by David Ryker
“Please,” Alice snorted. “You think we’re full of shit? Fuck you.” She met the Polgarian dead-eyed, and I had to admit I was impressed she had the stones. “You guys aren’t who we thought you were. We came to Telmareen looking to make some serious money because heard there was some rare shit flying around.”
She elbowed me out of the booth and onto the platform. I slid to my feet and straightened my jacket as they watched us, saying nothing. She looked at me, and then nodded at the door. I didn’t know what angle she was playing but I obliged.
We got ten feet before the blue-skinned woman called us. “Wait,” she said, smirking. “What dis rare sheet you mean?”
Alice tried on a smirk, looking at me, and then changed it, deciding it wasn't the right expression. Her mouth was pulled into a thin line when she turned around. “You need us to spell it out? Iskcara. But you guys are obviously as in the dark as we are.”
It was ballsy. Baiting them — testing them. The woman laughed to herself. “Oh sweetheart, you’re so cute. And say, whatcha theenk you do if you find thees Iskcara?”
“Buy it. Sell it. Escort it. Whatever the fuck pays. We risked a lot coming here to Telmareen with the Federation dogging us, and if there’s nothing for us to take, then we’ll go somewhere else.” Alice made toward the door again.
“And what make you theenk this a good place t’come looking for it, aye?”
Alice smiled and shook her head. “It doesn’t take an idiot to run a low-level radiation scan. The whole city’s lit up because of the Iskcara moving around, but if you look close enough, it’s easy to see patterns. A line between the Sazaaron Spaceport and a warehouse in the industrial sector — lit up like firework. And considering the Sazaaron Spaceport isn’t supposed to ship that shit... And this bar just happened to be the nearest watering hole.”
The blue-skinned woman turned in her seat and leaned on the back of the booth. “So where you fit in, you say? You want to buy it — you theenk you can sell it? You know what this sheet is, yeah, pretty?”
Alice’s jaw flexed. “I know what Iskcara is, and I know what it’s worth. And I can shift it right now if you’ve got it. I’ve got a buyer on the hook.”
“A buyer? Before you even got the stuff?”
Alice scoffed. “You think I’m going to go hunting for stolen Iskcara without a buyer already lined up? Shit, you must think we’re fresh.”
The woman stuck her bottom lip out. “Who say it stolen?”
“Come on. Everything is stolen if it’s supposed to belong to the Federation, but doesn’t any more.” Alice let her lip curl just a touch and I watched as the blue-skinned woman’s eyes lit up a little.
“Okay,” she droned. “We see.”
“You see?” Alice asked.
She nodded. “Ye, we see what’chu made of — and what ‘em steel big-boys can do.”
14
We stepped into the afternoon gloom with the mercs behind us. Alice was stoic and focused. They’d made sure we went out first, which to me said that they were just as unsure whether we’d put a bullet in their backs as I was that they’d put a few in ours.
The wind was icy and had picked up since we went inside. I pulled my collar up to shield my face and braced it with my shoulder. We got down onto the dirt track in front of the bar and turned. The Polgarian had his coat zipped up to his nose, and the blue-skinned woman’s cloak covered her chin, her pale eyes piercing in the halflight.
“So,” I said over the wind, “what’s the deal here?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Deal?”
“Yeah, you dragged us outside, now what?” Alice cut in, resuming control of the situation.
The woman smirked and laughed to herself. “Now we see how serious ya are about dees credits, huh?”
“Look, lady, we’re not playing games, alright? We want into whatever this shit is all about. If it pays, we’re in, no matter what.” Alice cut the air decisively with her hand.
The blue-skinned woman stared at her for a while. “Alright, well we gotta see whether dat’s true, feel?”
Alice nodded. “Sure. Whatever. Just tell us what you want us to do.” She shrugged nonchalantly, but the look in the woman’s eyes told me this wasn’t going to be good. I was thinking they might have us attack some Telmareen guards or rob a bank. But it was none of those things.
“You say you got two more ya crew, aye?”
Alice nodded. “Get to the point.”
“T’ing is, we only need three bodies for dis job. So there one too many, see?”
Alice’s jaw flexed. “Then hire three of us,” she growled.
“Nah — I want you,” she said, pointing to both of us, “to kill each other. Whoever left standing we take, plus de other two.”
Alice’s eyes narrowed. I just breathed slowly, staring at the Polgarian, who’d fixed his eyes on me.
“We’re a crew. We’ll split the credits. Doesn’t matter if one of us doesn’t work,” she said flatly.
“No.” The woman grinned and then shook her head. “We need to know you serious — dat you got what we need. Dat being de cold blood and dat hunger for no more dan credits — das de merc way.” She stuck her bottom lip out. “Or maybe he right,” she said, nodding her head sideways at the Polgarian. “And y’are full of shit.”
Alice’s wheels churned as she looked for a solution. She didn’t find one. Her eyes slowly turned to me, looking for an answer. She wasn’t ready to forgive me, but she also didn’t want to put a bullet between my eyes. I clenched my jaw and looked at the ground. Guess now was as good a time as any.
Alice?
Her eyes widened for a second before she reined herself in and looked up, and then at me, having just heard my voice in her head.
Don’t freak out, I said. Just listen — I established a neural link so we can talk like this — sorry — but we need to do something — say something. Agree to it. We’ll figure it out.
She cleared her throat. “You’re a bitch, but I get it,” she said, voice thin and hard. “We knew what this was about when we signed up.” She reached behind her back and pulled her Arcram out of its holster, holding it up. She pulled the barrel back and it lit up and glowed blue. “This payday better be worth it.”
The blue-skinned woman fixed her eyes on Alice’s. “You shoot ‘im, just like that?”
She shrugged. “We’ve only known each other a few months. It’s the job, right? Don’t get attached — focus on staying alive long enough to collect the paycheck.” She scoffed. “Only a matter of time ‘til we turned on each other anyway.”
The woman laughed. “Das de spirit. No such thing as friends in dis game — only credits.”
I drew across my body and cocked my pistol too, watching it light up.
“And what you got to say, eh, white-hair?”
“That after I plug her, you’d better fucking pay me,” I grunted.
She laughed and clapped. “Okay, den, you der, her der.” She flicked her hands in opposite directions and we both trudged off up the road, giving ourselves space.
Al, can you hear me?
What the fuck, Red? How did you even do this? Even in her head she sounded pissed off.
Uh — outside, before we went into the bar.
When you tried to kiss me?
I wasn’t trying to kiss you, I said defensively. I was linking our chips.
It’s kind of invasive, don’t you think? How do we cut it off?
I… I don’t know. But let’s just get through this, alright? I was pacing slowly, waiting for the blue-skinned woman to call us back.
What the hell are we going to do? Don’t suppose you’re willing to die to keep our cover? She sounded agitated.
I gritted my teeth. No, but… If you dial your Arcram up to six, it’ll kick like a mule, probably pierce the skin… But it shouldn’t go right through. At least if Greg’s explanation was accurate.
That’s your plan? You want me to shoot you? She scoffed.
B
ut not kill me — yeah. I’d say go in at a five, uncharged, but I don’t know if that’d draw blood, and if they check…
Jesus, Red, you’re serious?
“That far enough,” the woman called. “Turn around.”
We both stopped and turned on our heels. I thumbed my pistol down to a four, just in case, and swallowed hard. Center mass, alright? You tag me, I go down, and we carry on like this — we can’t afford to give this lead up.
She was silent for a few seconds, staring at me from about twenty meters away. Okay.
The blue-skinned woman looked from Alice to me and slowly raised her hand. Our pistols hung at our sides. My pulse quickened, my mouth dry. I was about to get shot.
“Now,” she said, dropping her hand.
Alice’s muzzle flew up. Mine did too. I pulled the trigger, aiming high. She did too, but hers spat a round out right at me. I saw the muzzle flash, then the world blinked black and I was in the air.
The ground slammed me in the back and I raked in a ragged breath, an intense heat spreading across my chest. I blinked and found my eyes heavy. I let them close, letting my hands fall at my sides.
Alice’s voice echoed in my head. “We done?”
The blue-skinned woman replied, hers thin and distant in the cold air. “Aye, we done. You proved.”
“Good,” Alice said darkly. “Now let’s get the fuck out of here before the guards show up.”
The cold seeped into my bones, darkness covering me like a blanket.
In the empty nothingness, I felt the wind buffeting at me. I felt heat on my face, pain in my chest. Something was pulling at the hair on my arms. My neck felt strange, my head heavy. I could feel something hard under my back and my calves. I was jostling. My chest was throbbing, my skin warm with blood.
My head touched something cool and hard and then there was pressure on my body. I couldn’t breathe. Everything was tranquil, my mind a stagnant pool of water in a cave, still and dark.
The cold edge of a scissor blade pressed against my stomach and then traced a line up my body to my collarbone. My shirt fell into two halves and then my heart exploded with fire and I sat bolt upright, my eyes shooting open, stinging in the halogen lighting of the cargo hold of our Tilt-wing.
Greg was crouching over me, huge and imposing, his camera dome moving and scanning me. I could feel the cold radiating off him.
To my left on her knees was Everett, scissors in bloodied, gloved hands. On my right was Volchec, hypodermic in hers. They both looked drawn and on edge.
I gulped down air and filled my tightened lungs. I was lying on the floor of the cargo hold, my midriff stained red with blood.
“Christ, Maddox,” Volchec sighed, tossing the needle into the medkit open next to my hip. “I don’t know if you’re crazy or stupid, or both.”
I stared down at my chest, at the patch of blue-green jelly spanning from my sternum to my shoulder on my left side. Through the translucent substance I could see the dark patch of raw flesh.
“You’ve got balls,” Everett laughed, “that much I know.”
I swallowed and laid my head back. “What happened?” I croaked.
“You got shot,” Volchec said flatly. “Your AI here kept us clued in — told us what the hell was going on as best he could — that you and Kepler had pistols on each other. And then that you’d been shot — by her. That your vitals were spiking. That you needed Medevac. He picked you up, brought you into the ship — saved your life, I’d say.”
I sighed and let a thin smile spread over my lips. “Thanks, Greg,” I mumbled.
“So, you want to tell us what the hell was going on, ‘cause I feel like we’re getting half the story here. One minute I’m telling you to keep an eye on things at the bar, and then my feed goes dark.” Volchec stood up now and paced in a circle. I could feel the floor shaking under me. We must have been over the city. It wasn’t the quiet hum of orbit. “Next thing I know, I’ve got your goddamn AI telling me you’ve been shot and need immediate medical.”
“Greg,” I grumbled.
“Greg?” She stopped and glared at me. “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
“That’s his name,” I said, closing my eyes.
“It’s just a goddamn machine, Maddox!” she yelled without warning. I could feel her over me now, gesticulating wildly. “Tasked with keeping you alive! And you seem to be testing those core functions to their fucking limits. So I repeat — tell me what the fuck is going on, right now — because I’ve got two guys chasing ghosts in the middle of the city, one MIA, and another half-dead on the floor of my fucking Tilt-wing!” Her voice echoed off the metal hull and stung my ears. She turned away and started pacing.
I tried to sit up and Everett helped me. My chest was still on fire — one of my ribs had to be cracked, at least. The bullet had definitely broken skin, torn into the muscle, too. The stem-gel was an analgesic, a potent painkiller as well as healing and staunching agent, but the damage was severe and it was hurting — dulled or not.
“We…” I trailed off, my brain fuzzy. “We needed to keep our cover. The mercs invited us over — Alice… We, uh — we spoke to them about the Iskcara—”
“You did what?” Volchec zoomed back over, arms folded, leaning in to catch my strained words.
“We got a line on it — they were looking for some mercs for… something, I don’t know what. But, they weren’t sure — said we needed to prove that we were serious. That we wanted the job.”
“And she shot you?” Volchec’s voice dropped straight into incredulous.
I nodded. “Yeah, we had to… try to shoot each other. Said they needed three guys, not four.”
“You told them about Mac and Fish?” She wasn’t letting anything slide.
“Yeah. They were smart — knew it couldn’t just be the two of us.”
“What about us?” She gestured to Everett.
I shook my head this time. “No, I kept you out of it.”
Volchec breathed slowly. “That’s good. But still — what you did was stupid. She could have killed you. Or you could have killed her.” She shook her head at the whole sorry situation.
I tried to laugh but coughed painfully instead. “She wouldn’t have — at least I hoped. We had a deal — she’d win out, shoot me, and keep her cover. Refusing would have only given us away, and then they’d have bolted. At least this way, the trail’s still hot.”
“And I supposed you were just hoping she wouldn’t hit anything vital?”
I smiled to myself, rubbing my chest, but the ache wouldn’t abate. “Not quite — I linked us,” I said, touching my temple. “Neurally — when we were on the station and they were installing the chip, they mentioned it. Greg walked me through how to do it. I didn’t know what we were walking into — thought it might have come in handy. I was right.”
Everett turned her bottom lip out, looking at Volchec. “Smart. It’s not commonly done — doubt they’d have expected it. Especially if they’re not familiar with every scrap of Federation tech.”
“And Kepler agreed to that?” Volchec pressed, well aware of our situation. She looked at Greg, and then back to me. “Because I’m sure your AI here relayed to you the statutes surrounding nonconsensual neural interfacing and the penalties it carries?”
“Uh, not exactly.” He had tried but I’d told him to can it. “But if I hadn’t…”
She waved her hand. “In any other situation, I would have been talking about boundaries and laying out punishments, but it seems like you might just have pulled something off here…” She bit her lip and shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this — but good job.”
Everett squeezed me on the shoulder and I turned to her. She was nodding at me. I returned it.
Volchec went back to pacing. “So you said they wanted three mercs, right? Did they say what for?”
“No, I didn’t get that far.”
“Kepler’s still off comms. I’ll raise MacAlister and Sesstis, brief
them on the situation.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Rest up — wait for the painkillers to kick in. Then get suited up — you’re going back out there.” She turned and headed back up to the cockpit.
When she was gone, Everett offered me a hand and helped me to my feet. “Nice job,” she said quietly. “Quick thinking.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “And… you were wrong.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Was I? About what?”
“About Alice — and the others. We’re not alone out here.”
She smiled sadly at me. “You may not be — but I am.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re not.”
“Oh yeah, and how do you figure that?”
“Because if nothing else, you’ve got me. I’m watching your back — you can count on that.” I held out my hand for her to shake it, figuring it was a reasonable enough substitute for a hug. I didn’t think we were quite there yet.
She stared at it. “You don’t need to do that — try to make me feel like you give a shit.”
“But I do — I realized that we all have to look out for each other, or this whole thing comes apart at the seams. It’s trust — you know?” I could hear my blood pumping in my ears now and feel it under the stem-gel. “And you can trust me.”
She clapped me on the shoulder instead, not caring how much it hurt — and it was a lot. “Those painkillers hitting you hard, eh, Red?” She shook her head, laughed it off, and then walked past me.
I sighed and wobbled on my feet. I felt Greg move behind me, and then the cool steel of his huge hand under my arm. I leaned on it and steadied myself, sighing as Everett disappeared into the cockpit and closed the door behind her.
“James?” he said quietly.
“Yeah, Greg?” I didn’t turn around.
“I thought that was a nice thing you just said.”
“Shut up, Greg.”
15
“Maddox, come in.” Everett’s voice crackled in my ear, staticky and muffled.
I touched my finger to the comm. “Yeah, I hear you, what’s up?” I was sitting back inside Greg, on overwatch for Alice’s op. She, Mac, and Fish were down there in the city, getting ready to do something pretty insane, and all I could do was sit back and wait for it to go sideways.