Expelled (Interplanetary Spy for Hire Book 1)

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  The lights and surveillance camera for only the sixtieth floor of the staircase were out, creating a small blind spot. Jayne opened the package and withdrew the contents—a few small digital devices in a leather case, a big black purse, and an outfit very similar to what Cara had worn.

  Quickly, she stripped and shoved the bundle of discarded clothing into the purse. Working against the clock, she didn’t bother with underwear or socks and slipped into a long black skirt, threw on a cream blouse with frilly buttons, and pushed her feet into a pair of heels. She ripped the package wrapper and crammed the small pieces into the oversized purse as well, hiding all trace of her arrival.

  Jayne ascended to the seventieth level and the security door that led inside. She retrieved the leather case from the purse and found a small magnetic button. The tiny device clicked against the door’s badge reader which flashed green as the door released with a click. She pushed the door open, snagged the magnetic button from the reader, and stepped inside.

  The overhead lights throughout the floor were out, but the power was most definitely on. Screensavers of glittering rainbows and flying fish danced across optic monitors and exit signs glowed overhead. Jayne followed the route she had memorized as part of her preparation, then opened a door and stepped into an unmonitored closet. She pulled out a burner phone and dialed Merry.

  “I’m in.” She couldn’t help but smile. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Wazerfetch Extracorporated Executive Offices, Theron Techcropolis, Armaros

  “Good. The rest is easy. Do what I say, and we make that money. You want to celebrate afterward by hiring some of those MSO hotties and getting an upper-level hotel room?”

  “I know you’re joking,” Jayne answered, “but it’s not a half bad idea. What do I do next? I’m crammed into a janitor’s closet with gross mops and a smelly bucket of black water and ammonia.”

  “Put your earpiece in so you can hear me and put your tablet away.”

  Jayne jammed the device into her ear and shoved the tablet in the purse. Time to stick to the plan.

  With the wig, the outfit, and the fake nose, they wouldn’t be able to ID her physically if they reviewed the security footage. “Merry, explain to me again how their ID system works.

  Merry piped in through the earpiece. “Only you would want a tutorial on security programming right now. Let that wait. All you need to know is that if you speak, they’ll ID you through voice recognition. Just follow my instructions and we’ll have you out of there in no time. Okay?”

  Jayne responded by opening the closet door and stepping into the hallway.

  “All right,” Merry continued. “I’m watching you through Wazerfetch’s surveillance feed. Go down the hallway to the fourth door on the left.”

  The door was made of metal and Jayne could hear the whir of cooling fans behind it. A security panel was mounted on the wall beside the door knob.

  “Place the green magnetic button on the panel. Make sure it’s the green one, not the black one you used earlier, which would trigger the alarm.” Merry paused, waiting for Jayne to comply.

  The security panel beeped green and the latch clicked open.

  “You’re a go, but leave the button on the security panel until you exit. If you remove it, the alarm will sound.”

  Jayne stepped inside. Blue light illuminated the rows of optic servers stacked on shelves.

  “Those will all be labeled. Find one with the label RH-one-eighty and bond your data stick to it.”

  Jayne’s gaze scanned identical black boxes with small glowing blue power lights. None had labels. She noted the security camera stationed in the upper corner of the ceiling and shrugged.

  “Burning stars, my info said they had labels. Nothing like paying good money for bad intel. That’s okay. It simply means more work for me.” Merry huffed her irritation. “Place the stick against any server. I’ll jump through the extra hoops to get full access to their systems.”

  Jayne placed the data stick against the nearest server. It immediately adhered and got to work.

  “Okay, that’s the key. I’m inside. Now let me…” Merry trailed off, and Jayne waited.

  The academy trained cadets to be patient. It was an important attribute in many missions. Whatever the gig, spies had to learn to wait calmly. Impatience, frustration and acting before the time was right could blow a mission.

  Minutes passed and eventually, Merry muttered in her ear, “Got it. There’s a data tap on a VP’s optic board. That’s your leak. Leave the server room and close the door behind you.”

  She complied without question. Though Jayne was the boss, following the directions of a handler was a key part of successful missions.

  “Good. While you were in there, I locked the security system. Take the green button off the security pad, there won’t be any alarm. Then head back the way you came. At the second juncture, turn left.”

  Merry’s directions led her to the offices of Pontus Filten, Vice President of Emerging Technology. There were no security pads on his door, so she simply opened it and slipped inside.

  “You should find a data stick or something similar attached to his optic monitor.”

  The front and back were clear, but on the bottom, Jayne spotted a thin data stick. She turned to the security camera in the office and gave a thumbs-up.

  “Turn his computer off and remove the stick.”

  Jayne pressed the power button for five seconds until the optic monitor shut down. She snagged the slim device and held it up for the camera to see.

  “Hold it against the tablet I gave you. It’s protected and will copy everything on there to a secure folder. Once that’s done, replace it and turn the optic monitor back on.”

  In less than a minute, the data had copied to the tablet and she completed Merry’s instructions.

  “Great,” her partner said crisply. “Now all you have to do is leave and come back to the office. Then we say hello to the MSO boys.”

  Jayne smiled at the fantasy and followed directions to the elevator. She rode it down to the thirtieth floor where the front-desk receptionist paid her no attention. Once at the port, she ordered an air-cab with her tablet and headed back to meet Merry.

  +++

  ISA Offices, Malicarsh Building, Level 45, Theron Techcropolis, Armaros

  It was nearly four a.m. when Jayne arrived at their empty offices. The lights were on but her partner was missing from her normal spot in the middle of the waiting room floor.

  “Merry?”

  “In here.”

  She shut the front door and turned. Merry sat on the toilet with the bathroom door open, staring at the tablet on her lap.

  Jayne set her oversized, stuffed-to-the-gills purse down and crossed her arms disapprovingly. “I swear to the seven dead stars of Trajar, if you’re masturbating with the door open, we’ll have a serious talk about porn addiction and when and where a little me-time is appropriate. Here’s a hint. It always involves closing the door.”

  As she grabbed the bathroom door and began to shut it, Merry waved her hands in the air, gesturing for her to stop. “I’m not masturbating. I’m working. This is technically the only chair in our office. You’ve got a dirty mind, Jayne.”

  Jayne glanced at the shorts and panties bunched around Merry’s ankles. “You know, I might believe you if your underwear wasn’t on the floor.”

  Merry’s cheeks turned crimson, her eyes flared, and she pursed her lips. Setting the tablet on the nearby sink, she squeezed her legs together and shimmied her underwear and shorts back up. “You’re my boss. I could sue you for sexual harassment.”

  “I could fire you for inappropriate conduct.”

  “It wasn’t inappropriate I assure you there was no masturbating going on. I was digging deep into our turncoat VP and I had to pee. When I finished, I was completely zoned into tablet land and forgot everything else. It happens.”

  The hacker grabbed her tablet
and turned so Jayne could see a file with Filten’s face on it full of notes, tabs, and links. “As a matter of fact, I am. Very busy. Hidden data doesn’t magically appear, you know. But, thanks to me, the case is solved.”

  Motes of dust floated in the dim light as Jayne’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “It’s solved? Already? We just started.”

  “And now it’s time to celebrate,” Merry sang the words, wiggling and bumping her hips against Jayne’s. “Mr. Filten here rips the data from his company using the data stick you found under his optic monitor. He then goes home to his four-story—four stories and a pool—condo on the ninety-third level of the Danston/McMay building. And this is really stupid of him, but…he uploads the data to his personal optic board before sending it out to his buyers over at, dun dun dun duh! The Axelsen Agency.”

  As Merry resumed dancing, Jayne hummed quietly to herself.

  “Something doesn’t add up, Merry. Why does a filthy rich, top-of-the-food-chain corporate shill making—how much did he make last year?”

  The hacker’s fingers did their dance across her tablet. “Thirty million credits. Plus…oh, wow. Another seventy million in stock trading.”

  “A hundred million. Why does a guy making a hundred million credits a year—stars that’s a lot of money. Why does he risk everything, including spending a serious amount of time in jail, by selling confidential data? We’re missing something. Dig deeper. See what you can find.”

  Jayne’s stomach grumbled loudly and her partner gave her a funny look. “You know what? See what you can find from the bar. Let’s go get some food.”

  Merry followed her to the door. “Works for me. I can hack and cyber-sleuth from anywhere with XaaS access. And I happen to have a fondness for martinis.”

  +++

  Berty’s Beer Bar, Theron Techcropolis, Armaros

  Sitting in the same patched upholstery booth Jayne sat in for her meeting with Cara, the girls dug into greasy bar food and a few drinks. Merry ordered the loaded nachos with funkle meat—Jayne tried not to gag at the smell—and was on her third martini. Jayne bulldozed through her second cheeseburger before downing her fourth whiskey.

  At this hour, the bar was full of extremely drunk people still trying to keep the night alive or to eat as much food as they possibly could.

  The fellow Jayne had knocked out earlier was nowhere to be seen, and neither was the bartender. She did see the busty blonde waitress serving food and booze at another section, though. It could explain why she was so tired the other day if she worked both the night and morning shift.

  Merry ate one last artificial cheese-covered chip while punching away at her tablet. As she crunched into it, a small dollop of yellow cheese landed on her chin. Her focus remained glued to the screen as it had been for most of the past hour.

  She didn’t notice the cheese dollop which sat there on her face right next to a drop of sour cream that had been there for twenty minutes.

  Jayne couldn’t take it anymore. She leaned across the table and ran two of her fingers across Merry’s chin to wipe the food from her face.

  The hacker batted her hand away frantically. “What the fuck, Jayne! What do you think you’re doing? Were you trying to kiss me? That’s so not cool. And not smooth. You can’t go in for a kiss with someone who’s not paying attention. And don’t try and kiss me I’m not nearly drunk enough for that kind of thing.”

  Jayne’s mouth hung open. When the rant ended, she burst into laughter.

  “What?” Merry asked, confused.

  “You idiot. You had food on your face. I wasn’t trying to kiss you. I couldn’t stand to look at that sour cream on your face for one moment longer.”

  Without thinking, Merry touched her face. “Oh. Thanks.” She looked at herself and brushed the nacho crumbs from her black t-shirt and cleared her throat, composing herself. “Anyway…your hunch was right. There is more to it. I don’t know that it really matters because we already know who the mole is and how he’s doing it and we have all the evidence to bury him, but… At first, I thought the Axelsen Agency was another big corporation. I mean, they sound like one. But they’re not. They’re like us, except evil. If you believe in good and evil and not shades of gray. Basically, they find dirt on high-powered corporate shills and blackmail them into providing top secret information that they then sell to other corporate shills for big money.”

  Jayne downed the last of her whiskey—not rotgut this time, thanks to the server who must have been a new hire—and set the glass down on the table a little harder then she’d intended. “Were you able to find out what they have on him?”

  Merry gave Jayne a small, melancholy smile. “I was.”

  She played the video.

  +++

  Wazerfetch Extracorporated Building, Theron Techcropolis, Armaros

  At seven thirty p.m., Pontus Filten, one of the top young VPs at Wazerfetch Extracorporated, finally left the office for the day. By then, most people had gone home, but he nodded to a handful of others leaving at the same time. Office lights shining through the windows showed evidence of workaholics and eager-beavers still grinding away.

  Twelve hours was a long work day and Pontus dragged his feet across the port toward his private personal air-car. When he reached the black luxury vehicle, he pressed his finger against the driver side door and it opened.

  “Home,” he instructed the car once he’d settled in and closed his eyes. Unlike most people, he had the money to pay the registration fee for a self-driving air-car. Certain politicians within the city had been paid well by the cabby union to increase the registration cost exorbitantly, allowing the taxi companies and indie cabbies to stay in business. It was a contentious issue with the locals, and politicians always promised to either do away with the registration or to protect the cabbies’ livelihood in an effort to satisfy both camps. Inevitably, only the cabbies benefited.

  Pontus loosened his tie. “Play Vanscez’s Remorse,” he instructed. A slow, heavy, violin dirge filled the cab and he hummed along.

  From the back seat, the clearly audible sound of a gun being cocked shattered his relaxing ride home. As he turned, his jaw slack in shock, the gun fired with a loud bang. The bullet shattered the AI display monitor above the center console. Pontus curled up instinctively, his ears ringing.

  “Don’t look back,” ordered a calm, measured female voice.

  His face went pale with panic. “Okay. I won’t look back. Just please, please don’t shoot me. Is it the car? Do you want the car? You can have the car. I’ll order it to land somewhere and get out. I’ll tell it to listen to you. Just don’t shoot.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about the car,” the woman chided. “I’ll tell you a story. Listen well. I think you’ll find it familiar.”

  Still curled up in the front seat, the VP began to sweat.

  “It takes place in college. Grad school, to be exact,” the female voice continued. “There were two friends. We’ll call them Vontus and William. Both came from wealthy families, and both were expected to land high-paying, well-placed jobs in major corporations upon graduation.

  “Vontus’ father was the head of a top company, and his grandfather was one of the planet’s ruling titans of industry. Vontus was destined for big things. The two young men really hit it off. They were smart, ambitious, rich, popular, good-looking, and the girls loved them. They tore through that prestigious college, sleeping with every attractive girl who moved, professors included. Sometimes, they even swapped partners in the middle of the night. On the rare occasion that there was only one girl, they’d share. And on one of those nights, the girl passed out early. There was only each other, which was really all they needed all along. The girls came and went, but Vontus and William were inseparable. On this night, while very drunk and no doubt feeling very brave, Vontus took William in his arms and kissed him. To his joy, William kissed him back. They both laughed and smiled. Vontus got on his knees and unbuttoned William’s belt. He unzipped his pants. H
e—”

  “Stop. Please, stop talking.” His voice quivered, his face lined with misery.

  The voice continued relentlessly. “When it was done, they realized the girl was gone. They worried that she had seen them and that she would talk so they tried to reach her to find out what she knew to see if they could buy her silence. But she had vanished. The name she had given them proved to be fake. Over time, when nothing came out, they relaxed. But the fear of exposure drove them apart. Instead of getting a job in the same company as they had planned, William got a job on another planet. Life went on for Vontus, who stopped dating and instead, threw himself into his career. His talent, pedigree, and charming personality saw him rise to the top of the company within a matter of years. And then—”

  “The video,” Pontus croaked before suppressing a sob.

  “The video of Vontus on his knees, his head moving up and down until William releases into his mouth. To some, such a video would be nothing more than an invasion of privacy. The content nothing to be ashamed of. But to Vontus, with his family’s expectations and judgment… He could never let that video be seen. So he offered to buy it. They demanded five hundred thousand credits, and he paid it. But it wasn’t enough, was it?”

  In the front seat, Pontus now shook uncontrollably. Snot flowed from his nose as he sniffled. “No. They made me leak top-secret information. I didn’t want to. But I had no choice. I would be ruined!”

  “Pontus. You are ruined. Your corporate espionage is known, and you will be fired. If your family can’t bribe your way out of it, you’ll spend years either behind bars or frozen in a small chamber.”

  The man moaned in anguish.

  His unwanted passenger sighed. “But Vontus’ secret is safe. I’ve tracked down all the copies of the video file and attached a destruction code to them. At my command, the video will cease to exist.”