The Goddess of the Hunt: Part 2
07 Aug 2018Ouberos
Lori had never sold anything on the black market before and was beginnng to think it might not be worth it. Making contact with someone who could deal with her merchandise had been hard enough but actually leaving the Habitation zone and entering the Docks brought home the risk she was taking. Home was regulated and ordered. It was also clean and airy. By contrast, the corridors and bulkheads of the Docks were industrial and dirty. Everywhere she looked there were unfamiliar sights. Big, noisy machines and groups of workers who looked at best uncaring and at worst hostile towards her neat, collegiate colours.
The University affiliate clothing betrayed her as an outsider and every time someone gave her the once over she could feel them sensing the guilt that must be written across her face.
She almost turned back but without closing the deal there would be nothing to go back to. Without the money from the sale her education was over. Steeling herself for the unknown Lori took a deep breath and entered the bar she was supposed to meet her contact in.
The place was mostly empty. A very broad and mean looking bartender was polishing a glass slowly. He looked her over and then nodded towards the only customer who sat at the end of the bar nursing a drink. His face was hidden beneath the folds of a hood but she could tell he was also a big guy. With her heart hammering in her ears Lori walked over and looked at the drinks on offer. Before she could speak the barman opened a bottle of beer and slid it across to her. She noticed he only had three fingers on his hand and he was missing an ear. She felt like running.
“So have you brought it?” the dealer asked quietly. Lori took a swig of cold beer. She glanced at him quickly and then nodded.
“Before you show me. Tell me how you found it,” he asked quietly.
“I, err, well I have been showing the other Holologs at the college for a while. They were getting really popular and I was charging for folks to see them. I don’t have a scholarship or a trust fund so have to come up with the money each year. They put the fee’s up again and I really needed a big lump of cash so I hacked the college Holo theatre and showed one of the big heists to about five hundred people. I was doing well out of it and needed to show another but then they stopped being uploaded,” she said quickly, racing through her story.
“My money dried up and I was getting desperate. I searched everywhere, non of the channels or providers were getting new content. So I started looking deeper. I, er, cut a long story short, I found something on an encrypted Federal channel, a really encrypted one. You wouldn't believe how much work was involved in breaking it. I should get a Doctorate just for that, but I can't because they would probably just shoot me first, anyway the channel gave me a clue to a system and I followed it. There was something there alright, hidden in the signal from the Nav beacon. So I checked it out and ran some tests on it and then that’s when I realised what it was and that I was the only one who had it. After that I got in touch with someone who got in touch with someone else and so on until here I am,” she said and then took another drink of beer and hoped she was going to get out of the bar alive.
The man in the hood raised his hand and the bartender moved over to the door. While Lori watched him he activated the magnetic bolts which locked the door with a very deliberate movement.
Then her attention snapped back to the dealer. He took out a blaster and put it on the bar. Lori’s eyes almost popped out of her head at the sight of the gun. Her knees went weak and her mouth dried up. They were going to kill her, she knew it. She was going to die.
“Let me see it,” the man in the hood said and she fumbled around trying to make her pockets work. Eventually she was able to pull out the bulb that held the Hololog. The huge barman came over and plucked it out of her tiny hand with his three remaining fingers. Then he set it into a receptacle at the side of a vertical theatre which hung from one wall.
“And this is definitely the genuine article?” asked the dealer pointedly. Lori could only nod at first but then she managed to squeak out a reply.
“Yes, its the last hololog she ever made. It’s from the Artemis. It’s the one where she dies,” she said and the barman stabbed the play button angrily with a fat finger.