Lana's Comet (Outer Settlement Agency) (5 page)

Foolish, brave, beautiful thing.

The datacell he kept in a bottom drawer was their best hope. It was his private one, with images of home and youth.

And Grandma, his mute Kin ancestor.

He considered erasing the images, but that he couldn’t stand the thought of. Something inside didn’t so much mind Lana seeing them. Maybe they might bring her a sense of security. If she got caught with this, they’d both be toast. The benefit couldn’t be overlooked either. If he could trust her with this, she ought to know she could trust him with anything. That settled that.

Cyprus returned to the gym to find Lana with her back bent, but not heaving. His instincts told him to run to her...and to keep away. He opted for something in between and crossed the floor with measured steps.

He scowled and shoved his finger in her face. Then, and in the softest voice he’d ever used in his life, he let out a low, “I’m sorry.”

The fist that held the datacell thumped against her chest in a motion of rage and disgust. He saw the moment she understood – when his hand moved slightly northward to her neckline and the cool metal of the chip slipped from his fingers and between her skin and uniform.

“You’ll have the ability to download what you need. It’s data locked too. Meash wouldn’t be able to trace it.”

“Are you certain?”

“As best I know.”

“So not certain, then?”

“Watch it, recruit,” but he softened the blow with a half-smile. “You’re safe here. Nothing’s coming in without security knowing about it.”

“That’s great, assuming the threat’s not already inside.”

S
he walked out of that room a heck of a lot lighter than when she’d walked in. It was impossible to tell if sharing that intel with Cyprus had been the right move, but she felt it. He hated Meash Corp; she knew that much, but where did his ultimate loyalty rest? Truth or OSA?

She took a breather against the wall and pulled herself together. Cyprus may be loyal, but she didn’t take him for stupid. She fingered the datacell on the side of her breast. By giving her this, he’d already proven himself.

Could it really work, though? Could she get into Meash Two’s files without anyone noticing? Maybe, but she for damned sure wouldn’t do it from her own omnitablet. Putting the matter of being tracked by Meash aside, OSA’s surveillance programs were legendary. Her tablets, like most here, would be monitored. Depending on clearance levels, everything from music choices to notes from home were crosschecked, scanned and stored. Borrowing an omnitablet wasn’t happening for the same reason.

That left her with buying one on the black market – one not coded to her prints or retinas. She’d never seen such devices, but knew they existed. She just had to get her hands on one. “Michi, do you think your uncle could pull a few strings?”

“For?”

“I need a day away from this. Get some drinks. Gotta unstress myself.”

Michi jerked out of bed, feet dangling over the edge. Her wide eyes locked onto hers and she white-knuckled the edge of the bed. “Something’s going on. I can feel it. What’s this all about? ”

“Nothing. I crave time off from being that man’s punching bag is all. Everywhere I go I see him.”

“You sure? You can trust me. I’m not just some dumb kid.”

“I know that, Michi.”

“But if you go and get caught. I’ll get in trouble too.”

“I won’t.”

“If I can’t stop you, then I get in trouble for not turning you in. Either way, I’m screwed, Lana.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“So I might as well go with you,” Michi said and hopped off the bed. “Besides, I could use some off time myself.”

*****

P
redictably, the review of video logs from today’s training sessions took twice as long as usual. His mind wandered to Lana and the hell she kept locked against her chest. Not believing her didn’t make sense – either this was legitimately happening or she believed that it was.

He replayed the decision for not going up the OSA chain of command with this a thousand times over. Nothing got this big without inside help. No flipping way would he be able to find out where that help came from without more info from Lana. It all came down to her.

His omnitablet blinked in alarm, but honestly, he welcomed the distraction.

At first.

Guards spotted two of his trainees attempting to sneak out under a retired officer’s credentials. He kept the reply short and direct. “
Let them go. Put a lock on their beamers and send it over.”

At least one of the names wasn’t a shock: Lana. The other was her roommate, an otherwise model recruit. He dove into a green civilian tunic and slipped out down the stairs and into the night.

The red dots on the screen put the pair heading into a dodgy part of the Quadrant, one known for undocumented shuttles in and off the planet.
The hell?
He fingered the weapon at his side and jogged through the ‘oomphing’ and grumbling half-drunk crowd. The screen only followed two biopoints – those injected in each recruit at the start of the training program. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a third person out there with them.

Or a fourth.

Their pace went from brisk walk to lightning speed. They must have gotten into a rover. He hailed a hire and followed their signal until it dropped again to pedestrian levels. With a wave of his omnitablet against the sensor, Cyprus paid the fare and jumped out the hovering vehicle before it touched the road below.

Not many walked the dodgy streets down here and the ones he did pass made him glad to have his laser. Three blocks later, two slim figures cast shadows under lamppost lights. It could be them, but he didn’t dare call out. Instead, he ramped up to a full out, lung working run before slowing to creep from one building corner to another. The closer he got, the more certain he was that the women were alone and indeed his prey. He didn’t reveal himself until he got close enough to lay hands on them. And damn it took a lot not to choke them both. “What the hell are you trainees doing out here?”

Lana screeched.

Her roommate jumped.

Correction. Her roommate jumped, then took off in the unlit distance. He and Lana shared a look before scrambling after her, but the kid didn’t slow, going deeper and deeper into dangerous territory. Michi moved faster than any run he’d seen out of her in training. Catching her
might
not be a problem, but it would mean leaving a fast, but not as fast, Lana behind. No way in this part of town. He stopped in his tracks and backed up to the still running Lana. “Talk.”

“She’s gone.”

“I was here for that part.”

Lana stood with her hands on her hips, taking large, if controlled, breaths. “No, gone, gone.”

“Start from the beginning. Why are you here?”

“I need a non-bio locked omnitablet.”

“You do realize that OSA works
against
crime syndicates?”

“How else was I supposed to...?” She downgraded from screeching to whispering. “How else was I supposed to use the datacell?”

“I told you, it’s safe.”

“Forgive me for wanting a little extra security.”

“By coming here? All of that and you still don’t trust me?”

“I do, I just—”

“Explain the Yoshisumi girl.”

“And there’s that. She’s going AWOL. Although, I’m not sure you can call it that since she hasn’t finished training. If we’re being technical.”

“Let’s.” He dragged his hands down his face then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll play. Why is she un-AWOL? Why not just leave?”

“You know who her folks are. That was her uncle’s retirement party we met at.”

“Figured.”

“Then you know that if you don’t get an OSA badge in the Yoshisumi clan, you don’t count.”

“She’s a solid recruit. There’s no chance of her not getting a badge.” Hell, the kid had set herself up for a full chevron.

Lana huffed, shrugged and propped herself against the cracked door of a busted, rundown rover repair shop. “She doesn’t want it. Kid’s gone rogue.”

“And how long have you known this?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“It’s fifteen minutes from the base to here.”

She threw up her hands and sucked her teeth. “Yep. She left with a bag on her back and...wait for it...a non-bio’ed omnitablet. Michi’s rules. She brings me here and I give her a night’s head start. I tried everything I could to buy the omnitablet from her, but she wouldn’t take anything. She insisted I get one of my own.”

His head ached, but whether from the general stupidity of the evening or his lack of medication, he didn’t know. “No. Just wait. This makes no sense. We’d know she was gone by the...” He held up his omnitablet, but instead of two blinking dots on the screen, there was just the one – Lana’s.

Lana peered over. “She ripped her chip out?”

“Not unless she did it in the last three seconds.”

“I wouldn’t put it past her.”

He threw up his hands in total fucking surrender. “I’m done. We’re heading back to base.”

“But I didn’t get the tablet yet.”

“Have you seen an OSA prison? I’ll add it to your training rotation.”

“But we’re already here. We might as well get what we came for.”

“We? I got what I came for. Now, you want me, an OSA training officer to walk into a criminal’s den—”

Lana crossed her arms and shifted from one foot to the other. A half smile crossed her face, then a few of her fingers wiggled from side to side. “On the scale of complicity, I’d say you’re already screwed.”

“Sonofabitch.” The missing girl had to be reported – security had been the one to alert him in the first place. That would lead to questions about Lana and a report on...
damn.
“Give me your omnitablet.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer other than an outstretched hand and wiggling fingers. When he got it, he stacked his atop hers and shoved them in the branches of one of the synthetic trees so popular in the area. Its color shifted to a muted orange – a strange thing trees of Earth were said to do. Why they didn’t retro terraform the whole damned planet he’d never know.

“I never figured you one for nature.”

“I’m not,” he said, stepping back to look at his handiwork. “If it goes south, they can at least track these.”

“Can’t they track us the same way you tracked me?”

“As recently discovered, there are ways around it; in which case they’d need these to identify the pieces. I’ve timed a message to my brother. If I’m not here to counter it, they’ll send the cavalry.”

“It won’t come to that.”

“Hope you’re right.”

“C’mon. Let’s finish the deal and get the hell out of here.”

––––––––

H
ow to tell him that she had no clue what to do next? Her sole contribution to the plan was to provide hard currency, while Michi handled the rest. The girl had an ex in the business willing to help, but that was the extent of what Michi let pass her lips. Even the place where this exchange was meant to go down hadn’t been revealed. But they’d come too far to turn back. She wasn’t expecting a flashing sign or anything, but if they kept going, they ought to run across
something
. How many shady omnitablet dealers could there be in one quadrant? “I think it’s this way.”

“You think?”

And then there was him. Twice now, chance had granted him the opportunity to ruin her scheme and yet twice, he had – he was – helping her out. “Why are you doing this?”

“If what you’re saying is true, Lana, it is a threat to OSA,” he said, without a hint of inflection in his voice.

He didn’t give to blinks about her, just his job. It didn’t shock her, but she couldn’t deny the twinge of disappointment either. A partner, a true one, would have made this a lot easier. But at least she knew where he stood now. This whole Meash mess had taught her one thing – words meant nothing. Only motivation could tell where something would lead. If she stayed on the right side of OSA, she’d have his support. He wouldn’t share this information and that had to be enough. Cyprus was the type of guy to make sure everything was in order, every record triple checked, least he embarrass himself. And in the big view on things, that was all very much needed and for the best.

“Michi planned to go inside. She never asked why I needed the omnitablet, but she was adamant that I shouldn’t risk being caught on their surveillance. Since she was leaving anyway, she didn’t mind being recorded. What will you tell them back at command?”

That he didn’t answer should’ve been a heads up. The man had a snarky response to everything. All the time. Save now. Then it hit her, a prickling at the base of her neck...they weren’t alone anymore.

“We don’t like strangers around here.”

They turned to face two men in sparkling gold tunics with lasers pointed in their direction. One elbowed the other. “Do you recall inviting visitors? I know I don’t.”

“We’re passing through.” Before she even finished, her face heated at their laughter. Fair enough and well deserved. This wasn’t the place one just sorta strolled through by accident. Every building had a busted window or four and only half of the streetlights illuminated at full strength. Most had open casings, indicating theft of power.

“You’re going to pay for intruding.”

There were layers of being screwed – and they ranged from ‘kinda’ to ‘truly fucked.’ This right here fell on the far end.

She waited for Cyprus to say something and though he moved behind her, his lips stayed shut. The idiot could get them out of this with a flash of his badge. No one could be stupid enough to harm an Outer Settlement Agency official of his rank. That, however, would put his precious reputation at risk. “Well?”

“I can take them both,” he whispered, breath warm against her ear.

“I’ll help.”

“No, you won’t.”

She did and her plan was freaking genius. “This guy is trying to shake me down for money. Light him up,” she yelled to the men and took off down an alley with the intent of doubling back and catching them from behind. Three things had to go down for this to work.

She got none of ‘em.