Privateer Tales 3: Parley (19 page)

“Mr. Horten knows where. Isn’t that right, Dick?”

“It’s Richard and yes, I know where.”

Even with the constant heat provided by my vac-suit, it felt chilly in the docking bay all of a sudden. I was relieved to see the now familiar shape of the unloading robot arrive between Richard and me.

“I’ll leave you boys to it. Liam … until we meet again.” She gave me a generous smile and sauntered off.

“Word of advice,” Morten said. “Stay clear of that one.”

“Just here for a delivery, Mr. Morten. We don’t need any drama.”

“Just saying.”

“Appreciate it. I’ve got R-201 on that one, you good?” I made a slightly exaggerated press on my reading pad showing I’d marked off the crate being patiently carried by the forklift robot. Richard shook his head with knowing disapproval and also checked off the crate. The unloading went very quickly since the robots only had to fly a short distance.

When the last of Beth Anne’s forty-two crates were finally unloaded, I turned to Horten. “I’ve got one more load for T. Merrish, but I haven’t heard from them yet. I imagine we’ll see you later.”

“Hang on, I can get him on the comm. I don’t want to have to come back.”

I could see him talking behind his face shield and then I received a ping. I pulled up my comm and saw that Horten had been successful and T. Merrish had given permission to have his load delivered to a secure bay nearby. In the end, we were at it for a total of ninety minutes, but all the deliveries were complete and money transfers were in progress.

“Thank you, Mr. Horten. I appreciate you expediting that last load for us.”

“Don’t forget about that round,” he said.

“I’ll ping you when we get our schedule figured out.” I answered. Horten stalked off without saying anything else.

Beth Anne’s crew had reduced the pile of crates to about half and it was clear they’d be done within half an hour.

“Any reason not to start shore leave now?” I asked.

“No, I’ve got the sensor strips watching the bay. We should be fine.” Marny patted the ship.

We walked up the ramp to the airlock and cycled through.

Send message to both ships, public address
. “First leave is Nick, Marny and Jordy - and you’re free to go. Please be back by 1930.”

Unloading had taken longer (of course) than I’d planned for and leave was only going to be two and a half hours. It would give each shift time to have dinner at one of the two restaurant / bars in the station. Once we had regular crew I’d need to get better at this or I’d have a mutiny to deal with.

I might as well see about return loads for
Sterra's Gift
. I wasn’t sure when we’d be taking off, but I’d give myself some leeway.

Open TradeNet search, Jeratorn to Mars, target arrival twenty to thirty days from today
.

There was a long list of possible return loads. The most profitable being more than a dozen people who were looking to relocate. We weren’t set up for passengers, so I filtered them out. The cargo transfers weren’t as profitable as we’d seen coming here, but I could easily fill the hold if I was willing to put up a three hundred thousand credit bond.

I eliminated the most egregious late delivery penalties and finally settled on a single shipper. Qiu had given me a four to ten day window for departure and it was a two week trip if we kept company with the
Adela Chen
. On the outside, it would take us twenty five days. We’d start picking up penalties on day twenty-eight, giving us an additional three days of buffer. By day forty, we’d lose all profit on the deal.

I signed it and arranged to load at 0800 tomorrow. What’s the worst that could happen?

Nick and Marny were in high spirits when they returned. Apparently, the two of them and Jordy had enjoyed themselves at Patrick’s Pub.

“You might try the other place,” Marny said. “The beer was good but the food was all rehydrated ration packs.”

Open comm with Ada
. “You want to join me?”

“Wouldn’t miss it. Meet in the hallway in five?”

“Roger that.”

I found Tali sitting at the table in the galley. “Join me and Ada for dinner?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Tali stood up and walked out with me. I’d grabbed a hip holster and put one of the flechette pistols in it. It felt provocative, but I’d had enough problems in the past to warrant being prepared.

Tali and I met Ada in the hallway.

“Any recommendations on dinner?” I asked.

“Welded Tongue is probably the best,” Ada answered.

“That’s a weird name,” I said.

“You’ll see.”

We walked down the hallway about a hundred meters to an air lock and cycled through it. We were in an L-2 space so I relaxed the rigid helmet from around my head. Tali and Ada followed suit.

Ada led us through a few more airlocks. The general condition of the station wasn’t excellent, but it looked better than I’d expected from the exterior. The hallways were clean and the airlocks mostly free of grime. It seemed like a good sign that upkeep was occurring.

The name of the bar became obvious when we arrived. Above the doorway to the entry was the metal replica of a human tongue as if it had been sticking out of someone’s mouth. It was indeed welded to the station above the wide double doors.

Being the middle of the week, I didn’t expect any place to be too lively. The noise coming through the doors made me question if that was a reasonable assessment. If the room was capable of holding a hundred and fifty people I’d have guessed that at last a hundred of them were here right now. We had to push our way through the crowd to find a table in the back.

There was a live performance on the stage and we were as far away from it as you could get in this fairly small bar. They were playing an odd assortment of instruments, most of which I didn’t recognize, and they didn’t sound too bad.

I was about to send a ping to Richard Horten when I noticed he was sitting at the bar staring at me.

“I’ll be right back, I need to do something,” I said to Tali and Ada.

Headed toward the bar, I caught a sweet smell, seconds before a hand brushed across my lower back and pulled me in the direction of its owner. I turned to see the marginally familiar face of Beth Anne Hollise. She had changed from the dark, tight fitting vac-suit to a really tight dress, deeply cut in the back and a little too sheer in the front for my comfort.

I turned to her and attempted to skillfully extract her arm from around my waist. My skills and her own were in two different leagues. She used my momentum to step in and I ended up brushing closely to her body, becoming very aware of her all at once.

“Captain. Welcome to my humble establishment. I wanted to personally thank you for delivering my supplies. I was starting to get worried that chivalry might be dead.”

I pushed her arm down. If I was honest, I’d have to admit that I found her to be extremely attractive. I hadn’t been around such a shapely woman before. I knew my ability to resist her would be sorely tested if I allowed us to stay close together. I wasn’t about to betray Tabby, but there was a small part of me that sincerely regretted that decision. I was a dog.

“Quite happy to help,” I said. “You’re the owner here? It looks like you’re doing very well for the middle of the week.” I felt like I needed to shout, although my own earwig was already limiting the noise I was receiving in my ear and amplifying Beth Anne’s speech.

“Yes, I am. And … they’re here because of you, Liam. They all heard that I got a shipment in and knew we’d be flush with supplies. Join me for a late dinner?”

“It will have to be another time. My friends and I just arrived and I don’t want to leave them hanging.”

“A loyal companion. Such a wonderful characteristic. Mind if I join you all a little later?”

“It’d be our pleasure,” I said.

“Very well.” I started to leave and she turned, perhaps a little too quickly. She stumbled, causing her well-apportioned body to brush against me once again, as she grabbed me and I helped to steady her.

“Oh, pardon me,” she said as unconvincingly as I could imagine.

I smiled, despite my desire not to acknowledge the contact. I looked over to see the stevedore, Richard Horten, sitting at the bar, watching the entire interaction. He shook his head at me disapprovingly.

“I told you to stay clear of her,” he said as I approached.

“She seems nice enough.”

“Wait until you owe her something, then tell me what you think,” he said.

“I hope it never gets to that,” I gestured at the bar. “What’re you drinking? I’d like to make good on my word.”

“A double of Macallan.” Horten licked his lips as he said this to the bartender who’d walked up. “My new friend here is buying.”

The bartender, a skinny kid who was several years younger than me, looked at me for approval. I nodded affirmative. The kid pulled down a bottle that didn’t look like it got used very often and poured a measured amount into the bottom of a wide bottomed glass. He handed the glass to Richard Horten who smelled it before taking a long drink.

The kid held a swipe pad up to me. I was shocked
at the price - sixty five m-creds. I didn’t want to give the little troll, Richard, any satisfaction, so I swiped it and then laid my hand on his shoulder. “Have a good evening,” I said.

As I walked back to the table I noticed that both Tali and Ada were staring at me as I approached.

“What?” I asked as I sat down.

“Do you know that woman?” Ada asked.

“Beth Ann Hollise. She owns the bar and was one of our deliveries today,” I wasn’t about to admit to knowing why they were asking.

Ada ignored my nonchalance. “You seemed very chummy with her.”

I felt my cheeks flush. “That’s not how it was happening. I didn’t even know she’d be here. She got chummy with me.”

“Yeah, you were just fighting her off with a stick,” Tali added.

I rolled my eyes at them both as they were now giggling at my discomfort.

“Who was the guy at the bar?” Ada asked.

“Stevedore. He wouldn’t show me his ident without me offering to buy him a drink. A very expensive drink.”

“Oh. I hate guys like that. There’s nothing you can do about ‘em either,” Ada said, suddenly serious. “Speaking of …” I followed her eyes over to a gawky looking man who was making his way through the crowd, clearly headed toward us.

“Who’s that?” I asked just before he arrived at our table.

“Hi, Elvard,” Ada said.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked. “I think you promised me a drink. And please, you know better. Call me E.V.”

Ada looked at Tali and me apologetically, “Uh, sure E.V., we were just getting ready to order dinner.”

“Oh, that’d be great. I’m starving,” he said.

I was starting to realize why spacers kept to themselves when they’d visited Colony 40. So far, we’d talked to four or five people and at least three of them wanted something from us.

“How about instead of a drink, I’ll buy you a protein burger, just like I’m getting,” Ada said.

“Add a couple of beers to that and we’re even.”

Ada was about to say something, but I cut her off. “Beers are on me, Mr. …?”

“It’s Rastikle, but everyone just calls me E.V. Didn’t catch your name.”

“I’m Liam and this is Tali. We’re sailing with Ada.”

“Oh, you must be in that cutter. Anything in those missile tubes?”

“You sure don’t beat around the bush. But no, missiles are out of my budget. If we can’t scare them off with the laser blasters, we can most likely outrun ‘em.”

“Yeah, makes sense. Lotta folks out here wish they had some missiles, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Three out of the last ten loads outta here got jacked on their way back to Mars. Two of them just completely disappeared.”

“Who do you think was behind it?” I asked.

“Who else? Red Houzi, of course,” he said.

“Seems pretty organized for them. How are they intercepting the ships? They’d need to have deep scanners.”

“There’s rumors that one of the big boys are backing them.”

“Big boys?” Tali’s interest was now piqued.

“Yeah, like EEC, PDC, NAGeK. My bet’s on the Chinese.” E.V. was referring to the different Earth coalitions who’d come together for space exploration and exploitation.

“To what end?” Tali asked.

“Expansion. PDC has the fastest growing fleet and they need the materials. It’s the simplest answer,” he said.

PDC referred to the People’s Democracy of China.

The beer and burgers arrived and we set aside conversation for the time. Fried potatoes, protein burgers and beer. It was a great combination.

“You all look so serious.” I recognized Beth Anne’s voice before I turned to see her. “You should be celebrating. E.V., what’re you doing here?”

“Uh, nothing much, ma’am. I was just catching up with an old friend,” Elvard answered, his voice hesitating in nearly a stammer.

Beth Anne grabbed an empty chair and pulled it up to the table. “Perhaps you’d excuse us?” E.V. got up and left without so much as saying goodbye.

“I think he’s afraid of you,” Tali said.

“Strange little fella,” Beth Anne said. “That’s more likely his guilty conscious; he owes me money. So, Captain Liam, when will you all be heading out?”

“I imagine that will have something to do with when we can get loaded up. We’re a little concerned with all of the pirate activity we’ve been hearing about around here.”

“Aww, don’t pay attention to Elvard. That kind of talk can ruin a station and it’s just not true.”

“It didn’t stop us, but still, I don’t think we should be tempting fate either.”

“You settled on your return load? Maybe you have a little room for a few off manifest crates? I could make it worth your while.”

“If you’re going to Mars, you can get anything into Puskar Stellar. There’s no customs inspection,” I said naively.

“Manifest is still checked. I’d be looking to send some things without necessarily having my name attached to them - if you get my meaning.”

I really didn’t understand what she could hope to gain by this.

“I’m thinking a couple thousand a crate?” She was using her sweet voice.

“We’re pretty full on this run.”

“Well, you think about it and give me a shout before you get going. Like I said, I’d make it worth your while.”

Beth Anne patted my leg uncomfortably high on my thigh under the table and then stood up, giving us a broad, welcoming smile. “Enjoy your dinner.”

Once she was out of earshot, Ada offered, “That was creepy.”

“Not sure what to think of either of our visitors,” I said.

“I’d trust E.V. a whole lot further than I’d trust that woman,” Tali said.

“What could she possibly want to ship off-manifest?”

“I don’t think that’s important,” Tali said. “Once she gets you to do something illegal, she can use it as leverage.”

“I suppose.” It wasn’t overly important to me. We weren’t currently looking for help with loads and money was moving fairly easily. I didn’t need to add legal problems, especially since Mars Protectorate had by far the most liberal laws related to free trade when compared to any other space faring nation.

“Well kids, I think I’ve had enough fun for one night,” Tali said. “I’m going to head back to the ship.”

“Ada, we’ve got another hour to party. What’s your pleasure?”

“I think I’ve had enough for the evening also.”

“Well, let’s get rolling then. We’ve got cargo to load tomorrow morning.”

Tali and I saw Ada to her berth and returned to the ship, where I found Nick and Marny on the bridge.

“You’re back early,” Marny said.

“The bar had a weird vibe,” I said. “Oh, we’re putting on a load for Mars tomorrow morning at 0800.”

“How many days do we have to deliver it?” Nick asked.

“Twenty eight days, starting tomorrow. Then we get into penalties.”

“That should be easy enough.”

“So … what if Red Houzi’s getting help from a government?” I said.

“Where’d you come up with that?” Marny asked.

“Just something someone said tonight.”

“I hope you’re wrong, Cap.” Marny said.

“At dinner, a friend of Ada’s was saying that three of the last ten freighters from Jeratorn have been intercepted.”

“How’s that even possible?” Nick asked. “I can see getting lucky and intercepting one, but three?”