Zeta Hack: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 3)

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Money comes in fast when you work for a criminal organization. If we can hook up with Byron or Huyan, I’ll probably end the night with a few thousand,” I replied.

  “Huh?” She squinted at me.

  “I used to work for the Yakuza on Ganymede. I have confidence that I can get a job with either Byron or Huyan. Those types of men are always looking for ex-marines who possess loyalty combined with questionable morals.”

  “I see,” Z said as she glanced down at her menu. Then her blue eyes danced back to my face. “How did you get involved with the Yakuza? I thought you were a marine?”

  “I was. My, ahhh, family needed money, and I couldn’t get enough working for the Jupiter Marines. I had to desert.”

  “Damn. That must have been hard for you,” she said with a frown.

  I didn’t know how to reply. Was it hard? Yeah, but I’d done plenty of challenging assignments before. It was frustrating because I felt as if I had been forced to choose between my mother and sister, or my oath to serve. It shouldn’t have been that way, but I knew life wasn’t fair. I’d become a deserter, and put a bounty on my head, but I did it because I needed to take care of them.

  A man had to take care of his family.

  “Did you get them enough money?” Z asked after I didn’t reply.

  “Yeah. They had medical bills. I got enough to pay them off and then some.”

  “Where are they now?” she asked.

  “Still on Ganymede. I think. I haven’t seen them since I went to prison.”

  “Prison?” Z gasped, but then the waitress came, and we placed our order.

  “You aren’t going to get the Porterhouse?” I asked her after she ordered the filet, but Z just shook her head.

  I ordered a ribeye, and then the waitress left.

  “What about prison?” my friend asked after a few moments. She looked down at her utensils.

  “Bunch of us got caught. I took the fall for them. They said they’d take care of my mom and sister,” I explained as I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I didn’t want to talk about it, but I figured Z should know about my past.

  “Did they send you to jail on Trappist-1e? I’m confused about how you ended up as a tiger-man.”

  “They ran some tests on me when I first went to prison. On Ganymede, you’re allowed to be sold as a slave when you are convicted of a crime. The prison handed me over to a group of scientists. They changed me and put an explosive control collar on my neck. I lost track of the number of missions I went on. I should have died a long time ago, but I didn’t. On the last one, they wanted me to break into this megatower and retrieve a ‘live sample’.

  “I’m guessing that was Eve?” Z asked.

  “Yeah. I didn’t know anything. Only that I had to retrieve the sample. As soon as I saw her, she used her power to take off my collar. I was given my freedom, and she asked me to help her escape from the planet.” I shrugged.

  “And here we are,” Z said with a slight smile. The young woman really was beautiful, and I could understand why she was getting stares from the men we had walked by.

  “How about you?” I asked as I scanned the crowd walking through the casino.

  “I grew up on Trappist-1e. Parents were rich enough to send me to school, but I didn’t really take to it. Found it exceptionally boring. Then dad lost his job. It was hard to make ends meet with only mom’s money.” Z stared out at the crowd for a few moments and swallowed hard. “Dad took a walk one day, never came back. Dunno what happened to him. Never did. Mom tried to pay for stuff, but shit was tough, you know?”

  “Yeah,” I answered.

  “I got into computers thinking I could get a corporate gig. I got pretty good with just teaching myself. Ended up landing a position with a small corporation. I was proud of myself. Mom was too, money started coming in, and she was able to quit one of her jobs. My boss said I could get a promotion if I did some ‘extra’ work for him. I told him no. Looking back, I should have been more polite about it.” Z let out a long sigh and finally looked at me. “Uhh. Nothing happened. I got out of there, but I was pretty beat up. When I got home, I found mom dead. The place was ransacked.”

  “I see,” I said as I tried to control my anger. The thought of anyone hurting Z made the beast in my stomach lash out against my mental blocks.

  “For a long time, I blamed myself. I should have just fucked him. I would have gotten a raise and mom would have been alive. Part of me still thinks that sometimes.”

  “No. Don’t blame yourself for the actions of evil men,” I said as I reached across the table to hold her hand. Her touch cooled the anger I was feeling.

  “Yeah. I know. Just took a while to forgive myself. You probably think the same way about your past,” she said.

  “Yeah. I do. Now I feel as if I’ve been given a second chance.”

  “Me too,” she whispered, and our eyes stared into each other's for a few moments. “Ahhh. Anyways, I started using my skills to dig into the guy. Ends up he’s done that kind of shit before. I got some evidence and sent it to my old employers, but they didn’t do anything. Then I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I reprogrammed the autopilot on his car. He drove off one of the freeways and dropped thirty meters. Kaboom,” she raised the hand I wasn’t holding and dropped it on the table.

  “He deserved it,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she sighed and then nodded behind me. The waitress brought our food over, and I let go of my friend’s hand so we could eat.

  “Oh. My. Sweet. Stars.” Z let out a moan after she took her first bite of her steak. Her eyes seemed to roll back in her head, and her shoulders slumped.

  “It’s good,” I agreed as I took my second bite of the grilled beef. My cut had a lot of fat on it, and it tasted wonderful.

  “I’m sad Eve isn’t here. I feel like I shouldn’t enjoy this as much as I am,” Z said as she cut another bite off.

  “We’ll get her back. I’m confident. She would want us to enjoy the meal,” I said.

  “Yeah. It’s kind of nice spending time alone with you,” the blonde woman said. Then her face turned red, and she waved her hand in the air. “I just mean that it’s nice not to get shot at while I’m alone with you. Uhhh. I would prefer that Eve was here.”

  “I get it,” I said.

  “Okay, good.” Z let out a sigh. “But uhhh. Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “I already asked you this, but you didn’t really answer. The redhead bitch said you wanted me to go with you instead of Eve. I thought that you and she were, uhhh…”

  “Together?” I asked.

  “Hey, it isn’t any of my business. So you don’t have to tell me, but I’m just… Ugh. You guys didn’t like… sleep together on our trip from Gliese 876. Not that I was watching! I just kind of… shit...This is so fucking awkward.” She turned red again and then looked down at her plate.

  I thought about telling her the truth, but I knew that it would hurt her feelings. I also didn’t want to lead her on. I did care about Z.

  “So?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “So?” I repeated.

  “Ugh. You are going to make me say it?” She sighed and looked down at her food. “Look, this is totally dumb. I shouldn’t be even thinking this way. I don’t really know you. You don’t really know me, but I know what I feel when you are around me. It’s so stupid that I feel this way. I’m sorry. I was gonna tell you in the cave because I thought we were going to die, and I’ve been stewing on it ever since.”

  She bit her lower lip and looked at me. She was scared, and she knew what I was going to say, but she still wanted my response.

  I opened my mouth to answer the question she hadn’t actually asked, but I saw a man walk through the crowd. He was a tall guy, with a bald head and a nice suit. He was surrounded by three muscular men wearing less-expensive looking suits.

  “Byron Jacobs,” I
said as I nodded.

  “Where?” She spun. “I see him.”

  We watched him turn at the tables and walk over to a dealer. It looked like it was a blackjack table, and the bald man leaned into the uniformed man for a few minutes. There was only one other man at the table, and he didn’t seem to look annoyed by the interruption.

  Byron finished talking to the man, put something in his hand, and then nodded toward the back part of the casino floor. Then he walked away with his three goons, and I saw him enter a door at the far side of the room.

  “What does the sign above that door say?” Z said as soon as he walked inside. “It’s too far for me to see it.”

  “Velvet Lounge,” I answered. “It is a VIP room.”

  “So what’s the plan?” she asked as she turned back to me.

  “Let’s finish and then talk to that dealer. Maybe he can get us into the room without violence.”

  “Without violence?” she asked with a grimace.

  “Yeah. We are getting into that room either way.”

  “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  Chapter 6

  Z and I finished our dinner quickly, exchanged 500 R-credits for chips, and then made our way to the blackjack table that Byron had visited. Two people were playing now, but it looked like the dealer was bored.

  “You know how to play?” Z whispered in my ear as we walked closer.

  “I’ve played some.”

  “I’m good,” she admitted.

  “Want to play?” I asked.

  “Ahh. No. You play.”

  “Why? You can--”

  “We don’t have a lot of credits, and I don’t see any other women playing. I’ll give you advice.”

  “Got it,” I said. Then we reached the table, and the dealer gave us a nod.

  “Just one?” he asked. The man looked young. Maybe early twenties in Earth years, but it was hard to tell the exact age of people who lived on space stations.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Got it. Place your bet, please,” he said as he pointed to the sign near him that said there was a 20 R-credit minimum.

  I put two chips on the table and felt Z’s hand rest on my shoulder. She leaned over so that her stomach was pressed against my back, but I didn’t mind her close proximity.

  The dealer slid me an eight of clubs, then he gave the other two men an ace of hearts and a four of diamonds. He dealt himself a jack of spades and then gave me a ten of hearts. The man with the ace of hearts got a nine of diamonds, and the man with the four of diamonds got a five of hearts.

  “I think you should stand,” Z whispered, and her thumb rubbed across the back of my shoulder.

  “No shit,” I whispered back with a chuckle.

  “But we’ll still lose,” she said.

  Sure enough, the gambler next to me asked for a hit and got the ten of clubs. It brought him up to twenty-one with his three cards, but it would have busted me. The other man doubled down, got a five, and let out a loud sigh. The dealer gave himself a ten of hearts to get twenty, and he took my chips off the table.

  “Busy night tonight?” I asked the dealer as I put two more chips on the table.

  “Yep,” he answered with a nod as he dealt out the next hand. I ended up with a three and an eight, so Z advised me to hit by tapping her thumb on my shoulder. We ended up getting a queen of spades, and the dealer busted.

  “How long have you been working here?” I asked him as he put out the next hand.

  “About a year,” he answered.

  I had an eight and ten now, but Z asked me to double down by pressing her thumb into my back twice. I put another two chips on the table, and the dealer shrugged before dealing me a three of diamonds.

  “Got a hot woman and a big set of balls!” the man next to me said, and I gave him a smile.

  The other two men busted. The dealer dealt himself a nine, and that took him to twenty-four.

  We lost the next hand but then won the following next three. Z asked me to either split or double down on each of them, and we ended up sitting on a small stack of chips.

  “You only deal here?” I asked the man as I flipped him a chip as a tip.

  “Few other places,” he said as he plucked the chip from the air and put it in his pocket.

  “Ahh,” I said as he laid out the next hand.

  Z didn’t say anything during the games. She’d press twice on my shoulder with her thumb when she wanted me to double down, tap once for a hit, sweep her finger across when she wanted me to split, and do nothing when she wanted me to stand. There were more than a few times where I thought that she’d made a mistake, and stayed when she should have hit or vice versa, but I followed her instructions, and we ended up winning five out of every six hands.

  Soon our small stack of chips was pretty large, and I’d increased my bets so that we were putting fifty R-credits down for each hand.

  A few other people came to sit at our table, and Z was making smaller movements with her fingers to not be noticed. I continued to tip the dealer every four or so wins, and I began to wonder if the only reason we lost hands was so that it wouldn’t look like we were counting cards.

  “You’re on fire tonight,” the dealer finally said after I upped my bets to a hundred R-credits. We were sitting on over eight thousand now, and I began to see some of the floor bosses giving us glances. I knew we hadn’t put much of a dent in their bank, but I was sure most of the casino managers were smart enough to keep an eye on people who were winning much more than they were losing.

  “Thanks, I’m looking for another game though,” I leaned toward him when I spoke and hoped the man sitting next to me didn’t hear me over the drone of the crowd.

  “What kind of game?”

  “Something private,” I said as I nodded to the far side of the room where the VIP entrance was. “Can I get in there?”

  “Buy in there is five grand,” he said with a shrug.

  “Looks like I’ll have to keep winning then,” I said as I laid down two hundred.

  We lost that hand but then won the next three. Then we lost two more but won the next six. Z was really damn good at blackjack, and we never lost a hand when she motioned for me to double down or split.

  Half an hour later we were sitting on almost thirty grand, and I wondered if I should come back here once we got our 80,000 R-credit card back so that the blonde woman could turn it into a few hundred thousand. If both Eve and Z teamed up to hit the casinos, the women probably could make hundreds of thousands of R-credits.

  “How about now?” I asked him as I gestured to my stack. The floor managers were circling like sharks now, and I guessed that they were going to ask Z and me to leave in the next few minutes. Especially since we weren’t drinking any of the alcohol the waitresses kept offering.

  “You have to know someone,” the dealer said as he glanced over his shoulder.

  “I know you,“ I said as I rolled him a 100 R-credit chip.

  “I’m nobody,” he said as he pocketed the piece of plastic.

  One of the floor managers stepped up to the table with a young woman dressed in a uniform. She carried a case of cards and another case of chips.

  “Sorry folks, we are going to switch out the dealer,” the manager said as he looked at me.

  “Hope I didn’t get him in trouble,” I said to the boss as I nodded at the young man that had dealt for the last hour.

  “No, sir.” The man smiled, but his expression wasn’t friendly. “We just like to mix things up at tables.”

  “I think I should take a break then,” I said as I stood. Z still rested her hand on my shoulder, and I felt her fingers slide down my back.

  “Very well, sir.” The man nodded at us as the new dealer sat down.

  “They are on to me. I tried to throw more hands, but I can’t help being so fucking smart,” Z whispered to me as we walked away from the table with our chips.

  “Where did you learn to count cards?” I asked.r />
  “It’s just math. I’m good at math.” She looked over her shoulder behind us and I saw her eyes open. “Ahhh shit. Two of the penguins are following us.”

  “Let’s play another game,” I said as I pulled her over to the roulette table.

  “Ugh. Talk about bad probabilities. We’ll never make any money here,” she hissed.

  “Doesn’t matter, throw some money on a number.” I turned to watch the suited men walk down one of the aisles. They were obviously trying not to watch us, but they couldn’t really come out and accuse us of counting cards. I guessed that they were going to try to herd us to games where we couldn’t count, or ask if they could upgrade our suite to get us off the floor.

  Z took some of the chips out of my hand and placed them on the table randomly. While she pretended to be enthralled by the process, I glanced back at the blackjack table and tried to pick out the man who had been dealing to us. My sharp eyes cut through the moving crowd, and I saw him walk toward the VIP room. There wasn’t a guard at the door, and the man opened it, looked over his shoulder, and then walked inside.

  “I wonder if we can--”

  “Holy shit!” Z screamed, and I felt her nails dig into the sleeves of my jacket. I turned to look at the roulette table and saw that the ball rested on one of the numbers she had put a hundred chip on. The croupier congratulated us, and then passed us three 1,000 chips and a single five hundred.

  “We are lucky,” I said as I glanced back to the two men that were following us through the casino. They were still watching us, so I motioned for Z to put more chips down.

  We played for another fifteen minutes, and then I saw the men drift back through the tables. It was the result I wanted, so I tugged on Z’s arm, and we meandered through the tables toward the VIP room. I reasoned that we were still being observed on camera by the security staff, so we stopped at a few more tables before we finished our sojourn to the VIP door.

  “If they are watching us, we’ll only have a few minutes to do what we need to do,” I said to Z as I tried the door handle. It was unlocked, and I swung it open.

  “What do you mean by ‘do what we need to do?’ I feel like that’s Adam talk for ‘I’m going to start killing fuckers until someone gives me what I want,’ and here I thought we were going to be sly.”