Better than cockfighting, I guess, Eva thought. Much easier to fix a robot, though it could be creepy depending on how sapient they were.
At the end of the ad was a notice that the corporation that made the robots, Sylfe Company, was hiring locals for distribution jobs at their planetside warehouse. Applications available on the q-net, send résumé, minimum two years’ experience, etc. That stayed on the wall for a few moments, then the ad was replaced with another one for fancy cooking knives. A current human obsession, probably.
“I want one,” Sue said, eyes wide and nearly gleaming.
“A Ball Buddy?” Eva asked. “You could probably build your own if you tried.”
Sue’s face took on a pensive expression. “Hmm, maybe. I’ve never worked with synthetic skins or furs before, though.”
Vakar had wandered off on his own while they watched the ad, and now came stalking back toward them in a deliberate way that Eva knew was intended to look casual. He had dressed in a civilian spacesuit instead of his Wraith gear so he wouldn’t stand out, but he took a smell suppressant before they left so his emotions wouldn’t be telegraphed to anyone with scent-translator nanites. He put an arm around Eva’s shoulder, leaning closer to butt his head against hers affectionately, but he smelled bothered, like old cigarettes.
“We are being monitored,” he said quietly.
Eva smiled up at him. “Who?” she asked, speaking through her teeth.
“The buasyr in the store selling storage containers for travelers. Behind me.”
“Humans call it ‘luggage,’ you know.” Eva made a show of smooching the side of Vakar’s face while she checked the guy out. Tall, four arms, dark fur, mess of eyes like a spider’s. Wearing a tight suit that probably doubled as armor. She might have assumed he was a typical retail employee, killing time by making minute adjustments to the store’s displays of suitcases and indestructible boxes and hover straps, but his fingers were twitching like he was furiously sending messages to someone, and he glanced at Eva and looked away repeatedly in the span of a few moments.
“Should we go say hello?” Eva asked.
“It might be more advisable to depart with haste,” Vakar replied.
Pink sidled up next to them. “What are you two lovebirds chatting about, hmm?”
“The Fridge agent in the retail establishment behind me,” Vakar said.
Eva released him and stepped back, gently whacking his leg with her cane. “You didn’t say he was Fridge,” she said. “How do you know?”
“His biosignature matches one in Wraith records. Also, he has been joined by two associates.”
There were indeed now three employees acting busy in the luggage store: the buasyr, a truateg, and a human. While theoretically none of them were armed, thanks to station security, there were ways of getting around restrictions, especially if they worked here. Hell, if this had been one of her dad’s smuggling operations, half the suitcases would already have weapons in them.
“I hate a fair fight,” Eva said. “Maybe we should move on. Don’t want to attract unwanted attention from any local cops, anyway.”
“That’s a shame,” Pink said. “I always like taking these fools down a peg.”
A slow smile spread across Eva’s face as she had a wonderful, awful idea.
“Vakar, when is the next shuttle arriving?” she asked.
Vakar’s palps moved as he checked his commlink. “In a few moments, actually.”
As if on cue, a series of blinking lights and chimes announced the shuttle’s arrival. It would still be a couple of minutes before the passengers were able to disembark, especially given decontamination protocols, but a hub like Medoral tended to be quick about that stuff.
Eva walked over to Sue and tapped her on the shoulder. Sue jumped, startled from her rapt viewing of an ad for a particular brand of lubricant.
“Get back to the ship,” Eva said. “Stick to the walls in case the crowds get bad. Don’t run, but don’t stop for anything, and tell Min to prep for a quick takeoff.”
Sue nodded, her expression determined. “Okay, I can do that.” Off she went, leaving Pink, Eva, and Vakar in the otherwise empty corridor.
“Vakar, can you take care of the security cameras?” Eva asked.
“Take care of . . . yes, I understand.” Vakar led Eva over to another storefront, where an extremely bored rani with pink-dyed ears leaned against a wall with the vacant stare of a teenager lost in her commlink. This store was full of sporting equipment, some of which Eva recognized but most of which made little sense to her.
She pointed at a pair of hoverboots. “Maybe I should trade my gravboots for those,” she told Vakar. “Being able to run in midair seems pretty great.”
“The time limitation renders them less useful, in my opinion,” Vakar replied.
((Cameras disengaged,)) he pinged to Eva and Pink.
The trio and the Fridge agents continued studiously ignoring each other while waiting to see who might start something first. Eva left Vakar and casually ambled over to the restaurant adjacent to the luggage store, which had uncomfortable-looking bolted-down seats as well as deactivated floating chairs stacked against one wall. She smiled and waved at the sluglike dytryrc behind the counter, his six spindly robotic arms engaged in a variety of simultaneous food-preparation activities even as his two eyestalks faced in entirely different directions.
“Nice knives,” Eva told him.
“I keeps ’em sharp!” the dytryrc said enthusiastically, then returned his attention to his tasks.
After a long minute in which Eva pretended to be very interested in the restaurant’s menu, the shuttle passengers rushed in like a gaggle of agitated geese. It was a mixed group: black-suited galactic immigration officials with their trademark optical shades, two sets of tiny pizkees covered head to toe in what looked to be different shades of war paint, a dozen kloshians apparently celebrating the signing of a breeding contract by being extremely inebriated, even a trio of white-robed human nuns whose denomination wasn’t entirely clear. They mingled with the usual isolated business travelers and others taking advantage of the relatively low cost of shuttle travel compared to nicer options. The situation between them already seemed tense—long space travel crammed into uncomfortable seats would do that to anyone—and as they got closer to Eva, several strands of argument arose from the various factions.
“—wouldn’t have won if the referee hadn’t botched that call!” one of the pizkees shouted, her normally blue face painted red and white. For a person who didn’t reach the middle of Eva’s shin, she was incredibly loud.
“You’re just mad your team dropped the fink,” another shouted back, his face also painted red, but with a gold symbol near his tiny black eye.
“Peace is the champion of justice,” one of the nuns announced to no one in particular, causing several nearby pizkees to hiss and bare their needlelike teeth.
“I love you all,” a kloshian said, adjusting his holo-tiara. “Like, really, love you all. So much. Thank you for doing this for me.” His friends cooed back at him and he turned a vibrant shade of emerald.
“—keep cutting funding like this, we’re going to be walking from one planet to another,” the kloshian black suit said to his partner.
“Well, maybe if your hoser hadn’t pretended he’d been injured by the scorcher,” a pizkee said, “all dropping down on the patch like a sad little—”
“Don’t think we’re going to find him in Narushe anyway,” the other black suit said, adjusting her shades. “Baldessare prefers flashy places, not ruined planets with crazy clown god-emperors.”
“In rage, the proud cry out for vengeance,” another nun said. “But they shall not be answered.”
“I’m not feeling super great,” a kloshian said, covering her bright-red eyes.
“Don’t disgorge your vapor sac here,” her friend told her soothingly, “wait until we can find a waste receptacle.”
Eva, who was still loitering near th
e restaurant, picked up one of the deactivated floating chairs and hefted it experimentally.
((Get ready,)) she pinged at Pink and Vakar.
((For what?)) Pink pinged back.
Eva threw the chair in a perfect arc, right into the center of the agitated crowd. It must have hit someone, because cries of pain followed, yielding to momentary silence.
And then, the silence exploded.
Chapter 4
Pulling Mobs
It wasn’t clear who threw the first punch, but the pizkees were definitely ready to go after each other amid battle cries that sounded like references to their respective sports teams. None of them were armed with anything more dangerous than their own bodies, but those were plenty: fists lashed out blindly at anyone in range wearing the wrong colors, which seemed extra challenging because pretty much all of them wore red, but Eva assumed they knew who was who.
The rest of the crowd tried to back away and give the fighters space—difficult given the size of the corridor and the sheer number of people. Then, one of the black suits moved in to break up the fight, at which point a pizkee screamed, “Get boiled, wastehole!” and a half dozen of the face-painted people from both teams scaled pant legs and each other to start attacking. The other black suit intervened, earning her a separate assault. She yelled as needle teeth sank into her unprotected skin, and a head-butt sent her staggering back into one of the nuns, knocking the white-robed woman to the floor.
Another nun helped her sister to her feet. “Faith is our shield, and we shall endure,” she said.
“But do we not also say, ‘Our hands are our swords, to defend against chaos’?” the fallen nun asked.
“We do say that,” the third nun agreed. “Even so—”
Eva carefully sidled back toward the luggage store, where the Fridge agents were watching the unfolding chaos with some concern. Before they could stop her, she grabbed one of the suitcases and lobbed it at the nearest cluster of combatants, then retreated to the sports-equipment store, where Pink and Vakar waited.
“Welcome to Recreation Supremacy,” the bored rani employee intoned, not even glancing at Eva.
As if the fight were a virus, it spread to the luggage store as people grabbed more suitcases and briefcases and boxes and started using them as improvised weapons. Eva peered around the wall at them and snickered as the Fridge agents clustered together and held a rapid discussion, presumably about what to do.
“Oh no, my vapor sac,” a kloshian wearing a neho mask said. He released a fine lavender mist from his nostrils, and suddenly the pizkees around him swayed unsteadily, their eyes shifting from black to red. One of the black suits flung off his shades, and his eyes also took on a reddish cast.
The other black suit grabbed her partner’s arm. “What is it?” she asked. “What were they taking?”
Her partner’s skin started turning bright red as well, and the pizkees began to vibrate.
“It’s Blitz,” the black suit said through clenched teeth.
Eva, Pink, and Vakar shared a look, then dove behind separate sports displays. Eva chose a large hoverboard, Pink a tall shelving unit covered in plastisteel helmets, while Vakar lucked out and was safe behind a row of jousting shields. Eva winced as her leg pain reignited on impact with the floor, quickly settling to a dull ache. The rani employee gave them all a tilted-head look but didn’t move.
If the fight had been bad before, it tripled in intensity now. Blitz did different things to people depending on their physiologies; for most species besides kloshians, it boosted strength and imparted a euphoric sense of invulnerability. The pizkees ran around thrashing whatever they could reach, throwing things at each other and anyone nearby, and even the black suit swung at some of the random passengers caught up in the fray while his partner tried to drag him away.
“Where is station security?” someone shouted in desperation.
((Coming,)) Vakar pinged to Eva.
The nuns, meanwhile, had tied up their robes around their waists and legs, and casually armed themselves with different items from the sporting-goods store. They nodded at each other silently, then set about knocking down one fighter after another with an efficiency Eva admired.
“Hey, get out!” the dytryrc in the restaurant shouted. “I got knives! Sharp ones!” This was followed by a sizzling sound and a pained scream.
Pink threw herself down next to Eva. “This was your plan?” she asked. “Get a bunch of innocent people hurt while we hide in here?”
“No,” Eva said. “This was the distraction. Come on.”
Eva signaled for Vakar to follow her, giving a jaunty wave to the rani as she hobbled briskly to the back of the store, grateful that she’d brought Fuácata. As expected, there was a door leading to a storeroom, which itself had another door leading to a back corridor that ran straight to the docks. It also led to doors for all the surrounding retail establishments, including a certain luggage store’s, which was currently being guarded by a buff human in a tight-fitting shirt.
“Nice muscles,” Eva told him.
“Thanks,” the human replied, flexing.
“Should you be back here?” Eva asked. “There’s a riot going on in there. You should probably help or something.”
“Nah, I’m supposed to stay here no matter what,” he said. “In case someone tries to sneak in.” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Wait a tick, who are—”
Eva swung Fuácata against his knee with a satisfying crack, then thrust the handle up into his throat. He made an uncomfortable choking sound, but still managed to reach for Eva with one of his beefy hands. She ducked and took advantage of his now-exposed back to land a quick punch to his kidney, followed by a knee to his gut and an elbow to the back of his head, at which point either he or his body decided enough was enough and he slid to the ground.
“You are so violent, I swear,” Pink said.
“Violence isn’t always the answer,” Eva said. “I just ask a lot of violent questions.” She turned to Vakar, her leg throbbing more after the exertion. “Could you get this unlocked?”
“I have already done so,” he replied. “Also I have infiltrated their local network and I am in the process of duplicating its contents.”
“Gracias, mi vida.” Eva whacked the buff guard once more for good measure and opened the door, strolling into the luggage store’s back room.
It was, as expected, full of various kinds of luggage, stacked neatly on shelves.
“Did we seriously just do all this for no damn good reason?” Pink asked.
Eva smirked at her and grabbed a random suitcase, resting it on the floor and tapping the release panel to open it. Inside, a pair of M-7 Centurions rested in a cube of stasis gel, aftermarket heat dispersal units already attached.
“Feliz cumpleaños, amiga,” Eva said.
Pink made a shooing motion with one hand. “That ain’t for me,” she said. “You know I don’t do short-range.”
Eva gestured at the other cases and boxes surrounding them. “Let’s see if we can find something in your size, then.”
As quickly and efficiently as they could manage, Eva, Pink, and Vakar pulled down one container after another and examined its contents. They found pistols, rifles, vibroblades, and more esoteric weapons that couldn’t be properly operated by humans or quennians. Pink gave an obscene groan at a particular sniper rifle and immediately claimed it, while Eva grabbed a few of her favorites and shoved them into a single suitcase with a built-in antigrav feature to make it easier to carry.
“Security has arrived outside,” Vakar said suddenly. “We should retreat before we are located.”
“Bueno, let’s make like fleas and jump,” Eva said.
Pink opened the door and stepped out, nudging the still-prone form of the guard outside. He responded with a groan.
As Eva was about to follow, a random briefcase caught her eye, resting on a shelf just out of her reach, a bright red caution tag wrapped around the handle.
�
��I’m the most cautious,” she muttered to herself. “Hey, Vakar, get that one for me.”
He obliged, smelling concerned. “You are aware of what this is?”
“No, but I assume it’s awesome.”
“It is a Protean Lightweight Omniguard Tactical armor unit.”
“Ooh, I’ve always wanted one of these.” Compact, tough, and customizable, but powered by expensive proprietary tech and software, and hell to maintain. Also, if they glitched, they had a habit of turning their users into squishy piles of organ goo.
“Eva, these are dangerous,” Vakar said, his concerned smell intensifying.
“Right, I hear you,” she said reluctantly. “Someone will definitely pay for that, though. Let’s get out of here.”
They headed back down the hall and through the sports-equipment store. The rani was still zoned out on her commlink, idly running a hand over one of her long ears, and made no comment about their sudden acquisitions. “Come again,” she said tonelessly as they stepped back into the main station corridor.
The chaos had abated thanks to the arrival of security. The pizkees were lined up along one wall, a few of them still throwing punches at each other when they thought no one was looking. Most of them were injured, some more dazed than others, and the Blitzed ones had been separated from the rest for treatment. The black suits had apparently isolated themselves as well, with the Blitzed one being treated by the other via some medical wand device she was shining into his eyes. The kloshians made low crooning noises at each other in a harmony that made Eva want to barf, their colors shifting between pale green and royal blue and back again, and the breeder’s holo-tiara had fallen sideways down the tendrils on his head. The nuns had ungirded their loins but still held their improvised weapons, and appeared to be the least affected of all the groups.
“We have done the work of justice this day, sisters,” one of them said.
“Blessed be the victors, who walk among the stars and are unburned,” the other two replied.
“Oh, they’re Chanters,” Eva muttered to Pink. “Madre de dios, those people will fuck you up. I’m glad I wasn’t here for that.”
Prime Deceptions Page 5
