by David Ryker
“How much is it worth to you?” he asked.
I could see Alice was watching me intently, but I didn’t dare break from the bartender.
I brushed it off like the amount was nothing. “That works.” I was just praying that Volchec was listening and that she was already in the process of extending me an open line of credit. If she wasn’t, then I was about to fail miserably and give the game away.
I dropped my arm onto the bar and let him scan my barcode again. The machine beeped and he turned his lip down, nodding. “Alright then.” He laughed a little. “I honestly didn’t think you were good for it.”
“Like I said, we came to play, and we don’t fuck around with kids’ stuff. Now then, you were saying?”
He leaned forward on the bar, his huge wooly knuckles, each as wide as my whole arm, resting on the tarnished metal. He looked at both of us and then slowly turned his head, eyes flitting toward the other side of the room. “See those guys, second booth from the left?”
I looked over. There were three people in the booth. A Polgarian — a mean-looking son-of-a-bitch with dark skin and ridges on his head that made Jonas look like a pussycat. A droid — pretty old model by the looks of it — but not one of your run-of-the-mill clerk-droids. No, this looked like a fully functional battle-droid, not unlike the lieutenant general we’d run into on the space station. It had a square head with a couple of camera lenses and antennae sticking up.
And then lastly was a humanoid woman, but her skin was pale blue. She had humanoid features, but her eyes were dark. I couldn’t really make them out from here, but I would have said she was a half-breed. Half human, half something else. She was wearing a hood, too, that covered her head. They were all dressed a little strangely, in fact — a navy-colored theme seemed to be going on. She was in a hooded jacket, and the Polgarian was in a high-collared coat. Even the droid had a shawl over its shoulders.
The Polgarian and the humanoid were nursing their drinks and not talking. The droid was facing the door and was unmoving — looked like they were waiting for something, or someone.
“Mercs?” I said in a low voice, looking back to the bartender.
He shrugged. “Dunno. Probably. They’ve been in here a bunch of times in the last few weeks. They come in, drink for a while — someone else comes in, meets them, and they leave together.”
“Same person?”
“Different each time.”
“Humanoids?”
He nodded. “Yeah, they keep it low-key, but yeah. I’m not watching them, but I see things.”
“Any mention of Iskcara?”
“I haven’t asked. But I know what’s going on in the city. It’s common knowledge — everyone’s talking about it. Federation don’t like being stolen from — puts everyone on edge, you know? The people here like to keep the status quo intact. They don’t like it when the boat rocks.” He shrugged again. “I’m not saying they have anything to do with it, but the rumors start, and then these guys show up. They’re not from around here, and we’re in the right part of the city.” He turned away. “I’m not saying it’s something…”
“But you’re not saying it’s nothing, either.” I nodded. “Gotcha.”
“But you didn’t hear it from me, okay?” he said, suddenly grave.
“Didn’t hear what from you?” I leaned back, smiling in thanks.
He chuckled. “Exactly, kid.” He crossed to the big bar below and started serving a huge lizard-looking thing.
I sighed, feeling my heart hammering against my ribs, and turned to Alice.
She was glaring at me, jaw locked. “You’re unbelievable.” She was furious. I could see it in her eyes.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t meant as one.”
I sucked on my beer as Alice turned away on the stool, touching her hand to the back of her ear. “Volchec, you catch all of that?”
“Loud and clear.”
“You want us to go meet Mac and Fish?” she asked, the tone in her voice suggesting that was exactly what she wanted to do. Was being stuck here with me that bad?
I thought that maybe now wasn’t the best time to tell her that my little stunt outside had established a neural link between our chips, and that if she wanted, she could beam messages straight to me without speaking. That’s what I’d had Greg explain to me on the trip over. When they’d first implanted me, the droid had mentioned being able to neurally link with other chips. I just didn’t think it’d be as easy as to focus on interfacing with another one and then putting them in close proximity. Greg said around ten centimeters would do, and it had. I just wondered how hard she was going to sock me when she found out.
“No,” Volchec said after a second. “You stay there, wait to see if anything else happens, but don’t expect MacAlister and Sesstis to turn up any time soon. They’re following up on another lead. The garage had been stripped clean. Someone had come in and torn everything out of there. They’re doing some recon, asking around to see if they can find out if anyone knew anything about what was in there, or who might have cleaned it out. They’re tied up and might be for a while, so I wouldn’t hold my breath. Sounds like what you guys are on to could be promising though, so keep your eyes peeled.”
She clicked off and Alice slowly pulled herself back around to the bar. She toggled her comm off so she wasn’t broadcasting, and then swore.
I cut mine off too and squeezed my tongue between my lips, scrabbling for the right words, before realizing that there weren’t any right ones. “Kepler, I want to say something.”
I didn’t look up and she didn't make any noise. I just became aware that she’d leaned forward and put her chin on her folded arms on the bartop.
“I acted like an ass,” I started, trying to itemize the things I wanted to say in my head, from beginning to end. “From the first time we met, I acted like an ass — back on the Falmouth, and after. I’ve never had friends. Never had anyone I’ve been close to. I’ve realized I’m not good with people — with reading them, or gauging them. I’ve only ever had to look out for myself, and it’s taking some adjustment—”
“Red,” she cut in, tone flat.
“No, Alice, let me finish. I want to say this while I can—”
“Red,” she hissed this time.
“Alice, I’m serious—”
“Look up.”
I did, and honed in on exactly what she was looking at. The three mercs in the booth across the room were staring at us. The camera lens on the droid was adjusting and turning as it zoomed in. I sat upright and stared at it. “Stay cool.”
“Stay cool?” Alice muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means don’t panic.”
“I’m not panicking,” she said quietly.
“I was talking to myself.”
13
The Polgarian slid out of the booth with a casual ease and strode toward the raised bar on their side of the room. He leaned on it and pulled a napkin toward himself, staring at us all the while, and took a pen out of the inside of his coat.
He scribbled something on it, and then pushed it away, snapping his fingers at the Wint. The hairy creature sidled over and leaned in, nodding as the Polgarian spoke.
I turned my head as if I was saying something to Alice. “Greg, come in.”
“I’m here, James,” he said back in my ear.
“Can you pick up any chatter in here? Specifically a guy at the bar about twenty meters dead ahead of us.”
“No, James, many of the species are too large and the thick walls make it difficult to extract any clear audio,” he said with a hint of remorse.
“Shit. Alright, thanks.” The words hadn’t left my mouth before the Polgarian pushed back from the bar and headed to his table. The Wint walked over, napkin in hand, and dropped it on the bar in front of us.
“Looks like not much gets past them,” he said quietly. “Seems you caught the
ir eye as much as they did yours.”
Alice and I both leaned in to look at it. The napkin had a circle with a diagonal slash through it — the universal mercenaries sign — and under it was a figure preceded by the Federation Credits symbol — and it was a big figure. After it was a question mark.
I looked from it to Alice, and then up at the table across the room. They were all staring at us intently. “I think they want us to go over,” I muttered to her.
“Gee, you think?” she said bitingly.
“Well, we have to. They’re offering us work, by the looks of it.” I looked down at the napkin as casually as I could and reached for my beer, keeping up appearances. “Well paid work,” I added. I’d never seen so many credits, scribbled on a bar napkin, or otherwise.
“So what do we do, go over there, see if they’re the ones selling the Iskcara, and then pull our guns?” she mumbled, turning toward me so she had her back to them.
I shrugged to make it look like we were just mulling things over. “We do that, and I think they’ll plug us without a second thought. And plus, I doubt they’re the ones running the operation. Three mercenaries? Nah, they’ve got connections — someone’s hired them to come on as muscle, be the middlemen for the deals — maybe escort the Iskcara. It’s all guesswork until we go over there.”
“So what the hell do they need us for?”
“Who knows — maybe they need more muscle. Money doesn’t seem to be an issue.” I took another swig. “Maybe they just want more hands on deck — more guns on their side if things go sideways. But the longer we sit here, the weirder it’s going to be when we go over there. We’re mercs, here looking for work, and now that there’s work on the table, with a nice price tag attached, suddenly we’re not sure?” I smiled and tilted my head, putting on a show for them. They needed to see us taking it in our stride. “Come on, we’re going to give ourselves away if we don’t at least check it out. Best case scenario, they get spooked and bolt. Worst case, they pull out whatever weapons they’ve got hidden in their coats and put a thousand holes in us. And if that happens, we’ll be too dead to care about it.” I drained what was left of my beer and slid off my stool, cracking my neck.
Alice stared at me for a second, and then got up, too, grabbing the napkin. “Fine.” She breezed past me. “But I’ll lead, and you follow.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
We headed over slowly, Alice on my left and me hanging at her shoulder. We rounded the corner, past the entrance and across the back of the room toward the booths.
The mercs watched us the entire way. When we got to the table, none of them moved; they all just stared blankly.
Alice set her jaw and folded her arms. “So,” she said in voice not quite like her own. “Got work for us?” She was playing down her accent, her upbringing. She spoke well usually, but now, all of a sudden, she was stretching out her vowels and cutting her words off like she didn’t have a great grasp on the language — like she hadn’t been educated at a Federation pilots academy. Guess she knew it’d be a dead giveaway if she didn’t.
The woman with the blue skin smirked. “Kid’s got spirit,” she said dryly. “What’chu theenk?” She nudged the Polgarian with her elbow and he grunted.
“Think they’s a couple pups.” He bared his teeth a little. He had just as much charm as Jonas. He sniffed the air a couple times and looked at Alice. “And this one’s got Federation stink all over her.”
I could see Alice trying not to stiffen next to me.
“And ‘im, too,” he said, nodding to me. “Though I knows the Federation’s not like them runts much.” He laughed to himself. It was a shot at my origins, but it wasn’t the first I’d ever gotten it so I let it roll off my back.
Alice scoffed and shook her head, honing in on the woman again. “You invite us over here just to insult us, or are we talking business?” She tried to sound hard, but I could hear the quiver in her voice. I just hoped they couldn’t. I didn’t jump in. I was letting her take the lead as she’d told me she would.
The woman with the blue skin stuck her bottom lip out and pointed to the seat across from her. The droid shifted up and Alice slid in, face set in a stern grimace. I sat next to her and stayed quiet. I wasn’t about to interject, even if I wanted to. We needed to come off as a strong team — that much was imperative. These guys weren’t going to give anything away if they thought for even a second that something was hinky.
“So,” the blue-skinned woman said airly, “how long you two been on tha circuit?”
Alice shrugged. “Not too long, but you know — we’re good at it.”
She laughed behind closed lips. “Sure. You twos look a leettle young, is all, to be mercs like you is, you get?”
“Do we? And how do mercs usually look?” Her voice was hardening as she found her rhythm.
“Maybe more like they seen de galaxy — known wa’s out there. Known what do.” Her voice was strange, and English definitely wasn’t her first language. I couldn’t peg the race she was mixed with, but it wasn’t from somewhere nearby. Either way, it was almost chilling — laid back but self-assured, like she didn’t have a care in the world, which probably made things even more tense.
“We’ve been around.” Alice got comfortable in her chair, leaving her hand on the table. “Federation saw to that.”
The Polgarian straightened in his seat a little at the name drop, eyes roving across our midsections, looking for anything concealed.
Alice smirked. “Oh, come on,” she snorted, waving a hand at him. “He already said it — as if you weren’t trying to figure it out yourselves. We used to roll with them, and now we don’t.”
“No one geets out de Federation,” the woman said.
“Not with their approval, no. But you know, you land on one too many planets where bullets are flying and bodies are dropping, and you just think — hell, I’m not getting paid enough.” She exhaled slowly and curled her tabled hand into a fist. “Speaking of which — that was a pretty number on the napkin. Want to talk about that?”
The blue-skinned woman measured her for a second and then looked at me. “What about ‘im? He was all talk over der, and now he not say a word. He talk?”
“Too much,” Alice said cuttingly, smirking. “It’s a real fucking problem, actually.” That one sounded convincing. I didn’t think she was lying.
I smiled. “I talk. Just usually only when someone asks me a question.”
“Where you from, white-hair?” the woman asked.
“Genesis 526 — a terraforming colony not far from the dark zone.”
She nodded like she knew, but I doubted she did. “And how you get here?”
I shrugged. “We’ve been working together a while. Trained together. Landed together. Decided together that there was more out there for two pilots who had their shit nailed down and more sense than to stay with the Federation.”
The woman’s lip curled. “Pilots, eh? Dat mean you got dat beeg Federation steel?”
I nodded, but Alice cut in. “Yeah, and if you want them included in our arrangement, then you better add a few zeroes to that figure.” She tossed the napkin across the table and it slid to a halt in front of the woman.
She looked from Alice to me and back. “Is it just you two?” Her finger rose and waggled between us.
Alice nodded. “Yeah. Just the two of us.”
“Bullshit,” the Polgarian grunted.
Alice’s jaw flexed. “Excuse me?”
“You think we’re stupid, huh?” His voice was deep, like tires through gravel.
The blue-skinned woman waved him down. “Theenk what he means is that you don’t really ‘spect us to beelieve you done travelled all the way to Telmareen, just de two of you, without a line on work, rolling in stolen Federation steel big-boys? Dat mean the two of you, leel pups, got yourselfs two big-boys, and a ship, and the balls to walk in here? Nah, we don’t buy it. So, we ask you — who you got wich-you?”
“They’re n
ot stolen,” Alice retorted.
The woman laughed, showing off small teeth. “Oh, come now — don’t get all offendeed. Everyting is stolen if it s’posed to belong to da Federation but don’t no more.”
I cleared my throat and leaned forward, curtailing that line of conversation. “Alright, you got us. We’re here with a crew.”
I felt Alice’s foot nudging mine under the table, but ignored it.
“A crew, aye? A second ago it was just da two of you.”
“What, like you three are working alone?” I raised an eyebrow. “Come on now, if we’re doing all cards on the table you might as well come right out and tell us what the hell you need two extra mercs for that you’re willing to pay that much.” I pointed to the napkin. “Or do you want to keep getting to know each other?”
She bit her bottom lip and smiled. “Go on deen. Tell me ‘bout dis crew.”
“Federation outcasts, like us. Trained, ready, packing. We’ve got the steel. We’ve got a ship. And we’ve got the thing you need the most.”
“Oh yeah? And what dat?”
Alice was on my wavelength. “The deep-seated desire to fuck the Federation right up the ass every opportunity we get.”
The blue-skinned woman smiled a little wider. “Oh, I like her.” She waved her hand at Alice, looking at the Polgarian. “I just hope her go as good as her speak. Whatch’you theenk?”
The Polgarian’s face was stone. “I think they’re full of shit.”
And then there was silence around the table, and Alice’s foot pressed very hard on mine. The blue-skinned woman’s face changed from a smile to a grimace, and then she glowered, measuring us for all we were worth.
Alice laughed first — awkwardly. Hyperbolically. I swallowed and then sucked in a breath between my teeth, mentally mapping my movements to the Arcram in my coat, calculating how quickly I could rip it out, dial it up and put rounds in these guys if they made a move.