Learning the Hard Way 3

by H. P. Caledon

“I don’t know. She doesn’t even know we’re on the planet yet. And Lewis said something about us having to keep a low profile. They know I always go home. That I always end up here.”

  “Yeah. And I even swore I’d never plant my feet on this dump of a planet again.”

  “There’s a good reason for your return.”

  “Yeah, my mom. That’s the only reason I’m back!”

  Keelan laughed and nodded, happy she hadn’t found worse places than Verion Four while traveling.

  They left the cockpit and made their way to the cargo hold. Danny and a man stood in a tight embrace at the end of the stairs while Mike kept himself busy with mundane stuff, it seemed. Misery and Keelan descended the stairs to help out, but Keelan didn’t make it past Danny and the man because Danny grabbed his sleeve.

  Danny looked up with red eyes while the man turned his attention on Keelan, too.

  “Dad, this is Keelan. He broke into Irgang to get me out.”

  “Whatever made you take on such a dangerous mission, I am forever thankful,” the man said and held out his hand. To Keelan’s surprise, the man pulled him in for a hug.

  “What we won’t do for our children, right?”

  The man nodded, smiling. “I have some jump suits with freight logos matching the transporter. I borrowed it all from my brother-in-law. You have the transporter for a week.”

  “Ready to move?” Mike shouted.

  Chapter Twenty

  As soon as the transporter arrived inside the warehouse, people ran to them. Keelan shuffled past to help Danny out. About twenty smiling humans milled around them until they had eyes on Danny. Then they moved in, and Keelan and Mike just tried to get out of the way. They managed to retreat behind the transporter while Danny ended up in the center of the happy bunch.

  Mike let Misery out the back of the transporter. A masikill jumped down from the rafters high above and landed next to Mike, who jumped into Keelan from the surprise. The more than two-meter tall species certainly knew how to make an entrance.

  The masikill, who looked familiar to Keelan, smiled and folded his dangerous long fingers up against his lower arms. “Mutshoree!”

  “Mundurra!” Danny made his way through the crowd of smiling and laughing people. Mundurra grabbed Danny around the midsection and hoisted him up for a hug.

  Keelan, Mike and Misery stayed behind the transporter, letting them all get acquainted in peace, but Keelan would have to interrupt them soon to find out where the nearest toilet was.

  Danny finally rounded the back and grabbed Keelan’s hand to drag him out to his friends. He introduced Keelan as the mass murderer and escaped lifer, Keelan Hunter. What surprised Keelan the most was that no one seemed bothered by what he was—he detected neither skepticism nor mistrust in their eyes. Only gratitude.

  The masikill Mundurra held out the stump of his arm. Keelan didn’t know how that species greeted people, so he just put his hand on the stump.

  “Thank you. Thank you for bringing him home to us. The Chiromancers are in your debt.”

  “You’ve helped plenty,” Keelan said.

  “But not nearly enough.” Mundurra smiled. “We’ve kept eyes and ears on the ships Mut sent us the profiles on. There are a few recordings we need you to listen in on before we do anything.”

  “Okay. Mind if I use your toilet first?”

  * * * *

  Mike and Misery followed Danny and the crowd while Keelan walked off with a female Chiromancer. What he’d expected the Techno Chiromancer’s lair to look like, Mike didn’t know, but that certainly wasn’t it. They’d entered into a normal warehouse with locked containers stacked everywhere. Now they were walking toward the end wall with many doors in it and, Danny’s welcome committee spread out to enter through them.

  The next room had a lower ceiling and walls. As they went further in, Mike got the feeling that it was just one big room with walls put up here and there to break the echo and to make corners for desks and places for pin boards, because the walls didn’t reach the ceiling.

  The room suddenly opened up, and they found themselves in a common area. In the middle stood four walls that definitely weren’t meant to be moved. It was almost like a room inside the big room with a door and windows. Around it were tables, chairs, sofas, and along one long wall stood racks filled with technological hardware.

  “Have a seat,” Danny urged. He inhaled deeply, savoring the scent. “Ahh. Home. I’ll find us something to drink.” Danny left them to find a couch.

  People came by and nodded at them, smiling, and Mike found the place cozy with a warm ambiance.

  Danny filled a box with stuff from shelves around the little building. He stopped to look at a man who had his ear to the wall of the small building in the room.

  “What are you doing?” Danny asked, laughing.

  The man jumped. “I’m listening! Come here, listen.” The man bent forward again and listened intensely.

  Danny shook his head, set the box down, and listened. Then he stood and waved his arms. “Everybody, please be quiet and listen to this!”

  Mike glanced at Misery. They stood and went to where Danny listened intensely along with more and more people. “What is it?”

  “You’re not a Chiromancer, so you can’t hear it,” a man said.

  Danny suddenly stood and resolutely went to open the door to the little house before turning to the others. Whatever they’d heard, it apparently became louder. “I’ve heard this before. The ship whispered it. Maplod vukmil axedal futyrre. The Techno Raiders’ ship whispered it.”

  “What does it mean?” Mike asked.

  “I have no idea.” Danny shrugged. So did everybody else.

  Keelan and the female Chiromancer joined them. She, too, focused on the sentence.

  “I’ve visited the Techno Raiders once, and I’ve never heard this,” she said.

  Danny finally shrugged and went to fetch his box. People quickly lost interest and went back to their tasks, but Mike got curious, so he took the box to free Danny’s hands to look for whatever it was he was trying to find.

  “Why doesn’t anyone think it strange that it says new things?”

  “It has a mind of its own, remember. Plus, it’s nothing alarming. If it was, then screams could be heard.”

  Mike just nodded and carried the box to the table.

  Mundurra came over and placed another box next to it. “Species with opposable thumbs or similar limb joints may empty this box and join the wires.”

  Misery did a double thumbs-up at Keelan and began helping with the box. Mundurra guided her through it, and minutes later, a computer and speakers filled the table.

  “I put it all down chronologically.” Mundurra moved his wrist in a series of movements that Mike was pretty sure a human hand would have broken from. But he managed to connect a disk and made it look easy.

  “Isn’t it difficult to use a computer with those... fingers?” Misery asked.

  Mundurra and Danny laughed.

  “You learn to use what you have.” Mundurra put his fingers into two loops hanging on the side of the cabinet. When he moved his fingers, he typed commands into the computer, and the first communications played out.

  Three mentioned Alice, the bar, and Keelan’s first trip to juvy. The last mentioned that a child was involved and that someone suspected it to be Misery Fall.

  Keelan growled and his leg jack-hammered.

  “We have a few who take turns drinking at her bar, but we’re not brawlers. We can take revenge like we have, but that’s about the extent of our capabilities for physical assistance,” Mundurra said.

  “Jerry is still injured from that beating he took. He still has trouble with strength in his left shoulder,” Keelan said.

  “Did Alice achieve anything from going to the local law?” Mike asked.

  “Yeah. The two bounty hunters were told to leave the planet for at least six months.”

  “And they can’t land, because we messed up their ident
ification signatures,” Danny said, laughing gleefully.

  “Hope they all get diarrhea and have to live in the stench of recycled farts,” Keelan muttered.

  “Sorry, can’t secure that from a computer,” Danny said, grinning.

  “Wow, those are the ones whose ship you guys blew up,” Mike exclaimed, recognizing a voice.

  Danny replayed the message.

  “The last woman,” Keelan noted.

  “Yeah, and Gat Max.” Mike leaned closer. “Listen for the background voices.”

  “Hang on,” Danny said and tried something. “No good, let me just get the expert.”

  Mike reached to replay the message again, but he needed to think creatively, because they used codes he didn’t know. There was no mistaking when they mentioned the LA code.

  “Isn’t that Dave in the background?” Keelan asked.

  Danny returned with a woman who made short work at the computer.

  “Ready,” she said.

  They played the communication again, that time getting clear voices from the background.

  “This is a crap slapping mess you’ve got here. Are you even sure he’ll return here? I’ve met Mike, I’ve worked with him, and that was after you knew him. Did it occur to you he might have learned a few things since then?”

  “Crap slapping?” Misery asked wide-eyed.

  “That’s him,” Mike and Keelan said in unison.

  “Please take it easy on him, because he’s working with us,” Mike said.

  “That’s Dave Ratkins,” Mundurra said. Mike and Keelan just nodded. “What’s he trying here?”

  “To make them doubt Gat Max. Maybe lead them off planet,” Mike guessed.

  “Should we call in a favor on Kanakoon or something?” Danny asked.

  “No!” Mike exclaimed. “Soldiers are looking for us there, and my kid sister lives there, so nothing on Kanakoon. Motáll, maybe.”

  “Soldiers?” Mundurra asked, turning a wide-eyed look on Danny. “By the moons, you certainly found some special friendships to travel the Systems with.”

  “You might remember that they hauled my sexy ass out of Irgang.”

  “Yeah, your death certificate was made official yesterday,” Mundurra said, looking at the screen with a thoughtful expression. “Those soldiers... ”

  “Are a smoke screen. They just don’t know it.”

  “Aha.” Mundurra didn’t sound convinced by Mike’s statement.

  “I need to go see Alice,” Keelan said.

  “Can I come?”

  “No, sweetheart, because... no one can know.” Keelan shushed theatrically at everyone.

  Danny snorted. “And no one is going to see you, right? You’re the size of a medium sized building complex.”

  “Exactly,” Mike said.

  “Are the three of you in league with the cosmos or something?” Mundurra asked.

  Mike’s moVID went off, and he glanced at the caller before looking up. “Please be quiet for a second, it’s Spec Edit.” Mundurra gaped, and Mike answered. “Hello, sir.”

  “Ratkins has managed to split their ranks. Three sets of bounty hunters and one team of mercenaries are pretty piss angry about their computers breaking and their accounts going on empty all of a sudden, so they bailed Verion Four. Gat Max has fallen from grace, and Ratkins warns he’s got something dirty up his sleeve, but Ratkins couldn’t figure out what. Spec Edit three is now on Motáll, because that’s where you collected Petterson. Do me a favor and do not think for yourselves for four days and take a vacation!”

  “We’ll try, sir.”

  Lewis disconnected.

  “Cosmos,” Mundurra said and left.

  “What day is it?” Keelan asked, looking at his crono. “Alice gets a delivery tomorrow. Can you get a message through like last time?”

  “MoVID without a location, here you go,” Danny said, taking Mike’s moVID from his hands and passing it on to Keelan.

  “Yeah, I really prefer to talk to her face to face, since she has no idea I’m here,” Keelan said.

  “Give it here,” the woman said and took the moVID. “What do you want me to say?”

  “Billy, ask for Billy. And when Billy’s on, then... tell him that in six hours he’s gonna find a drunkard dancing with a chair. He’s gonna make the boss happy, so take the drunk to the room of the under-aged with a bottle of tequila. He’ll get it.”

  “Good, cause I sure as hell don’t,” she said and made the call.

  “I think you finally took the lesson of speaking in code to heart,” Mike said, grinning.

  * * * *

  Keelan had a bag with clothes over his shoulder when Mundurra helped him onto the roof of the warehouse. How a species could jump six meters straight up in the air with Keelan’s weight on their back still escaped him. Mundurra was only two heads taller, but very slender in build. Maybe his ligaments were just wound really tightly.

  “You’re sure this won’t bring trouble?”

  “Very sure, or I wouldn’t do it,” Keelan assured him.

  Mundurra nodded. “Come back the same way. Call ahead, and I’ll pick you up here.”

  “Yeah, thanks, the step is a bit big for me,” Keelan said and pointed to the ground.

  Mundurra chuckled, shaking his head.

  Keelan put his earpiece in. “M, check.”

  “K, check,” Mike said.

  Keelan patted Mundurra on the shoulder and set off across the rooftops.

  In an alley about a kilometer from Alice’s bar, Keelan changed his form to that of the one he had picked up Danny in. Even though he wasn’t scared of running into any retina scanners in that part of town, he still had a set on. After having changed his clothes, he dashed some booze on himself and gurgled a mouthful before swaying his way to the bar and all the way to the counter, where he waved Alice closer.

  “Hey, can I have a beer served?”

  “Twenty credits.” Alice placed a lukewarm beer in front of him. Keelan paid, took the beer, and went to stand by a wall. From there, he scouted for bounty hunters and mercs, finding a few arrogant enough in their ways to be badge flashers.

  “Would you trade me for a minute?” Keelan asked a man who sat drowsily in a chair with an empty bottle in his hand. “You hold my beer, and I’ll dance with your chair.” Keelan held out the full beer.

  The man laughed and took Keelan’s beer. “Dance your feet flat, my friend!”

  “Thank you,” Keelan said and turned to face the chair. “Wanna dance... okay.” He then picked up the chair and wobbled to the dance floor with it, hoping Billy would rescue him from that embarrassing plan, soon. But it was the best way to get people to focus on something other than where Alice would all of a sudden go to.

  “Hey, pal, I think your partner needs a rest,” Billy said and grabbed his neck.

  “You might be right,” Keelan drawled and let Billy take the chair. Billy placed it by a table without letting go of Keelan, who he then hauled toward the back door. “Here.” Billy shoved a bottle of tequila in his arms.

  “Boss lady is gonna be so happy,” Keelan cooed and hugged the bottle while he tried to keep his balance while still looking like he was losing it as Billy dragged him away. Billy took him to the room Jasper had slept in and glanced at him skeptically before he closed the door behind him.

  Keelan tossed the bottle on the bed and hurried into the bathroom to change form and clothes. He managed a wet washcloth to get some of the booze stench off himself and was pulling on his clothes when the door to the room opened.

  “What’s going on here?” Alice demanded, and Keelan’s stomach fluttered. Once Alice had all but slammed the door behind her, Keelan emerged from the toilet. Alice stood with her arms defensively crossed and stared at the bottle on the bed. She looked up as Keelan moved closer, and her entire body language changed. She whimpered and ran to him, clutching him close.

  “You smell like my bar at closing time,” she mumbled against his neck.

  “Had to
fall in with the crowd.” He pulled back to kiss her—a kiss she greedily returned.

  “There are bounty hunters everywhere,” she said, short of breath when they parted.

  “Yeah, that’s why I sent in the dancing fool first. Rosita is safely tucked away and very anxious to meet you.”

  Alice smiled, and her eyes grew moist. She kissed him again, but there was something else behind it, and his body reacted promptly. She pressed herself against him, making him moan into her mouth. Before any more coherent thoughts could run through his head, Alice pulled his clothes off.

  Keelan lay on his back and enjoyed the aftermath and the feel of her weight against him.

  “You’re not staying long, are you?” she asked, stroking a finger across his naked chest.

  “No, but I keep hoping you’ll come with us, because we really ran head first into some trouble this time.”

  “You could have turned the earpiece off. I didn’t need to follow the past half hour,” Mike said, and Keelan sat up to yank the earpiece out.

  Alice blinked at him.

  “Oops,” Keelan said. Alice giggled, and the sound spread warmth in Keelan.

  “Yeah, I’m beginning to understand your level of trouble. I’m coming with you.”

  Keelan had no idea what to say, so he just toppled her and kissed her. “Rosita is going to be ecstatic.”

  “Billy’s like a brother to me. Can he come?”

  “Sure, I drag Mike everywhere, too.”

  “When are we leaving?”

  “We need to finish a few things so the law can’t follow us. And the plan isn’t finished yet. We’ll contact you soon, and when we do, we’ll be leaving fast.”

  “Do I need to get all my money out of the bank?”

  “No, don’t do that. Pretend like you have no plans of running, because they’re keeping an eye on you.”

  “But I have quite a bit saved. Won’t we need it?”

  “Yeah, but trust me. I know quite a bit about being on the skip, you know.”

  She nodded, smiling. “I better get back down to the bar.”