Planet Broker

by Eric Vall

  “Here you are,” Rosek echoed as he looked back to me. “The conquering hero. My men tell me you’ve finished the repairs. Congratulations.”

  “Nearly finished,” I corrected him. “We still need some final tests and system checks to run.”

  Rosek waved a hand dismissively. “That’s finished in my book. No need to be modest. We’ve done a great thing here. We’ve given Theron the second chance it deserves.”

  My eyebrow twitched. We? I was one hundred percent positive this fat asshole hadn’t gotten out of that chair in the last two weeks, but he couldn’t let me have all the credit. That would be bad for his reputation.

  My smile felt so brittle and fake I feared my face would crack in half. “I’m glad I could be of service,” I replied.

  “And glad you could turn a profit of course,” Rosek responded as he winked at me knowingly. Like he knew exactly who I was and what I wanted. The bastard was in for a rude awakening.

  “Of course,” I laughed to cover up the disgust and hatred that welled up in the back of my throat. “Speaking of,” I continued. “I just spoke to the operations manager of Midnight Metals. They’ve also agreed to the contract I’ve proposed. They make the third company to do so, after Warpstellar Mining and Light-year construction, but Midnight is twice the size of the other two.”

  “Excellent,” Rosek said as he clapped his hands together. He was practically drooling. “When will they arrive?”

  “Should be in the next few days,” I shrugged. “Midnight might take a little longer. They’re based in a closer star system than Warpstellar and Light-year, but the latter two answered my calls earlier.”

  “So, they’ll all be here within the week,” Rosek concluded. “Do you have their paperwork drafted already?”

  A warning bell began to go off in my head. The gangster was asking a few too many pointed questions. Isaias was right. He was planning something.

  “Not quite yet,” I lied through my teeth. “But it shouldn’t be too hard. Just a standard contract. I’ve done them a thousand times before.”

  I’d actually written up the contracts the day that Omni and Akela started repairs. They were just waiting for signatures at this point.

  “I see,” Rosek said with a frown. He obviously hadn’t anticipated this answer, and I could see frustration rear its ugly head in the gangster’s close-set eyes. “Well, you still have time I guess.”

  The way he said that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I surreptitiously glanced around the room to make sure that, besides Isaias, we were the only ones in the room. We were, but that didn’t settle the unease that grew in my gut.

  Oblivious to my suspicion, Rosek slapped a hand down on his desktop and laboriously pushed himself out of his chair. “I say this calls for a celebratory drink.” He waddled out from behind his desk and over to an ornate, wooden cabinet bar. As he opened the door, he glanced back at me over his shoulder.

  “What’s your poison?” he asked with a grin. “Vodka, gin, whiskey? You look like a whiskey man to me.”

  I smiled thinly. “Good observation. I do prefer whiskey, however—”

  “Perfect,” Rosek cut me off as he straightened up. “I have a bottle of the finest whiskey in all the closest star systems.” He had a bottle of brown liquor in one hand and two highball glass tumblers in the other. He set everything on the top of the bar and then turned his back to me while he poured the drinks.

  While he was preoccupied, I turned to look at Isaias behind me. The boy had hung back near the door when we entered, and he hadn’t moved much. Now he caught my eye, and there was urgency in his battered face. His eyes darted to his father and then back to me. Isaias shook his head and tried to mouth something, but I couldn’t catch it before Rosek finished pouring. I faced the gangster as he turned around and offered me a glass.

  “Thank you,” I said as I wrapped my hand around the offered drink, “but as I was trying to say, I don’t like to drink before paperwork is signed. Just a preference. Almost a superstition if you will.”

  “Oh, come on now,” Rosek cajoled as he leaned forward and clinked his glass against mine. There was a feverish look in his eye, different from the typical glint of greed. “One drink can’t hurt. Let’s make a toast, yeah? To your brilliant idea, and my deep pockets.”

  He raised his glass with a too-wide grin that showed all of his crooked and yellowed teeth. I looked down at my glass and watched the whiskey ripple.

  What’s your poison, Rosek had said. This stupid bastard wasn’t as sly as he thought he was.

  My mind raced a million light years a second as I considered my options. In the end, I gave a tight-lipped smile and raised my glass in return.

  “Thank you,” I repeated, “for the drink and the compliment. But I’m still going to have to decline. Nothing personal.”

  I leaned over and set my glass down on his desk with a resounding thud. I watched as the grin slid off Rosek’s face and that look in his eye transformed to outright fury. I had to force myself not to take a step back from the gangster. If I showed weakness now, it could very likely get me killed.

  Instead, I lifted my chin and met him gaze for gaze. A moment passed, then Rosek blinked and sighed.

  “You know, I like you, Mr. Colby Tower,” he mused as he lifted his glass to his mouth and took a swig. “You’re smart and bold as all hell.”

  “I sense a ‘but’ coming along,” I responded dryly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Isaias shift to the right and further back, so he was pressed up against the wall.

  Rosek smiled at me, and the expression was not kind. “But,” he continued, “you’re an arrogant son of a bitch. Not your fault. Probably spent too much time as a T-N lapdog. However, as you well know, Terra-Nebula hasn’t been around these parts in generations. I run things now. And I don’t take kindly to you taking my money and telling me how to run my station.”

  As he finished, he set down his glass and reached under the lip of his desk. A buzz sounded, and a moment later, two of his cronies opened the door. One glance told me these were the two guards that Isaias had confronted before our first meeting with Rosek, two weeks ago. They were bald, hulking, massive men, and my eyes darted to the bulges at their hips that I knew for a fact to be laser pistols.

  I turned back to Rosek, careful to keep my expression blank and neutral. “What’s this?” I asked, even though I knew what Rosek had planned.

  “This is your retirement party, Mr. Tower, best broker T-N had to offer,” the gangster exclaimed. He smiled again. “Of course, that was before they terminated you. What? You think just because we’re some backwater station, I can’t find out information on my enemies?”

  “I am not your enemy, Rosek,” I said. I couldn’t help but glance at the guards at the door again. “I just helped repair your whole station. I’m bringing you more traffic to increase your profits and revenues. Yes, T-N terminated me, but that means I owe them no allegiance. I just want to get paid for my work, and we’ll be out of your hair.”

  Rosek hummed and tapped at his lips with his thick, pudgy fingers. “Hmm. I think not. Why should I give you anything now that you’ve already given me everything?” He grinned and snapped his fingers at the guards, who moved forward to grab me.

  “So what?” I said, my last-ditch effort at diplomacy as adrenaline began to flood my system. “Your plan is to kill me? You need me to facilitate the transactions when those mining Corporations get here. They won’t deal with you.”

  “I think you overestimate your value, corpseman,” Rosek spat. “I might have needed you to initiate contact, but once those Corporations get here, I don’t think they’ll turn down a planet’s worth of credits over some perceived loyalty to you.”

  He was right, of course. Harlan and I might be business acquaintances, but we were by no means friends. The miner might pour a drink out for me, but he’d still sign the contract, as would the other two companies.

  Before I could argue any further,
the guards flanked me on either side. Rosek turned to the one on the left. “Take care of him for me, Malik. Make sure there’s nothing left to find.”

  Then, he turned to the guard on the right, “Hames, I want you to go down to Tower’s ship and find those pretty little crew members of his,” he salivated. My blood turned to burning magma in my veins at the disgusting look of dark hunger in his eyes. “Bring them up to me. We’ll all have a little celebration party.”

  The guards grinned in unison and turned to grab hold of me, but what they and Rosek didn’t know is that I was more than just a broker.

  I was Colby fucking Tower. I had been hardened and honed in the crucible of abject poverty. I had been starved, I had been beaten, hell I’d even been stabbed a few times. But I had never been defeated, and I wasn’t about to start now, not by this fat, greedy, disgusting fuck.

  Most people assumed that because of my occupation as a broker, I was just some soft, feeble paperpusher. They had no idea. Rosek had no idea. He thought he was surprising me with his oh-so-blatant double-cross. He thought I wouldn’t be able to defend myself, that I wasn’t prepared for this outcome, when in fact the exact opposite was true. I knew this meeting would mostly likely come to blood, but I wanted to give the easy way a try, work smarter not harder and all that, and I had.

  I had tried diplomacy. I had tried to handle this with the minimum amount of bloodshed. Some people, however, were just stubborn. Violence was the only language they knew.

  Thankfully, I was quite fluent in it.

  The instant the guard named Malik brushed my arm, I spun to face him fully and smashed my fist into his unsuspecting face. His nose shattered with a satisfying crunch, and blood spurted everywhere. Before Rosek could react, I kicked out with my back leg and connected solidly with Hames’s knee. It didn’t snap like I intended, but the guard buckled to the ground, within perfect striking distance for me to drive my own knee into his temple. He careened to the side and his head smacked against the hard metal floor, right in the space between where one red carpet began and where one ended.

  With Hames down, I whirled back to Malik and Rosek. The gangster had paled and stumbled back a few steps as he tried to put his desk between us. Malik, on the other hand, stood with one hand cradled against his face. Absolute fury burned in his eyes.

  “You’re gonna pay for that,” he slurred, voice muffled by the blood pouring down his face and into his mouth.

  A wild grin split my face. My heart raced with adrenaline and everything seemed to come into hyper focus.

  “Bring it,” I taunted as I brought my hands up in a boxing stance.

  “What are you doing?” Rosek shrieked from where he cowered behind his desk. “Don’t fight him! Shoot him!”

  Malik and I both seemed to remember the laser pistol on his belt at the same time. Our eyes dropped to it and then rose again to find each other’s. A beat passed, then two, then …

  Malik’s hand shot toward the weapon, and I lunged to intercept him. As we grappled, I slammed the guard up against the wooden bar cabinet, one hand wrapped around his right wrist, the other coming up to try to punch him in the head again. He tried to headbutt me, and I narrowly dodged, but before I could retaliate, arms as thick as tree trunks wrapped around me from behind and lifted me off my feet.

  It seemed like Hames hadn’t knocked himself unconscious earlier. Fuck.

  I struggled, my ribs creaking from the pressure of Hames’s grip, and kicked out with both feet. I struck Malik directly in the solar plexus and used my momentum to send Hames and I flying backward. We struck the floor hard enough to drive the breath out of me, and I scrambled away from Hames before he could reorient himself. As I rolled to my feet, I clawed at my boot, where I had hidden a small laser pistol I had taken from the armory aboard the Lacuna Noctis, but before I could draw it fully, Malik tackled me back to the ground, and the gun went skittering across the floor.

  I cursed, but didn’t have time to lament the loss. Malik was trying to reach my throat to strangle me, so I used my legs and his weight to roll us. As I straddled him, I punched at anything and everything I could reach: his throat, his head, his face. He managed to deflect some of my blows, but most of them connected, blood making my knuckles slick.

  Instead of weakening him, the pain just seemed to enrage him further. With a roar, he batted my hands away and succeeded in landing a solid punch to the right side of my jaw. The force of it nearly sent me flying off him, but I managed to maintain my balance. I spat blood off to the side and reared back to take another swing at the man beneath me, but as I did, I heard a humming noise that signaled a charging particle beam weapon. I glanced behind me to see Hames standing a few meters away, laser pistol outstretched as he glared down the sights. I had an instant to react, and I did the first thing that came to mind. As Hames squeezed the trigger, I rolled off to the side, and the red shot of light missed me by centimeters and cut straight through the underside of Malik’s chin, just as I intended.

  I came out of my tuck and roll and crouched a few meters away. I glanced back at Malik to see him dying, choking on his own blood, a neat hole still smoldering on the underside of his jaw.

  Hames gaped, eyes wide, at Malik, who still twitched and flopped on the floor, blood pooling out around him. Before Hames could recover from killing his fellow guard, I used the distraction I had orchestrated to charge him. The poor bastard didn’t have enough time to raise his gun again before I slapped it out of his hand and tackled him. This time, however, I twisted behind him, wrapped my legs around his torso, and jerked my right forearm hard against his throat in a sleeper hold.

  Hames struggled violently as he tried to break my hold on him and land a few blows himself. But my form was impeccable. There was no way for him to escape.

  “Stop … fighting,” I panted out as I tightened my arms. The guard refused to listen to me and bucked his body with all his strength. I only held on tighter, which only made him wrench harder from side to side. As he turned his head and snapped at me with his teeth, I realized he wasn’t going to stop until he killed me or until I made him stop. I doubled down on my efforts and tightened my grip as hard as I could. His eyes bulged, and unfathomable fury burned in their depths, but his struggles were becoming weaker with each passing second. I maintained pressure for one breath, two, and then Hames’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he passed out.

  All at once, Hames went slack in my arms. I wheezed under his dead weight and dropped my arms to try to shove him off me. When that didn’t work, I used my hands to pull me back from under his body, and I scooted back on my hands and ass until the cabinet bar collided with my spine. I sat there panting for a few seconds, but then I heard the click and whirl of yet another laser pistol warming up.

  I snapped my head up to find Rosek standing behind his desk, Malik’s pistol shaking in his grip. The gangster was pale with fear and fury. I looked from the gun to him and back again. He was too far for me to charge, and there was nothing but Hames’s body for me to take cover behind, and I knew I wouldn’t be quick enough to drag the guard over me in time.

  Thankfully, I had dragged Hame’s discarded pistol with me when I scooted out from under his body, so before Rosek could blink, I swung it up and leveled at his heart.

  We froze there, at a standoff, both of our weapons aimed for the kill shot.

  “Rosek,” I said slowly as I tried to reason with him. “Think about this. You don’t want—”

  I tracked how hard his hand shook and calculated how likely his first shot was to go wide, even with me on the ground. I had to make my shot count. I took a deep breath to slow my heartbeat as I sighted down the barrel of the gun.

  “Don’t tell me what I want!” the gangster shrieked, his eyes wild. “You don’t know anything! You’re just a sad, stupid ex-broker! And you're about to be a dead one!”

  As I watched, Rosek put his finger on the trigger, closed one eye to aim, and the sound of a laser pistol filled the air again.r />
  However, instead of a beam of energy flying from Rosek’s hand, or one from mine, a red light collided with the side of Rosek’s head and tore a hole straight through it, brains and blood splattering against the chair behind him. The gangster stood there for a moment, his mouth agape, before his body collapsed like someone had cut his strings. His head cracked against the desk on his way down, and then silence.

  I sat there for a moment, panting in disbelief, before I turned to see Isaias standing in the middle of the room, my own gun still smoking in his hand. The boy’s grip did not shake like his father’s had, and his lone blue eye was grim, determined, and satisfied.

  Isaias lowered the pistol with an air of finality and then turned to me.

  “You alright?” he asked, his voice gruff.

  I nodded, and then cleared my throat. “Never better,” I rasped as I dropped Hames’s pistol to the ground. I struggled to my feet and winced at all the aches and pains that shot through my body.

  “That was a hell of a shot,” I commented as I ran the back of my hand against my mouth. The skin came away stained red, and I poked at a loose molar with my tongue. Malik’s last punch had broken one of my teeth. Fucker.

  Isaias didn’t respond to me so I cautiously walked toward him. When I was within arm’s reach, I slowly reached out and slid my gun out of his lax fingers. The boy blinked and looked up at me.

  “Thank you,” I told him sincerely. “You saved my life.”

  The boy snorted and averted his gaze, looking first to the bodies of Malik and Hames before his eye settled on the desk that hid his father’s corpse.

  “Didn’t do it all for you,” Isaias muttered. “He’s always been an asshole, ya know? Been beatin’ me ever since I was born, the unwanted product of one of his whores but hey, free heir to the throne.” He laughed, and the sound was hollow and without humor.

  “I didn’t used to care,” he went on. “Sure he’d give me a black eye, but then he’d turn around and give me thousands of credits to blow on booze and drugs. I told myself things could be worse.”