by Worth, Dan
‘But there’s so much to learn here. We’re not seeing the whole picture!’ Katherine replied. ‘Those things that Ushild said, about the ship that they found and his people’s reaction to discovering the existence of the Progenitors: There’s something about this place, about what they found that’s important beyond mere academic interest, I can feel it! This society went to pieces and destroyed itself after they went through that portal and we’re about to do the same. Doesn’t that bother you?’
‘Yes it does, Katherine,’ said Steelscale. ‘But it seems to be our only chance of ever getting home again.’
‘What about Ushild? Are we just going to leave him here to rot?’
‘No,’ said the drone. ‘I and Okanno are working on a means to detach him from that device and place him in stasis until we can get him aboard. I am confident that if we can stabilise him now, then this stands a good chance of succeeding. I for one would be interested to hear what else he has to say about the demise of his people. You have a good point, Katherine. If we do manage to reactivate that portal and go through to whatever lies beyond, it would be helpful if we had some prior knowledge of what awaits us on the other side.’
Chapter 26
It was only after the third or fourth jump with the stealth module engaged, and when it was clear that they were not being followed, that the crew of the Profit Margin had been able to breathe a sigh of relief. It was to be days until the ship would drop out of its jump once more, before the final leg to the Achernar system.
Isaacs flopped back into his seat and rubbed his tired eyes, then looked at his wife and saw his own exhausted expression reflected in her features.
‘Looks like we made a clean getaway,’ he said, and then looked over his shoulder at Steven in the seat behind him. ‘I forgot to mention,’ he added. ‘That was a tough fucking call you made right after we launched from Gagat’s Colony. Could have ended messily but... it was the right thing to do.’
‘This is a Stallion class, isn’t it?’ said Steven.
‘Yeah it is,’ Isaacs nodded.
‘Don’t you know your own ship, Captain? If the gravity well had been too steep the drives would never have engaged. There’s a safety cut out built into the engines.’
‘Yeah well... I kind of had that thing deactivated not long after I bought her. The software was over cautious to the point of annoying about preventing the ship from jumping and I have it on good authority that it’s possible to hack into the system remotely and stop a ship from jumping at all. Being shut down and boarded didn’t appeal to me and it was a real risk in my previous line of work.’
‘So in other words, I could have killed us all?’
‘Yep. But hey, we’re all still in one piece, right? Better than being toasted by that Shaper ship. Still, falling into the atmosphere of a gas giant until we suffocated or were crushed to death by the pressure after the drive imploded would not have been a great start to the day, I’ll give you that.’
‘Will you give it a rest?’ Anna cut in, irritably. ‘We, and your precious ship are still in one piece, and it looks like we weren’t followed. Agent Harris: thank you. You saved our collective arses with your quick thinking. If it hadn’t been for you, no doubt we’d be still trapped on Gagat’s Colony surrounded by the Shapers’ enslaved horde.’
Steven merely acknowledged the compliment with a nod and then peered over Isaacs’ shoulder at the ship’s console displays. The Arragut system was rapidly receding from them.
‘How long until we reach Achernar?’ said Steven.
‘Uh, seven days and ten hours or thereabouts until we reach the Saragossa system, then another jump to Achernar of two and a half days. So, almost ten days to get to know one another, Mr Secret Agent ,’ said Anna, leaning forward intently. ‘But I guess you know all there is to know about us.’
‘Some,’ Steven replied. ‘The fact that Chen trusts you is enough for me. She’s not easily fooled, nor does she trust anyone that readily.’
‘You know her well then, I take it?’
‘You could say that. She and I go way back. We’ve had our differences, and it wasn’t pretty at times, but I trust her judgement on some things. Plus, she outranks me in SOC so, what choice do I have? I have my orders.’ He shrugged. ‘Look all I know is what’s on the record. I know you two had some dodgy dealings in the past, but like Chen I’m not interested in what crimes you’ve committed. In fact, your backgrounds in smuggling and so on are a positive advantage, not to mention the glowing reports of your work for us so far from Chen.’
‘So, do we get to know anything about you, or is everything classified?’ said Anna, gently mocking him.
‘You can ask,’ Steven replied, with a crooked grin. ‘I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to answer you satisfactorily. What can I say? I started off in the Navy, moved into CIB after a few years and after following a rather circuitous route I was recruited into Special Operations Command.’
‘Have you come up against the Shapers before?’ said Isaacs. ‘Because believe me, this isn’t going to be easy.’
‘Yes, I have,’ Steven replied. ‘I was there when we found the first one on the planet Maranos, as a matter of fact. Since then, I’ve been helping to root the bastards out all over the Commonwealth and beyond. I hunt them. Someone has to teach those things what fear is.’
Isaacs nodded slowly, liking what he was hearing. Then he noticed that Steven had acquired a haunted look as if he were reliving something terrible for a brief moment.
‘So, Maranos. Shit, you were there at the start of the war?’ said Isaacs.
‘Yep. Can’t really talk about most of it though. Bad business. You know your cabins still stink of K’Soth? It brings back a few memories. I saw you got a few of them out of the Empire?’
‘Yeah, Steelscale was one of the good guys. Almost got my balls shot off on the way out, but Chen pays well.’
‘So I gather. You uh... you had some dealings with Doctor O’Reilly and Professor Rekkid Cor, in the Hadar system, correct? Got them both out of a tight spot.’
‘You’ve seen the file,’ Isaacs replied nonchalantly.
‘Yes, I have. How is Katherine these days?’
‘Uh, okay. I think.’
‘That’s good,’ Steven replied. ‘I take it Rekkid is as bad tempered as ever?’
‘Yeah, look we didn’t get much chance to get acquainted to be honest. They left with Chen and the last I heard they were heading back into Arkari space. What is she, ex-girlfriend or something?’
‘No,’ Steven chuckled. ‘She and I... I once saved her from the clutches of a K’Soth Inquisitor, if you must know. Sort of.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Long story and mostly classified, but well, I’d do it again if I had to.’
‘Jesus,’ muttered Isaacs in admiration. ‘You’ve fought those things?’
‘Hand to hand, yes. Not something I’d recommend.’
‘Bloody hell, I think we’re in safe hands,’ said Anna. ‘So who won?’
‘I’m still here with all my limbs attached, aren’t it?’ Steven replied. ‘I did. I’ve faced them a few times since as well. Did you know the K’Soth war machine was riddled with Shaper agents? They started off fighting us, and then ended up fighting each other. The Empire rotted from the inside out, just like the Shapers intended. It’s what they’re trying to do to us too, in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘I had,’ Isaacs replied. ‘Believe me when I say I’ve killed enough of their slaves to figure that one out.’
Steven nodded slowly as if digesting that piece of information and then changed the subject.
‘Chen’s people provided you with a secure comms unit. Correct?’
‘Yeah they did. It’s stashed away behind one of the internal panels,’ Isaacs replied. ‘Let me get my tools and I’ll retrieve it for you and set it up. I take it that you want to let the Commonwealth know what we witnessed at Gagat’s Colony?’
‘Yes. If the Shapers are collecting antimatter to build a wea
pon of mass destruction, the Commonwealth needs to make plans to do something about it. I can’t help but wonder if anyone has witnessed this sort of thing going on anywhere else.’
Later, once the encrypted message had been sent and the ship was underway in hyperspace once more, Steven disappeared into his cabin for some time and emerged having transformed himself. His appearance startled Anna when she first saw him again outside his cabin. Such was the difference she at first thought that they had picked up a stowaway. The wild hair and straggly beard were gone. Now he was clean shaven with his black hair cropped close to his skull. The scruffy, stinking clothes, meanwhile, had been replaced with casual ship-board garments. Anna appraised his physique. He was lean and taut and moved quietly with a predatory purpose, like a cat on the prowl. He was undeniably attractive, but she had vowed to be a good girl now that she and Cal were back together. Still, she thought, she could admire him from afar. She caught up with him as he ambled aft towards the engine room.
‘So, this is a new look,’ said Anna brightly as she approached.
‘Yeah, this is what I actually look like. The booze-soaked vagrant look isn’t really me, but it’s good cover in a place like Gagat’s Colony. People pretty much make an extra effort to ignore you. Means you can move around in plain sight and no-one can see you.’
‘So why the change?’
‘Looking like this won’t get me very far in the Achernar system. Orinoco in particular is a pretty wealthy place. Lots of people on the make, assuming they haven’t been enslaved by the Shapers yet. Someone looking like I did would stand out to the point where I’d find it difficult to move around - too many doormen, security guards and whatnot in the cities and they’d turn someone like that away without a second thought.’
They reached the engine room. Amidst the throbbing machinery, they found Isaacs staring intently at a small display set into the jump drive’s external shielding.
‘Everything okay?’ said Anna.
‘Uh-huh. I think so,’ Isaacs replied, intent on his work. ‘I really ought to get this thing serviced, but I think we got away without any damage to the drive. All the diagnostics come back in the clear.’
He closed a panel over the display and clicked it shut, then turned towards them both.
‘You need me for anything in particular?’
‘As a matter of fact, I do,’ said Steven. ‘We have some time before we get to Achernar. It would be a good idea if we formulate an idea of how we proceed once we get onto the surface of Orinoco. Initially I’d planned to do this alone, but after seeing your files, you may be able to assist me. Ideally we’d have a team of agents in place, but with things the way they are at the moment, there aren’t enough people that we can trust amongst the ranks of the intelligence services. It would be a recipe for disaster to bring along anyone else.’
‘So what did you have in mind?’ said Isaacs.
‘You guys used to work out of Achernar in the past, correct?’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’
‘Do you have any contacts there? Friends, business associates and the like? Anyone with their ear to the ground who might know what’s going on?’
‘One or two. They’re all in Bolivar City, mind. I never ventured that far from the spaceport, so if you’re looking for help crawling through the jungle looking for Haines, I can’t help you. I wouldn’t know where to start looking.’
‘Anyone with connections to the military, or the local police forces?’
‘Maybe. There’s this bar I used to hang around, a lot of the independent captains go there. I think the owner had some sort of links with the local crime syndicates to keep them off his back. It might be worth a try if you’re after information,’ Isaacs offered.
‘Every little helps. We are, after all, looking for one man and we need to know the situation on the ground. Even if we could work out where the Lincoln’s escape pods came down it would help, though doubtless the enemy will have pounced upon any that they’ve found and stripped them of any clues. Still it would give us a general area within which to start looking.’
‘So what sort of approach did you have in mind?’ said Anna.
‘I’ve been thinking: this shipment of ours. Rather than just sell it straight away, we should pretend that this is just a sample of our goods. I can pose as a representative of parties offering to supply rare and expensive items to discerning customers, the sort of things that might have become more difficult to obtain since Achernar split from the Commonwealth with the other renegade systems. The Sirius Syndicate on Orinoco was decapitated recently. The death of a certain Mr Bennett with whom I believe you’re more than familiar had a lot to do with it. There was a power struggle afterwards which CIB naturally exploited as a way of starting to dismantle the organisation in the system. Consequently, the black market is a bit of a free for all. Sirius Syndicate had the place locked down pretty tight and shut everyone else out. Now, despite the war, it’s a golden opportunity for smaller crooks to grab what they can and start empire building as well as for those lower down the food chain in the Syndicate who now see an opportunity to advance themselves, providing of course that the Shapers don’t decided to enslave every man, woman and child in the system.’
‘And you’re intending to pose as such a person?’
‘Yeah, I am. I have a number of identities available to me, all with official documents and so on with corresponding records that have been discreetly inserted into the usual databases. Background checks won’t reveal anything suspicious, won’t show that I’m not who I say I am. The rest is mostly acting like I am who I say I am. In this case: a middleman for gangsters and smugglers. I don’t have any new false IDs that I can tailor to you two, so you’ll need to let me do the talking, most of the time.’
‘Had you considered the possibility that we’re both wanted individuals?’ said Isaacs. ‘We had a few near misses recently. The Spica system springs to mind. Plus our recent encounter at Gagat’s Colony.’
‘They got a look at this ship in Spica but they never got you. Whoever they arrested never talked. Similar story in the Hadar system: the authorities are looking for a ship of this type, but there’s no record of the real ID. SOC did their work to cover your tracks. Whether anything was picked up by the enemy after they seized Gagat’s Colony, I can’t say. They certainly got a look at this ship, false ID and all.’
‘How do you know all this?’
‘It was in the file I was sent, of course. SOC did their homework before sending you out to me. If you were a risk, we wouldn’t have used you.’
‘Hmm, well that’s nice to know,’ Isaacs replied, a little uneasily. ‘So what are we pretending to be then, if you’re pretending to be this smuggling type?’
‘You don’t need to pretend to be anything. Just be yourselves. If you’re known in Bolivar City it would be pointless pretending to be anyone else and it wouldn’t serve our purpose. Like I said, I need you to sniff around for me and see what’s what. Meanwhile, we look and act like I’ve employed you for your services and your local knowledge. You’re ferrying me around and acting as a man in the know with local connections in the freelancer community and being hired muscle in case I run into any trouble.’
‘Hired muscle?’ said Isaacs incredulously. ‘You took down K’Soth in a fight, you said so yourself.’
‘Yeah, but they don’t know that, do they?’
‘True,’ Isaacs agreed. ‘So what, do you bring a bag of disguises or what?’
‘Something like that, yeah,’ Steven replied.
‘Weapons?’
‘No. I figured it was too much of a risk taking them through port security. What I need, I’ll acquire locally. You know of anywhere or anyone who might be able to provide?’
‘Yeah, us. Chen had her people stash enough guns and ammunition in the walls of this ship to mount a revolution. Take what you need. The compartments have been lined with sensor opaque materials. I was assured that they won’t show up on port scanners
unless they look really closely.’
‘Wonderful,’ said Steven and grinned. ‘Mind if I take a look at what you’ve got?’
Over the following few days, Steven occupied himself in the hold, practising with the weapons that he had chosen from those stashed in the hull of the ship. Although Anna and Isaacs often wandered down to the hold to watch him or try and strike up a conversation, he said little. He seemed ever more focused on the task that lay ahead of them. He had taken a variety of guns and spent hours taking the various pieces apart and putting them back together, often with his eyes closed so he had to rely on touch alone. There was a brace of laser pistols, a long barrelled rail rifle with gyroscopic stabilisers and telescopic sights, a combat shotgun, and a heavy looking semi-automatic. Though he could not fire any of the guns on the ship, Steven spent hour after hour practising drawing the smaller weapons from various holster positions, getting the feel of each gun, how they weighed in his hand, how the triggers felt under his finger, how quickly he could reload them. Then he would go back to his cabin and pace up and down impatiently.
Later, he started to examine the explosives that had also been concealed within the Profit Margin. There were tiny grenades, shaped charges, anti-armour limpet devices and a couple of man portable missile launchers. Steven took time to study them in detail.
They brought him meals, asked him if there was anything he needed. He thanked them politely and went back to his preparations as the Profit Margin hurtled towards their final destination in the Achernar system.
‘I have to ask,’ said Isaacs on the fourth day, as he brought Steven a reheated meal from the ship’s tiny galley and found him poring over a map of Bolivar City. ‘Is this personal, or what. Or do you just really throw yourself into your work?’