He wiped the smile off of his face. “Nothing. I’m sorry I called you a kid.” He winced as his stomach muscles contracted and sent another wave of pain through his body. “Before you tell me anything else, I want to know who you people are and why you attacked me back in the slums.”
Charlie leapt from the coffee table onto a pile of books then onto Jacobi’s lap and crawled onto his shoulder.
“I suppose that would be the best place to start.” The girl pointed a sleeve-covered hand to the giant. “That’s Lawrence Bayley, he took my brother and me in when we…” She hesitated. “When we were in some trouble.”
There were plenty of ways to get into trouble on Titan, but Jacobi knew that they weren’t asking him for help purely by coincidence.
“When we escaped from Gillian’s?” The voice of reason repeated in a mocking falsetto.
“My name is Sara Zappia.”
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!” Jacobi had seen the name Zappia twice in the roster of Gillian’s employees that Plough had included in the file.
“You and your brother escaped from Gillian’s and Lawrence took you in, is that right?”
“How did you-” She looked surprised. “I guess you really are a smart one.”
“I assume that you already know who I am, where I work and how I’m connected to Plough Gabgoblin. I also assume that you know about my partner and our plan. I don’t know how you know, but you do; otherwise you wouldn’t have come to me, Plough’s right-hand-man. Am I right so far?” He knew he was.
“Yes.”
“The foot prints in the alley, they were yours. The set that went into the courtyard were your brother’s and he was taken.” He lifted a fist to his lips. “Someone wanted the thing that you two stole and it wasn’t Gabgoblin’s people, they would have covered up their tracks. What was it? What did you two take from Gillian’s?” Jacobi’s heart pounded and his thoughts danced. Ever since he had first come across mystery novels as a kid Jacobi had loved solving mysteries and now he was in the middle of one. He was excited. He was also extremely frightened; one wrong move could cost him his life, or worse, the Outrunner.
Sara looked at the ground. “I don’t know what it is. My brother was the one who found it while we were working one day; he reported it to Gillian and ever since then Gillian never let the thing out of his sight. Normally he would report an important find to Gabgoblin, but not this one, I thought it was strange. One night, about a week after he handed the orb over to Gillian, my brother woke me in the middle of the night and told me we were escaping.” She sighed. “We somehow escaped from the junkyard without being spotted by the guards. It wasn’t until later that I found out that Charles had stolen the object from Gillian.”
Sara reached into the front pocket of the coat and pulled out a baseball sized metal ball and offered it to Jacobi. As she extended the orb to Jacobi he saw her hand for the first time. Her fingers were thin and tipped with nails the same color blue as her hair; and as if to mimic her hair each nail was adorned with two small black flowers.
He took the orb from her and examined it. Strange runes were carved into the metal, hieroglyphs that didn’t resemble any language that he’d learned of from his books. “You have no idea why Gillian would covet this as he did?”
Sara shook her head.
Jacobi stared at the orb but couldn’t think of anything that would be so important that Gillian would hide it from Plough.
He gave up; whatever the orb was didn’t matter. What mattered was that Gabgoblin wanted it, and now he had it. He tightened his grip around the ball then returned it to Sara. “Do you know who attacked your brother? Who else knows about this orb’s existence?”
Sara returned the ball to her pocket and shook her head. “I don’t know who it was. We were on our way to the hideout when Charles suddenly told us to run, he didn’t explain why…” Her voice trailed off and tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.
Jacobi was about to speak when Lawrence lifted his hand into the air. “I know it was.”
Both Jacobi and Sara looked at the giant man in surprise.
“It was Manny Wynn’s people. They’re an organization that is trying to topple Gabgoblin’s empire from the shadows.”
“You don’t think that Charles would have associated with them, do you? Sure we were desperate to escape our life of slavery, but to think that he’d-“
“No,” Jacobi cut her off. This whole thing was bigger than he’d hoped it would be and he needed to think and he couldn’t do it if Sara was panicking and making a fuss. “If your brother had been working for this Manny Wynn he wouldn’t have been attacked as he was. Wynn probably had a mole at the Junkyard who found out about the orb, but you two got to it before he could.” It seemed plausible, but he wasn’t quite sure. “Sara, can I talk to you in private?” He glanced at Lawrence. Charlie shuffled uneasily on Jacobi’s shoulder. He jumped to the arm of the couch and then the monkey looked up at Jacobi and nodded.
“I guess it’s fine.” She looked over her shoulder to her companion. “You’ll be fine out here right?”
Lawrence nodded.
Jacobi led Sara around several piles of books and to the small bed room in the back of the apartment.
Sara looked around; she seemed surprised at the mountains of books that filled the room. She had the right to be surprised though; there was barely any room to walk around all of them. Jacobi had started sleeping in the living room so that he could store some of the books on the bed. If Plough hadn’t started paying him in cash when he did Jacobi might have had to request a bigger apartment. But none of that seemed to matter now. He was going to abandon his small library in hopes of gaining freedom.
Jacobi closed the door behind them and asked: “How much do you trust Lawrence?” Jacobi’s voice was lowered so that no one outside the room could hear.
“More than I trust you, he took us in and helped us hide from Gabgoblin’s police. Plus he’s the one that led me to you.”
“How?”
“What do you mean how?”
“How did he know who I was? How did he know I would be willing to help you?”
Sara hesitated.
“How do you know that he isn’t one of Wynn’s spies who took you in so that he could get the orb from you?”
“He’s not, he told us how he was from Mars and lost everything here and-“
“What if it was all a lie? I can tell you that I was born on Earth II and that was stolen as a child and sold to Gabgoblin. Sounds possible, doesn’t it? But it’s a lie, and he could have lied to you and your brother. He could have led Charles to that ambush and now that he’s got you alone he could take you to Wynn and personally hand over the orb. It’s possible right?” He didn’t know why, but for some reason he was mad that she trusted Lawrence so easily.
“No!” She shouted. Her face was red with anger and the temperature in the room seemed to plummet. “If there’s anyone not to trust it’s you!”
“What? You ambush me¸ you break into my home and now you’re telling me that I’m untrustworthy?” He was shouting now too. “I don’t even-“
The door behind Jacobi flew open and he turned to see who it was but Sara’s hand struck his left cheek and he stood, frozen, as she stormed past him. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she exited the room.
“I’m sorry.” Lawrence’s voice echoed in Jacobi’s mind, the phenomenon only added to his confusion. “I should have told you earlier.”
He felt the feeling of being watched return as Lawrence’s words faded. Jacobi’s knees gave out and he fell to the floor. He put his hand to his cheek where Sara slapped him. “What’s…going on?”
“Telepathy.” Lawrence spoke out loud. “As smart as you are, I think you should know what it is.”
Jacobi nodded. Not only had Lawrence been following him, but he had also been reading his thoughts and seeing his memories; that’s how he knew Jacobi could be trusted. “I didn’t think it was real…”
>
“When I create a telepathic link with someone we cannot lie to each other, it is impossible to fool someone when they can see into your thoughts. I can explain more later, but for now, please, help us rescue Charles.”
Jacobi thought hard about the choice he was about to make. For better or for worse Jacobi made up his mind and looked Lawrence square in the eyes. “Okay, but we’ll do things my way.” He could find no reason to help these people, no reason in his decision, but something deep within him -something even deeper than the voice of reason- told him it was the right decision to make.
Lawrence offered Jacobi his hand and pulled him to his feet.
Sara was hunched over on the couch with her head in her hands. Charlie sat beside her with a concerned look engraved on his simian face.
“Sara…” Jacobi began as he led Lawrence into the living room. He didn’t know what to say and silence fell over the room.
“Man up you pansy! You don’t have too much time left; if you want your little plan to work you’ve got to get some fire beneath your heels.” The voice of reason shouted playfully.
Jacobi curled his fists and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for yelling, but I don’t have time to ask for your forgiveness right now. Right now we need to go, if we’re going to break into Wynn’s hide-out and free Charles we’re going to need some information; and I know just the place to get it.”
“Jay, you can’t be serious!” Charlie shouted from the couch. “What about our escape plan and the Outrunner?”
“A few more people won’t make a difference for our ship.” Confidence beamed from him as he spoke.
Sara looked up at Jacobi; her eyes were still red from crying.
“We’re going to rescue Charles and then the five of us are going to get off of this rock for good.”
An astonished look was painted on Sara’s features, but she nodded in agreement.
“And how do you plan on accomplishing all of this, Captain?” Charlie’s voice was full of skepticism
“I’m glad you asked Charlie,” He looked from Charlie to Lawrence and finally to Sara. “Here’s the plan…”
~~~~~
An electronic bell rang as the twin sliding doors of the elevator parted. Jacobi began to walk forward when he noticed a short man standing on the other side of the doors.
“Kid, what’re ye doin’ here s’late?” Plough Gabgoblin asked as he looked up at Jacobi and then to the bag that hung from his left shoulder. “An’ what’s in yer bag?”
Jacobi hadn’t planned on confronting Gabgoblin, according to the goblin’s schedule he should be in a meeting across town right now. Worry crept into Jacobi’s thoughts but his poker-face stayed strong.
“I’m going to sort through this information that I collected concerning that case you gave me this afternoon and I’m going to go back out and do more research in the morning.” Jacobi lied from behind his fake smile.
“I see, well don’t push yerself too hard now, I don’t know what I’d do without ye.”
If Jacobi would have heard this compliment two years prior he might have been affected, but all he felt toward the goblin now was hate. “Thank you sir, I’ll be sure to get plenty of rest. Are you on your way to your meeting, was it delayed?”
“Yep. Client’s flight was delayed an hour, I’m goin’ to meet ‘em now.”
“I see. Well, have good evening Mister Gabgoblin.” They switched places and Plough jabbed a button on the elevator’s panel.
Gabgoblin said nothing more as the doors closed and he started his descent through Gabgoblin Headquarters.
Charlie poked his head out of the bag. “Whoa, I thought you said he would be gone!”
Jacobi strode down the white corridor that led to his office. “You heard him; his client’s flight was delayed. Nothing changes; we carry on as planned.” He entered his office started the computer then let Charlie out of the bag. “You know what you’re looking for?”
“Anything to do with the slums or Wynn.”
“Good.” Jacobi walked out of the room and Charlie started his journey through Gabgoblin Industries’ database.
~~~~~
Jacobi slipped into Gabgoblin’s office without setting off the alarms, a simple task with the knowledge that he possessed, and went directly to the big wooden desk in the center of the room.
He quickly went from drawer to drawer searching for the hidden button that would open the safe buried beneath the desk. He didn’t find the button, but in the last drawer he did find something that would fit nicely into his plans.
He shoved the small disk shaped object into his bag and resumed his search. He made it halfway through the bric-a-brac that cluttered the top of Gabgoblin’s desk before he found what he was looking for. Beneath the grandiose bust of the goblin was a small wood colored button that was flush with the surface of the desk, it would have been impossible to spot if he hadn’t been looking for it. He pressed the button and the floor beneath his feet hissed.
He stepped to the side and pulled the hidden door open. The safe was packed full of money and other various valuable items, but Jacobi ignored all of them as he searched for his objective.
“Found it!”
He pulled a small hard drive from the back of the safe. A smile spread across Jacobi’s face. The hard drive contained a complete back-up of every single file that had ever passed through Gabgoblin’s doors. Once he was free he would turn the information over to the UPSC and Gabgoblin Industries would finally get what they deserved.
He jammed the hard drive into his bag along with the disk and returned to his office.
~~~~~
Charlie was sitting on the desk when Jacobi returned. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
Jacobi nodded. “And you?”
“Got it all, I’ll upload it to your P-COM on the way to the meeting place.” Jacobi held his hand out to the monkey but Charlie hesitated. “Are you sure about this Jay? We don’t owe those people anything; we don’t need to help them. This all seems really risky and to do it for some strangers, I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“Something tells me that we can trust them and that everything will work out, somehow.” He lifted his hand to his chest. “Something…”
Charlie laughed. “I never thought I’d see my Captain smitten with love like this!”
“What?” Jacobi felt his face turn red.
Charlie laughed even harder. “Bull’s-eye!” He calmed himself and continued. “Alright, if your heart says to help and your mind doesn’t argue then I see no point in debating the issue.”
Jacobi thrust his hand back out to Charlie. “Just get in the bag.”
Charlie chuckled as he crawled up Jacobi’s arm and into the bag.
Jacobi made quick work of Gabgoblin Headquarters’ maze and headed to the place where Sara and Lawrence were waiting.
~~~~~
“Were you followed?” Sara asked as Jacobi ducked through the window of the abandoned building on the outskirts of the slums.
“Nope.” The voice of reason reported. Jacobi quickly voiced the response and let Charlie out of the bag.
“Okay Jay, everything’s there. I guess this is where we part ways?”
“Yes, thank you Charlie. We’ll meet you at the Outrunner, have her ready to launch, we’ll need to be in the air as soon as possible.”
“Roger that Captain.” A sad look crossed his face. “Good luck Captain.”
“Thanks. You too, Charlie.”
The monkey nodded and then scurried out of the building and out of sight.
Jacobi turned to the two on-lookers. He felt his heart suddenly race when his eyes connected with Sara’s. “Charlie will have the ship prepped for us, now we have to focus on getting Charles out safely.” He pulled a map up onto the display of his P-COM and activated the hologram mode. The map leapt from the display and hovered in the air. “This is a map of the slums, according to Gabgoblin’s information on Wynn and his syndicate they ope
rate in the sewer system below the slums. If I would have to guess I’d say that they’re holding Charles here,” He pointed to a large room deep within the maze.
Sara interrupted him, she sounded dismayed. “You’d guess? You don’t know for sure?”
Jacobi shook his head. “No I don’t know for sure, but if I were to operate out of a sewer system and I needed to keep prisoners, I would keep them here.” He waited for Sara to nod before continuing. “Additionally, since they know that you’ll eventually come back looking for your brother, he should be relatively easy to find. This is how it’s going to go down; Sara and I will sneak in through this small passage here,” He traced his finger along a tiny path that led from the middle of the slums out to the newer sewer system. “We’ll be able to get to the prison room from here; security should be light because they’ll be expecting us so we’ll be able to make it to Charles pretty easily. That’s when they’ll spring their trap, but” He reached into his bag and took out the disk that he had stolen from Gabgoblin’s desk. “I’ll notify Lawrence, who’ll be waiting near the main entrance to the sewers, and he’ll activate this baby.” He tossed the disk to Lawrence.
“What is it?” Lawrence held it in his palm.
“An extremely powerful explosive. You’ll need to throw it and run; you’ll want to have some cover when this thing blows. The bomb will draw their attention and we’ll slip in take Charles and slip back out. Lawrence should be at the hangar before us and from there on out it should be smooth sailing.”
“What makes you so sure everything will happen as you say?” Sara asked after considering the plan.
“Nothing. I could be completely wrong. You can I could run into major resistance before we even reach the main channel, Lawrence could be stopped before getting close enough to use the bomb, Charles might not even be in there; but I don’t think any of that will happen. I believe that everything will go just as I said. Whether or not you believe it is totally up to you, but you asked for my help and you agreed to do things my way, right?”
She nodded. “I don’t not believe you…”
“Well then let’s leave it at that, it’s about time we got moving. You know what you need to do, right Lawrence?”
“How will I know when to set it off?”