“You’d have to be one and the same,” Tandish said. “It’d be too risky to have vans leaving one to go to the other all the time.”
“Yes it would,” Grant agreed.
“Opamm’s Parts,” Kov said.
Loveritto pulled the screen closer and ran his finger through the air over it until he plonked his finger down on it.
“Here,” he said.
Gulch pulled the computer over to himself and enlarged the area.
“Nice,” Grant said.
“Industrial area, close to the skyway, they do parts,” Kov explained. “Ship them out from there. Vans in and out all the time, large warehouse to store them all.”
“Then let’s go and take a look,” Grant said and stood up.
***
They drove through the city, following the other three in Loveritto’s car.
“Isn’t this, I dunno, a bit easy?” Kaskey asked.
“Day’s work for you is it?” Gulch asked from the back.
“No, man, just from all I’ve heard. These are big people and here we are just tracking them down.”
“This? Us doing this? It’s a rarity, Kas,” Grant said. “Kidnapping gets bumped from local to InterG, but by then a lot of the leads are gone. Trying to put stolen vehicles and kidnappers together is often impossible.
“We’ve been lucky, not least in that these guys are new. Doing it for their own desires rather than for the money. Money leads to more money and that makes you careful to stay in the shadows. These guys are just thinking of the thrill of the here and now and they don’t think they’ll be caught; don’t think they can be.”
Kaskey looked out of the window at the passing buildings, every one of them on their own spacious block of land. All of them big. Land was cheap when you had so much of it. No one lived under the skyways they saw, often the wide roads followed under them. It was a far cry from most of the places he was used to. Rundown blocks that were built in the shadow of the skyways, full of poor and desperate people. Or estates filled with the people who worked long, hard hours for little pay in the jobs that kept the Universal Trading Network running. He still had an apartment in one such place and he wondered if he’d get back there to get his stuff; he didn’t actually know where Grant and Gulch lived. Was it on The Albatross? Could he live in a spaceship with just two other people? He didn’t think so.
“What’s an albatross?” he asked.
“What?”
“Your ship. What’s an albatross?”
“It’s an Earthen bird. Known for spending most of it’s life up in the sky,” Grant told him.
“You’ve been to Earth?”
“It’s our speciality,” Gulch said. “Grant fits in.”
“What about you?”
“I stay in the van.”
Kaskey laughed. “I shoulda known.”
“Here we go,” Grant said and slowed to a stop behind the car.
He and Kaskey got out and walked over to the three.
“It’s up ahead, thought it best not to get too close,” Loveritto said.
“You’re a natural at this,” Grant said. “What we need is multiple passes from multiple angles.”
They thrashed out a quick plan and then split up.
Grant walked past the front of the building. It was a large shop front with two big garage doors next to a small, glassed reception area. On one side of it was the large parts warehouse that Kov had mentioned and on the other an empty building that used to be a gym (according to the faded signage). All the windows were boarded up, but the door looked new and sturdy. To Grant’s keen eye the whole thing looked wrong, a little too perfect, as if it had been deliberately made to look that way. Good place to hold people.
Opamm’s Parts was busy with one of the garage doors open to show an open area not unlike a mechanic’s you’d find anywhere in the Universe. There were a few people in there working, he could see the sparks of a welder flying and the sound of metal being hammered. There was a stack of large wheels and what looked like an engine hanging from a crane and then he was walking past the reception. It was nice. Clean and well-appointed with an efficient looking Grey standing behind the desk. And then he was walking past the gym and clocking it.
Then he crossed the street and walked around the corner. He was nearly a block away before he told Gulch to look into who held the lease on the gym.
While he was doing his run, Tandish was walking past the back. All the buildings were big enough to stretch back all the way and were all two story. Opamm’s had windows up on the top floor, but she couldn’t see in them from her angle and thought from the way the sun reflected that they might be tinted or covered. The ground floor didn’t have much other than vents, air conditioning and two doors. Neither of which were open, but there was a small battered table and chairs out there for break time.
Across the road was a warehouse converted into a nightclub and she wondered if anyone who worked there saw anything suspicious, vans coming and going late in the night and the like. She supposed not from this side, but it would be a good excuse to be around here at night time if it came to that.
She reached the corner as Loveritto passed her coming the other way. She knew that Kov and Kaskey were also crisscrossing so they could spot everything without looking like they were looking. She didn’t acknowledge Loveritto as she turned the corner, crossed the street and headed for the meeting point.
She had been thinking about the nightclub and had not noticed the abandoned gym next door, but she wondered whether there were girls being held on the top floor of the mechanics. Could she be that close to people in desperate need of help? She felt helpless at the thought and it churned her stomach. She wanted to go barging in there and help them, take down the people who would do such a thing, but she knew she couldn’t. She had to wait, have patience, but she was going to be there when it did happen, she wasn’t going to let Grant or the police make her sit it out. She even wondered if Grant would go to the police, he didn’t seem the type to release control and he’d let them join rather than get police help already. Good, she hoped she was right on that.
***
They met at a café a couple of blocks away, Grant had gotten a table big enough for them all at the back and sat with his back to the wall. She noticed that and wondered who he really was. She’d seen films where the hero did it and she knew it was so no one could sneak up on them; who was Grant afraid might sneak up on him here? Or in general? Or was it just habit? That last one was worse in a way, that a person was so used to dealing with people who might stab you in the back that he had the habit of sitting against walls.
“Hi,” she said sitting down across from him.
“All good?”
“Yes. I didn’t see anyone, but I…”
“Wait,” he stopped her with a hand. “No point telling it all twice.”
She nodded and a moment later Kaskey came and sat down next to Grant.
“Beautiful day to be stuck in a dark corner,” he said.
“I burn easily,” Grant replied.
“You need to get some hair on you, like a real man,” Kaskey laughed.
“Don’t let Loveritto hear you say that,” Tandish said.
“Say what?” Loveritto asked pulling out a chair.
“Nothing,” she replied.
He eyed them suspiciously.
“Just banter, man, just banter,” Kaskey smiled at him and he sat down.
“Nice to be in the cool. Hot out there,” he commented.
“Man after my own heart,” Grant said.
Loveritto was a Merrick, a race of large vaguely Human shaped creatures that might remind an Earthen of elephants. Except they had tiny ears and their trunk-like nose only hung to their breast and was wider than a elephants, starting as it did at their cheeks. Plus the whole walking upright, wearing clothes and having arms thing. Really not much like elephants at all when you think about it. The Victorians called them Merricks as no one could pronounce their ac
tual name.
A waitress brought over two pots of tea that Grant had ordered and poured a cup each as Kov came floating up and landed on the table.
“All here in one piece, good,” Grant said. “This is what I saw, add in anything extra and then we’re go to Tandish for the back side and do the same.”
Other than a flush of embarrassment that she hadn’t noted the building next door; Loveritto had noted a new, sturdy looking door on the back of what Grant said was an abandoned gym; they didn’t have much to add to the original accounts.
“Good work on the nightclub,” Grant told her and she wondered if it was because he saw her embarrassment. “It’ll give us some cover.”
“You think anyone’s going to believe you’re going to a nightclub?” Kaskey asked him.
“If only his brain was as quick as his wit,” Grant told the table.
Tandish wasn’t sure whether they were serious, but Kov and Loveritto laughed so she did too.
“What’s the plan?” Kaskey asked.
“Two options,” Grant said. “Break in at night and hope to find some people to rescue or go in during the day and hope to get people to talk. If they’re not here, we need to know what casino they sent them to.”
“Did you see how many people were in there?” Loveritto asked.
Grant shook his head.
“I counted four,” Kov said. “Other than the receptionist.”
“But we can’t know how many might be upstairs, or in the gym. If they are using it,” Grant said.
“One of us could go in,” Loveritto suggested.
“On what pretence, man?” Kaskey asked. “I’m just window shopping for tractor parts?”
Loveritto frowned.
“Hey, turn that upside down, at least you’re thinking it through,” Grant said.
“What would you expect to find at night? If they are holding people?” Tandish asked.
She felt weirdly jealous of Loveritto for getting Grant’s praise; and for adding something to the plan. She wanted to be an active part of this, she wanted them to see she could do it.
“How active do you think they’d be?” Grant asked Kaskey. “If they’re feeding the casinos?”
“Hard to say. I mean, I suppose it depends on how many casinos, but not too often, you wouldn’t think? This ain’t my territory, Grant.”
“What about farms?” Tandish asked suddenly.
Grant looked at her in thought for a few moments.
“Go on.”
“Well, I mean, we’re thinking of women here, right? For, well, you know and stuff, but what about labourers?”
“Good. Good thinking, but you’re asking us? You’re the one’s with the local knowledge, could they employ slave labour?”
The three locals thought in silence.
“Yes. I suppose so,” Kov said finally. “Some of the farms are very remote.”
“What about police?” Kaskey asked. “You’d risk one or two escaping here and there.”
“Scale it back in,” Grant said. “If we don’t know, we don’t know. All that matters is how many people will be around and we’ll see that quick enough.”
“We’d be better to stake it out for a night,” Loveritto said.
“We would,” Grant agreed.
“But we’re not going to,” Kaskey said.
“No. There’s not time with a kidnapping like this. If they’re not here we need to move on.”
“If they are selling people to the farms, I want to know it,” Tandish said forcefully.
She just couldn’t picture it here in her country, on her world; such a thing. Treating people like cattle to be moved and sold just to be used and discarded.
“We’ll find what we find,” Grant said. “Gulch any news on that gym?”
“Just. It’s all been hidden, but it looks like they are owned by one and the same. False names and dummy companies.”
“Good, keep following that trail, I want to know how far it leads,” he looked at the others. “Seems the gym is connected.”
CHAPTER 13
While Grant, Kaskey and Gulch were breaking into the mechanic’s, Stephen Regrette sat in a bar in the city of Pelluu. It was Regrette’s type of place, big and bustling, just as busy at night as it was during the day. Full of bars and shows; nightclubs and restaurants. The world itself, Dwituf Minor, was only free from snow and ice in a band around the equator, getting more and more inhospitable as one reached the poles. There was a lot to see and do here if you liked the cold. And like to ski.
Gothra was alive and well though Regrette had quickly spotted her shadows. They were watching her, waiting to see if they needed to move. It was savvy; not acting rashly, watching events unfold. He knew a little about Gothra and supposed she was better for them alive if they could help it and Regrette knew she wouldn’t have been if they had come here altogether.
But Regrette was good at this, he had to be, it was his job. He wasn’t surprised, when he contacted Grant, to find he had gathered a little team around himself. That was what Grant did. What other ex-InterG would employ the help of an assassin-stroke-hitman?
And, of course, her. The spy. She didn’t like him because of his work as a hitman, though she was quite alright with his being an assassin. That was, he thought, why Grant got on with him, he knew that being one, you might as well be the other. It was the same job whether it was UTN sanctioned or not. And Grant knew about being a weapon for the UTN.
And so he sat in the bar and watched Gothra from a distance. There was a dancing show on the stage with a group of Human girls, classy, not the type he was used to watching. You didn’t learn intel in places like this, you learnt it in dives and backstreets.
He had seen one goon (as he thought of them) in the place and he wanted to shake him down, find out more. Regrette had a great deal of patience, you had to in his line of work, but he hated being idle. He liked information and he didn’t like anything that wasn’t leading to more of it.
He knew Grant would go after Gothra; go after Cobroy and ultimately the Desards. It was his nature and you couldn’t stop that. He’d never known Grant to walk away from a chance to do something right. Something good. Maybe that was why Tsyrker joined him on his little jaunts. She’d be a part of this soon enough. She’d be annoyed that she had to call Regrette in on that Wotham thing and you knew she’d want to know how and why Grant ended up in the position he did. She’d find them, track them down to find out. When she did she’d sigh and tell them not to meddle, but she’d not only let them, she’d join them in it.
He smiled to himself. It was fun. Maybe that’s why they both did it.
Now here was something interesting, someone was meeting with Gothra, someone Regrette recognised.
Koey V.
Koey was known as a ‘shifter’. If you had something you couldn’t get rid of then someone like Koey V could shift it for you. He was known to have links to the Durden Raiders as well as the Shen Mi and the No Fingers Gang. These high level contacts meant that Koey enjoyed the extra work of being an agent and setting up sales. Regrette was intrigued as to which of these guises Koey was wearing.
As far as he knew Gothra wasn’t big time enough to be dealing with the likes of Koey. She was a club owner who worked various rackets through the clubs she owned throughout the Universe. By no means small fry, but not running with the big boys either.
Regrette was, hands down, the most dangerous person in that place, but nobody knew it. No one knew who he was, if they did then he couldn’t do his job anymore. It was the same with the rich and powerful of the Universe. There were film and music stars; politicians and artists, businessmen and women that everyone knew. Then there were those politicians such as those in the Great and Minor Councils of the UTN; mine owners and the owners of corporations that owned numerous business; people that most didn’t know, but could find out if they wanted. Finally there were people, mostly criminals, that no one knew of. This also included a number of mining magnates and
people working in the highest levels of politics. They were so rich and so powerful that they existed in a Universe all to themselves.
It was altogether too intriguing that Gothra would have contact to Cobroy and now be talking to Koey, who one could presume had links with the Desards. The Desards who were even now watching Gothra to see if she needed to be wiped out. Regrette decided that a little more digging was needed before Grant showed up; in fact he was going to send him a message to hold off. Gothra wouldn’t live long if she was seen being questioned.
Perhaps it was time to let Tsyrker in on their little adventure…
***
“I came here on the promise of answers and I’ve already got a lot more questions than answers,” Rainsford Tsyrker said.
They were sitting in a lively bar down the road from the hotel where Regrette had found Koey to be staying.
“It’s part of the excitement,” Regrette told her before sipping from his whiskey.
“Things could get a lot more exciting for you,” she warned.
“Oh really?” he asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow.
“In a finding-out-what-the-local-hospital-is-like kind of way.”
“You have a weird idea of exciting,” he said glumly.
“Come on, Regrette. What’s all this about? What’s Grant up to and how’d he get messed up with Wotham?”
“Don’t worry about Wotham for now, that’s less interesting than Gothra.”
“Never heard of him.”
“Her. Owns bars and clubs across the Universe, uses them for various criminal activities. Too small time for you.”
“I know I didn’t come all the way for a small time crook.”
“No,” Regrette filled her in.
“The Desards, huh? OK, that is interesting,” she said.
She’d finished her drink as he spoke and she motioned to a passing waiter for two more.
“Could be a once in a lifetime chance at them,” Regrette prodded. “Finding these boys while they’re still green.”
“Still alive, you mean. Kids like that don’t last long in the Underworld. Think they can just leave when they don’t like it anymore.”
They both sat in silence as the waiter put their drinks down.
“So what’s your plan?” she asked when the waiter had gone.
“I want to know what Gothra’s deal is, I want to know her place in all this before we shake her down for information on Cobroy, but I also wouldn’t mind having a talk to Koey. Not often he comes out of the shadows.”