“That’s right,” Jack said. “It’s truly disgusting but the manufacturer sold millions of them.”
“This collection is varied,” Betty said. “It is a good representation of the whole ‘As Seen on TV’ marketing phenomenon. You have the more common kitchen gadgets as well as the workshop items.” She picked up a cardboard package that was still intact. “Apparently this material was an epoxy. You mix the green and white material together to fix broken pipes and the like.”
Jack took it from her. Cole gave her points for not flinching when his worn gloves touched her hand. “I’ve seen this before,” the mobster said. “But never in the original packaging.”
He turned his dirty pressure suit toward Sean. “Are you selling individual lots or the collection as a whole?”
Sean straightened himself up. “I could make more selling individually but that’s a lot of time and effort. Mostly Betty’s time and effort,” he said. “I’m inclined to move it all as a complete collection.”
Cole kept moving his gaze from Atomic Jack to the bodyguards and back again. If they recognized him, if things went bad because that new guy on the crew, Richie, hadn’t paid up yet, it was going to be a bloodbath in here. He breathed through his nose, willing himself to keep calm. If one of the bodyguards drew a gun, Cole was going to have to put all three of them down. The guy with two good arms would go first, followed by the gimp and then Atomic Jack. He was keeping it together but he could feel a bead of sweat rolling down the right side of his face, passing under the frame of his glasses.
Sean and Jack were haggling now, moving the price for this junk up and down, holding out for more, settling for less. He caught Betty staring at him. She looked a little bored with the deal making.
“Ten thousand is my low point,” Sean said. “Anything below that price and it becomes more profitable for me to part it out on the G-net.” The Galaxy Net was a computer network spanning known human civilization. If people were around, they were connected to the G-net.
“I can’t pay more than nine thousand,” Jack said.
Sean smiled. “I’m sorry we couldn’t make a deal, Jack. I always enjoy doing business with you.”
“You misunderstand me, Sean. I’m taking it at nine thousand and you’ll be happy to get it.”
Cole tensed up, straightening his posture a little and watched the bodyguards intently from behind his shades. He really hoped he wasn’t going to get into a gun fight over four century old kitchen gadgets.
Sean looked Jack in the eye. Betty looked at Sean with a raised eyebrow. Sean stared down at the merchandise, circled the table and then came over to Jack. “Ten thousand. That’s my final offer.” Sean just put it out there, like he hadn’t heard Jack’s threat. Like the negotiation hadn’t taken an ugly turn.
The mob enforcer in the pressure suit looked the collection over once more. He picked up a box containing three long stemmed glass globes, used for watering plants. The box was worn and split but it was there and the items inside weren’t broken. He set it down, acting like he hadn’t just threatened the pawn shop owner.
He offered a gloved hand to Sean. “Deal.”
Sean took it without dropping his gaze from those horribly bright orange eyes. “Deal”.
Betty and the bodyguards packed up the merchandise while Sean and Jack went into the office to complete the transaction. When they were done they carried the stuff out to their vehicle. The one with the broken wrist came back in. He and Cole were the only ones in the conference room.
“I know you from somewhere, right?” The guy with the busted wrist said.
Cole took his sunglasses off. “Not today you don’t. Not here.”
The guy backed up. “You’re from the alley,” he said and raised his wrist. “You did this to me.”
“Be cool. Whatever you have in mind right now? It isn’t happening here.”
“Yeah?”
“That’s right,” Cole said. “What’s your name?”
“Kinty.”
“Look, Kinty, you start anything and your boss doesn’t get his toys.”
“They’re out there and we’re in here.”
Cole stared silently, letting Kinty decide how things were going to go.
“Of course,” Kinty said, “the boss like his little treasures. He’d probably be upset if he and Sean couldn’t do business anymore”
“Probably,” Cole said.
Kinty raised his broken wrist. “I still owe you for this.”
“It’s just business, pal. Don’t take everything so personally.”
Kinty looked out the window and Jack’s other guy waved at him. “It looks like the boss is getting ready to leave. I’ll see you around.”
“Sure.”
Atomic Jack and his crew left. Cole sat down in a conference room chair and chuckled. Betty came in.
“What’s with you?” She said.
Cole laid it out for her. He told her about the new guy on the crew and the money he owed Atomic Jack. He told her about the run in they’d had in the alley. Her face went white.
“You idiot!” She said. “We could have had a shoot out in here.”
“I asked you who the customer was,” Cole said. “You told me it was a guy who wanted privacy. You didn’t say it was a radioactive gangster in a pressure suit!”
“Okay, okay, let’s just thank our lucky stars nothing happened. I’ll have to make sure you two don’t cross paths. I can’t have bullets flying in here.”
He smiled. “So, dinner tonight?”
She just looked at him.
12.
Duncan walked into Nathan’s apartment after knocking for the third time. Someone was clearly home. A heavy bass beat was coming through the door and he could hear voices inside. It was noon on Tuesday so it was the wrong time for a party. Anyway, Nathan had told him about Kathy leaving so he figured the captain was watching a movie.
He was so wrong.
Duncan stepped into a full blown simulated environment. The experience was so disorienting it took him a minute to digest the fact that Nathan was thrashing around wildly in a hotel bed with his ex-wife, Celeste Bezzle. The engineer in Duncan was impressed with the programming that had gone into the realism of the environment. He tried to back out of the apartment without being seen but Nathan looked up at him, startled and wide eyed.
“Get out!” Nathan said.
“I’m trying!” Duncan moved his bulk back through the door, slammed it shut and leaned against the door frame.
He stood there for several minutes. The music stopped and he could hear movement in the apartment. The door finally opened.
“Get in here,” Nathan said.
Duncan helped himself to a beer from the kitchen and sat down on the couch in the living room. He tried not to laugh but he couldn’t help himself.
“Stop it,” Nathan said. “It isn’t funny.”
“Oh, yes it is.”
Nathan ran a hand through his hair. “I could have sworn I locked that door. You scared the hell out of me.”
“Yeah, well, I know I’ll never be the same,” Duncan said. “Look, my hands are still shaking.” He laughed and spilled a little beer from his outstretched hand.
“You’re an asshole.”
“I knew you were still carrying a torch for her,” Duncan said. “But doing the whole virtual environment thing is a little crazy.”
"Tell me about it."
Duncan looked around the apartment. "Where's Kathy?"
Nathan's eyebrows went up. "She's gone."
"Where?"
"When we got back from the Martha Tooey job, I found a note and her stuff gone."
Duncan got up and walked to the window, looked down on the street. "You know Nathan, you said she wasn't hip to this sort of life. You know, here today, gone tomorrow. She probably just wanted some stability."
Nathan smiled. "Duncan, you know what I like about you? You are an optimist. I think being with Marla has really helped you in that regard.
You always look for the best in things, and people."
"I don't understand."
Nathan gave him a small laugh, not the funny kind. "I screwed up."
Duncan came away from the window. "What did you do?"
Nathan collapsed back on the couch. "While we were out on the Tooey job, a courier delivered a beta version of the environment you just saw. Kathy popped it in the system and saw what I'd been paying for."
"Whoa."
"Whoa, indeed."
"Have you spoken with her?"
"What do you think?" Nathan said. "I'm in no hurry to chase down an ex-girlfriend so I can explain why I'm making fantasy environments starring my ex-wife."
Duncan considered that for a moment. "I see your point but you guys were together for a while. Are you really going to leave things that way? Don't you feel the need to clean up the ending a little?"
"I'm a pilot, not a playwright," Nathan said. "She's the one who took off. If she wanted to talk, she could have hung around."
Duncan put his hands up. "Whatever you say."
"Don't be like that," Nathan said.
"I'm not being like anything."
They sat in silence. Duncan started thinking about the environment again but from a technical standpoint. It really was sophisticated, almost professional grade. How much would something like that cost?
"That environment looked good. Very good. Where can I get a copy? Without the Celeste character, of course. Marla really enjoys them.”
“You can’t buy it.”
“Why not? What do you care what we do?”
“It’s not for sale.”
Duncan looked puzzled. “Why not?”
“It’s a custom job.”
“What?”
“I had it made.”
Duncan let out a low whistle. “You had a custom environment created? Those cost, well, they cost quite a bit.”
“I know. Believe me.”
Duncan got up and crossed the room, shaking his head.
“What?”
“Nathan, how much did you spend on that environment?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
The engineer turned, trying to keep an accusing tone from his voice and only half succeeding. “Is this why Lucy’s been fronting you money?”
“What do you know about that?” Nathan asked.
“Nathan, I invest with her. I saw you there the other day.”
“I didn’t know that,” Nathan said. “Why didn’t I know that?”
“Because what Marla and I do with our money is our business and not yours?”
Nathan sat down and leaned back in a chair. “No, you’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Duncan sat back down on the couch. “It’s okay. I felt pretty strange after seeing you walk out of there the other day.”
“I bet.”
“I have to ask. Is the reason we aren’t working because you don’t have the cash to put the Blue Moon Bandit in the air? Is this some sort of screwed up situation where we don’t have fuel money?”
Nathan put his hands up. “Not at all. I really haven’t been able to line anything up. There are no vessels to repo right now. Everyone seems to have developed the bad habit of paying their bills.”
“You haven’t been too busy to look have you?”
Nathan just looked at him with exasperation.
“It’s just that it’s been a while.”
“I know. Oh, wait a minute. I got a message earlier that I never listened to.”
“When?” Duncan said.
“About an hour ago. I was a little busy.”
“We need to stop discussing this now,” Duncan said. “I don’t want to here any more.”
Nathan grabbed his phone off the table and punched in his code. Duncan saw his eyes light up and then a smile spread across his face.
“What is it?” Duncan said. “Is it a job?”
Nathan set the phone down on the table. “What are you doing for dinner tonight?”
Nathan and Duncan arrived at Saji Vy’s building just before eight o’clock that evening. It was the tallest structure in Go City that didn’t launch a space craft, stretching three quarters of a kilometer into the desert sky. It was a glass and black chrome structure corkscrewing through three complete twists before reaching full height. The glass contained the newest solar cells that drank in sunlight and stored it for later use. The building had won awards, Nathan knew, for being not only energy self-sufficient but for producing enough electricity to power the other buildings on the city block it occupied.
They took an elevator and were whisked to the two hundred ninth floor smoothly but at very high speed. Nathan could tell Duncan’s motion sickness had kicked in when the elevator came to a stop. The doors slid open on a tastefully decorated hallway and two large guards.
They wore business suits of the current fashion but Nathan could tell from the bulge under their coats they were armed. The guard on the right, the one with close cropped brown hair, approached them. The other guard, a lanky black man, covered his partner and eyed Duncan. “Captain Teller, Mr. Jax?”
“That’s us,” Nathan said.
“Welcome to Vy Tower, sirs. Mr. Vy is this way.”
Nathan and Duncan followed the guard down the hall while his partner resumed his position by the elevator. Duncan observed three security scanners discreetly hidden in the corridor. They came to a heavy door at the end of the hall. The guard let them into the room and Nathan was taken back by its sheer opulence.
He knew Saji Vy was rich. The man owned shipping companies, a fleet of luxury liners that traveled between solar systems and had real estate holdings on who knew how many planets. This room though, was far outside Nathan’s scope of imagination.
The living room was to their right. Nathan noted high ceilings and marvelous woodwork. You didn’t see molding like that very often, especially in a modern building like this. Three sofas with thick cushions formed a sitting area around a modern coffee table. Paintings hung on the wall. Nathan wasn’t an art critic but he assumed they were expensive. A man approached from a door to their left.
“This way, gentlemen,” he said. “My name is Benton. Mr. Vy will be along shortly. Can I get you a drink?”
They followed the butler. Nathan assumed he was a butler, anyway. He had no experience with such things but it seemed to be a safe bet. Duncan had a gin and tonic while Nathan took bourbon on the rocks. They sat down on one of the sofas.
After a moment an older gentleman entered the room from a short hallway. Both Duncan and Nathan rose. He was shorter than Nathan expected, only five seven or so. His hair was long and gray and his skin was deeply tanned. He walked with a cane but after observing a few steps Nathan felt it was more of an affectation than a necessity. He smiled warmly and sat at the sofa opposite Duncan and Nathan. Benton handed him a drink and retreated to a corner of the room. All three of them sat.
“Thank you for coming, gentlemen. I’m Saji Vy.” He leaned back on the sofa and took a sip of his drink.
“Thank you for inviting us, Mr. Vy.,” Nathan said. He gestured to Duncan. “I’m Nathan Teller and this is Duncan Jax, an associate at Milky Way Repossessions.”
“A pleasure to meet you both,” Saji said. “Please, call me Saji.”
“Sir, if you don’t mind my asking why did you invite us here this evening?”
“Right to the point, eh? Well, first I wanted to thank you for returning the Martha Tooey,” he said. “That vessel represents a considerable investment and I’m pleased I don’t have to replace it.”
“We were happy to do it,” Duncan said. “Vessels of that size are very profitable for us.”
“Indeed,” Saji said. “I understand your agency is one of the best at recovering lost vessels of all types. Your reputation seems to be well deserved. In fact, why don’t you tell me how you managed to recover the Martha Tooey?”
“Oh, I hardly think that would interest you,” Nathan s
aid. “It was a fairly routine operation for us. I wouldn’t want to bore you.”
“Please, Captain Teller, indulge an old man. My days are filled with meetings that are boring beyond description. I believe I would like to hear a tale with a little action.”
Nathan looked at Duncan. The engineer nodded and waved him on.
“Okay. If you really want to know.”
Nathan began relating the tale and finished as they sat down at a large table to begin dinner. The table could easily accommodate ten so they all sat at one end. Maids and butlers moved silently among them serving the meal.
“And right now, your cargo ship is in orbit being repaired,” Nathan said. “I understand she will be ready to resume service in a few days.”
“Magnificent, Captain Teller. Simply magnificent. Nothing that interesting ever happens at the office,” Saji said. “Tell me, do you own your vessel?”
“The Blue Moon Bandit? Yes, sir I do.”
“And it can go directly from ground to orbit in a single stage, correct? No boosters needed, no launch ramps?”
“Correct. The Bandit is a converted hazardous material hauler. It needed the ability to get into space under its own power. It’s expensive but it suits our needs. We never know where we’ll end up when we track down a vessel for repossession.”
“Excellent. That capability will be a requirement of the job.”
Nathan and Duncan looked at one another. Nathan turned to Saji Vy. “Sir, what is the job? Why did you call us here? We usually deal with brokers. In fact, I’ve worked for your company before and always through brokers.”
A waiter entered the room and placed salads in front of the men. Saji Vy poured dressing on his while waiting for the servant to exit the room. When they were alone again he spoke around a mouthful of spinach.
“This matter requires a certain amount of discretion.”
“Not a problem,” Nathan said.
“Are you familiar with a vessel named Charon?”
Nathan shook his head. Duncan did as well.
“It’s a vessel that transports deceased colonists from their homes on distant planets and moons back to Earth,” Saji said.
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