by Clay Moore
Almost instantly, the Hypercom went through. Andrea came up in trid. She was oriented to look where Anton was sitting.
“We have some bad news here.”
“What went wrong?”
“Our ambush against the Ofana was stopped, by the appearance of a single operative. He was carrying a single military grade weapon. He took out the ambush and drove out in a common blue grav-car. We were able to trace them in a popular hotel at the oasis. Then they seemed to have disappeared.”
“She’s building a coalition. Once she adds someone to her coalition, she disappears.”
“Yes, Ma’am, that is how it reads.”
“I know you. You always have one more bolt in your crossbow. Use that bolt before she hits the tipping point and makes it impossible for us on Giesling.”
“I know. I’ll send in Bartholomew. He is an expert in being armed and not seeming to be armed.”
“Get him to move quickly.”
“The reason Bart does not get caught is that he is careful. He is sort of a close range sniper.”
“That sounds like an oxymoron.”
“Yeah, but that is the effect he has. He can kill someone from so close and have people pass him by as they go after the person who they thought shot him.”
“Okay, just get the Princess whats-her-name out of existence soon.”
Andrea canceled the call.
Anton sat for a long moment.
Andrea was micromanaging from afar again. She only does this when she was being pressed. With him, at Giesling, he could get a sense of the pressures on Andrea. What Andrea forgot is that Planetary Interests is not really a business. It is a Corporate Criminal Enterprise.
Planetary Interests has not paid it’s corporate tax to the Alphacent government in over ten years. The Majority of income came from marginally illegal sources. The current operation that would win them Giesling had a budget of ten million scrips. He was going to bring it under budget, but Bart doesn’t come cheap. That cost a hundred thousand Marks. Bart always gets paid in Alphacent Marks.
He made a call for Bart and asked him to come over. Bart knocked at the door. Anton took out his pistol and pointed at the door. He allowed the door to open, and It opened to a youthful-looking man in shorts and a T-shirt. Bart hesitated when he saw the silenced gun pointing at him.
“What is going on here.”
“I know you, Bart. I am going to have to get you naked to be somewhat safe. So get naked. Put your Guns in the wastepaper basket over there.”
“Sheesh, the lack of trust of some people.”
“The last time that I trusted you, you took me, hostage. It took us 9 hours to figure out that it was a job interview.”
“I got a fifty thousand Mark signing bonus for the episode.”
“Keep removing your weapons and clothing, every stitch.”
“You like looking at men, Anton?”
“You can do better than that.”
Finally, the wastepaper basket had a pile of weapons, including throwing knives. It also had the shorts and the shirt Bart was wearing. Anton took possession of the clothes and weapons.
“Do I pass muster?”
“Yeah.” Anton activated his Slate. He brought up an image of Ofana. He turned the Slate around to show her picture to Bart.
“Why must the pretty ones die.”
“That’s just the way of it, boy.”
“She’s so pretty. I say a hundred thousand.”
“Must be done in two days.”
“Okay.” They shook on the terms.
“Can I have my clothes and guns back?”
“Yes, after my security team go through them. Wait in the room next to mine.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Condit
Brian woke up at local six AM. This was his habit since the Eridani Marine Corps, and it drove his girlfriends crazy. A few of the military girlfriends liked the timeliness. The vast majority wished that he was not having delusions of being a cuckoo clock. Ofana liked the early morning rising, but she was not going to tell him that.
Brian got up. He went down to the lobby and asked if there was a package for him. Brian took the white paper, wrapped the parcel, and went to the room. He slit the packet as if he were a surgeon. Then he took out a richly colored caftan. It had alternating bands of gold and Red. Gold for Eridani, and Red for royalty. Once seen, he refolded the caftan and put it in the white paper parcel.
Speaking to himself: “This one is for her return. I hope she likes it.”
Ofana had looked out slitted eyes and beheld the colorful glory he would like her to wear. It would do the trick of getting her well known all over Eridani. She might well be starting a clothing trend.
She had started trends before, but not clothing trends. It was easy to sell people baubles, but clothing was hard for people to change. She realized that she was wool-gathering. Non-productive thought. That would have made a few of her tutors fit to be tied. They also told her that sex was of no practical purpose, but none of them met Brian. She knew a few of her tutors who would have eaten Brian raw, very few of those would be male.
Ofana did not want to get up, but they had a long drive to get to the Tent City of Condit. They were going to have the weirdest way of proving themselves to the Sultan.
After breakfast, Brian went to the other rooms. He handed each member a net bag for keeping their stuff. Brian told them what Brian wanted was to leave about eight in the morning. When he returned to their bedroom, Ofana smiled and showed her net bag holding her toiletries and the two caftans that Brian bought on his account.
Ofana guessed that Brian was going to have trouble justifying some of the expenditures to Carla, the Director of the Eridani Secret Service. Though a happy Emir would change all the reprobation, he would receive. She was amazed at what happened when her fathers work to help those worse off.
“Are we ready?” asked Brian?
“I am.”
Brian called the team, and together they rode down in an elevator. When they got out of the elevator, three of the group went forward and secured the grav-car. Brian walked in front of the Ofana with Luana walking behind Ofana. It was called a sandwich formation.
Brian knew that people were after them. That’s why Planetary Interests was here in droves. They wanted to win the whole prize. Brian looked at his own motives.
Didn’t he want to win the whole prize for Eridani? This was the distinction. Planetary Interests did not care about the indigenous population. All they wanted was every scrap of product that could be sold on the open market. Eridani wanted to buy the Giesling goods and sell their own assets to the Gieslings. The Eridani wished the Gieslings well and really wanted peace and friendship. It was going to be tough to get through bad feelings that precipitated the Mining Guild revolt.
He opened the grav-car and checked the windows around the car. Then he helped Ofana get into the grav-car. He had the guard team enter the vehicle in combat loading fashion. This was one of the sit-down sessions he was having with the guards’ team. He thought he was just speaking to speak, but they were taking his word to heart. They were professional except when they were allowed to be loose like in the car and moving or in a hotel.
He drove out of Hamrehan, and his vehicle was purring like a kitten. Ofana laid her hand on his lap. She felt the swerve he suddenly put in the car when he pressed her hand there. It felt good to still “have it” after three days in a semi-arid climate.
Ofana wondered what had spooked Brian. Ever since the execution of Luna, Brian was looking around corners more often. He had insisted on covering movement for her at all times. Up until that execution, Brian was kidding around just like everyone. Now the execution brought him back to his professional self. What happened?
She leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes, and thought back to the interrogation.
Brian had asked Merkyl who had paid her. She said Anton Hecton, and these were names out of her ken. She looked at Brian.
; “Who is Anton Hecton?”
Brian stepped on the pedal, which causes the flight surfaces to lift up provide more drag to stop the vehicle.
“Where did you hear that?”
“I have taken several memory enhancement courses. I can replay conversations at will, among other ‘memory tricks’ as my father calls them. Now answer my question.”
“I don’t really want to.”
Ofana turned to the guard team behind them.
“This is how to get out of answering questions. Stall and hope that they get tired of asking the same question twice.”
Ofana turned to Brian, who stopped looking at her. “When something is not important, you answer right away. When the answer is critical, you say something, and ask not to be asked again when it is safe. The amount of stalling you have done on me tells me this is dire.”
Brian did not say anything. The answer touched on other top-secret topics. Knowledge of this information might get the people involved killed.
“Are you not going to trust me with this information?”
“Knowledge of this information might put you on a list for murder.”
Brian was right to bring it out this slowly. Ofana asked herself if she was ready for a mortal enemy. Then Ofana surprised herself. She was ready. Some of Brians grit and iron rubbed off on her.
“Then I am on the list for murder.”
Brian searched her eyes. He saw the determination in them. By virtue of her family connections, she had top secret clearances.
“Okay, what I am going to say is top secret. There is an Alphacent Corporation that believes that their only moral compass is where are the profits. They will do anything for a Mark. Why they are here is that they can capture the planet. If they can get a majority, they can lock things down like the miners guild.
“That firefight you were involved in was paid for out of Planetary Interests money. When I interfered, I announced Eridani’s involvement in Giesling to Planetary Interests. I have been a little too effective against them. They may know that you are Eridani, Princess.”
“Wait, she’s a Princess?” asked Luana.
“Ofana is the title given to the eldest unmarried daughter of the Emir.”
“I thought it was a name,” said Luana. “What is your real name?”
“My name is Amelia Grace Stegitz.”
“What a nice name,” said Luana.
“Why I am worried about Planetary Interests is that one of the Directors of Planetary Interests is our friend Anton Hecton. He is here, and I sent that to my superiors last night. They have not answered me. They do that sometimes, especially if I kill Anton Hecton by accident, and my superiors can wring their hands and say I was not authorized with clear conscious.”
“That makes you the fall guy.”
“Yep. Until there is a writ out on Anton Hecton, I can’t touch Anton Hecton. However, if he were to shoot at me in public, I am allowed to return the favor.”
“I need to brief you on these people we are going to be visiting. Their influence is quite prodigious as you will see. They call themselves the Bedoo, and the leader is somewhat flamboyant. You will find that out. He will point out his collection of layouts for the various casino games. Go up and down, looking at them. Touch a few. Then stop at the one you want to play. Play him. Then beat him. Please don’t embarrass him, just beat him.”
“I understand,” said Brian.
“After you do that we will most likely have dinner. It will be real but straightforward. It will be served to you by the Sultan’s wives that he might let you have. As she helps you, she will take off a piece of clothing. This will end with the end of the meal, and the Wives will come out in whatever clothes remains on them. You can choose one. You might be able to get away with more than one. You have to be a friend of the Sultan.
“If you get more than one woman, you must satisfy each woman at least once.”
“That’s a trifling task.”
“Please don’t let your eyes grow larger than my diplomatic skills can fix.”
“Hey, this is me.”
Ofana rolled her eyes and exclaimed: “men!”
There was general laughter.
Brian took a moment. He wondered about what the man’s Harem was like. Brian might choose all the women. He would select at most two if they got to that part of the meeting.
He continued the drive going over the odds of all of the casino games he knew. He sure hoped that they had a craps layout. He was pretty good at craps.
He drove to Condit, still running through the odds in his head.
Brian stopped at Condit, and he stopped one dune away from the vast sea of tents. He stepped out and used his spyglass. The tents were all sky blue with a white stripe. It gave the tent city a feeling of being a lake, or some other body of water. You cannot see it because of the Tents, but there was an abundant water supply.
Brian heard her car door open and slammed shut. “Is that it?” asked Ofana.
“I want you to know that what happens has no bearing on you and me.
“You must do this kind of thing a lot. Love a woman to get something from them, and leave them.”
“It is never that simple. Sometimes my emotions get entangled with hers, and I end up feeling love. Then I have to come home. I try to maintain a real love affair with a woman on Eridani. I explain how I work. Some women understand, and some do not understand.”
“This woman on Eridani, who is she?”
“Her name is Felicity Danforth. She is a Police Captain in charge of the Special Investigations Unit.”
“She must be some kind of woman.”
“She is. She has a better understanding of how we work as Special Agents. However, sometimes she gets her knickers in a bunch, and I have to come and get it untangled.”
“That sounds intriguing.”
“Ever since I’ve met you, you have not worn any knickers that I have known of.”
“You’re right. So, you are going to take one for the team to win?”
“Someone has to do it.”
In spite of her anger, she chuckled at Brian’s rejoinder.
“Of course, I’m going to enjoy it.”
Ofana playfully slapped Brian. Who kissed her to stop the flurry. The kiss melted into something else. They both stopped as soon as they realized what they were doing. Brian was the first to let his arms drop.
“You cannot be part of me,” said Ofana.
“You cannot be part of my world,” said Brian.
“Then the sex is recreational.”
“Undoubtedly, it’s exercise with a surprise ending.”
That caught Ofana as funny. She chuckled. “We must be maturing. We are splitting our lovemaking into love and recreational halves.”
Brian laughed. Ofana’s spirit was like Brian’s.To her, sex was another part of being human.
“We are standing here wasting time. Let’s get down there.”
“Parking is outside the main entrance.”
Brian drove the blue grav-car down the dune face to an area where other grav-cars rested. Brian took his weapon. The other team members grabbed their guns and followed Brian and Ofana.
Ofana wore the purple caftan. They were immediately met at the entrance lobby of the Tent city by a sycophant of the Sultan. He led them to the Royal Tent. They came to the performance of a woman dancing.
Brian watched admiring the athletic skill that she displayed by moving muscles individually and rhythmically. Ofana was also enjoying the performance, but not for the same reasons. She enjoyed the woman’s costume that she wore. The rhythms that the woman made with small cymbals on her fingers. The performance came to an end. The performer was clapped off the space before the Sultan
The sycophant came up to the Sultan. He sputtered to the Sultan. Brian could not overhear because an especially fetching young woman in a filmy veil and the clothing of a dark purple for some reason manipulating his ear with her hand. It was just the left ear. Ofana said not
hing to the woman. The Sultan clapped his hand.
The woman returned to a rug from which she could watch the proceedings. The Sultan indicated that Ofana and Brian should come close. Brian saw the collection of casino layouts. The one that he did recognize was a craps layout.
“Are you Ofana?” asked the Sultan.
“Yes, I happen to be the woman who has that title.”
“Yes, when you marry, you will no longer be Ofana, yes?”
“Yes, is correct.”
“From a princess to a commoner upon marriage, now that is marrying for love. Is it this one” The Sultan pointed the finger at Brian.
“No, your highness, this one is my protector.”
“He has a formidable weapon. I think it is an Athro sub-assault rifle. Perhaps you would demonstrate your skill with it.”
“Name a place, and I will demonstrate it.”
“You do not understand. I want you to shoot in here. I throw one of these chips, and you put a hole through it.”
“I’m sorry, no, I will make a hole in your ceiling.”
“Never worry. I have rug makers that would have it repaired quickly. I want to see how well you shoot.”
Brian chambered a dart, and he extended the wireframe shoulder rest. Brian stood up. He followed the chip up. He barely touched the trigger, and the weapon sneezed. The Sultan retrieved the chip. He held it up to show a hole in the exact center to everyone in the audience chamber.
“Now you have shown your skill in weapons. Perhaps you would like to show your luck.”
“Sure, I like a good gamble.”
“What game would you like to play?”
“Is that craps there?”
“Yes, you want to play that?”
“Yes, your highness, if it is all right with you.”
“Yes, it is very much all right. So all right that I let you borrow one of my women on the rug over there. They will give you luck.”
Brian looked at the women. All looked beautiful. He finally pointed and said, “I like the blond one.”
“Oh, that is a very nice choice. Millie will surely help you with her luck.”
