by Alan Black
Lamont looked stunned. He tried to speak but nothing came out.
Mrs. Lamont said, “10,500 credits is a deal, Mister Menzies.”
Tasso shook his head, “Are you sure? Okay, you’re driving a hard bargain. Three hundred credits per acre and not a credit more or a credit less. That’d be 15,500 credits. We can contract now for the other fifty-acre crop if you want. Of course, payment for that’ll be at harvest, but we’d like to get it on the schedule.”
Mrs. Lamont said, “I think we have an agreement.”
Tasso nodded and handed the credit-reader back to Ndubuka. In a flash, he handed it back to the Lamonts. It now read 16,000 credits. Okay?”
Mister Lamont was still silent. His wife smiled.
Tasso said, “Good, there are still two things left. First, please work with this young man to schedule your harvest. We can start as early as tomorrow if your field is ready. I believe they’re starting on my field first thing in the morning. Second, please know this. I’m still cheating you on the price, but I’m an honest cheat and will tell you that I’m paying you less than your chiamra is worth. I do have a whole spaceship full of people that I’m responsible for getting the best price for them I can.”
Mr. Lamont grabbed his hand and shook it hard. “You can cheat me like this every year.”
Tasso said, “Good. Keep this price to yourself. We may pay some people less and we may pay some people more. We don’t want anyone to feel we really did cheat them. Maybe we’ll be able to establish a base price for the farmers by your next crop. Please enjoy the hospitality of the Red Scorpion spaceship and crew.”
Ndubuka touched Tasso on the arm. “Mary and I want to stay here on your world. It is so beautiful here. Would you hire me to help you in your fields when the ship leaves?”
Tasso said, “Are you sure? It can be dangerous and it can be hard work. It may not be a good place to raise your son.”
Ndubuka said, “You grew up here and you are a good man. I want my son to be more like you than like my father.”
Tasso said, “You’d be welcome, but I only have the one small house here. We’d have to build another for you and Mary. Talk to the Saronno people today. Learn what you can of the land and chiamra farming. We can talk more later.”
He turned toward the two businessmen and came to a stop before he was halfway to them. A large pair of men stood between him and his destination. These two men were of the goon variety. He peeked around the two men, caught the eyes of one of the businessmen and shrugged.
The man nodded back and continued to stand patiently.
“This way, junior,” one of the big men said. They led him back to the food tent and into a corner that was still isolated. Seated alone was Planetary Governor Aric Moffatt.
“Well, Tasso Menzies,” Moffatt said, “I didn’t expect to see you so soon and exactly on your birthday as well.”
“Governor Moffatt, excuse me for a moment, please.” Tasso stepped away from the governor and walked back to the two businessmen dressed in cowboy wear. He sighed and collected his thoughts. Finally, he addressed the two men. “Gentlemen, I apologize. It seems there is a demand for my attention.”
One of the large men was back.
“Look junior, I don’t like to have to fetch you more than once. You’ll go along quietly or you’ll go along quietly, got me?”
Tasso looked at the two men still waiting patiently for his attention. “Please accept the hospitality of the Escorpión Rojo and crew. There is plenty of food and drink in the tent.” He handed them his dataport. “There’s something I have to do now, but if you tag your locator or dataport to my unit, I promise to come and find you as soon as I can.”
One of the men nodded, pulled a ship locator out and tagged it to Tasso’s dataport. The locator wasn’t a Red Scorpion tag. He was about to comment on it when a hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.
“I said now, junior.”
Tasso said, “Look at me. I don’t want anyone to say this wasn’t a fair fight or that I hit you when you weren’t looking.”
“Fair fight? Your gonna—”
Tasso hit the man six times in the face. He left him bleeding on the rocky ground. The other large man stepped out of the food tent.
Tasso pointed at the man on the ground. “Drag your friend down to the medical tent at the end. Tell them he is compliments of Tasso Menzies.” He walked past the man and sat down next to Moffatt. He said nothing and politely waved Elenora away when she started to approach.
Moffatt sat quietly for a time. Finally he said, “I don’t have any option but to cede your land back to you.”
Tasso sat quietly.
“Your uncle and I have a lucrative operation going on here. You and I can—”
Tasso shook his head no.
“Your uncle has become wealthy and he’s made me rich as well. If it’s money—”
Again, Tasso shook his head no.
“I may have backed the wrong Menzies.” Moffatt admitted.
Tasso said, “The word is already spreading that Bruce Menzies has been cheating the Saronno farmers on their chiamra plants. I imagine folks will begin to wonder what other price-fixing has been going on.”
“Now, price-fixing is a pretty ugly charge.”
“Grandpa always said ugly is in the eye of the beholder. If you say it’s ugly, it must be.”
“So, there isn’t any way to get you to back off?”
“It’s too late to back off. Word is out and I couldn’t stop this even if I wanted to. I assume you’ve got a recent diplomatic data download from Kesselman.”
Moffatt nodded. “You know you’re going to wreck the economy on Saronno.”
Tasso shrugged. “You have people living here in starvation conditions. I think this economy deserves a little wrecking. I can see you have two options. Neither of those options is trying to pull violence on me again. You may have a small planetary army at your disposal, but I have a spacecraft. Do you know how easy it is for a spaceship to throw a rock? Yes, a common rock could hit your house, your office, your bank, and even your favorite restaurant. A big enough rock and you’d find yourself changing maps of the planet. So, let’s not kid each other, neither of us wants violence. You’d lose in the long run, but it isn’t what I want.”
“Then what?”
Tasso said, “Option one: You can take your wealth and go. Go to Earth, go to Risa, or just go to hell. I don’t care. Option two: You can denounce Bruce Menzies as a thief. Order a commission to root out and stop price-fixing. Demand justice for the people. I’m sure your wealth is well hidden, keep it, or donate it to charities to pull your people out of poverty. You’re a politician, sir. You can spin events faster than a jack-o’-lantern can rip a man’s guts out. Besides, if you worked to collect an honest tax, and I mean honest, at these real prices, you could turn this planet into a paradise for you and its people.”
Moffatt shook his head. “I really don’t like being pushed around. I’ll need to think on this.”
“Don’t think long. Your free ride is ending quickly. Look around you, Governor. Look at the people of Saronno. They’re the ones who will either hang you or build statues to you. Do you want to be the thief who slinks away in the night, or do you want to be remembered in history books as the governor who changed a world and had schools named after him while he’s still are alive to enjoy it? It’s your call which road you take.”
Tasso wondered about his own road. He’d always wanted to come back to his little valley, to be a farmer, to grow chiamra, and to raise a family. However, when Ndubuka asked to join him, it didn’t seem like the right place for him anymore. Had he changed so much he didn’t want to live in his valley? It might be right for Ndubuka and his little family, but all of a sudden, the little valley was too small for him.
A cascade of raven hair fell across his face. His reward for looking up was an upside-down kiss from Kendra. She was holding a cold Sola Cola and grinning. “I’m not going to interr
upt,” she said. “I’m just grabbing a cold drink. Whooeee! It’s beautiful here, but hot today. I don’t see how you can stand it with nothing but the open sky above your head all day and night. Not having a ceiling over my head gives me the shivers.” She attempted a shiver, but it came out more like a shimmy. “See you later, you greenhorn brush popper. Oh, and Doc V says to quit beating up the locals.”
She bounced out of the tent and was gone before Tasso could say anything.
He looked at the governor. “And whatever you do, I suggest you disband your goon squad. They’re not near as tough as they think they are. A few years working at a real job might do wonders for them.”
“Stop it!” Bruce Menzies shouted as he strode up to them. Four strong looking men flanked him. “I will not stand by and let you two cut me out of my business.”
Tasso looked up at him. “Well hello, Mister Menzies. Strange to see you come all the way out here to the old homestead.”
Bruce snarled, “Shut up, you young punk. You don’t have a clue who you’re talking to, and you don’t know what you’re doing here.”
Tasso nodded and smiled. He pushed a chair away from the table with his foot and gestured for Bruce to sit. He slid another chair away from the table and propped his feet on it. Bruce grabbed the chair and threw it away.
Tasso shrugged, “You’re quite right in one regard, Bruce. I don’t know who you are. Frankly though, I don’t really care who you are. You’re certainly not my family.” He looked around the food tent. He could see a dozen people he knew and considered friends. There were even a few he thought of as family more than Bruce Menzies. The tent went quiet at the sound of the crashing chair. Everyone was watching Tasso’s table. Even Captain Rojo, dining with FO Graham and some other people, halted her conversation and watched Tasso with interest.
“You’re a fool,” Bruce spat. “I run this planet. I control everything grown and everything shipped off-world. I will not let you and this tin-pot politician ruin the business I’ve spent twenty years building.”
Moffatt frowned. “Tin-pot? Really?”
“You’ve been paid, Moffatt. You’d be advised to keep quiet and stay paid.”
“Sir, I’ve already had much better advice today. I don’t know what you think our relationship has been, but I’m certainly not your paid employee.”
“This stops here and now. You’ll pack up your little circus and get off my planet.”
Tasso said, “Actually, I own the land you’re standing on. It’s not yours, no matter how hard you tried to steal it. It’s my business who I invite here.”
“These spacers,” Bruce spat the word as an insult, “will either pack up and be gone, or I’ll blacklist them from the spaceport!”
Tasso called across the quiet room. “Captain Rojo, what do you say to that? You’re the boss, it’s your call.”
Captain Rojo stood up, “It seems we’re getting along fine without the spaceport today. I’m sure we can do it again.”
Bruce spat back, “Spacer trash! No other Rojo Freightliner will land at my port again.”
Another woman at the captain’s table stood up. “That would include the Ortiz Freightlines too? I speak for them and for the entire Freightliners Commercial Conference. Unless all companies have a right to fair competition at the spaceport, none of us will use it. That means no freighters from any company, except a few independents who can’t haul more than a few containers and then only a couple of times a year.”
“What’re you trying to pull here, Moffatt?” Bruce shouted.
Governor Moffatt stood up. “I’m not trying to pull anything, Mister Menzies. It’s been brought to my attention today that your Saronno Produce Lobby Associates has been involved in price-fixing, running a monopoly, and cheating the good people of Saronno. That will stop today.” He turned to the two women, “Captains, I can assure you this man doesn’t speak for the Saronno government. There is and will be continued free and unfettered access for all.”
Bruce turned to the men flanking him, “Crandall, tear this place apart. Call in Jocko, get enough men up here to finish this job.”
The men turned to comply but froze in place when a couple dozen people stood up.
Tasso was surprised to see the Lamonts were ready to jump in at the first sign of a swinging fist. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised. The Lamonts were Scots, and like some Texicans, they enjoyed a good fight just for the sake of the fight.
The two men who’d been waiting patiently for Tasso, stepped up behind Bruce and his men. They ran a scanner over each of them, including Bruce Menzies.
One man nodded at the other.
The man called Crandall started to object to the scan, “You can’t—” The first man shot Crandall with a taser in mid-sentence. Crandall dropped unconscious to the floor.
The second man looked at Governor Moffatt. “We’re investigators for the Ortiz Freightliner Company. We don’t have jurisdiction or authority on this planet, Governor. We’ve concrete evidence of murder and attempted murder by some of these men.” He pointed at Crandall on the floor and at another of Bruce Menzies’ goons. “That man and that one broke into Tasso Menzies barn about a year and a half ago. They intentionally damaged a flitter. They left enough DNA evidence behind to confirm it with samples we took from the barn on this property and from the flitter we found still sitting in a police impound lot.”
The still standing goon pointed at Bruce Menzies. “He paid us to sabotage the flitter. He said it’d kill his nephew.” Bruce turned to run, but the investigator shot him with the taser, dropping him to the floor next to Crandall.
Governor Moffatt looked calmly at the two men on the floor. “Gentlemen, I wish to be fair to everyone involved as these are serious charges. These men are Saronno citizens. I do need to know why the Ortiz Freightliner Company sent investigators to Saronno, checking on a sabotage case concerning a Saronno citizen.”
The man started to speak but the tall, dark haired captain who had spoken earlier interrupted him. Tasso only recognized her as one of the people dining with Captain Rojo. The investigators nodded at the woman and took a deferential step back.
“I am Marisol Ortiz. I’m not just the captain of an Ortiz spacecraft sitting in your port, I’m also the chairman of the board, the chief executive officer, and the major stockholder of the Ortiz Freightliner Company. I sent investigators here looking into the death of my son, Tomas Ortiz.” She looked at her investigators with a question in her eyes.
“Si, Señora Ortiz. We have confirmed through billing records that Tomas was staying at the Spacer’s Rest Inn in Landing City. The innkeeper at the time was paid cash for the room rental. We can assume there was an order given to destroy all records of Tomas’s stay. The new innkeeper was forthcoming with our investigation. She provided us with all the data and video records from security cameras. They were records she had found in a hidden wall safe.”
Governor Moffatt looked curious, “Hidden security video?”
The investigator nodded. “It seems the previous innkeeper was paid to wipe the records, but kept them for blackmail purposes. He, shall we say, went missing. The new innkeeper found the well-hidden records during a remodeling. Those records include clear DNA and visual evidence that Bruce Menzies killed Tomas ‘Tas’ Ortiz. We have the recording of him personally carrying the body from the inn. The investigator said, “The only motive we have is that Tomas Ortiz impregnated his sister and he may have taken action against Tomas in an honor killing.”
Tasso shook his head. “I doubt if that was Bruce Menzies’ motive. He’d have acted in public if he was protecting the family honor. I believe he was much more concerned about an experienced freighter catching on to his growing pricing scam. Tomas Ortiz would certainly have known about true freight costs and the real price of chiamra spice. Bruce Menzies doesn’t give a nickels worth of salt water at the beach about family.”
Moffatt said, “I expect my prosecuting attorneys will be given copies of this
evidence for trial? Good.” He looked at Marisol Ortiz. “Captain Ortiz, I can see you wanting to investigate the murder of your son. You would certainly be justified in doing so where my police force failed. We don’t have the death penalty on Saronno, but we can offer justice up to and including life without the possibility of parole. And we do have a rather unpleasant prison on our moon.”
Tasso could see the man’s wheels turning. The political spin was just beginning. If Moffatt had been deep in Bruce Menzies’ pocket, Bruce might not live long enough to testify about Moffatt’s involvement in price-fixing. Tasso realized he really didn’t care about Bruce any more than Bruce cared about Tasso’s mother.
Moffatt continued, “All jurisdictional issues aside, I must say your investigators overstepped their bounds. Murder of your son, yes, I say emphatically yes! But, the investigation of attempted murder of young Menzies is beyond your investigators purview, wouldn’t you say?”
Marisol Ortiz shook her head and looked at Tasso. She stretched an arm and laid her palm over his heart. “Tasso Menzies is the son of Tomas ‘Tas’ Ortiz. He is my grandson.”
CHAPTER 39
TASSO WAVED at Anisa from across the promenade. She waved back. She had Damien Gonzales on her arm, having broken up with Ivan shortly after leaving Saronno. The promenade was quiet for a Saturday evening. Most of the shops were closing early after a busy Saturday. The ship was docking at the Manjarvis spaceport and everyone was eager to set up another festival for the planet’s inhabitants.
Tasso was more than pleased at the outcome of their Saronno festival. They had contracted with over half of the chiamra farmers for their plants. The other half were lining up at the Rojo shipping agent’s door, eager to get a contract in place.
