by Scott Moon
Shaunte arrived from the transportation hub and stood with several other workers from SagCon.
Ike looked up at her, a cocky smile covering his face. “I’m doing you a favor, Shaunte Plastes. You can’t afford to keep paying extra when a company doesn’t care about us. Your daddy might be rich, but that money well is going to dry up, and then where will we be?”
Thaddeus moved quickly to reach Shaunte’s side. At the end of the loading and unloading platform he had been occupying with Mast, he had to jump a ten-foot gap to reach the Company Man. He reached back to Mast to give him a hand. The tall alien stretched out easily and pulled himself over.
“You shouldn’t be here. This is a mistake,” he said.
“Would you have me cower in my office?” she asked, cocking her head slightly. She gripped his forearm. “If this gets out of control, I doubt that will be any safer than where I am now.”
Somebody shouted. Thad turned and saw Ike punching one of the strike-breakers. He rained down a flurry of fists that sent blood spraying across the front row of the crowd.
“Do something!” Shaunte said.
Thaddeus didn’t like the high pitch to her voice. He shook his head slowly. “That’s a trap, and even if it wasn’t a trap, it’s strategically and tactically impossible. One man can’t break up an entire riot after it starts.”
“One man will have help from his deputy,” Mast said. “My people can come out of their houses. That might distract these men.”
“I don’t like that, Mast. The Ungloks are not very popular right now,” Thaddeus said.
“I will not ask them to fight, but merely to stand by and then retreat if something happens,” Mast said.
Thad scanned the area. The loading docks were part of a paved surface where trucks and other vehicles could be parked to load or unload materials. Some of it went straight into the shipping area on rails. He had some room to work, but not much.
“Can you move the crowd a little bit to that side, maybe get them away from Ike so I can deal with him one-on-one?” Thaddeus asked.
“My people will try.” He slipped into the shadows between pre-fabricated buildings.
Shaunte shifted her weight foot to foot and lifted one of her manicured fingernails to her face. At the last moment, she pulled her hand down and set her jaw. “This is getting serious.”
Thaddeus lifted one eyebrow at her. “Wouldn’t want you to resort to nail-biting.”
She put her fists on her hips. “I want you to do something.”
“No one wins if I rush to failure. I don’t like this any more than you do.” Thad furled his brow, anxious to do something, but having to wait until the right time.
Shaunte studied him. Her eyes widened in alarm. “You’re enjoying this!”
“No, Shaunte. I’m not.”
She held out her slim hand. “Look at me. I’m shaking. About to pee myself. You merely look interested, like this is a challenging puzzle.”
He stepped past her so that she couldn’t read his face. “It is a puzzle. We may see the pieces scattered across Darklanding soon.”
Mast and his people arrayed themselves on one of the flanking docks near a heavy equipment zone. The crowd shifted but didn’t move much. Ike, on the other hand, made a mistake.
Mast motioned for his people to spread out on the raised platform as Ike marched toward them. Ike’s mercenaries held their position blocking the strike-busters’ forward progress.
“Interesting,” Thaddeus said. “They’re disciplined and probably well-paid, but probably not loyal to Ike.”
“How can you tell?” Shaunte asked.
“They’re doing a job and nothing extra. Wait here, Shaunte, I’m about to do as you asked. Something.” He ran along the platform, dropped to the ground, and sprinted to block Ike. Miners and dockworkers surrounded him on two sides. A bit farther away was the confrontation between the strike-busters and the mercenaries from the ship. The space around Thad and Ike grew larger until the showdown was clearly a one-on-one event.
He glanced at the mercenaries and saw no sign they would interfere. I don’t think that many of you want to be here.
“That alien freak is trying to stir up a riot! You’ve got to lock him up, lawman,” Ike yelled.
“Alien? We are still on Ungwilook, right?”
Ike cursed him. “You know what I mean, lawman. They ain’t even human.”
Thad grabbed him while he was talking, yanking one arm behind his back.
Ike spun out of the hold and swung a roundhouse punch at Thad’s face.
Thad ducked under the punch, then thrust his right hand up and grabbed Ike by the throat. Driving his hip sideways, he swept his right foot back, tripping Ike and slamming him to the ground.
“Stay down, Ike,” Thad said.
Ike strained against the grip, face turning red and spit flying from his clenched teeth. “I warned you. I warned you again and again. Can’t push these people forever. Go ahead and learn the hard way.”
“These people?” Thad asked. “That’s right, you’re just hired muscle. What I find interesting is that you predicted this.”
“Can’t. Breathe.” Ike gasped and struggled against Thad’s iron grip.
Thaddeus dragged Ike up and pushed him against the wall, where he cuffed his hands behind his back. People milled around uncertainly. Someone yelled and cursed. A few voices agreed with the new rabble-rouser.
Ike laughed even though his face was pressed against the wall. “I hope you’re a good soldier, because you suck at this.”
Thaddeus leaned on him. “That won’t do you much good if you push me.”
“You can’t just call down reinforcements this time, lawman.”
The crowd began to chant. “Let him go! Let him go! Let him go!”
Thaddeus looked over his shoulder while still holding his prisoner pinned to the wall. He faced forward, thinking furiously. Ike laughed even louder.
“They are all cheering for him now,” Mast said. He shifted his weight foot to foot and wrung his hands as he studied the growing mass of humans. “I cannot tell the difference between those who are refusing to work and those who were accepting double pay. Everything is getting mixed up.”
The mercenaries shifted back without a word, a planned movement or some merc version of an immediate action drill. Thaddeus didn’t have the time or resources to go after them now.
He clicked on his recording device, disguising the movement by leaning on Ike one last time. His own plan now in place, he walked Ike roughly to jail. “Let’s go through the building so we don’t have to face the crowd.”
“A very good idea,” Mast said. “I will be watching your back.”
“It doesn’t matter now, lawman. I’ve just become the hometown hero and made you the invader.” Ike laughed, turning it into a sneer. “You know what the really great part is? Compared to the Ungloks, humans have it good here. When I showed up, they were all talking about the money they were making with overtime.”
“Shut your mouth and keep walking,” Thaddeus said.
“Shaunte is a fine piece of work, a real looker. But you should tell her to get out of the corporate world. Her replacement is already on the way and this could be a dangerous place for the next few months,” Ike said.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Thaddeus asked.
Ike snorted derisively. “You really are a shell-shocked grunt. Her family has enemies. Her rich daddy has enemies. Do you think you’ve beaten me? I played you like a cheap guitar.”
“You are very wrongly wrong,” Mast said.
Ike spat at the Unglok’s badge. “You disgust me, you tunnel-digging savage. Learn to talk.”
“Perhaps my people should take this prisoner down to a deep, dark cell,” Mast said.
Fear exploded in Ike’s face for the first time. “Don’t you dare, you stupid Glok. That would start a war, a real war, and then you’ll see what happens!”
Thaddeus pushed Ike forward. “Y
ou’re my prisoner for now. I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“You’re dumber than you look, lawman. I was sent to start this strike so I could break it later. I’m not getting better wages for these back-system losers, I’m driving their wages down. By the time I’m done, Shaunte will be begging her daddy for help and the miners will be glad they even have jobs at all.”
“How could you conceive of such a plan?”
Ike twisted his head around to stare at him. “You sneaky son of a… You’re recording this!” He thrust his weight into the cuffs, then tried to spin in a tight circle to pull them out of Thaddeus’s hands.
Thaddeus jerked him up onto his toes, then drove him against the wall.
“He is not so heavy as a tractor tire,” Mast said.
“No, he isn’t. About as smart, though,” Thad said.
CHAPTER TWELVE: Tricksy
Thaddeus pounded on Shaunte’s office door, rattling the glass.
“I said just a minute,” she answered.
He waited, not sure why he was so impatient. Stress burned in his gut. He didn’t want to light this fireball. He knocked again.
There was a pause before Shaunte stomped to the door and yanked it open. “I am in the middle of a videoconference. I had to put them on mute to deal with you. I don’t care if the building is literally burning to the ground, it can wait.”
“I...um...should’ve thought of that.”
“That’s right, you should have. Unless your grand scheme is to find a new boss,” she said, then pointed at a smaller, cleaner version of his chair in the corner of her office. “Just be quiet. I have to deal with this.”
Thaddeus moved carefully and sat down like a kid in school. He put his hands on his lap and was self-conscious about the way his blaster hung off the side of the chair.
Shaunte strode back to her desk, spread her hands as she leaned against the edge of it, and resumed her videoconference. “Chairman Stoddard, I understand your concerns and have a detailed operational plan to address them. We’ve been over the major points, and I sent your assistant the complete packet. There’s a step-by-step explanation. There are references for the facts supporting my arguments, and I have income and expense statements down to the last detail. There is nothing your people can do here that hasn’t already been done.”
Thaddeus’s face grew red as he thought of Ike and the sudden breakdown of labor relations in Darklanding. With no way to help Shaunte in the debate, he practiced combat breathing until his heart rate came down and he saw the situation clearly.
Shaunte finished the conference nearly a half-hour later, exhausted and sweaty despite the climate-controlled room. She collapsed into her chair and unbuttoned her shirt collar. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“I didn’t exactly bring you good news,” he said.
She massaged the back of her neck with one hand, and picked something out of her mascara with the other. “I don’t know there’s anything you could tell me that would make this day any worse. The only silver lining I can see in this cloud is that the price of exotic minerals has skyrocketed during the last week.”
“I think Ike and his people were sent here to instigate the strike, then break it,” he said.
“I’m not surprised he’s involved, but I’m not sure how much it matters either way.” She sat up and started slowly working through the documents she had strewn just out of view of the camera to support her arguments during the debate. File screens and actual paper were everywhere.
Thaddeus pulled the recorder from his pocket, turned it on, and set it on her desk. She listened without showing any emotion.
“He’s the instigator. I can deal with him, but you have to back me and it’s probably going to cost you money,” he said.
“If the problem is just one man, or even one man and a few of his goons, why should it be that expensive? To be honest, this seems more like a relief than anything,” she said.
“Ike basically told me I was a babe in the woods when it came to corporate infighting. Maybe, maybe not. What I can tell you is that I’m no stranger to power moves. I was a captain in the military after all.” He explained about the strange ship that seemed to be full of either cargo or people. “Ike is the immediate problem, but he implied that someone is out to drive you out of business. Maybe drive your family’s connections away from SagCon and Darklanding.”
He waited a moment to judge her response and thought he sensed an iron resolve under the surface of her attractive face.
“I’m the sheriff, but I understand war. This won’t end with Ike, or the ship, or whatever the next thing is. You must be ready to fight the long fight. I’ll go after Ike and his people, but not if you’re going to let me hang out there to dry.”
Shaunte met his eyes, then nodded. “Where is Ike now?”
“I considered sending him to the bottom of a mine with Mast and his people,” Thad said.
“Oh, I like that idea. Is there room for Chairman Stoddard down there as well?”
“That’s the spirit,” Thaddeus said.
She studied him for a moment, sitting up straighter. “What are you thinking, Sheriff?”
Thaddeus stood and paced. “There has to be something more. It can’t just be Ike and his mercs stirring up hate and discontent. No one cares about that. My op sec training says there is a bigger threat that I’m not seeing.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Shaunte said.
“He needs intergalactic attention to get the planet put under martial law. Some kind of terrorist attack or major industrial disaster pointing at your incompetence,” Thaddeus said. “I think I need to let him go.”
“What?”
“All I have on him is a misdemeanor.”
“Inciting a riot sounds like a felony to me,” Shaunte said.
“Work with me.” Thaddeus paced, thinking aloud. “I can’t hold him. I make a big show. My pride is trashed. I’m a dumb army grunt who hates losing, but it is what it is. Ike goes free.”
“And you follow him and learn his secret plan,” she said.
He stopped and faced her. “Pretty much.”
“Does that kind of thing actually work?”
Thad smiled and pulled on his hat. “Let’s hope it does.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Sideways
“I do not like this,” Mast said as he watched Ike swagger down the street.
“Wait, it’ll get better,” Thad said.
Ike put a hop in his step, turned as he bounced along, and presented two middle fingers to Thad and Mast.
“That is an odd selection of fingers. Does it mean something?”
Thad clenched his mouth shut to avoid laughing. “I’m trying to look mad as hell. Stop it.”
“Yes, we are very angry. I forgot the plan,” Mast said.
Thad burst out laughing.
Ike stopped, stared, and then spat on the ground. When he turned, there was real hate in his movements. He strode straight to a row of lockers on the side of a prefabricated building. He cursed as he spun the combination. After several attempts, he punched it.
“I think that worked. Are your people in place?” Thaddeus asked. “What is he doing at that locker?”
“The children of Ungwilook are even more rightly ignored than the adults,” Mast said. “Did I say that correctly this time?”
“Depends on what you mean. I think you missed in this context. Let’s see where Ike goes,” Thaddeus said.
“He will not go to the ship,” Mast predicted.
Thaddeus nodded. “You’re right. Eventually he will, but not now.”
They moved forward as Mast talked on a simple handheld radio. Before they released Ike, he had equipped a dozen neighborhood children with matching devices and explained they were to follow Ike and not be seen. Unglok children were as small and nimble as the adults were tall bone-racks.
“There is one thing I hope he does not do,” Mast said.
“Relax,
Mast. I know how his type thinks,” Thad said.
“What if he gets paid a bonus to take out the Sheriff of Darklanding, and very badly murder the deputy also-ly, before he starts his strike. What is a strike, exactly? Mast is so confused.”
Thaddeus's hand went to his gun. In a flash, he understood his plan was simplistic and fatally flawed. Ike's job would be easier without law and order. “I don't think he has it in him. He's a bully, not an assassin.”
“You do not sound very firmly certain of your conclusion,” Mast said as he watched Ike yank open the locker and pull something out.
Ike grabbed a blaster and shook it free of the holster. “Lawman!” He marched forward, gun at his side, fire in his eyes. “You don't know who I am or who my family is, but you're gonna learn.”
“Mast, move over to his flank.”
“Is that a good idea? Please define flank? It is different from the flank on a steak, I must assume.”
Thad pointed with his non-gun hand. “Take cover at the corner of that building.” He stepped into the street, his long fire coat hanging open, brushing it back on his right side for easier access to his blaster. “Gunfights should always happen from a position of cover and concealment with the option to shoot and move.”
This situation was as outside his comfort zone as it was unavoidable.
Ike's anger transformed into surprise, something Thaddeus had seen many times in men realizing they'd made a bad decision in anger. His eyes flashed to Thad’s, widening as he yanked his own weapon free of the holster.
Thaddeus drew and fired twice from the hip as Ike’s blaster roared. The muzzle flash looked bigger than the sun and impossibly close at the same time. He flinched, staggered, and realized he’d been struck in the shoulder or arm by a single blast. The impact felt like a hammer but now he wasn’t sure if he’d been hit.
“I’m going after him. He’s heading away from the spaceport,” Thaddeus grunted into the radio channel he shared with Mast.
Ike bolted into the alleyway, his long coat flapping behind him as he pumped his arms and legs for more speed. Injured animals ran like that, Thad thought. As a boy, he’d been hunting with his uncle and watched a buck bolt into the woods when the arrow struck. The speed and power of the animal had been incredible despite the mortal wound.
