I reached out my hand, and the man just looked at it. Well, that wasn’t much of a welcome, but all I could do now was go with it. I put my hand down and tried to smile. “Captain Drake.”
“Archabald McKrey. Sly tells me you have a way off planet.”
“We do.”
“And your codes will hold up even during this skirmish.”
Well at least now it was down to a negotiation. That was something I felt pretty confident in handling. “We didn’t have any problems landing, but let’s just say our ship has a few hidden compartments, depending on what we need to take off world.”
“I need to get a team off world today, can you handle that?”
“One,” I said, making sure my voice was firm and didn’t leave room for arguing. The man frowned so I repeated myself, making sure he knew this topic wasn’t up for discussion. “I’d be willing to take on one passenger.”
“Now you see here.” His face was growing red with anger. “You’ll take however many damn people I tell you to take, or I’ll be taking your guns and that shiny box. If you push me too far, maybe I’ll even take your lives.”
“Listen to me when I tell you this, McKrey, one person is easy to hide. Two is a problem, but I might be able to deal with it. But if a ship like mine pulls into port with six extra people, someone is going to take note. Especially when they probably have a good idea how many we landed with. So what’s it going to be, you going to kill me or are we going to make a deal?” I really hoped he took the deal, because we needed to move through his territory and the last thing I wanted to do was trade one problem for another.
“Damn straight I will.” He turned and yelled back towards the building he had come from. “Guards.” Five men ran out at the sound of his voice all of them had rifles raised to fire.
I motioned for Maze and Gabe to lower their weapons. We weren’t getting out of this by fighting. “McKrey, if you want to go back to having no options for getting off world that’s your business. Mine is to deliver this damn box. Now I’m willing to work with you, but only to the point it doesn’t put me and mine in unnecessary danger.” I looked over at Jeff, but he wasn’t offering me any help so I decided it was up to me to try and save this negotiation before it fell apart. “I’ll make you one last offer, and then you do whatever you have to do. Just remember you won’t be getting whatever you need off world without me.” McKrey scowled at me but didn’t interrupt. I took that as a sign to continue. “I’ll take two of your people with me when I leave. I will take them anywhere you need me to and guarantee their safe passage. Once they have been dropped off, our deal is over, they need to find their own way home.”
“You don’t know how important this is,” he blustered.
“I don’t care. If we bring a whole team I’m doing a couple things I can’t live with. I’m going to be outnumbered on my own boat, and if we get caught all of us are dead. Two is safe, it gives your man back up, and I can hide two people on my ship with relative ease.”
He considered it for a moment and then stuck out his hand almost begrudgingly. “You have a deal.”
“Get your men ready. If you can get them into some kind of crate like this, it would make it easier for me to sneak them past our landing port’s security. Leaving with one crate and coming back with another shouldn’t raise too many eyebrows.”
“It will be ready when you return.” He turned towards his man. “Sly, get these people where they need to go and get back here double time.”
“Yes, sir,” Sly said with a grin.
He couldn’t have been the best soldier, but he was a man after my own heart. Sly motioned for us to follow him. As we started forward he asked for the destination, and I gave him the address. He moved us through the rebel territory quickly. People around the camp seemed to know and like him. He got more than a few friendly waves as we made it to another exit.
“I’ll be waiting for you here. You need to go one block south and one to the east.”
“See you soon, Sly.” I shook his hand.
He smiled. “And don’t even think of not returning.”
I just shook my head and continued down the road after my team. Why was it everyone liked to end meetings with threats? Do this or die, do that or we will cut your finger off. Jesus, it was like nobody had any trust anymore. I just wanted to get back to my ship and off the fucking red planet. Why couldn’t anyone understand that? If that meant we had to take a couple stragglers with us when we went to Serenity Station, then so be it.
CHAPTER 20
CAPTAIN DRAKE
With the amount of money and power our employers had been throwing at us, I expected more from the building we were headed towards. For some reason, two hundred stories of shiny glass and metal didn’t seem out of the question. Instead we had a squat thirty story square whose paint job had seen better days. I had to check my datapad three times before I really believed this was the place.
Hiding in plain sight is what came to mind. Who would suspect that a company that had the power to bend the Earth Republic and the N.E.A. to their will worked out of such a dump? I was standing here knowing the truth and even then it was hard to swallow. So much for glass towers.
We worked our way around the building towards the loading dock. I could hear the whir of cameras as they followed us around the building. I almost expected to see armed guards waiting for us, but when we turned the final corner the building looked just as vacant as it had from the front. We marched up towards the lone door and waited.
The door slid open to the side, which I hadn’t seen coming. Must have been a security thing, When the steel door was embedded into the wall, it was harder to break down. The other thing I didn’t expect was the type of people that came out to greet us. Maybe I’d spent too long hauling goods around the midrim and just expected the worst. Instead of gun toting security, we were greeted by two men in lab coats and a third with a hover loader.
One of the scientists moved forward and extended his hand. “Captain Drake I presume.”
Shaking the man’s hand, I smiled. I guess when you had the backing of the two biggest bogeymen in the verse behind you, you didn’t have to worry about armed guards. Anything we tried to do to these men would be paid back in blood. “That would be a correct assumption.”
“Any problems with the package?”
“Except for moving it through your city, everything went fine.”
“Damn rebels are at it again, huh?” The man looked surprised.
“I take you don’t get out much.”
I heard Maze stifle a giggle, but the man in front of me looked just as serious as he did walking out. He turned away from us and looked over towards the other scientist. They had managed to move the crate from our hover pad to theirs and were examining the readouts now.
“Pete, how are the readouts looking, any sign that someone tampered with the system?” He turned back to me and fixed me with a look.
Sure, blame the smuggler if something didn’t look right. You couldn’t trust those guys anyways. Except in this case they would be right, we tampered with the package, and they were going to find out just how much we tampered with it when it opened.
“No, sir. The readings look spot on. There was one little hiccup a few days ago, but nothing that pushed the contents out of the normal range,” Pete said.
“Good. Get the crate inside and down to exam room number four.” The two men started moving inside. “Captain, I will see that the rest of your payment is sent, and trust Dr. Marcom to take care of anything else he has promised you.”
I’d been dismissed a time or two in my day so I knew what one looked like. There was no need to reply. I made a motion with my hand, and Gabe and Maze turned to follow me. I heard the door close behind us and breathed a sigh of relief. As of right now, we were clear of the N.E.A. and if Dr. Marcom held true to his promise, we would be reinstated with the mercenary’s guild. Not only that, but we had put a fair bit of credits back in our pockets, which
would go a long way towards keeping the Talon soaring through the black. Kyra was a great engineer, but there was only so much she could do with the shoe string budget I had given her.
Things were finally starting to look up. The first part of the plan was done, now we just had to make it to Serenity before all hell broke loose down here. I wanted to be on camera and far enough away they wouldn’t be able to pin this mess on us. It was all up to Samantha now, and I oddly didn’t have any doubts about her ability to handle the situation.
We made our turn on the final straightaway leading towards rebel territory when the sound of plasma fire opened up behind us. A quick look back told me that it wasn’t on our street but it was close enough that if they were headed this way, it wouldn’t take them long to get here. “Time to pick up the pace.” The last thing I wanted to do was be caught out in the open and even worse be associated with the rebels when the Martian military showed up. We started jogging towards the cars.
One of the cars pulled out of the way as we approached the barricade. Sly was there waving us forward. “Hurry, they’re right behind you.”
I looked back just as the car moved back into place and caught sight of a squadron of Martians marching on our position. We made it about halfway back to command when men and women armed with assault weapons ran past us towards the barricade. A moment later it sounded like a rocket had slammed into the stack of cars. If the Martians were coming in this hot, the little outpost and the rebels inside of it didn’t stand a chance. Not unless they had some heavy ordinance hidden up their sleeves.
McKrey was barking out orders as we arrived. He turned towards us and motioned towards a crate loaded on the back of a small vehicle. “Here is the package. I expect you to live up to your end of the bargain.”
Seemed everyone was handing out slights on my character today. “I’ll get your people where they need to go. If we pull up to the station in that truck, it’s going to look a little suspicious though. I know the security there is well paid, but if they think we are working for the rebels, we might not be able to get off planet.”
Archabald ducked as another explosion went off and turned and ran towards the sound. Sly motioned for us to follow him to the truck. “I’ll get you within a mile or so, and then you can hoof it.”
The last thing I wanted was to be here any longer than I needed to. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gate was going to come under attack next. It didn’t make sense only to strike from one side. Maze took shotgun while Gabe and I jumped in the back with the crate. As we stepped on it, I heard a grunt and some rustling from inside.
I tapped the butt of my rifle against the top of the crate. “No more noise until I tell you it’s safe. If you alert security to your presence in any way, I’m leaving you behind.”
A few more rustling sounds were made but they were quickly drowned out by the sound of the truck’s engines coming to life. Sly drove through the gap like a pro, and we were off. He made a few quick turns, taking us away from any of the main thoroughfares. The streets were still deserted so just the fact that we were out here might be enough to raise suspicion.
We just happened to be the luckiest people on Mars, or Sly just had that good of a nose for trouble because we didn’t run into anyone. He brought the truck to a stop and helped us load the crate onto our hover pad. I didn’t know who was in there, but they were pretty damn heavy. At least we had made it almost back to the ship without running into any other problems. Well maybe not any, I was pretty sure the two people in the crate weren’t going to be problem free.
Sly jumped back into his truck and sped off back to base. He seemed like a nice enough guy, I really hoped that he made it out of this ok. The Martians weren’t exactly known for their generosity, and I had a feeling anyone that surrendered would be killed publicly to send a message to other citizens not to even think about picking up arms against the government again.
It wasn’t our problem. Shit, I didn’t even like being in Earth Republic space let alone down on one of their planets. If I ever saw Mars again, it would be too soon. All we had to do now was drop one last package off and wait to hear back from Samantha. Then we could start mapping out a plan. I’m not sure if she had an agenda or something she needed to accomplish, but we needed some rest, and then I’d check in with the guild. There wasn’t a job we couldn’t handle with her on our team.
Security moved the barricade when we came back to the spaceport. The same man greeted me at the gate. “Seems like you got out of there just in time.” He pointed at the crate. “Sure is a downgrade from the one you left with.”
A rustling noise sounded from inside, he stepped back and pointed his gun at the box. I started to laugh and motioned for him to put his gun down. “Nothing to be afraid of. Those damn scientists are never done experimenting. We drop something off, and they demanded we take this back to their lab in the rim. Some kind of Martian bunnies. Resistant to radiation or some shit.”
The guard looked me over and waved us through. It seemed like he bought the story. The real test would be if we were granted access to leave the planet. If we didn’t have it, we couldn’t go. Mars had one of the strongest planetary defense systems in the Republic, and if we tried to take off without being cleared, we’d be reduced to a pile of sparkly space dust.
We got the crate loaded onto the ship and I commed Ice from the cargobay. “Get us out of here.”
“Sure thing, Cap. We’ve been given priority clearance.”
Well, I guess they could just be letting us go to blow us up, but that seemed unlikely. Dr. Marcom had gotten everything he wanted. Maze walked over and showed me her datapad. The other half of our payment had been made, and she was in the process of transferring it out to our untraceable accounts. The ship rocked gently as Ice got us in the air and then someone started banging on the crate.
“What did I say about not making noise?” I shouted over the sounds coming from the crate.
“Just get me the fuck out of here,” a female voice responded.
I motioned towards Gabe, and he pried the lock off. A woman rolled out of the side of the crate covered in hay and coughing like she just inhaled a bunch of water while taking a drink. A man followed her out, and he had a grin on his face. The woman made it to her feet and as the man started to stand, she shoved him so he toppled over on his back. He didn’t seem to be worried about her outburst. In fact, he couldn’t stop laughing.
“Jesus Dozer, what in the hell did you eat for breakfast?” the woman said.
“Chef’s famous bean burrito,” Dozer said before breaking back down into giggles.
“Fuck, you didn’t think hey, maybe I shouldn’t eat bean burritos when I’m going to be confined in a small space with someone else?”
The large man found his way to his feet, smile still spread across his lips. He stretched once and shrugged his shoulders. “It didn’t smell that bad.”
“It was worse than that sewer system we had to crawl around in on Talus Nine,” she replied, scrunching up her face as she recalled the memory.
“Now you’re just being unfair.” Dozer laughed and let out a fart at the same time.
The woman moved away from him as he wafted his hand back and forth behind him. Gabe started loading the crate into the air lock, we’d leave the door slightly open for a moment as we broke atmo so the crate would get sucked out and incinerated. It was best not to leave any evidence behind if we could help it.
These two were something else. Maybe not the first two people I’d pick to send off world to get something done if I was McKrey. “If there is anything you need from in there,” I pointed towards the crate, “you best grab it now.”
“Captain, even if I had my most prized possession in there, I wouldn’t go back for it now.” The woman smiled as she finished wiping the hay off her clothes.
The big man rumbled from behind her. “I’ve already secured the package, Wolf.”
“Well, at least you’re good for something.” Her words cam
e out harshly, but I caught just a little bit of affection in it.
I motioned for the two of them to follow me, and I led them to the common area of the ship. “You’ll be confined here for the duration of our trip. We don’t have much, but what we do have you’re welcome to it. We should be back on Serenity in a day or so, and that’s where we will part ways.”
“I appreciate the ride,” Wolf said.
“Well, it wasn’t like we had much of a choice. Just don’t make me shoot you before we land and I’ll call it a successful partnership.”
Wolf nodded her head and motioned towards Dozer. He followed her over to one of the couches. They crouched together and started talking. I was tempted to ask them what they were discussing, but I had already made the line pretty clear. Just stay out of our way, and we will get you where we promised. I only hoped it would be that easy.
The authorities on Serenity Station weren’t too impressed with our rapid departure in the wake of the destruction that happened on our previous visit. So before any of us would be allowed to enter the station we had to submit to speaking with one of the station’s magistrates. At least that was the message they sent us back when we requested to dock. There wasn’t a way to get out of it, it was a take it or leave it kind of offer. I knew they didn’t have anything that tied us directly to what happened or they would have just refused us docking privileges.
That didn’t mean we didn’t have anything to worry about. I’d have to switch guns before they came aboard just in case they wanted to test it. Despite the fact that Samantha had killed most of the armed men that were attacking me, I knew for a fact I'd left more than one body filled with holes on our previous visit. Not to mention the mysterious man in white. His body would probably raise more questions than the others. A nice fat payment would be made by whoever sent the masked men, and I had a feeling there were already no hard feelings.
Genetic Purge (The Galactic Outlaws Book 2) Page 14