Danger Money

by John Van Stry

  After satisfying myself that it was safe, I shut off the lights and went to sleep.

  The Palace, ('Caesar's Palace' they originally called it because we all 'lived like emperors' there), isn't that really. It's more of a jail to those of us inside, a fortress to those outside, and a very well hidden company secret deep underground on the Earth's moon. It's where the Corporation keeps all of its most dangerous eggs, so it's a strong basket. As for those of us inside, well would you want thirty some-odd trained and ruthless assassins running around loose?

  I didn't think so.

  They supplied us with everything we wanted, more or less. But we never left, except to kill somebody. So volunteers for missions were never in short supply. We all hated it here and lived for the opportunity to get out.

  I didn't leave my room for the next three days, not until I was totally healed. We had our own rules here, and as I was the oldest one alive, I now set them. Weakness was not a good sign.

  I went down to the mess and ordered some food. I was pretty starved after my isolation, so I ate ravenously.

  "I hear you got skinned!" Snickered one of the new guys sitting down across from me. He was a Leopard like myself. He had black fur, with a slightly squared head and a good build.

  "I got bored," I growled. "Have you read the rules on my door?" I asked conversationally.

  "Yes, why?" He asked curiously.

  "Good, then you can't plead ignorance."

  I threw my coffee in his face and jumped him. He was stronger than me, and almost as quick. But I had a lot more experience. I broke both his arms and a leg and left him lying on the floor. The medics would get to him soon enough.

  "Why did you do that?" He growled in pain.

  I just finished my food and left without answering.

  "Rule one," I heard someone else say as I left the room.

  Rule one wasn't originally mine, I inherited it with the position. Rule one was simple: 'If you haven't been here two years, don't talk to me. You don't exist.' When I had first come here years ago I had found it stupid. Now I enforced it. Hell, I even agreed with it. Strange how we change as we age. Maybe it was just this place?

  I went down to the gym then and exercised. Next I read a book, ate dinner, exercised some more, then slept. The next day repeat, and the next, ad infinitum. There were only three other assassins that I had anything to do with, and as two of them were female, sometimes we never even spoke. Just grunted, moaned and tried to make ourselves forget for a while.

  After ten days I went down to the visitor's area. Sure enough Azelett was there.

  "Thanks for coming," I said smiling, "Come on in."

  "Is it safe?" She asked looking at the guards.

  "No, but nobody bothers authorized guests. It's rule number two."

  "Well I'd like to thank who ever made that rule!" she smiled.

  "You're welcome," I replied smiling.

  "I should have known," she laughed.

  "Well rank his it's privileges and all that."

  "So I've heard. Shotoon filled me in some, and Rieselle most of the rest."

  "Anything interesting at the debrief?"

  "Not really, they confirmed your mission. Also, according to our sources they found enough of the injector to jump to the proper conclusions." She looked around as I took her down to the park. "Is it true that they don't ever give you leave?"

  "Once they decide you're too dangerous, that's it."

  "I'm surprised that nobody ever breaks out."

  "No place to go, it's all vacuum out there. And besides we have no ident tags or identities even." I pointed to where her absent ID chain normally was. "Try and live without one of those on the Moon or even the Earth. You won't get very far."

  "But you do exist," she chuckled and rubbed up against me. "You feel very solid to me!"

  "Not out there I don't," I sighed, "but let's avoid that subject." We walked into the park then. It was a nice place, about twenty acres under a dome deep in the crater that our little Palace was set under. It was twilight, my favorite time.

  "Oh!" She was surprised, looking around at all the dense forest. "This is amazing!"

  "They do try and make us happy," I admitted. "And while the efforts often fall short, we all appreciate the fact that at least they try.

  "Come on, let me show you my favorite spot." I led her to a nice secluded ledge on an outcrop in the crater's side. It was covered with grass and lilac bushes. I liked lilacs and had landscaped it myself.

  "Nice." She said laying down next to me.

  "I missed you," I said pulling her close and kissing her.

  "You hardly even know me!" She smiled.

  "Who can say that they honestly know anyone?" I smiled and started kissing her throat, "Ummm?"

  "We're not being watched are we?"

  "No, they don't monitor anything. We wouldn't stand for it and there's really no point." I had been working my way down her torso and was nearly at my goal.

  "Okay, just wanted to be sure," she smiled down at me and scratched my head. "Swing your butt around here why don't you?"

  I readily complied as my mouth had found its goal and I carefully went to work with my muzzle and tongue. She rewarded my efforts by taking me into her mouth and putting her own tongue to good use. We spent a long time there, making love and enjoying each other. It was full dark and very late indeed when we had sated our desires for each other.

  "I hate to ask, but how can you stand it?"

  I could see her eyes glowing in the dim reflected light.

  "By acting tough and a little crazy," I replied. "Like on the ship. I'll champion the most ridiculous cause, or the one least likely to be won. I fight for things I don't have and probably never will and don't even care about. Or just do the most insane thing I can think of to show off."

  "Have you asked for a different assignment?" she tried.

  "Of course, but they're afraid to let me go. As much for my protection as theirs. I've seen too much, too many people would love to get their hands on me."

  "They're afraid of you, aren't they?"

  "They're afraid of us as a group. I don't know if they're afraid of any one of us. At least they're letting the group shrink. When I got signed on there were one hundred of us, now it's down to thirty three."

  "But they're still training, aren't they?"

  "Not really, I think they want to get the number down some more. Things aren't as busy as they once were."

  "They're not? Could have fooled me! When's training for the next one start? In a week?"

  "Beats me, I just wait till they call me and tell me to show up. I don't look at the schedule anymore." I flicked my tail over and batted her nose with it while giving her a smile.

  "But this is slow. Back during the Leverage conflict I once stayed away from here for eight months. And training, if you got it, was short and simple. We were losing ten to eighteen people a month. It's a wonder I survived. Then one day after the end of the war, they locked us down completely and changed the rules. No more passes, no more going out even when supervised."

  "Why was that?"

  "Somebody got scared. Rumor has it that one of the group snuck off and iced one of our own V.P.’s, but it could have been another company that did it."

  "What do you think?"

  "Oh, just more bureaucratic B.S., that's all."

  "I meant about the V.P."

  "I really don't know," I lied. I had a pretty good idea who did it. And why. We're all very loyal and protective of our corporation. Raised that way I guess. The VP in question was not doing things in the company's best interests. At least we didn't think so. So I suspect that someone decided to do a little house cleaning. I just wondered if it had been official, though I doubted it. Thing's like that just don't go on 'in house'.

  "So do you get many visitors?"

  "No unfortunately. Very few people even know this place exists, much less who's here anymore. That's why no one messes with visitors, no one wants that
privilege taken away."

  "Then why do you do it?"

  "It's my job. What else can I do?" I nipped her ear playfully, "And anyway, I don't have any say in the matter, remember?"

  We went and got some food then, and I brought her back to my quarters.

  "Looks like an office," she mused. "All standard issue."

  "Personal possessions are just a weight to slow you down." I chuckled, "and it makes it harder for the psych guys to figure you out."

  "You really are pretty paranoid, you know that?"

  "Wouldn't you be?" I laughed.

  We sat around and watched a movie that was being telecast from Earth. Then the news and a documentary. I loved documentaries and was pleased to find out she did too. Then the news again.

  I watched a lot of news, both to see what effects my work had, and to see where I might be going next. Corporate infighting was a major source of interest and entertainment on Earth. I had noticed that public opinion was finally getting sick of the bloodshed though. Too many 'innocents' were getting caught in the crossfire they claimed.

  It was here where I found out (as I often did), the reason for my last job and the identity of the unfortunate woman I had shot. She was a Senator of all things! Kind of funny when you consider that he was the biggest supplier of illegal drugs on Earth, where nearly everything is illegal. The newsies were having a field day with that one!

  It was suspected that he was trying to get the government to outlaw, or try to at least, many of the drugs on frontier worlds. Most frontier worlds really didn't care or regulate drug use, and as my corporation did a lot of business in that market, I could see where they stood to lose a fortune. Not as much as he stood to gain however, illegal drugs always cost more than legal ones, that was just simple economics.

  But I also found it a little trite. Time was we only hit targets to save lives, or in retaliation for loss of life. This should have been handled by the Dirty Tricks squad. I said as much to Azelett.

  "Maybe there's more to it," she said.

  "I don't know, nobody told us about any people he had killed, or if he even was planning to. They just stamped 'Secret' on it and sent us out. Makes you wonder."

  "About what?"

  "Just who's running the show."

  "Oh, you're just being paranoid again!" She grinned and scratched between my ears.

  I closed my eyes and rumbled contentedly. Life's little pleasures were priceless in my book.

  Azelett stayed till morning, and I escorted her out. Visitors, the few that came, were allowed to stay as long as they wanted and got the royal treatment from everyone. The rules applied to the inmates only.

  I was in a very good mood for the next few days, and spent the time working my way through my correspondence. Even though I didn't get out much, except for work, I did write a lot of E-mail on the company and public nets. The hackers were all curious, as the better ones quickly found I didn't exist! And because getting bogus accounts was next to impossible on Corporate systems, they all figured I was either really good, or important. So we traded secrets and lies and had a good old time. I learned quite a lot about computers this way, and in exchange taught them a lot about security systems.

  Thanks to their teaching I had also managed to circumvent the log on my account, so I had unmonitored access to places I shouldn't have. It was in one of these that I found the order for my last job. I noted the authorization code for future reference, something I had rarely done before. Then I looked at my past jobs to see if any had the same authorization code. None did. That made me feel a little strange, I hadn't heard about any new guys in the organization. But then nobody was required to tell me whenever there was a change in staff. Probably nothing to get nervous about.

  But when I went to bed later on, I still couldn't stop turning it over in my mind.

  Early the next morning the phone beeped and I answered it.

  "Jotun, this is Rieselle. We've got a job, report in one hour." She said without preamble.

  "Okay," I replied and hung up.

  I showered, groomed, put on my uniform (for a change), and got breakfast. Forty minutes after the call I strode out to the exit and was once more allowed to pass into the outside world. I was escorted by two Tiger marines to the conference room. They were both seasoned veterans and we knew each other from years of contact. Before the lockdown had gone into effect we had even gone drinking and partying a few times together. My antics had gotten considerably worse since those days of course, and they both probably thought I was more than a little crazy now.

  I know all three of us wondered what would happen if I decided to split and run for it.

  The conference room was full, which surprised me. These things usually started on time, never early, and it was still five to. I looked around the room, my team was there and seated of course, so was Holt. But the rest of the people were new. They were all Human, two males and one female. The older looking male was fair with blonde hair and what used to be called the 'All American' look by Football commentators; he was tall and very strongly built, like an athlete.

  The other two were sitting where my other two Handlers usually sat. The woman was dark and striking, for a Human, athletically built and obviously, (to my trained eye at least, judging Human age, build, and condition were important in this line of work), not much older than me. I could also tell she was wearing a cross draw pistol under her jacket. I stopped and gave her a long appraising look, running my eyes down, then up, her body until I made eye contact. I locked gazes with her, and she then actually tried to stare me down, until she finally blinked.

  Not a good sign.

  I turned and looked at the remaining male. He looked young, but again my eye and experience told me he was older. He obviously had taken age treatments. He wasn't armed and smiled congenially when I looked his way. HE totally avoided eye contact.

  An even worse sign in a Handler.

  I turned to Holt. "Where are Don and Edward?" I asked ignoring the others for the moment.

  "They've been re-assigned," he said looking up. "These are their replacements."

  "Why wasn't I informed?" I asked quietly.

  "I am sorry Mr. Jotun," said the fair haired one sitting at the head of the table. "That was my fault. We just had a staffing change here and unfortunately a few things got overlooked."

  "And you are Sir?" I asked politely, turning.

  "Bill Siedman, the new section head." I noticed the female got a little edgy when I did this and cleared her hand for a possible draw.

  "This is Harold Westly," he continued.

  So I smiled reached across the table to shake the hand of the older male.

  "And this is Jaime Pike."

  I smiled and turned to shake her hand as well, then tightening my grip quickly snaked my left hand in and pulled out her pistol. I had it field stripped and laying on the table before she made it to her feet.

  "I'm sorry that I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to them," I said walking over to my seat at the other end of the table and sitting down.

  Jaime glowered at me and reassembled her gun. Harold looked shocked at her, then at me. I guess he didn't know she had it, or what he had gotten himself into. Mr. Siedman looked amused, which was intriguing in itself. He should have been upset with her, and me too probably. Holt looked worried, then relieved, like something bad had just been avoided. Or like he had just had a serious point proven. My team just looked curious, I know Shotoon and Rieselle had spotted the gun, Azelett probably had too.

  I took this in quickly and puzzled it over.

  "Quite a demonstration Mr. Jotun," said Mr. Siedman.

  "Please, just Jotun sir," I answered smoothly

  "Could I have my clip back Jotun?" Jaime demanded a little testily.

  "No. Guns aren't allowed in this area." I looked at Siedman, "Unless you've changed the rules sir."

  "Sure why not," he smiled at me, "I think my predecessor was overly cautious and it's time for some changes. A
fter all, if we can't trust you here, how can we trust you in the field?"

  "Thank you for your confidence Sir." I said tossing the clip to Jaime, who caught it neatly. I'd have to watch her. "I've been hoping to hear somebody say that for years!"

  I decided I might like this guy after all.

  "Now as to the mission," he began. "Your target is on New Hope, where he lives in a very secure mansion. This is a tough one, which is why we assigned you."

  "Human?" Shotoon asked.

  "Yes."

  We all looked at each other, my team and I that is.

  "Problem?" Asked Jaime with a slight edge to her voice.

  "No, of course not," said Rieselle. "Vital statistics?"

  The displays in the table came to life then, showing different views of the target, along with a list of identifying marks, height, weight, etc. He was five foot nine, one hundred and eighty pounds, seventy years old, and had taken extensive age treatments. He only looked to be about thirty five.

  "Any pictures without a full suit? Naked, topless, whatever?"

  "Why?" Asked Harold surprised.

  "Identification," I muttered running the display through all the pictures they had, "Odds are he won't be wearing a suit when I find him. Any clothes or personal articles?"

  "No," said Holt.

  "Whaddya want that for?" Asked Jaime, "You gonna track him by smell?"

  "Maybe," I mumbled studying the data. "Holt you must be slipping, didn't you fill these two in? And where are the envelopes?"

  "Here." He tossed mine across the table, I opened it with a sharp claw and spilled out the contents. Rieselle, Shotoon, and Azelett were doing the same. "They're new, don't be rude."

  "Well, do we have any of those?" Shotoon asked again for us. "The clothes or pictures that is."

  "I think we can get the pictures, that's all," Said Mr. Siedman.

  "Can you tell us why or what he did?" Azelett spoke for the first time.