by Hal Archer
"What sort of valuables are we talking about?" Jake asked.
"Anything worth locking up. Credit chips. Explosives. Technology the authorities have outlawed."
Jake was curious as to what sort of technology, but he had one thing he needed to focus on. "A shipping license?"
Baron Vos laughed. His men chuckled along with him.
"You must have your reasons for wanting it so badly," Vos said. "I don't really care what they are." He looked down at the plans again. "If these are right, you've handed me the means to take Rayna's territory out from under her. Which—" He paused while scanning the plans on the table for a few seconds. "Which apparently is exactly what the Professor was going to use them for. Question is, what's he going to do now?" Vos looked up at Jake. "If he's still alive."
Jake decided to play it strong. He shrugged to try and convey he didn't care one way or the other whether the Professor made it out of the explosion.
Vos touched his hand to the table again causing the display to disappear. "We're taking the building today, and you're going to help. If we find what these plans show is there, then you've fulfilled your end of our deal."
"And the license," Jake asked.
"We take the building," Vos said, "then you'll get your license. But on one condition."
"What's that?"
"You get it and leave Eon. And don't come back."
"Works for me," Jake said.
CHAPTER 18
J ake ran the back alleys in a team of four. The three goons with him were about as bottom of the barrel as you could get, he thought. There was a man heavily tattooed with images of people he'd killed over the years. That's what he said anyway. Jake either glared at the man or ignored him altogether every time the four of them stopped for more than a few seconds. Waiting in the shadows, or around a corner of a building for the path ahead to clear, the man would start telling Jake how he did in the different people shown on his tattoos.
Despite the man's incessant talking, Jake never found out his name.
He really wanted to smack the guy with the base of his blaster. They had given his weapon back to him for the raid. Might as well put it to good use, he thought. But he didn't. He had a purpose great enough to make him put up with the man's annoying shit. At least for now.
Jake had seen the plans the Baron had displayed on the table, but he hadn't exactly committed them to memory. Thankfully, he thought, one of the three goons wasn't completely useless—Flick, they called him. He was the lead, the one who knew how to get to the target. Flick seemed to remember the details by striking his left earlobe with his forefinger. Whatever works for him, Jake thought. Flick did that for a few seconds, then rattled off what was in every building they passed and what was down the next alley. Jake tried not to look at him when he thumped his ear because there was only half an earlobe and that entire side of his face was covered with boils.
They waited for Flick to spell out the next part of the route. He did his thing.
Jake stood right behind him, so he watched it again.
Man, that's nasty.
Jake felt a heavy hand bump his shoulder from behind.
"We goin' or what?"
Jake looked back at the heaviest of the crew, a heavily soiled creature—Jake thought the term 'man' was pushing it—with an orange tint to his whiskered skin. He wore a tank top which struggled to hold together atop his muscles. Before they left the Baron's place, he had told Jake his name was Guh.
"Do you mind?" Jake asked.
"What?" Guh said.
Jake saw the vacant look in Guh's eyes. "Never mind," he said.
Flick nodded, giving his mangled ear one last thump, then laid out the path to the building they were going to strike.
They were almost there.
Flick pulled up his loose black sleeve, and checked his watch. "Two minutes."
They weren't the only team. Five other groups of four had gathered at the Baron's place before they set out. Jake didn't hear the discussion about which team was going which way, but he knew they all were supposed to converge on Rayna's secret storehouse at the same time.
Two minutes to showdown, Jake thought.
Then it hit him. He was about to take part in an assault on a building he had no idea about. The Baron talked about how it was a weapons cache, among other things. It's gotta be just Rayna's thugs in there. Maybe the place is empty.
Guh bumped into him, then Jake realized Flick and the talker with the tattoos were halfway to the next alley. He ran to catch up and Guh trailed him.
What if there are innocents? Shit.
Jake glanced at Guh. He didn't have a weapon. Then Jake looked at the size of his hands. I guess they count.
He looked at chattermouth, who was saying something about the figure on his left forearm. Jake didn't hear what he said. He was too busy thinking about the man's blaster in his hand and what he'd do to earn his next tattoo.
Jake glanced at Flick's weapon, still holstered. He shook his head. He looked down at his own weapon. No turning back now, is there?
He thought about Sarah, and what he'd gone through to keep her safe long ago. Memories of the dark life he'd left behind for her swelled up.
"Hey," tattoo man said, "I said are you ready, or what?"
The man grabbed the front of Jake's jacket.
Jake gazed down at the man's hand as he was still processing what the man had said to him. The words didn't register with him.
The man shook his jacket, then slapped him.
Jake grabbed the hand on his jacket, wrapping his own around it. He squeezed until the man's fingers pressed tightly against his tattooed wrist. Jake stared at the man's face. He couldn't hear him, but he saw his mouth fall wide and his eyes bulging.
Jake heard and felt the cracking beneath his own hand. Then the other sounds came back to him. The annoying talker was now gasping and sputtering out an occasional whimper.
"What are you doing?" Flick said to Jake, shoving his shoulder.
Jake let go of the tattooed man's hand and stepped back a few feet.
"Sorry. I…" He shook his head and glanced at his hand. There were a few small cuts where the man's fingernails had dug into his palm.
Flick looked at the tattooed man's crushed hand. "You shoot with your other one. You'll have to deal with it, until this is over." He checked his watch, then pointed his blaster at Jake. "I don't know what the hell is wrong with you, but another stunt like that and I'll shoot you myself. I don't give a damn what deal you have with the Baron."
Jake looked at the other members of the crew, thinking maybe he fit in with them better than he thought.
"Come on," Flick said, heading down the alley.
The tattooed man followed.
Jake glanced back at Guh.
"He talks too much anyway," Guh said.
Jake felt a little weight leave his shoulders. He nodded to Guh, who was now his favorite of the bunch—including himself.
"You're right," Jake said. "Let's get this thing done."
"OK," Guh said. "Hope we don't have to hurt anybody."
Jake was surprised by the comment, coming from a behemoth such as Guh. "Me too," he said, then moved to catch up with Flick and the other man.
Guh followed.
At the end of the two-minute countdown the four of them stood at the corner of a building across the alley from the back door of Rayna's temporary vault stockpile building. A well-placed dumpster gave them good cover, though no one else could be seen in the alley or outside the building they were about to raid.
"No guards," Jake said. "Is that normal?"
"No guards makes it less suspicious," Flick said.
He had a point, Jake thought.
Tattooed man was still grimacing over his hand. "Gotta be inside. I say we go in firing."
"We wait for the signal," Flick said.
"Right," tattoo man said, looking skyward.
Jake followed his cue and looked at the sky, a perpetual dusk.
The haze clung to this neighborhood more than where Tiffin lived, he thought.
Hope she's OK. He glanced behind, checking the alley they'd come down.
"Looking for someone," Flick asked.
Hyde.
"No," Jake said. "Just don't want to be surprised. Wouldn't be stupid of Rayna to have men around out of sight, keeping an eye on things."
Flick nodded, and glanced around.
"How do we get inside?" Jake asked.
The tattooed man jutted his thumb back toward Guh.
Jake glanced at Guh, who clenched both his hands into fists.
"Of course," Jake said. "Just watch yourself. You'll be in front and you don't have a blaster."
"He doesn't like 'em," Flick said.
A flare went off high in the sky above the building they were waiting to raid.
"There," Flick said. "Move!" He ran across the wide alley intersection to the building, taking a position beside the door.
Jake and the others bolted across to the door as well.
"You're up, Guh," Flick said.
Guh stepped in front of the door.
Jake heard blaster fire coming from somewhere around the side of the building, but it was far away from them.
Guh raised both arms and slammed his massive palms against the door, closely following through with his forehead.
The frame around the door broke and Guh staggered in as the door fell forward, into the building.
"Damn," Jake said.
The bricks around the frame toppled to the ground. A thick cloud of dust filled the doorway.
Flick moved inside. "Out of the way, Guh," he said.
Jake saw Guh step aside. He went in next, moving to next to Guh.
The tattooed man came in afterward and took a position beside Flick. He started firing his weapon.
Flick raised his arm in front of the tattooed man. "Hold on! What are you shooting?"
The tattooed man stopped firing, then shrugged. "Better take 'em out before they have a chance."
"There's no one here," Flick said. "Check those crates." He motioned to five large metal crates lining the wall to their right.
"Wait," Jake said. "We need to check the next room first." Jake stepped forward, pointing with his blaster to a door at the back of the room. "Guh, why don't you move over there for cover." Jake gestured to the wall to the right of the closed door.
"He's right," tattoo man said, taking a position square with the closed door. He aimed his blaster at the door. "Go ahead."
Jake stared at him for a second. "Just wait to we see who or what is in there before you start shooting."
The tattooed man swished his mouth then spit on the floor before jutting his chin up toward the door. "Open it."
Jake glanced at Guh, then to Flick. "If we can take the place without a fight, we do so. Got it?"
They stared back. Only Guh nodded to Jake.
Jake reached over and slowly turned the handle. With it rotated all the way, he quickly pushed the door open and leaned back taking a little cover from the wall and aiming his blaster into the room.
There were three tables in the room. Women and children sat around them. They had stacks of something in front of them. Electronic parts, Jake thought at first glance.
"Don't shoot!" He held his arm out in front of the door and looked back at Flick and the tattooed man. "They’re just kids!"
The tattooed man fired. Then Flick. One of the shots grazed Jake's arm.
"No!" he screamed.
They kept firing.
Jake felt an impact across his right leg. It burned. He swung his blaster around to Flick and the tattooed man, but he was knocked down. Guh had hurled himself into the doorway, colliding with Jake. His blaster flew out of his hand and he slid across the floor.
He looked up at Guh. At least four blasts from Flick and the other man hit him before they stopped firing.
Jake was stunned to see Guh still standing, bracing himself against the door frame, completely blocking the blaster fire from going into the room behind him.
The women and children in the other room screamed. Jake heard a great commotion as they scrambled for cover, knocking over chairs.
Guh heaved his chest up. It looked like he was drawing in a breath against his body's wishes. "I won't let you hurt them." Despite the wounds in his stomach and one on his shoulder, all of them charred and bleeding, he stood, guarding the room.
Jake spotted his blaster a few feet from his boot. He reached over and retrieved it.
The tattooed man aimed his weapon toward Guh's head.
"Do it!" Flick yelled.
Jake fired.
The tattooed man's chest exploded as the blast hit him.
Jake caught sight of Flick drawing his weapon up at him. He saw it in slow motion… like the old days. A squeeze of the trigger. Flick died before his body collapsed to the floor.
Jake got to his feet and went to Guh's side. Guh looked at Jake. Jake saw his big simple face ease into a smile as Guh slumped down in the doorway. His head tipped to the side, striking the door frame. Jake saw from Guh's eyes that the gentle giant wasn't there anymore to feel the impact.
Jake exhaled audibly, instinctively trying to get the emotions out, if only for a moment, but it didn't work.
He peered over Guh's head into the room he'd guarded.
The children's cries grew louder at seeing his head lean into the room. They and the women were huddled at the far right side of the room. Jake saw them. They were shaking and holding on to each other. The five women each had a hold of at least two children, wrapping their arms around them and shielding their faces. A few other children crowded in next to the women where they could.
"It's over," Jake said. He reared his blaster back, pointing the barrel toward the ceiling. Then he put it into his holster. "Are any of you hurt?"
He looked to the one woman who was strong enough to make eye contact with him. She glanced around at the others, then shook her head.
Jake looked to his left and noticed another door in the room.
"Is anyone else here?" he asked.
"No," the same woman said.
He thought about the five other raid teams.
"We need to get out of here," he said, stepping over Guh's body to get into the room.
The women and children stayed huddled against on the floor against the wall.
Jake heard men from somewhere on the other side of the closed door.
"Now!" he said, drawing his blaster, and aiming it at the unopened door. "More are coming!"
The women rose and grabbed the children by their hands, looking frantically around to make sure they had them all.
He shoved Guh's body from the doorway with his boot. The corpse tipped forward, clearing a pathway.
The woman who had spoken before stepped closer to Jake. "Who are you? What's going on?"
"Lady," Jake said, "I'm the only guy here who's not going to kill all of you, and we don't have time for what's going on. Get these kids out of here!"
He nodded toward the doorway that was only partly blocked by half of Guh's body. "We're going that way. Get them outside. You're going to run until I say stop."
The woman didn't question him further. She and the other women hurried the crying frightened children past Jake, stepping over the large lifeless leg which was lying in the doorway.
Jake went out at the tail of the group, keeping his eye on the other door. He could hear men getting louder, drawing near. They were shouting. He heard what sounded like the men trashing the place.
With the last of the women and children out rushing over the door Guh knocked from the wall to get into the building, Jake hurried outside and directed the group to take off down the alley.
"Don't stop," he said. "Don't look back. Make your way to the main streets. These men won't follow you there."
A couple of the women nodded and all of them shuffled down the alley with the kids in tow.
Jake stayed behind, taki
ng a position in the alley intersection behind a dumpster. He leaned into a thick shadow blanketing the back of the dumpster and the wall behind it.
He tilted his blaster on its side to check the charge meter. It was close to full.
Just in case. Until they're far enough from here.
He pictured the children who were in the room and thought about how they'd nearly been shot by Flick and the tattooed man.
"Damn fine of you, Guh," he said, remembering the sight of the friendly giant using his body to block the blaster fire from going into the room.
He felt his heart thumping against his chest. He shook the images from his head and squinted to speed the adjustment of his eyes to the dim light of the alley. He settled against the wall and kept watch on the busted doorway of the building where the three dead men of his short-lived crew rested
Glancing down the alley, he saw the women and children had made their escape. Now he only had himself to worry about. He moved his blaster a little, thinking about the men he'd heard making their way through the other rooms of the building—the Baron's other teams for the raid.
Did he know they'd be in the building? Children?
He clenched his jaw at the possibility.
"Damn turf war," he said to himself.
I could take him out right here. But then what? Somebody moves into his place.
Jake caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure inside the building, passing into his view through the demolished doorway. He couldn't tell who it was. Somebody from one of the other teams, he assumed.
He checked his cover in the shadow.
Two men came out of the building. They were forty feet away, but when the light from inside the building shone across one of the men's faces, Jake recognized the Baron.
Jake's trigger finger felt warm as he considered whether to gun him down.
He could do it before the other men came outside, he thought.
Shooting his henchman probably soured our deal.
He hesitated, watching.
The other man, larger than the Baron, gestured wildly. Jake heard them talking but the words were unclear. They were too far away.
