“Firstly, none of that answered my question, but secondly, why? Grant isn’t earning enough from this to be paying you.”
“You run at a low level, like Kaskey…”
“Who?”
“New recruit. You run at a low level and you see all sorts of nasty things, right? If you manage to work your way up you start to meet the people behind all those nasty things. The higher you go, you get the picture.”
Tsyrker shook her head in frustration.
“You think I’m going to jump in on this with just your cryptic comments as justification?”
“Yup. If you weren’t you wouldn’t have come,” he leaned back and drank from his glass.
Ooh, he frustrated her so much. He had brains and talents that he squandered instead of working with her or the InterG. Worse still he was a hitman, he murdered people for money. She couldn’t see why Grant ever befriended him. Except she could, she also liked him in a can’t-put-your-finger-on-why kinda way and had to admit she had fun working with him. Alright, and socialising with him, but he could also read her, knew how she thought and she didn’t like that of anyone, let alone a criminal.
“I know that face,” he said. “That’s the ‘I-hate-working-with-a-criminal-face. You know that I work for the UTN as well.”
“It’s different.”
“It isn’t and I’m not getting into this fight again.”
“Fine. Then tell me your plan.”
***
In hitman terms, a lone mark was often the hardest. There were hitmen all over the Universe and if you were into crime then there was always that chance that you were a target. If that worried you and you couldn’t take care of yourself then you hired people who could. Lone marks meant that either the person was stupid, or that they could handle a hitman. Koey fell into the latter category.
They had a plan, it was a cunning plan, but it turned out that they didn’t need it. Koey was sitting in the hotel bar having just finished a meal in the lavish restaurant. Regrette shrugged at Tsyrker and they went and sat opposite him in the booth. It was in the corner so he had his back to a wall, of course, and he sat on the end to make a quick escape and to stop someone like Rainsford sitting next to him and blocking him in. They all sat with their hands in their laps.
“Hello, Koey,” Regrette said with a friendly smile.
“Seems you know me and I don’t know you.”
“Apparently so,” Regrette said.
“I think you’re misunderstanding the situation here and need to leave,” Koey said with a touch of menace.
“Nope. You see powerful people like yourself think you’re dangerous people. And you are, but not compared to actual dangerous people.”
“Like you?” he asked.
“Exactly,” Regrette grinned.
“Except I’m the one holding a gun at you under the table.”
“Except,” Regrette brought up a hand, “I took the clip out of it.”
He waved the clip.
“How did you…” Koey started.
“And now I’m the one holding a gun at you,” Tsyrker said. “Can you pull the same trick?”
He narrowed his eyes at them.
“What do you want?”
“Just information. There really was no need for guns at all. No. Gothra stole something from me, I want it back and then I see her talking to a known shifter. I couldn’t let you leave if you had my belongings.”
Koey stared at him. This guy knew way too much about him and what he did.
“Well, I ain’t,” he said.
“You don’t know what it is,” Tsyrker said.
“I wasn’t shifting for her so I ain’t got nothing,” he said crossly. He hated being in this position, a weak, less informed position. He couldn’t give them information, but he’d have to give something to get out of this in one piece.
“Then what were you doing?” Regrette asked.
“You think I’m gonna tell you?” Koey asked with genuine surprise.
“It’s a family heirloom, Koey, and I want it back. I’ve heard Gothra’s got links with Cobroy and the Kelby Gang and I’m getting worried.”
“Get out of here, man; people like you don’t get to question people like me.”
“I’m holding a gun to your kneecap,” Tsyrker reminded him.
“Alright. Somehow you got the drop on me, well done. For that I’ll tell you this, drop it. Stuff ain’t worth this, not even heirlooms. Cobroy’s not running the Kelby’s anymore. Even Gothra’s too big for you now. Just walk away, alright? Walk away. You want anything else, I’ll walk with a limp,” he sat back.
Regrette also disliked his position. This was a chance to pump Koey for information, find out what he knew, who he was connected to, find out exactly what he was doing with Gothra, but he couldn’t. To push too far would be to flag him up as something more, flag him up with the Desards and maybe ruin Grant’s assignment.
“OK,” Regrette held up his hands. “Fine. Listen, though, you won’t say anything to her will you? This doesn’t have to get messy, I just want my stuff back.”
“You think I care about you or her? Have a go for all I care. Now, you done?”
“We’re done,” Regrette nodded and Tsyrker stood up.
“It was a pleasure, Koey, not often little people like me get to meet big people like you,” Regrette said, still friendly, as he stood.
“Let’s make sure it’s just the once.”
“Oh, I always make sure of that,” Regrette’s smile turned into a grin.
He pocketed the ammo clip and they walked away.
“I don’t like walking away from someone like that,” Tsyrker said as they entered the huge lobby.
“Me neither,” Regrette said, stopping to look at the murals that decorated the top half of the walls. “But you don’t have anything on him, do you?”
“No,” she said with a mark of frustration. “How long?”
“To work out who I am?”
“Yeah.”
“Not long. To get a suspicion.”
“And then what?”
“Hard to tell, isn’t it? He didn’t seem too concerned about Gothra, would that change knowing a hitman is after her?”
“If you’re right about Desard’s people shadowing her then they don’t want her dead.”
“Yeah, at least not yet. What do they want with her?” he continued to walk to the doors.
“She has links with Cobroy, she’s met with a man known to make deals for crime gangs and she owns bars across the Universe,” Tsyrker said. “Sounds to me like she’s moving up in the Underworld.”
“Right,” Regrette nodded, “makes sense. But why not just whack her and take over?”
They stopped at the large revolving doors.
“Too hard. Big operation like that, loyal employees. You can do it, but it can get long and messy. That’s how we brought Hazco and his gang down,” Tsyrker explained.
They both looked back into the lobby, neither of them wanted to leave Koey there without using the opportunity to their own advantages.
“Come on, we’re here for Grant, not us,” she said finally.
“Oh, alright then.”
They walked out of the hotel and headed down the road.
CHAPTER 14
Opamm’s place was officially closed though Grant could still see lights on inside. The gym seemed dark, but the windows were boarded up tight and if they were using it he thought they would make sure lights could not be seen from the outside. He wished Regrette was here with them, Tsyrker too. They needed the numbers. On a job like this both Gulch and Kov were out which only left four and only one of those had any training. Still both Loveritto and Tandish had accepted guns and both knew how to fire them. Turns out they got basic training for their job. Who knew space port security got training? He would have been a lot more careful over the years if he’d known that.
Ideally he’d have two people watching the rear, stopping anyone escaping, but as he didn?
??t have the numbers and he thought those inside would fight rather than flee, they had decided on a straight assault. They had a little extra luck in that they could hear the nightclub’s music from here, it would be enough to cover their sounds and would be louder inside the garage.
He and Kaskey crept over to the gym and Grant attached a little device to it.
“OK, we have an alarm,” Gulch said. “Complex one too. Take your hand off of the pulse.”
Grant made sure the device was secure and then let go of it. What the ‘pulse’ did was to send an electric pulse through the alarm’s wires so they showed up on Gulch’s computer screen. From that he could get an accurate picture of the system, how far it spread and how complicated it would be to disarm.
“OK, just 3D modelling it now. Hm, it’s widespread, though either not across to the garage or it isn’t enabled there yet. It’s going to take some time to crack.”
“Grant?” Tandish whispered over the radio.
“Yeah?”
“Two men have just come out of the back of the mechanic’s for a break. They’ve left the door open.”
“Take them out,” Grant ordered.
“Shoot them?” she whispered, horrified.
“No. Just knock them out. Don’t shoot anyone until we know this is the right place.”
Grant and Kaskey moved along the wall, keeping low past the now dark reception area. Kaskey pulled out a lump of plastic explosive as Grant attached the pulse to the metal garage roller-door.
“Where’s the lock?” he asked.
“To your left.” Grant moved it. “Yes, there.”
Grant moved back as Kaskey put the explosive where the pulse had been.
They heard a shout of surprise and then someone shouting ‘hey, hey, hey,” followed by laser fire.
“Valkswagon,” Grant cursed.
Kaskey fumbled with the trigger before getting it in the plastic and then they ran to the side before Kaskey hit the button. There was a little explosion and Grant ran back, grabbed the door and shoved it up on its rollers.
He could see through to the back door where Loveritto was shooting from. Inside he spotted two people hiding behind benches with machineguns and he popped the first one as he ran to the cover of a big engine.
“What the shabbus?” someone shouted.
Kaskey went right and shot at someone before diving behind a pile of oil cans as tall as he was. Someone was on a gangway on the far wall and Grant shot him as he aimed upon Kaskey. Kaskey shot a guy trying to move cover to get a better shot on Grant and then four other people came out of a door that must lead to the gym. They fanned out, laying down machinegun fire as they did.
Loveritto managed to hit one of the men shooting at him from behind a small crane and he and Tandish ducked in the door and found cover behind a stack of tires.
Lasers twanged off of the engine that Grant hid behind and as they stopped he leant out and returned fire. As he did he spotted the feet of a goon hiding behind a large toolbox on wheels and felt bad as he shot them. More fire came his way and Kaskey used the chance to shoot at two men hiding behind most of a car that sat close to the wall with the gym. Grant leapt out of cover, sprinted and dived through the open door into the reception. A hail of lasers followed him, but Loveritto and Tandish shot at the people shooting at him and he had the chance to shoot the two guys hiding behind the car.
Tandish shot from behind the tires as Loveritto moved along them to the far wall, running the gap between them and a pile of old parts in the corner. From there he shot a goon trying to creep round and get the drop on Kaskey. Kaskey managed to run forward to the crane and hide there before popping out and shooting another guy and then there was silence.
“Is that it?” Kaskey asked.
“Tread carefully,” Grant said.
They all appeared from their hiding places, guns first and walked to the centre. No one got shot.
Tandish looked sick.
“Not as fun as you thought, is it?” Grant asked.
“No. No, it’s not. I, well, I, I…”
“It’s OK,” Loveritto put an arm around her. “They were trying to kill you.”
Grant nodded and then turned and walked to the door that led to the gym. Kaskey ran to catch up and then they were walking through. The hallway was lit by dim bulbs and they could see a living area knocked together from old furniture. They walked up the old wooden stairs to find that the top floor was half open, partly partitioned into rooms, but they were all empty.
“Nothing,” Grant said.
“At all?” Gulch asked.
“Oh there’s plenty here, just no people,” Kaskey said.
There were camp beds and rubbish, a small bathroom and an area for cooking. It looked and smelt horrible, like they were keeping animals there, not Humans.
“It’s horrible,” Tandish gasped.
“You don’t need to see this,” Grant said.
“I do. I need to see what those people did. Know I did the right thing down there.”
Loveritto walked amongst the mess. He picked up a pair of handcuffs and jangled them.
“Yeah, here too,” Kaskey said holding up a pair that were still attached to a bed. “Chained to their beds.”
“Kas and Loveritto, go back into the workshop, we need to find something that tells us where they took the girls.”
They nodded and left.
“You need to look at this then. You’re a woman, look for personal effects, anything to tell us who was here, when or how many.”
Tandish nodded and walked to the nearest bed. Grant checked the rooms, they had slightly better beds in them and little side tables with drawers in them. He went through them quickly as there was not much in them. He could find nothing personal to give away who might have stayed here. The guys that brought in the girls were professional at keeping themselves from being ID’d. Grant hoped that those that worked here were less professional; staying in one place and not getting caught made people lazy, hopefully they’d have more luck in the garage.
He went back through the three rooms on his hands and knees, but could find only dust and empty food wrappers. About to stand he spotted something. He flipped on to his back and wriggled back under the bed. Someone had stashed or dropped a casino chip under the mattress, perhaps one they’d forgotten to cash in and hidden until next time. He worked it out and then slid back out.
“Tandish?” he called from the door.
“Here.”
“Anything?”
“Maybe.”
“Bring it with you.”
He headed back downstairs and did a quick sweep of the room and Tandish joined him. They found nothing linked to casinos, nothing linked to anywhere off-world. Once again the people bringing the girls in and out had covered their tracks and left no trace. Except for the chip.
They walked into the garage where Kov had joined them, busily hacking into the computer with the little arms that extended from his HoverSphere.
“Anything?” Grant asked.
“Nothing we can use here and now,” Kaskey said.
“Some of it might help lead to others, if we had time to go through it,” Loveritto said.
“I’m copying a lot of this,” Kov said. “We could send it to the police.”
“You?” Kaskey asked Grant.
He held the chip up between his finger and thumb.
“Bingo,” he smiled.
“Let me see,” Kaskey said and took it from Grant. “Loggajello Casino.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Tandish said.
“True, but casinos often pay some of their money in chips, or throw some in, knowing that the person is far more likely to spend money there once the chips are gone,” Grant said.
“And look at this,” Kov said. “They supply the casino with parts.”
“Don’t see nothing like that in here,” Kaskey said looking around.
“No. Just enough of a cover story if they needed it. When was the last o
ne?” Grant asked.
“Not for a while, but I wouldn’t think they document every van that goes there, that would look suspicious,” Kov said.
“Agreed,” Grant replied.
“But here. A new order for a bar just a few days ago. Installation of gambling machines is all it says.”
“Name?” Kaskey asked.
“Hebero’s”
“Gulch?” Grant asked.
“Got it, give me a while to peel it apart.”
“OK, let’s get out of here,” Grant said.
They left via the roller doors, checking before they exited and ran across the street to the shadows. The music was finally dulled and Grant’s ears were freaked out by the sudden quiet. He wasn’t surprised that no one had seen anything of the fire fight. They wouldn’t have heard over the music and there wasn’t anyone walking these streets at night. Despite the open back door, those going to and from the club were obviously too occupied with their night to see or hear anything. It was often the way, people just didn’t notice crime happening around them; living in their own bubble of hopes and worries, never expecting anything but the same old same old. He had interviewed too many people who had been metres away from murders, rapes, and robberies and not noticed a thing. Neighbours who hadn’t heard screams or gun shots. They probably had, but the brain had just ignored them as unimportant, it was good like that.
Still someone would notice a garage full of dead bodies soon and they needed to be as far away as possible by then.
***
They obviously had no problem getting through the spaceport nor securing allowance to fly in-atmosphere from Vexupulla to Haffir and called the police on the ship’s untraceable line to let them know about the garage.
The continent-city of Haffir was the complete opposite of Vexupulla. From a distance all you could see was a dark mass poking into the sky; as you grew closer you could start to differentiate the skyscrapers by the slivers of sky between them. As you got closer still you might see more sky between them, the widest gaps being filled with double and even triple decker roads that wound around the skyscrapers. To take a lift from bottom to top of some of them would have taken the best part of your day so it was quicker to drive up a few floors. Around the whole island was a triple decker ring road and there was one wide road that cut right across the island-continent.
The island was so jam-packed that the space port had to be built on a manmade island connected by a bridge and it was there that our heroes landed.