Learning the Hard Way 2

by H. P. Caledon

“Outside!”

  Keelan wanted to stay so he wouldn’t be passed up, but the sounds making it from the rooms and into the hall made him fight to school his expression as the thought of one of them being his daughter pressed its way through. He exited and sat on the curb.

  Mike and the boy joined him.

  “Where are the last three?” Keelan asked. The kid glanced at his pocket, so Keelan pulled out the money and held up another ten.

  “Two went to Motáll, one is dead.”

  Keelan handed him the ten while the fear of the dead girl being his daughter tore through him.

  “What did she look like? Can you describe the one who died?” Mike asked.

  Keelan held up another ten. He didn’t mind spending money on the boy even if he then found out that the girl in that house was his daughter. At least it would give the kid enough to take a few days off and heal.

  “She was small, well, not very tall. Completely white hair and oddly enough brown eyes. She had a bent nose, like...” The boy put his finger to his own to demonstrate a curvy profile. “Pretty wasn’t a word I’d use for her.”

  Keelan ran a finger up the bridge of his own nose, because Alice had a nice little nose. His suffered a bit where it had been broken a few times. But did it matter? How much did genes have a say? Keelan had no idea what his parents looked like.

  “How old was she when you ran away?” Mike asked.

  “Thirteen.”

  Keelan sighed in relief. Then it wasn’t her. “And the two who wanted to go to Motáll?” Keelan asked and held up another ten.

  “The smart girls. They left with three boys. The rest of us ended up with...”

  “Mr. Rick?” Keelan asked as the kid had stopped.

  He nodded. “He beat two of us to death. One was the guy who turned all... white. He looked fucking scary, but when Mr. Rick saw him, he lost it. I ran when he attacked the white boy. I didn’t help.” The kid’s eyes welled up.

  “I can understand why,” Keelan said.

  “But we promised each other to...”

  “How many were there beating you up?” Mike asked.

  “Seven!”

  “Not exactly a fair fight against sixteen-year-olds,” Keelan said.

  “We were fourteen,” the boy said.

  “Aha,” Keelan mumbled and thought about his own first shift. He’d been just about sixteen, and after that, it happened in extremely stressful situations. Maybe Mr. Rick had pushed the fourteen-year-old enough to cause... the predator to take over?

  A man left the house with a stupid expression on his face. He hurried off when he saw them. Moments later, the doorman came out and nodded Keelan in.

  Keelan handed the boy the ten credits and went inside.

  “How long?”

  “I can’t tell you that until I see her.”

  “You’ve been waiting to jump that scar for an hour and now you don’t know if you want it?”

  “I only heard of her.”

  The doorman took him to a door and opened it. A young girl was putting on a robe. Keelan didn’t even have to change his eyes to see that the girl was too old, but he did anyway, relieved when he didn’t see a color around her. He looked at the doorman, shook his head, and left with a growing smile on his face.

  Hope was restored for now.

  “How old were the last two girls?” Keelan asked as he exited.

  “They were the youngest. Ten to twelve, I guess.”

  “Do you remember their names? Their names from Churchburrow?”

  “That’s gonna cost you, buddy!”

  “How much?”

  “You’re pretty set on finding them, huh?”

  Keelan and Mike exchanged glances.

  “How much,” Mike repeated.

  “Ten kilo per name!”

  “Ha!” Keelan turned and began to walk away. “Come on, Mike.”

  “No wait!” the boy cried out. They turned and looked at the beaten up, run down boy, and Keelan felt bad. He remembered the boys from the containers, how they’d at least had each other.

  “We can make a deal,” Keelan said and looked at Mike’s puzzled expression. He whispered the rough outline of the plan.

  Mike looked shocked, then at the boy. He finally uttered a sound somewhere between okay, what do I know, and I don’t care.

  “What’s the deal?” the boy asked, guarded.

  “You get a free ride to Motáll, we pay for food on the trip, and send you off with a bag full of food, new clothes, and a thousand credits in cash... when you have helped us locate the last two.”

  The boy gaped, then schooled his expression to skeptical. “Sounds too good to be that simple.”

  “Oh, finding them isn’t going to be simple,” Keelan revealed.

  “I meant the trip. Do I have to... to you two...”

  “No!” Keelan said.

  “Okay. Do I get it in writing?”

  “Why, do you think it would hold up in court?” Mike asked.

  The boy looked down and shook his head.

  “Your choice, chose now,” Keelan said.

  The kid looked up and nodded. “I’ll go.”

  “And your name?” Mike asked.

  “Jasper.”

  Keelan snapped his head around. “God hates me!” he yelled, turned on his heels, and left, hearing Mike chuckle.

  Once back at the bar, Keelan thought it best to bring Jasper in through the back.

  “Stay here. You, too,” Keelan said to Mike and Jasper before walking into the bar to wave Alice over. She followed him into the back and stopped short, staring at the bruised kid in the corner.

  “How old is he?”

  Keelan looked at the boy.

  “Eighteen. In a month,” Jasper mumbled.

  “An underage kid. In my bar?”

  “In the backroom of your bar and in a few minutes in Mike’s room. He’s not asking for booze, but I am. Half a bottle of tequila.” Keelan looked at Mike and nodded toward the back door.

  Mike nodded and left with Jasper and the bag holding all of Jaspers belongings. Once they left, Keelan looked at Alice.

  “He’s from Churchburrow. One of the boys who ran away from that place with our daughter. I ruled out three, maybe four. The last two girls went to Motáll. He’s gonna help us find her, so we leave tomorrow.”

  Something akin to hope grew in Alice’s eyes, but her sense of realism or maybe pessimism made it dim again only seconds after.

  “And our plan?”

  “We have tonight,” he said and embraced her. She nuzzled her face against his chest. “Please consider the Agro-Systems.”

  “What about my bar?”

  “Sticks, stones, and mortar.”

  “It’s everything I have and know,” she said.

  “You’re right. It might be easier for me. Everything I’ve ever known I’ve tried to run away from or escape. All except you.”

  She looked up, a tentative smile tugging.

  “If you find her, then I’ll consider the Agro-Systems.”

  Keelan nodded and stroked her hair, wondering if she would come and start a new family in the Agros if he didn’t find her. Or if she would insist on staying on Verion four. If the latter was the case, then he wasn’t sure he could give her children, because he couldn’t make himself to bring up children on Verion four.

  The boy was lying on the bed when Keelan came in with the half bottle of tequila and a first aid kit.

  “Here,” Keelan said, handing him the bottle.

  Jasper looked up, puzzled.

  “Don’t try to tell me you haven’t knocked back more than this before. Just drink it. I need you passed out before I’m gonna rinse any of your cuts.”

  Jasper seemed insecure as he reached for the bottle, and Keelan was enough of a realist to know why—he was afraid they’d take advantage of him once he was too wasted to put up a fight. In the end, he chose the numbness, put the bottle to his mouth, and drank greedily.

  Once he’d pas
sed out, Keelan fixed him up. They placed a bucket next to his bed just in case and tucked him in.

  Mike found a blanket and reclined in a comfortable chair with his feet up on the edge of the bed. He’d fallen asleep in that position when Keelan left with the empty bottle to help Alice close down.

  They made love that night, but it was more desperate and less passionate than normal. Keelan pondered why afterward, but the only reason he could think of was that she feared him not coming back.

  They didn’t talk about their plans.

  Alice and Billy came to the spaceport to see them off the next morning. Ratkins had left a few hours earlier for another mission and wouldn’t be meeting up with them on Motáll.

  Mike showed Jasper inside while Keelan and Alice tried to find a little privacy on the port. Not easy. Keelan actually hoped for an interruption, as there seemed to be awkwardness between them. But they kissed and hugged and kind of just stood there while Mike worked on getting them ready.

  “Kaleb! Our window is closing in!” he shouted from the ramp.

  “Take care,” Keelan said and kissed Alice’s forehead. At that moment, everything seemed real between them. He kissed her mouth, and she returned it, holding on tight.

  “Call me once in a while, okay?”

  “I promise.” He let go, reluctantly. Billy stepped up next to her and shook Keelan’s hand before placing an arm around Alice’s shoulder in a very brotherly protective way. Keelan stopped halfway up the ramp to look at her but then ran up it as Mike started bellowing about an open window.

  Jasper was already sitting in the cockpit, buckled in and sporting a very unhealthy facial color.

  “Still in pain?” Keelan asked, leaning to the row of seats to look at him and not be in the way as Mike came in.

  “No, never flown before.”

  “Ah.” Keelan looked at Mike. “Maybe you should, then. Gentle uplift and all that.”

  Mike grinned and took the pilot’s chair.

  Eight weeks with a kid they didn’t know. Keelan still had trouble remembering to answer to the name Kaleb, but Mike didn’t miss a beat. As far as Keelan had noticed, that was.

  There were noticeable changes in Jasper, who after about two weeks began to relax around them and open up. Maybe because his fears weren’t realized. He opened up enough to tell them about the last of the missing children, and Keelan tried to figure out which of the girls was his from the names—Maria or Misery.

  Considering the originality of giving throwaways names on Verion four, Keelan kind of expected the latter to be his daughter. That was how he’d gotten the name Hunter—from the rat hunters who found him. Then again, Maria was a biblical name, and she was taken in right from she was born and raised, so maybe they thought she had just a bit of innocence in her? He wondered whether her surname had something to do with the broom closet she’d been conceived in. Details of the two girls’ hair and eye color didn’t help as it was either Alice’s or his. He’d just have to find them both.

  Mike came into the common room, plopped down on the sofa next to Jasper, and handed him a book.

  “Read it,” Mike said.

  Jasper took it and leafed through it. “Why?”

  “Might as well learn something useful for when you’re going off into the worlds. Being a whore your whole life isn’t viable, you know that, right?”

  Jasper looked at the book and gave it another just as uninterested once-over.

  “What’s your dream, Jasper?” Keelan asked.

  “Doesn’t really matter, does it?”

  “Only if you think it doesn’t,” Mike said.

  “I just wanted to get away. Now I am.”

  “And once you’re away, then what?” Mike continued.

  Jasper shrugged.

  “There is an option that might help you get some perspective and find a path in life. It’s not an easy path, but it’s probably not as hard as living on the streets.”

  “And what is it?”

  “Enlist in the fleet,” Mike said.

  Jasper snorted.

  “Why the snort?”

  “Because. You’d have to have gone to school for that! You have—”

  “I have a good friend in the fleet. He actually has his own ship. A Spec Edit. Have you heard of them?”

  Jasper shook his head.

  “When you’ve helped us, then let’s call him up. Nothing’s final until you’ve spoken with him and he says yes. If you’d rather work service or technician, then you can do that. You’d get your own quarters, food, and a steady job.”

  The skepticism was back in Jasper’s eyes. “And in return?”

  “Well, we’d be saving the bag full of food and clothes, because you get that onboard.”

  “Is that it?”

  Mike nodded, got up and left. He returned a minute later with another but thinner book. That one was about life in the fleet. Keelan had read it as part of getting to know his new identity.

  “I’m not really that good at reading.”

  “Well, you’ve got five and a half weeks to get better. If you have questions, then ask. I was a sergeant. There’s a chance I can answer.”

  “Have you been on many planets? Did you meet many species?”

  The questions poured out of Jasper, so Keelan left them to it and went into the cockpit. There he logged onto the systems and searched this and that, and bounties on Motáll.

  For the next five and a half weeks, Mike and Jasper spent most of their time together. Keelan stayed in the background. At first it was because the young boy reminded him of Jasper from Irgang. He did participate in the physical training to get the boy ready, should he decide to become a soldier. When Mike taught him other things, Keelan listened in, participated, or was given tasks of fixing something to learn that.

  Their window to land drew closer.

  Keelan sat in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and a map of Motáll Port City. There were two other cities around the planet’s single spaceport—one was the rich people’s end of town where Mike had gotten shot, and the other had a name Keelan couldn’t pronounce. It was also above runaway street-kid level, so he didn’t believe them to have run there, either. Or stayed, if they had tried their luck at it. There were a few cities scattered further away, but they were isolated to anyone who didn’t have a lot of money to travel the barren landscape to get there. And once you did, it was so remote that Keelan had heard of the cities as being perfect places for a con to hide from the law. If the people would let him stay and not just kill him and bury him in someone’s backyard.

  Mike came into the kitchen. “Something up?” He took a cup from the cabinet.

  “No, just memorizing streets and rooftops,” Keelan said and pushed the thermos to him. “Where’s Jasper?”

  “Taking a shower.”

  “Have you considered one?”

  “Are you saying I stink?” Mike asked amused and drank his coffee.

  “No! Implying at most,” Keelan said, grinning. “Why are you training the kid? Is it really to make him ready for Spec Edit?”

  “No, I’m training him because you’d like me to.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you. God hates me! Isn’t that what you yelled when you heard the kid’s name? Like the one you shared a cell—”

  “That has nothing to do with the kid,” Keelan argued.

  “No, but even though you’d like to think that you’re this mysterious guy that no one can figure out, then you kinda revealed that you feel quite a lot of responsibility toward your own.” Mike actually made quotations marks with his fingers.

  “I think you’re full of piss and don’t know shit.”

  “That’s likely, but we’re calling the request in with Lewis. The kid earned a break.”

  Keelan just nodded and smiled to himself. “Did you call in the window?”

  “Yup, we land in two hours.”

  “How long until Lewis gets here?”

  “I actually already called him,”
Mike said. “They’re at Kanakoon doing some drills in the sandbox out west. He sent a Hunter here to pick up Jasper and two other new recruits. We have about a week with Jasper.”

  Keelan looked up some information on his pad and pushed it to Mike.

  “What’s this?”

  “Read it!”

  “Okay, okay, Mr. Bickery.” Mike read the details. “Pavlov. He’s probably not going to stay for long.”

  “His mother lives here.”

  “Oh. How the hell did you find that out?”

  “Because I did a stint with him in Orlani Juvie,” Keelan responded. “I owe him a beating and thought we’d leave that to the inmates of the colony and earn us some money, too.”

  “Okay, inside information is good. Why do you owe him a knuckle-massage?”

  “I once told you that I only did drugs once, right?” Keelan said, sitting back.

  Mike nodded, sitting forward.

  “He sold them to me... and then proved why I shouldn’t have used them.”

  “What happened?”

  Keelan pinned him with a stare before shaking his head, slowly.

  Mike just shrugged and returned his gaze to the memo-pad, but it was obvious that he was curious.

  Keelan wasn’t going to elaborate on that one, though.

  Keelan, Mike, and Jasper sat in a soup bar and ate, reading a news update. Jasper had had four hours to take in the new world, asked a gazillion questions, and mentioned for the umpteenth time that Motáll didn’t smell anything like Verion four. The kid had finally overloaded on new impressions and declared himself hungry.

  The door jingled, and two varanuides stepped in. Keelan’s stomach dropped, and he smiled.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “Wait here.” Keelan left the table and went to stand right behind them. One turned with a scowl but looked surprised to see Keelan, who shushed. He stepped back to not get knocked over by the tail as Saleek turned to stare at him.

  “Kee—Dean!” The youngling embraced Keelan so tightly he almost lost his breath. Once again he had to revise his idea of the size of the child.

  “Saleek,” Keelan said and took a deep breath once he’d been lowered to his feet. “My name is Kaleb... now.”