by Richard Dee
“We’re doing the right thing, going to New Devon,” I said. “We don’t know where your family are, but they’re safe. There’s no mystery, no sudden disappearance. Everyone knows, Eyck, Evers, that secretary. Even Kal Rivers knows about it. They’ll be safe and we can find them later.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I don’t really want to work for Villiars again, it’s too obvious. Miro found us there before and I’d rather not be too easy to find.”
“Once we get to New Devon, Griff can hide us and he can always get us work. That’ll keep us out of the way.”
“OK call him again, I’m going for a shower.”
“Do you think that Ria’s had a chance to calm down?”
“That’s why I’m going for a shower, just in case she hasn’t.” She left before I had time to set up the call.
Myra made the call, I told her to make sure that the video channel was on. I wanted to see Ria’s face when I mentioned Irin. Hopefully, it would give me a clue about the sort of reception we would receive.
“Hello, boy,” he boomed the familiar greeting. He had been calling me boy for nearly twenty years now, “thought you’d call back after Ria hung up on you. What have you been up to?”
“Hi Griff,” I answered. “I’m on the way to you from Jintao, Irin wanted to see her family but they weren’t there. We don’t want to go back to the Villiars contract, even if they’ll have us back. There’s a bit of work needed on Freefall, can you arrange it, and a job for us?”
“I can understand why you want to keep your heads down,” he said. “I’ve been following your progress, we can talk about it when you arrive. Send me your list of jobs and I’ll organise it. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of work for you, we can keep you busy and out of sight of prying eyes.”
“There’s another thing, can you try and find Costa, the Villiars manager from Jintao for us?” I asked. “Irin’s family has gone off with him to a new world and Myra can’t find it.” Before he could answer, I heard Ria shout, “Who is it?” he turned away. I heard him say, “It’s Dave, he’s coming back.”
Ria appeared on the screen. “Are you bringing her with you?” she hissed. Her face was contorted with anger.
“Why? Is it such a big thing?” I said. I had sort of expected a reaction like that, even though I had hoped that Griff and Ria had talked it out.
“Don’t be stupid, Ria, we talked about this,” I heard Griff say, and they argued, on my bill, for a moment. It sounded like the continuation of an argument, maybe it had been going on since the last call, they were both stubborn enough to keep it simmering, neither of them would back down.
Ria appeared again. “I’m sorry, Dave,” she said at last. “I suppose I shouldn’t take it out on you…” she went quiet and I realised why. Irin was stood behind me; she had come in while I was watching the screen. Wearing just a small towel around her waist, the blonde curls wet to her face and chest. And that had shut Ria up as she got up to speed on the nature of our relationship.
“Dry my back, Dave,” Irin said, turning around and handing me another towel, totally unaware of the fact that she could be seen. I heard a noise like someone choking and Griff saying, “Stop shoving, I’m trying to talk to Dave.” Ria was trying to keep him away from the screen. I had to laugh.
“Who’s that?” Irin asked. When I told her she went red and rushed out. I was about to follow her when Ria spoke.
“Since you seem to be so well acquainted, you’d better bring her along. We can talk properly. Just get some clothes on her before Griff has a seizure.”
Griff reappeared. He was laughing. “It’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ve talked to Ria and she’s talked to Elana’s family. Tell the girl we won’t eat her. I’ll make some enquiries about the manager if you like. We’ll get Freefall up to scratch and you can work for me, just like old times. Once we’ve found this man, you can fit a visit in around all the jobs I’ve got lined up for you.”
“Thanks, Griff, I’ll pay you for everything out of my wages.”
“I know you will. Don’t worry about that, it’s what friends are for,” he said. “What was the name again?”
“It’s Costa, from Jintao, the place they went to is a new Villiars world; it started with an R.”
“Leave it with me, see you soon.”
The call ended and I went to find Irin. She had dried her hair and dressed, her face was still red though.
“I didn’t realise that you had the video on,” she said, “or that Ria would be watching. I thought that you’d just have the audio.”
“I wanted to see her face, see if I could tell how annoyed she was.”
“And?”
“Well, she wasn’t happy, it’s pretty clear that Ria and Griff have been arguing about you.” She started to speak, I talked over her protests, “Ria started to apologise to me; before she saw you standing behind me, that’s a start. She probably would have to said it to you as well, if you hadn’t given Griff palpitations.”
“So she was not quite as anti then? Will it be OK?”
“It’ll be OK, “ I said “I promise. I got a better reception this time, they’ve obviously been talking about things. It’ll be fine.”
“But what are we going to do about work, and finding my family?”
“Griff says don't worry about the job, he can keep us solvent, there’s always plenty of work to and from New Devon. He’s going to ask around and we can check out the rim for news of your family while we're working. It’ll be just like the old days, he’ll give us work that keeps us moving and out of sight of the Federation guards. Freefall is in better nick now it has the extra modifications from Urssa Mining and there are two of us; he reckons that there’s plenty of jobs.”
“You know that Ria will want us to find Rixon,” she said. “After what she said on Jintao.”
“I’m not just going to kill him, because Ria wants me to,” I replied. “I wouldn’t mind talking to him but I’m not dispensing Ria’s justice on a whim.”
If Ria did suggest it, we would have two sets of people to find. Along with working for Griff, it would be more than enough to keep us busy. For the rest of the trip, I tried to fill Irin in about life on New Devon, she was looking forward to seeing the place. “I’ve heard so much about it,” she said, “one of the engineers on the Onyx, that was Rixon’s ship, was a Gyrl from New Devon.”
I thought of Jev, of what had started all this. I couldn’t help it. I ended up telling Irin the story, again. I found that I remembered more as I told it, like how Jev was a wizard at unlocking just about anything and as for writing code, well let’s just say she could have made a lot of money doing that.
“Lisah was a genius, too,” she told me. “She could strip and rebuild just about anything, usually it ran better after she had got her hands on it, even if it hadn’t been broken to start with. She had a knack of coaxing performance out of a speeder.”
“They’re all like that; it’s why we let them guard the ships. They’d take what they wanted anyhow, this way they get paid and they stopped the real criminals from even trying.”
Unless they were Federation Guards, trying to suppress the truth.
Chapter Five
We arrived above New Devon, Irin presented the disc that Costa had given her as an ID, and it was accepted by Immigration. There was a short customs inspection, there seemed to be heightened security, perhaps it was because of the events on Qister. They knew me well here; knew I was a trader. All they wanted to know was my last port, as it was Jintao, there were no awkward questions to answer.
Following the traffic controller’s instructions, I landed in one of the bays that Griff rented for his fleet. As usual, there was a Gyrl there to meet us. I handed over the access keypad, told her there was no cargo but that she could help herself to a meal from the stores. I didn’t bother with the ground car; we could take the Mag-Lev into town. It was a pleasant enough day, warm and dry and not raining for once, it felt good to walk to Griff�
�s office.
So much had happened since I had left here the last time. I remembered that Griff had told me to be careful and how Ria had worn all the seashells woven into her hair. How I had found out about Jev’s death and that the sequence of events that had led me to Elana, Irin and to Qister-Alu had been put in motion.
“Are you alright?” I asked Irin as we stood at the door. She had barely said a word on the trip in. I gripped her hand. “Ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said. “Let’s get it over with.”
I pushed the door open. “Try to keep calm,” I whispered as we went in. Ria was not at her desk.
“That you, boy?” Griff shouted out from the inner office, he must have been watching the camera mounted over the door. “And who do we have with you?” There was the scrape of a chair and he appeared, about twice her size, all wild-haired and enthusiastic. Ria came out with him.
“This is Irin.”
“Hello, Griff, Ria,” she whispered, she suddenly seemed small and defenceless.
Ria looked annoyed. “You’re the one Elana died to save,” she said. I had never seen her look like that; normally she was easy-going and carefree. To my surprise Irin didn’t bite, she just looked down for a second.
“Let’s get this out of the way, right at the start,” Irin said, her voice growing in confidence as she spoke. “I’m really sorry about Elana, but it wasn’t me that she saved, it was my mother and my son Nuri. Rixon had them and was going to kill them. So if you want to blame anyone, blame him. I might have only known her a short while but I considered that Elana was my friend.”
Ria looked at Irin. I wasn’t sure what would happen. Griff nudged Ria; to him, it was probably a gentle act. She lurched sideways, grabbing the door frame to keep her balance. I tried not to laugh, it broke the tension.
“You’re right,” she said. “I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have said lots of things. Can we start again?” She went across to Irin and the two embraced. Then she came over to me. “Good to see you, Dave,” she said as we hugged. “Forgive me, the last thing I want to do is spoil your happiness.”
Griff went to Irin and gave her a one-armed hug, his missing arm was a legacy of the last time he had seen Rixon. Like me with Myra, he owed its loss to the Chenko brothers. “You’re welcome here, Irin,” he said. “There’s a lot I don’t understand but if your family’s lives were being used against you, well that’s not right. And Elana was a grown-up, she knew the risks. I’m not going to spoil things either. Dave and you obviously get on and that’s good enough. Anyway, I want to hear all about what else has been happening in your lives, then I’ll tell you what we can get you doing; now that you’re working for me.”
Griff locked the office door. “We’re closed for today,” he said. “Let’s get up to the flat, we can have a drink and you can tell us all about it.”
We climbed the stairs and went onto the balcony. Once we were seated, Griff passed out bottles, Ria placed plates of bread, cheese and salad on the table. We drank and ate; watching the sun sink below the buildings, saw the lights of the city come on, and the stars above competing for attention. We chatted about recent events but kept away from anything contentious, mainly talk of what jobs we could do to keep out of trouble and what it had been like working for Villiars.
“I hate Rixon for what happened,” Ria said much later, when we had all got to that mellow stage. Irin had excused herself; the three of us were alone for a moment. “Elana’s family were devastated and I feel partly responsible because I got her the job, but Griff and I have spoken a lot and I’ve come to terms with it. I know that Griff and Rixon went back a long way and that he was good to you, but I can’t see him like that. I only met him once when you came to buy the Sprite. It wasn’t enough to form a good impression. That’s no history to stop me feeling how I do. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, we had a lot of good times, but I have to admit that he’s changed. I would never have thought it was the same person.”
“At the time, I didn’t realise that Irin’s family were involved,” said Ria. “Now I’ve met her, I really like her. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”
“They were hostages to keep Irin working for Rixon,” I explained.
Griff made a noise of disgust. “Then he’s changed alright.”
“I’ve done a lot of thinking about it,” Ria said. “Any way you look at it, Irin isn’t responsible. She was trying to survive and keep her family alive. I shouldn’t blame her, if she makes you happy, that’s the most important thing.”
Irin came back in; I was relieved that she had been accepted here. It was time to go back to Freefall, the Mag-Lev would soon be running a reduced service and we’d have to wait a long while if we missed one. I could tell her the good news on the way.
“We’d better be off,” I suggested.
Griff shook his head. “There’s no need to go back to the ship.”
“You can stay the night here,” said Ria. “Save you going back to Freefall. Come on, Irin, let me show you.”
The girls disappeared into the apartment. “I suppose you want to know all about the Gyrl,” I said to Griff as he got more beers from the fridge.
“I do,” he rumbled, “but so does Ria so it’ll have to wait. Are you going to tell me about the rest of it?”
I tried to look innocent and failed miserably. “The rest of what?”
He looked at me. “Dave, do you really think that I just sit here? Qister-Alu, of course. Just tell me, was it to do with the quarantine worlds?”
“I said that I wouldn’t let on…” I started.
“I know, but I hear things, you found something didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And it’s big?”
I nodded, unwilling to break the word I had given Paoul. “It’s big but I’d rather not say.”
“That’s alright,” he answered. “I get the general idea and I know a bit more than some. You’re not the only one to have found… things. Grey things. It’s a discovery that the government want kept secret. It has to do with the Gyrl I told you not to get involved with, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “You got it.” Once again, he was ahead of the game, all the contacts he had made over the years kept him abreast of what was really going on. He hadn’t mentioned the Truth Movement, I still thought that he was connected with them in some way.
“Ah well, it’ll come out when it’s ready I guess,” he said draining his bottle. He knew about the rocket that had been fired as well, but I never mentioned it.
“What do you know?” I asked and he smiled.
“There’s been a lot of talk about caves on quarantine worlds,” he said. “You hear it on the chatter.” He looked at me. “There’re lots of caves on Qister, aren’t there?” And that was all he would say.
Irin came back before we could say any more. “Ria’s made up the spare room for us,” she said. “It’s all ready.” In other words, come to bed before you get too drunk.
Chapter Six
I woke up feeling a little the worse for wear, I had been off the drink for quite a while, the trouble was Griff could just pour it in with no effect and I felt duty-bound to try and keep up.
Ria and Irin, after my initial doubts, had seemed to hit it off straight away. I was really worried that there might still have been animosity because of Elana but there wasn’t. Ria had transferred it all to Rixon. Irin was her new best friend.
“We’re off out for a day, shopping and things,” announced Irin over a leisurely breakfast. The food was as good as I remembered it. “You two can talk all day.”
“Look after her, Dave, she's a keeper like Myra was,” Ria instructed me as they left. “I know you’re itching to talk about Qister, you carry on; Irin can tell me about it while we shop.”
Before Griff and I could discuss what had happened, we sat down and organised all the survey and certification work for Freefall. How I would pay for it was another ma
tter. When Griff found me work it would have to come out of the profits. I couldn’t haul cargo without it, chicken and egg really. I never got the chance to bring it up. Griff arranged it all, shrugged and said, “Don’t worry.”
Griff left the office in the hands of one of his captains, a guy who I knew vaguely called Jim Boberton, known to all as Jimbo. He had flown for Griff since I had gone missing after Myra had died, he was currently grounded while he recovered from injuries sustained on his last job, he didn’t say how. Griff and I went out to a small bar he knew, hidden away in the back alleys, where we could speak privately. “If I stay in the office I’ll only get involved,” he explained, “it’s less distraction and Jimbo won’t appreciate me hovering.”
“Before I tell you about Qister, I need to fill you in on the background,” I began. We had cold beers in front of us and a huge bowl of mixed nuts. They were salty, which was the bar’s way of making sure you drank more, but we paced ourselves, this could be a long day, we had plenty to discuss.
“It was the Gyrl, wasn’t it?” Griff began, “the dead one, she started it all off.”
“How much did you know, Griff? It was you who told me to be careful.”
“I knew that she was Truth Movement. I didn’t know how involved you wanted to get. They had asked me about you, if you were dependable, for a job they had coming up.”
“So, are you a part of it?”
He shook his head. “Not really, not the inner circle, I just pass messages along, maybe ship a parcel here and there, I have no official idea what they’re up to.”
Typical Griff. “But I bet you know more than they think you do.”
He smiled. “Well, you know me, I know a lot of folks and I hear a lot of things.”
“You didn’t need to worry. I got involved alright, I didn’t mean to, she stowed away.”