And he wouldn’t let anyone stand in his way.
He glanced back towards the spaceport as a gangway door slid open. There were a hundred doors along this section of the platform, but he only cared about this one. A moment later, out stepped the stalker with the sunken eyes. The one who’d come to Victoria’s. Eddie Gould.
Roy watched the man strut out of the gangway, hands in his pockets as he casually surveyed the crowd. Roy turned his head away to light another cigarette. But the stalker didn’t look in his direction.
Gould had changed his outfit. He now wore a suit jacket over his waistcoat and a shoestring tie around his neck. He’d slicked his hair back with some sort of oil. The gun was missing from his hip, probably concealed beneath his jacket. He’d be slower to draw it. He was less than twenty metres away. How easily Roy could cross the distance, draw his own gun, put a bullet through the stalker’s skull. His fingers itched.
Why is he looking for Lilian? What could a stalker want with her?
He could feel the cold metal of his gun beneath his coat. But he just brought the cigarette to his lips again. Not here. He couldn’t afford the attention. Not until Lilian was safe.
Besides, the stalker wasn’t alone.
Another figure emerged from the gangway. A woman, tall and broad. Long strides carried her across the platform after the thin man. She wore a handsome dinner suit, an older style than the thin man’s. She wore it like it somehow offended her. A grey hat with a narrow brim sat on her head. Where the thin man wore leather shoes, she wore boots. Boots made for fighting in. He couldn’t see a gun on her either, but he had no doubt she was armed.
Two stalkers, then. Their ship’s records were correct. Victoria had done well, buying the information from one of the Port Authority officials.
He stood, put his cigarette between his lips, and thrust his hands into his pockets as he followed them. But as he turned away from the spaceport, movement from the gangway caught his eye.
Knox. What the hell was the augment doing with them? Were the other convicts working with the stalkers as well? No, Bones wouldn’t let the augment go off with the stalkers by himself. Too dangerous. The augment was their most valuable asset, their best chance of getting off the station. And finding me, he reminded himself. He’d needed the convicts’ assistance to make the escape from the Bolt. But he had never planned to stick around and put his trust in men like that. Men who would cut their own goddamn hand off just to carve a set of dice. He was safer on his own.
No, if Knox was working with the stalkers, that could only mean that Bones and the others had already encountered the stalkers and come out on the wrong side of the fight. That was one less thing for him to worry about. But perhaps he should have strangled the augment before he left with the money.
Too late to worry about that now. This settled it. The stalkers were after him. They thought they could get to him through Lilian. They’d see how well that turned out.
Knox fell in beside the female stalker, scurrying on his little legs to keep up with her long strides. The thin man ranged ahead of them at his own pace. They made their way down the stairs from the platform towards the strip. Roy tossed his cigarette and tailed them from a distance.
If he was careful and quiet, perhaps he could take them all out. But it would be a distraction he couldn’t afford. The crowd of tourists and locals celebrating their last weeks on earth in drunken abandon swirled around him as he followed the stalkers. The woman’s height made her easy enough to follow. The thin man would blend in almost anywhere, but the woman and the augment stood out, no matter how they dressed.
The grav train slid past overhead. From the side of the street, a deranged follower of the House of Man screamed about the coming doom. The religious nut waddled after Roy as he passed.
“Embrace it!” the man shouted at him. “Embrace your death and accept the Gospel of Dust.”
Roy ignored him but the man lurched closer.
“Why do you fight? Why do you pretend to live? You were born dead, made animate by sin and the cursed machines that destroyed our ancestors. Surrender to the void. Surrender!”
“Be quiet, old man!” Roy growled, shoving the man away. The doomsayer tumbled to the ground and lay there, staring at the dark sky.
“The void comes! It comes to claim Man! Surrender!”
Roy pushed his hands back into his pockets and returned his attention to the street. For a moment he thought he’d lost the stalkers in the swirling crowd. Then he spotted the woman. He headed towards them. They’d stopped near a looted stim store opposite the Crimson Curtain. The thin man was peering through the broken window of the store, picking through the remains of the display stand. But the other two were casting glances towards the Curtain.
Did they know Lilian was being held by Leone here? An idea took form in his mind. A way to take care of one problem and possibly draw Leone out into the open.
He backed up down the street, keeping the stalkers in his sight, until he came across a public comm terminal with an intact screen. He fed a couple of notes into the machine. It binged happily. Among the many bits of information Hudson had spilled to try to stop the pain, there had been a particular comm number Roy had made sure to take note of. Roy fished the number out of his memory and punched it into the terminal. He brought the handset to his ear.
There was a moment of crackle as a tab picked up, but no one spoke. Light breathing whispered in his ear. He rubbed his palm against his cheek, feeling the scratch of stubble.
“Mr Leone,” Roy said through a closed fist, trying to disguise his voice.
“Who is this?” The voice on the other end was smooth. It reminded him of an oil slick. Just like he’d remembered it.
“A friend with sources inside the Federation. I have some information for you. For your safety.”
For ten seconds there was only the sound of Leone’s breathing. But when he spoke, his voice was as calm and smooth as ever. “And why would I need information like that?”
“I know that some inside the Federation consider you a protected individual. But that protection is not absolute. The Federation is a large organisation. You can always use more sources. I wish to prove my usefulness to you.”
“Do you, now? How did you get this number?”
“A mutual acquaintance,” Roy said. He watched the street as Knox and the female stalker split away from Gould, crossing the street and heading for the Curtain’s main entrance. “I hope that in future we can do business together. But to do that, I need to ensure you remain free. Two stalkers are about to enter the Crimson Curtain. They have a contract on your head.”
More silence. “I know of no such contract. What would the Federation want with an honest businessman like me?”
Roy smiled. The man said it like he almost believed it.
“Your friends in the Federation may not care about you as much as you believe. The stalkers will be entering the Curtain any moment. Perhaps they are only scouting the casino. But make no mistake. Before Temperance falls, they will attempt to apprehend you.”
“You must be mistaken. No one has mentioned this to me.”
“If the Federation was sending stalkers after you, they wouldn’t warn you first. Find them. Watch them. See what they do. If I’m lying, you only have to deal with a little unneeded stress. If I’m telling you the truth, I’m saving you from a lifetime in a supermax prison station. I’ll be in touch.”
“Wait—”
Roy cut the link and Leone’s voice disappeared. He glanced around, drew a knife from beneath his coat, and prised open a panel on the side of the comm terminal to sever a handful of wires. The screen died.
He slid his knife back into its sheath and strode casually away from the terminal, rejoining the crowd. Across the street, Knox and the woman walked past the bouncers at the entrance to the Curtain and disappeared inside. A few moments later, he caught a glimpse of Gould slipping quietly after them.
He’d shaken the tree. Now to
see what fell out.
Roy followed.
10
Dom stepped through the grand entranceway of the Crimson Curtain, the sea of revellers breaking around her. Crimson carpet underfoot led the way through the entrance lobby and trailed down wide halls. Ahead, a short set of stairs led to a gaming floor. The walls were white plaster hung with red curtains. Staff in red uniforms smiled through red lips at the waves of oncoming gamblers. She walked past red leather couches and tables covered with red laminate.
Whoever designed this place really knew how to follow through with a theme.
Dom resisted the urge to tug at the suit she’d stuffed herself into as she passed security officers who didn’t even try to pretend they weren’t gangsters. She’d left her Marauder on the Solitude, but she had her revolver strapped directly to her thigh. A hole in her trouser pocket was her only access to it. But it was better than nothing.
Knox buzzed at her side like an insect. “This place is a goddamn eyesore,” he said.
“Good thing you’ve only got one eye then,” she said as she scanned the crowd.
“Oh, you’re a funny one now, are you? I can see why all the boys can’t keep their hands off you.”
Dom ignored the augment. They came around the side of a stained glass dividing wall—red glass, naturally—and the main casino floor opened up. The place was gigantic. Row upon row of slot machines and gaming tables stretched out into infinity. There was a slight curve to all the red-carpeted pathways that ran between tables, so once you were inside the exit was never in sight. She could see three bars from where she stood, each crowded with young men and women mostly dressed in the sleek, pointed fashions of Babel and Ophelia.
In amongst the rich foreign socialites, a woman paced and drank and slid a stack of chips onto a green felt mat, all with the nervous twitch of a habitual stim user. To the tourists, she was invisible. To the floormen dealing cards and supervising games, she was a walking pile of vin.
“A lot of staff around,” Dom noted. “Why are they still working when they’re all about to die?”
“That’d be Mr Leone’s doing,” Knox said. “Word is he has a way off the station. And he has a reputation for taking care of his own. All these poor saps are praying to the Great and Just Lord Feleti Leone to save them. And all they have to do is put on a red suit and a smile and take these tourists’ money.”
The universe really was filled with fools. Or maybe desperation just bred foolishness. She was no exception.
She put the thoughts aside. She had a job to do.
“Where would this private elevator be?” she asked Knox.
“My bet? Central column.” He pointed to the centre of the wide casino floor. A silver pillar a few metres in diameter rose from the floor to the ceiling’s highest point. There were two mezzanine floors above them, and the uppermost one extended all the way from the wall to the column.
“Entrance up there?” Dom said.
“Your guess is as good as mine, darling,” Knox said.
The two of them found the stairs and headed to the upper levels. Up here, the guests’ clothing became more expensive. Dom became even more self-conscious.
As they ascended to the upper mezzanine, a set of doors came into view on the central column. They were flanked by a pair of red-suited security. Dom let her gaze slide past them. She was conscious that Knox was drawing occasional glances, and she wasn’t doing much better. Nothing particularly suspicious about a dwarf or a large woman, but they’d be remembered if something happened.
She settled herself on a stool at a slot machine shaped to look like an old battle cruiser. Knox looked it over with a sneer.
“It’s supposed to be the Nador Three,” he said. “Solar Federation vessel. The Fringe forces tore these things to pieces by the dozen during the Gravity War. The fucking crates couldn’t turn. Fringe fleet would just open up a Gypsy trail, jump in behind them, and broadside them with grav beams. Then jump away again before the fleet could mount a response. Typical Solars. Big dicks, all right, but they didn’t know how to use them.”
“Delightful,” she said. “Is that what they teach you about in the Radiance? An old war that no one remembers?”
“It’s a shame, really. I wish I’d got the sort of practical education I hear you New Calypsans got. What did they teach you? How to turn an empty beer can into an improvised explosive? The delicate art of applying Molotov cocktails to a line of police recruits?”
She set her jaw and turned away from the augment so he wouldn’t see how close he’d hit. She grabbed hold of the slot machine’s lever and tugged it down. The dials didn’t spin.
She felt—rather than heard—Eddie come up behind her. By now she could recognise his thick aftershave anywhere.
“You’ll need some chips if you want to have a spin on that,” he said, his voice barely distinguishable above the excited rumble of wins and losses and whirling colours echoing up from the lower floors. He pushed a small crimson sack into her hand. When she opened it, it was filled with low denomination casino chips. She took one out and put it in the machine. Pulled the lever. Lights flashed and the dials spun. They died with a sad beep. A bust.
“Security’s all packing,” Eddie said. “And the pit bosses are on alert.”
“So don’t try to cheat any games.”
“Too late,” he said. “Where do you think all those chips came from?”
She couldn’t tell if he was joking. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“Elevator’s over there,” she said, pointing with her eyes. One of the guards on duty beside the elevator doors pulled out his tab and answered a call. The other yawned.
“Seen anyone go through yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, we’ve only got one of these here fancy silver chips,” Eddie said. “I’m guessing that means only one of us is getting upstairs. And since you two are dressed like a couple of bums at a job interview, it’s probably going to have to be me.”
“I resent that,” Knox said.
Eddie shrugged. “Resent it all you like, Jack. Who wants to spot me half a million vin?”
“I can tell you exactly where you can stick your head to go looking for it,” Dom said.
“Come on. I’m dressed the part to get up there, but I need the cash. They’re not going to let me gamble in the high rollers room with my pocket lint.”
“Take this, then.” Dom shoved the sack of chips back into his hand.
“Are you kidding? That wouldn’t even buy me a martini up there. Look, anything I bet, I’ll make back.”
“By cheating,” she said flatly.
“Not if I get lucky.”
She sighed. “You’re going to get us both killed one day. It won’t even be exciting. Some pit boss is just going to walk up behind us and put one in each of our heads.”
She dug her cash card out of her wallet and held it out. He grabbed it, but she didn’t let go.
“Two hundred thousand,” she said carefully. “Not a single vin more. Not if you want us to have enough left to pay for fuel off this damn station.”
He grinned. “Whatever you say, Boss.”
She reluctantly released the card and he strolled over to a chip exchange desk on the wall behind them. With a scowl on her face, she watched him swipe the card across the desk. The woman behind the counter slid a stack of chips to him.
“That’s a lot more than two hundred thousand,” Knox observed.
“I know,” she said.
“Does that make you mad?”
“Would you like me to show you how mad it makes me?”
“I don’t know.” He gave her a leer. “Maybe I would. You might be sexy when you’re angry. It can’t make you any worse, anyway.”
She regretted not shooting him in the chapel.
Eddie returned with his sack of chips, took one look at her face, and smiled at her.
“Sorry. Couldn’t resist.” He shook the sack and closed his eyes in bliss.
“But would you listen to that clink. Sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?”
She snapped her fingers and he handed her back the cash card.
“I saw a security station down on the ground floor when I was walking around,” he said. “If you want to make yourself busy while I’m upstairs living it up.”
“I might be able to access the building plans on their systems,” Knox said. He smiled like he was thinking of something.
“What?” she said.
“What?”
“Why are you smiling?” she said.
The smile vanished and he shrugged. “I was just thinking we might be able to find their central servers that way. Maybe even find us a way in that doesn’t involve gambling away all our money in the high rollers room.”
“My money,” Dom said. “Not ours. Mine. You get your share of whatever’s on Williams when we find him.” She directed a glare at Eddie. “No cheating.” She looked at Knox. “And no hacking the casinos computers to steal their money.”
The augment frowned. “Were you reading my mind? What sexual position am I thinking of right now?”
“I’ve spent plenty of time around criminals. I’m familiar with the stupid things they think of. I don’t want us to come to Feleti Leone’s attention. We stay quiet, we get what we need to, and we find Roy Williams. That’s the job. Okay?”
Knox put his hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine.”
“Eddie?” she said.
“You’re the boss. Are we done?”
“Keep the line open on your tab. You have your glasses?”
He pulled a pair of thin-rimmed spectacles out of his pocket and slipped them on. She brought up her tab and connected to the speaker hidden in the spectacles’ earpiece.
“Can you hear me?” she said into the tab.
“Loud and clear, Freckles.”
Stalker's Luck (Solitude Saga Book 1) Page 8
