“Why not just, y’know, tell all this to the InterG?” Kaskey asked.
“Because they could never get them, they would have to cross lines they cannot, or should I say, that bureaucracy won’t allow them to. But Grant here, he isn’t InterG anymore is he?”
“And of course, taking down such people leaves a lot of good crime open for you to take over,” Grant said.
“A step up,” Hounsards nodded.
Grant thought about it and then chuckled.
“It’s good, but it’s not getting us our kidnappees back, is it?”
“I’m offering you more than that, Grant. Gothra will lead you to Cobroy, Cobroy will lead you to Maggie Desard.”
“I haven’t been hired to find her, I’ve been hired to find a missing girl.”
“Find Desard and you’ll find a lot of missing people, Grant. It’s what they do,” Hounsards pushed. “Plus Cobroy will know where he sent the young men, you can always just follow that lead, but as I say, I doubt they know where the girl is by now.”
Grant stared at Hounsards as he thought. He didn’t like it, but you could never defeat one criminal without helping another. The void left was always filled, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but never closed, never replaced with something good. Did that mean he shouldn’t try to do good? He wasn’t with the InterG anymore, did that mean he should leave the opportunity to take down criminals? Well, yes, he had left that behind to just find stuff, but… But he left because he felt that being part of the InterG, part of the system, was what was stopping him doing good.
“Alright,” he said finally. “We have a job we were hired to do, but we’ll see where it leads.”
Hounsards smiled.
“You don’t like it.”
“Of course I don’t,” he said crossly.
“You see the problems in being good,” Hounsards said to Kaskey. “So much easier being bad.”
Regrette pulled a pistol, looked at it and then at Hounsards.
“I can’t remember where I left my moral compass. If we’re doing good to help bad, can’t I do bad to help good?” he pointed the gun at Hounsards who looked at Grant with a slight smile.
“No,” Grant said after a beat. “Let’s go.”
“Grant?”
“Yeah, Gulch?”
“I’m outside and you’ve got some mean people moving into the hotel. Heavily armed. I’m not saying it’s for you, but…”
“Gotcha. We’re off. Time to go, I suggest you come with us Hounsards.”
“What is it?” Kaskey asked.
“Heavily armed coming our way,” Regrette said.
“Remind me to give you an earpiece,” Grant said to Kaskey.
“See what you’re dealing with, Grant?” Hounsards said.
“You coming?” he replied.
“Why of course, I want to live to reap the benefits.”
Grant considered leaving him there so he couldn’t, but that would just cause another vacuum to be filled.
They went out of the door with their guns drawn. Except Kaskey who didn’t have one, but it was OK because Regrette had enough stashed around his body for a small army.
“Gulch, get back to the ship and pick us up off the roof,” Grant said.
“Wilco.”
“It’s going to take time,” Regrette said.
“Can he, you know, reach the pedals?” Kaskey asked and Grant gave him a look.
“Well, I don’t know.”
“Can we go?” Hounsards asked.
“Yes, right. Come on.”
They jogged along the corridor until they reached a corner. There were staircases on opposite corners of the building and they raced up this set.
“Can’t we just take the lift?” Kaskey panted.
“Never take a lift in an emergency,” Regrette said sternly.
“Alright, alright. Thought that was just fire.”
“Good idea,” Grant said
He ran along the corridor and smashed the nearest fire alarm.
“What are you doing?” Hounsards shouted over the din.
“Er, I thought that was obvious? I mean, I just did it in front of you,” Grant shouted back.
“Think who’s here, no one’s going to leave their things unless it’s a genuine fire.”
Regrette pulled an incendiary grenade from under his coat and tossed it into an open door.
“Fixed,” he said.
“You didn’t check it was empty,” Kaskey exasperated.
“Nope.”
They ran back to the stairs to find the heavily armed goons already coming up. Grant and Regrette shot at them and they dived back for cover. People now came running past them and down the stairs as the fire alarm sounded.
“Get up,” Grant shouted and Hounsards was already on his way.
Grant and Regrette followed them as the fleeing people were making it hard for a shot either way. The fire had taken a good hold and was spreading from room to room.
On the next floor they discovered more goons had come up the other staircase when they were shot at by them. They dived around the corner and shot back. People were just coming out of their rooms now, trying to lug anything incriminating with them and their security shot at the two groups shooting at each other.
“Up the corridor,” Grant ordered and they ran.
They got halfway before more goons appeared in front of them and they dived into a now vacated room. Smoke was coming up the stairwells and creating a carpet at their feet. Which is where carpet should be. Regrette leaned out and fired, hitting the two goons coming down the corridor and nearly got shot by a bodyguard two rooms down.
“I’m not shooting at you,” he shouted. “Just get going.”
They ran along the corridor as the sprinkler system kicked in, pushing past the people trying to escape and went up the next flight of stairs. There was less smoke here and people were trying to get their stuff in proper order before rushing through the corridors. Grant shot a goon as they passed the floor and continued up.
“ETA?” he shouted.
“Five minutes.”
“Could be five minutes too long,” Regrette said firing down the stairs at goons pushing their way up.
“We’ll be stuck on the roof,” Kaskey shouted.
“Right,” Grant said and darted out of the stairwell and into a corridor.
They all followed only to have to jump into a room as goons appeared at the other end. Grant leant out and fired at them before ducking back in to avoid their fire. Regrette knelt down before popping out below the goon’s firing line and nailing the three of them.
“Come on,” he ordered as he sprang up and out.
The fire hadn’t reached this high up and people seemed to be waiting to see if the sprinklers would do the trick. They could hear the sirens of the fire brigade as it screeched to a halt outside.
“Goons behind us,” Kaskey warned and Regrette turned around, running backwards and shot them before turning back.
“Nice,” Grant commented.
They reached the other stairwell and bolted up it. They reached the roof, but the goons were close behind them, only kept at bay by Grant and Regrette’s lasers.
They reached the top floor and had to leave the stairwell to find access to the roof.
“Alright, boy, your time to shine, find that access,” Regrette told Kaskey as Grant fired down the stairs.
Kaskey took off at a run, there was no sign of the fire here and no sign that anyone had an interest in leaving their rooms. There were far less on this floor, bigger suites, and Kaskey wondered who was hiding behind those doors. How close was he to some of the biggest criminals around? He wasn’t sure he liked it; yes he was technically a criminal, but he hadn’t had much of a choice in the matter, and he was very small scale. Did that matter? He was pretty sure to people like Grant that a criminal was a criminal was a criminal.
At the end of the corridor there was a corner and at the end of that corridor
was a door marked ‘staff only’.
“This way,” he shouted and Hounsards, who was already half way there, made no hesitation to run.
Grant and Regrette were shooting furiously and laser blasts were coming back up the stairwell and hitting the ceiling and walls around them. Regrette fired once more and then ran for the corner. Once there he poked around it and gave Grant cover as he ran. Straightaway goons appeared at the top of the stairs and it was only Regrette’s sharpshooting that saved Grant’s life.
“What do you do when I’m not around?” Regrette grinned as Grant dove around the corner.
“Try not to take on powerful crime families,” Grant said picking himself up.
“Get to the door to cover me,” he said shooting at the goons.
“Wilco,” Grant said and ran up the corridor.
It was locked and Grant shot it before Kaskey kicked it open to find a flight of stairs. He and Hounsards ran up to another door and pushed it open as Grant took as much cover as he could.
“Come on,” he shouted back to Regrette
Regrette took another few shots and then ran for the door, barely pausing as he ran up the stairs and Grant opened fire to stop anyone coming around the corner.
“You better be here,” he said into his radio.
“I’m here, but we’ve got security,” Gulch warned.
Technically they were police, but in a place like this they were so corrupt they were almost nothing like the other forces. In fact they were only technically police, but had little-to-nothing to do with the Universal Police Federation as they were funded almost entirely by the criminals they served.
The four of them burst out onto the roof to find the Lark had found a spot to land, but also found four police vehicles hovering above the roof. The only good thing was that the goons didn’t seem to be following them up. Grant surmised that if they were who Hounsards thought they were then they wouldn’t want their presence known to the police and thusly everyone else.
“Put down your weapons and raise your hands,” someone said through a loud speaker.
“It’s OK,” Hounsards waved his hands. “It’s me, Hounsards.”
One of the police launches hovered lower and a man in police uniform jumped out.
“Mr. Hounsards? What’s happening?”
“Assassination attempt, they’re still in the building if you’re quick,” he shouted back over the din of the rotors.
“What?” the policeman said in shock and then made a twirling motion with his hands.
“Get down there and cover the exits,” he commanded into his radio.
The police launches moved to the edges of the building and then quickly descended.
“We’ll get them,” the policeman smiled. “Who are these guys?”
“Just my bodyguards. They’re new, I wasn’t expecting to be assassinated today.”
“Bad day to start,” the policeman said.
“Tell me about it,” Grant said.
“Real bad,” the policeman said and quick-drew his gun.
There were two pops of laser fire and the policeman and Hounsards fell to the ground. Regrette put his gun away.
Grant looked at him and then walked over to the cop. He nudged him with a foot, but he was very dead, what with the hole in his head. Hounsards wasn’t quite and Grant knelt over him.
“We’ll get you out of here,” he said.
“You want to save me to commit more crimes?” Hounsards said with a smile.
“Not really. But I will.”
“Too late I fear,” he croaked and closed his eyes.
Grant stood.
“You’re getting slow, Regrette, you could have got him before he had a chance to fire.”
“Must be getting slow,” Regrette grinned. “Shame that.”
Grant shook his head. He couldn’t agree with what Regrette had done, but he couldn’t mourn the loss of evil either.
“We’ll take the body,” he said. “Kaskey?”
“Oh great,” he said but got it anyway.
CHAPTER 10
Gulch cruised The Albatross through space to the star-gate. He was happy to stare out into the void and not think too much. Driving back to the spaceport and flying in to rescue the others was more than enough excitement for him. He preferred to stay behind his computer and research, he preferred the universe of information found on the Web to the real Universe. The latter hadn’t treated him kindly and he’d found no joy in the endless worlds he had bounced to and from.
Grant had found him trying to hack into a bank for the Cooldrii Gang and convinced him to use his talent against them. He was on the trail of a painting that the gang had stolen because one of them thought it looked nice. They had no idea that it was more expensive than the rest of what they had stolen put together. After that he had hired him; the painting was one of Grant’s first cases after leaving the InterG and he had discovered he needed another set of hands or, as Grant had said, ‘better yet, tentacles’.
For the first time in a long time, Gulch had found somewhere that he belonged.
***
Kaskey on the other hand was not so sure he belonged. He was sitting in the dining room pushing around a plate of food. He was just a small time hustler and although he didn’t want to be that, he had found his niche. A place where he was himself, used all his talents to turn a space pound. And though in his quiet moments he had not liked doing what he did, wished to get out, he had been generally happy. This though, this was his opportunity to get out, do something stable that helped people rather than hustled them, and it scared him.
They were talking about criminals so big that even the InterG didn’t know about them. Was that what he wanted? Was this really somewhere for him to be? Or was he just scared of an unknown future? He didn’t know who these people were, but from the way others had spoken of them, he knew they were serious people in the Universe. Supercop, that’s what Turnod had called Grant and they’d already met two big criminals who knew him. And Regrette? Gulch had said he was The Wraith, an Intergalactic hitman, but he just couldn’t believe that. The Wraith was a myth and even if he wasn’t, why would he be hanging out with an ex-cop?
The second thing that bothered him was that he was a criminal and if he’d learnt anything since he’d met Grant, it was that he didn’t like criminals. Why then was he helping, hiring, Kaskey?
“You know you can eat that stuff too,” Grant said and Kaskey jumped out of his thoughts.
“What? Oh, right. Not hungry, I guess.”
“Big change from your usual.”
“Yeah. Honestly? I was just wondering about that.”
“Why I’m happily hiring a small time crook?”
“You seem to really hate criminals.”
“I do, don’t I?”
“Don’t you?”
“Yup,” Grant sat down opposite him.
“So?”
“So I don’t know a lot of criminals so willing to help someone they admit looks like the police.”
“I was trying to help Jonsy, remember?”
“I do. It was nice of you.”
“I can be nice,” Kaskey got defensive.
“Oh, stop it. You’re not a bad man, you’re not a criminal at heart, you’ve not moved up the ranks.”
Kaskey deflated a little in his chair.
“Alright, alright, but what about you guys, huh? Do I wanna get messed up with you?”
“I just find stuff, Kas, can I call you that?”
“Not yet.”
“Well then. I just want to hire you to help me find stuff.”
“Like crime families?”
Grant pulled a face.
“Yeah, that’s different from the norm.”
“Is it?” Kaskey pushed.
Grant got up and walked behind the counter. He got two beers from the fridge and sat back down. He passed one to Kaskey.
“Honestly? Not as much as I’d like. I was running an op on Ulu, it’s a moon of Vapistra
dor. Very pleasant. This was back when I was InterG, when I was thinking of leaving. There was a little shop there on the main street called Joe’ll Find It. ‘You lost it? I can find it’, that was the motto on the window. I liked that and I went back later to talk to Joe and he told me how he mostly found things people had lost on holiday. Both Vapistrador and Ulu are hot destinations, so he mainly just returned stuff. Said it was easy work, got him around the Universe. It sounded like a nice way to live out my days.”
“But?”
“But with my past, finding lost things is just a little part of it. It’s a lot of bounty hunting and finding stolen goods.”
“And you want me to join you in that?”
“I’ll also be honest and say it’s more fun than I’m making it out and we could use someone with your skills. Imagine hustling, but for the greater good.”
Kaskey smiled at that and drank some beer.
“OK. For now. Not as if I’ve got anything else on.”
“Good,” Grant smiled and drank his beer.
***
They met in the boardroom. It had a long table that could seat ten and at one end was a large screen.
“A little overkill, isn’t it?” Kaskey asked.
“There are times when it’s full,” Gulch said. “Sometimes we employ outside help, for sweep and search and the like.”
Kaskey nodded in acceptance and took the seat opposite Gulch as Grant and Regrette walked in.
“About time,” Gulch said.
“We’ve just been standing outside to annoy you,” Regrette said and sat down next to him.
“Don’t listen to him,” Grant said and sat next to Kaskey, opposite Gulch. “What have we got?”
“Gothra and Cobroy, which one first?” Gulch asked.
“Give us Cobroy, know what we’re aiming for,” Regrette said.
Gulch looked at Grant who gave a slight nod.
“I saw that and I’m offended,” Regrette said.
“He’s easily offended,” Grant told Kaskey. “Thinner skin than a Frontine toad.”
“Just try it,” Regrette warned and though Kaskey was sure he was joking, he wasn’t that sure.
And certainly wasn’t going to try it.
“Not a lot on him. Not recently anyway. Emerged after the Laikan War as leader of the Kelby Gang. Known for his brains and his vicious streak.”
“They took over Exang’s Gang,” Regrette said.
“Yes. The rumour is that he killed Exang in unarmed combat. Except that Exang was armed and he still beat him,” Gulch explained.