the sandstorm seemed to be concentrated. Haboobs were not something to fuck around with. It was possible to choke to death from the sheer amount and force of the sand blowing unfettered through the air. Vehicles could be uplifted and turned over, visibility could be reduced to zero, and to top it off, extra toxins could be condensed within the maelstrom. They had some old school filtration gas masks in their gear just in case they got caught up in a situation like that, but that alone might not be enough to combat all the deadly consequences of being taken unawares by a really bad sandstorm. More than a few supply caravans had been wiped out by haboobs over the years.