The Starter

by Scott Sigler

  Her face wrinkled into a sneer. A sneer that Quentin couldn’t deny was even more attractive than her smile.

  “Oh please,” she said. “I am in control of the OS1 syndicate, there is no doubt about this.”

  “You are wrong. Sikka the Death’s passing means the OS1 syndicate is leaderless. You have to make your bid to the Council, Villani.”

  “Like they would dare deny me.”

  “If they do dare, you are out,” Gredok said. “There are many ambitious young leaders in the galaxy that want this territory.”

  “Like who? Perhaps Stedmar Osborne?”

  Quentin’s eyes widened just a bit at the mention of his former boss, the owner of the Micovi Raiders.

  Gredok nodded, his whole upper body moving back and forth twice to signify yes.

  “If Osborne comes here,” Anna said, her words cold and slow, “I will cut out his heart and feed it to him.”

  “Aside from the relative anatomical improbability of that act,” Gredok said, “it would not be Osborne who would come first. If the Council denies your bid, and you were foolish enough to resist their orders, at least a dozen of the galaxy’s best assassins would descend on Orbital Station One. They would be gunning for you, Villani. And if you were even more foolish as to not submit a bid and simply assume control — which, despite what you just told me, I am sure you have not done — well then, there would be more than a dozen. Many more.”

  She stared down at him, hate filling her face.

  Gredok stayed perfectly calm. “I always considered you smart, Villani. A smart leader would not assume control without a vote from the Council. So, are you in control of the OS1 syndicate?”

  Her lips sneered again, then she relaxed them. Gredok had all the cards. Quentin was starting to understand the criminal hierarchy. With Sikka the Death gone and no leader in his place, Gredok had the right to kill any of these sentients — including Anna — without fear of repercussion.

  “No,” she said. “I have not assumed control.”

  “Smart,” Gredok said. “I always thought you were smart. Since you are not in control, that means you must respect the requests of any Shamakath.”

  “Gredok, if you think I’m going to swear fealty—”

  “Nothing so crass,” Gredok said. “I am simply going to take my players and leave.”

  Anna looked back to Ju, glaring at him, hunger in her eyes. “Just your players?”

  “No!” John shouted. “Gredok, he’s my brother, you can’t just leave him!”

  “Silence!” Gredok’s scream could have come from a being twice, possibly three times his size. A voice full of rage and power. “Another word out of you, John Tweedy, and I will not only start looking for a new middle linebacker, I will enjoy the process, because killing you here and now would provide me with immense satisfaction. You have pushed me as far as you dare. Your brother is wanted for murder. His own team cut him. He no longer has diplomatic immunity. Even if he is turned over to the police, we all know where he will end up. There is nothing I can do.”

  “Yes there is,” Quentin said. “You can sign him.”

  If the room had been still before, now it was frozen absolute-zero stiff. Gredok shuffled in place. The small clacks of his feet, the clink of his jewelry and the rustling of furry arms against a furry body filled the silent room. Then he stopped moving, and all fell silent again.

  Gredok stared at Quentin. The leader didn’t look upset, or even agitated. That is, unless you looked into his one big eye, which was flooded a deep, pitch black.

  “Barnes,” Gredok said. “I think that you are forgetting something.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “That you have a two-time Galaxy Bowl quarterback playing one spot below you. If I kill you now, the result on the field will be little different for the rest of the season.”

  Quentin wiped more blood away from his nose. He had to play this just right. Gredok didn’t make idle threats. Quentin was as close to death as he’d ever been.

  “We’re not talking about this season,” Quentin said. “We’re talking about next season, and the season after that, and the season after that.”

  Gredok said nothing. Some of the black faded away. Now he was only mad enough to destroy a city, not sat-bomb an entire planet.

  “Sign Ju Tweedy,” Quentin said. “That gives him diplomatic immunity. Then the police can’t touch him.”

  “I can touch him,” Anna said. “And I will. No way I agree to this.”

  Gredok whipped around to face her. “Did I ask you if you agreed to it? Did I, Villani?”

  Her lip curled again, but she shook her head.

  Gredok stared for a second, then slowly turned again to face Quentin. “Barnes, Ju Tweedy is wanted for murder. There will be an investigation.”

  “The system police want to talk to him? Fine. They can come to the Touchback and question him. He didn’t kill that girl, Gredok.”

  “Guilt or innocence doesn’t matter.”

  “It does this time,” Quentin said. “The investigation will find out he had nothing to do with it.”

  “Barnes,” Gredok said, “you are playing a game that you do not know how to play. Do you really think all of this... complication... is worth it? Just to replace Mitchell Fayed?”

  “Ju Tweedy isn’t a replacement for Mitchell Fayed,” Quentin said. “He is better than Fayed, and you know this.”

  Gredok stared, then walked forward until he was standing right in front of Quentin. The mob boss’s right pedipalp reached up a little and curled inward, a gesture that said get down here. Quentin knelt on one knee.

  “You played me,” Gredok said, quietly enough that only Quentin could hear. “You called Hokor, knowing Hokor would call me. You knew I would find you because of your tracking bracelet. You knew I would come after you, possibly even want to kill you, because you put so many of my valuable players in danger. Did you also time it so I would make a dramatic, last-second entrance?”

  “No,” Quentin said. “The way I figure it, you’re a little late.”

  Gredok’s black fur instantly ruffled to full length, stayed puffed-up for a moment, then lay flat again.

  “I would suggest you avoid provoking me,” Gredok said. “At the moment, I am unable to tell you which would give me greater pleasure — winning the Galaxy Bowl trophy, or shooting you in the stomach and watching you beg for death.”

  Quentin saw his own reflection in Gredok’s cornea, saw his own eyes widen a little at the threat. Gredok wasn’t joking. If Quentin pushed this any further, it would be too much.

  “I apologize,” Quentin said. “I am grateful that you came after us, Gredok, but Ju Tweedy is worth it. You’ve seen him play. Right now, he is the best running back in all of football. We can have him.”

  “And make an enemy of Anna Villani, a Human I barely know? To make an enemy of her now is foolish.”

  “And how will it look if you don’t sign Ju? Your players ran off without the approval of their Shamakath. You had to fly to Orbital Station One and bring them home. It will be clear to the galaxy that you could have signed Ju Tweedy, but did not. If you hadn’t come here, that’s one thing, none of the other crime bosses came... but you did. Since you came, and you didn’t sign Ju Tweedy, I think the other crime bosses can only assume one reason — that you fear Anna Villani. This is crazy, of course, and far from the truth, but it is what they will think. You will lose face, crime lords will think you are getting weak. The only way to avoid sending that signal is to sign Ju.”

  Gredok just stared. His eye flooded black again, even thicker than before. Quentin felt his pulse rushing, knew that Gredok could sense that, and yet this time it could not be stopped. This Quyth Leader could call for Quentin’s head at any second.

  “You are religious?” Gredok asked quietly.

  Quentin swallowed, and nodded.

  “Then you had best embrace your primitive beliefs and pray, Quentin Barnes, pray, that you do not suffer an
injury so grave it ends your career. Should the day come when you can no longer play for me, you and I will have some business to settle.”

  He turned and walked back to the woman dressed in dark red. “Villani,” he said. “I will be taking my players, and also Ju Tweedy as well.”

  “That jackobath doesn’t leave this planet,” she said quietly. “I don’t care if everyone in this room dies in a bloodbath, Ju Tweedy is mine.”

  “Very well,” Gredok said.

  “What?” Ju said. “What do you mean, very well?”

  Gredok pointed a pedipalp at him. “Ju, I suggest that you do not speak again. If you do, I will take my leave immediately.”

  Ju stared, then hung his head.

  “Villani,” Gredok said. “I want to take Ju Tweedy with me, but I will leave the choice up to you, out of courtesy and respect.”

  “You know what my choice is.”

  “You haven’t heard my offer,” Gredok said, his voice rising and gaining intensity. Anna leaned back, just a little.

  Quentin didn’t just watch, he found himself studying. A room full of guns and deadly people, a wounded man, a corpse, a powder-keg that could blow up and kill everyone in a flash of gunfire. All of this, and yet Quentin could see Gredok’s strategy, see him intentionally raising his voice at just the right time to gain more and more control over the situational flow. What Quentin did on the football field, Gredok the Splithead did in a game of death.

  “My offer is simple,” Gredok said, his voice again calm and barely audible. “I wish to offer Ju Tweedy a contract. In exchange for this allowance, I will speak on your behalf to the Council. I will endorse your bid to assume control of the OS1 syndicate.”

  Anna Villani blinked rapidly, almost like a ticker measuring off her thoughts. She hadn’t seen that one coming. “You will endorse me?”

  Gredok did his Human nod approximation again.

  Quentin watched her face. He could see the want there, the lust for power. She hated Ju Tweedy and wanted him dead, but she wanted that power even more.

  “All right,” she said. “But if you can’t reach an agreement with Ju, he is mine, and I still get the endorsement. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” Gredok said. “Now, if you would be so kind as to leave us to our own devices, I will negotiate with Ju. I’m sure your people will be watching us depart. If Ju is not with us, you will know we could not reach an agreement.”

  Anna looked at Ju once more, hunger on her face. “I hope you run for it,” she said, then she turned and looked at Quentin. “Don’t think I will forget this, Barnes. A kiss is just a kiss, unless it is a kiss goodbye.”

  Quentin stared back at her and felt something that he rarely felt — fear. She was a reptile in Human disguise. A stunning, sexy reptile.

  She walked to the window. Her massive HeavyG guard lifted her and delicately set her outside. Her guards followed her out, leaving Quentin, Gredok, Ju Tweedy, and the other Krakens players alone in the abandoned building.

  To an outside viewer, someone who didn’t know the players in this particular game, the situation might have seemed comical — a room full of sentients ranging from two hundred and fifty pounds up past six hundred, some seven feet tall, some twelve feet long — the elite athletes of the galaxy and by any standard some of the most dangerous sentients in existence. And yet these big, strong sentients radiated nearly tangible fear in the presence of a three-foot-tall being that vaguely resembled a furry cross between a monkey and a spider.

  “I am not happy,” Gredok said. “The influence I just gave Anna Villani — for free — would have fetched a steep price. You have all cost me.”

  The black-furred Leader strode over to the still-bleeding Ju.

  “Ju Tweedy. You will sign with the Ionath Krakens.”

  “How much?” Ju said immediately.

  “League minimum,” Gredok said. “For three years.”

  “Minimum? But I’m making—”

  “You are making nothing,” Gredok said. “You were cut from the Orbiting Death. You will sign, and now, or I will leave you here to fend for yourself.”

  “I’ll run. Another team will sign me.”

  “Running will be difficult when you are missing a foot. Virak?”

  The Quyth Warrior turned and fired a bullet into the floor just left of Ju’s knee. Concrete and plastic shot up in splinters. Ju winced as one of the splinters sank into his thigh. The Warrior changed his aim slightly — the barrel now pointed at Ju’s right foot.

  “I have made my offer,” Gredok said. “Do you accept, or do you decline?”

  Ju looked pained, and not from the fresh wound spilling blood down his thigh. He looked at his brother, John, who nodded violently. TAKE THE DEAL YOU IDIOT played across John’s forehead.

  Ju looked back to Gredok then slowly nodded. “I accept,” he said.

  Gredok snapped his pedipalp fingers. Messal the Efficient hopped over the windowsill, where he must have been waiting the whole time, a contract box clutched in his pedipalps. Gredok took the box, called up the holo display, poked a few numbers, then slid his middle left pedipalp finger inside.

  Ju stood and limped to the box and put his right thumb inside. After a brief pause, the box gave out a beep, and the deal was complete.

  “Choto,” Gredok said. “If you aren’t too busy following your new Shamakath, kindly call the Orbital Station One system police and tell them we need an escort back to our ship. Full police protection as befits our diplomatic immunity.”

  GFL WEEK SIX ROUNDUP

  (Courtesy of Galaxy Sports Network)

  At the halfway point of the 2683 season, the Isis Ice Storm (4-1) took sole possession of first place in the Planet Division with a 22-10 manhandling of the faltering To Pirates (4-2). The Mars Planets (4-2) won their third straight in a critical match with Wabash (3-2). The win puts the Planets into a tie for second with the Pirates.

  The New Rodina Astronauts (4-1) moved back into first place in the Solar with a 17-3 win over the Vik Vanguard (1-4). The ’Stros are tied with the Bord Brigands (4-1), who had a bye week. Just a half-game behind both of those squads are the D’Kow War Dogs (4-2) and the Neptune Scarlet Fliers (4-2). The Dogs missed their chance at sole possession of first thanks to a 28-27 loss to the Bartel Water Bugs (2-3), while Neptune moved up thanks to a 35-31 shootout win over the Sala Intrigue (3-3).

  Deaths

  Mars Planets running back Daniel Dziubanski, killed on a clean hit from Wabash defensive tackle Stephen Wardop.

  Offensive Player of the Week

  Yall running back Jack Townsend, who carried the ball 23 times for 212 yards and a touchdown in the Criminals 27-24 win over the Armada.

  Defensive Player of the Week

  Wabash defensive tackle Stephen Wardop, who had two sacks, six solo tackles and a fatality in a losing effort against the Mars Planets.

  WEEK SEVEN: IONATH KRAKENS at LU JUGGERNAUTS

  PLANET DIVISION

  4-1 Isis Ice Storm

  4-2 To Pirates

  4-2 Mars Planets

  3-2 Lu Juggernauts

  3-2 Hittoni Hullwalkers

  3-2 Wabash Wolfpack

  3-3 Yall Criminals

  3-3 Themala Dreadnaughts

  2-3 Alimum Armada

  2-3 Coranadillana Cloud Killers (bye)

  1-4 Ionath Krakens (bye)

  SOLAR DIVISION

  4-1 New Rodina Astronauts

  4-1 Bord Brigands (bye)

  4-2 D’Kow War Dogs

  4-2 Neptune Scarlet Fliers

  3-2 Jupiter Jacks

  3-3 Sala Intrigue

  2-3 Bartel Water Bugs

  1-4 Vik Vanguard

  1-4 Shorah Warlords (bye)

  1-5 Jang Atom Smashers

  0-5 Chillich Spider-Bears

  * * *

  MEMO FROM THE DESK OF GFL LEAGUE COMMISSIONER ROB FROESE

  To: Gredok the Splithead

  Subject: The League’s stance on the murder investigation involving s
uspect Ju Tweedy.

  It is the Galactic Football League’s official position that Ju Tweedy is now a member of the Ionath Krakens, and as such, he is afforded the full diplomatic immunity granted to any signed player. Ergo, he may not be detained by the System Police of Orbital Station One, nor may he be detained by any law enforcement agency during his travels.

  The GFL will cooperate with the investigation into the murder of Grace McDermot, of which Ju Tweedy is a suspect. The Krakens franchise is also expected to cooperate fully. Further questioning of Ju Tweedy is required, and will be performed on the Krakens’ official team bus (the Touchback). Any efforts by the Krakens franchise to deny access to Ju Tweedy will result in the maximum fines and penalties available, at the Commissioner’s discretion.

  Unofficially, let it be known that I, Rob Froese, in my capacity as GFL commissioner, will get to the bottom of this. Ju Tweedy had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to murder Grace McDermot. Witnesses put him at the scene of the crime. If he committed this crime, not only will he pay, but I will do everything in my power to have the Ionath Krakens franchise charter pulled for damaging the image of the GFL and for general abhorrent behavior.

  The Creterakians may turn a blind eye to your criminal ways, Gredok, but I am watching. Sooner or later, you’re going to get what’s coming to you.

  * * *

  * * *

  Memo from the Desk of Gredok the Splithead

  To: GFL Commissioner Rob Froese

  Subject: A response to your memo regarding the Grace McDermot investigation

  Dear Commissioner Froese,

  The Ionath Krakens wish to thank you for your involvement in this delicate matter. We have full confidence that Ju Tweedy will be found innocent of this heinous and tragic crime.

  And when — not if — Ju Tweedy is cleared of all charges, I will expect a full apology, in person, for your insolent tone. People far more important than you have asked my forgiveness for far less, of this I assure you.