Ethan shrugged, “I assume the front doorman is still watching passing traffic. The other ground level doors are locked and likely have some form of security. I entered via an alternate route. I did say I wanted a confidential meeting, didn’t I? I’m sure I said that.
“Anyway, Cliff and Jace work for you,” he gestured to them dismissively, “and for some odd reason they apparently have some measure of your trust.” He said that as if he questioned the wisdom of trusting the two ineffective gunmen. “If you don’t mind them hearing our discussion, then I don't.”
“I feel comfortable with them being here. Although, if you and I come to a business agreement, I’ll discuss terms of your employment alone with you, and possibly your friend if that’s required.” That drew slight frowns from his two employees. That could only mean this complete outsider might be paid more than what they received.
Ethan nodded. “Fine. Let me be direct then. Kit and I are here seeking employment to handle some security matters, which we expect to involve risks to ourselves, and considerably more so for those that we find we are obligated to subject to our security measures.
“Before we take decisive actions on security issues, we will require clear directions from our employer, and we will tell that employer what we will do, if not always how we will do what is required. We have no direct or personal interests in events that have happened in the past on Chisholm. We will take actions that we believe will best meet our goals to earn our pay, as well as provide us with the compensation that we consider reasonable. The only guarantee I will offer anyone right now, is that for any action we agree to take, or any confrontation that is required, that we will accomplish it with greater speed and force than anyone else on this planet can match.”
Egerton smiled shrewdly. “You used euphemisms, such as taking action on security matters or issues, and risk taking. Here is a clear security matter for you. Are you prepared to take lives, and to risk your own life for what you called reasonable compensation? Will you defend your employers from those that will try to target them because of your actions?”
“Yes, to both questions.”
“If you were directed to specifically kill someone, would you do that?”
“I’ll be blunt. We won’t wipe out a defenseless family. However, I’ll face any person with a weapon, and even allow them an opportunity to defend themselves. You’ve seen my speed, and you have heard from these two, and probably the sheriff, how I handled the confrontation at the airfield when I arrived unarmed. If we had wanted it that way, none of the fifteen men that came to the airfield would have lived to return to Cayuga. We will kill, but not randomly, without reason. We also prefer to be paid.”
“Hmm. Moral killers?”
“Morality is relative. No two societies agree on the morality of every action. The Planetary Union says that humans that accept the genetic enhancements we Kobani have are immoral, and deserve the death penalty. We took the stance that morality required us to survive, and to help humanity defeat the Krall, who wanted to exterminate our entire species. We made ourselves superior to the Krall to do that. The PU’s military conveniently ignored what we were, in order to hold back the Krall. Morality is flexible, and changes with time.”
Egerton shrugged. “I think I might be able to work with that. How about we work out some arrangement, on a trial basis, for suitable compensation, of course.”
“No. I haven’t heard the other side’s offer yet. Before I agree to terms with you, I need to hear theirs.”
“You didn’t even hear how many credits I’m willing to pay you. I don’t think the criminals that are my enemies will match what I can pay. They have to steal cattle to earn their blood money. They certainly can’t match the combined pay of all the CCA members, provided the organization wishes to hire you if your trial period working for me proves beneficial.”
Ethan wasn’t ready for a deal. “Not yet. I’ll have to hear both sides before I decide where our best interests lie.”
“Surely you won’t side with those rustlers? Against the side of law and order on Chisholm.”
“You keep forgetting what I’m telling you. We didn’t come here with a preconceived bias for one side over another. Your opposition invited us to Chisholm, but notice that you are whom I talked to first. Your local grievances and conflicts are not ours, and we’ll make our own decision. We are already considered outlaws within the Hub worlds of the PU.”
“On Chisholm, the law, at both the local and planetary level is on the side of the CCA. Do you want to be on the wrong side of that?”
“I’m being solicited to kill people for money. I took a gun away from your sheriff and threatened members of his posse. Do I seem like an off worlder who’s worried about the local law? I’m pleased to have had this chance to meet you tonight. I’ll keep in mind that you have an offer you want to make, even if we didn’t discuss specific payments yet. I’ll talk to you again after I meet your opposition. I might not like them or their offer, or you may want to counter whatever it is they can pay.”
“That’s what I’m asking of you.”
“OK. Then I’ll be on my way.” He stepped forward to shake hands, a custom he knew wasn’t universal on all Rim Worlds, but the gesture was understood. Egerton drew back quickly, as if the hand was poisoned.
“Well, well, you did do your home work.” Ethan acknowledged with a grin.
“Just the news story I looked up, when your leader went to Earth to meet with the PU president after the end of the war, and his speech about who and what the Kobani are. I know about contact telepathy, but not how to block my thoughts. I don't want to enter an agreement at a disadvantage before we even talk details.”
“Thought blocking isn’t difficult, although I understand your caution. No handshakes.”
Ethan half turned back to Cliff and Jace, since he’d never fully turned his back to them. He said to Jace, looking at his sling, with a cast along his bent right arm from shoulder to fingers, and bandaged nose. “No hard feelings I hope Jace. You didn’t know what you were up against, and I did provoke you a bit.” The man’s cast was black, formed of a carbon fiber matrix that was lighter and stronger than the ancient plaster versions were.
Ethan placed a hand lightly on top of his encased forearm, as the man drew back slightly. “I didn’t get your last name Jace, but I’m sure your boss will pay for your med lab treatments, in addition to whatever he pays you to do normally.”
Jace offered nothing in return, hate filling his eyes.
After less than a second, Ethan moved to the door he’d forced open, keeping the three men in sight, moving as smoothly as he had on entry, and pulled the door closed. The broken latch didn’t catch properly but the door stayed shut as Ethan moved swiftly and quietly to the stairs, down to level three, and back to the office with the balcony that he’d used for entry. He dropped the three stories, landing lightly on the balls of his feet and slightly flexing his knees in the lower gravity. He landed next to Kit, who had returned to the back of the building.
“Let’s walk to a bar for a drink, and then go to our meeting with Mr. Jeff Chastain.”
“Were we offered employment here?”
“Yes, and it was from Cliff and Jace’s boss, a man named Nathaniel Egerton, of the Chisholm Cattleman’s Association. I wasn’t ready to go into details with him, and I let him know we have another meeting. He didn’t like that, but repeated what the sheriff said. He says he can pay better.”
“Did you get to Mind Tap him and learn a bit about who he really is and what he wants?”
“Nope. Seems he did a bit of research and learned how contact telepathy works. He’s afraid he wouldn’t be able to block his thoughts, and refused to shake hands with me. The man with his arm in the cast was our pal, who’s named Jace Wilkins. The cast is mostly composed of carbon fiber, which isn’t a great conductor, but it made contact with a significant amount of skin, right down to his fingers.”
“Was it enough of a conductor
for a good Tap?”
“Fair. I asked him a leading question that was heavily emotion laden for him, so it came through stronger because of that. I learned he’s pissed off about having to pay for his own med lab treatments because his boss thinks he was stupid to go after me. He also earns bonus money for murdering people for his boss. He shot a man in the back, from a distance using a rifle this week. He’s killed other men in provoked face-to-face gunfights where he outdrew them, and he’s helped lynch several people with other men along to help, including Cliff. He apparently participated in some sort of burn out of a ranch, and the killing of an entire family. His boss knows all of this, and pays him extra for doing it. These are bad assed evil people. We’re definitely not going to work for Mr. Egerton.”
“So we’ll take the job offer by this Chastain person, who you talked with on Instellarnet?”
“Not if his group is as murderous as the people I just left. I can accept killing, of course, we did plenty of that fighting the Krall. It’s whom you kill, and what you are trying to accomplish when you kill. If the client that wants to hire us proves to be murderers like Jace, Cliff, and Egerton, and are trading killing for killing, family for family, we’ll not help either side. We may look for a side that really needs our help.”
“Work for free you mean?”
“Well, you still have your half of the advance. But, yes. I might work for free to help people that are the real victims, if Chastain’s group is just as bad.”
“OK. I’ll stay and do it with you. I just wanted you to be aware that I didn’t have to do it without pay. After all, I can’t eat any people I kill. I can frill them and enjoy their fear of me as they die, but being raised by humans, they are all cousins to my home pride. I can’t eat them.”
“You poor predator. I’ve never understood why frilling the terror and fear of your prey was so precious to you rippers.”
“You poor aggressive primate. You didn’t evolve with this ability, or appreciate how it guided our hunting needs. You know it’s why we refuse to kill for pleasure when we experience what our prey feels.”
“Rippers definitely beat out humanity on that count. At least you do for people like Egerton and his hired killers. They either enjoy killing, or just don’t care about the suffering they inflict because they can’t experience the feelings of their victims.”
They selected a patio bar called the Water Hole, located on the same street as the feed store, where their midnight meeting was scheduled. Kit had a generous serving of real cream, a recent delicacy she learned to like, and Ethan sampled seven potent local distilled spirits. Enough of them that had he not had his metabolism, he might have been seriously impaired. His breath reflected the spirits he’d imbibed, but practically none of the alcohol survived to reach his blood stream. His energized metabolism didn’t allow much alcohol to pass through his liver.
He linked to Kit’s Comtap. “Have you spotted more than the two at the patio bar and the two at a table by the dance floor?”
“Yes. A new watcher is seated at a table near the outside toilet. He entered a short time ago, and he’s never looked at the other four men at all, but they often look at each other, a giveaway that those four are together. The new man stares at you when you’re looking elsewhere, and quickly looks away when you turn his direction. He doesn’t do me the same curtesy of turning away when I look directly at him, as if I’m such a stupid animal I wouldn’t notice him watching.”
Ethan glanced that way, and the man looked away. “Be nice. I saw him, but I hadn’t considered him of interest. His looking at you is something nearly everyone here does half the time. You’re locally famous and recognizable from your TV exposure this morning, and I’m just another pretty face. I think the lone wolf might be either our client, or perhaps someone connected with him. He’s not very subtle, so he may be new at this.
“By comparison, both pair of tough guys seems more competent, and I think they may intend to follow us to the meeting. Perhaps they’re supposed to take out our potential client after we leave the meeting. They might even try for us too, if they think we made a deal with the other side. These four men clearly weren’t given enough information about us, or they would have called in reinforcements. Perhaps they’ll do that closer to our midnight meeting, or their help may already be waiting for us outside. I think we’ll leave early and see if they follow us.”
“I assume you’ll be the bait?”
“You got it sis. These citified cowboys will think I’m the real threat because I’m human and armed, and they must think I’m drunk if they counted my drinks. I’ll walk unsteady to encourage that notion, and you can slip out into the dark while they watch me.”
“You know better than I do how humans that enforce the law here will react to our defending ourselves. What limits do I have for my actions? For you too, brother.”
“If any of them try to kill us, we can kill them, otherwise they stay alive, but with injuries if they attack us. I want to Mind Tap the one that acts as if he is in charge tonight, so try to keep him alive. By the way, activate your translator fob’s video recording, and I’ll turn on my shirt button camera. We might need a record of what happens to prove self-defense.”
Ethan stood up and downed the last of his current drink, and made a wobbly move around his table, making it a point to stumble against a man sitting at an adjacent table, and apologized loudly. With the watchers eyes on him, Kit stayed low at her place at the dark edge of the patio, and slunk swiftly into the darkness.
Ethan, by virtue of his low light ripper vision, with an infrared component, saw the details of the dimly lit patio area in clear detail. The two pairs of toughs were hastily throwing money on their tables now, rather than wait for their servers to stop by. They were preparing to follow him, and one man had touched his hand to the back of his right ear, which is where an embedded communications transducer might be placed for activation. His lips were moving, suggesting he was speaking to someone.
“Kit, they’re getting ready to follow me and the man with the orange shirt and white hat is using a transducer. He might be in charge.”
“I’m at the first narrow opening between buildings, leading to the street.”
“That might be too close I think, for anything to happen. Can you reach the roofs and follow from there?”
“Yes.”
Ethan passed through the inside bar and out the front, and turned towards the feed store a couple of blocks up the street. He immediately spotted another four men spread along the street, on opposite sides of the bar entrance, two towards the feed store, and two now behind him as he walked towards the store. They had apparently been loitering across the street, covering both directions.
“They had four more outside. They’re not as sloppy as I first thought.”
“I see the one on the other side of the street from your facing direction. I’m on the roof of an office building across from him. He’s talking softly so he also has a transducer. He might be the one in charge.”
“You know what I noticed Kit? They aren’t positioned to follow us in secret to some meeting. The men out here should have stayed out of sight, to see what direction I went and followed me. They seem ready to intercept me.”
“You’re right. The man I see just drew his pistol and stepped into a doorway right on the street. He’d be visible when you walked past.”
“The other men just stepped back too after looking my way. It appears they have decided on an ambush. I didn’t expect them to be this direct inside of town. I must have scared the hell out of Egerton, and he wants me dead, just to keep me from talking to his opponents.”
“The four men behind you came out of the bar and drew their weapons. Two of them crossed the street and joined with the man there and the other three at your back are walking faster.”
“I want them to shoot first, but I don't want all of them doing it at once. I can’t be sure I can avoid a lucky shot from eight shooters if I’m fully exposed. If I go t
o the rooftops with you, they won’t have a target at all, but then we won’t have a confrontation either. I’ll make use of the parked cars or trucks just ahead of me.”
This narrow side street only allowed parking on one side, and there were multiple private cars and larger business trucks along the curb closest to Ethan. He could see clearly, even into the shadows cast by the widely spaced overhead streetlights. That didn’t mean he couldn’t tell where the shadows were, but those were places a Normal wouldn’t see him very well. He waited until he was about midway between streetlights, and suddenly stopped, placed a hand on the end of a squared shaped delivery truck facing the opposite direction, and made a loud heaving sound, as if he’d gotten sick from all he’d had to drink.
He stepped between a car and the back of the truck, and instantly dropped down and belly crawled swiftly under the length of the truck’s frame to its front bumper, rolled onto his back, and laid in the darkness as he waited for the three men on the sidewalk to approach. He heard the other men on opposite side of the street muttering low on their transducers, apparently confirming that their target had not crossed the open street.
As the three men approached the front of the truck, weapons drawn, one man with a single action revolver cocked its hammer, another man chambered a round in his automatic with as quiet a slide action as he could make. They knew Ethan had vanished behind the truck and had not crossed the street. One man went around the front of the truck and paused in concealment to look along its street side, unaware his foe was inches from his ankles.
“You sure he ain’t on top?” One of the men on the sidewalk whispered. Glancing up nervously. He must have been reassured by the two men farther up the street, who would have seen anyone climb up onto the lighted top of the truck from its backside. Ethan could see from their feet that the two men on the sidewalk were one third down the length of the truck, waiting for the others to close in from the other side of the street. It was obvious someone would soon think to look under the truck, so Ethan decided he wouldn’t be there.
Koban Universe 2: Have Genes, Will Travel Page 12
