Second Chance Angel

by Griffin Barber

“Never mind that, just get the hell out of my sight.”

  “He isn’t at all happy about this,” Angel said.

  “And if I refuse to go?”

  “You’ll disappear from the system for a few days. Eventually you’ll see a magistrate, by which time I will personally see to it all charges are reinstated and you do the maximum time for your crimes.”

  “There’s the Dengler we all know and love.”

  “Suck it, Muck.”

  “Give me a map, forty days, and a microscope and I might, with an inordinate amount of underserved good luck, find it.”

  Face dark with rage, Dengler reached into the cell and made a grab for me. Keyode grabbed his fellow supervisor and bodily forced him from the cell.

  I swayed back, mocking smile fixed in place.

  “Get! Out!” Keyode barked, gripping a still-struggling Dengler.

  I stood tall, kept smiling, and walked out. I’m not sure how well I concealed my many hurts, but I gave it a go.

  The sounds of Keyode’s and Dengler’s struggle followed me down the hall to the discharge kiosk, where LEO oversaw my out-processing with a wave of a robotic wand and a mesh bag containing those few effects I had carried with me aboard Last Stop.

  I made sure to leave the Security station at a pace just under a speed walk. I have my pride, but I also have a healthy survival instinct.

  I made the public tube, my head on a swivel as I searched for threats. The train arrived. I took a seat. One of my fellow travelers was playing his PID too loud, the strains of a sax-like instrument filling the car with too-tinny chrono-jazz.

  “I’m free,” I mumbled, stunned at the turn of fortune.

  “I am still locked down,” Angel said, a sour note to her voice.

  “Can’t even make a call?” I thought about asking where she’d been, but I dimly remembered her sustaining me in the last moments of the fight with Security, and she’d certainly been working to restore me since.

  “No—actually, yes. Though that’s about it. Who am I calling?”

  “No one special. Just figure it’s a long walk from the tube to my place.”

  “You sure, Muck?”

  “I’m tired. Need rest.”

  “We should go straight to Ncaco. Shake that tree and see what falls out.”

  “Not yet. I need to think. And besides, we don’t have any way to contact him.”

  “I am tired of running and hiding. I want answers. I think he has them.”

  I laughed, the outburst drawing stares from the few commuters in our car and more blood from my busted lips.

  “We’ll likely get to that,” I told her silently. “Just give me one night. I need to rest . . . and maybe come up with something. Some way of handling him without getting us killed or sent to some prison planet. Station Security is clearly watching me. How close are you? To cracking the packet, I mean.”

  “Not close enough.” I could feel her doubt, and no small amount of impatience, but I didn’t have the energy to argue further, let alone take on a crime lord on his own ground. She knew that. “At least let me call and book you into a different flop? Make them work to find us, even a little bit?”

  I nodded assent and was asleep before we reached the next stop.

  * * *

  I woke in a strange coffin I barely recalled renting, the feel of Angel’s fingers stroking my temples lingering at the edges of perception.

  “Supervisor Keyode is in the lobby,” she said.

  I started, relaxed state of mind disappearing in an instant. So much for Angel’s attempt at hiding us. I bumped my forehead and knees as I tried to sit up.

  “If you’re done abusing yourself, I’ll connect you?” I could feel the smile in her words.

  “He’s alone?” I asked, rubbing my forehead.

  “Yes, and doesn’t have his uniform on. I’m thinking this is a personal visit.”

  “All right, I’ll talk to him . . . voice only.”

  “Not showing that morning face to anyone, Muck.”

  “Thanks, Angel.”

  “Welcome. Putting him through.”

  “Muck? It’s Keyode.”

  “Yes.”

  “Can we talk over a drink or something? I’m buying.”

  “Why?” I asked, suspicious, but also curious.

  “I have some questions, and was thinking you might have some answers.”

  I felt Angel’s interest rising in tandem with my own.

  “Quid pro quo?”

  “Sure. If I can answer yours, I will.”

  “Not good enough. Nothing is free, and I can’t have you holding out on me. La—”

  “Muck, wait. I meant that I may not know the answers to your questions, but I swear I’ll tell you what I know. Provided you do the same for me.”

  “So you can tell Dengler?”

  “Fuck Dengler.”

  I forced a chuckle. “Just like that?”

  “Yes, just like that! Dammit, Muck, I need to know just what the hell is going on.”

  “Why should I trust you aren’t just trying to get me somewhere he can silence me?”

  “Just my word.”

  “He’s telling the truth, as far as I can tell from what’s coming across the feed,” Angel said.

  I thought about it for a half-second, but it wasn’t as if we had any other options. If he knew something that could lead us to Siren, I had to talk to him.

  “Fair enough. Give me a few minutes.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  Cleaning up and clearing out took just a moment, but I stretched in the hallway outside my coffin, checking my mobility and loosening up.

  “You’re about ninety percent, Muck. Best I could do on such short notice.”

  “It’ll do, Angel. It’ll have to.” I spent the elevator ride down planning my questions and deciding what I could answer of his probable lines of inquiry. I was not looking forward to it: Keyode had some of the training in interrogation I’d had, and would recognize most techniques I might use to get more than I gave.

  I stepped into the small, dingy lobby without coming up with anything that might work.

  Keyode was wearing a dark suit that might have once been able to contain his thick neck and outsize shoulders but had long since started to stretch around his heavily muscled frame. He looked like too much sausage stuffed into too thin a skin.

  “Muck.”

  “Keyode,” I said, approaching him.

  “Got a choice where we go?”

  “Noodle joint down the way?”

  “Cheap date. I like it.”

  I nodded, acknowledging the attempt at humor without joining in.

  We walked down to the restaurants bordering what passed for the shopping district in this area. I didn’t see any obvious threats.

  “I’m not seeing anything either, and Supervisor Keyode doesn’t seem unduly anxious,” Angel supplied.

  “I saw you were promoted,” I said, taking her hint. “Congratulations.”

  A slight smile. “Just happened. I haven’t yet wrapped my head around it.”

  “Oh?”

  “LEO saw fit to fill a requisition. I was on the list of promotable officers.”

  “Interesting,” Angel said.

  I kept looking for an ambush.

  It was a bit early in the shift for a lot of people to be wandering in search of a meal, but there were enough folks around that we didn’t stand out. And—more important for my survival—enough folks about that murdering someone would be certain to leave witnesses.

  I could feel Angel, alert for threats and very frustrated she couldn’t use the infonet to augment her search.

  I made sure to note all the exits as we took a booth in the back of the noodle joint. They used robots for service, offering a
bit more privacy than the usual restaurants. We placed our orders using an old-fashioned terminal and set a privacy screen.

  “So . . .” Keyode said, letting the word trail off into silence.

  “So,” I replied. He’d called the meeting, he could start with something better. Something to make me believe he was acting in good faith.

  “So what the fuck is up with Dengler?”

  I cocked a brow. “You’re asking me?”

  He raised his hands in a helpless gesture. “I just did, Muck.”

  “Dengler’s always been an asshole. You had to know that.”

  “Sure. He used to be an asshole I could rely on.”

  “And you think I know what changed?”

  Keyode’s hands balled into fists as he shook his head. “I think you’re into something that he’s supposed to be a part of—to clean up, or cover up, or something—and he’s acting all fucked up behind it.”

  “I find it hard to believe you didn’t know about his ties to a certain crime lord.”

  “I knew about that. This is something else.”

  I considered him a moment. There was something . . . something deeper.

  “He’s sincere,” Angel offered.

  “Thanks.”

  “Why do you care?” I asked aloud.

  He opened his mouth, closed it, then sighed and pushed himself back from the table, making the booth groan as he considered me in turn.

  “Well?”

  “Because he and I need to stay bought. It’s the only way our arrangement with—how did you put it?—’a certain crime boss’ works out, long term. With Dengler going off script, he’s putting us both in danger, not just from the criminals, but from the Administration.”

  “Wait, he’s not working for Ncaco?”

  “Nominally he is, or was, but I know for a fact Ncaco didn’t want you released yesterday.”

  “Oh? Why is that?”

  “Not sure. I think for the same reasons you didn’t want to be released.”

  “And what do you think those reasons are?”

  “Worried you’d get flatlined, or caught and interrogated, revealing his business, then get flatlined? I don’t know. In fact, I don’t want to know, beyond the fact that Dengler wasn’t speaking on Ncaco’s behalf when he told us it was ‘orders’.”

  “All right, who do you think he’s working for, then?”

  “I don’t know, Muck. That’s why I’m coming to you. If the Administration is checking up on him, I’m fucked same as him.”

  I snorted in surprise. “I ain’t working for the Administration.”

  “Then why did LEO know to order me and my people to look for you in the maintenance shaft? And why? The AIs are supposed to be incorruptible, so why work with Ncaco’s bagman?”

  “How should I fucking know?”

  “I believe you. Frankly, I don’t see you as some deep-cover operative. And if that’s not the case, then there has to be something else going on, and you would be the one to know something about it.”

  “Does Ncaco know you’re here?”

  “Fuck no! That would lead to questions that might earn both Dengler and I a suitless walk into the big black.”

  “Again, he’s being truthful.” It was good to have Angel assessing his reactions.

  I nodded. His story made sense. Didn’t make me want to give anything up, though. Not without a more concrete idea of Ncaco’s position, anyway.

  Keyode was looking at me.

  “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “Bullshit. You agreed to answer my questions.”

  “Ask me something, then.”

  “What is Dengler doing?”

  I considered a moment, decided the truth was the only thing to offer. If what he’d said was true, then maybe he could be a witness. At least he might be able to tell someone what had happened to me.

  “I think he’s in bed with an organization that’s kidnapping humans and doing something to them. That’s why I was asking about Siren last time I was here.”

  For an instant I thought I saw something in Keyode’s expression. I didn’t have time to process the look, leaving it to Angel.

  Keyode leaned forward again, eyes glittering. “Who and why, Muck. Who and why?”

  “He’s very upset by something, Muck. Very. Pulse is elevated forty percent and his blood pressure just jumped thirty points,” Angel said.

  Covering my surprise at the strength of his reaction, I shrugged and flogged my brain for a reason for it. “I am not sure about either question. Up until this conversation, I thought Ncaco was involved up to his little iridescent chin.”

  Keyode shook his head. “I’m certain that’s not the case. He paid me to look after you.”

  “So you had me arrested?”

  “Under LEO’s orders. Because you beat Dengler down. If Ncaco wanted you dead, he’d have made sure I wasn’t around to see it.”

  “So he ordered my arrest?”

  “No, LEO did. That’s what I didn’t understand. But I went along because it was a lawful command and it kept you safe, just like Ncaco wanted. And I did. Keep you safe, I mean. I reined the rest of my fellows in. They wanted to kill you for wrecking Dengler.”

  “And I should trust you because?”

  Keyode looked me in the eye. “Tell me what you know, Muck, and I’ll make LEO release the blocks on your illicit angel.”

  It was my turn to sit back and consider.

  “He can do it, Muck, and he’s sincere about it.”

  “Release her now, as a gesture of good faith, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  “Cross me on this, Muck, and I’ll kill you.”

  I smiled. “Right back at you, Keyode.”

  He keyed the privacy screen off and spoke for my benefit: “LEO, please release the infonet blocks on Muck’s angel.”

  “Yes, Supervisor Keyode.”

  “I’m able to access the infonet, Muck.”

  “Can he lock you back down?” I thought at her.

  “Not easily. I’ve got his number.”

  Shaking my head at her confidence, I turned my attention back to Keyode and keyed the privacy screen back up myself.

  “Okay, let’s go back to the beginning. You know about Siren’s disappearance the same night she whipped Ncaco’s pet bliss-dealer’s ass.”

  Keyode nodded.

  “Well, he was into something more than just bliss, and was being paid to distribute the other stuff. We got a name from his financials. The name turned out to be an anagram for a type of aphrodisiac pharma. We no sooner figure that out, than someone tries to murder him in the hospital. That led us to your favorite crime boss.

  “When we spoke to Ncaco, he suggested we go to Sagran VI to track the aphrodisiac supplier down, thinking that would lead us to Siren or those who’d taken her. We didn’t find her. What we did find was a corporation growing some pretty strange plants that I can’t see the point of as a street drug, a bundle of data we can’t decrypt, and a lot of trouble we could have done without.

  “We escaped the planet, but somehow the Hounds got wind of my location and came for me. We escaped them too. So then I call Dengler, trying to get in touch with Ncaco. Only something’s off. He seems real eager to get me back on Last Stop, and quick. So I demur, and arrange to meet him at Ncaco’s chop shop. He shows up and attacks me, and it doesn’t make sense for it to be on Ncaco’s orders.”

  “Who benefits?” Keyode said softly, nodding. “Yeah, Ncaco wanted you kept safe, not beat up.”

  “Right. So I beat Dengler’s ass, and decide to sneak onto the station myself to try and get to the glittery psychopath. Trying to get answers. And . . . and you know the rest.”

  He was silent a moment, clearly processing what I’d said before asking, “How do you know
they’re kidnapping people?”

  “Did I not just tell you about Siren?”

  He shook his head. “I mean, more than the one person?”

  I shrugged. “I suppose I don’t, for sure. But Ncaco mentioned there were others.

  “Well, I think he was right. My partner, Xavier, disappeared about a year ago.”

  “Partn—Oh.”

  “Yeah, the personal kind of partner, not the work kind.”

  “I get it, and sorry if this comes off rude, but what makes you think he didn’t just walk out on you?”

  “He wouldn’t.”

  I failed to hide my disbelief.

  “He was . . . struggling with things he’d done and seen during the war, and always credited me with helping him cope. He told me everything, even on those occasions he wanted to kill himself.”

  “And how do you know he didn’t just . . .” I let the thought trail off, not wanting to upset him or Angel.

  “I already told you: Siren had the same—” Angel started.

  “I just know, he wouldn’t kill himself, all right?” Keyode didn’t seem desperate to convince me, which added weight to his argument. “Besides, the reason I’m sure it was a kidnapping and that Dengler is involved is what he said to you the morning after Siren disappeared: ‘Someone like that might just kidnap and murder without a second thought.’ Do you remember?”

  I nodded.

  “He said the same thing a year ago when we were looking at this transient as a possible suspect in Xavier’s disappearance.”

  I opened my mouth.

  “Precisely. The. Same. Thing.”

  Mind racing, I slowly closed my mouth.

  Angel started cursing.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  LEO

  “I have a lot to do, SARA.”

  “No you don’t. I’ve been watching the security network traffic. There hasn’t been a legitimate call for service since you ordered the security team to take Muck. And now that you—”

  “I don’t need to be reminded,” LEO interrupted. “Orchestrating the release of the prisoners required deceiving the sentients I was designed to serve and protect, not to mention the humans I have worked with for years.”

  “But you had to, in order to expose Dengler and his crimes.”