Revengers Page 9

  We are awaiting payment. That, at least, is the official story from our employers – or captors. It is clear that things have not gone the way we intended, and even the promises of ten times the riches we were initially promised have not eased our woes. I don't know where we are, and it is clear we have no hope of leaving our accommodation for the time being. So I want out. A few of us want out, in fact. So we've conspired to try and get a message to you.

  If, as I've no doubt, you have no remaining sympathy for our plight, here is an additional inducement. We have been studying our employers. They are Petaurs. Our main contact is called Mr. Soul. He is sometimes accompanied by one called Mr. Hand. We have been trying to track their movements. So far we have had little success, but perhaps that will have changed by the time you find us.

  Regards,

  Jerome Singer

  Wolff read the message one more as he grabbed his loose tie from where it was hanging over the back of the chair and put it one. He brushed his shirt down and, striding out of the room, shouted, “Rurthk! I have something you'll want to see!”

  Chapter 24: Mystery Benefactor

  Wolff met Rurthk in the observation lounge. Laodicean joined them, and together they read Singer's message.

  “I appreciate the attempt, don't get me wrong,” said Rurthk as he finished, “but it's a shame he can't tell us anything we don't already know.” He checked the tablet again. “Aside from this Mr. Soul, which just confirm these people really like their codenames.”

  “It appears Dr. Singer got this message out without the knowledge of Vihan Yvredi,” said Laodicean. “Presumably it was hidden in a normal transmission. We may be able to trace it.”

  “Go for it,” said Rurthk.

  “I will need the original message, and access to the Outsider's bulkwave connection.”

  There was a brief silence. Rurthk and Wolff looked at each other.

  “Be my guest,” said Wolff, giving his tablet to Laodicean.

  Rurthk turned around and walked out of the lounge. He came back a few minutes later and threw a contracted tablet to Laodicean. “There,” he grunted. “Bulkwave information.”

  “Thank you,” said Laodicean. He held both tablets in his effector fields. Tethyan effector fields were far more advanced than Albascene. Going into the tablets' sockets, they gave Laodicean direct access to the contents through his neural link.

  He was silent for some time. Wolff busied himself looking through the cupboards, eventually settling on an autocook box of sausage and mash. He ate it while reading the message again. Laodicean was silent. Occasionally he shifted a tentacle. His crystalline blue compound eyes gave so little away that it was easy to imagine he was sleeping. Rurthk studied a tablet. Perhaps he was tracking what Laodicean was doing.

  When Wolff had finished his lunch, he went out into the corridor with Rurthk.

  “Do you really trust him, Captain?” Wolff asked, nodding towards the door.

  “No,” grunted Rurthk. “But that's my problem.”

  Wolff gave him a questioning look.

  “I've learned to work with a lot of unsavoury people, Doctor. So long as he's willing to help us, I can look past my feelings on the matter. Especially if he has in for Vihan Yvredi as much as I do.”

  Wolff nodded. After a moment, he said, “I wonder if Singer is still in the Glaber territories.”

  Rurthk thought about this, frowning. “The Glaber territories used to be a smart place to hide your secrets. The GEA had no access. There were plenty of hives willing to overlook that sort of thing so long as they weren't losing out. But now there's a war on. If I had to keep a bunch of scientists hidden from view, I wouldn't do it in there.”

  “That's what I thought,” said Wolff. “The worrying this is, why are they still alive?”

  “That's something to worry about?” said Rurthk.

  “The Blank attack has happened. Why are Vihan Yvredi still keeping them around? Why haven't they just killed them to clean up loose ends? They must still want them for something.”

  “You're right,” said Rurthk. “That is worrying.”

  But, unable to go from there, they fell silent, and eventually went back inside.

  “How long is this going to take?” Rurthk asked Laodicean.

  “Not much longer. I have tried the most common methods for finding to source of the signal. So far none have worked” said Laodicean. “I have one more idea.”

  So they waited, while the Tethyan lawman pored through their bulkwave. At last, after twenty minutes, Laodicean set the tablets down.

  “Well?” said Rurthk, taking one back.

  “I have failed,” said Laodicean. “The original signal, if there is one, uses highly complex deep scrambling techniques. If we had access to a lab, perhaps I could make progress, but currently there is nothing more I can do.”

  “Well, then,” said Rurthk. “It looks like we're going to have to find another approach. He stood up and went for the door. “Wait here. It's time for a meeting.”

  He returned a few moments later with Eloise and Olivia, bringing them up to speed on the situation with the message. They took their places at the table

  “Maybe Singer will find out a bit more if we give him some time,” said Olivia.

  “Let's hope so,” said Rurthk. “But I'm not going to just wait for something to fall into our ap. We're one small ship, and we're facing a giant criminal conspiracy.”

  “I'm sure we qualify for being a ragtag bunch of misfits by this point,” said Olivia. “That should give us some advantages.”

  Eloise smiled.

  “We need allies,” said Rurthk. “The thing is, we've made a lot of enemies. Friends are harder to come by.”

  “Well,” said Eloise, “I can think of one. On Cantor. But don't ask me what she looks like.”

  “Ah,” said Rurthk. “Our mystery benefactor.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What?” said Olivia.

  “What?” said Laodicean, almost at the same time.

  “This was just after we lost you on Cantor,” Eloise said to Olivia. She turned to Laodicean. “And just after you had us cornered with all your backup. We were stuck in a station again when a transport pod turned up to take to the facility.”

  “We got a recording of her voice and nothing else,” said Rurthk. “Without her, we wouldn't even have gotten as far as Mars. Whoever she is, she knows about Vihan Yvredi and opposes it.”

  “How are you going to find her?” said Dr. Wolff. “I doubt we're going to find a contact entry under 'Mysterious voice from a transport pod.'”

  “Going by what you've told me,” said Laodicean, “we know she's capable of monitoring the transport network. If we assume she's still doing so – and she has no reason not to – then we have a means of getting her attention. If we return to the same spot and use the network in an anomalous manner, we might be able to attract her attention.”

  Frowning, Rurthk looked at Laodicean. “That …” he began. “ … might well work.”

  “It would be best to repeat all the steps you took in interacting with the system the last time you were on Cantor,” said Laodicean. “That would serve as a good identifier as well as a means to attract her attention.”

  “It could also attract Vihan Yvredi's attention,” said Eloise. “They do tend to watch things. And after our last escapade, they might be looking for that in particular.”

  Rurthk nodded thoughtfully. Aside from probable death the complete failure of their mission that would follow, it would be embarrassing to fall at the first hurdle, just as he was getting a crew back together. “What do you think?” he asked Eloise. “Worth it.”

  She took a deep breath. “I think so” she said.

  Rurthk looked around the table. “Any objections?”

  Olivia shook her head, and Wolff and Laodicean said nothing.

  Rurthk turned back to Eloise, “You know, I'm starting to miss Mero chiming in to tell us how stupid and foolhardy the plan is.”<
br />
  “This is idiotic and we're all going to die,” Eloise said, imitating Mero's voice.

  Rurthk smiled. “Thank you. Now, let's get on with it.”

  Chapter 25: Uncharacteristically Generous

  Mero woke up with his nose buried in the soft felt of the carpet. He groaned and tried for a couple of seconds to push his head deeper into it. That didn't work, so at last he was forced to face reality. He could smell the stale remnants of alcohol and sweat in his fur. Of course, he thought bitterly, he knew from experience that he was nowhere near as bad as a human would be – a human probably wouldn't even be able to smell this.

  He spent half an hour in the shower with the misters and the air dryer as hot as he could bear, then headed outside to survey his domain. It was well past midday, and the sunlight gave him a headache and made everything too bright to look at. Everything was a mess. A chair was floating upside-down in the middle of the pool. He quickly gave in, activating the tidying drones on his.

  Inside, he paused to stare at the bulkwave. He had been on the verge of doing something incredibly stupid last night, but he couldn't remember what it was. Was he going to hand himself in? Not likely. He wasn't that suicidal. He gave up, and drank several glasses of water and ate the last of the lyrefuits in his cupboards.

  On the latest newscast, clips of Varanid and human ships exploding were interspersed with talking heads asking how the Glaber managed to get monopole cannons. It looked like the war was going to be nastier and bloodier that anyone expected.

  A memory of talking to Rurthk on the Outsider's observation lounge popped into Mero's head. A while ago, before Olivia had joined them. It had been late into the night, ship time, with Rurthk going through cartons of that vile blood drink and Mero matching him with some mead. After sharing an uncountable number of dirty jokes, they had briefly talked about the Glaber territories. That memory led to another, more recent one, when they had been on Kurkroth investigating Hive Bellicose.

  And then Mero remembered what had had been planning last night. He was right. It was a stupid idea. He stretched and looked down through his mansion. He finally had everything he always wanted right here.

  He stood and stretched. Then he headed for the bulkwave.

  *

  Rurthk was running jump calculations when Laodicean entered the cockpit. The doors were a little too narrow for his globe of water, Rurthk noticed, which narrowed into an ovoid so he could fit.

  “I am ready to begin my shift,” Laodicean said.

  Rurthk checked the time. Laodicean had arrived precisely as the hour changed. “Okay,” Rurthk said, standing up and brushing himself down. “The calculations are nearly done.”

  “Understood. Thank you,” said Laodicean. He floated between the two chairs, and the tendrils of effector fields extended from the surface of his globe.

  Standing at the entrance, Rurthk watched him, wondering what to say. There was still a hole in the wall where a control disk had been, a reminder of the time Laodicean had tried to take over the Outsider. At last, he gave up turned away.

  “Goodnight, Captain,” Laodicean said as Rurthk stepped out into the corridor.

  In his cabin, Rurthk sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the wall. They finally had a plan. They were ready to take the fight to Vihan Yvredi. He'd bring back to them every bit of pain they'd inflicted on him.

  His thoughts were interrupted by his tablet chiming. Someone was calling him. He extended his tablet.

  It was Mero.

  Rurthk hesitated, then fixed the tablet to the wall and answered.

  “Hey, Cap,” said Mero cockily.

  “What do you want?”

  “How have you been getting on?”

  “Kaivon's funeral honoured him,” Rurthk said.

  Mero's ears fell against his head briefly. “Good,” he said softly.

  “And we rescued Olivia,” Rurthk finished. “What do you want?”

  “I …” began Mero. He paused, looked away, then grimaced. “I thought I might come back.”

  Rurthk snorted. “Oh, did you? I thought you couldn't wait to leave.”

  “We had some good times too,” Mero said.

  “I told you before,” said Rurthk. “This isn't a heist. We're not expecting a payout.”

  “I know,” said Mero.

  Rurthk gave him a skeptical look.

  “Come on, Cap,” said Mero. “This is already difficult as hell for me. Give me something to work with. You need a pilot, or an extra gun?”

  Rurthk hesitated. He knew Mero could be useful, but he found himself saying, “We're good on both those counts.”

  “How about this,” said Mero. “To say I'm sorry. You know I didn't chip in all my share last time? I've just bought some very fancy kit, and a couple of high-end shuttles. You know, the type with stealth and guns and all that good stuff. My way of saying sorry.”

  “Being uncharacteristically generous doesn't work for you,” said Rurthk. “It just makes me doubt your intentions.”

  “By the fucking Ancestral Abyss,” growled Mero, more to himself.

  “Cantor,” said Rurthk. “We're heading back again. If you want to meet us there with your shuttles, maybe I'll consider it.”

  “Well,” said Mero, livening up. “I'll see you on Cantor, then.”

  Chapter 26: Two Shuttles

  Cantor was another place they were at risk of being recognised and tracked, so they took the Fire Strider again. The entire crew came aboard. Where possible, Rurthk wanted to keep to the smaller towns and outposts near the ice fields. He chose a particularly obscure one they hadn't been to before as a landing place.

  As they descended through the atmosphere, he told Laodicean, “You're coming in useful at last.”

  “I am glad,” said Laodicean. With his calm synthesised voice, it would impossible to tell whether or not he was being ironic.

  “If we want to replay what we did last time, we need to start by sending a signal from a rental bulkwave in Liberty City. Specifically, it's a handshake code for a base Vihan Yvredi once used. That's probably going to make them sit up and take notice.”

  “And our enemies are more likely to be looking for you than me,” said Laodicean. “I understand.”

  “You go there on the transport pods, you send the message, ten you get the hell out of Liberty City as fast as you can, understand?”

  “Of course. And I will take all the necessary precautions – switching pods and doubling back – to ensure I am not followed,” said Laodicean. “When do I go?”

  “As soon as we're done here.”

  Dr. Wolff stepped into the cockpit. “Are you sure about this, Captain?” he said softly. “Mr. Iskultine is not above betrayal.”

  “Oh, believe me, I know,” said Rurthk. “But this time Mero was …” He paused to look out over the sparse, scraggly vegetation near the ice fields trying to put his impression into words. “I think, if he was planning to screw us over, he would be a lot more sure of himself. This was breaking new ground for him.”

  Wolff showed his thoughts on Mero's ability to be decent with a dismissive harrumph, and returned into the corridor.

  Rurthk settled the Fire Strider into the small spaceport. It was morning on this part of the planet. Around them, the landscape was a dull mixture of brown and green, where thin fluffy plants gave way to outcrops of rock and patches of steely-grey water. The sky was coated with clouds.

  “Let's go,” Rurthk said to Laodicean. On the way out, he stopped to tell Eloise, “The Doctor has a point. No one ever went broke overestimating Mero's ability to be a bastard. I'll be in regular contact. If anything happens to me, get the hell out of here.”

  “Don't worry, Rur,” said Eloise with a smile. “I won't wait for you, I promise.”

  “That's what I like to hear.”

  *

  The meeting with Mero was in a bar in another town a hundred miles east. Rurthk and Laodicean took a transport pod. Before they got there, Rurthk told Laodice
an, “He's likely to be jumpy. And I might need surprise backup.” He paused. “Where's your gun?”

  Laodicean unfurled a tentacle to show a weapon hidden within. “It seemed sensible not to display it openly.”

  Rurthk nodded. “Alright. Hang back for a while. I'll call you in.”

  “Of course,” said Laodicean, gliding off down another street.

  The bar was nearly empty. A couple of Petaurs in the corner seemed occupied with something. The bartender, hanging upside-down from ceiling fitting, was so far lost in his own little world that he didn't notice Rurthk until he was standing in front of him.

  After a moment's thought, Rurthk ordered some mead. He picked a table where he could watch the door and settled down to wait.

  After half an hour, Mero came scrambling in. He saw Rurthk immediately and bounded over towards him.

  “Cap!” he said brightly. “I was half expecting you'd be a no-show.”

  Rurthk slid the untouched glass of mead over towards him. “Hello, Mero.”

  Mero looked down at the mead. For a moment it seemed to catch him off guard. It was clear he understood the significance of the gesture. After a second he gave a small, joyous snort and took a long drink.

  “And here's something for you,” he said when he'd finished. He took some objects out of his coat and dropped them on the table.

  Rurthk recognised the slips of smart matter that could block security cameras, the devices that could take DNA and fingerprint signatures, and various hacking aids. He nodded. “Impressive.”

  “I've got the shuttles outside,” said Mero, and drained his glass. “Wanna see?”

  Rurthk nodded. “But before we do that, there's someone you should meet.” He activated his comms. “All clear out there?”

  “I believe so,” said Laodicean through the earpiece.

  “You'd better come in, then.”

  Mero cocked his head. “What's this, cap?”