SPECTRES Act 8 : Check and Checkmate - Co-authors J-Dog162 and Maggie OZ
14 Jun 2020Maggie Oz
Be sure to read the gripping account of the eventful journey to Harma hereArmed with the data Rad had been able to uncover, we traced the location of the woman fairly easily. She was in Taffey's, the station taproom where you could catch up, hit up, hook up or shoot up any tick of the clock.
We'd sent Nelson on ahead. His ability to blend in with the locals far better than any of us made him the obvious choice to scout out the lay of the land. He'd got eyes on the quarry and sent a message to my databand describing where they were located in the bar.
We four entered not long after, not caring too much if we appeared obvious. If anyone was going to make a bolt for it, better that they do it now before we got too far in.
No one did, but I did manage to cast my gaze briefly over the table Nelson had pointed out, sure enough, through the gloom I could see a woman and a man sat there, looking a little tense.
Jock led us to an empty table off to one side of the room. One of the wait staff descended upon us and took an order as well as a pinch on the backside from Jock, which earned him a slap and an offer of an appointment later on.
"What now Maggie?" asked Rick.
"I have no idea..... oh, bugger it, I'm just going to bloody well walk over, everyone knows we aren't part of this crowd, " I said with more resolve than I felt.
I stood up smoothly, not making any rapid movements and putting my hands by my side with palms facing forwards, hopefully signalling peaceful intent I walked casually towards the couple at the table.
They looked at me with suspicion as if they were expecting trouble, but willing to wait and see if it came.
-No "go fer yer gun" , that's a bonus -
As I walked, time seemed to slow. In my peripheral vision, the doors of the bar burst open and a bouncer was cut down in a hail of bullets. I half turned and saw a large man rush in, there were explosives strapped all over him!
Several of the bar patrons who were quick on the draw opened up and the man was riddled with a dozen bullets, bits of him flying off in every direction. Clearly he was in a Combat Stabiliser fug as the bullets had little effect on him and he sprinted to the centre of the room, I threw myself to the floor as he exploded with an almighty bang and intense flash of light.
Chairs, tables, drinks, patrons, bits of patrons and flames flew in every direction and the room rapidly filled with smoke as bedlam ensued.
Despite being a dodgy dive the bar was totally compliant with fire safety regulations, perhaps suicide bombings are a regular event? In any case, the surviving patrons of the bar flooded out through the numerous exit doors that materialised in what had been solid walls. I could hear gunfire from outside as many of those escaping the conflagration were cut down by those who lay in wait.
"Do you copy Mar'm?" came Jock's voice through my earpiece
"Jock I copy, get the team, get Nelson and get back to the ship. I'll get the mark and meet you there. Try to clear a path for me, there's a cordon outside and they are gunning down any who flee."
"Roger Mar'm. Will do. Ye be careful though ..... I still wan' that fufty quid"
I rolled over and crawled along the floor, the lights had gone out so I had to grope my way forward in the dimness of what little emergency lighting remained. I made my way to the overturned table where the couple had been seated and managed to locate what felt like the woman, judging by the mop of curly hair.
I checked for a pulse .... bingo! Thank God
There was still gunfire from outside so I dragged the woman towards the kitchen at the back of the bar, fortunately, she was small and light.
It was slightly brighter and I could see she was out cold. She was an attractive lass, fairly young and lovely dark, smooth skin.
I searched her as she lay on the floor looking for the EBU on the off chance she had it on her, no luck.
I sat her up against a bench and kneeling next to her, slapped her face.
"Hey ! Wake up !" I cried. She started to regain her senses. To hurry things along I grabbed a jug of ice water that was nearby and splashed it over her and she snapped awake.
"Ugh...what the f**k!?"
I drew my L Eight-Eighty-Seven and put on my best "tough bitch" look
"You have something of mine, where is it?"
"Who the f**k are you?"
"Take a guess your fucking Majesty!" I snarled, trying to sound edgy
"Majesty? What are you going on about? F**king wacko."
At that reply and the look of confusion on the woman's face, I began to wonder....
"Are you the Commander of the Challenger Oddessyus that's in the spaceport? " I asked
"...yes. Why? Am I parked illegally or something?" she said with a sarcastic tone
"That vessel was reported to me as having stopped and killed my fiance, James Hong"
"Hong?...hmm. Oh...yeah." she replied with a smug look on her face "Look, lady, it was nothing personal, just a contract. Killing me won't get at the people actually responsible...and if it's any consolation, the same a***holes tried to off me too after the job. I'm sorry for your loss... but you really need to just f**k off an leave me alone. While you still can."
"I don't give a toss about contracts and I'm not interested in killing anyone. If I was I would have left you in there, with your friend," I said, pointing to the door to the main bar "I want the EBU, the little device you took out of his head, about so big," I held up my fingers around 30mm apart, "We can track them and we tracked it to here. It got here the same time your ship did. SIT STILL! " I barked as I saw her fidgeting for something behind her back I pointed my gun at her in a more ..... pointy sort of way
"Hmm. Well, maybe I know where it is, and I guess I can't get paid for it now...and if you had it it'd be your problem not mine anymore. Tell you what, you let me up and tell me why you want it so bad, and I'll see if I can remember where I put it. Deal, mm?"
"Alright get up," I said, standing and offering her my hand, "EBU's contain the thoughts and mind pattern of the subject. With it, I can bring the love of my life back from the dead. Is that enough of a reason?"
"No." she replied with a look of rage on her face, I could see the signs of a deeper pain as well, perhaps I'd struck a chord and despite her toughened exterior, she was no stranger to the pain of loss "Other people don't get that chance. What the f**k makes you so goddamn special huh?"
"Anyone has the chance to put in for re-life so there's nothing that makes me special. If you had the opportunity to get back someone you'd lost wouldn't you do everything you could to do so?"
"If. But most of us will never have the opportunity. F**k it. You want the EBU, you can have it. It's aboard my ship. You bring this guy back...you better be grateful for every f**king second you get to spend together, and remember how lucky you are to get another chance."
"Lucky? James' mother put herself into a lifetime of slavery to pay for him to get a second chance as he died of a childhood disease, the second chance YOU cut short. So don't you, Miss Triple fucking Elite with a Cr100million ARMED spaceship who shoots people for money, talk to me about fucking luck, or what I should do with my time." I snarled back, cursing myself for letting her get to me.
"Wrong move bitch!" she cried as she suddenly stepped forward and grabbed my right wrist, shoving an appalling looking pistol under my chin. "Yes, you're right. I have made a living killing people for money. Thousands of them. You? You try and cross me, and I'll kill you for free. Now, you can either back off, and I'll give you the EBU, and you can go live happily ever after with James. Or we can both die here for nothing. I'm ready to die. Are you? Huh? The choice is yours.
"You can let go of my hand, my gun isn't even loaded and take that ridiculous thing out of my face. We can die here if you want, but only one of us will stay dead." I said as calmly as I could
The woman stepped back and laughed, "Well you've got some cajones, I'll give you that. A standoff with an empty gun! Ok, let's go and get this EBU thing, I'll be glad to be rid of it.
"Jock, It's Maggie have you cleared a path?" I called on my wristband
"Aye Mar'm come by corridor 12, it should be clear"
"Maggie," I said to the woman, holding out my hand
"Jordanna." she replied, cautiously taking my hand, "You got a way outa here?"
"Corridor 12 ... this way," I said and led us out through one of the fire exits
We moved quickly but carefully, checking corners for assailants.
After a few minutes, we came to the airlock to the spaceport, it was guarded.
"Bugger," I said ducking back around a corner and sliding down the wall, "There are three guards, they don't look like the regular crew. Looks like a whole merc unit has locked down the station"
Jordanna's eyes narrowed and she hefted her pistol,
"Hang on," I thought for a moment ..... "Can you do 'damsel in distress' ?" I asked, "We squeal, race around the corner like someone's after us, these guys think they can be heroes and save us, we get in close and shove our guns in their face?"
"Hell yeah!", Jordanna grinned. "Let's do it. On 3. .... 1 , 2, 3"
I lept up and squealed in as girlie a fashion as I could shouting "Run .aah? . Bamibi! Run they're still after us!' and holding Jordanna's arm we both ran around the corner
"Help us, please!" squealed Jordanna, matching my plaintive cries
We ran towards them and into two of the mercenaries who caught us in their arms.
"Help us, there are people with guns" cried Jordanna.
"Where?" said the merc.
"Here," Jordanna said coldly as her face straightened putting her plasma pistol to the merc's chin
I drew my gun as well and shoved it into the crotch of the merc holding me
"Don't move . ah . dirt bag ," I said
All the Merc's froze.
"On the floor now!" Jordanna barked, they let us go and sank to the floor. "I'll take care of them," she readied her pistol
"NO! Just .. tie them up or something! I'll cover you. "
"Spoilsport...ugh, fine." Jordanna quickly grabbed the zip tie cuffs on the Merc's belts, clearly standard kit, and immobilised them.
She looked a little disappointed
"Jock we're at the airlock, we're going to make a run for Jordanna's ship" I called on the comm
"Aye Mar'm we'll keep you covered .... who's Jordanna?"
"The mark you twit"
"Oh, so yer friends noo?"
"Ummmm" I looked at Jordanna, still brooding after missing out on shooting the mercs, "It's a work in progress" I cut the com "Alright, lead on"
We launched ourselves off the wall of the airlock, the low G of the spaceport allowed us to rocket across the open space albeit in a predictable straight line.
Once we'd made the safety of her ship she led us towards the cargo bay "This way. The EBU's in a maintenance locker in the hold." she said
She took a small canister from the locker and my heart leapt as she handed it to me
"It's in here. Um, it might be best if you don't open it yourself though. The device is still covered innnnnever mind. Just do yourself a favour and get someone else to open it, ok?"
Without warning I grabbed Jordanna by the collar and pulled her to me, kissing her full on the lips.
"Thank you, thank you with all my heart," I said, breathless with joy.
I then tore the lid off the canister and took out the EBU ... opened my mouth and with difficulty, swallowed it.
"Uh...wow..." She cried with a look of revulsion, "Well at least you kissed me before you put that in your mouth."
"No losing it now, and if I go, we stay together," I said apologetically, she still looked appalled
"So anyway, you going after the b***ards that set the contracts?"
"No. I doubt there is any way to trace them, Imperial Naval Intelligence will look after that. What were you supposed to do with the EBU?"
"The delivery address was the Dynamic Biological Analysis planetary site in Lu Dongi."
"OK. Something I don't understand though how did you know James would be in Facece?"
"The contract. It said he would be there before heading to Azltan. I've never had such detailed contracts, him and the actress. They were handed to me on a plate."
I looked down at what remained in the canister
"Oh .... sorry ....." she said with a little blush
"So you're telling me that him being in Facece was in the contract? "
"Yep. And when he'd be leaving there for Aztlan. I've never seen so much intel in a contract before, let alone any so precise."
My blood ran cold "Oh my God. I .. I ... I have to go now, I've got to go, thank you, thank you for everything. Take care, you probably best get off this station too."
I turned and fled back to Nelson's ship
"Hey!" Jordanna shouted as Maggie left "If you go after them and you find them. Tell them I said 'f**k you!'...and then kill them."
Next up is Nelson's plan to get us off Harma