by Alex Kings
“So what are we gonna do?” said Mero.
“Use a fake,” Rurthk said. He switched on the comms. “Kaivon, we need a transparent cube about a millimetre on a side. Any material.”
“Yes, Captain,” said Kaivon. “I always keep some clay in my suit.”
Clay was generic smart matter – capable of changing shape and colour, and very little else.
“That should do,” said Rurthk. “Bring it here.”
“Rurthk,” Mero hissed quietly. “Listen.”
There were footsteps in the corridor outside. They came to a halt outside the door.
“Kaivon,” hissed Rurthk. “There's someone here.”
“It's not Emine,” said Kaivon.
Someone knocked on the door.
Rurthk and Mero looked at each other.
The lock clicked open.
Chapter 46: Suspicions
Emine talked with the blonde woman who had accosted him about travelling, about Ghroga, and about the rising costs of interstellar travel. He felt himself getting caught up in the conversation despite his best efforts.
He was actually enjoying himself. The moment he realised this he began to worry something might be wrong. And then he remembered the tiny flame of suspicion he had been nurturing since this woman approached him out of nowhere.
He let his companion finished her current thought, then stood up. “Please excuse me.”
She looked troubled. “What's the matter?”
“Oh, nothing. I … I just remembered there's something I need to check up on.”
“What about your cognac?” The glass wasn't even half empty.
“It's fine,” he said. “You can have it.” He patted down his coat to check the box was still there.
“Okay … well, it was nice talking to you, John,” said the woman.
“You too,” he said, feeling slightly guilty. He turned and went for the lift.
*
Eloise watched him go, then activated her comms. “Emine's going back to his room. I dropped the key back in his pocket. Says he needs to check on something, but that might just be because he's suspicious. Doctor, you're up.”
“Understood,” said Wolff.
*
As soon as he heard the door unlock, Rurthk moved swiftly behind the closet, his hand on the pistol beneath his coat. Mero dropped behind the chest of drawers.
The door swung open.
“I believe it's a cleaner,” said Kaivon.
Someone came in. A human woman, short, dressed in pale blue scrubs.
Rurthk closed his eyes and swore silently, then gave Mero a significant look.
Mero glared back at him and mouthed, Why me?
Rurthk gave him another look.
Mero sighed and stepped out from behind the chest of drawers.
When she saw him, the cleaner jumped slightly. “Oh, I'm sorry, sir,” she said. “I knocked.”
“I must not have heard you,” Mero said.
The cleaner held up some white towels. “I've just come to change the …” she said.
“Go on, then. Hurry up.” said Mero, barely concealing a snarl.
The cleaner hurriedly changed the towels and vanished again, locking the door behind her.
Rurthk stepped out from behind the close. “Nice of you to actually let her do it,” he said.
“Better than having her come back later to find the courier, and then ask him about the Petaur hiding in his room,” said Mero. “Also, why me, huh? Why do I gotta make excuses to cleaners? That's not on the job description.”
“Because you're a Petaur,” said Rurthk. “And unlike me, you can look halfway respectable.”
Mero laughed. “If only they knew!”
The comm chimed in Rurthk's ear. It was Eloise, speaking over the group channel. “Rurthk, the courier is coming back to his room.” she said. “Wolff's going to try and delay him, but I don't know how long that'll last,”
“Of course he is,” growled Rurthk. “Kaivon, get in here now!”
*
Emine stepped out of the lift feeling uncertain and more than a little guilty. Was he just being paranoid?
Better than the alternative, he thought. He turned to go down the corridor, when he was accosted by an overweight man in a suit.
“Excuse me, my boy!” said the man in a booming voice. “If you're not in a hurry, I wonder if you could help me?”
While Emine was organising his thoughts, and trying to explain that yes, he was in fact in a hurry, the man started speaking again.
“I seem to have lost my keycard. It must have just slipped from my pocket. Have you seen it?”
“Can't you ask the staff?” Emine.
“Oh, I have,” said the man. “Believe me, I have. But they're no help at all. Would you believe it? I was just wondering if you might have it seen it.”
“I, uh …” said Emine. “No. Was it in this corridor?”
“Or in the lift, or in the bar,” said the man.
“I'm sorry,” said Emine. “I really can't help you.”
*
Kaivon arrived at the door, holding a tiny transparent cube in his effector fields. Rurthk took it, and gave him the real key.
“Emine's on the move again,” came Wolff's voice.
Rurthk put the fake cube in the box and ran over to the closet. Mero squeezed past Kaivon into the corridor, his ears turning back and forth.
“He's here,” said Mero, and vanished from the doorway.
“Captain,” began Kaivon.
“Go!” snapped Rurthk as he shut the box.
Kaivon had gone, closing the door behind him. Rurthk knew Kaivon would wait until the last moment – until he was about to be seen.
Which meant Emine was in the corridor now, and Rurthk couldn't leave without being seen.
He went over to the door anyway, and locked it from the inside. He closed the closet. Then he looked frantically around the room.
The bed.
He hit the switch beside it, and the bed began to unfold like an accordion. He grabbed the headboard and pulled it back. It bent just wide enough to allow him to slip into the recess in the wall.
He heard Emine come to a halt outside the door.
Rurthk climbed into the recess. It was cramped and dark. A few smart matter tools, designed to clean the bed while it was folded away, hung awkwardly overhead. And it was about to get more so. Rurthk reached out and hit the switch again.
The bed folded inwards, into the recess where Rurthk was hiding. It pushed up against the opposite wall. But it was soft, and with just enough give that Rurthk could fit, wedged in between the mattress and wall.
The lock clicked, and the door opened.
Chapter 47: A Lot Less Glamorous
Emine strode into his room and closed the door after him. He looked around. Everything seemed to be in order.
He checked his pockets carefully to make sure nothing was missing. Last of all, he took out the jewellery box from the inside pocket of his coat and opened it. The key crystal was still there. He put it back.
After hanging up his coat and tugging off his shoes, he went to the closet checked the box in the corner. He flipped open the lid, and peered at the tiny cube inside.
Everything was still there.
Feeling a lot less worried, he hid the second box back in the closet.
He was beginning to feel like he had been unreasonably paranoid. Nothing had ever happened to him on his previous runs, after all.
He turned the window transparent without thinking, saw the stars wheeling past, then made it opaque again.
*
Eloise came running out of the lift with Olivia in tow, headed for the corridor where Emine's room was, then paused.
Mero peered out from behind a corner. “Get round here! You don't want to see him, do you?”
Eloise followed him around the corner, where Kaivon and Wolff were also waiting.
“Where's Rurthk?” she demanded.
“In t
he courier's room,” said Mero.
“With the courier?”
Mero nodded. “I guess he can't respond to his comms, or the guy'll hear him.”
“And you left him there?” said Eloise.
“There wasn't enough time for him to leave without being seen,” said Kaivon. “He instructed us to go.”
Eloise looked between them, then shook her head.
“Look, it's not like we left him alone in a firefight,” said Mero. “He can hide better alone. And if he screws up and gets caught, we're all dead. So believe me, I'm rooting for him as much as you are.”
“I know,” said Eloise, sighing.
*
Rurthk tried gently turning his head so the mattress wasn't crushing his muzzle quite so badly. Hiding was a lot less glamorous in real life than the VR stories made it look.
He listened intently as Emine moved about the room. He heard the soft whoosh of the closet door opening. There was a brief pause, then the door closed. Emine paced back and forth. The clink of a glass, the rush of tap water.
He waited while Emine paced, drinking his water. Then there was a click, and the mattress released its grip on Rurthk as the bed unfolded.
Rurthk crouched, fists clenched, acutely aware that if Emine pulled back the headboard, he'd be discovered.
The headboard creaked.
Rurthk braced himself.
Then it stopped. After a second, he heard Emine settle on the bed.
Please don't go to sleep, he thought.
He waited.
Finally, Emine stood up. There was the shuffle of a coat, and he sat on the bed again to tie his shoes.
Then the bed folded up again. Rurthk stifled a curse as the mattress pushed him up against the wall once more. He heard the door open, the lock click closed, then nothing.
He waited for ten seconds or so, before activating his comm, speaking to the whole crew. “Is he gone?”
“I can confirm the courier has just entered the lift,” said Kaivon.
“Thank the bloodline,” muttered Rurthk.
He shifted, then pushed the mattress away with his legs, unfolding the bed manually. When there was enough space, he bent the headboard back and crawled out onto the half-unfolded bed. He hit the button to unfold it fully, straightened the sheets, then folded it back into the wall.
He opened the door to find his crew waiting for him.
Kaivon locked the door again, while Rurthk brushed himself down and straightened his coat.
“I take it he didn't notice your presence?” said Dr. Wolff.
“How was it?” said Mero.
“I don't want to talk about it,” said Rurthk.
Chapter 48: An Impressive Rationalisation
“Nothing,” said Laodicean. “Patchwork ships and Glass Beach. It feels as if we're clutching at shadows.”
His blue sphere of a ship sat in interstellar space preparing for a final jump to Tethya and GEA headquarters. He'd gone to Volpone in person to investigate and found nothing. The ship they'd been chasing had gone. And since ships had to sit in the outer system and go to Volpone in shuttles, there were no spaceport records. Volpone was still locked down. While the GEA could overrule that, it would be several days before he could obtain a pass.
“Come on, don't be so glum,” said Illipa. She hung upside-down by her tail from a ceiling pipe, facing him through the wall of water.
“I am not … glum,” Laodicean insisted.
Illipa huffed, and her ears fell flat against her head. “Don't think you can hide it from me, just because you don't have facial expressions. I can tell when you're down. It's in the way you hold your body.”
“What?” said Laodicean.
“You float listlessly, you don't turn an eye to the person you're talking to, and you don't bother to move your tentacles as much.”
Laodicean found himself fixing all that as soon as she'd mention it. “I … had not realised,” he said.
“Look, it's almost the end of your shift,” Illipa said. “What are you going to do then? And don't say you're going to stay at the office.”
Laodicean paused. “Return home,” he said at last. “Tend to my coral garden, meditate, rest. Then return to work.”
Illipa sighed. She pulled herself up with her tail to give herself some upward momentum, released the ceiling pipe, did a somersault, and landed gracefully on her feet. “The thing with Tethyans,” she grumbled, “is that you've spent so long playing at being the ancient, wise, mysterious elders that you've forgotten how to have fun.”
“I'm not sure that's true,” said Laodicean. He was grateful for the fact that his voice synthesiser couldn't betray him by sounding piqued. “There are certain Tethyan bars.”
Illipa grinned. “I know,” she said. “One opens tonight. I'm thinking of going.”
“Ah.”
“Well?” She leaned forward until her nose was almost touching the wall of water.
“I am not certain.”
Illipa's ears fell, but only briefly. “Come on,” she said. “If you don't like it, you can always leave.”
Laodicean moved back with a flick of his tentacles. “There is work to do.”
“Okay, okay,” Illipa said, her tail flicking back and forth. “Look at it this way. Stress response works the same in most species. If you get too caught up in work without taking time to wind down, you'll be less effective. You can't just go home and worry. To solve this case quickly, you need to be at your best, and that means getting adequate relaxation.”
Laodicean was silent for some time. “An impressive rationalisation.”
Illipa grinned. “My logic is unimpeachable.”
“That's not what rationalisation means, Illipa.”
“I know. Are you coming?”
“It seems I have no choice.”
The ship sounded a short alert, then made its final jump to Tethya.
Chapter 49: Fear
The six hard drives sat in a row on the table in the observation lounge. They were connected by a tangle of wires to various tablets and input devices.
Kaivon slotted the tiny cube of diamond into an arrangement of lasers and scanners. “We're ready,” he said.
“Good,” said Rurthk.
The rest of the crew stood alongside him, apart from Mero, who was still in the cockpit programming a fast-as-possible route to the rendezvous point.
“Fire it up,” said Rurthk.
Kaivon's suit was directly connected to the system. He didn't need to gesture at the tablets. They seemed to light up of their own accord, registering inputs and establishing connections.
“I'm accessing the hard drives now,” said Kaivon.
Rurthk looked at one of tablets, which displayed what was happening.
“It's asking for the passkey,” said Kaivon.
“The moment of truth,” said Eloise.
Rurthk glanced at her. If they'd got the wrong one, they'd lose everything. All the money, all the data, and any hope of Sukone's goodwill. They'd already found they couldn't test a single hard drive by itself. It was all or nothing.
“Do it,” he said.
Everyone went silent. Rurthk watched the tablet: He saw the crystal's input, then a pause while the system registered it.
The screen went blank.
Then it was filled with lines and lines of data.
“We're in,” said Kaivon.
Olivia slumped against the wall and laughed with relief. When she noticed everyone looking at her, she stopped and blushed. Eloise smiled at her.
“Congratulations, Captain,” said Kaivon. “You are now a multi-millionaire.”
“I'll celebrate later,” said Rurthk. “What else is in there?”
“I'm looking now,” said Kaivon. He was silent for several seconds. On the tablet, pages of information raced past. “I have it.”
For the next hour, they pored over the contents of the hard drives, reading, discussing what they thought, and pressing onwards. Gradually, a picture
began to emerge.
Tommy Egliante had once been a close associate, if not actual friend, of Sukone. But, after a couple of years, he had pulled out of the arrangement and left Sweetblade, taking his considerable earnings – four hundred million cryptcreds, just over half of which were on the hard drives.
And he'd ensured he'd still be alive to enjoy his riches by taking something else with him: Leverage.
“So this is why Sukone wants to clear up loose ends,” Rurthk said.
Egliante had huge amounts of information about Sukone's underhanded dealings. Not the sort of underhanded dealings that come from being a mob boss, of course. The sort that came from betraying his oath to Sweetblade to further his own purposes. He had been lying, blackmailing, and murdering his way up the Sweetblade hierarchy for the past decade. He had sent independent assassins after his supposed allies, ratted out friends to the GEA, and quietly benefited from every move.
The information was two years out of date, but it appeared Sukone wasn't done yet. He was planning a final move, to the very top of Sweetblade.
Thereafter, it became harder to figure out what the plan was. They found one relevant name – Albert Wells, who seemed to be a member of Sweetblade and a competitor for the top job.
“Well, shit,” said Mero when Rurthk explained it to him in the observation lounge a few hours later. “What are we going to do?”
“It seems we have two options,” Rurthk said. “We go and meet him, in which case he probably tries to kill us. Or we turn tail and run, in which case he definitely tries to kill us. ”
“If we run, at least we don't have to face him on his own turf,” said Mero.
“But if we face him, we can pretend to be ignorant. That gives us an advantage,” said Rurthk.
Mero sniffed. “I am very partial to slipping the knife in while the other guy still thinks you're on his side.”
