Slow Burn Dark

by A. B. Keuser

  “We’d love the tour,” Putty said from where he stood on the roof of the ship, watching.

  “We’d hoped you’d be amenable.” Oily smile twisting, he shared a glance with his partner.

  Flynn had a feeling the man was repeating his boss’ words.

  Chewing on them to be precise. The thug didn’t look like he had a clue what the word “amenable” meant.

  “We trust you’ll make your way to the shipyard without needing our help. Ship takes off in half an hour.” The last few words were shouted over his shoulder as they walked away.

  “That was stupid,” Flynn said, crossing his arms as he looked up to his brother, but Putty wasn’t looking at him.

  “There’s been a lot of that going around lately.” He stared at the retreating men.

  For a moment, Flynn thought he might jump the thirty feet to the ground, run after them, and pound one or the other’s face in.

  “But Phee’s gone, and I want answers to too many questions to count, and I think Giuseppe Refuti might have some of them.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Then we get a nice tour of the lunar platform and we come back to look for answers elsewhere.”

  Seamus glared at him, their hand on their gut puncher, they eyed the thugs slowly disappearing into the dust. “And what if they take you somewhere and shoot you? Have you forgotten that the Refuti have a collection department and you’ve got a bounty?”

  Flynn had thought of that too.

  “Putty’s right, though. Phee could be in serious trouble. And based on what I know about the platform… well, those won’t be the worst odds I’ve faced.”

  “If we’re going to go, we should start walking.” Putty disappeared from sight.

  Flynn secured his gun and left it inside the hatch door.

  “Aren’t you going to need that?” Seamus asked, still staring at the closed hatch.

  “We know there’s no chance they’ll let me take that up with me, and I’d rather not lose it—even if it’s just to a property clerk on a shopping spree.”

  “What the heck is he thinking?” Seamus asked from beside him.

  “He’s willing to do anything to figure out what happened to Phee.” He started down the ramp after his brother and turned back to the kid, “Go home, let your mom know what’s going on. You know… in case we don’t make it back.”

  “You will.”

  Flynn wasn’t so sure, but he nodded anyway. “I’ll see you soon.”

  Putty had stopped at the roadside, and Flynn was only mildly surprised when Chad pulled up in the buggy and Putty took the passenger seat. He held on to the side, boots on the running board as Chad wove through town and parked in the small lot beside the launch pads.

  “You’re coming too?” Flynn asked.

  Chad shot him a flat look. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

  Glaring at the men on the other side of the launch pad, Putty dipped his head. “Me too.”

  Giuseppe’s thugs, as Flynn had begun to think of them, looked them over and one turned to the other. “He sends us down to invite one, we bring back three.”

  “I wonder if he’ll be pleased or disappointed.”

  The waiting shuttle was a small transport rig. As they buckled into the passenger compartment seats, separated from the pilot and their retrievers by a flimsy looking partition, Chadrick shot Putty a questioning glare.

  “I know what I’m doing. But you need to understand too, that if whatever happened to Phee has something to do with Refuti and his men, I will do what I need to to get her back and keep her safe.”

  A thump at the back of the ship distracted Flynn from whatever was said next, and when he turned back, Chad was rolling his eyes.

  “What about me? Don’t I get a talking to?”

  Flynn knocked his shoulder. “I just assumed you were following me, the love of your life, into danger in the hopes of finding our perfect moment.”

  “I’m here to make sure that your mother doesn’t kill me for not keeping you alive.” Chad shot him a glare. “Besides, you’re not my type.”

  “You don’t go in for the ruggedly handsome, star-blazing rebellious type?”

  “A, you weren’t that handsome to begin with and the scar….” He winced. “B, there’s something to be said for a man who appreciates stability, the rules, and a homestead where you can make something of yourself within a community.”

  “I plan to have a ‘homestead’ inside a ship, where my community can be spread throughout the stars and I don’t have to worry about who might want to sneak into my bunk at night.”

  “You know, you’d be more attractive if you weren’t so full of yourself.”

  “If I was more attractive, I’d just have another reason to fear for my life. But don’t worry, I know where your true feelings lie. I’m not going to push you around to make you like me more than you already do.”

  “Good, because all pushing is going to get done is make me push back, and you might think you’d win that fight, but just remember, I have access to all kinds of fuck-you-up drugs.”

  “I know, and you never share.” He pretended to pout.

  Thirty-Two – Kathrynn

  The day was well into afternoon when Kathrynn sat on one of the many pews inside the temple and watched a familiar sister glide down the aisle toward her.

  Sybilla had taken the rights in the same ceremony as Kathrynn and had never been afraid of her the way others were.

  Cautious was a better word to describe how Symilla approached those who might look past her effervescent laugh and shining eyes.

  She turned a sweet smile on Kathrynn as she walked down the long aisle. “Blessings of the Mother, it has been years since I last saw you.”

  She was one of the few Kathrynn knew would understand her teasing, “And lucky we both are that I’ve never had the need to supervise you.”

  That smile faltered, but only for a moment. “I think the Great Mother sent you to us for many reasons.”

  “Many?” Kathrynn had no problem guessing the reasons Sybilla supposed. “What brings you to ask for my help or guidance?”

  Sitting, Sibylla turned to face her. “Has anyone mentioned the theft we had?”

  “They have not.” It was something the temple mother should have told her immediately.

  Sometimes, her reputation created unnecessary fear.

  “A small group from the New Earth United terrafarm snuck into the cloisters and stole a three month’s supply of madmilk.”

  “Have the local authorities managed to recover it?”

  Sybila laughed, a sharp bark of a noise. “The authorities are gone. Your brother did put on a good show, but there’s nothing that can be done once they get inside their compound.”

  “If Flynn couldn’t figure it out….”

  “We both know your brother is working with new rules.” A rueful smile touched Sibylla’s lips. “Could he go into the sovereign state that is the NEU, sure… will he?”

  “Probably not.”

  “I will seek guidance from the Great Mother.” And if she saw herself at the NEU compound….

  Sybilla smiled again leaving in a hush and flutter of skirts, and Kathrynn knew exactly what her brother had seen in her.

  He had a habit of falling for beautiful people who would push him to the very edge of his comfort zone before he thought to push back.

  Kathrynn went to the temple’s main entrance, rather than taking the side door again. From the wide steps, she could see the sprawl, see the tops of the spires the fade of the sky and the sweeping spheres of the pre-dusk moons.

  And she could see bags of madmilk stacked inside a storage closet.

  “Damn.”

  A screeching hinge behind her, a jingle of keys, and Sybilla stopped beside her. “Has the Great Mother spoken her peace?”

  Kathrynn tried to keep her displeasure to herself, but knew her face betrayed her.

  “Which direction.”


  “There’s a bike around the side of the temple. I rented it just for you—you’ll love the color.” Smiling again, Sybilla dropped the ring into her hand. “If you drive straight southeast, you’ll run into it just after the sun sets.

  Gripping the keys more tightly than needed, Kathryn dipped a nod. “I’ll see you when I return.”

  And she’d get her answer as to why Sybilla was the one bringing her the task.

  The scarlet bike was parked between a people carrier painted with the triple sta symbol and a truck with the same, meant for hauling supplies rather than members of their order.

  The dark paint didn’t help the bike’s sharp angles, or the metallic guts still exposed.

  It was ugly, but it was fast.

  She was out of the city in under an hour, and speeding across the wastelands people like Sophia Refuti hoped to one day make a paradise. It would take more than her lifetime to do that.

  By the time she reached the NEU Compound, the planet’s sun had dipped low enough she was glad she hadn’t placed a bet on Sibylla’s.

  She ditched the bike in the crevice between an outcropping of wind smoothed boulders, and sat atop them to survey the problem she faced.

  Namely the enormous wall, the cleared out space surrounding the entire facility, and the guards who roamed the top of said wall. The lights and guns were problematic as well, but she could worry about those later.

  What little she knew about the NEU—and no one who lived outside the high stone walls knew much—made it unlikely she’d find a shift change or some other personnel weakness to exploit.

  The moons shifted overhead green faded to near-black, and the perimeter of the NEU wall never went unguarded.

  If she hadn’t been there to break in, she might have called them paranoid.

  It was a compound that never slept, artificial sunlight bombarding whatever crops lay inside their perimeter.

  And Kathrynn couldn’t afford to wait much longer….

  “A clue would be nice,” she said, looking up to the stars.

  No vision reached her… but a scent did.

  Clove and cedar.

  Thick and cloying, it floated to her on wisps of smoke.

  Abandoning her post, she crept around the various hills and berms created by half buried boulders, using them for cover against the sharp lights.

  She only stopped when she heard them. Murmurs, punctuated by the coughing of someone unused to the cigarette between their lips.

  The pair of men stood in front of a gate set into the rocks.

  Until she was right up on it, she couldn’t see the road that cut downward, like a slope mine nowhere near the UPD-5 belt.

  The sickly sweet smoke from their cigarettes wafted around them in a hazy cloud, curling around their lamps and legs. The undertones had been hidden from a distance between the heavier, woody tones.

  Sugar weed oil was illegal in the Colarium… but the NEU didn’t have to play by their rules.

  Even from here she could see their dilated pupils. She could hear the slur in their quiet speech.

  If their supervisors knew they were getting high on the job… she didn’t know what punishment was doled out in a place where no one was fired.

  Pulling a strip of Putty’s favorite incendiary tool from her pocket and tearing off a tiny piece, she rolled it into a pellet, wet it, and tossed it toward where the road began to slope downward.

  A heartbeat later, the loud pop made both guards flinch toward the sound, guns drawn. Shaking.

  Shoving at each other, they fought over who would go to check it out. In the end, the one who lost moved forward, boots dragging in the soft dirt.

  The other’s focus was solely on his partner… who should have raised his gun by now. But they’d stepped forward, and Kathrynn scooted around an ugly rock so she could slip behind the bright lights. It took less than a second to step out, slap more tape on the lock and dart back into her hiding place.

  Both guards were still focused on the emptiness in front of them. And the one closest to the door was far enough away…

  She spit on the lock and hopped back around yet another boulder.

  The explosion was small, but loud.

  The lock and handle both dropped to the ground.

  There was no chance they’d be high enough to ignore that.

  One had shrieked like a cat with its tail in a door, but now, they were both quiet. Both speaking in harried, hushed tones. They crept toward the gate--blown open and inward--guns finally steady.

  Kat waited for them to pass. Unlike before, they both went, still shoving and blaming.

  She waited until they’d crossed out of the bright beams in the entryway and were under the dimmer, yellow domes that hung from the interior ceiling.

  Then, she followed them in and swung the doors shut with as loud a bang as she could manage.

  Still spooked, they almost crawled up the walls.

  “There’s a goddess damned ghost in here!”

  Heretics on sugar weed… getting past them would be easier than she thought. Heressa, their goddess, was just another incarnation of the Great Mother. But her followers were more superstitious than any Kathrynn had met.

  Another tiny unstick tape pellet, rolled and wet between her fingers… she waited, one count, two…

  The tiny projectile exploded a moment before it would have bounced off the light. Instead the minuscule blast ripped through the cord that held it to the rough ceiling, and it dropped at their feet.

  Two high pitched screams, two pairs of boots pounding away, and Kathrynn finally stepped out of her shadowed corner.

  She saw them in the distance, disappearing briefly, only to reappear again under the next light. A slow strobe of progress.

  Those lights were high enough above she could believe they brought trucks through this entrance. What the NEU was up to was a question for another time.

  The walls were braced with heavy beams and sheets of cement board, already starting to crumble.

  Whatever they used this entrance for, they didn’t care enough to have completed, or fully secured it.

  By the time she made it to the interior of the complex, the guards had disappeared. Whether to a shrine to pray, their superiors to report, or to their quarters to hide until their high wore off, she didn’t care.

  The NEU complex was startlingly bright for the near midnight hours, but she had the corridors to herself, and she’d be able to hear anyone who might try to join her.

  But no one did.

  She wound through approximately three miles of the maze like halls, and as far as she could tell… the place was deserted.

  It served her purpose, so she didn’t question it.

  When she found the door that the Great Mother had shown her in her vision, she pressed an ear close, and waited for any sign someone was inside.

  Silence.

  When she stepped inside, giving her eyes the moment required to adjust to the darkness, she went immediately to the shelves along the northern wall and the stolen madmilk tucked therein.

  The bags were full. If she had to guess none of the madmilk had been removed.

  But if they hadn’t stolen it to use it….

  Eyes fully adjusted, she saw the sliver of pale blue light seeping under a secondary door. A door that opened with the barest press of her gloved fingertips.

  The room beyond, bathed in that blue light was the last thing she’d expected to find.

  The members of the NEU didn’t simply smoke the sugar weed oil… they grew and distilled it.

  In quantity.

  The lab around her was big enough it could produce gallons of the substance… with a street value around five thousand colar notes an ounce, the NEU would be rolling in cash if they got it off the planet.

  Blowing out a long breath, she unclenched her fist. “Not my problem.”

  The reminder didn’t make turning away any easier.

  Movement against the wall beside the door stopped her before
she could take a step.

  A woman, sitting as though draped over a chair that wasn’t there, waved one hand. Her back to the wall, head, shoulder and arm listing to the side, she reminded Kathrynn of a broken puppet.

  She watched Kathrynn with glassy eyes, and a lazy smile. “Are you here to kill me for my sins, sister?”

  There was no reason she should have guessed… “What sins are those?”

  “We took your madmilk…. Mad. Milk.” She said the d and k with a sharp, percussive force. “And those who betray the Great Mother must die.”

  “Everyone must die… but you aren’t going to tonight. Not by my hand anyway.”

  “Yours, theirs, Hers.” She shrugged and fell to the floor as though that nonexistent chair had buckled. “What does it matter?”

  “I guess it doesn’t.”

  “We were supposed to grab someone. Someone was supposed to be there that wasn’t. They argued.” She wove in her seat. “I was pretty high at the time. Whatever that doctor tried to give me wasn’t working the way he wanted it to. They said I was going to be able to walk out on my own, but I could barely string a coherent sentence together.”

  Kathrynn wasn’t sure she could claim to do so now.

  She reached out and grabbed Kathrynn’s wrist. “He was supposed to look a lot like you… less blue though… and less red too.”

  The inside of the woman’s elbow was a web of dark veins.

  Kathrynn had seen similar reactions before… “You’re a folder.”

  Head wobbling a no, she smiled. “I was. Manipulating bent space is a much better high.”

  Having never taken madmilk recreationally and experiencing the fold like some hellish nightmare, Kathrynn couldn’t agree with her.

  “My name’s Kathrynn, what’s yours?”

  “Hele.”

  “Do you like it here?”

  She snorted. “No. I mean, it was fine at first, but they got weird. And something just feels wrong about being here, like I’m meant to be somewhere—someone—else.”

  “Maybe the Great Mother sent me here for you… not to recover the madmilk.”

  She blinked, too wide and then looked at the bags. “What would she want with me?”

  “I don’t know yet, but I can get you out.”

  Shaking her head, she tapped her shoulder. “They’ll find me again. There’s some sort of tracker in the ink.”