Under Dark Sky Law (23 page)

Xero looked at Radar, inviting him to explain
for himself. “I’ve got a few aftermarket parts,” he said.

Xero watched as the statement percolated
through Neptune’s brain, her slowly blinking purple-smeared eyes
looking like a poisonous Amazon butterfly flapping in the sun. “No.
No, you fucking didn’t,” Neptune said and whirled to Xero.

Xero slammed her palm on the smooth white
plastic table hard enough that she heard a crack and thought it may
have broken. Plates and beverages bounced in the air. “That’s
enough, Neptune. We’re a team, and I fully trust you with your job
as security chief, but I am the fucking leader of this crew, and
you need to calm the fuck down,” she said.

Neptune’s face remained fixed in a snarl, but
with an angry grunt she sat her ass back in her chair. Neptune
wasn’t anyone to mess with, but no one in the room wanted to piss
Xero off enough to deserve a physical response. Friend or not, Xero
was known for not holding back, and an attack from her was
something most people didn’t survive. Milo took his seat as well,
knowing better than to interject until things had settled down.

She motioned to Radar who hesitated, but
cautiously dragged his chair away from Neptune and sat back
down.

Neptune looked like she was literally biting
her tongue, and before Xero could get in another word, she slammed
her palms down against table, causing another earthquake to rattle
through their dinner. “You brought a fucking Cyborg into our
territory? Are you out of your mind?!” she said.

Xero stomped her feet lightly against the
floor, frustrated with Neptune’s annoying but not unexpected rage.
“Look, I totally understand where you’re coming from, but think
about it. The government has been falling apart anyway—when’s the
last time you saw someone get caught for a cybernetics violation?
Hell, come to think of it we’re still violating weapons laws by
keeping hold of this laser I brought back from the failed dome run.
There’s just been a major terrorist attack—they’ve got bigger fish
to fry,” she said.

“Don’t you think that will make them even
more likely to be scanning the pits for possible perpetrators?”
Neptune said.

Xero shook her head. “In a perfect world,
sure, but let’s get serious—they can’t even cover security on their
major dome sites. There’s no way they’re going to have the
resources to do a major pit sweep,” she said and gave her a rundown
on the military staffing issues that caused so many of her
adventures on the last run.

“Alright, I’m willing to concede that the
game may have changed,” Neptune said. “And if that’s the case, we
may want to change our laser policy. Once other groups start
figuring out that they’re not scanning for unauthorized weapons
anymore, it won’t take long before we’ve got a potential problem on
our hands.”

They were used to dealing with isolated
groups coming at them with lasers, and they were all trained and
prepared for such an event, but if they were on the brink of civil
war, they could be dealing with a whole rebel army decked out with
lasers and possibly worse. “Agreed,” Xero said. “So, I think that
makes a good case for looking at Radar’s…hardware in a different
light. Besides, he’s been doing this awhile, and he hasn’t gotten
caught yet.”

Radar gave one quick nod. “I learned the hard
way what will get you iced, and what will keep you safe. I’ve got
everything set up to where it’s very difficult to detect anything.
You’d basically need to chop me up and start pulling things out
before you’d suspect anything,” he said and then averted his gaze.
“And most of the people that get a taste of that electricity don’t
get to see the light of day again.”

Xero stored that fact in her memory—the Taser
thing was no cheap parlor trick after all.

Milo was staring at Radar in fascination.
“I’ve always wanted to examine a cyborg,” he said.

Radar shifted uncomfortably and swallowed
audibly. “I’m not really a cyborg—I just have a few extra pieces is
all,” he said.

Milo seemed to suddenly realize what an
awkward statement he’d just made and blushed. “I don’t mean any
offense or anything, I mean just as our doctor, I need to have an
understanding of any conditions or unique physiology that would
come into play should you become injured and require attention,” he
said.

Xero cleared her throat. “Okay, so you guys
can go over that stuff later or something, first thing’s first—are
we cool here?” she asked.

“No,” Neptune said coldly, but with less
anger. “I know you always trust your instincts on these things, but
I’m not kosher with some human cattle prod that won’t respect my
rules just trampling all over the place like he owns the joint.
Meanwhile, we don’t even know who the fuck he is or what he
wants.”

“You can trust what Xero means when she says
that if we had wanted to kill each other, there would have been
plenty of opportunity already. There’s nothing I could gain but
death by coming in here and starting a fight,” he said.

Neptune rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, so that’s
why you come in here and try to piss me off? You have a death
wish?” she said, leaning forward and narrowing her eyes they were
just slits.

“No. I just have my own codes that I live by,
for the same reasons you do. I apologize for our conflicting
policies having caused us friction within the group, but I hope we
can come to an understanding. I think we could be mutually
beneficial to each other,” he said.

Milo crossed his legs and put his hands palm
up on the table. “There’s one simple solution to this mess. Well,
not really simple, but it’s standard if you’re actually talking
about letting him into the Grease Weasels for real,” he said.

Xero grimaced. “The A+? Ugh, do you really
want to deal with that mess right now, with all that other shit
going on,” she said.

He ruffled his hair. “Not really, but if it
will pacify Neptune and keep the peace, it might be worth it. To be
honest, it will make me feel more relaxed in the end too,” he
said.

Radar looked back and forth between everyone
at the table. “What are we talking about here?” he asked.

Xero sucked air through her teeth. “So you
know that we manufacture Alphamine as one of our primary products.
In the process of synthesizing it we came across a lot of other
compounds, some more useful than others. As I’m sure you’re aware,
Alphamine does a lot of things—including inducing euphoria, mild
hallucinations, and increased lung function. One of the compounds
we produced on accident was something of a super-powered truth
serum based on the same Alphamine molecules. Only problem is it has
some unwanted side effects, like making you trip balls for the rest
of the evening. And instead of euphoria, some people, okay most
people, become hypersensitive to pain. To top it off, the increased
lung function effect carried across too, but without modulation
that can actually lead to respiratory distress and a whole bunch of
other nasty side effects. In short, it’s really effective as a
truth serum, but it can be damned uncomfortable,” she said.

Neptune glared at Radar. “Milo’s never let
anyone kick the bucket or anything like that, and it is damned
nasty shit, but it’s always been a requirement for anyone wanting
to join our inner circle. Hasn’t failed us yet,” she said and
raised an eyebrow. “So, are you in?”

It really wasn’t a great time to be putting
one of their important enforcers down for at least the night, but
they did have a point about safety. But, if Radar survived a trip
on the A+ they would have a pretty good idea that he really could
be trusted as a true ally. The process was so horrific they almost
never subjected anyone to it unless they wanted to give them access
to really sensitive materials.

Radar ignored Neptune and looked directly at
Milo. “Pain I can deal with, but if you kill me, I’d be pretty
displeased. You sure you can keep that from happening?” he
said.

Milo gave one confident nod. “Absolutely. No
one has ever passed away during an A+ screening. I’m good at what I
do. Really good,” he said.

Radar slapped his thigh a few times. “Against
my better judgment, I’ll agree to this, just for the sake of group
unity. A team that doesn’t trust each other is a disaster waiting
to happen—it’s one of the reasons why I prefer to work alone,” he
said and shot another look at Milo. “Looks like you’re going to get
your wish after all.”

Milo smiled in excitement and tried to wipe
the eagerness off his face, but only partially succeeded. “I assure
you I’ll be nothing but professional,” he said.

Neptune was grinning and tapping her fingers
together. “Excellent. Milo can administer the drug and monitor his
vitals, and I’ll take care of the interrogation part,” she
said.

Xero gave an exasperated sigh. “Reign it in
Neptune, you’re looking like more of a sadist than me, and that’s a
fucking scary thing,” she said.

Radar scanned around the table and groaned.
“What have I gotten myself into?” he said.

CHAPTER 20

Someone had to stay behind and watch
headquarters while Neptune and Milo were down at the medical center
again, and though she hated to admit it, she kind of wanted privacy
for talking with Xed initially again. Everyone was more on edge
than usual, particularly Neptune who had a penchant for speaking
before thinking, and the last thing they needed to do was piss off
Xed. Neptune was a genius at what she did, but Xero also liked
keeping her around because Neptune made her look calm and level
headed. Xero had once made a joke that Neptune was actually more
Mercurial than Neptunic. Neptune hadn’t cared for it, and the rest
of the day was lost to a machete fight.

After verifying that the perimeter guards
were up to date and sufficiently on watch, she descended to the
back room of the main bowling alley. At one point it had been the
office for the establishment, but they had transformed it into
their main communications room. It looked like a souped up version
of what was in the back store room of the restaurant in Gila Bend.
Every inch of the sound-proofed room was covered with blinking
equipment in various states of functioning. Neptune was constantly
finding bits and pieces of new and old tech scraps on their
journeys, and she brought them back to the command room for use as
new broadcasting or receiving devices. After the satellite
harvests, communication became a serious problem that they were
constantly dealing with.

It took a few tries, and after accidentally
snapping off a few antennas she was sure Neptune would have a fit
about later, Xero made contact with Xed.

“Glad to hear you made it back safely,” he
said.

“Glad to hear that you haven’t died in a
giant explosion,” she said.

He was silent, then said, “Yes, I think we’re
all on edge after Yuma. There hasn’t been any further reports about
the motives for the attack. I assume you have no news about
Calavera?” he said.

She was fairly sure about Radar’s fidelity
and thought Neptune was overreacting about his potential security
risk, but she didn’t trust Xed for a second. Working with Xed was a
necessary evil, and he was disturbing for a number of reasons, not
least of which being that he reminded Xero of herself. He’d let a
little bit of his real self peek through when they’d fucked. It was
one of the reasons she preferred banging associates when
appropriate—people tended to reveal themselves in the heat of
passion. He was definitely not to be trusted, but she had to keep
it as honest as safely possible. He would know if she was
lying.

“We just made it back to our base, and we’re
working through a few…technical difficulties. Not least of which
being that I nearly got torn to shreds out there. It’ll be at least
until tomorrow before we can get out there and go hunting for her
in earnest. She’s not the brightest—she’ll turn up in some form
sooner or later, even if it’s just as a corpse” she said.

“Fair enough,” she said.

“Which leads me to the next part of the
equation—I’m more than happy to help you track down that cow, but
what I really need is a bead on how to get my hands on that
Ketocillin,” she said, keeping her voice even, but images of an
incapacitated Trina flashed in her mind. Before she’d left for the
last run, Trina had still been conscious, even though she’d been
struggling, and it killed her to see her friend so close to
death.

She could hear him lick his lips before
replying. “Yes, I’ve done some investigating while you were away. I
think I have a plan that would work out for us all, but it’s a
little unorthodox,” he said.

“Hell, I’ve never been one to do shit by the
book anyway, lay it on me,” she said.

“While I was looking into your organization I
came across a few things. The first being that you do legitimate
cargo runs, as well as illegal runs, which I already knew,
obviously. The other being that you were originally a punk band,”
he said.

Xero laughed. “So you’re just learning that,
eh? Yeah, it’s how we all met originally. After getting kicked out
of the domes, I figured I’d make some shitty music screaming about
how the government has fucked us all over. But you know, starving
musician and all, figured I needed an actual way to make some
cash,” she said.

“So you started making drugs?” he said.

She clicked her tongue. “That’s one way to
put it. I’d spent so many years in the dome pumping drugs into
people, figured I may as well keep doing that. But you wouldn’t
know anything about that, would you?” she said.

He chuckled. “No, not a thing,” he said.

“Turns out money equals power, so it was
natural that we took over this territory after Alphamine really
spread,” she said.

“But your band, it’s still popular,” he
said.

She waited before replying, trying to figure
out what he was getting at. She knew it was the Alphamine he wanted
to get his hands on, not their sweet anarchist guitar riffs. “Yeah,
it is actually. It’s kind of our cover for certain types of
activities. Mild mannered punk band—works like a charm every time,”
she said. And it was true. They still played gigs regularly between
all their other activities. The old strip club across the street
was a favorite venue. They’d come together over music in the first
place, and it was still the thing that kept them together. As
backwards as it seemed, the Grease Weasels were a punk band first,
drug dealers second, and territory leaders last.