by Clay Moore
Brian hopped into the grav-rod. He drove the car into the check-in lane. Brian was going to try something, No one had asked for his account card. He hoped they were allowing a flow of money. Brian walked into the lobby, and Brian showed his badge. He asked for two queens and one king. He got the seven bracelets, and a fist full of Giesling Currency called scrip.
Brian felt good, and He had a pocket full of scrip. Brian entered the grav car and drove it around to the back. He parked the car as far away from the Hotel as possible. Then he handed out the room bands. Brian grabbed a bag from the trunk. He did not forget the author. Then he ran with Ofana into the building. Brian got all three rooms on the first floor.
Brian and Ofana entered their room and was mildly surprised. The bed was indeed king sized, and Brian set his art on the nightstand. Then he grabbed the two boxes of Foodbase meal bars. He tossed one into each room. He went back to his bags and pulled out one more meal bars. She opened it, sniffed it, and then took a small bite. The last was excellent and she ate the rest. Brian smiled as he watched her eat the food. Apparently, the Emir does not serve foodbase to the family.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I am going naked in this room.”
“Do what you need.
“Perhaps you might need to take a shower. That will save this Hotel some money.”
“We mustn’t waste money.
Brian followed Ofana as a weak lamb being lead to the slaughter.
Afterward, he took her long dress, and he washed it in the customer’s wash. He wasn’t ready to bring out his ship’s uniform. Ofana had caught up with him. She threw her hip at Brian.
“I’m trying to get our clothes washed.”
She hugged Brian. “I think it is very sexy when a man does these little chores for his woman.” Ofana used a very thick Slavic accent.
In spite of himself, he laughed. Then he moved his hands down Ofana’s rear. He lost his joy-free attitude.
“Why do you look like you have too much care.?” Ofana asked.
“I do care much. I have a woman at home.”
“Yes, Felicity Danforth. I always thought you were her best match.
“Thank you. But—”
“But nothing. Please don’t think this is any kind of permanent relationship. This is light entertainment.”
Brian reached into the clothes. He pulled them out and went back to their hotel room, where the clothing was hung. Brian snapped his suit, which made them Sharp creased and finely pressed.
The morning dawned much like anywhere else except the dawn occurred further to the equator. It was further along in the day that Brian wants to be. This next meeting was going to have Brian in it to calm down the rhetoric. Then Maybe she could do what she wanted to do. Brian still had that idea of who was the implanted agent provocateur. He had three men and two women. Right there, Brian had a mix of people that can only explode. He had an idea of who it might be. Brian could be wrong. He caught the woman named Luna looking at the others whenever it came time to pair. That means that Luna was left with second best.
When he tried to get other information from Ofana, she just said that she was choosing those people she met at random. Well, that was not optimal in Brian’s opinion. Selecting people at random meant that you could get an angel or a demon. If you interview someone to work with you, you still run the chance of getting a devil or an angel. It’s just slightly better than if you chose them at Random.
Whatever he did, he better upgrade the weapons of the group. They were running around with hunting rifles and shotguns. The opposition was running around with assault weapons That showed who was trying to capture Giesling. Eridani wanted an Alliance. Yes, they hoped for preferential trade deals. For those, you have to win the election.
What Ofana had with the people was a guard and her networking ability. There was something else as well. Her target list was only for people in the know. She would not let him see her List. He asked Dan, his recruiter into the Special Agents. So far, he hasn’t found the kind of data manipulation. Brian hoped that it was not someone from the Household. They were worse than the Eridani Secret Service. He wondered about Intentions. With her clearance and celebrity value, an Intentions person could be asked to develop a target list. Brian sent that idea to Dan, who would like a little bit of excitement.
Brian put on his clothes. “Slip on your dress, Ofana.”
“I thought that we had something going. I’d like to keep going.”
“A dessert after victory. Right?”
“I guess so. You are so much fun in the bed, Better than that gigolo father bought for me to get a feel for sex and then shut down that part of my life.”
“Then help me get this mission done. Then we will have three and a half days in hyper.”
She arched her left brow conspiratorially. “When you are flying, when can you start having sex?”
“It depends on the computer’s calculations and take off and how fast we can fly.”
“I see that you are physically fit. Good. Get the others up. I see that you have some training for them.”
“Using that Talent, Ofana. I’d like to get a little further down the road. Then stop and get some shooting practice in. Before that, fill up the tank.”
Brian started up the vehicle. He drove around the hotel. Across the way was a roadside Foodbase restaurant that had tanks that dispensed Radamite. He pulled into the pumps., and He put a hose into his tankage system of the blue grav-car. He started the pump, and He thought about how much for the tank. He expected something like thirty scrips. He watched the pump exceed 40 gallons, which was way beyond the tankage level of the car. He turned off the pump. Then Brian went to the clerks’ position.
“Excuse me, sir, but your pump is maladjusted. It said that I bought forty gallons of Radamite.”
“If it said so, then you did.”
“Did you not hear me. My grav-car only holds 15 gallons.” Brian had enough of the trickster. He reached through the small window. Briangrabbed the clerk by the uniform’s zipper run. And he exploded backward carrying the kid through the window.
Brian checked on the kid. He had lacerations about the head and shoulders, but Brian had made a statement.
He went to the driving position, and he drove the blue grav-car towards Hernradom. He got on the top of the road. He pushed for some time. He found a Sand dune that was paralleling the road. He pulled off the way and drove a little farther. He stopped. He brought his athro assault rifle. He put the weapon on the Hood of the car.
“Welcome to familiarization to the athro assault rifle. This gun has an integral silencer. It extends the barrel by another ten inches. The weapon is light enough to hold with a single hand and fire.” Brian showed them. He then looked at them.
“The weapon is typically fired from this position. To add stability, extend the wireframe stock. Then put the stock on your shoulder. Brian walked to the Trunk; he pulled the six athro assault weapons. He brought them to the Hood, and everyone took a gun. He put them through their paces, operating the various pieces. Then Brien went to the back trunk. He took out one of the big boxes of .40 caliber ammo. Brian walked it over to the Hood, and He upset a carton of fifty rounds. The ammunition was of a dart type. The end of the dart looked like it had red painted tips. The red paint was a small amount of radamite that propels the dart through the Athro. Underneath the red radamite was a percussion cap. The percussion cap lit the Radamite which violently discharges sending the dart on its way.
Brian showed them how to fill the two 35 round magazines. He pulled out the magazine from his own athro, He filled it up and inserted it into his weapon. He put his back against the rising dune.
“Now, you are ready. Some rules come first. Only fire downrange when there is no one on the range. Don’t change magazines until shooting has stopped. The last one is not to point your gun at anyone. We are now going to fire single fire. Do you all see the switch on the pistol grip? You should see a 1, a 3, and an infinity symbol. That
is a single fire, The 3 represents three round fire. The infinity symbol represents full automatic fire. DO NOT use fully automatic fire. The most you can use 3 round per pull of the trigger. Now, wait for me to get behind the line.”
Brian ran to behind the line. “Firing single fire. 3 aimed shots. Fire!” They took amazingly well to the Range discipline.
“Okay, fire 10 shots as fast as you can pull the trigger.” He watched each and every one of them, including Ofana counting with their lips.
“Switch shot selector to 3. Aim fire.”
There was a sound of buzzing, and Each assault rifle fired those three darts at the fastest rate. The fire did sound like the buzzing of bees. There was shouting and whooping of halloo.
“Switch to infinity. Then get a good grip on your weapon. If you feel that you are losing hold on your gun, drop it. Get a grip on your gun. Fire until the bolt locks open.
Two of the followers dropped their weapon after a few rounds left their gun. Ofana fired the weapon as if she had been born to it. The two men had a death grip on their weapon. They were determined not to drop their weapons. He understood them. They were supposed to be Ofana’s bodyguard, not needing Ofana to defend them.
Ofana gripped her weapon with two fingers on the pistol grip, and She turned to Brian and extended her sub-assault rifle to him. He walked close to Ofana. She dropped the weapon on the sand that was part of the dune. Brian did not take the gun from Ofana.
Ofana gave him a look as if to say that he should police the weapon. The look he gave her made her pick up the gun.
“Very good,” said Brian. “Take out the empty magazine. Put in the full one you have. After that, fill the empty magazine. The reason to use the full magazine is to have a defense if you are filling magazines.”
Brian watched as they were filling their magazines. He took out the magazine in his weapon,and Brian put in fourteen rounds in the magazine. He put up the magazine.
“Why are you making me carry a weapon?” Ofana asked?
Brian took her to the other side of the car. “No more petulance from this day forward. You are a professional ambassador. We are too few so you must help provide some of your own defense.”
Ofana had never had it explained like that. She always felt that the guards would like her to listen not to participate. Then the guards had quite a large number. Here they had a few people, and that was it. She would have to provide some of the firepowers. She went to the car hood that held open cases of ammo. She replaced the ammo that she shot up. For the first time, she took an interest in the weapon. Before she was just repeating what the Guard Captain said to do. Now she was examining the gun. In her head was an injunction to use 3 darts per pull of the trigger. She reset her select fire to the three.
“Okay, teaching time is over. Now I would like to know where we are going on this road.”
“Down this road in Hamrehan. The main Library for all of Giesling is there.” The Thin blond named Luana smiled sheepishly as if this was the most words she spoke for the entire year. Brian winked at her to acknowledge her pertinent information.
“What are we doing there?”
“Why are you looking at me. My father briefed you.”
“Nope.”
“Didn’t my father tell you about my mission here?”
“Not really. All I got is that if I returned you to Eridani, that was mission complete. He then said that He would like for your mission to succeed.”
“You decided to help me out, then.”
“No, it wasn’t until I got some information that I realized that I can keep you alive and have you succeed at your mission. Then a very personal mission element might also be checked off.”
“And that is?”
“Quite possibly the death of Anton Hecton. You see Intentions noticed that Anton Hecton has made some stops here in Giesling. I was given a general idea of what Ofana was up to. Your original plan was one of those things for you to know and me to find out.”
“Why say all this now?”
“Because up until twelve hours ago I was going to sedate you and get you aboard my ship. Then on my last transmission, Your father begged—begged me to help you with bringing the plan to fruition. Also, he wanted me to keep my hands off of you.”
Brian watched Ofana’s face change from a severe mien to outright mirth. The other member of the tribe laughed. Still one held back.
“Could you catch me up on your plans, Ofana?”
“Okay, It is the anniversary of the revolution by the Miner’s Guild. In the 35 years, the Guild has done nothing to move the entire economy forward. Well, this is the last year of their political monopoly. Somebody else is going to win. I have found some parties, even just one person, they can work with each other. I got to touch base with them. Then I have to do some public speaking. All of this is aimed at the rally at Giesling City. The next day is the election. Then victory for Giesling.”
“Why did your father seem to think it is a lame-brained scheme.”
“My father is an autocrat. True, he has elections for the Parliament., but he does have a lot of the government in his hands. He sees democratization as nothing short of anarchy. So our democratization of Giesling is considered a bad thing to my father but one that he can live with.”
“Alright, let’s keep moving.”
CHAPTER THREE
Hamrehan
Now they were back to the blue grav-car. For a world of challenges, there was some severe population here. Nothing like Lovat, Eridani, or Alphacent, yet they had a pretty good population. Under the Miner’s guild rule, the population decreased. Full-time work for everyone just was not able to be accomplished by the monopolistic Miner’s Guild. That’s why they opened elections to the Heftssteading sump. At the end of seven days, the Miner’s guild will be out of power. That is why that something stank to Brian Butler. It was an axiom of his father’s: no one gives away power voluntarily.
He looked around the interior of the grav-car. He doubted that any of the group that he called Ofana’s faithful really understood what was at stake. They could sense the something was amiss. They were the group to come to, but Ofana was too affluent and educated to make herself understood. He wondered how she would attract the common clay like that.
The Sun was dipping behind the world quickly. He needed to know how far they were going to go. Hamrehan was ahead and about sixty miles to go.
Brian had never been in a desert where he could be cold or cool-cold or lukewarm, but never hot. The reason that this was not a tropical place was the small oceans. About a third of Giesling’s Surface was taken up by salt water oceans. The critters in the oceans seemed like fish and some crustacean-like. Nobody on Giesling spent their time understanding the Ecology of the world. No one could see any money potential in studying the world. Not when there was rich plunder just for the digging.
How are you going to keep ’em down at the farm after they’ve seen Giesling, thought Brian.
“A centum for your thoughts,” said Ofana.
“Just thinking about the potential if they could capture just a single degree through the world.”
“I’m surprised.”
“That I would know something like that?”
“I always thought that you just needed a gun to be a Special Agent.”
“For the vast number of missions that is all that you needed. Take a look at this mission. The body count is meager, nine so far. I think though that the end will be a bloody work indeed.”
Ofana put her hand between Brian’s legs. He said nothing. Sometimes someone just needed to touch something to make sure it was real.
“I am going to have to call my dad tonight.”
“Go ahead.”
“You don’t understand. my father is going to ask about you — and me.”
“Tell him the truth. Tell him that you and I made love. Leave it like that. Even you have some privacy. If you want to give him a heart attack, tell him you’re in love with me.”
“Concern for the other over concern for yourself.”
“Just when I think I have you pegged you show more depth.”
“I do that to surprise the bad guys.”
Ofana spoke underneath her voice. “Will you make Love to me again tonight?”
“Not while he is on the Hypercom.”
She chuckled. “Do women fall in love with you all the time?”
“Occasionally. Felicity is in love with me and me with her. Most women fall in lust after my tool. Some of them don’t even look at my face anymore.”
“There must be a silver lining in that cloud. I would imagine that you get a lot of sex.”
“Yes, I get a lot of boring sex. All I am expected to do is make the tool go.”
“Yes, I can see that. Your complaints are some of my girlfriends’ complaints. One is about him just lying there and doing nothing. Sex is never boring with you.”
“What is it like being built like you?” Brian asked.
Ofana looked at her chest, and she smiled. “They are heavy. At night I have a backache. The benefits are great. I can wear a wide variety of clothes. All the guys are looking at me.”
Brian put his Slate on the dash, and he brought her eye-catching picture to the top. She looked at it. She closed that picture, “I can’t believe my father gave you that image.”
“Another benefit of your chest is that you look good naked.”
“I did manage to get the caftan and put it on. It stopped a lot of wrangling over me. It hides and makes me appear as a small breasted woman.”
“I see the real you even with that caftan on,” said Brian. “Your breasts can be quite hypnotic.”
“Now, you are going to make me conscious about them.”
“Get into a room by yourself and put on the caftan again. Keep doing that when you don’t even mind your breasts. Then you will be back.
