Broken Wings (John Hardesty Z04 Book 3)

by Clay Moore

  "Is this mission now more exciting?"

  "A bit. I can just see Admiral Jewel's face when she finds out that I said that this mission got just a bit more exciting."

  "Sir, I may have to pretty much destroy people all around me. Will that be a problem."

  "You don't know anything about Snake Eyes. So one of the first things you have to do is you must go to our station chief for Snake Eyes. I think he would say that unless you killed some very high-level people in gangs or corporations, you need not worry about the law."

  "Thank you very much, sir. I'm going to go back to my apartment. I think there might be a wonderful naked woman still there."

  "You just set the shark amongst the fish."

  "No, armorer. It may seem that I have set ashore amongst the fish. I instead like to think that it's a cat amongst the birds. Cats always look calm before the attack. Then the claws come out, and usually, it's a meal for the cat

  John broke out of hyper right on the dot estimated by Rosie. He could see the world stretching out below him. This was another shadowy world. The combination of a dim sun and cloud cover made Snake Eyes a world of shadows.

  As a look at the world below he could see the three, now four significant casinos. The world was full of casinos most of them were run by small families. They rarely did more than a million credits in business. The four large casinos actually are visible from space. Depending on the predominant color of the casino owner’s group each casino had its proper color. The most easterly casino was red. The two central casinos were yellow and blue respectively. The fourth casino was green and was not in line with the other three casinos. It was actually slightly north of the border, it’s on its own did not wish to participate in any laws.

  Laws were something else. In his briefing, John discovered that there were no laws on the planet. The only time the government ever got involved in anything was if something was beyond the pale. If you assassinated a member of an owners group, then the government might take notice. It usually did not. All the government really did was defend the planet from takeover by a competitive world.

  So far, the ride down to the Starport was hot, straight, regular. It soon became hard to look down on anything. The ship was a few thousand meters above the ground level. Snake eyes were one of those planets that immediately became a giga-world. There was very little actual free space in the world. What area you had was whatever you could either buy, rent, or steal. By comparison to Alphacent, Snake Eyes was an experiment in natural selection.

  John felt the four struts on the bottom of his ship extend as the vessel approached the Starport. There was a slight feeling of disorientation as Rosie shut down the null grav. Then she set down the Eagle on those for struts. As soon as she had positive pressure on all four struts, she shut down the engines. The Starport flooded the bay with freezing nitrogen gas. This allowed the rapid cooling of the Radamite jets. This made it a lot easier to work on starships very close to when they are landed.

  From his control room, he dialed the communicator number of the person that had the consignment that he had in his cargo hold. They were pleased to see him as almost all consignees were. Yes, they even would come to pick it up right now.

  Something about that made him a little leery. Most every consignee in other worlds would try to get a delivery for free. The ticket was written for Starport to Starport delivery. A pilot was within his rights to take all of the goods pile them on the deck, sign the delivery receipt, and deposit said receipt.

  John was in the control room waiting for his meeting with the consignee. John knew that this was not a real delivery. The goods were on John's ship in a COD state. This was the kind of thing that gangs love to do. They like to get expensive things for free. That meant that they could sell them for quite a bit. Rosie indicated that she saw three men enter their landing zone. John strapped on his gun belt. Almost all of the guns in his weapons cabinet where the new smaller 11.5 mm blaster. Not only was it smaller it was also lighter. The blaster used a late cut-down version of the 11.5 mm blaster round. The main thing was that it was still 11.5 mm. You get hit by that blast, and you are not getting up ever. The other thing was that it was more concealable.

  John walked out of the control room. He turned to the right and entered the crew's lounge. John walked through the bar and came the crew's quarters. He stepped through the hatch into the cargo bay. In the cargo bay was five high-end grav-cars. They were in a compressed state and crated. It would take a dealership a few days, but they would be just as if they had been on Eridani. The whole stack came to just a little bit above John's height of 1.9 m.

  John positioned himself against the cars at the point that the cargo hold floor drops down to form the cargo ramp. He leaned against the stack of grav-cars while he waited for the three men who entered his landing zone.

  John did not know what these people were told about him. He was able to recoup some of his reputation when he really was a cargo pilot. They were taking it slowly hoping to let nervousness take its toll. John was an old hand at being nervous just before a fight. It was not he who was going to be nervous.

  The three men were now visible at the end of the cargo ramp. Slowly John stood utterly tall with hands beside his legs. He did the one thing that blaster fighter was told never to do. He stood straight and perpendicular to the enemy.

  "You people will stop right there. I don't know who you are, but you do not look like the people who usually buy these kinds of property." John always felt the need to take the first speech. If he could get some of these men to understand, that they would not be getting out of this with an arrest. This was life-and-death.

  "Look, Mr. Pilot. These are our cars. We bought them, and we mean to have them."

  "My bill of lading says that this is a collect on delivery. The amount is 150,000 credits due on delivery. You obviously don't have that money with you right now. So, you cannot sign for a COD bill of lading."

  "I don't think you understand. You're spouting some kinda law at us when this is not a legal issue. We are taking these cars. It's that simple, you nitwit."

  The man I was doing the talking stepped onto the cargo ramp. He stopped when a rather large blaster pistol showed up in John's hand pointing at him. The movement was so smooth that no one saw when John made his move.

  "I don't think anyone wants to die right now. At least for cars that they are not going to get. Why don't you get your foot off of my ramp, and take yourself out of my landing zone."

  "I don't think you understand. I cannot leave without those cars. Either way, it's my life."

  The man standing on his cargo ramp reached to his hip and pulled out a blaster. It was not the same model as John's, but a blaster is a blaster. John knew that he could not allow that man to get that gun anywhere near a shooting position. That's one of the benefits of having a license to kill. With practiced grace, he pointed his gun at the chest of the man standing on his ramp. John squeezed the trigger and fired off a blaster bolt. It hit the man straight in the chest burning a 2-centimeter hole.

  John went to one knee and shot the man on the left. The man on the right try to flee, but John was accurate and faster. It felt great to have the kind of weapon he wanted in his hands. John no longer had to use those needle sized blasters. He walked down to the body that was lying on his cargo hold ramp. John kicked that body onto the tarmac. He hoped that they would dispose of the body. Because the next time he left On Snake Eyes he would cook these entities in the exhaust of his Radamite jets.

  The cargo hold ramp was now free of blockages. John walked over to the control panel on the port side. He touched the button that would bring up the cargo ramp. When the slope engaged the hull, John moved the lock button. This lock button made it impossible for anyone to open up the cargo ramp. Not even Rosie could open the cargo ramp when he put this lock on. Typically Rosie usually shut the cargo ramp herself and locked it who. This, however, was a software lock and not a hardware lock. You would have to cut through th
e starship hull to be able to enter the ship. Every ship has a certain amount of armor. This allowed the ship to shrug off some blaster shots, but it was not designed to repel war shots from a naval vessel.

  John leisurely walked through his ship now that it was secure. He walked through the crew's lounge and then walked through the transverse corridor that ended at the Autodoc compartment which then led to the captain's cabin.

  He wondered how much Vivana had haunted the captain's cabin. This was as far her cabin as it was his. She knew just how to arouse him. Mostly it was a matter of showing him something in the wrong context. She did not like to walk around naked in the ship as John did. Neither did she want to cover it all up. She did her shopping in the more spicier shops catering to couples. That usually meant things like a neck to foot cover that was the sheerest silk. You could see through it, but not clearly. It was things like these that made the memories he had of her so enjoyable.

  John unbuckled his waist gun belt. He tossed it on the bed. John removed an unremarkable collared knit shirt. He unzipped his work pants and took off those. John took off the socks and the workboots. From a locker, he took out a complete bespoke gray suit. This one was a gray jacket with a gray pair of slacks. He took out a leather pair of shoes polished to a mirror finish. He took out a leather coated box that contained his accessories. He put on a fresh pair of underwear including a T-shirt. Then he put on the white T-shirt that he wore with the suit. He put on the slacks. Next, he put on the socks and shoes. The jacket came last after he tied a blue silk necktie. An electric blue pocket square completed his ensemble. He took out his suitcase and put in seven suits, five gray and two black. Into a regular bag he put in his shaving kit. Then from his control room, he called for a taxi.

  The taxi arrived on time. John carried his two pieces of luggage. That made him look like he had just gotten off of a regular flight. The cargo hold ramp closed behind him and locked itself. He walked out of the landing zone and approached the cab. They had to put the more significant piece by itself in the cab's trunk. The usual suitcase was placed on the back seat beside him.

  Station S was asked for a recommendation for a hotel for John. They suggested the Riviera who eared its 5-star status instead of buying it. The Cabbie’s demeanor changed when he found out that he was carrying a fare to the Riviera.

  The cabbie tried to engage John in some conversation, but John was having none of that. He was contemplating the possible scenarios. There was one common denominator in all of these situations. John was going to get bathed in blood.

  The cabbie pulled into the covered portico. The doorman opened the cab after John settled the fare and the tip. The tip was the correct amount for a gentleman to give. It also bought the cabbie without actually acquiring him. The bellhop arrived and put the two pieces of luggage on his luggage cart. John tipped the doorman. Then he entered the main lobby of the hotel.

  He noticed the two bruisers standing on either side of the main lobby. They were bouncers in the strictest sense of the word. They kept out all the undesirables. That was all for which they were needed. They relaxed slightly when John approached the check-in desk. They rested even further when he received his chip key.

  John smiled at the bouncers as he walked to the elevator. He rode up five floors. When the doors opened to the fifth floor, the bellhop pushed forward and turned left.

  John followed him till they came to the door. When John arrived at the door, the door opened automatically. The bellhop opened the door wider to admit John who walked into an elegant room. The furnishings were high end and were made of real wood. The bellhop pushed the luggage cart into the bedroom. He opened the small luggage on the luggage caddy at the foot of the king-sized bed. Then he drove the larger luggage near the corner of the room. He opened it and was correct in guessing that it was an old-fashioned steamer trunk. He had seen a few of these in the past 18 months of working for the Riviera. The bellhop noted that the suits in the steamer trunk all looked the same. The same design with the same material but different colors. The gray suits were all very pricey. There was money here.

  The bellhop moved out of the bedroom and into the living room. "I opened your steamer trunk and left everything inside it. I didn't want to mess up the ironing that someone did.”

  "Thank you." John put a five credit note into the bellhop's hand. According to the gentleman's guide, the correct tip was one credit per piece of luggage. John just started carrying the more significant piece of luggage, so he started tipping a little bit more for the bellhop's bringing it for him.

  “Thank you, sir. Have fun at the Riviera. Please let the front desk know if there's anything that we can do for you."

  John had never been on Snake Eyes before. He really didn't know their culture, if they even had one. From what he had seen so far on his Trip from the Starport to the hotel it pretty much was anything goes. Maybe murder was enough to get the police involved. He rather doubted it though. While in this reverie he suddenly heard a human voice in his bedroom. This might be a Snake Eyes welcoming gift, or it could be a killer. John did not know how much power Anton had amassed since being thrown out of Faraway. Good, he afforded an agent to watch the Starport knowing that John was a pilot. John was going to find out.

  He pulled his pistol out of his shoulder holster. He jumped through the door of the bedroom, rolled, and brought his pistol level with a naked woman. She still laid on his bed with an aplomb worthy of the best whore on Alphacent.

  “Welcome to Snake Eyes, Mr. Hardesty."

  With combat no longer required, John was able to see the woman that he had in his room. John reset his pistol in the shoulder holster. He stood up and sat on the edge of the bed. On her side of the bed, she had a small bag that had a dress draped out of it.

  "Who do you belong to?"

  “Myself. On occasion when an important guest arrives they have me there as a welcoming gift." She sat back to allow him to have an open view of her body. "Am I not to your liking?"

  "Is this a common occurrence for Snake Eyes hotels to do?"

  “Yes, as I said I am here only for the night. Unless…"

  "We'll have to see about that."

  John took off his suit coat. He took off the shoulder holster and hung it from the pole on the left side of the bed. The woman leaned back and watched as John took off his suit piece by piece. It was not often that a client would entertain the hostess. The last things to go were the slacks and his drawers. He stood there for a moment allowing her to see what he had.

  “Well, Mr. Hardesty. There's more to you than meets the eye."

  John took the impromptu witticism as an attempt at a joke. He chuckled and got to work.

  An hour and 1/2 later John sent the hostess away. He did not need a distraction living with him. He suspected that this world was going to be the toughest he had ever dealt with before. Eridani had nothing to do with Snake Eyes. Snake eyes were chaotic, and the government really did not do anything for the world. Eridani kept away until it was discovered that Anton Hecton might be making a base of this place.

  John wondered what the woman who left here was thinking about him. Did most of the business guests keep her on? Did they let her go? He would never know. He doubted that same wound would come back even to John's attributes.

  He felt like he was going to probably second-guess himself on this world. There was only one place to get up to speed quickly, and that had to be the station-house. John put on a suit and went into the living room where there was a desk. He took out his slate and laid it on the desktop. Before he left the Secret Service headquarters, he made sure that John downloaded and installed all of the maps of Snake Eyes that he could. Snake eyes were just as modern as any other world. In fact, in a display of civic pride, the big casinos paid for geolocation satellites. Anyone with a satellite receiver could pick up these signals. This gave you your position to within a few millimeters. He turned on his satellite receiver that came with the slate. Within a few minutes, he knew his lo
cation.

  He had his slight memorize this location. Now he would be able to get back to the hotel no matter what happened. He entered the address of station S. Within a few minutes he had a location on the map. It looked like it was about 5 miles away. He could take a taxi, but there was no telling who owned the cab. The cab may be held by the guy driving the vehicle, or it may be owned by a gang group. He pretty much did not want anybody to know his movements. When he found Anton, he wanted to be able to swim right up to him and put an 11.5 mm blast through his head. He couldn't do that if Anton knew that he was around. This is the one time that flushing the animal was not going to get him the bag.