Chapter 5

Leaving the secure area, I flipped my collar up to obscure the red neckcloth until I’d made it into more neutral territory. “Jepps” thugs wouldn’t spend any time near a known HRC property, and neither would a thug use HRC property for transportation, which was why I was walking instead of taking one of the spinners.

Once I was far enough away from the hangar, I ordered a hov-shuttle to get me closer to the Lucky Break’s neighborhood. I prayed one of my contacts spotted Janessa and her captors before they reached JeppC Bits. But until I heard from someone, that’s where I was headed.

Folding my jacket’s collar back down, I adopted the swagger of a typical thug. Most Jepps were Shinterran, but they used the occasional human or Qhudret lackey. It wasn’t until I was deeper into their territory that I would invite enough suspicion to be scrutinized by someone.

Scanning the street, I noticed a handful of Kaz pickpockets and at least as many Jepps scattered in strategic places.

A homeless Shinterran sat under the awning of a boarded up Qhudretian soup shop and held out a cup. Bent with age, he used a capa-hov as his chair, and I wondered why Cam didn’t use one. From what I understood, the Jeppsit 5 Urban Governance provided adaptive products to anyone who lived on the planet. All they had to do was register …

A tall sepia toned man about eight meters to my ten o’clock was in a shoving match with a woman of similar height and build.

An HRC operative might break that up, but I needed to stay under the radar. If it got bad, I’d create a diversion or something.

The closer I came to the argument, the clearer their words were. I heard “Lucretia’s Ladies” and pulled up short, pretending to read a digital tickertape outside a smoke-bowl shop.

Cocking my head, I picked out a few more sentences. It sounded like Jeppur’s faction of the Jepps had an agreement with the brothel. I hadn’t realized their reach spread to this planet all the way from Dispatch 9.

Cam had said they didn’t know she and Janessa were here. And they’d been here for a year standard.

Cam’s disability was debilitating enough that she would qualify for the J5UG services but must not have.

I was a fucking idiot.

The second she registered as a citizen, her former “employer” would know exactly where in the solar system she and Janessa were.

The argument escalated.

“The fuck I am! I have rights, too! I’ve given blood and sweat to you!” the woman shouted. “I gave up my hill for you tunnel diggers!”

The sound of skin on flesh echoed across the street, and I winced.

“You didn’t give that blood or that sweat,” the male voice intoned. “We took it as our due. Never insult me like that again, or I’ll put you on the next ship off-planet.”

“You wouldn’t,” she sneered. “Who else is gonna fuck your dirty politicians?”

“We’ll take whoever we want whenever we want,” he said. “In fact, your replacement should be here in about twenty standard. She’ll need a little breaking in,” he said with a laugh, and my fists balled so tight I could feel my tendons protest.

“How old is she?” the woman asked, and unless I was wrong, I detected a note of concern.

“Old enough she knows not to mouth off to her handlers, bitch. Are we clear?”

“Clear enough I can see when a dick is talking,” she said, and I heard another slap.

“You asked for it; I’m hauling your skanky ass to the next off-planet freighter.”

My muscles froze, and I gritted my teeth. Daring a peek, I couldn’t see them. Spinning, I searched the sidewalk across the street, but I only saw pedestrians of all shapes and sizes moving at normal speeds in either direction. I spotted a couple, but when the man turned his head, it wasn’t the same guy.

“Dammit,” I said and pinged Knife. “My intel is still good,” I said. “They’re bringing her to JeppC Bits, and it sounds like I’ve got about twenty minutes standard to intercept before they take her down.”

“Good,” he replied.

“But I’ve got another problem,” I said and explained what I’d overheard. I knew I couldn’t save everyone. Normally I wouldn’t even try. But the desperation in that woman’s voice poured ice in my veins. And I was certain I was missing a crucial detail, but I was focused on taking Janessa back to Cam. I knew Knife would figure it out.

“On it,” he said and closed the comm.

Relief turned off the part of my brain focused on the other woman, and I turned my full attention to reaching JeppC Bits before Janessa’s captors.

The crowds on the streets thinned, making my job both easier and more difficult.

It was easier to scan everyone, but if I needed to take action, I’d stand out like a rabid jat wearing a Kaz hat.

According to the map in my comm, the store was sixteen meters ahead. Unfortunately, Knife’s intel didn’t say whether the bolt hole’s access was from inside the store or outside.

So far, no one paid attention to me. I’d adopted a slouch and a limp, going for the effect of a kizo-weed zone-out.

The earlier argument had distracted two of the four Jepps I’d spotted earlier. That left the next two for me to pass without drawing suspicion.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the one across the street watching me like a Ciliak War Thorn, and I knew I had to put his suspicions to bed.

Stumbling toward the curb, I vomited into the storm drain on demand. When I stood and wiped my mouth, I let my glazed eyes stare directly at the lookout. He shook his head and turned away in disgust.

Mission accomplished, I stumbled back toward the fourth Shinterran whose guard alarms I hadn’t triggered with my presence, and he too, turned away as if embarrassed on my behalf.

I limped my way to the boarded-up shop adjacent to JeppC Bits and collapsed in the alcove to join the pile of debris that landed from the last wind gust. Moaning for effect, I knew the lookouts no longer paid attention to me.

I commed Cam to let her know I was safe and very close to rescuing our girl, then I checked in with my closest contacts in the Lucky Breaks ‘hood. All but one replied they hadn’t seen anything.

The last one messaged: stand by.

She was positioned about a city block to my one o’clock.

Please God, let this work, I muttered to myself. Another gust of wind carried a huge sheet of newsprint into the door well, and I snagged it before it could flutter away.

The ping came in: Target spotted. Engaging as planned.

My contact was Shinterran. She was also a prominent member of the Kaz with a reputation for making trouble for the HRC. Respected by everyone in her small corner of Jeppur, except for the HRC, she was the perfect double-agent.

Groaning, I pulled myself to standing and held the paper to my face as if to catch another round of sick, and I limped west, passing JeppC Bits and turning north up the alley alongside it. It was quiet, and when I reached the next side street, I turned north.

My comm pinged.

“I have the Target. Enemy neutralized for five minutes.”

Checking for witnesses, I saw no one and broke into a sprint. We’d planned to meet on this street regardless of the outcome, but if she had Janessa, I needed to grab her quick.

The Lucky Break region was poorly named. There was a pub on the other block of the same name, and a decent public library farther north on that street, but this side of the neighborhood was a depressed hodgepodge of hastily cobbled Shinterran huts and cheap IGMC-decommissioned housing.

Unattractive auto-dumps dotted every third drive, and the Urban Governance’s attempt at sprucing up the place lined the yards with stunted, non-native tan zee trees that probably wouldn’t outlive the next month standard.

There was a city park ahead with a pavilion and a multi-use toilet, meaning several different alien races could use it comfortably. Provided the odor of stale piss didn’t discomfit anyone.

It was the perfect place for the handoff.

The cacophony of screaming and shouting kids met my ears before I saw the group walking up the next street toward the park accompanied by two unfamiliar Shinterran adults.

Heart pounding triple time, I slowed my sprint to a jog, searching the area for my contact and coming up blank.

The adults shouted at the kids to behave, or they were going to turn around and do extra classwork, but the kids ignored them, jarring each other, and competing for who could whine, scream, or laugh the loudest.

Stopping in the middle of the street, I checked my comm, but there weren’t any more messages.

If the thug who threatened the sex worker was right, I had about five minutes before Janessa was set to arrive.

Throwing a cursory glance at the kids, I searched for a dirty blonde topknot but came up short. The kids sported various colors of Shinterran and human hair as well as the head limbs found on Qhudretians. And one bald kid.

Looking up the street from which they’d arrived, I saw no one. Traffic moved along at a normal pace, and an asswipe on a spinner accelerated and cut off a hov-shuttle.

“Fuck,” I said before feeling a tug on my jacket.

The bald kid looked up at me. He had big brown eyes. And a stubborn set to his jaw.

“Fuck you very much,” Janessa said before she started crying.

Picking her up, I looked at the adults, but they pretended not to see us and turned to shout at the kids to race to the park. My contact was nowhere to be seen.

“Hang on tight, Nessa,” I whispered and broke into a run.

I had no idea how my contact arranged it all, but it was clear it had been strategic and damn near foolproof. I was the only fool who almost missed it. But the little scamp had buried herself inside my jacket and clung tight while I raced to the nearest HRC safehouse.

It was one thing to impersonate a Jepp and saunter through their territory, and quite another to attempt to smuggle out what they considered to be their property.

“Almost there, Nessa,” I whispered and scanned the darkening street for danger. “You’ll never guess who I brought to help me get you back.”

She sniffled but didn’t say anything.

“Suva Cam is waiting for us back in my ship,” I said and brushed my lips over the stubble on her head. I didn’t know if her abductors shaved her head or if one of the Shinterran contacts did as a disguise, but I sensed it may have been devastating for her. At my words, I felt her hands clench around my shirt fabric. She seemed to relax in my arms, and my own breathing evened out as I spotted the safehouse’s entrance.

Ducking behind the twisted tree, I heard a hiss. “Shh,” I said. “It’s only a jat.” I slipped into the obscured entrance and the RFID scanned my embedded chip, locking and securing the entrance behind me.

It was called a safehouse, but it wasn’t a house at all. It was an abandoned Shinterran tunnel cave, and I walked down the steps in the dark. At the bottom, my boots triggered the lights, and they activated to reveal the humble lodging.

Once a place of somber, solitary worship, the Shinterrans abandoned it due to an irreparable leak.

HRC bought the property and instead of repairing the leak, incorporated it into the refurbishment.

The studio apartment boasted a tiny bathroom, a kitchenette, a foldout couch, and a Murphy bed with scattered throw rugs on the ground and Shinterran geometric tapestries on the walls.

The sound of trickling water and the presence of natural Shinterran plantings lent a homey, comfortable ambience to an otherwise spare place. It would be perfect for our needs.

“The bathroom, if you need it,” I said, showing her the door lock. “Not much food in the kitchenette but I’m sure there are nutrition bars and bottled water.”

I walked to the wall opposite the stairs and pressed my palm into the camouflaged hand register. The monitor dropped down from the ceiling, and the holographic interface panel slid out from the cave wall. A few taps on the interface had both Knife and Boy Scout notified of our location, and I activated a camera feed from inside the room, as well. If we were somehow compromised, the camera (in addition to the security measures) would capture everything.

Then I tapped out a message to Cam and told her I’d have Janessa comm her as soon as she was out of the bathroom. Washing up at the kitchenette, I didn’t hear Janessa pad up to me. I felt the tug on my jacket.

“Hey, Jetpack,” I said with a smile. “How are you holding up?”

Her big brown eyes watered, but she narrowed them and clenched her jaw. I waited.

When she regained composure, she allowed a small smile to crack her fa?ade.

“Thank you for coming to get me,” she said, her voice hoarse. I made a fist where my hand hid inside the towel. She’d screamed herself hoarse. If I found out they did anything else to her ….

“Of course,” I said, clearing emotion from my throat. “Hey, Suva Cam is expecting a call.” I took off my wrist comm and handed it to her, showing her Cam’s icon.

She didn’t smile but looked up at me with uncertainty in her eyes. Cocking my head, I put myself in her place for a second.

“Hey, she’s not mad at you,” I said, squatting down to her level. “She wanted to come with me to make sure you were safe. If you can believe it, she wasn’t sure she could trust me. Me! The most harmless guy on Jeppsit 5!”

Janessa giggled and shoved my shoulder, and I pretended to fall.

“Hey, whoa!” I shouted and righted myself.

Janessa rolled her eyes and turned away, pressing Cam’s icon as she did so.

I used the bathroom to give her privacy and took a moment to stare into the small mirror above the sink.

My eyes had bags under them, and unless I miscounted, I had five more gray hairs mixed in with my usual brown from the last time I looked. It wouldn’t be long before my beard would go salt and pepper, and I wasn’t that old. This job gave me stress like nobody’s business.

But rescuing Janessa and imagining Cam’s face when she had her in her arms? That felt like winning the Interplanetary Lottery.

Exiting the bathroom, I spied Janessa sitting on the couch with dangling legs in animated conversation, holding the comm close to her mouth while her other hand gestured in wild arcs and slices.

When she saw me, she winked but kept on talking, and I chuckled.

Scanning the monitor, I saw Knife had mapped a route back to the hangar as well as scheduled a timed distraction that should keep the Jepps off our trail long enough to make it back. The Boy Scout had replied with a short note that he had excellent news but couldn’t share it yet. Cocking my head, I recalled the curvy little customer that he’d gone into hiding with and realized his news probably had to do with her as opposed to HRC.

Sighing, I gripped the panel and dropped my chin, thinking about this morning’s phone call.

Frank Sorenson had sent me a recorded command protocol via Deep Space Network Relay. In the first part, he’d said he and the team were going in dark to “neutralize hostile agents” in an uncharted system. Before they breached the uncharted area, he’d sent the command protocol.

My team was assigned to apprehend the Enforcer and send him to Titan for IGMC’s Loyalty Review Board. Long story short, Frank and his superior had somehow fingered the Enforcer as a threat.

Which was damned interesting considering that my team and I had frequently questioned the Enforcer’s place in relation to IGMC and the HRC. Almost every time Sorenson had sent us after a citizen for a “routine inquiry”, the Enforcer had arrived there first. Both he and the citizen would disappear for a time, but he always re-emerged. The other citizens? Not so much.

Shaking my head, I turned to see Janessa staring at the comm with a confused expression.

“What does this mean?” she asked, tilting it so I could see the blinking red light.

“Shit,” I said and scooped her up. “It means Suva Cam is in trouble.”