by TR Cameron
The old woman nodded. “He sent your pictures ahead, so I know who you are. I’m sorry to say, though, that there’s a problem. Please, come into the back with me.” She levered herself to her feet with the help of a cane and walked slowly toward the rear of the shop. A holographic image of her that would be sufficient to fool a cursory glance appeared where she’d been sitting, and the click of a lock sounded behind them. This place is more than it seems. Imagine that.
They passed through a door and found themselves in a space entirely unlike the front of the shop. Where that area had been casual, with bric-a-brac shoved into every corner seemingly at random, this one was almost as sterile as the hospitals he’d been spending too much time in of late. Bright overhead lights illuminated workbenches with robot arms and 3-D printers, busily crafting items he didn’t recognize. Their contact turned and seemed to lose twenty years as she straightened. Her voice, which had been tremulous, strengthened. “Here’s the thing. The package never got here. It was hijacked in transit.”
Cia asked, “How did that happen?”
The woman shrugged. “Random chance? I haven’t been able to track down specific clues as to the disappearance, except for one. A lowlife scumbag with a reputation for engaging in thievery-for-hire was caught on camera in the area where it happened.”
Jax nodded. “Whoever did it defeated the surveillance?”
The woman shrugged. “Seems like it.”
“So, unlikely to be random chance, then. When did it happen?”
“Only a couple of hours ago. I don’t like to have things in my possession any longer than necessary. You know how it is.”
“I get it. Point us in the right direction, and we’ll put in a good word with the Professor.”
Five minutes later, they were on the way to the last known location of the item they’d been sent to retrieve. Cia offered, “I don’t think that was all legal back there.”
Jax chuckled. “Your instincts are good on that one.” She frowned, the idea clearly not sitting right with her. He continued, “One of the things my career has taught me is that sometimes you have to wander over the line now and again in service of a good cause. Of course, you’re the one who has to decide what your tolerance for such wanderings is. I’ve gotten close to mine on occasion, and it’s not a comfortable place to be.”
“Let’s hope we don’t have to do anything like that.”
He nodded. “I doubt we’ll be going up against master criminals here, but I do have one recommendation.”
She sighed. “What?”
“Don’t be worried. Do be wary.”
Chapter Sixteen
They found the drone that had been tasked with delivering the item, still smoldering. The storage compartment had been opened with some sort of imprecise tool. Jax guessed a plasma torch, but until he had more information, he wouldn’t bet the farm on it. Enterprising vandals had already stripped the motors, and the main section was probably useless for anything other than recycling.
He poked the thing one last time, then stood and shook his head. “Nothing to see here. Did you find something useful on the surveillance cameras?”
Cia stepped beside him so he could see the display on the tablet she held. It showed seven views, each in an individual box. She tapped the play icon, and the action in each of them lurched into motion. As the drone entered each one, the camera blanked. She said, “The surveillance tech isn’t very impressive, so defeating it probably wasn’t all that hard.”
“Those are the only angles we’ve got?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Jax shrugged. “Okay, it was worth trying. Let’s shift our focus to the thief. Can you do facial recognition on that thing?”
She could, and with the permissions the woman at the shop had given them, it proved possible to track the man until he entered a building. They followed his path and wound up at a hotel, one that specialized in short-term stays. The check-in desk was automated, so he didn’t have to make up a story to cover Cia as she launched the Academy’s artificial intelligences to hack the hotel’s systems. Apparently, the Professor had hired or accepted as a student someone who was good at their job, because she had the room number and access code in less than a minute.
The room was on the twelfth floor, so they surrendered their liberty to an elevator that had seen better days. Its formerly bright metal interior was now dull, and the pattern of dents in the sides suggested that at least one boxing match may have been held inside, possibly more. They reached their destination level without incident and stopped about ten feet from the door to room 1221. Jax drew the pistol from his hip holster and touched the hidden stud that selected energy instead of projectiles since he wasn’t positive about the composition of the walls and didn’t want to fire through them accidentally. He tapped the button on his wristcomm to activate the channel with Cia, less concerned now with having their signals detected than with being heard. He whispered, “You pop the door and hang back. I’ll go in. If he gets out, you need to shoot him.”
She nodded. “I’m set on stun. I’ll get him.”
He swallowed his opinion about the low-energy setting the Academy’s weapons had, which was easily defeated by even the simplest body armor. It’s still probably for the best. No telling how well practiced she is. Something to work on when we get back. The realization that he was treating their partnership as if it would continue flitted through his mind, but he pushed it into the same corner where all irrelevant thoughts were stored during a mission. “Do it.”
Jax was striding forward as soon as he said the words, and the lock panel flashed green as he reached it. His palm smacked against the sensor, and the door swung free. He’d anticipated the room would be small, eliminating the opportunity for sneakiness, so he slammed the door with his hip and led with his gun extended. The man they sought was present, and he bounded up at the intrusion, moving much faster than he should have been able to from the bed to the doorway. He slapped the pistol out of Jax’s grip and backhanded him across the face. Jax reeled but had the presence of mind to kick the door closed as he fell away, muttering, “Lock it.” When the thief grabbed the handle to escape, the door refused to budge.
Jax used that moment to find his balance. The man had the look of a junkie, wild-haired, dirty, unshaven, and with eyes that burned like he was in pain. The augmented speed was an unexpected development, meaning he’d underestimated the thief based on his looks and his seeming normalcy. Getting complacent, Jackson. Just because it’s not your usual battlefield, it doesn’t mean you’re automatically top dog. The less critical portion of his mind countered that the man’s camouflage had been good and that when going up against skilled people, getting fooled now and again was part of the game. The two mental factions agreed to be more careful and not to beat him up about it.
But beating up this guy? That’s got a real good vibe to it. Jax raised his hands defensively. “How about we talk this out? I’m not here to hurt you. I just want what you took from the drone.”
The other man shouted, “I don’t have it!” and launched himself across the space between them. Now that he was expecting it, the speed wasn’t as overwhelming, and Jax blocked the front punch with a circular sweep of his arm that defeated any possibility of a follow-up reverse punch. His foe was now on Jax’s right and a touch overbalanced, which made him perfectly positioned for a knee strike. Jax twisted into it and pistoned his kneecap into the man’s solar plexus. His foe fell gasping to the floor, unable to do anything other than try to remember how to breathe as Jax quickly patted him down.
When he was finished, he retrieved his pistol and crossed to the opposite side of the room, putting the bed between them to force his opponent to go over it if he decided to attack again. He kept the gun trained on the thief as he climbed first to his knees, then to his feet. “No sudden movements,” Jax advised. “I’m not interested in hurting you, but I’m also not interested in getting hurt if you catch my drift.”
The man nodded and cough
ed. “Nice moves.”
“You too. Cybernetics?”
“Nah. Adrenaline spike implant. Could never afford serious tech.” The thief sighed. “Okay if I sit? I’m feeling a little wobbly.” Jax gestured toward a chair with the pistol, and the man sank into it. “Thanks. Since you didn’t kill me while I was down, I guess I can trust you’re not here for that.”
Jax grunted. “Told you that upfront.”
The other man gave a dark laugh. “In my line of work, you can’t trust the word of someone who breaks into your hotel room waving a gun around. Maybe it’s different where you’re from.”
“Not so much. So, the item you took from the drone. Two questions. First, how did you wind up in the middle of this? Second, where is it?”
The thief shrugged and scratched the stubble on his face. His thin body sprawled over the edges of the chair like it wasn’t big enough to contain his length, although it might have been the boneless way he sat that created the illusion. “Hired through an automated system to take down the drone. Picked up the heavy-duty stunner from a, uh, friend, and nabbing it was easy. Courier was waiting here and took the box from me. Left me the room for the night.”
“You’re not going to do anything stupid like tell me you don’t have a lead on where it went. The way you talk, you’ve done this before, so you would have hedged your bets.”
He sighed. “I’m clearly not the only one who’s done this before. Tracker’s in my jacket, hanging on the bathroom door.” Jax backpedaled carefully toward it, keeping his pistol trained, then switched the weapon to his left hand so he could paw through the coat dangling from a metal hook. He saw the man consider making a move, but he gave him a glare and a small head shake, and he subsided.
A throwaway datapad was secured in a pocket. He activated the device and saw a moving dot on a map. It took a moment for him to realize what he was seeing, and then he muttered, “Damn it.” He looked up at the thief. “You don’t get out of that chair, and don’t even think of calling to let them know we’re on the trail. Found you once, easy job to find you again if this doesn’t work out.”
The man lifted his palms in surrender. “No problem, boss. I’ve already been paid. Not about to mess with whatever you and the girl in the hallway have going on.” He gave a slight grin at the revelation that he knew about Cia, so Jax didn’t think he was less capable than he was.
“Make sure of it.” Jax exited into the hallway. “We’ve got a problem.”
The maglev was the fastest route to the spaceport, so they made a beeline for it—just as the courier had. Cia was working on her tablet and finally emitted a disgusted noise. “I can’t get into any cameras on the system to find out who we’re looking for. If I had to guess, they’re two trains ahead of us, so they’ll be there a good thirty minutes before we will.”
Jax growled at their inability to do anything useful. The car was packed with civilians and what looked like some sort of transit authorities, to judge by the uniforms and the stun guns on their hips. He checked to ensure the strap holding his weapon in its holster was secure. “I’m sure they’ll have to prep to lift off and stuff, right?”
The pilot nodded. “And we have a bit of an advantage there.” She tapped at her tablet and made a small noise of satisfaction. “I can work with Grace’s autopilot virtually to handle most of the preflight checks in a pinch. We should be able to get moving pretty fast once we get there.”
“Does she have an AI?” He wasn’t sure how he felt about that idea either way, although it seemed like it would be useful at this particular moment.
Cia laughed. “My family’s rich, but not that rich, to put a true artificial intelligence into such a small ship. That sort of thing is reserved for the big trading vessels, and then only where it’s cost-effective to replace living crew or to handle stuff that might be dangerous. There’s usually one in engineering, for instance, so that if something goes wrong and an environmental hazard is involved, the computer can start diagnosing the issue while the crew gets suited up.” He nodded his understanding. “Grace’s autopilot is only wired into a few systems other than the actual navigation and piloting controls. Makes things easier when I’m the only one aboard.”
“I get it.” With no power to make anything better at the moment, Jax leaned back and closed his eyes. “Wake me when we’re close.”
Chapter Seventeen
They arrived at the spaceport and split up, Cia dashing for the Grace to complete their preparations and Jax using the dot that was still blinking on the tracer device to head for the location of the person they sought. He wished that he could go back in time and clarify whether the thief had planted the locator on the person or the object. It would suck to find the courier sipping coffee somewhere while the package was blasting off toward a jump point.
The spaceport was a circular hub with a number of spokes radiating out of it that led to exterior landing pads across two-thirds of its circumference. The remaining third was taken up by a large enclosed building that his map indicated was a repair bay. He was glad when his path didn’t lead him there since it would be a hassle and a half to maintain a casual appearance surrounded by a bunch of workers. Even here in the main hub, it was a challenge to follow the device without appearing like he was following it. He’d tried to make it talk to his comm, but the two devices didn’t speak any of the same languages, so he was stuck looking like a confused tourist.
His path was blocked by a gate preventing access to one of the hallways that led to the ships. The display on the wall informed passersby that the ship beyond was the Twinkletoes, which no doubt someone thought amusing. A thin clear panel was positioned slightly above the midpoint of the metal barrier, through which he could barely see the ship at the end of the spoke. Smoke was billowing around the bottom, a likely precursor to liftoff.
He turned and ran as fast as he could without risking an intervention by Security toward the Grace. “Cia, they’re on Pad Seven, getting ready to haul ass out of here. Ship is the Twinkletoes.”
The pilot snorted. “As aliases go, that’s pretty stupid.”
He barreled through the opening that separated the hub from the hallway that led to the Grace. “You can close down access to the hub. I’ll be there shortly.”
“Acknowledged. Come in through the cargo bay hatch. The stairs are already gone.”
He obeyed and pelted toward the back of the ship, then ran up the incline that was the main loading point for materials to be packed on board. He slapped the big glowing button that he was pretty sure was the up/down switch for the ramp and was rewarded with the sound of it lurching into motion. “I’m in.”
“We’ll lift off as soon as you get up here. Move it, slowpoke.”
The ship vibrated through his boots as he ran for the pilot compartment and threw himself into the seat. They were airborne before he was done strapping in, and she skewed the Grace and launched it toward space. He pointed to the right, where the hole the other ship had left behind as it punched into the cloud layer was slowly filling back in. “I don’t mean to criticize, but they went thataway.”
She chuckled. “First, we have to spiral up through the clouds, remember? The whole burning the people below alive thing? But more importantly, we’ve been given a vector by ground control. If we deviate from it, we’ll have issues.”
“I’m sure you can talk your way out of them.”
Cia shook her head. “No, I really can’t. Where space flight is concerned, rules are rules, and you do not screw with them.”
Jax could see the logic in that position when one was controlling many tons of moving metal. “But once we’re outside the atmosphere, we can chase them?”
She flicked several switches on the left side of her control panel. “Grace has her locked into the sensors. Even if they switch transponders, we should be able to track them by drive signature and physical characteristics.”
“Good. We get close to them, blast their engines, and have a chat.”
&
nbsp; She broke out into laughter as they steered out of the cloud cover, and the planets that made up the system became clear on the display. “We’re not on a military ship, Captain. We won’t be blasting anyone’s anything.”
He frowned at her. “Seriously? You’ve got to have some kind of guns on this ship.”
Cia sighed. “First, the kinds of weapons civilian ships are permitted to carry are rather limited. Second, I’m not the type to get myself into situations where such things are necessary. Present company excepted, naturally.” Her voice trailed off into a mutter as she stared at the screen. After almost a half-minute during which she adjusted their course several times, she grimaced. “Looks like they’re heading for a pirate point near the edge of the system.”
It was the first he’d heard of such a thing. “What’s that?”
She swiped a hand across her control panel, and a diagram appeared as an overlay to the external view on the display. It showed gravity measures in the system. The Lagrange points near each planet were small yellow circles. In the distance, a red box throbbed to attract his attention. “It’s a spot where the gravitational influences shouldn’t allow a jump, but if you hit it just right, they will. It requires a powerful engine and strong shields. More than your average ship would have.”
“You’re saying it’s a smuggler.”
Cia shrugged. “Perhaps. My girl has the power and the defenses to use it, too, so it could just be a private trader. Admittedly, a private trader engaged in stealing the package the Professor wants.” She pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “So, yes. It’s almost certainly a smuggler.” She flicked on the autopilot and turned her chair to climb out of it. “Come with me. We’ve got some time before we’ll be in range, and Grace will warn me if anything unexpected happens.”
He complied, and she led him back to the room she’d previously called the armory. The hatch slid aside to reveal a space about the size of a walk-in closet, with suits hanging from hooks on the left above a shelf with matching boots. The right-hand side held rifles and pistols. The rear wall had cabinets with closed panels concealing their contents. Without preamble, she started to strip out of her clothes and ordered him to do the same. “The suit on the far end should fit you pretty well. Hurry up, clock’s ticking.”