Learning the Hard Way 1

by H. P. Caledon

  Cecil’s eyes roamed the room before him, and Mike recognized the look.

  “Where are your thoughts taking you, Cecil?” Mike asked and leaned forward.

  Cecil spat in Mike’s face. The physician reached over the backrest to cover Cecil’s eyes with one hand and swung a fist down to hit Cecil in the abdomen. Cecil made a pained noise as his lungs were emptied from air. He gasped for breath as Mike wiped off the saliva and the physician found his spot in Cecil’s blind angle.

  “Why isn’t Ratkins here, if you’re going after Pierre?” Cecil asked between gasps for air.

  Mike shrugged. “Because Ratkins doesn’t know about this little meeting.”

  Cecil stared at him in disbelief. “And the ship’s captain?”

  “Oh, you mean the commanding officer? This is my old ship, Cecil, and we stayed in contact because I’m not a fucking turncoat like you! I stand by my word!” Mike felt a sting as he said that, but he continued. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while. It seemed striking that Brad, Bill, and Jack all died on missions where we were tracking Pierre, and you were the backup. Did you ditch me on the planet because you thought I was dead, too? I’m so sad I couldn’t see the look on your face when you got my call.”

  “Yeah, you always were a naïve little shit.”

  “Either that, or I was used to a loyal and competent team. But you’re right. I was naïve to trust you. I learned from it. A lesson learned the hard way, as Brad put it.”

  “He was naïve, too.”

  “Either that, or stabbing his team in the back didn’t come as natural to him as it does you. To you it’s just the money, right? The more, the merrier. You’re a slave of your own greed because you can be bought for trinkets, can’t you?”

  Cecil made a quick move as if he was trying to jump Mike. Mike jolted, but the physician once again punched from behind the chair, and this time he hit Cecil on the forehead so hard that Cecil banged the back of his head against the chair. The physician glared at Mike with warning.

  “We already know you value the money the most, Cecil. How much to give us Pierre’s position?” Mike asked.

  “You don’t have enough!” Cecil sneered.

  “We don’t? Well, let’s try and find something you value more than money, then. How about... ” Mike tapped a finger on his chin and looked thoughtful. “Any ideas?”

  “Your health in trade for Pierre?” the physician suggested.

  “My health?” Cecil scoffed. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you are an amateur compared to the people I know, and they can do more than stand behind someone and swat at them!”

  The physician stepped around the chair so Cecil could finally see him, and Mike made no attempts to hide his amusement as Cecil’s cocky grin froze on his face and horror took over as he recognized the physician.

  “Where was it you had me sent?” the physician asked, then stopped next to Mike.

  “And me? Where did I end up?” Mike looked at the physician.

  “Well,” the physician exclaimed and dumped his bag on the surface of the metal table next to Cecil. He opened it and hummed a melody lacking so much joy and tune that even Mike’s courage faltered. But Cecil seemed to do much worse as he grew paler and paler and his eyes searched the room.

  “Mike,” he pleaded.

  “Forget it, Cecil!”

  “Mike, you’re not like this, you’ve always been too sensitive—” Cecil’s pleading was stopped as the physician slapped him hard across the face.

  “But I’m not, Cecil!” the physician said.

  “Hey, you two! The interroga—” Lewis stopped in the doorway and took in the scene. “Mike, dammit! I need to speak with whoever’s on guard duty. The agreement was that you get a crack at him if our interrogators fail!”

  “We’re just softening him a bit.” Mike said, going for an innocent tone.

  “Softening? I’ll soften your ears later! We can’t use any of this if you hurt him before the interrogation!” Lewis gestured for them to get the hell out.

  The physician sighed theatrically and closed his bag. “Remember not to talk, Cecil, then you and I will see each other real soon,” the physician whispered and joined Mike to follow Lewis into the hallway.

  “You can never again set foot on Panata, physician! The only thing you know, you fucking sadist! I’ll make sure of it! I’ll make sure everybody knows who you rent your services to!” Cecil yelled as he writhed in the chair.

  The physician turned in the doorway. “Come on, Cecil, you know the trade from top to bottom. How do you think I get paid?”

  Mike looked at the physician, not understanding what that meant. But it certainly did the job of shutting Cecil up, if only for a few seconds. Then he replayed his repertoire of curses and foul language.

  “Well?” Lewis asked. The physician chuckled and left them. “And that meant?”

  “No idea, sir, but I think it might be a good sign.”

  “Okay.” Lewis walked with Mike to a room further down the hall where Heckman, Harrison, and a few other and gentler interrogators waited. The physician stood in a corner with a cup of coffee.

  “Mike, you and the physician may choose to stay here and watch the interrogation on the VID,” Heckman said, pointing at a VID on standby.

  “Thank you, sir.” Mike took a seat. The physician took a seat next to Mike and handed him a cup of coffee.

  “Ratkins will be right in.” Lewis left them. Mike activated the VID and they watched Cecil squirm in the chair waiting for the interrogation to begin.

  “What did that last thing you said mean? About how you get paid?” Mike asked.

  “The Tribunal runs everything, doesn’t it? Isn’t that why they are so mysterious in the eye of the general population?” the physician asked. Mike nodded. “Mike, how can I turn a profit while not on Panata?”

  Mike studied him for a while. “Do you get him as a slave afterward?”

  A fleeting smile had crossed the physician’s face before he turned his attention toward the VID. Ratkins came in and took a seat on Mike’s other side. The physician elbowed Mike gently, and when Mike looked at him, he hushed silently at him. Mike nodded and looked at the VID where the officers were finding their places in the adjoining room behind the window.

  “This will take light years! That ass bonnet in there will never manage to grease Cecil’s jawbone enough to make him chatty,” Ratkins muttered.

  Mike laughed as he saw a marveling expression on Ratkins’ face grow. An expression that turned to disbelief as Cecil promised to say anything and give them anything as long as they kept Mike and the Physician far away from him.

  “What did I miss?” Ratkins looked at Mike, who sighed happily, leaned back, and gave Ratkins a winner’s smile.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mike and Ratkins had received the information they needed from Cecil, and even though Ratkins kept asking how he’d managed it, Mike remained silent. Finally, Ratkins had shaken his head and mumbled something about the loyalty of an Elite soldier from the Order of the Three Clovers. Mike had felt proud, but also the usual sting of having handed Keelan to the guards.

  Lewis and Cecil and, to Mike’s surprise, Harrison, had left the next day for the Tribunal, and Mike had made Lewis promise to call from his new office of his very own Spec Edit ship.

  Ratkins and Mike had left at the same time and set their course to Pierre’s last known position. Verion four. They were nearing their landing-window, but the mood on Ratkins little ship had been far from as depressing as their last run. Maybe it was only Mike who felt that way, because sending Cecil to the Tribunal had given him the much-needed peace of mind. His dreams certainly didn’t involve reliving the abuse from Delta. Instead, Keelan appeared, but when he awoke, the dreams were too confusing for him to derive any sense from.

  Mike sat in the cockpit and looked through the mountain of information they’d collected when Ratkins came out from his room.

  “Find anything?�
�� Ratkins asked.

  “Yeah, SWIS has something. And the Free Species Association sent out a notice about slaves. They don’t think there’s supposed to be slaves.”

  “Of course not.” Ratkins took a seat, and Mike handed him a mug and a thermos. “What do we have on Pierre?”

  “Some think they saw him by the Mining-steps. They said he had a meeting with someone.”

  “Who?” Ratkins leaned forward to stare at the screen.

  “Dunno, but I called SWIS, and they’re looking into it. All we got is a picture. We land in two days, and they’ll be in contact before then.” Mike sagged into his chair.

  “What else have you been looking at?”

  Mike shot him a glance and saw that Ratkins was keeping a discreet eye on him.

  “I looked, but he’s not there. No leads, anyways.”

  “And you’ve called it into SWIS?” Ratkins asked. Mike shook his head. “Why not? If this guy is stupid enough to track you—”

  “He isn’t stupid, Ratkins. Remember what I told you about him?” Mike asked, looking at him. Ratkins nodded. “Running around looking over my shoulder for Keelan isn’t helping my focus on Pierre, Ratkins. Just leave it.”

  Ratkins sighed and leaned back, studying Mike.

  Mike and Ratkins walked through the rundown streets of Verion four, and from each side of the street they looked for Pierre or the woman, Selina, Pierre had met with by the Mining-steps. SWIS had finally sent them a picture and profile of her and four very young men who’d accompanied her, but none of them knew her or the four men.

  Mike stopped by a kiosk and made sure Ratkins saw him enter to buy a news update. As he stepped back out, a gang of young men walked by, talking loudly and bragging while they took up the entire sidewalk. Mike thought he recognized one of them, and instinct told him to react on it. So he stepped out to barge into the kid that looked so familiar to him. The kid turned and shoved Mike, so Mike let go of his update and caught a pillar so as not to fall. Then he turned and stared the kid in the eye. Something in the young man’s smile froze.

  “What? You think you can take all of us?”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt it,” Mike said. Ratkins appeared behind the group. “Do you know... Selina?”

  Ratkins pulled his gun silently and tapped the one closest to him on the shoulder. They guy turned and Ratkins shushed at him and nodded him out of the way. The man left, and Ratkins continued the move until he stood right behind the guy Mike was taking to. In the meantime, Mike tried to keep the guy’s attention.

  “Why? I know a lot of girls.” The guy laughed, goofily.

  “Well, you’d remember this one. Beautiful, nice clothes, black waving hair about this long.” Mike measured the length on himself.

  “Yeah, and soft, red lips.” The young man snickered even louder and goofier than before.

  What an idiot. Mike raised an eyebrow, but the man’s laughter silenced in wonder. He half-turned and stepped back as he found himself inches from Ratkins’ face. He looked around for his friends.

  “Oops, did they go away? Things like that happen when the situation gets sticky,” Mike said.

  “Who is he?” Ratkins asked.

  “He was in the background of the picture.”

  Ratkins scrutinized the young man, who seemed less and less on top of the situation. “So he was,” Ratkins said, looking around for the rest of the gang. The man swung an elbow and clipped Mike on the chin before he set off down the crowded street. Ratkins looked at Mike, surprised before he grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet.

  “Fucking hell!” Mike yelled.

  “What happened?”

  “He clipped me on the chin, come on.”

  “Is he important?” Ratkins asked as they began running.

  “How the hell should I know? I just know he was in the picture that proves business between Pierre and Selina, so he can’t be completely ignorant.” Mike jumped onto a dumpster, then onto a transporter’s roof, ignoring the curses he received from a species who obviously owned the transporter. He scouted down the street and saw the man turn left. He jumped back down and ran into next alley, followed by Ratkins.

  “If it’s Seth Severin, then he’s wanted. Low bounty, but what the hell,” Ratkins said and stopped. “There.” Ratkins pointed to the end of the street while he took cover behind a wall. He looked like he needed a minute, so Mike kept an eye on their target.

  “He ran into an alley.”

  “Which one? There’s about a thousand in this city.”

  “Across from the last street turning left. Where the construction borders the ports docking area.”

  “Fantastic. Means we don’t have to haul his ass very far,” Ratkins said, pushing himself away from the wall. Mike crossed the street while Ratkins stayed on his side, and in a normal tempo they closed in on the alley’s opening.

  Mike readied himself for a confrontation, but a coppery smell reached his nose only a few feet short of the alley. He recognized the smell fairly easy. Blood.

  Mike pulled his gun and stepped out, but the sight that met him sent his stomach churning, and he had a hard time keeping the fear from taking over. The image stood clear in his mind’s eye—a toothless man lying on the ground with a knife sticking out from the neck and a chain wrapped around his neck. A knife Keelan had planted there after a short, but brutal fight to own Mike.

  Mike looked closer at the knife, and there was no doubt in his mind. The handiwork of the blade and only a skilled hand could murder like this in such a short time.

  Ratkins reached him and stopped next to Mike. “Looks like we weren’t the only ones looking for him.”

  “Yeah,” Mike said, but his voice had lost all strength.

  “Hey, what’s with you? If I didn’t know any better I’d think you’d never seen a corpse before,” Ratkins said. Mike smiled joylessly, but couldn’t tear his eyes from the knife. “There goes the majority of that bounty. Wait here, I’ll get a body bag.”

  “No!” Mike almost screamed. Ratkins turned and looked at him in wonder. Mike tried to explain, but at that moment fear had a firm grasp around his mind and prohibited him from putting together whole sentences. “It’s him,” Mike whispered. Ratkins stared at him. “Keelan. He even left his trademark.” Mike pointed at the knife.

  “Thought you said that this guy wasn’t stupid.”

  “Or he’s gotten better.”

  Doubt flickered across Ratkins face before he threw out his arms. “Then you get the bag, and I’ll stand body-watch.”

  Mike had looked down the dark alley before he shone a light down there. But he quickly dismissed Keelan hiding there. No way out.

  “Hurry!” Ratkins said.

  Mike turned and ran. He ran as fast as he could, because even though he didn’t want to stand only a few feet from where Keelan had definitely just been, he couldn’t know for sure that he didn’t have him on his tail right now. He punched the emergency opening of the ramp so it would be open when he arrived. He grabbed a bag and ran out before the ramp had even opened fully. On his way out, he punched the panel for the ramp to close again.

  From a distance, Mike saw Ratkins talking to two men, but neither of them was Keelan. They weren’t big enough. He saw the men clutch at each other’s arms as Ratkins stepped to the side, and then they both ran off. Mike reached Ratkins only minutes later. They helped each other with the body, and Ratkins found some ID in the dead guy’s pocket.

  “It is Seth. Listen, Mike. If this guy really has it in for you this bad, then maybe we should drop this run and turn the tables on him.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Why the hell did you teach all this to a killer, anyways?”

  “Because I trusted him!” Mike yelled, but sorrow took over, and Mike focused on his task at hand and zipped the bag.

  “No matter what, you fucked up, and this is your mess to clean up.”

  “What? You won’t help me?”

  “I helped get you out of jail, and
you paid me back with knowledge of that bastard we collected, so as far as I’m concerned, we’re even, Kiddo. If you want my help on this one, you pay up. Two-thirds! He’s a maximum-security prisoner now, which means double up bounty. You still get a good price.”

  “Yeah, and you get rich, quick,” Mike said.

  Ratkins got up, the anger evident in his eyes. “What was your deal with this convict, in detail?”

  “Knowledge for safety,” Mike said and got up.

  “And our deal, in detail?”

  “Freedom for knowledge.” Mike sighed, wondering where Ratkins was going with the half plan.

  Ratkins nodded.

  “And a fifty-fifty split.”

  Ratkins nodded again before he made a quick move. He hit Mike with a force that sent him spiraling into the wall and to his knees. That wasn’t part of any plan.

  “Your half disappeared with his last breath,” Ratkins said, pointing to the corpse. “Your mistakes cost you your half. You’re sloppy, this whole job is sloppy, but your sloppiness isn’t going to cost me my percentage.”

  “Wait, at least take me off planet. Just to the next one,” Mike said and hauled himself up on shaky legs.

  “You’re good, Mike, but you still have a lot to learn about this business. One lesson you can’t survive without is ruthlessness. Learn it, live it and you might survive.” With those words, Ratkins turned, flung the corpse over his shoulder, and left Mike with a last dry remark. “You can pick up your stuff in the tower.”

  Abandoned, Mike suddenly noticed how chilly it was. Fear gnawed at him, and he felt every hair stand out. He felt alone and watched. The fear spread and nausea pressed forward, so he turned and ran. The wind whipped his face, but he kept feeling that someone was right on his tail. He ran as fast as he could until his legs felt heavy and full of acid, his lungs burned and felt like they were going to explode.

  A motel came into view, and he ran into the hall and collapsed against the wall.

  An elderly woman stared blankly.

  “Can I get a room?” he panted and held out an M-card. The woman gave him a key-card, and he climbed the stairs on shaky legs.