Down in the basement, Valerie entered the briefing room and saw, with the exception of Sneaker, the entire Crew were there. They sat in chairs arrayed in a semicircle around the holo table. None of them would meet her eyes. Though word would not have spread beyond this building of what transpired, it certainly would have done so within it. Only Hanna, who sat perched slightly on the table at the front, would look at her evenly.
“What are you all doing here?” Even to herself, her voice sounded abrupt, cold and detached. These were her troops, her responsibility and she respected and trusted them all. She owed them more than the way she had spoken. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to treat them as they deserved.
“I asked them to be here,” Hanna said standing up.
“What gave you the right?”
“Sneaker put me in charge of this and we’re doing it my way.” The girl said her face hard. There was uncertainty behind it and Valerie fought the rage inside of her. It wanted her to exploit that weakness. The rage could not, would not, tolerate any threat to her authority, her very means of dealing with the man with a hand in the murder of her family.
“Where’s Bjorn?” Valerie asked coldly.
“I’ll tell you as part of the briefing, Valerie. Now sit down,” Hanna was almost convincing in her attempt to take control.
“Really? What are you going to do if I don’t?”
“Good luck finding him without me.”
Valerie stepped right up in front of Hanna. She felt as though her entire body was keyed to a knife edge. The hangover was a distant memory as her rage burned through her and Valerie’s fists were clenched at her side. “What’s to stop me choking the information out of you?” Almost she regretted those words. Only almost.
There was a stir from the Crew behind and Hanna swallowed deeply. The girl stepped even closer, so they were practically nose to nose.
“Tom, Daphne and Bobbie,” she said in the faintest of whispers.
It was like someone punched Valerie in the stomach. Tears sprung to her eyes as those names were spoken to her for the first time in two years. She felt her entire body deflate. The rage receded and she stared into those so familiar blue eyes.
“You know,” was all she could say.
Hanna nodded slightly. “Just Sneaker and me.”
No longer able to see those eyes, Valerie lowered her head and collapsed down into an empty seat. She was distantly aware the room relaxed with her and a collective breath was released.
***
Letting out her own breath with everyone else, Hanna steadied herself on the table. For a moment there, she had been sure Valerie was going to beat her to a pulp. It had taken every scrap of courage and will she possessed, to stand up to her. Pulling herself together, she stood up straight and thanked the stars. Everyone’s attention was still on Valerie, who sat slumped in a chair, and they hadn’t noticed her almost collapse.
Nervously, she ran her hands through her hair. “OK, as you may have guessed this is quite personal for Valerie.” They turned to her and she reminded herself what Sneaker said to her.
“Valerie’s not going to be herself on this one,” Hanna remembered. “You’ve got to show them that you are in charge and know what you’re doing. Get them to put the same confidence in you as they would in her and they will treat it as no different from any other Job.”
Mentally collecting herself, Hanna continued the briefing. “If any of you want to ask her why, that’s between you and her.” With the way Valerie was, none of them would dare, not even Troll. “First of all, this is a personal Job. There’s no profit on this one, though Sneaker is covering the costs.” Meaning they wouldn’t get paid. “If anyone can’t do that? Fair enough, you can leave now and nothing will be said. Anyone?” She looked around the room with her fingers mentally crossed. None of them moved, not even Hobbs.
“Alright.” Hanna activated the Holo table to show a high rise tower. “This is Harbury Tower, home to the Suarmar Hotel. Staying in their sixty-third executive suite is Bjorn Pomykala. We’re going to kidnap him so Valerie can ask him some questions.”
“Why isn’t Sneaker running this?” Judge asked in his relaxed, slow drawl.
“Sneaker has a territory to run and he asked me to take this one. I’ve been number two on every Job for the past six months. I can do this.” She tried to make her voice ring with a confidence that she didn’t really feel. Her stomach seemed to be rolling around inside of her, in a way not dissimilar to how it had been, just prior to her emptying it on the Helo. “Besides,” she continued more brightly. “You know how shorthanded we are.”
“What about the names we put forward?” Hobbs asked. “Are we going to see any of them anytime soon?”
“Not really my area, Hobbs, but I do know Sneaker is going to start talking to people this week.” Hanna answered and thanked Sneaker for keeping her in the loop on that one. “Any more questions or can I get started?”
No one said anything. They all just sat there watching her. Hanna could not help taking a deep breath and licking her lips. “OK, as I said, Bjorn is in Suarmars sixty-third exec suite on the one hundred and twelfth floor of the tower. I got into his itinerary last night and he’s not scheduled to leave for another two months. That’s good. It will take me about a week to set up all of the different ID’s we’re going to need.
“The suite is on the east side and has large external windows. This will be our entry point. I‘ll be going in first under a cleaners cover identity and set up shop in one of their maintenance ducts. Once there, I will have access to their systems. I’ll be able to monitor their responses and fritz the cameras so none of our images will be recorded.”
Hanna nodded to Troll and Barney. “You two will be posing as building maintenance. Harbury is an old tower. It pre-dates Blaze joining the Pantheon and is made of permacrete, rather than the Privileged preferred carbonide. Often cracks appear and need re-fusing.”
Pressing a button on the Holo table, Hanna changed the display to close in on the side of the tower. It now showed a close up of the suite windows and included an anti-grav gantry hanging above it. “I will build you ID’s for the maintenance company, along with a work order for the day of the Job. Once there, the two of you will plant explosives against this wall. There’s small kitchen unit on the other side, in case a guest wants to show off their cookery skills. As you can imagine, that’s fairly rare so it should be unoccupied. Your thermal imagers will of course be able to confirm that. You will have two alternative entry points, should you not be able to use the kitchen.”
“That gantry is a crap jumping off point.” Troll pointed out. “It’ll be slow to get into position and too unstable, particularly in the high winds. Also, we’ll have to go through hotel security with our weapons. If we can get that far in, we might as well take them through the suites front door. Why complicate matters?”
“I can’t get you into the Suarmar with weapons heavy enough to deal with Polykala’s security detail. Their security is too tight for that, but you aren’t the assault element on this. Once you’ve planted the explosives, you’ll move the gantry clear and wait. You’ll blow them on Deni’s signal.”
Nodding to her best friend Hanna continued. “You’ll be in the aircar nearby with Valerie and the Job will go on your signal. As soon as they blow, get the aircar in tight to the hole and send Valerie across. As usual, she will be our main assault element. Once she’s in, pick up Troll and Barney from the gantry and wait for Valerie.”
“Erm, are you sure?” Troll asked sceptically as she and everyone else were looking at the slumped and dejected woman. “She doesn’t really look like she’s in any condition for this.”
Hanna feared Valerie was so consumed with her grief, she hadn’t heard anything said in the room. Hanna felt guilty for doubting her. Valerie looked up with burning eyes. There was nothing of the coldness of space in her now, only the intensity of a supernova.
“Try and stop me,” is all she said and no on
e felt like arguing with her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The foyer of the Suarmar Hotel was as big as it was opulent with great sandstone arches overhead. The Stone was hauled all the way from the Ginormican Mountains and installed within the Permacrete structure. A solid, real mahogany polished wooden floor ran throughout under the high ceiling. That in itself was worth a first Families ransom. Mahogany needed to be shipped into the system, the trees originating in Earth’s rain forests, could not survive in Blaze’s hot, dry atmosphere.
Hanna struggled to ensure her eyes only wandered around in mild curiosity, rather than gawk aimlessly. One entire side of the foyer was an indoor pool designed to mimic some sort of habitat. She didn’t recognise any of the green plants, hairy animals or the small two winged flying things that flitted about. They must be from off world and that meant they originated on Earth as well.
She had never visited any of the terraformed worlds, let alone the birthplace of humanity. They were all completely new and exotic to Hanna. She resisted the urge to go closer and stare at these creatures. The cover identity she created for herself was from Atlantis. Someone born on one of the Pantheons original member systems, would not be impressed by the display. Her original idea to come in as a cleaner hadn’t worked out, so now she was a Privileged heiress on holiday.
With a confident stride in the cursed high heels, Hanna strode up to the welcome desk. A handsome man, in an impeccably turned out dark red and green uniform, smiled at her.
“Welcome to the Suarmar Hotel. How may I help you?”
“I have a reservation. Jin-seo Proudfoot.” Hanna replied in a bored voice.
“Of course, Miss Proudfoot. If you would give me one moment please?” He tapped industriously away on his keyboard. Hanna was surprised at his accent, it had the clean crisp elements of the Privileged, yet she knew he travelled in via the Underground every day. He didn’t have the harsh and guttural tone that was so common outside the Privileged. Just as they wanted to define themselves as being apart from the rest of humanity, so did the rest of humanity want to be clear they weren’t the Privileged.
Hanna heard hotels like the Suarmar trained their staff rigorously. You learned fast or you were out. They did pay better than most and were some of the more sought after jobs. It wasn’t much more, only ten to twenty percent above average, but that could make a big difference in the Ghetto. The only other way to earn that kind of cash was through the Gangs or join the Legion.
“Here we are, Miss Proudfoot.” The clerk said, his entire manner clearly stated he was happy to be of service. “We have room 938, a luxury two bedroom suite with lounge and dining room, all ready for you. May I please see your ID and credit chip?”
“I arrived this morning and I still need to set up my planetary credit facilities. Will cash be acceptable?” Hanna said as she passed over her ID card with a stack of notes. With the only route of communication between worlds being via starships and in particular small, fast courier ships, banking between systems was difficult.
If you did not have an active account in your destination system, your bank would issue you with a Bullion Chip. This would hold whatever amount of money you specified and could afford. On arrival in the system, it would be presented to the banks local office or an affiliated one. They would use that Bullion Chip to open an account for you, checking your identification thoroughly as they did so. They extended credit based on information on the chip from your bank, should you need more than what you brought with you.
When it became time to leave the system, you had the choice of leaving the account active or closing it and taking the money back with you. Any debts were sent by the banks own secure courier ships, back to the home office to be dealt with there. These ships were slower and a lot more heavily armed, than those used for normal communications, such as news and personal mail.
Although it was an inefficient system, the Privileged did not mind. Many had the resources to leave open accounts where ever they may go. If they planned sufficiently in advance, they could have the Bullion Chip sent ahead on one of the banks couriers, so the accounts were ready on arrival. Due to the balance between cost and combat systems the couriers incorporated, some passenger liners were actually faster.
Manuals rarely travelled unless they worked on the cargo, passenger or Legion Navy vessels. This was one of the reasons why. It was incredibly rare for them to have that sort of cash available. If you did travel between systems for your living then the company you worked for would extend you credit. Deducting it directly from your wages when you returned home.
The banks and the Bullion Chips themselves were the most secure systems Hanna knew of. As far as she was aware, they could not be Hacked. Any transactions via credit chips were easily traceable by the banks themselves, if not the security agencies. The vast and incredibly powerful banks of the Pantheon, long ago secured a ‘right of privacy’ for their customers. The banks own internal security needed to sign off on any information to be released. That would only be done if they found evidence of financial wrongdoing. This was of course negotiable with their client.
It was why Hanna was now handing the 130mm x 70mm, slips of printed plastic over. They had a unique chemical signature making them impossible to forge, but easy to identify. Cash was also completely untraceable.
“That won’t be a problem.” The clerk said, not blinking when he took more money in his hand than he would earn in a year. “Our guests often don’t have time to do that before they arrive. Would you like me to schedule an appointment for your banks representative to call on you tomorrow?”
“No, that’s fine.” Hanna said with a lazy wave. “I can’t be bothered with that now and I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow yet. I’ll give them a call in the morning.”
“The room is keyed to your ID.” He said as he passed it back to her. “Please enjoy your stay and if there is anything you need we are always happy to help.” He pointed to his right. “The lifts are just down there.”
Hanna nodded to him without a word, just as most of the Suarmars customers would have. With a wave of her hand to the porter who followed her from the car, she headed in the direction he indicated. The porter pulled the grav sled containing the nine large cases Hanna brought with her. Mostly they contained only blocks of building material and filled out with insulation foam.
A lift stood ready and Hanna stepped in, leaving enough room for the porter to slip in and take up position at the back. A swipe of her ID gave her various options of destinations and Hanna chose her room. The lift car shot up on its anti-gravs, the compensators giving very little feeling of movement.
Staring straight ahead Hanna completely ignored the living person behind her and that wasn’t in her nature. She wanted to turn and chat to the small woman in her forties, to find who she was. Did she like her job and what was life like for her? That wasn’t an option if she wanted to maintain her cover. How the Privileged treated those not born with the money and chances in life they enjoyed, was something that always bothered Hanna.
Now she had seen first-hand, with the deaths of Valerie’s family, just how cruel they could be. Her only interaction with the Privileged previously was when she stole from them. She knew then, they would often not think twice about killing her, if she was caught. She just saw that as a reasonable response, it’s what Tern, Tumbler or Sneaker would do, if you tried to rip them off.
What she had seen recently made her wonder. Did the Privileged actually see them as human beings or were they just some useful rodents? Her thoughts were interrupted when the car arrived at her stop. That was all something for another time. She had work to do.
The car deposited her three doors down from her room. A light flashed on her rooms door to let her know which one it was. Her ID let her in and she waved to the middle of the suite.
“Leave them there. I’ll sort them out later.”
“Would you like me to put them in the relevant rooms, Ma’am?” the porter asked pol
itely.
“No. Just unload them and go.” Hanna said brusquely, playing the part of an impatient hotel guest who wanted the suite to themselves.
The woman nodded and unloaded the grav sled quickly and efficiently. All of Hanna’s cases were stacked carefully and neatly to one side while Hanna stood by the open door. When she was finished, the woman nodded and led the sled out. As she passed, Hanna expertly slipped a fifty Sovereign note into the porters pocket without her noticing. That would be more than a day’s pay for the woman and Sneaker could afford it. Fifty Sovs was the minimum bet on some of his tables.
When she was alone, Hanna kicked off the heels, hit the suites Do Not Disturb button and casually pushed the top two cases off a pile of three, ruining the porter’s tidy work. It was sods law, the only case that had mattered was put on the bottom. After entering the complex twelve digit code, Hanna opened it up.
Inside was her trusty Quartz and various tools. When she slipped into the hotels system a couple of days ago, she reserved this room for a reason. It was not one they had randomly assigned to her. Nodding to herself that everything was there, she took it with her into one of the bedrooms.
Dumping the case on the bed, she pulled the free standing piece of furniture away from the wall. Hanna thanked Valerie for the training regime imposed on her and Deni. The bed was heavy and Hanna doubted she would have been able to shift it a year ago.
With the wall exposed, Hanna checked her Quartz for the exact position. The schematics she downloaded showed her exactly what she needed. From the case, she took a roll of insulated material and spread it out on the floor beside the wall. Next she took a pair of gloves and a heat cutter. Pulling the gloves on and activating the cutter, she carefully sliced into the wall. The hot blade cut through the internal wall easily with no resistance. Hanna made sure she didn’t go too deep.
Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) Page 41