Storm Divers (Book 1 of The Fractured Republic Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  The corridor led to some abandoned offices and another hatch. Someone had locked it on the inside, so that explained why the area was empty.

  He unlocked the hatch with a fair amount of brute force and opened it. The corridor on the other side had the look of one that saw occasional traffic, and the air smelled better. Relatively speaking.

  Adam pulled the hatch closed and headed off. Ten minutes later, he was safely in the occupied area of the station.

  He bought a throwaway com and called the last number he had for Price. It went straight to voicemail, so he told her to contact him at this number and not to go back to the control room. In as few sentences as possible, he explained the ambush and Gaston’s fate.

  Now he needed to get out of sight. He figured he could kill two birds with one stone and investigate the sabotage to his ship by having a heart-to-heart with Double Dick. If anyone in the diver community was involved, it was Double Dick.

  The ornery bugger lived in a shop similar to Adam’s, but in a lower-class neighborhood. That suited the reclusive man. He didn’t want anyone dropping by, announced or not.

  It took a while to find his shop. It was at the back of an alley, and this place had far too many of those.

  No one answered when he pressed the buzzer, but pounding on the door was more effective. It swung open a little as soon as he hit it. It hadn’t been fully latched.

  That was never good.

  “Double Dick!” Adam shouted when he opened the door. “It’s Adam Hale. We need to talk.”

  When the man didn’t answer, Adam edged inside. The lights were on, and the place was a dirty mess. He’d have thought someone had tossed the man’s shop if he hadn’t known Double Dick as well as he did.

  Being careful not to step on anything questionable, Adam made his way back to Double Dick’s living quarters. He stopped when the smell started getting worse. The scent of rotting meat was unmistakable.

  Shit.

  He wasn’t surprised to see a body sprawled in the man’s living room. It looked as though Double Dick wouldn’t be answering any questions today. Or any other day.

  * * * * *

  Rachel followed Chang up into the neighboring building—ironically, the one she’d jumped to Hale’s roof from—with her senses tuned to their highest pitch. If someone called security on them, they might never get out of the area alive.

  The access panel here opened into a mechanical room. Thankfully, there was nothing blocking the damned thing.

  “Now what?” she asked Chang softly.

  “Now we get the hell out of here.”

  She grabbed his arm. “Wait! We can’t let them see us.”

  He frowned. “You’re thinking like a spy. Don’t make this more complicated than it has to be. I know these people. We’re fine.”

  The hair on the back of her neck stood up as he opened the door to the mechanical room as though he hadn’t a care in the universe.

  “Hey, Jason Chang here,” he shouted. “Just working on the pipes.”

  A well-built woman stepped into view and scowled at them. “Don’t tell me the damned things are leaking again.”

  “Not at the moment, and I intend to see they stay that way. Karen, meet Rachel. She’s helping me out today.”

  The other woman examined Rachel’s hand before she offered her own. Considering the hygienic state of the pit, that was smart.

  “Karen Wilson, shop manager for Union Systems. How’d you end up working with this bum? Lose a bet?”

  Rachel smiled. “Rachel Price. That about sums it up, yeah.”

  Chang shook his head with an expression of long-suffering. “What is it with you ladies? Anyway, something is blocking the access panel on my end, so we need to use your fine exit. The one in back will do.”

  “That’ll cost you a beer.”

  “Done. Come by the Spot any time you like. I’ll make it worth your while.”

  “I’d rather come by when Adam’s there. No offense to you or that hot little number you’re dating.”

  “You keep on trying,” Chang said. “Maybe one day he’ll open up to someone.”

  Wilson led them to the back door of her shop and saw them out. Rachel was surprised the woman hadn’t commented on the backpack Chang carried, but she wasn’t going to complain.

  A quick glance around didn’t show any obvious observers, but someone had seen her entering Hale’s shop. Or they’d come looking for Chang. There was no way to know. In either case, they’d been looking for someone. The two of them needed to get out of the area quickly.

  “This way,” Chang said. He headed down the alley.

  Rachel pulled out her com while she watched behind them for trouble. Once it finished powering up, she called the emergency security number.

  “Station security,” a man said. “Please state your location and the nature of your emergency.”

  “I just saw several men with guns break into Adam Hale’s shop. Please send someone quickly. I think they’re going to shoot someone.” Just to be sure they had it, she rattled off the address to the shop.

  She disconnected when the man tried to get more information out of her. Hale’s name would sound the alarm fast enough, and they’d take any report of armed burglars seriously. Particularly after the gunfight in the park.

  Rachel was about to yank the battery when she saw she had a message. She’d better listen to that before she dumped the com. Otherwise, she’d never get it.

  Hale’s recorded warning was worrying, but he’d escaped the attack. It was too bad about the prisoner, but the information Hale had extracted was useful, if confusing. Since she’d already called security, it was best not to call him back until she had a new com.

  She made note of his number and stripped the chips and battery from the com.

  “Hale ran into some trouble, but he’s fine,” she told Chang as she dumped the device into a drain. “We need to get some fresh coms before we get too far from civilization.”

  “I know a place.”

  That turned out to be a corner store in what seemed to be an ethnic Chinese quarter of the station. The storekeeper gave her the eye, but sold Chang half a dozen coms.

  Once he’d handed them over to her, Chang led her deeper into the area and into a restaurant.

  “We don’t have time for lunch,” she told him.

  “You want a place to hide? My grandmother is the person to see. Now, shut up and let me do the talking.”

  He exchanged words in Chinese with one of the servers, and the woman led them into the back. A large man with intricate tattoos on his forearms frowned at them from in front of a closed door.

  The server said something, and the man nodded before rapping on the door. A woman’s voice answered before he opened it and gestured the three of them inside.

  A frail woman of advanced age eyed them from behind a desk stacked high with file folders. The server bowed and said something to her. The older woman sighed and made a shooing gesture with her hand.

  Chang started to speak after the guard closed the door behind the server, but the woman held up a hand.

  “Please stop, Jason,” she said in perfect English. “Your Chinese is execrable. Don’t torture me with your latest attempt at proper pronunciation. What do you want?”

  “We need your help, Grandmother.”

  “Obviously. Details, boy. Who is your friend?”

  Rachel put her hand on Chang’s arm. “Perhaps it would be better if I explain the situation. Madam, my name is Rachel Price, and I work for the Republican Intelligence Service.”

  The woman raised an eyebrow but said nothing. The guard stepped back and pulled a weapon from under his jacket. The older woman must’ve tripped a hidden alarm because, moments later, a number of other armed men burst through the door the server had just used.

  Chang sighed. “I told you to let me do the talking.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Adam stepped into Double Dick’s living quarters with care. If h
e left any identifying traces, security would assume that he’d done this. He was sure this wasn’t a natural death. The timing was far too coincidental.

  Double Dick lay sprawled beside his coffee table. Not that he’d been refined enough to use it for that. A forest of mostly empty beer bottles covered it. All except for one bare corner with an electronic pad.

  Using the corner of his shirt, Adam picked it up, turned it on, and read the current document.

  I know you’ll figure out I tried to kill Hale and I’m not going to prison. Fuck all of you.

  It sounded like Double Dick, but there was no way the selfish bastard would kill himself. Or that he was subtle enough to try to frame Jason.

  Not that Adam thought Double Dick was innocent. Someone had modified the firmware on Adam’s ship and figured out how to sabotage it. That fit the dead man perfectly. He was an accomplice. Adam just didn’t know why.

  Whoever was really calling the shots had killed him to stop any investigation. Too bad Adam was stubborn.

  He pocketed the pad and carefully examined the body. There were no obvious wounds, so Adam suspected poison or an overdose of something. That was also way out of character for Double Dick. He’d have made his end violent and messy.

  Now he needed to find Double Dick’s stash. It might have clues as to who was behind this.

  Adam found a relatively simple hiding spot and dismissed it at once as too obvious. No, this was to stop a thief from looking any further. It had a decent amount of cash and some precious metals from the belt. Nothing to write home about and far less than Double Dick was probably worth.

  He finally found a devilishly clever spot beside the toilet tank. The wall looked seamless, but a button on the underside of the sink caused it to slide up, revealing a safe. One secured with a fingerprint scanner.

  Well, this was going to be disgusting. Double Dick was already starting to bloat.

  Adam pulled the blanket off the bed, scattering food wrappers, and returned to the living room. A few sweeps of his foot cleared the obstacles on the floor, and he rolled the man’s body onto the blanket.

  That made it easy to drag Double Dick into the bathroom. It took all Adam’s strength to cinch the blanket closed and lift the dead man far enough to press his finger on the reader. The safe clicked open.

  He dragged the body back to the living room and put it back the way he’d found it. Better everything matched up when security finally found him.

  Once Adam had tossed the blanket back on the bed, he used a towel of questionable cleanliness to open the safe door.

  The large stacks of money made him sure he’d found the real stash. In fact, there was too much. This was far above what Double Dick would’ve earned from his day job and diving combined.

  He shifted the money and found another data pad behind the stacks. There was also an improbable amount of precious minerals stacked there. Double Dick hadn’t trusted banks. Or anyone else, as the small arsenal at the back of the safe came to light.

  Adam pulled the pad out and brought it to life. It seemed to be an accounting of Double Dick’s finances. Cash in and cash out. Initials beside the amounts were the only clue who the transactions related to.

  Two rather large amounts in the credit column had C.S. beside them. The timing seemed right for both Adam’s last dive and the firmware update.

  If that were true, he wondered what all the other payments from C.S. had been about. They went back more than a year.

  That was far from the only large sum in or out, so this was going to take more investigative knowhow than he had. Under other circumstances, he’d just call security.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that while he was burgling the dead man’s home.

  Adam eyed the cash. It might have fingerprints on it. He hated the thought of robbing the dead, but he’d take any chance he could to figure out who was behind the attack on him. Besides, the man had tried to kill him.

  He went back into the shop and found a suitable tool bag. He dumped its contents onto the closest bench. With all the other clutter, it didn’t seem the least out of place.

  Then he emptied the safe. For good measure, he took the contents of the other stash, too. To say the bag was heavy was an understatement.

  Adam took one last trip around to wipe everything he might have touched and stuffed the towel into the bag. Then he headed out the way he’d come in.

  His skin crawled as he walked away from the shop. It felt as though everyone were watching him. That was ridiculous, so he just walked on as though nothing were wrong.

  Price hadn’t called him back yet, so Adam hoped she wasn’t in some kind of trouble. He’d call her again once he was out of sight. They needed to solve these mysteries fast.

  * * * * *

  The guards quickly found Rachel’s weapon and disarmed her. They then roughly seated Chang and her in chairs set before the desk.

  The old woman steepled her fingers and scowled at them. “You bring a spy into my business, Jason? I confess that while I consider you a fool, I did not foresee you being a traitor.”

  “This isn’t what it looks like, Grandmother,” he said in a subdued voice. “In fact, it has nothing to do with you or the organization. Please, just hear her out.”

  One of the guards opened the bag Chang had been carrying and lifted it enough to show the woman the contents. That made both her eyebrows rise.

  “The sight of these weapons fills me with curiosity, so I will give the woman a brief opportunity to interest me before I have her killed.” She shifted her attention to Rachel. “Make it quick.”

  “Might I ask your name?” Rachel asked.

  “My grandson has many failings. Basic courtesy seems to be among them. You may call me Grandmother Wu.”

  “Janus Corporation is trying to kill us. They’ve already eliminated my partner, Adam Hale’s brother. The shooting in the park today was them.”

  Wu grunted. “That is interesting, if true, but I fail to see how it is relevant to me.”

  “We came to buy shelter, Grandmother,” Chang said.

  “What insanity made you believe that I would want the money of someone who works for the government?”

  Rachel smiled. “I’m sure you get more of that than you’re willing to admit. Come now, madam. The RIS pays all kinds of people for information and support. I couldn’t care less that you’re heading a criminal enterprise. In fact, I like the advantage that offers. I’m a spy, not security.”

  The older woman’s eyes narrowed. “There is some truth to what you say, but the shooting in the park troubles me.” She shifted her gaze back to Chang. “Did you know security found some people burgling your shop? There was another gunfight there.”

  The young man grimaced and shook his head. “I’m not surprised. They were searching the place as we left. She warned security they were armed.”

  “That was good, then. I do not approve of such violence. It’s bad for business.”

  The old woman considered Rachel. “Jason is a good boy, if stupid when it comes to women. He wouldn’t have brought you here if he really thought you meant me harm.

  “So, Adam Hale’s brother was a RIS agent. I would never have guessed. Tell me what happened to him.”

  Rachel shrugged. “I still don’t know the details. People working for Janus took him months ago. It has something to do with the Disruptors.”

  That news elicited a scowl from Wu. “Those animals destroy everything they touch. The death they caused here is still fresh in my memory. A number of people I know died that day.”

  “Then perhaps it would interest you to know that Janus actually carried out the bombing to make it look like the Disruptors did it.”

  Wu froze. Then her expression turned thunderous. “You think me a fool? My patience is at an end.”

  “Adam Hale just called me with that news an hour ago,” Rachel said calmly. “He’d been questioning a man who used to work for the RIS. The same man in charge of the people that shot
up the park under the orders of someone at Janus.”

  Wu drummed her fingertips on the desk. “Adam Hale has been a good friend to my worthless grandson. I must hear what he says for myself.”

  “Then allow me to give you his number. He’s on the run, too. We’re trying to find a place to plan our next move in safety.”

  Wu dug into her desk and pulled out a com. No doubt one that wouldn’t trace back to her. “Give me the number.”

  * * * * *

  Adam’s com sounded just as soon as he’d left the area around Double Dick’s shop. He didn’t recognize the number, but only one person would be calling.

  “I’m glad to hear back from you,” he said. “I was starting to worry.”

  “It’s not yet time to stop doing so, Mister Hale,” an unknown woman said. “The woman and Jason Chang have come to me with a story that I want to hear you confirm.”

  He stopped and stared at the com. “I don’t know you.”

  “Hale, just tell her what you told me in the message,” Price said from somewhere nearby. “Before she shoots me.”

  “That’s not the best way to win friends,” he told the unnamed woman.

  “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt, Mister Hale. For your friend’s sake, tell me what I want to know.”

  It wasn’t as if he really had a choice.

  “Fine, but if you hurt her, I’ll hurt you back. Understand?”

  “That is a given, Mister Hale. Proceed.”

  He put his thoughts in order and started. “I told her that the Janus people found me. The ex-RIS spy died in the attack, but he told me something new before he fell. Janus is somehow connected to the Disruptors. They set the explosives here to make it seem as though the group were behind the attack. It was some kind of camouflage.”

  The woman made a noncommittal sound. “That is difficult to accept at face value. And you believed him?”

  “I was about to toss his ass out a window, so I’m thinking he was honest, for once. It kind of fits with the other information we’ve been able to dig up. Damned if I know why Janus would be involved, though. Is that what you wanted to hear?”