“Well,” said Ellie, “then I wouldn’t want to be in Monti’s shoes.”
“Don’t worry about Monti, worry about me.” Macnair nodded to Stace, who opened up the case he was carrying and began removing its contents. “Do you recognize any of these items?” he asked.
“Sure,” said Talia. “Standard mind probing stuff.”
“Not quite standard,” said Macnair. “I’m sorry to say. Sorry for you, that is.”
“Look, you don’t need to use that stuff,” said Ellie. “We’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
“I’m sure you will. People tend to tell me all types of things when I pressure them. Then at some point, half of it conflicts with the other half and in the end none of it adds up. I find it easier to conduct business this way. Soon I’ll know all there is to know about you and your brother.” Macnair motioned to Stace, “You may proceed.”
Stace finished setting up his instruments and connected them to Ellie and Talia through a cap that went over their entire heads and fastened under their chins, securing it firmly in place.
“I’m telling you there’s an easier way. We’ve got something you’d be interested in,” was all Ellie was able to get out before becoming unconscious.
“I’m sure you have,” Macnair replied.
“Hey, boss,” said Stace. “I got something strange here. The minute they went under, I picked up a repeating signal saying something about if we continue to probe them then all information regarding the location of the Nurridium will be deleted. Same thing coming from both their implants. What do you make of that?”
“It’s just a trick to stop us from probing their minds,” said Macnair. “Don’t pay any attention to it.”
“Wait a minute, there might be something to that,” said Monti. “They insisted that they did not come here to cut a deal for her brother. This is even before I made mention of my contacting you.”
Macnair thought for a moment and then the businessman inside him took over. “Wake them up.”
Ellie woke up to see Talia watching her. They were alone except for a couple of guards in the hallway.
“What’s going on?” Ellie asked Talia.
“I’m not sure,” said Talia.
“I don’t feel any different,” said Ellie. “How do I look?”
“Very stylish,” said Talia.
“Do I look like I had my brain melted?”
“How should I know? I never saw anyone with a melted brain before.”
Ellie looked around, “Where did everyone go?”
“I’m not sure, but my guess is they went to have a few drinks and talk things over while they waited for us to wake up. Five will get you ten that Gil’s program kicked in and now they’re all real interested in the Nurridium.”
“I suppose that’s better than having our brains fried,” said Ellie.
“Let’s hope so. These guys know a lot of tricks and I’m not sure if Gil’s program will hold them off. We weren’t really planning on this caliber of attention. Here they come.”
“Everybody have a nice nap?” asked Macnair as he entered the room. “All nice and rested? Good. Now I want everyone to be quiet and listen while I explain to you exactly what is going to happen next. You’re going to tell me right away if this hidden Nurridium thing is a trick or the real deal. If you tell me right now that it is a trick, I will collect on my bet with Monti and we will continue from where we left off. If I find out later that it was a trick, I will cut off your arms. Everybody understand?” Lots of head nodding. “Good. Now tell me, was it a trick?” Lots of head shaking. “So you do have Nurridium hidden away somewhere?” Head nodding again. “Alright, let me hear it.”
Franco, Gilbert and Holt had watched with some apprehension as the shuttle descended into the planet’s atmosphere. That apprehension grew as an hour passed without receiving any communication from either Ellie or Talia. One hour became two without word and their apprehension blossomed into full fledged fear. Fear gave way to near hysteria as a sleek and well armed ship took a position off their port side and locked on weapons. Another hour went by before they received a transmission from the ship.
“Attention. We are sending a shuttle to pick up all personnel for transport to the planet.”
“We’re boned,” said Holt, turning to look at Gilbert and Franco. Both nodded silently.
It was a short time later that Franco, Gilbert and Holt found themselves reunited with Ellie and Talia and wearing similar headdresses.
“I’m warning you, tampering with us like this runs the risk of losing the data forever,” said Gilbert.
“No worries, boss,” said Stace. “I know from the short time I was working on the girls that the data goes into a lockdown routine and then gives a warning before deletion. I know these implants well enough to get around that. It will just take a bit of time to convince their unconscious brains that everything is normal-like.”
“No details, please,” said Macnair. “Just results.”
Macnair and Monti left and Stace began his work. In no time at all, he was swimming through their collective unconsciousness, making his way into their implants’ processors and programming. Gilbert’s code worked well enough against perceivable external threats, but Stace had them all thinking they were at the beach watching the waves go back and forth. Their guard was down and the information was out in under an hour. Thirty minutes after that, they were all awake and facing Macnair again.
“Nice work,” Macnair said to Stace. “Hal, take the ship to these coordinates and retrieve the rock while Monti and I enjoy dinner and, I don’t know, maybe a show. The rest of you are staying here and if that ship comes back empty, I’m cutting arms off of everyone.” Macnair heard a gasp from behind him and felt a slight tug on his sleeve. “Not yours, Monti.” He turned and walked towards Ellie, “And who knows, if it’s a big enough chunk of Nurridium, I might just forget all about that grudge I have against your brother.”
The last thing anyone heard was Monti’s voice fading away as he and Macnair walked down the hall. “I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but if it comes to it, do you think you could do the arm cutting somewhere else? I’m not really set up for that kind of mess and this is new carpet…”
“Well, that was fun,” said Talia as the guards closed the door.
“We need to get out of these restraints and go after them. I’m not going to let them steal my Nurridium,” said Ellie.
“Your Nurridium?” asked Franco.
“That’s right, our Nurridium,” said Ellie.
“What do you propose we do?” asked Talia. “We’re locked in here and there are two guards in the hall. You probably don’t realize it, but these guys are way past state-of-the-art. Some of the stuff they have goes about a hundred light-years beyond crazy. That guy picked our memories clean.”
“I actually enjoyed the day at the beach,” said Gilbert. “Very relaxing.”
“I almost wished he took a bit longer,” agreed Franco. “The barbecue was almost ready. Hey, Holt, how come you weren’t at the beach?”
“I’ve got this fear of water since I almost drowned so beaches make me really nervous,” said Holt.
“So where’d he put you?” asked Franco.
“I don’t want to say too much since we’re in mixed company, but it was the best nudie bar I was ever in.” Holt leaned over and whispered, “Ellie and Talia were there.”
“No, we were at the beach,” said Ellie.
“Not in my mind,” said Holt.” Sorry, but you two were the featured dancers.”
“Great.” said Ellie. “Talia, you had listed all these fancy implants on your résumé when I hired you, let’s see them in action.”
“Yeah, about that,” said Talia. “Those implants are kind of like the guns and shields you told me your ship had.”
“You have a résumé for the job of enforcer?” asked Gilbert.
“Hey, it’s a profession just like anything else,” said Talia. “The hiring pr
ocess isn’t that different.”
“But what do you put for past experience?” asked Franco. “Do you list all the body parts you’ve broken?”
“I can imagine the interview,” said Gilbert as he began impersonating the hiring manager. “I see you’ve broken a lot of legs. Is that a personal preference or is there a reason you shy away from arms and fingers?”
“Laugh it up,” said Talia. “When we get out of here I can update it with ‘experienced in killing coworkers.’ And by the way, I’ve been asked that question more than once during an interview.”
The laughter died down and the group sat there in silence for a while, each contemplating their fate, hoping that Macnair finds the Nurridium and is happy enough to let them go free with all limbs attached.
“Did anyone hear that?” asked Talia.
“Hear what?” said Franco.
“It sounded like a couple of bodies falling out there in the hall,” said Talia.
“Nope, but I did hear something that sounded like a door opening,” said Franco.
“That’s because the door just opened,” said Ellie.
“Then that explains it,” said Franco.
They were all restrained and positioned in chairs that faced away from the door so they didn’t see it open or watch as the unconscious guards were dragged in from the hallway before it closed.
“I think someone just came in the room.” whispered Talia. “Hello,” she said in a louder voice, “is someone there?”
“Don’t worry, I’m here to help you,” said the person that just entered the room, coming around front to give them all a look over. “Everyone okay?”
“Other than being held against our will,” began Ellie, “getting our brains probed and threatened to have our arms cut off, we’re doing great. Who the hell are you?”
“A friend.”
“Really?” said Ellie. “Because I know what all my friends look like and I don’t see any resemblance.”
“Let’s just say I’m more of a friend than those guys,” he said, nodding towards the unconscious guards.
“Well, that’s not too hard,” said Ellie. “I did mention that they wanted to cut off our arms.”
“My name is Tomas, Agent Tomas. I’ve been in contact with your brother and keeping Macnair under surveillance for the better part of the past year. I followed him here thinking that Monti had somehow gotten his hands on Jon and was turning him in for the bounty. I let myself in and headed in this direction since this is where the highest concentration of guards were located. I overheard them mention Nurridium so if you want out, you better tell me what’s going on.”
Ellie didn’t know whether or not to trust Agent Tomas, for all they knew he could be someone that worked for Macnair using this ploy as a means to see if they had given them a straight story earlier. If that was the case then there was no harm in telling him everything that Macnair already knew, which they did including the location of the rock. As they began talking, Tomas began undoing their restraints.
“A big chunk of Nurridium, eh?” said Tomas. “You should have turned it in right away. For something like that, a guy like Macnair would kill you without even thinking about it just to cover his tracks.”
“We didn’t want to get involved with Macnair,” said Ellie. “We wanted Monti to negotiate a bigger finder’s fee with the Feds for us. We just wanted our fair share. Do you think I want to keep hauling freight and dealing with lowlifes for the next hundred years?”
“Hey,” said Franco and Holt.
“I meant the customers!” said Ellie.
“How big of a chunk are we talking about?” asked Tomas.
“Head size.”
“That would do it,” said Tomas. “With something like that, Macnair could get all the other bosses to knuckle under as well as most governments. I’m heading to the teleport so I can get out of here and call this in. There’s still a chance we can catch them picking up the Nurridium, then we can add that to the charges against Macnair. ”
Talia and Holt had already picked up the guard’s weapons and nodded to Tomas, indicating they were ready to go. They collected a few more weapons along the way to the teleport.
“That hallway leads to the patio and then your shuttle is further on. Shouldn’t be too difficult to get to it. Here, take this,” Tomas handed Talia a small device. “It will blanket your movements from the surveillance system.” Agent Tomas stepped onto the teleport and turned towards Ellie. “We’ll talk later,” he said before disappearing.
Talia walked over to Gilbert. “Ever fire a weapon before?” she asked.
“Only paintball guns,” he replied. “It’s a war game, the guns shoot wax balls that explode and leave colored marks on your clothes.”
“Time for the real thing.” said Talia. “Think you can follow me without your gun accidentally going off?”
“I think I can handle it,” Gilbert said, half offended, half hoping he doesn’t trip and shoot one of his friends in the foot.
“Gil, you get behind me. Ellie and Franco, you’re in the middle. Holt, make sure no one comes up behind us. Let’s go.”
They followed the hallway to the patio without incident. Talia peeked around the corner and was able to see the shuttle. “Two guards,” she whispered over her shoulder. They used the side terrace as cover as they moved closer to the ship.
“I’ll take the one on the right,” said Talia. “Holt, you take the one on the left. Ellie and Gil, spread out and provide cover fire. Franco, watch the rear.”
Once the others were in position, Talia and Holt opened fire on the guards. As soon as they heard the first shots fired, Ellie and Gilbert began firing as well. It was all over in twenty seconds and in less than a minute after that, the shuttle was ascending into the atmosphere.
Everyone was happy to see that the nasty looking spaceship had gone, but then felt a bit depressed when they realized it most likely went to retrieve their Nurridium.
“Let’s get the hell out of this sector and make a wide berth around wherever it was you dumped that rock,” was Ellie’s first command. Once the ship was well on its way and they were sure they weren’t being followed, Ellie called everyone to the ship’s galley.
“I just wanted to get together,” said Ellie, “and say that even though the deal didn’t work out for us, at least we survived with all our arms intact. And I learned a valuable lesson. Next time something like this happens, I’m just dumping everything into the nearest star and filing an insurance claim.”
“And Gil,” said Talia, “even though your program didn’t stop those guys from getting the information from us, it did save our ass down there.”
“I thought it was pretty good stuff,” said Franco. “I thought it would do the trick.”
“Not me,” said Holt. “Nothing against you two, but I knew that whatever you guys put together someone, somewhere would be able to pull it apart.”
“Oh really,” said Gilbert. “Then why didn’t you do something about it?”
“I did,” said Holt. “Sorry, Captain, but instead of putting that Nurridium back in the rock like you ordered me to, I shoved it in the bottom of storage locker 8-12.”
19.
Lyn and Simon traveled to the Dahana space station ahead of Jon so they could secure a suite of connecting rooms close to the teleport station. While they were doing that, Ellie2 was setting up a security grid to mask their coming and going from the station’s surveillance system and then Jon would follow in exactly one hour.
Jon was still a very hot and sought after commodity and if the price Macnair had put on his head wasn’t enough, Alicia’s father had plastered his face all over the media, accompanied by a reward for any information pertaining to either his or Alicia’s whereabouts. Macnair had the entire underworld network of snitches, informants and bounty hunters looking for him and now the followers of entertainment television were on his heels as well. Things were definitely not going as he had hoped and paying a visit to Dahana
could make matters worse. The space station had resident bounty hunters that lived there year round following the premise that it was easier to wait for your prey to come to you than chase after it. There are always people on the run and sooner or later most of them come through the space station and a certain percentage either don’t pay off the right people or they’re identified by someone’s facial recognition system and they’re picked up and carted away, usually without the need of frozen carbonite.
Jon’s goal for the day was not to be caught, so he wore clothes that hid all his prominent features. You think this would make him stick out in the crowd, but at least one third of the people in the space station didn't want to be found and were similarly dressed.
Jon met Simon and Lyn at the teleport station and the three of them proceeded to their rooms. The space station is a twenty-four-by-seven affair since almost everyone there is on a different timetable and it doesn’t have a predictable slow period. The only people that operate on a fixed schedule are the residents that work there. A few centuries ago, a group of scientists got together and developed a universal system for measuring hours and days in hopes of putting everyone in the universe on the same timeframe, but it ended up like the metric system in the United States; everybody is aware it exists, but nobody really uses it unless they have to.
“Okay, step one complete, we’re all here,” said Jon, glancing about the suite. “Just couldn’t wait, could you,” he said noticing the ruffled blankets in one of the bedrooms.
“We had 20 minutes to kill while we were waiting for you to come through,” said Simon.
“What did you do for the other 18?” asked Jon.
“Very funny. Besides, we didn’t know how to turn on the TV,” said Simon.
“TV on,” said Jon and one side of the room became a live action theater. “Just say what you want and the room will do it.”
“But you spoke English,” said Simon, “and there’s no way that the room understands English.”
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