Enlisted

by Nathan Pedde

  The whine of machinery rang out from the building. The whirl drowned out any noise from his surroundings. Des strained his ears hunting for the thump of boots on pavement. He couldn’t hear anything. Down the end of the alleyway, a shadowy figure walked out from around a corner and was silhouetted by the station’s street lights.

  Based on the figure’s size, Des hadn’t managed to lose Veer. Not that he feared Veer, Des didn’t have time to deal with him. He never had time to deal with Veer.

  Veer pointed at him and yelled something, the racket from all the machinery drowned out the words.

  Des held his hand mockingly over his ear and mouthed the word, “What?”

  Additional figures entered the alley behind Veer and ran at him. Des couldn’t make out who they were in the dim light, but he didn’t want to. Des knocked down pallets behind him. He turned, running down the alley in the opposite direction. He checked behind him. The goons followed him.

  Ahead of Des, the alley opened to the busy street, filled with large cube and cargo trucks. They rumbled down the jam-packed road. A sign was posted on the side of a building stating: Brown Sector. Fuel Processing this way.

  The sidewalks were packed with people wearing work clothes, heavy boots, and hard helmets. They turned, staring at Des as he burst out of the alley and into the street. Des pushed passed them, running fast as his legs would take him through the packed crowd, ignoring the different shocked looks and stares. His actions weren’t subtle and would be noticed by many people, but it couldn’t be helped.

  Thirty meters behind Des, the goons chased. Like Des, they were dressed in street clothes, but in their hands were pin shooters. A buzz echoed behind him. Des ducked flat to the ground as a loud thud reverberated above Des’s head.

  Des looked up. A large looking toothpick-like object stuck into the wall behind him, sending sparks a couple meters around him.

  “You brought a pin shooter?” Des yelled. “You idiot.”

  Curses and shouts reverberated around the street. Des didn’t need to look to see the shock plastered on everyone's faces. Someone would be on their phone and the station guards would be on their way.

  Des jumped onto his feet, bolting down the street. Fear crept up his spine as another pin ricocheted off a parked hover-car. They wouldn’t kill him, only paralyze him for a few hours of excruciating pain.

  “Cut him off,” Veer yelled.

  Des had no intention of getting captured by Veer and his goons again. He passed more workers down the street. They all looked at Des as he ran by, yet no one moved to help.

  He turned into another small alley. Des jumped over the top of a garbage can, which he knocked over. The alley ran straight to the other side of the street, but another smaller one broke off at a junction in the middle of it. Two more goons appeared on the other side of the alley in front of Des, cutting him off.

  Des slid on the wet pavement, turning down a smaller alley.

  I need to lose them, Des panicked.

  The smaller alley was a dead end. Large sliding doors to the buildings sat along the sides, but there was no way out.

  Fuck!

  Des looked around for an escape. There had to be an escape. A small drainpipe ran up the side of the building, and a large brass grated drain covered one side of the alley. There had to be some way for him to use those as a means of escape.

  Sitting in a small refuse pile was a skinny metal pole about one meter long. Des picked it up and held it in his hands.

  Four of the thugs with Veer appearing at the end of the alley. Each of the thugs and Veer had pin shooters out and pointed at Des.

  “We have you now,” Veer said.

  “We have you now?” Des asked. “That sounds like you’re sure of it.”

  “You’re caught. I’ve got friends with weapons. You have no escape, and a simple piece of garbage isn't a weapon. You’re caught.”

  “Nah,” Des replied, scanning the area. “I have three ways out of this.”

  Des put his other hand into his jacket pocket. He dug past some pieces of plasto-paper as he hunted for a small object.

  “All I have to do is shoot, and I have you. Ryder. Bah. That’s such a fake name. Is that even your real face?”

  “Is that yours?”

  “I don’t have time for this,” Veer said, raising his pin shooter.

  Des heard the distinct buzz. The pin flew in the air straight at Des’s face. He jerked to the side. The projectile flew by Des’s head. An inch closer and the pin would have lodged into his face.

  “Shoot him,” Veer yelled.

  Des took a deep breath, pulling his hand out of his pocket. He threw the small metallic ball at Veer and his thugs. The ball landed at Veer’s feet and exploded. A cloud of thick, blinding, green smoke filled the alley with a pungent odor.

  He grabbed the steel grate and lifted it. He slammed it down next to the drain hole it revealed. The hard smash rang against the surrounding buildings. Des didn’t go into the street drain. He climbed up the slippery metal drainpipe and up onto the roof.

  “Into the sewers,” Veer yelled. “He’s getting away.”

  The echo of the steel grate being slid away from the drain hole bounced off the walls. A moment later and the heavy footsteps of the men's boot prints faded.

  Des lay on top of the flat roof of the warehouse-style building. He looked up into the sky, resting for a moment. Sweat dripped down his forehead and soaked collar of his shirt.

  Sirens blared out in the distance as the station guards raced closer to him. Not that they were any help. Des managed to evade Veer and his goons on his own.

  “Des, you there,” Elsie’s voice rang in his head, like a bad hallucination

  Des’s new communication chip in his ear let him talk to not only Cryslis, but Cooley, and Elsie. It still worked the same way. Des started calling it the Neuronet as a joke and it stuck.

  “I’m here,” Des replied. “Where would I be?”

  “Did you get the file?” Elsie asked.

  Des knew she didn’t get his joke. Or if she did, she didn’t make a note of it.

  “No.”

  “What?”

  “I said no. I didn’t get the file. Veer now has goon’s, and they stopped me from getting into the office.”

  “Des, you had one job,” Elsie replied, agitated. “They’re going to move the data. I’ll get in contact with Cryslis. She’s following the ‘chickens’ to the feeder. Where are you?”

  Des told her.

  “Laying on your back while the rest of us work,” Elsie laughed. “Cooley has your ‘Des’ clothes and your homework. He’ll be there in ten minutes to extract you.”

  “The diner again?” Des asked, but Elsie didn’t answer.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Des sat at a booth in the Greasy Burger Diner. The diner was built into the ground floor of a two-story tall office building in the Teal Sector. The diner stretched across half of the storefront to the building with tall ceilings and windows to match. Inside of the building was built of white and black tiles on the floor with an off-white cream tile on the walls. Two dozen booths with attached benches were stretched out across the storefront with a bar across the other side.

  School work was spread out on Des’s table with a couple different reading tablets and writing tablets. Math homework was displayed on the tablet’s screen. A half-eaten burger sat beside the homework.

  Des was in his school uniform. His jacket and backpack sat in a heap on the other side of the bench. He changed and cleaned himself up in Cooley’s hover-van on the way over, dropping him off two blocks away.

  He stared at his tablet, wishing the answer to one particular question would jump out at him. He was confident he knew the answer, but he wasn’t sure it was correct or not. His self-doubt kept him from figuring out the correct answer.

  From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the other booths. Des was eavesdropping on a few people. Since they spoke so loud, it wasn’t really eavesdroppi
ng. Already, he figured out some of their names.

  Four tables down were a pair of construction workers wearing grubby work clothes and bright colored safety vests. They looked to be middle-aged, but Des wasn’t sure. A person aged over twenty and up to mid-thirties looked the same to him.

  The two workers ate burgers and fries, each swigging down a beer. Des had seen the two workers three weeks prior in the station’s Undercroft. At the time, he tricked the workers into not getting him into trouble for being in the Undercroft, even though he had a good reason to be there.

  “When are the 1-H Nebulas going to start up again?” Fred asked.

  “Not this again,” Airnee replied. “They shut down the Jovian professional sports teams for the duration of the war.”

  “I know that, dummy,” Fred said. “I miss watching the games. I miss the team spirit.”

  “No doubt,” Airnee said. “This war doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon.”

  “Maybe we’ll surrender already,” Fred replied, taking a gulp of beer.

  “Do you really think it would be good for us if Earth takes over?”

  “Well…”

  Airnee finished his burger and chugged back his beer. Fred only completed half of his food as he had been talking too much.

  “We better get back,” Airnee said, standing up.

  “Yeah,” Fred said. “Let's not be late getting back to work.”

  Fred chugged back his beer and grabbed his burger in his other hand.

  “Is it my turn to pay, or is it yours?” Airnee asked.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s yours.”

  “I don’t know. I thought it was your turn.”

  “No. I remember me paying last time. It’s yours.”

  “Fine,” Airnee grumbled, pulling out his wallet.

  He dropped a couple of credit chips onto the table.

  The waitress, a teen about Des’s age, walked across the diner toward the two workers. Her red skirt much too short to be proper, and a white top showing off her arms. Wrapped around her waist was an apron filled with an ordering tablet and credit chips.

  She approached the table and the credits.

  “Thanks for coming,” the waitress said. “See you next time.”

  Airnee nodded, walking to the door with Fred following close behind, munching on the burger.

  Des scratched his chin and thought of Elsie.

  “Chickens are leaving the feeder,” Des muttered.

  “Roger that, Des,” Elsie replied.

  A pause echoed from the other side of the line.

  “I have them,” Elsie said. “Cryslis and I will take it from here. Finish your homework.”

  Des smiled, looking down at the table. He pulled a small tablet from the pile of other tablets. He typed a couple buttons on it and put it into his backpack.

  “See you after,” Des said.

  He grabbed his cold burger and took a big bite out of it. It was still tasty cold, better than the burnt mash he would have made himself at home. The waitress came to Des's table. In her hands was another tall glass of soda. She placed the glass in a free spot.

  “Hiya,” the waitress said. “You’ve been coming in here often.”

  “Older brother took over the house with some project,” Des replied. “I needed a quiet place to study.”

  “No issues. You can come and study anytime,” the waitress said, walking away from the table.

  Des grunted. He looked at his homework once more. Now the distraction of his duties as a secret agent was out of the way. He started answering more of homework questions. He wasn’t sure if he was getting them correct or not. However, he’d been so distracted lately, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to get his grades back up.

  A loud ring echoed on the table. It was so sudden it made Des jump for a second.

  “Sweet Jupiter,” Des muttered.

  Des picked up the phone. His uncle flashed across the screen and he answered it.

  “Hello, Uncle Jacob,” Des said, his phone on his ear.

  “Hi, Des,” Jacob replied, his voice sounded scratchy over the phone. “How are things on the little station?”

  “They’re the best that can be expected, I suppose.”

  “Right. Right. I’m using a quantum link to make this call, and I don’t have a lot of time.”

  “Quantum link? That must mean you’re quite far away. Where are you?”

  “Evana Trojan Cluster 12.”

  “That’s on the other side of the solar system and isn’t that being blockaded?” Des asked, worry lacing in his voice.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, I’m worried about you and your grades.”

  “I know about my grades. I’m trying my best.”

  “Are you really? Cause your brother says you don’t want into the military academy? That you’re slacking off to not get in.”

  “I’m not slacking off,” Des mumbled.

  “You do understand the importance of getting into the academy, right? The privileges you can earn?”

  “I understand. You only tell us every time you’re back on the station.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  Des rolled his eyes. “The academy gives me the biggest chance to have a real choice in my future and to keep away from the Marines.”

  “Good. Now, what are you doing to achieve that goal?”

  “I’m studying hard.”

  “Are you?”

  “I am…”

  “I’m out of time. I’ll talk to you later when I get another turn. Susan now has access to all the funds for your allowance.”

  The line went dead. Des put down his phone and rubbed his eyes. He sat back and leaned on the bench. He stared at the ceiling above him, and the off-color ceiling panels hanging from their metal fasteners.

  Are we any closer to finding the guy? Des thought, or are we just spitting air.

  Des snapped out of his slight daze and got back to work on his math homework. After he finished his math, he still had history and science to do.

  Elsie stood on the street corner beside a pizza parlor down the street from the diner. The fresh scent of warm pizza flowed into her nose. The pizza would be made using vitro-meat and vitro-flour due to food shortages, and while she could taste the difference, it would be better than nothing.

  She wished she got to hang at the diner instead of Des. She wanted to watch and listen to the two workers as they had lunch. She wanted to eat a juicy vitro-burger for once. However, she understood it was her stomach doing the thinking and not herself.

  “Elsie, target’s approaching your position,” Cryslis said over the Neuronet.

  “Roger…” Elsie muttered.

  The street was full of people. Kids younger than she ran past her and down the road. Old men sat on a nearby stoop mumbling to each other about something Elsie couldn’t quite catch. She figured they were talking about the good old days. She hmphed to herself at the thought.

  In the distance, Airnee and Fred walked down the road toward her.

  Elsie pulled out her phone. She stared at the screen, scrolling through a net page. Elsie put on her most bored look she could. She hoped the two workers wouldn’t notice her standing there.

  “I’ll tell you,” Fred said. “If we can get them to bring back Zero-G Football, not the fake boring Standardized football, but real Football. The JIFA Kind.”

  “If we can get them to bring it back, what?” Airnee replied.

  The two workers walked past Elsie. Airnee appeared really bored and frustrated with the conversation. Not that she blamed him, they were talking about sports.

  “What, what?” Fred asked.

  “You’re an idiot,” Airnee replied. “If we bring back 'Football’ what then? You get entertained for an hour and a half every week? What did you mean?”

  “Oh. Moral in the station will rise.”

  The two workers walked up to the nearby maintenance door.

  “You mean your moral will
rise,” Airnee said, buzzing his key card to the control panel and the door slid open.

  The two construction workers disappeared into the doorway and down into the Undercroft.

  “Are you sure about this plan?” Elsie asked Cryslis over the Neuronet.

  “Yes,” Cryslis replied. “What’s wrong with this plan?”

  “Nothing. Except we have been following these two workers around for a week now and they haven’t led us to the other one yet.”

  Cryslis grumbled. “Cooley is ripping the Net apart hunting for any info on the Mysterious Man, and he has found nothing. He’s a ghost.”

  “I know,” Elsie replied. “We need a new plan.”

  “Well. Think of a better one then and you’re dismissed for now. Go get some homework done.”

  Elsie heard the silence as Cryslis disconnected. It was a nice change having a team to talk to and work with. Before she worked alone, but now she had friends to watch her back.

  She walked down the street back toward the small diner where Des was. Her stomach growled at the thought of the juicy burger. But she remembered her dad was going to be making his infamous Pangelli Spegtala Noodle dinner. She groaned and walked into the diner.

  The diner was half full of people as a waitress approached her. She was trying too hard to get tips with the low-cut white tank top and high red skirt. Not that Elsie blamed her, the waitress had a figure Elsie dreamed of. She was still considered flat by most of the guys and girls in her class.

  “Table for one?” the waitress said.

  “No, thank you,” Elsie said. “I’m going to join my friend over there.”

  “Of course,” the waitress replied.

  Elsie walked across the restaurant and sat at the table across from Des.

  “Can I join you for a moment or two?” Elsie asked.

  “Sure,” Des replied. “I’m only trying to get homework done from a week ago.”

  “How far behind are you?”

  “Very.”

  “Did you want to head to my house to study?”

  “Don’t you have to go to your day job today?” Des asked without looking up from his work.