by M. D. Cooper
Reece sighed. “I’m reluctant to admit it, but I just came to that conclusion myself. We could get out of the system, wait for things to cool off. Come back when some answers have surfaced.”
Assuming answers ever did surface. They might not, and she didn’t say it out loud, because they were both already all too aware.
She nodded. “Okay. Let’s get ready to leave Machete—or at least Akonwara—indefinitely. If we haven’t heard from Schramm by the time we’re ready, we’ll go.”
Four hours later, they’d done their packing and converted the anonymous account she’d been using, for outsystem access. The packing itself had taken little time. They’d arrived at the safehouse with nothing but what they’d been wearing, and had bought little in the time since. At least Reece wouldn’t have a lot of luggage to carry.
There could be no goodbyes. She’d let Aunt Ruth and Kippy know she’d left after she’d gotten some good distance away. Reece had to think about their safety, since they’d still be on Akon.
It sucked a really, really excessive amount, but sometimes that was just what life gave her.
“Autotaxi’s here,” Trey said.
“Right.” Reece lifted her bag and suppressed a sigh. There was no point in expressing her unhappiness. Instead—with forced false enthusiasm— she said, “Off on another adventure.”
Trey didn’t look convinced, but at least she’d made the effort.
They loaded the autotaxi with their things and headed for the transit station that would take them to the spaceport and then away from Akon.
* * * * *
“It’s going to be forty minutes before our shuttle boards.” Trey frowned at the delay, but there was nothing they could do but wait.
The spaceport was busy that day, with lots of traders arriving and departing.
“I’m going to go get a smoothie,” Reece decided. She hadn’t eaten much that day, and her stomach was gurgling. A smoothie would be easy to consume, even with the ugly feelings rolling through her gut. “Want something?”
“Sure, I’ll have whatever you get.” Trey smiled, but Reece could tell he was forcing it. He didn’t want to leave Akon either.
They both wanted to stay and fight. It was in their nature. But even so, staying to fight in the face of inevitable failure was stupid if they could flee and return to fight another day.
“I’ll get you the extra-extra-large size,” she said.
Trey gave her a thumbs-up, and they both pretended to be amused.
Neither of them was fooled, but pretending was all they had left.
Reece bought berry-flavored smoothies for them—hers a mere medium while Trey’s portion easily tripled hers.
She let out a sigh when he took the cup from her, rolling her shoulder as if he’d just relieved her of a great burden.
He smirked at her.
They sat quietly, letting time pass as they drank their smoothies. There was little to say. They’d agreed to take the first flight out of the Machete system, and it didn’t really matter where it took them. They’d deal with whatever came next when it happened.
“You packed your nutrition supplements, right?” Trey asked. “You never know what the food will be like wherever we end up.”
“Hah.” She recognized his deadpan humor when she heard it. “Of course, I did. But I bet you’ve seen a big range of cuisine in all the places you’ve been.”
“Oh, yeah. Pretty much everything you can think of.”
“What was the best?”
He thought for a long moment. “It’s hard to say, because there have been a lot of great dishes, but they’re good in different ways. I can say that the mushroom ramen we had the other day measures up with the best of them.”
“Okay, how about the worst?” she asked.
“Live squid heads. I just couldn’t. I tried really hard, because it was a welcome meal, and not eating them was an insult, but, damn, no way. Nuh uh.” He shook his head emphatically.
Reece smiled. “Sounds pretty gross.”
“I don’t want to judge other people’s ways…but yeah. I mean, the squids were looking at me with their eye stalks.” He set his cup aside to demonstrate, using his fingers as eyestalks and pointing them at her. He shuddered.
An old woman in a faded yellow dress passed them, walking with a slight limp. She stood out from other travelers, but Reece had seen hundreds of women like her growing up in Slagside. Thousands, even.
Women who had aged badly thanks to hard labor and time spent under the twin stars’ light. In spite of the limp, the woman had broad shoulders and bigger arms than most. Her stringy hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in months. No doubt, the water to do so cost too much for her.
There were some things about Akon that Reece didn’t mind leaving behind.
She mentally wished the woman well. Maybe she was headed somewhere that would be better for her. Maybe she’d won an interstellar ticket to somewhere she could make a new start.
As if she’d heard Reece, the woman paused and turned just as she passed.
“Could you show an old lady to the loo?” she asked.
Wait. That wasn’t a woman’s voice.
Reece peered at the face and stared in shock at Schramm Matthews. For a moment, she couldn’t speak. Even when she could, she wasn’t sure what to lead with.
“You can’t leave,” he hissed. “They’ll get you up there before you get through the gate.”
“What do we do, then?” she asked.
Schramm returned to his old lady voice, “Help me out to the autotaxi, dear. My legs aren’t what they used to be.”
Reece rose and took his arm, handing her smoothie cup to Trey. Helping an old lady wouldn’t look suspicious.
Trey disposed of the cups, then trailed them. Watching, no doubt, for anyone paying them any particular interest or coming too close.
“Car’s over here,” Schramm muttered, hitching his elbow forward and to the side. “The blue one. Just pretend you two are picking up Granny and taking her home.”
Reece thought of their bags, which were still inside. Oh well. There hadn’t been much in there anyway.
She helped ‘Granny’ into the car, then ran around to the other side, only to find Trey already getting in. She got in the front seat instead.
As soon as Schramm entered a destination and they took off, Reece burst out with the first of the many questions that had occurred to her.
“What’s going on?”
Schramm pulled his wig off and dropped it to the floor. He let out a long sigh. “Bad stuff. I thought I’d protected you from it, but apparently not.”
“So you were protecting us.” For some reason, that knowledge made Reece feel better. “But why did you make it impossible to find you?”
“Because being with me is not good for you. I thought if I distanced myself from you and had no contact, they’d leave you and Erving alone. They’d assume I didn’t trust you and you weren’t loyal to me, and they wouldn’t bother with you. Apparently, I was wrong.”
“Erving got grabbed soon after you disappeared.”
Schramm cringed. “Any clue where he is?”
“Yeah. He’s safe and under guard, thanks to your pal Boyce.”
Schramm sat up straighter, wearing a look of hopeful surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah, he’s in your corner. Loyal. His first concern after making sure you were okay was taking care of your people.”
“Wow.” Schramm seemed to be having trouble processing that.
“Is it so surprising?” Trey asked. “He said you went to school together.”
“Yeah, we did. It’s just…” Schramm shrugged. “This is Akon, and we’re both in the hierarchy of big five companies. There’s been no one I could really trust in a very long time.”
“What about me?” Reece asked, insulted.
“Not even you. You don’t know a person’s loyalty until it’s tested, as the saying goes.”
Trey looked at Reece
and she smiled. He said, “Yeah, she was telling me the same thing not long ago. At least you two are on the same page.”
“Okay.” Schramm looked suddenly enlivened. Energized. “We’ve got us three, Erving, and Boyce. That’s not too bad.” His expression turned calculating.
“And Apolla,” Reece added. “She’s a one-woman surveillance company, along with some contractors she uses, and she’s pretty deep in the game.”
“Game?” Schramm asked.
“I mean she’s got connections. And she knows how to get things done. She sent over a couple guys to see if we were competent.”
“And…?” Schramm seemed a little afraid of the answer.
“I shot the hand off one of them.” Reece grinned. She held her hand in the shape of a gun and said, “Pew.”
Trey laughed. “Pew? It was more like a bang, followed by a huge clap.”
Reece laughed too. It wasn’t that funny, but about a minute ago, they’d been fleeing the system in fear and now things were looking so very much better.
Trey was smiling, a combative gleam in his eye. He hadn’t liked the idea of running away, either.
When Reece looked at Schramm, he had the same gleam, and she felt her spirits lift.
Oh, yeah. It was their turn to start making shit happen.
Finally.
BACKEND OF NOWHERE
DATE: 05.28.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Schramm’s Farm, Agriculture Sector 43, Akonwara
REGION: Machete System, PED 4B, Orion Freedom Alliance
Reece, Trey, and Schramm spent the rest of that day traveling to Schramm’s remote hideout, deep within an agricultural district.
The autotaxi—which had turned out to be Schramm’s personal property and actually could be driven by a person as well—turned down a long gravel lane and they bumped along for a good twenty minutes before arriving at an old farmhouse.
Other than looking dusty—common during the hot season—the building appeared to be in good repair, its wraparound porch even featured a hanging swing-bench that looked particularly inviting. Window boxes—though empty of flowers—still added a homey touch.
“This is nice. Whose is it?” Trey asked.
“Mine. Technically, it belongs to a guy named Nyonga, but since he doesn’t actually exist, it’s mine.”
“Why keep it off your records?” Reece asked. “Tax evasion?”
Schramm chuckles. “Hardly. I have to pay more to keep it in a fictitious name. I made all this mine, so I can get off the grid every now and then. I rarely manage it, but sometimes I get a weekend to myself and I come out here. This place is my motivation to make it to retirement age and have a chance to slow down and count the seconds of the days.”
Reece had always wondered if the corporate grind ever got to him. Apparently, it did.
In spite of having worked for him for years, she knew very little about Schramm outside the workplace. There was a reason, of course—he pretty much embodied his job and devoted himself to it entirely. As a result, Reece knew almost nothing about the man himself. Likewise, he knew little about her on a personal level.
She imagined that living in close quarters with him would change all that. It should prove interesting.
Instructive, even.
“What about you two?” Schramm asked as they entered the farmhouse. “Have you ever thought about what your reward for all this would be?”
Reece and Trey looked at each other and shrugged.
“Survival?” Trey suggested. “I kind of get the feeling you come from a background that Reece and I can’t really relate to. And even between us, there are huge differences.”
Reece slid a finger across a decorative mantel that served as the focal point of a large living room. She wasn’t surprised to find a layer of dust. “I come from Slagside. We don’t have a concept of retirement, really. I mean, I do now, but where I grew up, you expected to be on the hustle your whole life. The only reward was not dying.”
Schramm didn’t look taken aback, or even surprised. “I know very well where you both came from. But that doesn’t represent your current status in life. You’ve managed to climb higher than your childhood peers. That makes me curious. So what is it you hope the future brings you?”
Reece found the line of questioning odd. Was Schramm as curious about them as they were about him? “I want what anyone wants. Security. Ideally, some kind of happiness would be built into that.”
Trey nodded. “I want a place where I can exist peacefully. Carve out a living. Have some good times here and there.”
Schramm whistled. It was the first time Reece had ever heard him do so.
“You two don’t aim for much, do you?” Schramm turned his back on them and strolled away.
Reece and Trey looked at each other. Were they supposed to follow?
Shrugging, they followed. It wasn’t like they had anything to unpack, so why not?
Schramm moseyed through a dining room, a kitchen, and out the back door.
Apparently, the porch wrapped all the way around the house. Reece stepped out and found the heat mitigated a great deal by the shade and heat shielding of the porch’s cover.
“Wow.” Reece gazed out at what she suspected was hundreds of acres of property. A pergola led through a flower garden that had little color at the moment, but which must be gorgeous during a non-perihelion year. A vegetable garden sprawled east to west past the flowers, and beyond that, an orchard. She couldn’t identify the types of trees, but she suspected they were both fruit and nut varieties.
Reece took a long, deep breath. “Ahh. It smells good here.”
Trey walked out toward the gardens. “Anything growing this time of year?”
Schramm joined him. “A few things. Some of our horticulture actually thrives during the hot season and has developed a lifecycle that centers on the perihelion. Isn’t that interesting?”
Reece spotted another porch swing and decided that a house with a full wraparound porch, two porch swings, and an orchard, earned her full approval.
She promptly sat on the swing, letting the men go look at plants. She’d enjoy the shade and the swing, and wish she had some tea or lemonade to sip.
Being on the run for their lives notwithstanding, this was kind of a sweet setup.
And who would have thought Schramm enjoyed gardening? Surely he had someone to take care of things when he couldn’t be around—which was most of the time—but there he was, bending over a pepper plant with Trey and talking about rhizomes and stuff.
Reece was getting to know him better already.
Stretching out, she put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes. She let out a deep breath. Aunt Ruth would love it here. Dex would adore all the trees, which were hard to come by in the vicinity of the commercial district. And Kippy would set up a bounceball net or something, and somehow manage to bring dozens of people there for endless games and fun.
Maybe she should think about making a place like this her retirement goal, too. It wasn’t like she could be chasing people down in her golden years. She had probably twenty more years ahead of her in this position, tops. If she hadn’t saved enough to support herself and Aunt Ruth, she’d be in trouble, because she wasn’t likely to find another decent job after that.
Reece possessed a very specific skillset, after all. One which didn’t translate well to other industries. Though she had great business sense, she’d probably respond incredibly poorly to a customer who insisted on being unreasonable. One simply couldn’t kill customers and stay in business. It was one or the other, and she knew which she’d end up choosing, sooner or later.
Likewise with customer service positions. Reece simply wasn’t equipped for that kind of work.
Of course, she was getting ahead of herself. At the moment, she had no actual employment since, for whatever reason, Rexcare had turned against Schramm, and subsequently Reece, due to her association with him.
She sat up. All right. Time to mak
e some lemonade. She went back inside to the kitchen and began rummaging through cabinets for lemons and sugar.
She’d squeeze the hell out of everything about the situation she was in and come up with something good, even if it killed her.
* * * * *
After making a tall pitcher of lemonade in the most brutal of hands-on methods, Reece felt refreshed and ready to take the fight to Rexcare.
“It’s time to talk real dirt,” she said as Schramm poured each of them a glass of lemonade on the back porch.
Schramm set the pitcher down. “Do you want to hear what I know, or what I suspect?”
“Let’s start with what you know,” Trey said.
Schramm ran his fingers absently over a cloth napkin, gathering his thoughts. “I’ve had the sense that something was off for a few months. I’m always busy, but the amount of work shoved on me was extreme. Not only that, but it wasn’t entirely necessary. Underlings could have done a good bit of it, but it somehow kept coming my way. So, I started thinking, what would be the purpose of keeping me so busy?”
“Distracting you,” Reece answered.
Schramm nodded. “That’s what I thought. So, I started paying closer attention to what others at the top end of Rexcare have been doing. Pretty soon, I noticed a pattern. All of the extra work was coming from Cooper Fields. Indirectly, for the most part, but at his behest all the same.”
Trey tapped his fingers on the small tray they were using as a table, which made the glasses all jiggle ever so slightly. “So you had your ‘who’. Then you needed the ‘what.’”
“Right. And that was made easier by the fact that the ‘why’ was pretty obvious. Why else would Cooper busy me? Whether it was to try to make me look bad, to make my life hard, or to distract me, it all pointed at him making a play for my job.”
“Why?” Reece asked. “He already has a top-level position on par with yours.”