“And after that?”
Grant shrugged. “Throw him to the wolves?”
“You know I can hear you right?”
“It was a private conversation,” Grant replied.
“I dunno what I prefer, them or you,” Kaskey groaned.
“You wanna find out?” Grant asked.
“No, no, I’m good.”
Grant leant out of the door and shot at the approaching car and it swerved behind their van giving him a good shot at one of the vans. He hit the windshield and it shattered. The van hit its breaks and slowed out of range.
“Ha ha,” Kaskey laughed, “never thought I’d be pleased to see the cops.”
Grant pulled the door closed and clambered into the front to see two police cars coming up a road to their left. With flashing lights, the desolateness worked in their favour as the police cars were painfully obvious and the car and vans following them skidded to a halt before pulling U-turns.
“You want us to give chase?”
“Negative,” Gulch said over the radio. “Follow us.”
Ahead of them they could see a small town appearing and in the distant haze the skyscrapers of another city.
“Fardonateu City,” Kaskey said. “Not as nice as Canberi’do, not as rich.”
“Closer to the dark zone too.”
“That’ll tell you something about it, yeah,” Kaskey smiled as they reached the outskirts of the little town. It was more of a truck stop than a town and in the centre was a crossroads, one city in each direction.
CHAPTER 7
Gulch had already sent the sketches to the police car’s on-board computer and told them to carry on to Fardonateu and flash them around, though Grant didn’t think there would be a match.
“You think these folk will talk to you?” Kaskey asked as they pulled up.
“Come on, you know crims and scoundrels. They’re happy to give anyone up but their own. Especially if it helps them out.”
“Mostly, yeah.”
They got out into the hot sun to watch a spacecraft lift off and fly away.
The problem with spacecraft was that it was very hard to keep track of them all, especially when you added in all the in-atmosphere craft as well. Once a ship came into atmosphere it could follow several flight patterns to different spaceports and if one or two landed elsewhere there just wasn’t the man power to stop them. Of course the police would know that there was a dark zone here, but if they patrolled it then another would be set up. Plus, other than illegal landing there wasn’t much they could arrest people for without actually catching them with stolen goods or weapons.
They’d tried of course, all over the Universe, but it was a waste of limited manpower. Plus the local police found that people assigned to the operation would rather quit than do something so very very dull.
Grant and Kaskey walked into a diner. The inside was only a quarter full, mostly truckers who had their rigs parked around the back. It was still cheaper to move cargo by land than sky or space.
“No,” the woman behind the counter said.
She looked like she could beat Grant in an arm wrestle. Probably give Kaskey a run for his money too.
“You don’t sell Ventrwistian coffee?”
She eyeballed Grant.
“We do.”
“Oh good,” Grant beamed. “We’ll take two then.”
She gave them both another quick eyeball and then turned and made their coffee. When she came back to them Grant had the pictures out.
“No,” she said putting their coffees down.
“Kidnappers,” Grant said seriously. “Young girls.”
She looked down at the pictures.
“When?”
“Three to five days ago.”
“Turnod,” she used her chin to point over their shoulders.
They turned to see an old, rough man sitting at a table drinking a coffee.
“I had business, he was running the place for me.”
“Thanks,” Grant smiled.
They picked up their coffees and went and sat down at Turnod’s table. He pushed his empty plate to one side and looked at them both as he sipped his own coffee.
“What took you so long?” he asked.
“Whaddaya mean?” Kaskey asked.
“I knew someone would come looking for those young punks. Too full of themselves, they were.”
“Boasting?” Grant asked.
“Nope. Full of themselves, but not dumb. Just acting like they were better than everyone else. Men who were committing crimes before they were even born, I tell ya.”
“I want their spaceship,” Grant said.
“I got a picture, it’s behind the counter, ‘case I wasn’t here when you came.”
“You’re helping us? Just like that?” Kaskey asked a little surprised.
“It’s not just like that, is it, young man?” he knitted his eyebrows. “Or maybe you don’t know. You don’t do you?”
“What?”
Turnod chuckled.
“Well for one, I don’t like ‘em. Way they do things. Oh, don’t worry, Grant, I won’t rankle you by pretending we had honour or the like, but we had limits. These young ‘uns get into real bad territory, real quick.”
“Whoa there, old man, you know him?”
“Suppose you’re too young. Doubt you would have met him anyway; small time hustler.”
“I ain’t so small time,” Kaskey indignated.
“Alright, you two. I want that ship.”
“Gloria? Can you get my ‘puter? Bring it here.”
“Come get it yourself,” she called back sharply.
“Can’t you see I’m entertaining?” he smiled.
She grumbled to herself, but brought the computer over and dropped it on the table before grumbling off again.
“So?” Kaskey asked.
“Leave it,” Grant warned.
“So we used to call him Supercop,” Turnod looked up with a smile.
“Supercop?” Kaskey grinned at Grant who just sighed.
“Here they are, got ‘em quick while they were away,” Turnod said and slid the computer over to Grant.
He took his own out from his pocket and began copying the pictures over.
“It’s why I’m so happy to talk,” Turnod grinned.
“What? Because he was a cop?”
“Supercop,” Turnod corrected. “Gotta be bad for him to be on the case.”
“I’m not a cop,” Grant said without looking up.
“Stopped you getting too big, it did. Knowing you could attract his kind of attention. Still does from what I hear. Some of the people he hangs around with,” Turnod winked at Kaskey.
“I work alone. Unless you mean Gulch,” Grant flicked his eyes up to him.
“Heavy hitters,” Turnod said conspiratorially.
“He don’t mean Gulch then,” Kaskey shook his head.
“Poor Gulch. There, transferred. What about numbers?”
“Five of them that I saw. Driving an old Hubolt Van. Stolen I’d say.”
“Picture?”
“You just transferred some. Not as good though, had to do it on the sly,” he winked at Kaskey. “I haven’t lost the touch.”
“Why you think it’s stolen?” Kaskey asked.
“State of it, didn’t fit their swagger.”
“Anything else you can tell us?”
“Nothing you can’t work out yourself. Kids like that, they be working for someone, someone big to think they can kick dust like that.”
“Seriously. You rate them?” Grant asked.
“Dangerous? Yeah. Big time? Nah. They ain’t climbing the ladder, won’t get the chance after one meeting with someone like you,” he grinned again.
“I just find stuff now,” Grant said.
“Course you do,” Turnod cackled.
They walked out of the diner and watched a truck pull out and a space ship land beyond the buildings.
“What now? You wanna go look at the zone?” Kaskey
asked.
“No. That was, I’ll be honest with you, a lot quicker than I expected.”
“Surprisingly easy too.”
They walked back to the van.
“Sometimes the Universe goes your way,” he said as they got in. “Sometimes not. Such as your current predicament with Wotham and his men.”
“How’d you know?”
“It is our job,” Gulch said indignantly.
“I know that Wotham was forced to ‘retire’ here to run his operations and I know that he wants back out. I know that the one person stopping him, Kaldre, accidentally drowned in Lake Fard, if you can accidentally tie rocks to your ankles and jump out of a boat. So lots of people have been wondering why Wotham hasn’t left here yet.”
“Alright, you got me,” Kaskey held up his hands. “There was a payoff, not money, I don’t know, I think information. It was stolen and there was a reward for it. I needed the money, a friend needed it. I hustled the drive off the courier and claimed the reward.”
“But you didn’t kill the courier.”
“Shabbus, no, man. I ain’t like that,” Kaskey protested.
“For that we’re glad,” Gulch said.
“I also know that the whole thing was put in play to get Wotham back out, somewhere less protected so that he could be taken out.”
“Heavy hitters,” Kaskey said to himself remembering Turnod’s words.
“You messed things up for a lot of people, Kaskey,” Grant said.
“Yeah, well it didn’t work out so well for me or my friend either, so valkswagon to it.”
“That’s not the correct use of the word,” Gulch said irately.
“What?” Kaskey asked.
“Here we go,” Grant sighed.
“Valkswagon is a Petruthsian word and it means ‘something that is disappointing or not what one would wish it to be’. You can’t say ‘valkswagon to it’, it doesn’t make sense.”
“He has a Cobee in his helmet about it,” Grant explained.
“You can’t just go around changing language, especially when it’s not even your own.”
“Save it for Regrette, Gulch,” Grant said and started the van.
***
The drive back into the city was uneventful, but they all knew their arrival would be a different story. Wotham was out for revenge and he would have his men waiting at the space port for Kaskey to come back. They stopped at the city limits and parked in an underground car park for a shopping centre.
“So what’re we doing?”
“Simple,” Gulch said. “I’ll take a taxi back to the ship and meet you at the dark zone.”
“Right,” Grant said. “They don’t know us other than the van, they won’t be guarding our ship.”
Kaskey nodded with the pursed lips of approval.
“You can just drop me off on Tolber in the Idok Galaxy.
“Oh, no. You still got to earn your taxi ride,” Grant smiled at him.
***
They were not long out of the city when they got the call from Gulch.
“Grant? Seems they know us after all.”
“Where’re you?”
“Mr. Grant?” another voice came on the line. “Seems we have a trade; the monkey for the slug.”
“Valkswagon,” Grant cursed quietly and then hit the brakes.
“We will contact you shortly with the when and where, Mr. Grant. You know this city, you know the security, don’t be a fool and try anything. The monkey means nothing to you.”
The line went dead.
“I’m sorry,” Kaskey said.
Grant shrugged.
“This could work out well for us.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Why not?”
“They’ll kill us, man. All of us,” Kaskey exasperated.
“Nah,” Grant replied.
***
They got the call an hour later and met a half an hour after that. The first meeting place had been Wotham’s own mansion, but Grant had declined. When he was told that they would kill Gulch if he didn’t come, he pointed out that they could kill them all in the mansion. It was conceded that this was not only a good point, but absolutely the plan.
They walked into the restaurant and it wasn’t much safer than the mansion. As far as Grant could see the whole place was filled with Wotham’s minions, and some of the regular size ‘ons’ too. In the centre of them sat Wotham himself along with Gulch.
“Well, well, Benjamin Grant,” Wotham said with a big smile.
He was a Grey alien, though he was a mighty big one for their race. Only a few grew over five foot and were generally skinny things. Wotham was the size of an average Human which made him look huge in comparison.
“I didn’t think we’d ever had the pleasure. You know, in the loosest possible sense of the word,” Grant smiled back.
Wotham laughed.
“For that I’m thankful. Lot of people were mighty thankful when you retired.”
“Not least me. Though I still appear to be having to deal with scum.”
Wotham’s face turned dark.
“Watch your language. Your retirement means no more backup.”
“Pssh, they never arrived in time anyway,” Grant looked around the restaurant. “Nice place. Food good?”
“You think I eat anywhere that isn’t?” Wotham relaxed back into his chair.
“I didn’t think you got out at all. I mean, I don’t keep track of you, but the last I heard, it was about five years ago.”
“The last time someone tried to assassinate me.”
“And yet here you are risking all that over some petty revenge. I mean, Kaskey here didn’t know that you were being blackmailed. He didn’t even know that was what the data was.”
“And how do you?” Kaskey asked.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah, now you say it,” Kaskey admitted.
“Kaldre was shrewd, he made sure I would be stuck here even if something happened to him. As you can see, I’m still successful, but I couldn’t be everything I wanted to be. You cannot play the game if you are not on the field,” Wotham said.
“How poetic,” Grant said. “I feel sorry for you and your evil empire.”
“I am beginning to tire of you, Grant.”
“Oh no, however shall I sleep tonight?” Grant threw his hands in the air.
“There is nothing to stop me killing you right here, right now,” Wotham warned.
Grant turned serious.
“Yeah, I was kinda hoping for a more public place to guarantee my safety, but there is one up side to it all.”
“Oh yes?” Wotham smiled as he picked up a pistol from the table in front of him.
“This place isn’t nearly as secure as your mansion and that’s really all the wiggle room some people need.”
There was a pop, a clink and suddenly smoke burst from the ground. Another pop, another clink and more smoke.
Grant and Kaskey dropped to the ground and Grant saw Gulch drop off of his chair. He motioned at him but Gulch didn’t need to be told as he started wriggling towards them. As he did so they started wriggling back to the door.
There came the crashing of glass and thumps and the whole restaurant was now full of smoke, occasionally lit by laser blasts. They reached the door having dodged a number of feet, pushed it open and pulled themselves out and up. Smoke billowed out around them.
“Now can we head spacewards?” Kaskey asked resignedly.
“Probably about time,” Grant agreed.
A person walked out of the smoke and passed them. He or she was wearing body armour and a helmet with a facemask that was painted to look like a skull, they carried a big gun. The person did not stop or say anything. Didn’t even acknowledge their presence. Kaskey watched the person go with a mixture of awe, fear and astonishment.
“Heavy hitters,” he whispered.
CHAPTER 8
Gulch and Grant sat in the bridge of The Albatross
while Kaskey was having a look around.
“She’ll be annoyed,” Gulch said.
“She’ll be more than annoyed,” Grant agreed. “But you’re the one who got themselves caught.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” Gulch said with shame.
“Shut up, it happens.”
“Do you really think we’re need her?”
“Yes,” Grant looked over at him. “I think it’ll help.”
“And him?”
“Him?”
“Come now, Ben. I looked around that room, there was nothing but one window open a crack. Just enough for a smoke grenade to fit through. Only one man we know could make that shot.”
“Yeah, well, that’s why she’ll be more than annoyed.”
“Because now she owes him one too,” Gulch said.
“Him who?” Kaskey asked.
“Your room OK?” Grant asked.
“Him who?”
“Stephen Regrette,” Gulch said.
“Never heard of him.”
“He’s got the room next to you,” Grant said.
“The Wraith,” Gulch said.
You couldn’t see it because of all the hair, but Kaskey went pale.
“Wraith’s not real,” he said uncertainly.
“He’s got the room next to you,” Grant said again helpfully.
“Heavy hitters,” Kaskey said and sat down.
“You keep saying that,” Grant noted. “Gonna be your catchphrase or something?”
“What? No, sorry. I just wanted to help a man out.”
“And now we’ve helped you out too.”
“What happened in there? What about Wotham? And was that a Typan we saw?”
“You shouldn’t even know that name,” Gulch said with a little respect.
“Hey, man, I get around the Universe.”
“You sure do, Kaskey and we’d love for you to join us if you’ve nothing better to do,” Grant said happily.
“You would?”
“We would?”
“Sure, Gulch. We need someone from the criminal world. Give us an edge.”
“I think we have all the edge and criminals we need.”
“When will we stop mindlessly labelling people, Gulch?” Regrette asked from the door.
Gulch nearly fell off his chair.
“How long’s he been on board?” he asked crossly.
“I said he had the room next to Kaskey,” Grant said.
“You didn’t say he was in it.”
“I thought we’d give him a lift.”
“Good to see you free and in one piece,” Stephen Regrette said taking a seat with a smile.
“It happens to all of us,” Gulch said, still cross.
“Not to me. Not to Grant. It happen to you, Kaskey?”
“You know me?” Kaskey asked.
“Nope,” Regrette said. “I suppose it must do though seeing as you’re the reason I’m here.”