Pray for Rain
Part 2
First Against the Wall
‘Dangerous’ Walker
Copyright Grahame Walker 2016
Where Were We?
So, Ben Grant and Gulch, ‘Universal Finders of Stuff, Things and Occasionally People’ had been hired to find four kidnapped girls and in their search had been joined by Kaskey, a small time hustler. There was a bit with Wotham, remember? He captured Gulch after a gunfight and car chase and there was that show down in the restaurant.
Then what? They’d been joined by the hitman, Stephen Regrette and went and met a criminal called Hounsards in a hotel and they got attacked by goons and escaped to the roof. That was pretty exciting.
Then they headed to the planet of Cravalor and hit up the city of Vexupulla where they met three space port security officers, Tandish, Loveritto and Kov and they joined the team to bust into a mechanics that was helping to move people and after another exciting firefight they went and saved some girls from a bar.
Joined by Rainsford Tsyrker, all eight of them headed to the city-continent of Haffir and went to the Loggajello Casino in disguise. After all sorts of hijinks they managed to break out all of the slaves there, including the girls they were originally looking for.
After that they all went their separate ways; Grant, Gulch and Kaskey went to Kaskey’s place to lie low for a bit and Kaskey finally decided he was in and they all decided they needed to go after Maggie Desard.
So far it had all been about Gothra, a Universal criminal, as she was a link to getting to the Desards. She also owned the bar and the casino.
And so…
CHAPTER 24
Gothra was more than livid. The news from the bar had got lost in the assault (that’s how she thought of it) on the casino. It had come in before news on the casino; that girls had gone missing from there with a side note that those using the private room were unsatisfied with the experience, but had quickly got buried.
Now with the assault she looked at it again. It had to be linked, but who did such a thing? Who risked their lives to save some pointless people? And why her places? There was the obvious, the InterG, but if it had been them it had been well hidden. And it didn’t answer why just her.
It wasn’t like she was the only one on Haffir to supply such entertainment and she certainly wasn’t the oldest at it. Was that it? One of the other casinos trying to shut her down? That still didn’t make sense, there were many casinos offering such things. Gambling was still the major draw and no one had tried to shut her down before this. Did she accidentally have someone special? It didn’t gel with her, but she had people looking into it.
The only silver lining she could see was that she had paid for the people. She been annoyed about that, but now it was a blessing. She had lost a lot of money, but it was her money and not theirs. Still, it looked bad, looked like she couldn’t handle her operation.
No, come on, who expected this? It had to be big, it would take hi-tech equipment and training to pull off something like this and again that just begged the question: why would they just take the people? It was infuriating.
“All systems are back,” Logdon said from the door.
“Good,” she nodded. “What’s the damage?”
“Nothing major,” he shook his head. “They wiped the takings records, but there’s no sign they actually stole money.”
“Make sure.”
“We are.”
“And business?”
“Unaffected,” Logdon said. “The fact that anything happened never reached the floors.”
“And the cameras?” she asked, but she already knew the answer.
“Blank. All blank,” he shook his head sadly.
“Who?”
“We don’t know. We’re trying to find out without alerting…” he didn’t even want to say their name less they heard it.
“Alright. Go,” she commanded.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said instead.
“I know that,” she snapped.
He decided it was best to leave after all.
OK then, this was alright. It was a freak incident that no one could foresee. So her security would be questioned, but it’s accepted that people with hi-tech enough equipment can get into just about anywhere. No one knows that better than criminals. What she would get a chance to do was show how she bounced back, how she investigated and how she caught the shabwozers that did this. This could all work out for her.
She walked to a window and looked out over the city of Pelluu. She was on the top floor of the second highest building in the city and the view was incredible. She preferred the urban sprawl to oceans, mountains or sunsets. You couldn’t make money from them. No, she liked to look across the vast expanse of opportunity. She had an opportunity now like no other and she wasn’t going to let some do-gooders ruin it for her.
***
Said do-gooders, or at least Ben Grant, Kaskey and Gulch, were on The Albatross closer than she could have guessed. They were in the Dwituf System of the Werther Galaxy and heading towards The Dead Planet of Callevetto, just one planet away.
“So what’ve we got?” Kaskey asked.
“So far no blow back on Gothra,” Gulch said.
“They’ll be questioning her security, but we were an oddity,” Grant said.
“An oddity?” Kaskey raised his substantial eyebrows.
“You think people with hi-tech kit routinely break in to places and not steal money?” Gulch asked.
“Well,” he thought about it. “No. I guess not,” he thought about it further. “But those people we freed, they’re money to Gothra.”
“They are,” Grant nodded, “and the fact that she hasn’t had more grief suggests it was her money.”
“But still,” Kaskey argued, “if we could do it then others could too.”
“They could, but it’s harder than you think,” Gulch said. “Remember they all share the Underworld. Big job like that, lots of hi-tech equipment? Everyone would know who did it.”
“Alright, so what does that all mean to us?” Kaskey asked.
“It means that Gothra is still a go for us, though she’ll be searching for the perpetrators. If we show too much of our hand she’ll know it was us,” Grant said.
Kaskey nodded.
“None of that answers the question of why we’re heading to the Dead Planet.”
“Good place to lay low,” Grant said.
“I thought we were done with that?”
“Plus the Dead Planet is quite fascinating,” Gulch enthused. “The Uvartin people left a lot of ruins there, but no one yet knows how the planet became lifeless, or what happened to the Uvartin people.”
“That’s not why we’re going there though, right?” Kaskey asked Grant.
“We have to be sure Gothra is still a go, but it’s good to be close. Start surveillance,” Grant said.
“But we’ll certainly have some time to explore,” Gulch said with a firm tone that made it clear he was exploring. Like it or not.
“Certainly,” Grant said less certainly than the word ‘certain’ implies.
“And why are you doing this at all?” Kaskey asked.
“Gothra’s casino is still operating. And that bar we went to. What do you think they’ll do? Just close up because someone rescued some of their slave labour?”
Kaskey frowned.
“Right,” Grant said reading his mind. “All we’ve done is make sure another bunch of people get kidnapped and enslaved.”
“Then it’s all hopeless,” Kaskey said with frustration and anger.
“Unless we cut off the head,” Gulch said.
“But it’s an Ankarian, isn’t it?” Kaskey said. “You
chop off a head and another grows back.”
“Welcome to the Universe,” Grant said.
***
They took the Lark down to the surface and landed at a small makeshift spaceport. Grant wondered if they would meet security, but Gulch assured him that unless treasure was found there wouldn’t be any.
Archaeologists would be another issue though. Without security anyone could come in and ruin the, well further ruin, the ruins and artefacts. No one of any use was going to sign up for that unlikely occurrence and so Archaeologists trained themselves in martial arts to fend off any thieves or vandals. In fact, outside of the Navy, Archaeologists were the best trained hand-to-hand combat organisation in the Universe.
Turns out it wasn’t going to be an issue.
They exited the ship and walked to meet a mixed racial group that was coming towards them.
“Grant?” a Laikan asked with surprise.
“Hendricks? Shabbus, is that you?” Grant asked back with just as much surprise.
“It is, old boy, it is,” Hendricks said with delight.
They met and embraced.
“Well what are you doing here?” Grant asked.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Hendricks grinned.
“Right. Yeah, about that.”
“You know each other?” Kaskey asked.
“This is Squadron Leader Hendricks,” Grant introduced.
“No, no, not anymore. Doctor these days,” Hendricks said.
“You’re an Archaeologist?” Grant asked.
Hendricks spread his arms out to remind where they were.
“Right, yeah, makes sense,” Grant said.
Laikans were descended from the dogs Russia sent into space and looked like werewolves in Earthen films. They were great Archaeologists due to their genetic disposition to dig.
“And you?” bushy eyebrows raised. “Not to offend, but the Navy seems to have gone downhill somewhat.”
“Well I never,” Gulch well-I-nevered.
“Would you believe we’re here to look at the ruins?”
Dr. Hendricks eyed him and then Gulch and Kaskey. His raised eyebrow told Grant that he didn’t believe it for a minute.
“It’s a fascinating site, a fascinating world. Come let me introduce you to the site leader,” Hendricks said with a smile and gestured for them to follow him.
The planet was known as the Dead Planet for good reason, the ground was a hard-packed, grey dirt with no vegetation or animals to be seen. In the distance were a range of hills, the far distance was obscured by haze.
“It like this everywhere?” Kaskey asked Grant.
“Pretty much.”
“We are seeing some new growth,” Hendricks said from ahead of them. “Fascinating after all this time.”
“Really?” Gulch asked just as fascinated as Hendricks seemed to be about everything.
“More so on the other side of the planet. There’s a team of botanists over there right now.”
“And what are you excavating here,” Gulch asked catching up to Hendricks.
The rest of his meeting party had gone on ahead now that their fighting skills were not needed.
“Myself? Nothing. Like you I’m just visiting. I’ve got a dig just starting in your neck of the woods though.”
“Rarbar?” Gulch asked and Hendricks nodded.
“You think there is a link between the Uvartin people and the Chonbium?”
“More work will be needed to date them both, but that’s why I’m here,” Hendricks nodded.
“Amazing,” Gulch swooned.
“And, look here, sorry about that crack about the Navy, just joshing, you understand?”
“I’ve had worse, believe me,” Gulch grinned.
***
They hadn’t landed too far from the dig site and got there to find considerable excitement.
“Dr. Hendricks, Dr. Hendricks,” a young Jobru called. “This way, this way,” and waved to a small open top bus.
“Join me,” Hendricks invited our heroes and they jogged to the bus and got in.
The Jobru jumped in along with a Reutorgian and two more Laikans.
Jobru sat on three long tentacles a lot like an octopus’. Their bodies were reminiscent of a chubby baby’s with long arms that ended in three-pincered hands. Their head was oddly small for their bodies with small eyes, but a distending jaw and large nostrils. They were originally water based creatures, but were equally happy out of it. They were happiest in a warm bath, but then isn’t everyone?
The bus raced over the dusty flats and towards a group of people who were erecting a large tent. The Jobru, Vastao, filled them in.
“Routine comb found something. Claim it’s metal,” she jabbered. “Rorckshift is out there now.”
“Kendell Rorckshift, that’s the dig leader,” Hendricks told them.
It didn’t take them long to reach the hub-bub and they disembarked (except for Kaskey who just got out).
“Ahh, Hendricks,” a tall, muscular Human called as he walked over.
Kaskey thought Rorckshift spent more time training for the martial arts side of things than researching.
“And who are these?” he asked.
“Friends of mine, interested in the history of the Uvartin people,” Hendricks said. “I can vouch for them,” he added, answering the unasked question.
Rorckshift merely nodded.
“What is it?” Gulch asked, barely able to contain his excitement.
“What do you know of the Uvartin people?” Rorckshift asked instead.
“The latest date for them is one thousand years ago, there are ruins attributed to them across the Universe and they are one of the few Older Races that left writings behind them,” Gulch spieled. “Though they never mention them, it is thought they were concurrent with the Chonbium people. Their most famous and complete writing is ‘The Tale of Egorbius’, which doesn’t deal with the Universe, but a mythical place between…”
“Very good. Enough,” Rorckshift smiled. “I was going to follow by asking you about the Ten Kingdoms, but I don’t think we have the daylight. You are an erudite scholar…?”
“Gulch.”
“Gulch. I am Rorckshift and to answer your question. Well, take a look at this symbol.”
He moved away so that they could see what was clearly metal that had become uncovered in the sandy soil there. It was ten feet long and four wide and disappeared into the soil on every edge. Close to where it disappeared on one side was a faint symbol:
{+}
“Naylor,” Kaskey said with a touch of awe.
“Well you’re full of surprises aren’t you,” Gulch said, a little miffed to have been shown up.
“I read,” Kaskey shrugged.
“Well I’m in the dark,” Grant said.
“Lord Naylor of the Tenth Kingdom,” Gulch explained to try and recoup his loss
“Oh,” Grant said.
“This is incredible,” Hendricks enthused.
“It could change everything,” Rorckshift enthused back.
“But surely you can’t…” Hendricks started.
“But if the stories are true…” Rorckshift interrupted.
“Then it could…” Hendricks failed to finish.
“Perhaps,” Rorckshift nodded. “Perhaps.”
“Right,” Grant said. “Now I see.”
***
Though the technology exists to avoid tents and campfires altogether, Archaeologists still use both. It’s part of the Code and no one has found a good enough reason to change it. And so they sat around one of three large, roaring campfires that were set between the tents. Everyone sitting, talking and drinking an alcoholic beverage, as also set down in the Code. It was mainly Faro’s Gold beer here, though Rorckshift and Hendricks were sharing a bottle of Johnny Skyewalker with Gulch and Kaskey.
Grant sat alone just in reach of the warmth from a fire, but out of it’s light. He wondered on Kas’ question about why he was doing this. He
’d done other jobs that involved criminals and hadn’t hunted them down. That wasn’t his job anymore and yet he was picking up that mantle again. Was it because the others wanted him to or was it because he wanted to? Both Rainsford and Regrette would have reasons for wanting to go after the Desards, what was his? It wasn’t just idle thoughts either, if he was going to do this then he had to have a good reason, had to have purpose in his mission. He couldn’t trust the others to follow through once they had gotten what they wanted or needed, so he had to have the resolve to do so himself.
“So?” Hendricks asked sitting down.
“What?”
“Come on, Grant.”
“I find stuff.”
Hendricks barked (literally) a laugh.
“Kaskey said you’d say that. Bet me ten space pounds on it.”
“He’s a good kid,” Grant smiled.
“Then why’s he with you?” Hendricks twisted a grin.
Grant sighed.
“I’m considering going after the Desard Crime Family.”
“Means nothing to me.”
“That should tell you something about them.”
“Can’t say I’ve seen them here and you would think I’d notice.”
“Funny, Doc,” Grant said. “There’s a woman, criminal, on Dwituf Minor. She’s our in.”
“May I ask why?”
“I was just asking myself that.”
“And?” Hendricks pushed.
“And I don’t know. It’s not what I do. I told you I left the InterG and I did because I didn’t want to do this anymore.”
“But?”
“But it’s a rare chance to make a difference. Take down criminals that really pull strings.”
“Is that why you left the InterG?” Hendricks asked with a knowing smile.
“I left because I couldn’t make a difference.”
“And do you? Finding ‘stuff’?”
CHAPTER 25
Rainsford Tsyrker was watching a Human and a Tarancort beating each other to death in a warehouse. She was standing in makeshift stands filled with a hundred people of mixed races all shouting and betting money. Bookies pushed their way through the crowds shouting the changing odds and taking money. Making two people, even willing people, fight for entertainment was illegal within the Universal Trading Network. The idea that someone had to suffer for the entertainment of others was seen as barbaric by almost everyone in the Universe. Of course, if that were strictly true then this fight would not be happening.