The Transporter's Favor

by C. M. Simpson

  Whether the theory was correct or not, I managed to worm my way underneath the skimmer, without getting shot. Once the heavier darkness of its shadow closed around me, I stopped to catch my breath, and then tilted my head to see what else I could see.

  What I was hoping, was that my original escort had hung around, and was open to undoing the cuffs… or that his body was close enough that I could find the keys and get the damn cuffs off, myself. What I saw were Simon’s legs hanging over the edge of the skimmer, shadows moving in from the hangar and the edge of the parking lot, and two very solid forms lying towards the rear edge of the skimmer.

  “Thanks a lot, dipshit,” was followed by “Thought you’d never get here,” and I was dragged over to someone’s front, and pulled in tight against them. I guess there was nothing like another layer of protection against the solids flying around out there. It was a good thing I recognized the second voice.

  Before I could ask him to undo the cuffs, he thumbed a control, and a panel slid open above us.

  “I’ve sealed the cockpit,” came through loud and clear in my head, “and it’s got shielding.”

  “Cuffs?”

  “Not happening. Get climbing.”

  I got, no easy feat with my hands behind my back. I even remembered to keep my head below the control console and move over so my escort and his good buddy could climb inside. They, too, kept their heads down, sitting with their backs to the console in the armored footwell.

  I watched as the new guy slid the panel closed with his foot, and jacked into the control column above his head. He curled up on the floor and closed his eyes, as the skimmer vibrated into life, and I heard shouts from outside.

  “Get her off the ground!” my escort shouted, but the pilot didn’t reply.

  He did get the skimmer off the ground and into the air, where it rocked slightly before pivoting away from the hangar. As it took off, I felt it lurch, and hoped that Cascade didn’t slide out and get left behind. ‘Better off with you’, my ass!

  “He’s fine. He was in the foot well, and Simon’s body protected him, until it fell off.”

  Even to me that seemed cold.

  “He wasn’t a very nice person.”

  He was telling me!

  “And he was the one who set up the ambush.”

  I couldn’t help it, I laughed, just once.

  “So, where does that leave us?”

  “With room to negotiate.”

  Oh…. good. Maybe…

  “What about?”

  “We’ll talk about it when we get back to the office.”

  “And Abby?”

  “Back-up is on its way.”

  Sure it was. But would it get there in time?

  “Should.”

  “So, why’d we have to leave, then?”

  “Because it wouldn’t have been in time for us.”

  Well. I guess I was okay with that. I mean, they could have just pissed off and left me on the tarmac, and I really didn’t want to join Mack and Tens in a wolf lock-up. How could I break them out, if I did that?

  “That puts a new light on things.”

  I really was going to have to try and think outside the implant.

  “With this model? You don’t have a hope in Hell.”

  Now, why hadn’t Mack told me that?

  Silence met that question, and I thought, for a minute, that he didn’t have an answer. Turns out I was wrong.

  “Just how much trouble have you been?”

  I groaned. Seriously? I mean, seriously? The guy didn’t even know me.

  “You wanta find out?”

  He stirred restlessly under the console, and then pulled himself up onto the chair I was crouching behind. I watched as he took over the controls, and then watched as the pilot opened his eyes and jacked out, before working his way into the seat opposite. Only when the man had taken back control of the skimmer, did my initial escort answer.

  “No. Thanks for offering. I’m Beckett, by the way. What do you usually go by? I’m guessing it’s not Sofia, and I doubt anyone calls you Jocelyn.”

  It was curious that he didn’t follow that with a guess. Most folk came up with Joss. Those that knew Mack just called me Cutter, like anyone else.

  “Cutter it is, then.”

  “I’d just call you a pain in the ass,” the pilot muttered, but he didn’t look at me, and didn’t seem to care if I responded or not, so I let it go.

  I couldn’t punch all the people in the world, right?

  “And you can’t punch anyone with your hands behind your back.”

  Thanks Beckett.

  “You’re welcome.”

  I stared out the window after that, watching the city slide past us as we entered one of the main fly lanes from the airport. It was hard not thinking, harder not to think that taking the main road from the shuttle port to the city was dumbest of dumb-ass ideas. I tried to concentrate on the lights, instead.

  “Girl’s got a point,” Beckett said. “Take us up and over.”

  Direct was pretty stupid, too.

  “You are a piece of work.”

  He was not the first person to notice that. Delight had already said the same—and Mack… well, Mack had a right.

  “Delight… as in Agent Delight. Of Odyssey.”

  Man caught on fast.

  “Your point?”

  “I… We’d really like to speak to her.”

  No surprise there. She did kind of break into his HQ to retrieve me.

  “She could have just asked.”

  “I don’t think Simon was in the listening mood.”

  He sighed.

  “We’re going to have to review the whole damned mess.”

  Yes! But what I said was, “Did you try making an appointment?”

  “We tried, but Odyssey says she was out of the office.”

  Well, that much was true.

  I shrugged.

  “You put out the call. She’ll find it.”

  “You sound awfully sure of yourself.”

  “She always finds it. Try telling her you’ve got me in custody. That might make her get here faster.”

  He snorted.

  “You’re that important?”

  “No, but she always seems to turn up when I least want her to, and this would be pretty embarrassing for me—especially if you really want to charge her—so she’s bound to arrive.”

  “Cutter, you say the sweetest things, but you really shouldn’t go giving out company secrets.”

  Delight’s voice chimed through the cockpit and I stood up, and backed up, which meant I ended up pressed hard against the cockpit wall, staring at the cockpit-to-cabin intercom. Delight laughed.

  “Nah. We’re not that close,” and I heard the faint sound of guns. “We’re running interference for your trip back to Sharovan HQ. Beckett, you’ll need to authorize clearance for a second skimmer to come down on the roof. I don’t want to be shot down when I’ve actually got an appointment.”

  I relaxed, and slid into the jump seat. It was still not comfortable leaning on my hands, so I slid down to the floor, and indulged in a little calisthenics to bring my hands to the front. That was much better, and I sat back up in the seat, and stared out into the night.

  Up front, Beckett and his pilot exchanged glances. As well they might. They hadn’t even sent their second invitation, but Delight was already here—and, as usual, she was here, right when I was in trouble. Again. Like so many times before. Now, why in all the Stars was that?

  “Because I like you?”

  Yeah. Right.

  And Beckett turned in his seat, looking at me with raised brows. I raised mine in return and rolled my eyes, and then he registered that my hands were in front of me, and his pistol came out. This time, Delight intervened.

  “Beckett, if she wanted you dead, that’s exactly what you’d be. Her cuffs have been out in front for the last ten.”

/>   He put his pistol away, and I jerked my chin towards the window, and the skyscrapers flowing by below.

  “Where do you think I’m going to go?” I challenged, with all the snark I could muster.

  “You could just throw her out,” Delight suggested.

  Thanks.

  And she gave a brief laugh.

  “Your tail’s clear, and we’re coming alongside.”

  “Roger that,” the pilot acknowledged, speaking for the first time. “Rooftop is standing by for two.”

  16—Depredides Dealings

  Cascade was waking up, when we touched down. I was glad I’d got the leash on him, because it meant I could grab him just before he bolted for the door. I did not want to be explaining to Rohan how I’d let his dog run off the edge of a Stars-know-how-many story’s high scraper. Fortunately, the dog was happy with finding a corner to clear his mind in—it had been a very long flight.

  Delight kept an eye on us, and an eye on Beckett and his pilot, and on the gunnery teams along the roof edge.

  “They’re not automated?” she asked, and Beckett shook his head.

  “Automation only takes you so far. These guys are on stand-by for things the guns’ programming can’t handle—and to deter saboteurs.”

  He looked at her, and she smiled.

  “Point taken.”

  I got back to them, with a much happier dog. He caught sight of Beckett and snarled, until I laid a hand on his head.

  “It’s okay, Cas. The mean man won’t shoot you, again.”

  This earned me a wary look from Cascade, and a look of reproach from Bennett.

  “At least I got to him before Simon did. He wasn’t set to stun.”

  “And you thought you’d spare the dog, because…?”

  “Because it seemed a shame to punish the animal because of who his owner was, and I figured I could adopt him once we sent you away. He seemed like a nice boy.”

  The ‘nice boy’ glared at him, rumbling out a deep-chested growl, and Bennett shrugged.

  “So, looks can be deceiving…”

  Delight huffed out a sigh.

  “Look. As sweet as all this is, you wanted to meet with me, and I wanted Cutter and Abby released so they could get on with their investigations. How clean are your offices?”

  Bennett understood in a flash, and shrugged. Nice to know the man wasn’t dumb enough to think his work space was safe to chat in. Maybe we’d be better off just doing this on the roof. He started to explain.

  “They’re as clean as we can make them, but…” and that was as far as he got. Silver light wrapped around us all, leaving the pilot and gunners on the roofline. Delight was all teeth and false cheer when we rematerialized ship-board.

  Beckett straightened his shirt, and glared at her.

  “That was illegal,” he snapped, “and entirely unnecessary.”

  “Uh huh.” Delight grinned, and then her smile vanished.

  “You need to call your dogs off our heavy transport shuttle, too,” she said, “or I’m going to order a diplomatic incident.”

  He paled.

  “They’re only doing their jobs.”

  “And they need to do it by securing the perimeter and letting our transporter get to work, or you’ll have more vacancies to fill than people willing to take the risk of applying.”

  And now he swallowed.

  “Risk?”

  “Odyssey wants its Dasojin ally where Odyssey can protect it.”

  Beckett raised his hand to his ear.

  “Your comms are clear, and being monitored. We have most of Sharovan’s safety phrases uploaded, now. I’d make sure I spoke plainly, if I were you.”

  Beckett did. His orders were clear, explicit and without compromise.

  “Yes, Chief. Now. That is an Odyssey heavy lifter and it is there for the Dasojin craft.”

  “No, Chief. Our mission parameters have changed. You will be updated shortly. Please secure that perimeter before you create a diplomatic incident.”

  His frown changed to a glare and he snapped, “Now! Chief!”

  Delight waited, her eyes looking into the distance of a long-range scan image transmitted to her skull. When she relaxed, the easing of tension was mirrored in Beckett’s shoulders. He blinked himself back to his current position, and turned to Delight.

  “There. I think that will be to your satisfaction.”

  “Well done, Beckett. I think I might request you as the Odyssey-Sharovan liaison.”

  And I caught the faint gleam of overhead lighting reflecting off the sweat on Beckett’s face, followed by the glimmer of a thought that maybe Odyssey would hire him when this was over, because he was properly screwed at Sharovan. He covered it fast, and ran his finger around the inside of his collar.

  “Thank you, Agent.”

  Delight clapped him on the shoulder, and his whole body jerked, startlement flitting across his face. I stared at them, wondering what it was about Delight that scared ten tons of stardust out of even hardened investigators.

  Pritchard came alongside me, and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. His breath tickled my ear.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  I didn’t, and I was suddenly wary of why he was so up-in-my-face-all-touchy-feely. He wasn’t a wolf, after all, and last time… I froze. Last time, he’d wanted to walk me out an airlock to see if I could cope… or was that the time before?

  “You have a very long memory,” he said, and his arm tightened, right before he hit me with an auto-injector he’d been holding behind his back.

  “You son-of-a…”

  Becket stopped and turned, his face a comical mix of horror and disbelief. Delight watched me fighting to stay awake as she explained.

  “She needs about an hour in re-gen, and you need to give me access to your company’s security files.”

  “Uh, I’ll need authorization.”

  “Mmhmm, I’m sure you do.”

  That looked like an interesting conversation to follow, except I couldn’t. It was sliding away from me, just like the rest of the ship. Well, damn. Somewhere in the rapidly receding distance, Cascade pranced and whined. I tried to reach for him.

  “Pritch…”

  When the world came back into focus, he was waiting for me outside the tank, sitting in the same space that Mack usually occupied, and reading a magazine. Cascade was sprawled on the floor beside his feet. My implant informed me I’d been out for three hours rather than one, and that Abby was still off-line.

  “Why am I still in the tank?”

  Pritchard looked up.

  “You’re welcome. No, we won’t be adding it to your tab, but if you’d like…”

  I frowned at him, trying to tap my foot, and he stood, setting the magazine aside. Beside him, Cascade raised his head, following Pritchard with his eyes. Pritchard stretched down to scratch the pup’s head, and Cascade stood, walking with him as he came over to the tank.

  “Someone gave you a better kicking than we realized. Your under-armor kept you upright, but when we got it off…” His eyes clouded, and he shook his head. “Let’s just say it acted like a compression bandage and you gave the docs a fright when they removed it.”

  I vaguely remembered someone kicking ten kinds of crap out of me when they boarded Abby.

  “Simon,” Pritchard informed me. “We think he was trying to stop the extent of his part in the last incident from being uncovered. Beckett did some digging, and helped us find that he’d had two colleagues.”

  I waited.

  “They put out the contract on Mack, the ship, and Dasojin, and then Beckett’s authorizations ran out, and Delight set the Hack Squad to work.”

  Hack Squad?

  “Tens’s old rivals.” Pritchard smiled. “He and Abby gave them a run for their money back in the day.”

  They had?

  Pritchard shook his head and started to turn away. Half way through, he pause
d.

  “Beckett wants to negotiate for the Shady’s people to retrieve their missing agents. Apparently, the missing Sharovan agents have a nice little lunar cell with their names on them.”

  I shook my head at his mimicry.

  “I have one of those, too.”

  “Not any more. Sharovan have rethought its actions. In addition to not issuing you a fine and deporting you, which is the usual penalty for a first offence, you were unlawfully detained, and illegally sold, and your data stolen. In fact, our data was stolen, as was our employee, and Sharovan failed to notify us in accordance to a long-standing agreement we have with them. We are currently deciding just how upset we’re going to be about that.”

  They were? And I’d been sold? What the everloving… I caught the look on Pritchard’s face as he turned around. Fine. Whatever.

  “Good girl,” he said, and returned to his chair, picking up his magazine as he settled into it. He reached out and hit a button on the monitoring panel beside him. “Now, go to sleep?”

  “Pritch…”

  Damn.

  I was outside the tank the next time I woke. I looked for Mack, not understanding why he wasn’t there, and then registering I wasn’t aboard the Shady Marie. What the f… Movement caught my eye, and Cascade stood up from where he’d been lying beside the bed.

  “Hey.”

  I tried to shove his head away, as he washed my face, and he sat down, ears pricked, tongue lolling like he was laughing fit to bust.

  “Yeah. Real funny, boy. Wanta remind me where the Hell I am?”

  Because I couldn’t remember, not straight away, anyway.

  It came back in dribs and drabs, as I rolled myself upright and sat on the edge of the bed, dropping my hand down to scratch the big boof’s ears. He wriggled closer and rested his chin on my lap.

  “Don’t worry, fella. We’ll get him back,” and he whined, pressing closer, thoughts of Rohan crowding my head. I sighed. “Seriously? You, too?”

  He whimpered, and I rubbed his neck.

  “We’ll find him.”

  I eased myself off the bed, settling my feet to the floor.

  “Abs?”