Lasers, Lies and Money Page 7

  The rumbling outside faded as they left the planet's atmosphere.

  “Prepare for jump,” a voice announced over the loudspeakers.

  Zino smiled back. “I look forward to it, sir.”

  The ship jumped.

  Chapter 16: Volpone

  Volpone was an independent world near the borders of Albascene space, home to an even mixture of all species. It was tidally locked to a small red dwarf star. One hemisphere was constant day, a giant sun-baked desert. The other was constant night, a field of mile-thick ice.

  But between the two was a ring of constant evening – or dawn. There it was warm, but not unbearably hot. The sun appeared as a giant red globe dipping just below the horizon, never rising, never falling. This circle of evening was protected by transparent sapphiroid walls, two miles high, to protect it from the savage winds which whipped continuously from night to day.

  Only registered jump-capable ships were allowed in orbit, and the Outsider wasn't registered. Instead, it hung back in the outer system with a collection of ships in similar circumstances. Rurthk, Eloise, Mero and Olivia went by shuttle.

  Mero and Olivia wore matching pristine uniforms and hats of magenta velvet. Eloise wore a chiffon gown, her hair up, held by a fake diamond pin. Rurthk wore his usual coat. He recounted the plan one final time:

  “Tommy Egliante's compound is ten miles across. It has its own set of walls, independent of Volpone's. The only way through is by magtube. The first problem lies there. Generous soul that he is, Egliante is having everyone, staff and guests, patted down as they enter and leave. There's no way we can get the fake hard drives in that way. But, the compound is served by a set of automated drones that bring in food. They connect to the monorail tracks to get through the walls. For the party, they'll be working overtime.”

  Rurthk nodded at Mero and Olivia. “The staff unload the food. In this case, you two will get to drone B72 at 21.00 and take out the fake hard drives, placed there by yours truly.”

  “Poor Rur,” said Eloise. “You can't see Egliante's party.”

  Rurthk snorted. “No choice. Egliante has no Glaber on his guest list or his staff. I'd get noticed immediately. So no party for me.” He smiled faintly. “I'll live. Now, staff passes will get you inside Egliante's mansion, but not inside the vault. For that, we need DNA and a fingerprint. Eloise?”

  Eloise smiled. “Easy peasy.”

  “So,” Rurthk continued, “the three of you meet up outside the south wing's third door at 21.30 with the fake hard drives, staff passes, and Egliante's DNA and fingerprints. Go inside. The vault is this way. You'll need to disable these camera feeds. Then you go into the vault. If Sukone is right, the computers are switched off by default, but they perform an automated diagnostic every ten minutes. If we've timed this right, you'll come in just after the diagnostic finishes. Then things speed up. You have ten minutes to finish the operation. Switch the hard drives. Put the real ones on a drone as it returns to the fruit farms, where I'll pick it up. Then get out of there. With me so far?”

  They'd all heard this a dozen times before. They all nodded.

  “Then we meet up at the spaceport and get off this rock,” said Rurthk.

  The shuttle dropped through the atmosphere. The band of eternal afternoon expanded until it was the only thing visible. Cities emerged, with monorail lines snaking away from them.

  The shuttle landed at a small spaceport directly adjoining a station, and the door opened.

  “Well then,” said Rurthk. “Let's rob the richest man on the planet.”

  *

  Investigator Laodicean of the Galactic Enforcement Agency, or GEA, arrived on Hagbard in an organic spaceship shaped like a crystalline blue sphere ten metres across. The interior was split between air and water sections by effector fields.

  The air section was for Laodicean's partner, Illipa, a Petaur.

  Laodicean himself took to the aquatic sections. He was a Tethyan. The Tethyans, like Albascene, were aquatic. Unlike Albascene, they didn't use suits. At first glance, they looked a bit like squid, with a pointed body and a set of six limbs coming out one side. But instead of soft mollusc skin, they had an exoskeleton, with jointed arms. Laodicean's exoskeleton had a pattern of rich browns and creams resembling tortoiseshell. Six electric-blue, crystalline compound eyes were arranged between his tentacles, giving him a full 360 vision.

  The GEA ship settled into the spaceport on Hagbard. On this part of the planet it was early afternoon. The sky was coated in clouds ranging from white to grey. Rain fell intermittently.

  Seams appeared on the ship's smooth surface, then irised open into a door. Laodicean glided out, floating a couple of feet off the ground in a globe of water held in place by effector fields. Illipa followed a moment later, scrambling along on all fours.

  A member of Hagbard's local law service, a human, was at the spaceport to meet them. He was brisk and officious. “Please come this way,” he said.

  “If I were a crime boss, I'd choose a nicer place than this,” Illipa offered.

  The human said nothing.

  “Apparently, it has a good nightlife,” Laodicean offered.

  The source of this nightlife turned out to be less impressive by day. The clubs and bars down the main street had turned off their lurid neon and LED signs and now took on a uniform grey under the light of the clouds. A few expressionless faces looked out from within. Other people of various species hurried through the rain, eager to get inside again.

  Their guide led them down an alley beside one of the larger bars, and through the transparent glowing wall of an effector field barrier.

  “This was the location of the first incident,” he said. “A car was stolen and used to attack a group of people on this street.

  “Fatalities?” said Laodicean.

  “We found two bodies, here and here.”

  “From the impact?”

  The human shook his head. “Gunshot. Close range.” He pointed up to the roof. “Another one up there.”

  Over the next two hours, he escorted Laodicean and Illipa around the town, to another incident point behind a bar, then to a shuttle berth holding the damaged car. “The impact there,” he said, “Has Varanid blood. We've kept samples for analysis.”

  “Thank you,” said Laodicean. “I'm more curious, though, about two human women. Identical in appearance and dress.”

  “Ah, the Twins. We know of them. Nothing we can pin on them, of course. But they haven't been seen since the attack.”

  Laodicean considered this, invisibly flicking through various reports on his neural link. “If they're gone for good, it would be a convenient, if not satisfying, end to the case,” he said.

  “It does, kinda, invite the question, though,” said Illipa, speaking at a mile a minute, “who whacked them? Biggest criminal organisation on Hagbard then someone turns up and kills half their people and sends them into hiding.”

  “Yes, I should like to know about that as well,” said Laodicean.

  “We have witness reports from the fight on the streets and the establishment they invaded,” said the human. “References eight, twelve and thirteen.”

  Laodicean called them up on his neural link. Illipa did the same with her tablet.

  “The biggest notable we have is what appears to be a lone Glaber,” the human explained. “He was giving orders to others of various species.”

  “Are you sure he was lone?” said Laodicean, reading the report. “He may have been part of a Hive, with the other members simply elsewhere.”

  “Ah, uh, no, we're not certain,” said the human.

  “Nevertheless, the circumstantial evidence is strong. I shall keep it in mind.” Laodicean flipped through to another report. This one held eyewitness report of a “patchwork ship” landing on a nearby park, and one instance of the Glaber seen nearby. “Do you have an ID on the ship?” he asked.

  “We haven't been able to find anything,” said the human. “If it was at the spaceport, we ha
ven't been able to match it to the witness sightings. When it landed in the park, it was late at night and the rain was heavy. No one seems to have seen the name on the ship – if it had one at all.”

  “Thank you, officer.” Laodicean turned an eye towards Illipa. “A patchwork ship with a –possible – lone Glaber on board. This may turn out to be an interesting case all by itself.

  Chapter 17: Dead Weight

  The tube wall was transparent, made of sapphiroid. Through the window, landscape skated past at half the speed of sound.

  Olivia adjusted her silly little hat and looked over at Mero who was sitting on the hard wooden bench opposite. Around them, other staff, dressed identically, lounged and read or watched videos on their tablets.

  “You sure you can handle this?” Mero said. There was no compassion there, just ice-cold pragmatism.

  Olivia nodded. Which was something of a lie. She wasn't certain. She'd helped with a few small jobs during her month on the Outsider, but nothing like this.

  “I haven't got time to lug a weight around,” Mero said. “You cause problems, and I cut you loose like that.” He snapped his fingers. “Understand?”

  “Which one of us saved the Captain on Hagbard?” Olivia said coldly. “I understand. I'll be fine.”

  Mero seemed to accept this, and looked away. Olivia wished Rurthk or Eloise was around to control him. Rurthk had told her about Mero earlier: “He's always looking for the advantage. That makes him valuable, but difficult. Don't let him walk on you.”

  Olivia sighed.

  The view through the window turned black in an instant. They were inside the compound's walls. The train began to hum as it slowed.

  A supervisor at the end of the carriage stood and attempted to give a motivational speech: “Alright, people! It's crunch time. Keep your badge on you at all times.” He tapped the one on his chest. “We will be keeping an eye out for people slacking off, and deducting wages where necessary.”

  “Wonderful,” muttered Mero, just quiet enough for the comment to be lost in the general hubbub.

  The windows lit up again, showing the inside of Egliante's compound. Various soaring towers appeared in the distance. They approached as the train finally came to a halt. There was a faint thump as it formed an airtight seal with the tube wall, then the doors slid open.

  People began to file out.

  Olivia stepped out behind Mero onto the staff station. Its platform was simply a sheet of steel, with four-foot high steel barriers interrupted by gates to the front, back and middle. The gates led to rolling grass – imported from Earth – lined by brick pathways. Flowerbeds containing everything from roses to brightly coloured, ten foot tall alien succulents were scattered about. The huge red sun sat immobile on the horizon to their right.

  Up ahead, a couple of hundred metres away, was the mansion. Or perhaps castle would be the better word. It was a bizarre amalgam of architectural styles, from Earth Baroque to Varanid Palace Architecture. Its jagged shadow stretched off into the distance.

  The party was laid out on the lawn. Three huge stages, one of which seemed to have an opera production setting up; several tents; a pylon with hang-gliders sitting ready at the top; ice sculptures; fountains; and six gigantic empty tables.

  To the far left was another station. This one, for the guests, was much more ornate. It was gated, with staff posted to check people's invitations. The guests hadn't arrived yet.

  Sapphiroid tubes emerged from one end of both stations, merged, and then snaked off into the distance. There was also a much smaller third tube, ending in an elongated airlock. As Olivia watched, a line of drones glided along the third tube into the airlock. The airlock opened, and the drones flew out.

  Olivia checked her watch. “Drone B72 at 21.00 hours. It's nearly time.”

  “Let's get moving, then,” said Mero.

  They followed the drones behind the mansion. There, placed out of sight of guests, was an enclosed unloading station. It would have been easier, Olivia thought, to have the drones unload directly at the table. But part of the attraction here was the luxury of being served by real people.

  Staff were scurrying back and forth, doing their best to either be busy or look busy. No one questioned Olivia and Mero.

  Drones entered one side of the unloading station through holes in the wall and landed on a long counter. The doors in their bellies slid open, and someone rushed to take out the contents. As soon as it was empty, the drone lifted off and headed back. A screen on one wall gave a live feed of incoming drones.

  “B72 … B72 …” Mero muttered, searching the screen.

  “There,” Olivia said, pointing. The drone was coming towards them now.

  Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to find another member of staff, a giant, muscled man. He looked faintly ridiculous in the magenta uniform, holding a bag of similarly coloured fabric. but that wasn't the first thing on Olivia's mind.

  “I … uh … what is it?” she asked.

  “It's okay,” he said. “We're fully manned here. You don't need to worry about unloading.”

  The drone was about to arrive.

  Mero stepped forward, baring an unpleasant grin. “Look, friend – ”

  “I haven't seen you around here before!” Olivia said, cutting him off. “What's your name?”

  “James,” said the large man.

  “Listen, James. We're not part of the serving staff. We've got a special delivery for Mr. Egliante.”

  “Ah …” James said.

  Drone B72 flew into the unloading station and landed at the counter.

  “Ah!” said Mero, playing along. “There it is now!” He dodged past James and several other members of staff and reached the drone as its doors opened. He took out three cubes of black plastic, each about a foot across and studded with ports, one in each hand, and one with his tail. “Damn! They didn't give us a bag, did they?”

  “Oh, here you go,” said James, giving them his bag.

  “Thank you!” Olivia said sweetly.

  “Put in a good word for me with Mr. Egliante, would you?” said James.

  “Of course!” said Olivia.

  Mero put the hard drives in the bag while Olivia said this. There were five in total. Hidden behind them were some sheets of smart matter, and two mechanical bolt pistols. Two shots each, in case they got in trouble, these could slip past the automated weapon detection systems.

  Then she waved goodbye to James.

  “The guests are about to arrive,” Mero said. He had his tail draped over his shoulder, holding the bag. After a moment he added, “Good work.”

  “Not a dead weight, then?” Olivia asked with a smile.

  “Not yet,” said Mero.

  Chapter 18: The Biggest Party on the Planet

  The guests began to arrive at 21.15. A train slid into the ornate station. Hundreds of people in all manner of suits, gowns, and costumes walked out of the doors, past the gatekeepers, and into the garden.

  The scene was fully prepared for them. Fire twirlers and fire breather performed in the shadows. Ice sculptures were laid out a safe distance away. A giant organ with six keyboards and two players performed alongside an orchestra on one of the stages. The tables were filled with food for almost every species.

  Olivia and Mero stood by the station, holding plates of champagne and canapés respectively, watching. They were all but invisible to the guests.

  The train left. Another one took its place.

  At last, Eloise came gliding across the lawn towards them. “You two look adorable standing there like that,” she said, taking a glass of champagne.

  “Yeah, yeah. Just remember why we're here,” said Mero.

  “I can do both,” said Eloise.

  The music fell silent and an immense gong came from the mansion. Conversation died away quickly as everyone turned.

  Tommy Egliante stood on a central balcony, his arms outstretched in an expansive gesture. The screen set up beside the mansion
showed a close up. He looked to be in his mid-forties, just about verging on being overweight with dark, slicked-back hair.

  “Honoured guests,” he said. “Welcome to my home. Thank you all so much for coming. You can see the arrangements laid out before you. To the east, you will find a racing track. The vehicles are being prepared now. Please be careful. Take advantage of them as you please. Finally, the opera begins at ten. I hope to see you there. Beyond that, I only have one request: Have as much fun as I do!”

  The staff began clapping, as they had been ordered to, and the guests followed. Egliante turned and descended a helical marble staircase towards the garden

  Eloise rolled her champagne flute back and forth without drinking any. “The social climbers and his closest entourage will want to talk to him now,” she said. “It'll be a bit of a scrum. Give it ten minutes and I'll make my move. Have you two done your parts?”

  “Hard drives are in here,” said Mero, hefting the bag.

  “What about the staff passes?” said Olivia.

  “Oh, you didn't see? I already lifted them.” Mero gave her a mischievous grin and pulled out three keycards from inside his uniform. “One each, in case we get separated.”

  Eloise took one of the keycards and nodded. “Good work. Both of you.”

  *

  Ikki and Ranye stood together by the station, staring out across the lawn. To look the part, they had on their new snakeskin coats.

  “A party,” said Ikki, her eyes wide and glistening.

  “Indeed it is, my dear Ikki! A party of the richest and most powerful people on Volpone.”

  “I recognise that Varanid from the vidcast!”

  Rayne nodded. “What do you suppose we should do first?”

  “Let's watch the fire-twirlers.”

  “A fabulous idea!”

  “And then let's eat all that food.”