by J. N. Chaney
The shopkeeper looked at him like he was on drugs. “You’re kidding, right? Where do you think you are, a spaceship repair yard?”
Burner caught a glance at one of the security feeds behind the counter, showing the front of the store. His babysitter was still waiting patiently. “Are you sure? Maybe you could check in the back?”
That earned him a growl in response. “Are you playing some kind of game? Why don’t you get out of here before I toss you out.” With that, he went back to his reading, the conversation effectively over.
Shrugging and figuring that was probably enough of an act for now, he left the hardware store and took a brisk walk down the street. He took it for granted that she would follow, and he didn’t want to give himself away by risking another glance backward.
Burner turned sharply down the next alley, took ten paces, then drew his gun and leveled it at the alley’s entrance. It was time he and Legs had a nice one-on-one talk.
The blonde took the turn around the corner—and stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes fixed at the barrel of Burner’s weapon.
8
Hell’s Reach City Center, Dobulla UX8, Union Space
If Burner had to assign himself one real weakness, it was women. That was why he had risked exposing himself to protect a woman from being mugged back on the port on Zanpus. And that’s why he hesitated just enough when the blonde reached to her side that he wasn’t able to stop her from pulling a weapon of her own.
Burner knew two effective methods of dealing with a target who tried to draw their weapon when he already had his pointed at them. The first was to simply discharge his weapon the moment they made their move. No matter how fast of a draw they were, they weren’t going to outrace the pull of a trigger. Alternatively, if, for whatever reason, the target was needed alive and he was in close enough quarters, a quick smack with the gun on the top of their head would leave them dazed long enough for their gun arm to be pinned and their weapon discarded.
But he’d always had something of a soft spot for women, particularly attractive ones. Not that he underestimated them in any way. Some of the most dangerous agents he knew in Intelligence had been women. It was just a distaste he had for violence against them unless it was unavoidable.
Now that the blonde had gone and drawn her weapon on him, though, she may have made it necessary.
“Don’t move,” she ordered.
Burner didn’t need to reply in kind. They were both locked in a frozen standstill in which any one twitch could be the end of one or both of them.
Her eyes were steely focused—not on his weapon, but on the spot where her gun was aimed. “Who are you?”
Burner smirked a little before answering. “I believe that’s my line. You were the one following me.”
He kept his gun steady, ready to put a shot between her eyes if he saw so much as a twitch of her trigger finger. There wasn’t the hint of the slightest wobble, as despite the severity of the situation she had found herself in, she seemed surprisingly calm and in control.
A professional, clearly. Burner could tell from her stance, the way she controlled her breathing, and the steadiness of her aim that she was experienced. Most likely she had military training, though that level of composure was something that couldn’t be taught. It was earned through survival of the kind of situations where a less calm head would lead to death.
She regarded him as well, her eyes carefully scanning him for any vulnerability. “What were you doing at the office of Dr. Suffolk?”
He shrugged. “Looking to get my toothache treated and protect my brilliant smile. What else?”
“You often make sudden, unscheduled trips off-planet right after a filling?” While phrased as a question, her words came off more as an accusation.
“Root canal, actually. Though, based on the continued ache in my mouth and jaw, I’m guessing they never did get around to actually performing that particular procedure.”
One of her eyebrows raised. He had caught her interest. “What procedure did the dentist perform?”
Burner had to pick his words very carefully here. The blonde’s focus on Dr. Suffolk in this conversation meant she knew the late dentist had been into something. She also knew that Burner was somehow tied up in it. She wouldn’t have followed him halfway across the galaxy on a whim.
When Burner had first figured out she was following him, he had thought that she might be one of the terrorists, assigned to keep tabs on him to make sure he was doing what they wanted but not to interfere directly. If she was involved with the kidnappers, then telling her too much might be seen as disloyalty, an inability to keep their secrets. They might have even prepped her with questions just to test him.
But that seemed unlikely now. Her questions were all wrong to be probative tests, too focused on the dentist and not on his reasons for coming to Dobulla. Plus, he had caught her off-guard. If her main job had been to surveil him, she should be looking for a way to escape, not focusing so intently on making sure he didn’t get away.
“I’ll trade you,” he volunteered. “You tell me why you’ve been following me, then I’ll tell you all about my time with the good dentist.”
A silence loomed between them, the only sounds coming from a distant street and their heavy breaths.
Finally, she spoke. “A matter of timing. You appeared at the dentistry just as a certain vehicle I’ve been tracking drove off. I recognized it as belonging to a group I’ve been following.”
Burner wondered if she was referring to the vehicle that the kidnappers had used to transport him. If so, she had useful information.
He could tell she was holding back. “So you followed me because of something that could have been a coincidence?”
“Was it, though?” She smiled when Burner didn’t respond. “It was more than that, of course. I’ve been looking into the dentist for his possible connection. Thought I’d sign up as a new patient to talk to the guy, but he’d already vanished. I did manage to get a look at the security feed at the front desk though and saw who his last patient had been.”
“I’m guessing that was me.”
Despite how long they had been facing off, she didn’t show any sign of her arms growing tired from keeping her weapon pointed at him. “It was. And then just as I’m leaving, you show up again, right after I catch a glimpse of that vehicle leaving the scene on the traffic cams. Plus, you fit the profile of the people I’m looking for.”
“Ex-military types?”
Her nod was slight. Not enough to interfere with her aim. “I decided to keep an eye on you after that, but my interest really got piqued when you decided to catch a flight off-world just hours later.”
Burner couldn’t fault her reasoning. There were many times he had followed leads on much less than that. He decided to answer her honesty in kind. “I think we might be looking for the same people. The dentist drugged me, and he passed me off to an unknown group of kidnappers. When they were done with me, they dumped me off in a park near the dentist.”
She stared at him, looking into his eyes to get a read on whether or not he was being honest. Whatever she saw there satisfied her, and she slowly lowered her weapon. Burner did the same, cautiously letting his aim drift toward the ground. Neither were quite ready to holster their weapons just yet.
After a moment of tense silence, she spoke. “Do you want to introduce yourself first, or should I?”
Burner already had his suspicions about his pursuer based on his observations and decided to test her. “I take it you’re Union. Special Ops?”
She looked impressed. “Something like that. Name’s Sara Nolan.”
Burner stared at the woman. Her vague answer didn’t fool him. He’d been around enough of her people to know “Listen, I don’t have time to play games, Constable.”
Her mouth formed an ‘o’ at his words, but she quickly got it under control. “Well. I suppose there’s no point pretending. You’re very astute.”
Constable was
the Union’s word for spy. Burner could see it in her carefully applied make-up, the dress that was attractively cut but not in a way that would interfere with her movement, the sharpness of her glare. She was trained to blend in, to flirt if need be, to mix charm with an ability to read people to gain access to things that people kept hidden away. And to use force get her out of any danger that digging into those secrets might put her in.
In a way, the Constables were a counterpoint to Union Intelligence. As an Intelligence officer, Burner had done his share of espionage and infiltration missions. The real difference was scope. Constables were more concerned with threats from outside, whereas Intelligence was focused within. They used similar tactics to reach their ends, and in a perfect world they might have even worked together, but the purview of Intelligence included looking into the work that the Constables did. And there they differed. The Constables were usually undetectable, and no one outside of their leadership knew what went on in that particular Union arm.
Sara cocked her head at him. “And I’m guessing you must be Union as well. Or, formerly. Don’t think anyone in active service would be living all the way out in the Deadlands. Or would be able to spot a Constable on sight.”
Burner nodded. He considered giving her one of his aliases, but since he had already decided to give his real name to the Union when he arrived on-planet, he decided there was no reason to hide his identity here. “Jack Burner. Union Intelligence, retired.”
He watched her eyes for any glint of recognition at the name, but there was nothing. Seemed his reputation had not preceded him. For once.
If she found it strange that he was retired so young, she hid it well. She regarded him for another moment before nodding, as if she had just decided something, and holstered her weapon. “Well, Burner, I’d say we are after the same people.”
Burner returned her nod and holstered his own weapon too. “Seems that way.”
She crossed her arms and took a casual stance, as if the two of them hadn’t just spent an intense minute with guns leveled at each other. “What did they want from you? Why go through the trouble of drugging and taking you?”
It would have been pointless to lie here. “They wanted to force me to do a job for them.”
Sara looked thoughtful. “What kind of job?”
“They haven’t given me details yet.” Not a lie, though he chose to hide the fact that he deduced that he was being used as an assassin. “But I intend to find out. Figure playing along for a bit is my best chance to learn about them. Could use your help. You know, if you don’t have anything better to do.”
She grinned at the invitation. “I could clear my schedule. So, what’s our first move?”
He held out his elbow for her to take. “We have a gun shop that might give us some clues.”
HELL’S REACH CENTRAL WEAPONS STORE, DOBULLA UX8, UNION SPACE
The gun shop was a big affair, the outside resembling a shopping mall more than a weapons depot. Three stories tall and squat enough, it took up nearly an entire city block. Covered in bright banners that boasted low prices on weapons of terrible power, it dominated the foot traffic.
Burner scanned the nearest buildings for one that would give him the best vantage of the gun shop. Ideally, he wanted a place that would let him get a good look at all the possible entrances and exits as well as the cameras that would assuredly encompass the shop. The buildings here were crowded together, which would give him many options if it wasn’t for the angle of the street and the length of the weapon shop working in tandem to eliminate all options close to the ground. Height was the only choice, so he settled on a towering recreational electronics store nearby.
Sara didn’t say anything as Burner turned away from the gun store that had been their destination and made his way toward Illien’s Gadgets and Experiences. She would have already figured out why Burner had picked this building. He had to admit it was nice working with someone who knew the tactics and procedures already. While drifting around the Deadlands without home or a real destination, curiosity and boredom sometimes compelled Burner to lend a hand to local security teams. He usually ended up playing a role closer to babysitter than consultant, but it was a way to keep his senses honed.
Illien’s was essentially a toy store for adults with too much money and time on their hands. Displays were filled with game systems, drones, with mods and personalities for consumer AIs. An employee checked IDs at a curtained off section marked “legal adults only,” where electronics for a different form of entertainment were peddled. As they ascended to the higher floors, it became apparent why Illien’s had decided it needed so much space. The upper floors were dedicated to augmented reality demos, their elaborate setups designed to mimic real world situations to show how one of their VR systems could improve your life. Burner had never seen much use for them, but then again, his job relied on him seeing the small details in what was there, and he couldn’t be distracted by what wasn’t.
Occasionally, one of the store’s black-clad employees would approach them and ask if they needed any help or if they wanted to try out anything. Sara would dispatch them with a smile and a few words. Burner was impressed with her ability to handle people but noted he should be wary in case she tried to handle him the same way.
They reached the roof access, and Sara played lookout while Burner picked a simple lock. There was only one camera with a view of the door. Sara blocked it with her body while pretending to be interested in a display extolling the benefits of a new generation of personal assistant AI. Burner had been worried that an electronics store would have a more robust security system, but it seemed they were more concerned with securing the lower levels and not so concerned with people coming in from the roof.
The lock came open easily enough and the two slipped out. The view of the gun shop was as promising as Burner had hoped. It was a bit of a way down, but with the right equipment he had a clear view of all the store’s entrances and took a count of the street-facing cameras.
Sara came up beside him and leaned over the edge of the roof. “So what are we hoping to find in the gun store?”
Burner noted how her use of “we” cast them as a team already, a classic tactic when trying to quickly link yourself with a new person. “It’s the only instruction I’ve received so far from my kidnappers. They want me to go there to pick up a weapon that is going to be waiting for me.”
Sara’s eyes went dark with concern. “Assassination.”
He nodded, pleased she had come to the same conclusion. “That’s what I figure. Jury’s still out on who they want me to eliminate, though. Or why I was picked as the shooter.”
She cocked her head as if he had asked a question with an obvious answer. “Well, the second part is easy enough. As ex-military police you know how the Union secures high-value individuals, where likely safehouses would be, what time of day they are likely to be most vulnerable, and so on.”
He folded his arms and cast a suspicious glance at her. “I never told you I was ex-military police.”
She chuckled at the implied accusation. “Please, it’s written all over your face. The way you look at every person we pass like you expect them to all be part of some deep conspiracy that you can unravel if you just stare hard enough is a dead giveaway. You might as well wear a t-shirt that says ‘Union Intelligence.’”
Burner sighed and leaned against the railing at the edge of the roof. “I must be getting rusty if you were able to place me so quickly.”
Sara shrugged. “It’s my job to figure these things out. Besides, if there is anyone who should be concerned about their performance, it’s me. You caught me tailing you way too easily.”
“To your credit, you performed the tail perfectly. Didn’t look in my direction too much, kept an appropriate amount of distance between us, kept yourself well blended into crowds whenever possible. You were undone by one simple thing.”
She cocked an eyebrow, curious. “And what thing was that?”
He grinned. “Your legs. I was paying attention to you long before I realized you were tailing me.”
That earned him a genuine, warm laugh that made her face light up. “I guess I’ll need to cover them next time I tail a suspect.”
“Now that would be a real shame.” He held out his arms to gesture to himself. “Well, you figured out that I used to be in Intelligence. Your Constable instincts tell you anything else about me?”
She squinted in a mock expression of thinking hard that made him laugh. “Let’s see. You’ve been retired for a few years now. Not by choice, given your age, and the fact that you aren’t sitting back and letting yourself go, like those who look forward to the end of their service tend to. You haven’t settled into a new career yet, and you’re not even sure if you want another one. Instead you choose to drift around with nothing but your severance and the skills you acquired in your work. You’ve tried to keep your head down, but now that someone has called you out, you’re too stubborn to just let it go. How am I doing?”
Burner couldn’t hide how impressed he was. “You figured all that out just by observing me and the few words we’ve exchanged?”
Sara winked at him. “Some of it was suspicion, but you just confirmed it for me.”
It wasn’t often Burner met someone whose ability to read people could rival his own. That alone told him everything he needed to know about her. She was damn good at her job and would make a valuable ally in tracking down the kind of dangerous individuals he was dealing with.
And she could be trusted. He was certain of that now. Burner decided it was time to fill her in with the rest of the details.
While he used a scope to scan the outside of the gun shop, counting cameras and noting anything that seemed out of place, he recounted the events of the past few days to Sara, starting with his visit to the dentist and ending with him getting on the ship to Dobulla. She nodded along as she took mental notes, sometimes breaking in to ask for clarification on things, and shook her head sympathetically when he recounted speaking to Dr. Suffolk’s wife, whom they both agreed was likely a widow.
