by Clay Moore
Brian knew the person that would make the contract. Anton was a thorough man, and A single sniper would not be the one arrow in his quiver. Anton had to have hired a second sniper in case the first missed.
Brian walked out of the palace, and He sauntered to his blue grav-car. Brian saw nothing. He stepped back and took Ofana in tow. Her baggage and gear were with one of the team. They walked to the car.
Brian’s arm was encumbered with Ofana. He saw the targeting laser too late. He tried to move, but Ofana got in the way. He had to knock her down and cover her with his body. He heard the report of the shot. Then excruciating pain in his left calf muscle. Then he heard answering silenced shots from his team.
Brian followed over in time to see this second sniper fall dead from the roof. He never felt more proud that day when his team proved themselves. Brian’s damaged left leg caused him a screaming amount of pain. The team grabbed the first aid kit, and He grabbed the gunshot wound kit full of pneumatic syringes. He Injected all four medications near the wound. Then he put on a band-it. Ofana got in the Blue Grav-car. Brian was still driving. Then everyone else piled into the car.
They drove off to their next destination. Only now the team understood what their opposition was willing to do.
The Planetary Interests’ House was a very comfortable place and was in the heart of Giesling City, the ornate Capital City built by the Mining Guild. When Planetary Interests entered the market on Giesling, the House was a measure of how much they trusted the Dumfries running the Mining Guild. They were announcing to everyone that Planetary Interests was backing the Mining Guild. The problem was that Planetary Interests had forgotten the artificial end-by date of Mining Guild rule. Now they were paying for their brashness.
The Eridani Ofana had rightly pointed out the excesses that the miner’s guild has used. Hecton held one of the strips of paper with the words “Time for a change.” It was a vague slogan that said it all. Her promise to give specifics on the day before the election. That promise had made Andrea Martin scared. She had turned savage. She ordered him to conduct a full-scale battle against a single woman. At least there was an only person who deserved to die near her, the Special Agent.
His Personal Assistant on Giesling was something hard to find on Giesling, a pretty girl. The hard mining life took its toll on all physical beauty of men and woman.
“Yes, Gisselle?”
“Miss Martin to speak with you.”
Not for the last time he wondered if he could get away with taking half the money and building something new. Andrea was getting too bloodthirsty. She wanted to wage war against the Eridani Secret Service. They just could not do that. Planetary Interests was a business and had to do business things like make a profit and pass on those profits as dividends. The last dividend payment had made Anton a rich man. If he took half of the Planetary Interests assets would it make him wealthy enough to survive Andrea and the Eridani Secret Service? On second thought, probably not both.
Anton stepped to his desk and activated the Hypercom unit. Andrea’s image formed above his desk.
“Good morning, Andrea.”
“Good morning, Anton, I’m starting to wonder at your clumsiness.”
“What, clumsiness?”
“You got an entire grav-rodder club shot up by agents and children.”
“Not to mention the Konrabi’s guards.”
“What?”
“Konrabi revealed just how much teeth her guards had. I suspect Konrabi has ties to Eridani, which may be why Ofana visited her.”
“I think you have too much thought about Eridani. Very well, use the nuke. Get her and this agent with one big blast. We’ll make sure that Alphacent get’s the blame.”
She was correct. Anton rather doubted that the agent could get away from a fifty-million-ton explosion. It would vaporize the city. The other thing he could do was get more nukes. The bureaucracy protecting the nukes was rife with cronyism. They would accept bribes to allow someone to take out a nuke “to look at it.”
“Okay, Andrea. You have where it should be planted?”
“The rally day before the election at Someplace central.”
“You want me to put it at the rally spot itself?”
“Perfect. I’ll get us ready here to have the blame put on the government here.”
Anton nodded and hung up. He stared at the skyline of Giesling City. In five days, Giesling City would look like a shadow, and Anton would be looking at it from space.
Brian’s left leg felt like it was on fire. Luckily it was his left leg that had been shot. The burning meant that the medication he used on it was doing its job, and irritating him at the same time. He turned to Ofana, who looked at him with a smile on her face.
“You know our Guard instructors taught us to fall flat on the ground and not raise our feet flopping on the ground,” she said her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“I think you want to be tackled later.”
“You always promise, but never do.”
It felt like old home week for the team members. Luana thought it was more than they were out of Konrabi. She was more excited about Brian walking out of the palace into a courtyard that had to be ringed by enemies. Luana was real proud of her Team for getting the second sniper so fast. She did think it odd that Jasmine shot so quickly. It was like Jasmine knew where the sniper was. Perhaps she was jumping the gun. Jasmine had to have the same training as Brian. After all, they worked for the same agency.
“So,” said Brian between winces, “Where are we going to now?”
Ofana retried her Slate for her bag. She slid some documents around and found the itinerary she made almost 5 days ago. “It looks like just a mark in the road, but the Yellow girls live and work here. They were described to me as a little unorthodox as far as political gangs go.”
“Yellow girls,” said Brian to himself. He thought he knew what they really were. He would know more when they came to their place of business.
“You got that: ‘I know something that you don’t know’ look on your face,” said Ofana.
“I could be wrong. So, I will remain silent until I am proven right.”
“This is one of the broader world things you talk about when we discuss my sheltered life.”
“Yes, it is. I don’t want you going in with prejudice about what Yellow Girls do. Keep an open mind, okay.”
Ofana turned to the Team sitting in the backseat. “Do any of you know what he is talking about?”
The universal shaking of heads meant that they knew, but they were following Brian’s lead.
“Okay, be that way,” said Ofana. “I guess that pay may be harder to get.”
“I’ve been paying them,” said Brian.
“Why you?”
“The moment your father said to take care of you that has been my goal every day. He also has been refreshing my account card. The Team help me keep that pledge. The pay seemed to be the correct thing. They are risking their lives.”
“And who pays you?”
“The taxpayers of Eridani pay me.”
Brian stopped the blue grav-car. Ahead about two hundred yards was a grav-transport burning from one of the Radamite Jets. Three police grav-cars were standing around, and Four men were wearing the khaki shirt and shorts of the Giesling police. Brian turned around and asked for his tactical helmet. They tossed it to him.
He opened his door. He stepped out with the left leg. There was a stab of pain, but it went away. Brian pulled down the magnification visor, and He worked the magnification from the rear dial controls. He pulled out his Knife. Something just did not seem right. Three police cruisers and only 4 police officers. There should be more damage to the radamite jet that was obvious.
“I don’t like this,” said Brian to everyone. “Get ready, do nothing until I make a move. Got it?”
Everyone smiled, including Ofana. He set his fighting knife under his right thigh. He gave back his tactical helmet to his Team for safe keeping.
Then he drove forward at a crawl. He was ordered to stop by a large fat man. The Policeman came close to Brian’s window.
“I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to wait for the investigation team. I’m going to have to place you under arrest for this.”
“Why do you have to do that?”
“I’m arresting you on suspicion of causing this accident.”
Brian knew that was patently false. The “officer’s” gut was coming through the buttons on his uniform shirt. These were not police officers. They were there to block traffic and find Ofana. He caught the “Officer” sneaking looks at Ofana. He turned to go to his vehicle when Brian called him back.
“I wish to confess. I did it. I did it all. Come closer so I can show you how. Brian grabbed his Knife. He stuck the bandit in the gut with his Knife, and then struck him in the chest.
Brian opened his door and rolled out onto the sand. He got up on his right knee and threw his dagger at the closest bandit, and The other two bandits were taken care of by two of his Team firing their weapons.
Brian got to his feet. He winced as he climbed his own height. Brian walked over to the grav-car and grabbed his Athro. He moved around the stolen police grav-cars, and The Giesling native stayed in their large grav-truck. Satisfied that the bandits who were masquerading as police officers were all killed. He made the hand signal for his Team to search the accident, and Ofana stood by him as he walked to the grav-truck. There was a scared looking man in the truck’s cab.
“What are you carrying old man?”
The man raised his hands. Brian heard Ofana speaking Arabic to the old man, and She got a stream of words to form him.
“The man says he is a small-time blacksmith. He is carrying tools and some of his family.”
Brian threw open the canvas truck top. In the bed, he saw several children and women. There were two large wooden chests, and Brian entered the bed. He opened the two chest and saw blacksmithing tools. He turned around and walked off the truck bed.
“Is he a refugee?”
“Yes. The Election is making some of the gangs a little nervous, so they are trying to take stuff. His tools and family were the only things of value.”
“Team use your knives to open these policemen’s pockets. Let’s pool the money and donate that to the family.”
Using his fighting knife, he opened the pockets of the leader. Brian learned the hard way that you don’t reach into one of the lower Class’ pockets. He got stuck with a syringe, and a little of the drug gave him the wildest dreams he ever had. Slicing open pockets caused the contents to spill out onto the sand. He saw a wad of currency and several bullion coins, and the Team started to bring in the money and coins. A quick count showed over ten thousand Giesling scrips.
Brian took the money to the father. He dumped all the coins and bills into the surprised man’s hands. The refugee produced a clean handkerchief and filled the improvised bag with the money. Brian saluted him and stepped off the truck cab.
The refugee started his Radamite starjets. The one that was smoking proved to be merely needing a tune. He drove the truck off the sand berm then went to full speed once on the surface road.
“What was that all about,” asked Ofana.
“At first I thought they might be people sent to kill or delay. They were only interested in loot. Anton Hecton would deny using these. The Election is making some of the gangs feel strong.”
Brian waved all of the team members back to the car. Ofana looked at his bandaged wound. With all the action he had, she was expecting to see wound seepage at the least and outright bleeding at the most. She pushed him into a seated position. She removed the bandage. She was surprised to see no wound at all.
“What the—”
Brian looked at his left leg. “The Dermaquick seals the wound with my own skin. The Quikmend repairs the bone, muscle, and blood vessels. That’s why the ankle is a little sore. Another couple of hours and I should have it complete. The bandage isn’t needed anymore.”
“You had this stuff, and I was worried you might lose that leg.”
“The contents of this first aid kit would fetch a few Eridani gold coins.”
The team members looked around them. Knowing that they were sitting on so much value gave them pause.
“Wouldn’t the bandits go after us for the value of the first aid kit,” asked Luana?
“They have to know that it is there. Then the bandits have to have the guts to go after it. If you saw six of us with Athros, would you attack us?”
The Team smiled and slapped each other on the back. Ofana joined in the congratulations.
“This was an attack upon a group of travelers. They were not hired by Planetary Interests to delay us. We ran into a bandit hold up, and Tthey sought to add us to their booty. They are now dead. We drive on to Burning Sands.”
They drove on. Brian stopped at a Radamite station. He bought plenty of bottled water because the name of the area was burning sands. He discovered that Gieslings were a little literal when they named things.
He drove a couple hours more until he came to a settlement that was on either side of the road. The thing they came to first on the way was a rather large building with a billboard showing a showgirl showing off her panties. Ofana was transfixed on the advertisement. Ofana looked at Brian, who was trying hard not to laugh.
“Is this place a cathouse?”
“Now, you surprise me. I did not know if you would know any of the names for this establishment. Actually, this is two businesses in one, a cat house and a stripper bar. I think that with some of the dancers, you can get a little closer.”
“What does it mean, ladies, welcome?”
“I believe that some of the entertainment is male. The same kinds of services are available to the female customers.”
“Pay for it?”
Brian laughed. Ofana had all the benefits of living with the Emir, as well as the excellent genes that made her a beauty. She never had to pay for it. A woman that was marginal on the beauty scale might have problems getting any. A place like this could serve them as well as their male customers.
Brian drove down the road looking at the shops and a nice hotel. Brian told Amarantha to reserve some rooms for them. There was a diner attached to the hotel. They may not have room service, but it would be close. There was a convenience shop that carried necessities on Giesling, Foodbase, and bottled water. There was a shop mainly for tourists and patrons of Yellow Girls. It had decorations that would appeal to females and to the guilty conscious of males who patronized the Yellow Girls.
Ofana asked: “Why would there be a curio shop here?”
“Do you think all of their customers are single?”
“No, I suspect that some males caught in a loveless marriage would patronize.”
“And they do. What about the males that feel trapped by marriage. They might try this place for something different, feel bad, and buy a present for his wife to assuage his guilt.”
“This goes on even in Eridani,” she asked Brian?
Eridani permits Brothels in specific locations. You have to be a licensed Courtesan to work in a Brothel. You have to have regular exams and blood workups.”
“Why with all the women practically giving it away is anyone paying for it?”
“What if you are at a place and want a quick one. It may take you four hours, and you may not even get lucky. A brothel is a place where anyone can get lucky at any time.”
“Have you ever used their services?”
“No, I have never needed to.”
Ofana looked at him. She realized that if she were to see Brian in a bar and asked him to take her to his home, she would go. His very fit body and handsome face would sell him to her. Then she remembered her second sister, who was ugly, to put it mildly. She had trouble trying to find someone who would marry her, but there were plenty of takers for sex, and only for sex.
Brian took Ofana’s silence for contemplation, and He drove the car
onto the parking lot. He parked in a spot near to an exit. The Team and Brian had the unpacking procedure down. Everyone knew to grab their weapons, their stuff, and part of the ammunition. Brian carried his gear and Ofana’s stuff. Brian picked up the cards from the lobby kiosk, and He handed the cards out. Brian made sure that He and Ofana had the small suite. Each room for the others had a king-sized bed.
Brian tuned the Trid to the Hotel Channel, and The Diner apparently belonged to the hotel. The Diner was serving dinner at 1700 hours. Brian realized they had three hours. He decided to wear his suit.
He unpacked his clothes. He took out the suit and snapped the suit coat and pants to bring back the press. The shirt had been treated in the same way, and Konrabi’s people had also cleaned his ship’s uniforms. Brian did appreciate the clean underwear.
He announced to everyone, dinner on him. Dress the best they could. Ofana was clucking over two new Caftans that Brian had bought in Konrabi. She had them both hung up and was trying to choose between the two.
At the appointed time his Team showed up at Ofana’s suite in new clothes. The girls chatted with Ofana about her choice of colors. Ofana admitted that the colors were chosen by Brian.
The males had bought a new shirt and a pair of slacks. Brian wore the gray suit that was almost a uniform for the Eridani Secret Service. Brian gave them all time to chat with each other about their clothes. Then Brian took Ofana by the arm. They all went down to the Diner.
It was very much as Brian was expecting. It looked like a diner of the twentieth century. However, the food and the wine cellar was five stars. They sat at a table. They ordered what they wanted.
The meal was delicious. The Team all had water because Brian cautioned them on drinking alcoholic beverages on mission
Brian had everyone keep their most beautiful clothing on, but they had to get their weapons. Luana retrieved Brian’s Weapon. Then they stepped out onto the sidewalk and walked to the Yellow girls.
Brian opened the door to the Yellow Girls, and A well-remembered smell assailed him. It was alcohol, mixed in with sweat and sex. A woman came running down the center aisle, and she must not have been wearing any foundation garments. She flopped around inside her dress, unrestrained. She ignored everybody and went straight up to Brian. He looked like money, and besides the yellow girls only service men.
