“I’m not sure this is going to work worth a damn,” Cody offered.
Tommy nodded. “Yeah, I know, but they’re all professional thieves. You’re the closest thing we’ve got to a burglar, what with your buddy from prison. I’m open for suggestions.”
The engineer considered for a moment, then reluctantly shook his head. “I’ve got neg.”
He nodded, then looked to Harley. “Thoughts?”
The former Marine simply shrugged.
“Please,” Tommy said, “slow down so I can take some notes.”
Harley smiled slightly at the joke, but not much. Something was bothering him.
“What?” he asked.
“Kane’s reputation is important to him, from what we can tell, right?” Harley finally asked.
Tommy nodded.
“So, let’s not take it from him.”
He looked at his first officer like he’d grown an odd sexual organ out of his forehead for a long moment, but Harley just chuckled.
“No, hear me out. If we take it from him now, he’ll just do whatever he can to take it back. Frankly, he’s better at this kind of thing than we are. At least that seems to be the case based on everything we know about him.”
Tommy acknowledged the point with a nod.
“In that case, why not wait until he hands it off and take it from his contact. At that point, his work is done and he’s far less likely to try and get it back.”
“Yeah,” Cody offered, “I can see that. I knew some guys like him in the slam. Unless it was personal, they weren’t likely to do more than they were paid to do. We know he’s got an employer, and didn’t you say his crew was getting antsy?”
“Sounds like,” Tommy replied.
Harley smiled wolfishly and said, “Then we don’t hit Kane and his crew. We go after someone else.”
** ** **
Mary looked at the data chip Adele had provided in wonder. It looked like pretty much every other data chip she’d seen in her life, yet this one was different. This one meant freedom. Provided it worked, of course.
She took a quick look around, then inserted the chip.
In an instant, her terminal’s lights began flashing as the download began automatically. Her heart began pounding so loudly she couldn’t imagine just how no one else was hearing it proclaim that she was up to something. She just knew her next stop was going to be under The Hill.
Just as suddenly as it began, the terminal’s lights stopped with their rapid flashing. As Mary’s heart began to settle down. Slowly.
It was done.
Mary stared at her monitor for the longest time, waiting for…something. She didn’t know what, but momentous events in the vids—her one real connection with the outside world since so many well-known actors were members of the church—always had music to convey the gravity of the moment. Intellectually, she knew that would be the case, but…
It didn’t matter. It was done and in a matter of hours, she’d be off this planet. She didn’t say it to Adele, but she was almost willing to take being killed in the black as preferable to life here. At least on some other world, she could be herself.
“Mary,” Winston’s nasally whine said from behind her, thrusting her heartrate up so high she was sure it would reach the black long before she herself would. “Do you have those reports completed finally?” The last word was said with such an air of exasperation that all Mary wanted to do was deck the corrupt chafer, but she couldn’t. She still had to play nice.
“I emailed them to you yesterday,” she said, forcing her tone to maintain the hint of mild annoyance she normally had when talking with her supervisor. It was even harder after finding out that Winston was taking bribes to put locks on freighters who weren’t under suspicion for anything.
“I didn’t get them,” he said. “Let me look at your terminal…”
With that, he began leaning over to look at her system.
“No!” she exclaimed before she could stop herself. “I’ll take a look and see what happened.”
“It’s quite alright, I don’t mind,” the supervisor said. “It seems you have so much difficulty getting these to me in a timely manner.”
“Oh, back the chafe off, you thickwitted moron,” Mary blasted before she knew what she was doing. “The only reason you never get them is because you set up a chafing filter for my emails so they go right to your trash file, and you know it, so back off before I report you for harassment.”
Winston stood up and looked at her, his eyes as wide as a wild animal caught in the headlights of a fast-moving ground vehicle. “I…” he stammered.
She was no longer inconspicuous, despite her earlier efforts. Silently thankful she’d completed her task, she looked around the control room and saw every eye staring at Winston and her.
Taking the initiative, she continued, “You nothing. Joe in I.T. told me he found it weeks ago, but I didn’t say anything because I was secretly hoping I’d get fired and reassigned. To anywhere. Even scraping gum off of the hot street would have been preferable to putting up with your deermo for one more day, so I hoped staying quiet would be enough, but no.
“Instead, you keep me stuck in his hellhole—one that is only a hellhole because of you, I might add,” she said, not wanting to offender her coworkers, most of whom she didn’t particularly like, but didn’t particularly dislike either. “So, I decide to deal with it. Despite you putting me up for review, faced with going under The Hill because you didn’t like me as a person, I decided to do my best at this job and hopefully succeed out from around you.
“But you won’t let me do it, will you? You won’t let me because you enjoy it. Some woman, at some point in time hurt you and you’re taking it out on all of us, but especially me. I don’t care who it was or why it hurt. I’m done with it. You’re either going to find those files in your trash file and delete the filter, or you’re going to be reviewed yourself, do you hear me?” she finished, the last audible enough that the crew of Sabercat may well have heard it.
Winston, still wide-eyed, simply nodded.
Mary tried not to smile at the stringy little man’s lack of response. Instead, she sat down and went to work, showing no signs of paying any attention.
Her anxiety from before seemingly dissipated from the outburst, she sat and began working calmly. That’s what she was doing when Winston finally slinked away.
** ** **
The knock at the door roused Atticus from his sleep, such as it was. He’d dozed off sitting in his chair, so as he stood, he rubbed the stiffness out of his neck and looked through the old-fashioned peephole.
Outside were two men, both dressed in business suits and dark sunglasses.
Kane snorted. He wasn’t sure what amused him more, that they sent corporate security, or that they were so bloody cliché about their profession.
Either way, he was tired of waiting for them.
Slowly, he cracked the door and feigning ignorance, said, “Yes?”
While he knew good and well who these men were, Kane knew you never let the client know you could tell such things. They always assumed it was because he was really too careless with their property, when nothing was further from the truth. He simply cased his employers as well as he cased a potential target.
The two men stood almost as tall as Harley Dane did, and both carried themselves like him, so probably former military. The closely cut hair and neat shaves also belied their previous vocation. The most glaring difference between the two was one was blond, with the other brunette.
“Mister Wilson sent us,” the blond said.
With that, he opened the door all the way. “Good of you to come, gentlemen,” he said, thickening up his accent for the occasion.
“Where is it?” they asked, clearly unwilling to step into what was literally a den of thieves.
Kane simply nodded and stepped deeper inside this safe house to retrieve the chip.
As he returned, the men had stepped deeper into the
yard and appeared to be studying something down the street.
“Here it is, then,” he said, holding the data chip up. “How about you get on your pad, patch a call through that quancom you have in that big, fancy office building, and let them know you’re taking possession.”
The brunette stepped forward and reached for the chip. “We’ll call and confirm when we get back to the office.”
Atticus snatched the chip back. “No, I don’t think so, lad. I get paid when you take possession of it, and I’d just as soon see that happen right here and now, if you please.”
The two men exchanged a look. Finally, the blond nodded and fished his own pad out of his jacket’s inside pocket.
** ** **
Tommy, Cody, and Harley sat inside the van parked a short distance down the street. They’d been careful in how they were parked, but now that the moment was here, Tommy could barely think straight.
He’d been in fights, and he’d been shot at more than he liked to think about. He’d even managed to return fire once, what with that being the only time it was him being fired upon more directly, rather than his ship. He’d never initiated anything so…overt before.
At least, he hadn’t since his rescue from that island on Ararat.
Now, he was taunting the demon within. Kind of. The idea wasn’t really violence, but intimidation, which was something he did plenty of back in the day, but usually against people who weren’t likely to try and intimidate back.
At that thought, he became disgusted with himself again. Not the current him, but the older one, the vile one. Yes, he knew he needed to stop beating himself up over his past, but he also need to make amends.
Dianne had been a frequent target of his, and she’d forgiven him. Based on the last few weeks, it seemed she’d completely forgiven him.
However, she wasn’t the only one he owed some restitution to, though it seemed unlikely he’d ever be able to do any such thing.
“What are they doing?” Cody asked, snapping Tommy from his bought of self-pity.
“Handing off,” Harley replied. “The pad is probably for confirmation.”
** ** **
The security man did a quick check of the chip, then called his office. He’d verified everything looked good, and needed to be patched through on the quancom. Now they had to wait for the patch to be set up and the call made.
“Born and raised here on Armstead, eh lads?” Kane asked, practically oozing nonchalance. He knew the answer, obviously, but he also knew that by putting on that he was completely unstressed, there was no reason they should be.
If they were good at their jobs, they wouldn’t care about his stress levels and would continue to be vigilant. Considering the name of their church, that should have been a given. Of course, truth in labeling laws only went so far.
As if they read his mind, both men maintained a wary posture. Kane made a mental note of that. While the information was useless on this job, who was to say he wouldn’t need it later?
“Yes?” Wilson’s voice said through the pad. “What is it?”
“Sir,” the blond began, “Mister Kane wanted us to call in confirmation of receipt prior to leaving his vicinity so he could witness it.”
“Atticus, what’s the matter? Don’t trust us anymore?” Wilson said with a smug, mocking tone that grated on Kane’s nerves.
Still, always professional, Kane stepped where the pad’s camera could see him and said, “Of course not, my boy, of course not. But if you’d be so good as to approve that transfer of funds…”
The man sighed. “Very well,” he replied. Kane could see him pressing a few buttons, then Wilson looked back at the cam. “You should be receiving confirmation shortly. Will that be sufficient?”
Kane nodded, then glanced toward the white van down the road. A quick look back and the cam and he replied, “Of course. Pleasure doing business with you.”
The image winked out on the pad.
Kane looked at the two security men and said, “Alright then, boys…”
Chapter 11
“Go,” Harley said only a split second before Cody slammed his foot down on the throttle. The ground-effect van rocketed forward for the half a block needed to cover the distance between their vantage point and Kane’s safe house.
The van seemed to fly across the distance in a flash, but not before Kane seemed to smile and step back from the two men in suits. The two men in suits he’d just handed the data chip to.
The two looked up as the van rocketed toward them, then turned at the last minute and slammed to a stop.
Before the van seemed to have completely settled, Tommy and Harley burst out of the vehicle, weapons drawn from their concealment holsters. Secretly, Tommy was glad there were only two of the goons, since he still needed to account for Kane’s people.
Tommy looked at the blonde guard and placed the barrel of his Capella only a few centimeters from his nose. “I think you have something that belongs to me.”
Blondie appeared uninterested in handing anything over, as if being shot were infinitely preferable to what was taking place.
Kane, apparently sensing the other’s reticence, said, “You might want to do as the man said. Don’t you lads know? He’s the scion of one of the Clans. You know how that lot can be.”
While the Clans—a group of families that essentially control politics on Earth and Earth controlled planets, either overtly as in more totalitarian states, or covertly such as in the North American Confederation—technically held no sway on Armstead from a political standpoint, they still were able to maintain significant economic wealth.
While Armstead was perfectly happy to remain isolationist, permitted the gate to be set up within the system effectively eliminated any possibility of that. As such, they embraced the reality and began working out trade deals.
That meant members of the Clans somewhere along the way had to be involved.
Even on Armstead, people knew what the Clans were and what kind of power they controlled. Or, at least, Blondie did.
The man slowly reached into his suit and withdrew a data chip.
Tommy held out his hand. The other man dropped the chip in the hand, then raised his hands in surrender.
“Mister Kane,” Tommy said, not taking his eyes off of the blond man. He was too close to let any distraction pull his attention away. Otherwise, this whole situation could get squirrely quick, fast, and in a hurry.
“Tommy,” Atticus replied with a cheekiness to his voice. He seemed to be enjoying this.
Looking at the two goons, Tommy then said, “And your pads.”
The two men removed their pads and held them out.
Harley barked, “They go on the ground. Now!”
The two dropped their pads, expensive pieces of hardware, like they were suddenly bursting into flames, then stepped back.
“Get out of here,” he ordered. As the two goons stepped back slowly, then turned, Tommy glanced a look at Harley who simply nodded.
He then shifted his attention toward the small Englishman once the two goons were in their transport and off. Tommy stashed his Capella into his holster and said, “I didn’t expect you to interfere, Kane, but to actually help?”
Kane shrugged. “Not a personal fan, of course, but I took a look at the contents of that chip. Armstead has been very naughty, considering what all they have. More to the point, what all you have.”
“You looked?” Harley asked, putting his weapon away as well.
“Of course,” Kane answered. “I had to make sure I had everything I needed prior to making contact with my customer.”
Tommy replied, “And that is?”
“Oh, I make it a policy not to share named and all that, but I’m sure you bright lads have a fairly accurate guess.”
Unfortunately, Tommy did.
“Took a look right before supper,” Kane volunteered. “Promptly lose my appetite. I knew the Clans were bloody awful, but I had no idea how vile some of them could
be.”
Tommy nodded reluctantly. He’d long thought stuff like that was his birthright, much like every other member of the Clans did. Now he was as disgusted by all of it as Kane was.
“Anything on me?” Tommy finally asked.
Kane gave his head a slight shake and said, “No, I’m afraid I had to learn all of your transgressions in the tabloids like everyone else.”
Tommy couldn’t help but chuckle.
“But,” Kane said, “there are a couple of files on there that you’re mentioned in. I’d have a looksee if you have a moment.”
Tommy looked at the data chip, then back to Kane.
Kane simply smiled and said, “Not embarrassing for you, now, but for some…other parties? Could be absolutely dreadful.”
He wasn’t sure what the thief was talking about, but he nodded his understanding none the less. He figured it would become clear enough once he looked at the data chip itself.
“By the by, there may be an unfortunate situation with your ship dusting off if you’re in a hurry. I’m afraid I won’t have the time to resolve it for today unfortunately. My contact won’t be able to do anything until tomorrow”
Harley nodded and said, “Taken care of.”
Kane cocked his head to the side and smirked. “Of course, it is.”
** ** **
Tommy sat back as Cody drove the van on the return trip toward the drop off point. It appeared their plan had worked just like he’d hoped. Just a few minutes, a bit of scare, and a big helping of no one getting hurt. Just what he’d hoped for.
“You know,” he said, finally starting to relax, “I don’t expect this could have gone any better. Kane didn’t use our names, so they’ll probably have some trouble tracking us down, and by the time they piece it all together, we’ll be deep in the black.”
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