“And they had great seafood,” Grant bemoaned.
“He could have ruined everything,” she decried.
“You were taking too long,” Regrette said.
“We were patient.”
“You were procrastinating. You still can’t admit you didn’t know what to do.”
“We had to consider all possible ramifications,” she argued.
“It was a good shot though,” Regrette said.
“It was alright,” she agreed, not being able to help a smile.
“Plus she gave me the nod,” Regrette told Kaskey.
“I didn’t,” she exclaimed.
“She did.”
“I didn’t,” she told Kaskey. “If I’d wanted the shot taken I’d have taken it myself.”
“Mssh, as if you could.”
“Gulch could have made that shot.”
“Oh, well thank you very much,” Gulch indignified.
“Mssh, prove it,” Regrette said.
“I will not,” Gulch cried.
“Not you.”
“Alright, come on,” Tsyrker stood.
“Is this the time?” Grant asked, but knew he shouldn’t bother.
“Yes,” they replied in unison.
“After you,” Regrette said and showed her the door.
“We’re make it realistic and use your head as the target,” she said as she walked out of the room.
Grant just looked at Gulch and shook his head.
“I’ll tell you about the Shen Mi over a beer,” Grant told Kaskey. “Gulch get us those dossiers. I wouldn’t bother printing out the others’ until we know they both make it back alive.”
With that he got up and left.
“They do this much?” Kaskey asked.
“Often enough,” Gulch replied.
“But they’re friends right?”
“I think they’re in love.”
Kaskey was glad he wasn’t drinking as it would have splurted out of his mouth and over Gulch.
“Oh not like that. They’ll certainly not admit it, but I don’t think they can live without the other. They spur each other on. For better as well as worse. I think it might be why they keep coming back to work with us. Get to spend time with each other.”
“You think they’ll…” Kaskey started, but Gulch shook his head.
“It’s not them, not their lives. I don’t think either of them could really understand the concept of loving someone like husbands and wives do.”
“And what about you? You got a special someone out there?”
“No. I haven’t really found the time to look. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not the job. It’s just I’ve found other things within the job to take up my time. I’ve had dalliances, of course,” he smiled.
“I understand, man. It’s hard for me to score, being a hustler. I met a girl once, real nice. She wanted me to stop hustling and I did. I thought she was the one to start anew with, but I just couldn’t fit in with ‘normal’ life. Started hustling in secret when I couldn’t hold down a regular job and in the end chose my lifestyle over her.”
“Then she wasn’t the one for you, Kas,” Gulch said.
“I guess. I still wonder though.”
“This isn’t forever, Kas. You can walk in a hustler and walk out respected.”
“Yeah? That really true?”
“For me and you? Yes. For Ben? Maybe.”
“For the others?”
Gulch smiled.
“They both hope to die before they get old and keep up their quarrelling in Fiddler’s Green.”
CHAPTER 30
Bangkok, or Kreung Thep as it’s known in Thailand, was built upon the Chao Phraya River and in one of its long lazy loops sat an area of wetlands that had been left untouched. This is Phra Pradaeng and though one can cycle through some of it there was enough left to fit a high class spa into without anyone noticing. And as for spaceships entering and exiting? Well, have you seen the traffic in Bangkok? Nothing is a surprise on those roads.
Kaskey was glad from the word go that he was staying in the spa. He’d only had to walk a short distance in the tropical, wet heat and was drenched in sweat. He once again cursed his race’s desire to wear clothes over fur. Once inside though he was fussed over from the very start. People carried his bags for him and offered him high end alcohol just for being there. Would he like a glass of Champagne before he went up to his room? Of course. He’d never had real champagne before! How about a light snack of the local food? He’d never tasted something so delicious! Perhaps a quick massage based on the tradition of the country? Knock yourself out! He considered just never leaving the foyer and wondered how he would have time for the mission between all the treatments, eating and drinking.
And he didn’t have to feel bad about it. Grant had told him to live it up a little. He had to look like someone who was there to enjoy himself. Ingratiate himself into the spa community. They had hacked the spa’s computer to make sure Koleermeer was staying there and Kaskey couldn’t give the slightest hint that he didn’t belong. Here, in private, Koleermeer could have as many bodyguards of as many races as he could book rooms for. In many ways this was the most dangerous place (though if danger came with this much luxury, then bring on the danger) for them to be. Gulch was already here and he knew Regrette was staying. Grant and Tsyrker were out in the city somewhere.
***
He sat in his room and tried to pull himself together. He was thankful to Rainsford that his cover included that this was his first time to the spa. There was no way that he could have pretended it wasn’t the first time eating such glorious food. He was new money according to his dossier and learning to live it up, it was a hustle he knew well. Playing the innocent that the mark would take under his or her wing. It wouldn’t necessarily be that easy; he was looking for ways to kidnap this mark and that might involve befriending others to get himself close, or to find ways to get the mark alone. Getting to know the staff might be a better way to find out Koleermeer’s routine. Well, it wouldn’t be hard to butter up the staff, they were treating him better than he’d ever been treated in his life. He bet that others didn’t treat them well and even a thank you would be a rarity. Still, he couldn’t be too nice, that would blow his cover. He decided he needed to go and have a snoop around when there was a knock on the door.
“Room service.”
“I didn’t order no room service,” he said as his body tensed.
“No, you misunderstand. I’m here to explain our room services.”
Kaskey walked to the door, he relaxed a little but was still tense as he opened the door.
Regrette pushed past him and closed the door with his foot as he went.
“No need to stand on ceremony, boy,” Regrette said as he found a chair to relax in.
“What? You do voices too?”
“What is it about my profession that you don’t understand?” Regrette asked. “What’ve we got in the minibar?”
Kaskey just stared at him.
“Come on, be a good host.”
Kaskey went to the bar and grabbed a couple of mini-bottles and tossed one to Regrette before sitting on the bed.
“You’re rude, man.”
“I am, aren’t I? Comes with wanting to get stuff done rather than sitting in hotel rooms,” Regrette said swigging from his bottle.
“You don’t like me, do you?” Kaskey asked.
“Don’t be offended, boy, I don’t like anyone.”
“Yeah? How does that work for you?”
“Shall we get emotional?” Regrette raised an eyebrow.
“You have emotions?”
Regrette smiled.
“What have you learned so far?”
“That Thai food is amazing.”
Regrette’s smile widened.
“It is. We can only hope that one day Earth gets let into the UTN and it is more widely available,” his smile dropped. “Get on with it.”
“Well I couldn’t tell
you the norm for a joint like this,” Kaskey said.
“But you must have learnt something from Grant by now.”
“Yeah, actually. There’s no one I’ve seen that falls out of the average. Everyone’s milling or chilling. Without intent.”
Regrette nodded.
“I agree, but things like this are extremely touchy, watch out for any changes; watch out for anyone that reminds you of me,” he flashed a wolf-like grin and got up. “You did good, boy.”
“Gee, thanks, Dad.”
“Don’t push it,” Regrette growled as he walked to the door.
***
He wasn’t going to tell him, but Regrette was suitably impressed by Kaskey so far. He was jumping in the deep end and keeping his head above water. Good for him. He’d just have to hope he didn’t come up against someone like Regrette, or someone from the Shen Mi, but that was his problem, not Regrette’s.
What Regrette needed to do now was get himself accustomed to the spa, know its ins and outs, it’s very workings. If things went south then he wanted to know where to go, when and how in order to escape. Being out in the wetlands meant the spa was big and all on one storey to be hidden from view. Anyone who did stumble upon it would find a classic Thai façade and a Thai staff who would generally dissuade you from staying too long. The best anyone would get was that it was a private resort (and you’re not rich enough to be here). He needed to find out which room Koleermeer was booked into and what the quickest route to the small space port was from there. Things would go a lot easier if they could keep it contained to the spa. He could judge almost all the variables here; out in the city? Not so much.
Due to the location of the spa and the size of the wetlands, only small craft were allowed to land. Earthen technology wasn’t advanced enough to detect space craft, but the locals would notice. Many of the spas ran a shuttle service, with their ships built to look like Earthen aeroplanes, that ran from a space port near Saturn (In and of itself a very nice place to spend a few hours). Even then most flights in and out were at night to stop detection. The Lark was deemed small enough (and Earthen enough) to land on Earth and there was a distinct possibility in Regrette’s mind that they would be winging Koleermeer to it. Probably while being shot at if his previous adventures with Grant were anything to go by.
He wandered the corridors before he found a little storeroom for fresh towels and changed from his bellboy outfit to a maintenance one and wandered back out and along until he found a masseuse room. It had a reception and a number of private rooms for the massages as well as a number of shared spas in the atrium area.
“Come to fix the computer,” he said to the receptionist.
“There’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Yeah there is.”
“No, there isn’t,” she said firmly, but politely.
“Well that’s don’t make no sense. If there’s nothing wrong with it, why’d they send me to fix it?”
“Well, how am I supposed to know?”
“How’m I supposed to know that?” Regrette asked back and that flummoxed her. “Look, I was told there were issues with the spas’ temps. Fluctuations. Complaints,” he shrugged.
She looked horrified by the idea of complaints.
“Well, I thought you meant about this computer. I haven’t heard anything about temperature fluctuations. You can tell them that; no one’s come and told me.”
He smiled kindly.
“I’ll let them know, that I will. Can I check your terminal there?” he nodded to her computer.
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
She stepped out of the way and he slid behind the desk. It was impossible for him to hack into the guest list with her looking over his shoulder so instead he did a quick search for other computers that he could use. There was one that actually did, among other things, regulate the spas temperatures and it was hidden away in a room of machinery.
“Right, I just need to go and have a look in the bones,” Regrette said closing down what he was looking at.
“I’m sorry, the bones?”
“Mechanics. Just over there, don’t worry, looks like everything is fine here.”
He walked off before she could argue.
Once again he was doing something he enjoyed, just tinkering about. The room was small and contained all the valves and levers needed to be tweaked and turned to keep the spas clean and running. He did some of his own tweaking, making the filters run more efficiently and set the temperature parameters half a degree higher. With that done he turned to the computer that ran it all.
Gulch had a room in the spa, but Regrette didn’t need him to hack this terminal. He did attach a little device, however, that gave Gulch an in to the system. The cursor waggled three times, Gulch’s way of saying thank you and that he was in the system. If anything happened they would need to blank the cameras, they couldn’t be identified. It would be too much of a coincidence and they would be linked to the casino job. All of them would be in a database somewhere, if you could look deep enough.
Here he was. Koleermeer’s room was, of course, at the other end of the complex to the space port and though Regrette had a visitor’s map, he knew he was going to have to walk it to make sure he had the quickest route and the one that afforded him the best protection. He got into the maintenance site and found a map and, pulling out said visitor’s map, he quickly sketched on the access doors and corridors. And what was this? He frowned at the screen. Something to look into.
“Ha, I’m an idiot,” he told the receptionist on his way through. “Wasn’t you guys.”
“It wasn’t?”
“Nope. No complaints for you,” he grinned. “Was the private spas, you know these businessmen, complain if it’s one degree different to how they like it.”
“I couldn’t possibly say,” she said, but nodded slightly.
He walked out to do his rounds.
***
While Regrette was doing all of this, Kaskey was in the lounge talking to some businessmen who were there on a team building exercise.
“Nice company that runs it in a place like this,” Kaskey said.
“Oh yes,” a Petruthsian said. “Great company.”
“They know no one likes them, but the research says they work, so they set them somewhere we might actually enjoy,” a Zorblid explained.
Zorblids had a head shaped very much like a hammerhead shark, but with bigger eyes and less bitey-bitey teeth. Their bodies were humanoid and they had a small bony protrusion on their hips, shaped like a hook. They could hook their skin onto these and pull it out with their hands to form wings with which they could fly, though only from a high object. (So glide really. Glide. Should have said that in the first place…). To help this their hands and feet were like a monkey’s, which they used to quickly ascend trees from which to take off.
It might be of some use now to point out that most of the Universe’s inhabitants had humanoid forms as this really was the best form for Universal multitasking. Few flying or swimming creatures had evolved to a point to really take over a world and had, therefore, never really joined the UTN with the whole flying through space thing. Having said that, it was only landlocked animals that really had an urge to go further. When you have the oceans or the air, the urge to have more seems pointless. Few birds have ever wished they could just walk places and those that had, well, let’s just say Ostriches and Emus are somewhat bitter. But not as much as chickens, they didn’t get the choice, man.
“Yeah? That’s cool, man. I need to do some networking while I’m here,” Kaskey said. “I need a team.”
He was talking to businessmen, remember? That was a much longer aside than I had banked on.
“Another reason they send us to a place like this,” the Petruthsian said. “They’re more business than relaxing.”
“Well, be careful who you talk to,” a Human said. “Some bad sorts in the spa at the moment.”
“I thought we were the bad sorts,” Kaskey la
ughed and the others joined him.
“Different kind of bad,” a fellow Albertine said conspiratorially.
“Well, that’s interesting,” Kaskey said slowly. “I’ll be careful.”
And then Regrette spoke in his ear.
“Room 49, boy. Now.”
CHAPTER 31
Kaskey walked at a casual, but brisk pace. Regrette had seemed pretty urgent over the radio, though in normal person’s speak he’d sounded quite calm. Before he could get to room 49 he was grabbed and dragged into a storeroom.
“Stop struggling, boy,” Regrette hissed and Kaskey relaxed.
“You need to drag me in by the neck?”
“Force of habit.”
“Apologise,” Kaskey said rubbing his throat.
“Don’t push me…”
“You’re pushing me, man. I’ll walk. Apologise.”
Regrette thought it through. He needed Kaskey here and now, a second person would make everything easier and quicker. And, yeah, OK, perhaps he shouldn’t have grabbed him by the neck. He wasn’t saying he deserved an apology, just that he was willing to give one.
“Alright, I apologise. That OK?”
“Best I’ll get.”
“Real shabbus,” Regrette harrumphed.
“So you gonna tell me what we’re doing in a storeroom?”
Regrette looked around out of habit.
“Squavoon is here.”
“Oh, that makes sense,” Kaskey ironicalised.
“Hitman.”
“Oh.”
“Yes. Interesting.”
“And dangerous,” Kaskey said.
“Mssh. Not comparatively, but I don’t like the coincidence, boy.”
“Glamourous life you lead,” Kaskey commented looking around.
“You’ve got me there,” Regrette agreed. “I seem to spend a lot of time in cupboards.”
“Not really what you signed up for, I guess.”
“The best assassins didn’t sign up. People like Squavoon did. They do it for the thrill, for the love of taking lives and that can make them reckless rather than professional. Erratic and hard to judge.”
“And you think he’s here for Koleermeer.”
“I want to find out. Put these on,” Regrette handed him a uniform.
“Where do you get these from?” Kaskey incredulised.
“Just get it on.”
***
They’d knocked together a plan and Regrette had to continue to admit (not out loud) how impressed he was with Kaskey. Not that he should be surprised, Grant didn’t just hire anyone. Rain thought she was using Grant as a cover, but he knew that Grant had hired her because he knew what he could get out of her. It was the same for him, though he wasn’t on Grant’s payroll. In the end they all got something out of it and he wondered what Kaskey might before wondering when he’d gone soft and started thinking like this.