Payton

PAYTON

"Wait here," the guard ordered when he left me in this room around five minutes ago.

The room was twice as large as my quarters on the station, which is to say, small. In the center was a metal table with two metal chairs attached to it on either side. No decorations, nothing fun or playful. Just a vent in one corner and a camera in the other, a door in each of the short walls.

"Nice place to visit," I muttered to myself, sitting down, facing the other door.

Everything went just the way it was supposed to.

When you think about it, it's pretty impressive what most people will let you do on fake credentials.

I always kind of assumed that doctors only get to do doctor stuff and engineers their engineer stuff because they're smart and know what they're doing. But apparently, it all comes down to papers and microchips. Most people don't check you for being smart. They check you for papers and microchips, and assume that if you've got the right ones, you must have been given them for the right reasons.

For the past two days, thanks to a new set of papers and chips, people treated me the way they would treat an actual advocate rather than a bottle girl. When I said something, people paid attention, and then nodded as if it was incredibly clever.

They asked me if there was anything they could do to make my trip more pleasant. One person even mentioned how refreshing it was to see a human who did their species credit.

That last one actually gave me some mixed feelings, but the others were all pretty cool. It was fun to feel respectable, even if I knew it was only pretend.

Deathgate was every bit as ugly and unpleasant as a prison could possibly be. Every hall and room was the same slightly shiny gray, and every door the same thudding metal. Even the one window I looked out didn't exactly cheer me up. Just a lot of brown, pockmarked stone, stretching out in every direction. Without an atmosphere to make them twinkle, even the stars looked limp and lifeless on this world.

The doors slid apart. Two guards stood there, with Havek in between them. I had seen Havek a few times at the club, usually standing by and watching while other people gambled.

He was tall, tall enough that he seemed thin, even though he was quite well-muscled. He stood perfectly straight and he had eyes that seemed to scan everything from a hundred miles away and the black sigils down his cheek seemed to soak up the light. Even down to the way he walked, he projected total calm and complete confidence.

I could tell from a glance that he recognized me. He was surprised for a moment, but quickly regained his composure.

"You'll pardon me for my surprise," he said, smiling. "I didn't expect to receive such an illustrious attorney."

He was smooth, that was for certain. Even when he made a mistake, he made it look good. I wished I could be that quick.

"We're taking your case very seriously," I said, then looked at the guard. "Could I have a moment in private with my client?"

"Yeah, whatever," said the guard, shoving Havek down into one of the two seats. The guard cuffed one of Havek's hands to the table before stepping back. "Just don't try anything stupid. We're watching."

Immediately, they filed out and the doors slid closed.

"All my best scheming is wasted on these meatheads." He shook his head and looked at me. "Now, would you mind telling me why, exactly, an indentured waitress is posing as my advocate?"

His anger startled me. I didn't exactly know what to expect from him, but I never really considered the possibility that he wouldn't be happy to see me.

"Technically, I'm a bottle girl," I replied instinctively.

"Oh, well, never mind. I thought you were a mere waitress, but in fact, you're a full bottle girl!" His voice grew more heated as he went on. "Do you have any sense of what I've done for this family? The things I've made possible? Do you really think Alkard would be where he is without my technology? Without my security systems to protect him? Without the expertise which has been devoted to every one of his operations?"

"Alkard thought tha-"

"And now, when I'm in trouble and need his help, this is what I get? A bottle girl? A disposable bit of property thrown at me like a bone at dinner? And he expects me to be grateful for the help?"

He's not really mad at me, I reminded myself. I'm the first person he's been able to let his anger out since he got into this situation.

Not that knowing that made things that much easier.

"Here's what I want you to tell Alkard," Havek continued. "Tell him that I'll deal with this situation myself. Just the way I've always dealt with things. Tell him as long as I have my two hands and my brain, I don't need his scraps."

"I think we should maybe-"

"And tell him that once I'm out, I'm going to find him. And ask him why he treats someone who has served him so loyally like he is now. Haven't I done everything he's asked for? How could he just forget about me?"

I sighed and reached into the coat that Tessi gave me. I pulled out a square of paper and a pen, then quickly wrote a few words on them. I slid both the paper and the pen over to Havek.

He looked down and read the sentence I scratched on the pad.

Is it my turn to talk now?

He looked at me and took a breath, quickly regaining most of his composure. "Make it good."

"First of all, we're being recorded."

He rolled his eyes. "Of course we are. Please stop stating the obvious."

"But it's okay. I have a device that should scramble the audio and give us the freedom to talk."

I opened my coat to show him. It was pretty impressive, a silver mesh woven into the lining of the jacket, the very pattern of the fibers setting up an electronic dead zone, the signature of the device so miniscule to that generated by a living body that it became almost invisible to detection. By grabbing samples of nearby voices and creating a false conversation with AI, you couldn't even tell that the real conversation was being hidden.

He snorted and smiled.

"You don't have to explain it to me," he said. "I invented it." He sank back into the chair, and flashed a bitter grin. "I guess I didn't need to put on the angry, abandoned act."

He looked abandoned. Angry. Hurt.

Was it really just a show?

"I'm sorry," I said too quickly to stop myself. Why did it feel so important for this man to like me? "Anyway, Alkard is fully dedicated to saving you. He hasn't forgotten you. I'm here to be a point of contact. I'll tell you about the plan."

"I see." He crossed his arms. "And what is the plan, so far?"

"I'm just introducing myself right now."

That smirk again. "I see. So, in other words, this meeting isn't a waste of time because next meeting, you might have something worthwhile to say."

"You know, I don't have to be here at all," I snapped. "Since you're so happy all on your own."

"Well, maybe if you weren't here, I could have an actual advocate," he replied. "You know. Someone who can actually do something."

"Don't you think they're trying?" I swallowed hard. "Your family wants you back, and right now, I'm the one they sent."

I met his eyes and did my best to look confident. I didn't like being mad at him, and I really didn't like him being mad at me. He seemed like a much more interesting person than I expected, and it made me feel sad that he saw little worth in me.

All the emotion dropped out of his voice. "My priority right now is figuring out the quickest route to escape. If you can't offer me anything that's helpful in achieving that, then the most I can do is ask you not to take up any of my time."

"You don't really think you can escape without Alkard's help, do you?" I twisted my fingers in front of me.

"I think that this prison wasn't designed to hold someone like me," he replied, back to being totally emotionless. "And once I set my mind to it, I'll figure out exactly how to take advantage of that fact."

It wasn't just bravado. I witnessed many men brag about things they knew they couldn't really do. He believed it, completely.

Did that make him a genius or a fool?

"You don't have any tools you could use to organize a jailbreak."

"I have the most important one." He tapped the side of his head, just below the first set of horns.

"But it's Deathgate," I protested. "No one's ever escaped from Deathgate."

"And it's made the guards careless," he answered. "Which gives me some very useful freedom of action."

"Freedom of action to do what? You're locked in by thermal-resistant three foot thick walls and doors that could take blast from a plasma cannon."

"No need to use a plasma cannon if the doors are open," he said.

"But they aren't!" I cried. "The five doors that lead to the prison are never open at the same time. And whenever one of them is opened, there are at least two armed guards to watch it and more waiting on camera."

"Which means my escape will have to involve disrupting the routine." Every response came without a pause or a hint of doubt. "That cuts down on my options somewhat, but it's not at all insurmountable."

"Okay, but even if you get through all of that, then what? You're still in the middle of nowhere on an asteroid with absolutely no atmosphere. If the cold doesn't kill you, and you figure out a way to breathe, the radiation will still finish you off within an hour!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you've been studying at least. Maybe you're not entirely useless." He shrugged. "I don't have an answer for that problem yet. But I'll find one. I got here okay, didn't I? If they can bring me here, it's just a matter of time before I figure out a way to make them bring me somewhere else."

The way he said it, I couldn't help but believe him.

He didn't sound like he was bluffing. He sounded like he was given a problem and he was sincerely interested in figuring it out.

There was something fascinating about that. About someone who never backed down from a problem, even one as serious as escaping from a prison on an asteroid. I had almost given up on even helping this guy because it sounded too dangerous, and here he was, planning to do it all by himself with no help at all.

That was the kind of guy I respected. It might even be the kind of guy I…

But this wasn't the time to think about that now.

"Our time's almost up. Is there anything you want me to bring back to Alkard?" I asked. "Anything you need? Any complications we don't know about? Maybe not the death threat thing."

He paused to think for the first time in our whole conversation.

"Tell Alkard that I'm making my own plan," he said. "I don't have anything else to do. And tell him that I regret not having time to waste, even with such a lovely lady as yourself."

Before I could respond to that, the door slid open and the two guards entered to take Havek back to the cells.