Learning the Hard Way 3

by H. P. Caledon

  “Let’s plan, brainstorming session,” Mike said and put the pad down.

  “Verion Four, I’ll hide you,” Danny said.

  “And this ship?”

  “I have a contact working the freight docks. We can get it registered for repairs as a Sharp four four two in a closed dock. And if you need to get rid of it, he’ll buy it. Maybe trade with something else.”

  Mike sighed and sat back. “Yeah, and we’ll come out short.”

  “No, no, because you’re doing business through me—he won’t shorthand me.”

  “And you know this how?”

  “It’s my dad.”

  “Oh.” That could work.

  “And Alice?” Keelan asked.

  “It’s not safe to go see her—not when they’ve figured out the connection with Misery.”

  “According to my rap, I raped her. They don’t think we’re together, right?”

  Mike looked up, surprised at the tone. Was that fear in Keelan’s eyes?

  “Let’s just hack them and find out what they know,” Danny said.

  “They’re on ships, we don’t have those codes,” Mike said.

  Danny smiled knowingly. “Yes, we do.”

  Mike gaped. “How?”

  “The information you just read from. You said they were internal communications between lawmen ships, right? So there’s a sender. No matter how well they try to hide it, they might as well not bother. The layers of file information they work in are so superficial that any attempt is futile. We track them in the first digital pathway and all the way back to the computer it was written on. But this isn’t my specialty, so I need my group. Someone there can do this.”

  “Try it, and I’ll plot a route to Verion Four,” Mike said and got up.

  “Mike, we need to let the pack know we’re not waiting for them to drop off provisions.”

  “I’ll do that,” Danny said.

  “Okay,” Mike said and turned to leave, but Danny shuffled around, rummaging through his pockets.

  “Think it’s for you, Mike.” Danny pulled out Mike’s moVID.

  Mike stared at it.

  “Yeah, it’s called a moVID, and you talk in it so people on the other end—”

  “I know what it is, but who wants to talk to me on a moVID with no call address?”

  “Uhm... it’s a military address.”

  Mike took it and answered. Lewis showed up on the screen.

  “Are you alone?”

  “No, but you can talk.”

  “Okay. The tracking team is on Kanakoon. According to Ratkins, that’s where they lost track of Andy and your ship. Keelan mucked up—”

  “Yeah, I’ve already massaged his balls for it.”

  “I took the liberty to put some security on your sister. They didn’t get that far, though. Ratkins has a message for you. There’s a team on Verion Four, too. They’re digging into the Churchburrow files. The whole confusion about the Kaleb or Keelan identities might have put Alice in danger. We’re in Semakus right now and can’t make it there just now. My friend is trying to keep the trackers occupied on Kanakoon. The team I collected is almost ready to move out.”

  Mike glanced at Keelan, who ground his teeth.

  “I need to talk to Alice. Can you make that happen?” Keelan asked Danny.

  “Yeah, I secured the moVID. Right now, Mike’s on Sicilon if you check the files. And is named Lajla Norway.”

  “And keep that Chiromancer out of my files!” Lewis said.

  “I haven’t been anywhere near your files!” Danny groused, looking up indignantly.

  “Make sure you don’t.”

  Danny pulled a face while forming an o with his index and thumb, licked two fingers on the other hand, and rammed them through the circle, hard.

  “He says he’ll make sure not to,” Mike said, glad Lewis couldn’t see the up your ass, pal gesture.

  “Aha.” Lewis did not sound convinced, though. The call ended, and Mike handed the moVID to Danny and left the kitchen.

  * * * *

  Keelan’s leg jack-hammered while he waited for Danny to put the call through to Alice. He didn’t care what time it was on Verion Four—he needed to warn her now.

  “There’s no way she can be exposed from me calling her now, right?”

  “No, no, here.” Danny handed him the moVID, and Alice came onto the screen shortly after. She looked nervous.

  “Alice?”

  “Someone came here yesterday and asked a bunch of stupid questions, and when I didn’t give them the answers they went and busted up my stuff!”

  “Shit,” Keelan growled.

  “Jerry tried to throw them out, and they arrested him.”

  “They can’t do that, they can take him into custody, but even on Verion Four, you need to be put in front of a judge before you go to the local jail. And as for them smashing your stuff. Go to the law house and glare at them. No one can stand your ball breaking charm. Do you have surveillance?”

  “Yeah, but... what if they find out... ” She looked scared.

  “Ask her if she remembers any of their names. I’ll melt their drives,” Danny said. Alice apparently heard him because she mentioned one name—she couldn’t remember the others.

  “We put something in the works—”

  “You stay away! You take care of our daughter, and I’ll deal with these spineless devils!” Alice suddenly looked away. “Oh no, Jerry’s back.” The screen jumped around as she ran with her moVID giving them odd angles of the backrooms of the bar. Then a prone, lifeless form lying on the floor. “Jerry, who did this? Jerry, do you need me to call a doctor? Billy!”

  The screen went black. Keelan looked at Danny, whose expression revealed a lot more of the emotions Keelan tried to hide from showing.

  “Can you melt their drives from here?”

  “No one pisses on a Chiromancer or their friends,” Danny sneered and ran to the common room. Keelan followed.

  Danny worked quickly on the computer, rearranged things, collected drives, and plugged things in.

  Mike came in, watching the chaotic work pace. “What’s going on?”

  “Alice had a few visitors,” Keelan explained the rest of the conversation while Danny finished up.

  “MoVID,” Danny demanded, holding out his hand while still typing with the other. Keelan handed it to him, and he plugged it into the computer. The screen divided into more and more squares as it filled up with faces of both humans and other species in each square.

  “Are those the colors?” Keelan asked, looking at a face covered in the most intricate tattoo he’d ever seen. But the colors were like oil in water, floating around in a pattern with no contour lines.

  “Yes,” Danny answered absentmindedly.

  Mike came to stand next to Keelan to see. “The ones you couldn’t physically show me?”

  “Yes,” Danny said before speaking to the many people on the screens. “Okay, peeps. We have a problem with some badge flashers who think they’re judge and jury. I have one name, his ship is in the Pilar System, most likely still on Verion Four. I want to burn their ship down. Any ideas?”

  “As in literally?” someone asked.

  “Yes!”

  “I can circumvent and block their own emergency system if I have the ship’s codes.”

  “You’ll get those in a minute,” Danny said. “More ideas?”

  “What kind of ship are we talking about?”

  “That name belongs to a badge registered to a StarLight model eighty-five from twenty-six oh two.”

  A man showed up on another screen, gasped and stood as if trying to keep anyone from seeing who was on the screen.

  “Hey, Dad,” Danny said, still working.

  “Danny?” the man whispered.

  “Someone sprung me from jail, but I need help. Lots of it.”

  “What do you need?”

  “On the port, there’s a bounty hunter ship, a StarLight model eighty-five, I’m transferring their regi
stration to you now. I need the bay number.”

  “Are they after you?”

  “That, too.”

  “Bay H three, three, six, tower three.”

  “Do you still have the hard drive I gave you a few years ago?” Danny continued to work, barely looking at his dad.

  “Yes.”

  “Plug it in as close to the mainframe as possible. Remember to wipe it down for prints and stuff.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  Danny looked at his dad. “Save innocent people.”

  Danny’s dad looked like he was waging an internal battle.

  “And then I need a fake registration on a freighter in a closed dock and a new ship. But that won’t be for another few months,” Danny continued.

  Danny’s dad sighed but nodded determinedly. “I’m putting it in now.”

  The screen went black before the many faces popped back up in the individual squares.

  “We have access, and I’m linking the sats. Log everything on the pathway I’m sending you now.”

  “Better get Misery,” Mike said. “She might as well learn something.”

  Keelan, Misery, and Mike sat and watched Danny and his friends work. The majority of what they said didn’t stick in Keelan’s head.

  After about five hours, Danny turned on the big VID on the wall. “Witness revenge.”

  On the screen, a view of Verion Four turned up. Judging by the angle, it came from tower three’s surveillance feed. People walked by, worked, one got mugged at the corner of the bridge, and a ship took off. All just the usual humdrum of a day on Verion Four’s spaceport.

  “Phase one, initiated... ”

  “Phase two, initiated... ”

  “Phase three, initiated... ”

  And with the third phase, an alarm wailed on the spaceport. Smoke billowed out as the ramp of a ship opened, and four men and a woman barged out. Most people disappeared from the view or stayed away from the ship.

  “Phase four, initiated... ”

  A drive under the table grumbled as it worked. On the screen, they saw flames around the engines of the ship, in the cargo hold, and something exploded under the ship, but not powerfully enough to rock it.

  Security came running to get the five away from the ship.

  “Nifty explosion,” Misery said, sounding utterly unimpressed.

  “That was the cooling tanks for the star jump cells. When the engine burns, the liquid in the pipes boils and the compartments expand until they go poof, like you just saw,” Mike explained. “You’ll get your explosion when the star jump cells go.”

  “Shouldn’t there be firefighters about now?” Keelan asked.

  “Yeah, if we hadn’t cut the connection to their alarms and made sure their transporters won’t start, the gates won’t open, and any incoming call wasn’t spammed by horny chicks talking sweet things,” Danny said, grinning.

  The drive under the table made a final noise before it beeped.

  “Download completed,” Danny announced.

  “Codes are copied.”

  “Profiles copied.”

  “Phase five, initiated.”

  The firework Danny promised commenced.

  “Freeing firefighters.”

  “How long until they’re there?” Mike asked.

  “Probably twelve minutes,” Danny guessed.

  They waited, but by the time the firefighters arrived there was nothing they could do. The VID went blank, and Danny smiled while handing them a pad.

  “Sweet revenge to be enjoyed again and again. The rest of the files from their computer are on this one.” Danny pointed to something under the table—probably the thing that had growled during the entire show.

  “Now I know why the military is afraid of you,” Mike mumbled, but he looked impressed.

  “We don’t do stuff like this for fun,” Danny said as he typed away. His dad’s voice sounded over the speakers a few minutes later. “Dad, remove the drive if you can do so safely. I’ll call you later. Give Mom a kiss.”

  “Are you safe, my boy?”

  “For now, but we still need that ship. You get a good one in return. Top bar, and I need a top bar in return.”

  “Okay. I warned you about those hackers.”

  Danny smiled and cut the call.

  Chapter Nine

  Mike and Misery sat in the cockpit and looked through some of the materials Danny had downloaded from the bounty hunters’ ship before he’d burned it down and melted their drives. As Danny had later explained, the shorting out the drives was not a part of the fire. It was just meant to look like it to throw off any suspicions of a hacker attack.

  Misery read a pad with specific information, chosen to aid in her studies of mercenaries and bounty hunters’ jargon. Later, Mike would test her on them.

  “I’m confused what these two formations mean. What’s the difference between an x and a y formation?” Misery asked.

  Mike looked up from his own pad. “There has to be more than that.”

  “X two, Y four, NULA, three dots and a number.”

  “And the number?”

  “Six, four, eight, four, nine, six, zero.”

  Dread rushed through Mike as he heard his own lawman id-number. Misery offered him to have a look.

  “X two means two women, Y four means four men, NU mean no uniform, hidden, going in dressed in civilian attire, and LA means lawman’s assistance. The number refers to the badge number of the mercenary or bounty hunter who offers the before mentioned assistance.” Mike looked up from the pad, trying to get his thoughts in a workable order. But there was no time. “Keelan!”

  Misery jumped from shock and dropped the pad, looking at Mike.

  Keelan stood in the door seconds later and looked murderously ready.

  “Your daughter found something.” Mike picked up the pad, checked that the info was still there and handed it to Keelan. “Two women and four men NU but the disturbing part is their LA number.”

  Keelan looked at the pad. “That’s your number.”

  “Yeah, how can they think I’m the assistance?”

  Keelan glanced at Mike, and a flicker of doubt crossed his expression. Anger and resentment that Keelan could think he had anything to do with it exploded in Mike.

  “Fuck you!” Mike bellowed and set off in a run, bent forward, and led with his shoulder as he impacted with Keelan’s stomach. Keelan grunted as the air was knocked from him when Mike landed on top of him. Seconds later, Mike was pinned under Keelan, who straddled him and held Mike’s arms down by the weight of his shins. Mike’s face was open to blows, and he held his head against the floor to minimize the recoil effect from a blow.

  But the expected blows didn’t land.

  “Fuck me, huh?” Keelan asked.

  “You still don’t trust me,” Mike whispered and fought a futile battle to turn around or get his arms free, just so he could cover his stinging eyes.

  Keelan stood and hauled Mike to his feet by the front of his shirt before he sat Mike down on the couch next to a visibly shaken Danny.

  “I doubt everybody I meet. A stunt like that is not something I’d even believe you’d do. But I don’t trust Ratkins. Four men and two women... we need to find out who they are,” Keelan said in a tone so restrained it occurred to Mike he was trying to calm him down.

  “I can do a search in their own files,” Danny offered.

  Keelan looked at him and nodded, while Mike collapsed against the backrest of the couch. He closed his eyes and turned his head, trying to identify some of his feelings and why he’d actually attacked Keelan. His thoughts stopped there, because Keelan once again hauled him to his feet and guided him to his room.

  Once in Mike’s room, Keelan left, closing the door behind him. Mike stared at the door a beat before plopping down onto the bed.

  Examining his feelings then, he wasn’t actually hurt by the brief lack of faith he thought he’d seen in Keelan’s eyes. It was more like a glimpse of his ow
n bad conscience even that long after having made that mistake in Delta.

  But that was so many years ago. Who, other than Ratkins, knew that Mike had ratted on Keelan when he was released?

  No matter how many names or faces he listed in his head, Mike couldn’t come up with one person who also had contact with bounty hunters and mercenaries.

  Then a thought occurred to him, and he stormed out of his room and through the ship to the cockpit, where Keelan and Misery were looking at a screen.

  “It’s a trap,” Mike said. “I can only think of Ratkins who actually knows I ratted you out in Delta. Either they’re trying to divide us, or they’re hoping you’ll kill me.”

  “There is only that option if you ever snitch on me again, and those bums know that without needing to be told anything,” Keelan growled.

  Danny came to stand in the door. “That souvenir I gave you. Play it.”

  Mike pulled it from a drawer in the cockpit and handed it to Keelan, who loaded it up for all to watch.

  “What are we looking for?” Misery asked.

  “There were four men and two women registered on that ship’s manifest. Only one woman came out,” Danny said.

  “What’s their names?” Mike asked.

  “Mona Witrun and... I can’t pronounce this,” Danny said and handed Mike a pad.

  “I know her. She’s a Rutter, tough ass bitch.”

  “A Rutter?” Keelan and Misery asked simultaneously.

  “Yes, originally from the old Russia on Mother Earth. They established a closed off colony almost five hundred years ago, and it hasn’t fallen yet. If you’re not a Rutter, you don’t get in. They managed to perfect communism. Well, so they say, but no one knows because it’s completely closed off.”

  “Then why not call them Russians?” Misery asked.

  “It’s a leftover of a mistranslation from the Cyrillic alphabet after the human migration to space,” Mike explained.

  “And Mona?” Keelan asked, taking the pad. Danny handed Mike another pad. One glance and Mike knew how they had the number, so he handed the pad to Keelan and rubbed his eyes.

  “Don’t know her, but she’s pretty,” Keelan said.