Desperate Measures Chapter 40

Chapter Thirty-Eight

August 5, 2230, Alpha Centauri, Chiron, Lumiere, Albatross Bar

Erik told Jia that all places were ugly in the same way. She accepted the wisdom of that observation as they stepped into the dark hole pretending to be a bar.

The dim red lighting provided enough illumination to keep people from falling over, but it maintained enough shadows for them to drink for hours with only the barest awareness of what was going on around them.

Loud, unpleasant music filled the air, necessitating a shouting match between anyone not drunk enough who wanted to talk.

Those same conditions made it an excellent meeting place. Even if anyone was aware they were in town, Erik and Jia would have been difficult to pick out in the packed bar.

They continued making their way through it, ignoring the occasional angry scowl from a drunken local as they followed the exact directions that had been sent to Emma earlier over the coded frequency.

It wasn’t as reliable as the methods Adeyemi and Alina used on Earth, but it was a step above what normal criminals could access. There were advantages to working for the Intelligence Directorate.

Erik and Jia arrived at a booth tucked into the back with only one man. His dark clothes helped him blend in even more with the environment, but there was something unsettling about the almost static smile on his face.

They continued toward the booth, neither surprised when the punishing noise of the bar died to near silence as they sat.

“I’m a friend of black holes,” the man greeted them.

“And we’re friends of Singapore,” Jia answered. She found she missed Alina’s literary bent for code phrases.

He nodded slowly. “The famous pair in my own backyard. I’m starstruck here.”

Jia didn’t like the sarcasm in his voice.

“That’s one way to describe us,” Erik replied. “You’re Agent Dalton?”

The agent nodded again, that near-plastic smile remaining on his face. Jia had never thought she would so dislike someone smiling.

“That’s me.” The man rubbed his eyes. “I was surprised to hear you two were coming and even more surprised that you’re here so shortly after I was told, which means the Fleet got their toy working. Not that anyone’s bothered to let me know. I guess I’m not important enough.”

Jia frowned. Compartmentalization was the key to successful operational security, and the ghost sitting in front of them knew that better than most. If he needed to know about the jumpship, Alina would tell him. She didn’t have time to sit around, puffing up people’s egos.

“We’re here now.” Jia leaned forward. “And we need information. You’re supposed to help us with that.”

Dalton’s smile threatened to go away with a brief twitch. “Of course you do, so you can do your thing, right?”

“What’s our thing?”

“Causing trouble.” Dalton sneered, finally losing the smile.

Erik chuckled. “I didn’t think taking down threats to the UTC was considered trouble. Or if it is, most people consider that the good type of trouble.”

“It can be the bad type, too.” Dalton flicked his wrist toward Erik. “Especially when you get two trigger-happy ex-cops wandering around blowing up everything in sight. Venus. The moon. Need I go on?”

Jia eyed him. “I’m sorry if you don’t like how we’ve handled our missions, but I would assume if you know anything about the conspiracy, you understand that sometimes they leave us no choice.” She glared at him. “Or would you have preferred we let them sink Parvati or blow Chang’e dome? I don’t know how

quiet

it is when thousands of people scream before they die, and if I have to choose between secrecy and saving thousands of lives, I’ll pick the people every time.”

Dalton chuckled, the plastic smile returning. He leaned back and folded his arms. “Dial it down, Lady Justice. I’m not saying you’ve always made the wrong move, but you have to understand where you are and how that introduces complications.”

“Last time I checked, we were in Lumiere on Chiron. Care to educate me on what those complications are? We’re not here to upset you. We’re all on the same team.”

Jia glanced at Erik to ensure she wasn’t going too far. He didn’t look upset, and he nodded back, which was enough for her to continue taking the lead in the conversation.

“Earth is the center of the UTC,” Dalton began, “but it’s not the entire UTC. Every half-dedicated terrorist, insurrectionist, or piece of scum out on the frontier who wants a shot at Earth needs to go through this system first because they don’t have your special toy.” He pointed at Jia. “No one cares about the secondary colonies or stations, or the tiny smattering of other cities, so they all end up in Chiron. Here in Lumiere, we probably have the greatest concentration of dangerous filth in the entire UTC. Sure, Neo SoCal is big, but there are billions of people on Earth. That encourages the filth to spread out more.” He gestured broadly. “It’s easy to get lost there. Here, they’re tripping all over each other. Insurrectionists, Grayheads, syndicates, guys who got transported and want to skip out on their sentence and return to Earth. Greedy bastards who think they have a good shot at becoming the next Sophia Vand.”

Jia rolled her eyes. “We get it. You’ve seen it all, darkness, depravity, and greed. It’s not like we haven’t seen our fair share of trouble. We’ve fought things that shouldn’t exist. We’ve dealt with people who make the most vicious rabid animal seem moral in comparison.”

“That’s just it.” Dalton sighed. “You

don’t

get it. Because we’ve got all those threats tripping over one another, it means this entire place is a giant knot in a way you’re not used to on Earth. You tug on one string without knowing where you’re going, and you can fuck up something else. We always have to keep that in mind when dealing with people here.”

Jia leaned forward, drilling into Dalton with her harsh glare. “I don’t have time to call Alina and ask for her to pretty please tell you to do your job. The people we’re going after are the single greatest threat to the UTC. They’ve proven they will kill anyone and everyone to get what they want, and they aren’t troubled in the slightest by such quaint ideas as morality or restraint. So, what we’re going to do here is our job, and that means investigating the conspiracy and recent shipments. If that ends in explosions and noise, so be it. We’re not walking away because it might make your job harder later. If we do, your job might not matter later.”

Dalton dropped his arms quickly.

Jia whipped her hand into her jacket and began to draw her stun pistol. The agent laughed and lifted his hands in front of him.

“Calm down, Lady Justice.” Dalton’s smile grew wider. “I don’t think the guy who takes either of you out is going to do it by shooting you in a bar. It’ll probably involve trapping you in a dome and blasting you from orbit. That’s what I’d do. Even if I was lucky enough to get my gun out and shoot one of you, the other one would put a bullet in my brain before I took a second shot.”

Jia pushed her gun back in but kept her hands above the table. Dirty cops, CID agents, and politicians existed. The ID had recently had a traitor. There was no reason to believe there wasn’t another one.

Dalton turned to Erik. “What about you, Blackwell? You ready to shoot me?”

“I’m

always

ready to shoot people.” Erik offered him a merry grin to match the agent’s smile. “So get the hell over yourself. I don’t care about the stick you have in your ass, and I agree with my partner. We’re not here to make trouble, but if trouble comes, we’re going to end it. If we don’t, a lot of people might die sooner than later. And it’s your job, ghost, just like it's ours, to work your ass off and risk your life so those other people don’t die. If you don’t like what I have to say, I suggest you quit and get a nice, safe, cushy corp job.”

Dalton snickered quietly as his gaze shifted between the two. He didn’t say anything else, just let out a long weary sigh. His stupid smile barely wavered.

“Three Daughters and New Lands,” Jia announced. “That’s where our investigation has led. You’re supposed to be one of the top agents here with a good lay of the land, so you should be able to tell us something about them. Everything’s a big, nasty knot of antisocials around here, right? So, enlighten us, wise Agent Dalton, about the truth. Trace the thread for us.”

Dalton muttered something before flagging down a waitress. “I need a drink before we go into anything.”

They waited patiently as the waitress approached. The pleasant quiet ended, the music and conversations assaulting the previously secured booth. Dalton placed his order, while Erik and Jia only asked for water. A minute later, the waitress returned with two glasses of water and a glass with the finest local bourbon and set it in front of the agent. Once she’d left the booth, the blessed quiet returned.

Dalton raised the glass to his lips and took a sip. “Why do I have a feeling my job’s going to get very complicated and annoying soon?”

“It doesn’t have to.” Jia shrugged. “Unless those aren’t innocent, law-abiding corporations. Then, yes, it’ll get complicated.”

“No such thing as an innocent corp.” Dalton shook his head. “You’re still thinking about this the wrong way, Lady Justice. It’s not about innocent or guilty, it’s about what shades of gray we’ll find.”

Jia’s eyes narrowed. “The conspiracy is about as close to the darkness of hell as we’re going to get without demons being real. Now, can you help us or not? I wouldn’t want to get in the way of your drinking.”

Dalton gulped down half the bourbon and let out a sigh of satisfaction. “Nothing like the anticipation of booze tickling your brain. That part’s better than being drunk.”

Jia’s hand clenched and unclenched on the table. “Stop. Wasting. Our. Time.”

Erik chuckled.

Dalton stared at her as he polished off the rest of his drink. He set the glass down and shook his head. “We’ve heard some things locally about those two companies, but the weird thing is they weren’t on our radar until real damned recently, starting in June. What you’ll want are local shipping records to give you more to work with since I don’t have much more than I told you. I don’t want our fingerprints on this because it will screw up our other ops. You can give me another big speech about how you’re fighting the ultimate evil, but you used to be a cop. You know if you add up enough little evils, they get dangerous.”

“Fine.” Jia took a deep breath. “Just point us at the records, and we’ll do the heavy lifting with our people. You can stay out of it, then you don’t have to worry about anything other than a little potential cleanup later.”

Dalton stared longingly at his empty glass. For the first time in his conversation, he frowned. “Sure. I’ll probably regret it later, but why not?”

“You and Malcolm do what you need to,” Erik ordered Emma after lifting off in the MX 60 and speeding away from the bar. “Contrary to what that asshole inside seems to think, I’d rather walk in slow and get it right. I’m not going to care about explosions at the end, but we’ll save those for the best part.”

“Very well,” Emma replied. “I’ll brief Mr. Constantine, and we’ll inspect the relevant records.”

Jia fell into deep thought. Dalton reminded her of detectives from the 1-2-2 when she’d started, but it was a different sort of cynicism.

His attitude annoyed her, but he wasn’t using corruption as an excuse to do nothing. Instead, he was trying to focus on the tiny pockets of darkness and eliminate them as a way of feeling like he was accomplishing something.

It might not have been as flashy as going after the conspiracy, but she couldn’t say it was pointless.

“The farther we get from Earth, the more this is going to be a problem, isn’t it?” she asked.

Erik nodded. “Chiron’s practically next door, but the light-years and the frustrations start adding up. It’s hard for one planet and the people on it to understand what’s going on when they aren’t on it. I felt that way tons of times when we’d get clueless orders from on high.”

“It doesn’t change anything.” Jia ran a hand through her hair. Erik was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t yank a fistful out by the roots as she continued talking. “We need to keep following and flushing them out until the leaders have their backs to the wall.” She sighed. “It’d be poetic if they ended up trapped on Molino.”

Erik’s grin turned hungry. “It would, but I don’t think the Lady loves us that much. We’ll find out what’s going on here and knock heads together until we get answers. That crap in France proved that all we need to do is survive, and we’ll make progress.”

“Survive, huh?” Jia shook her head.

She would do more than survive. Dalton’s path wasn’t wrong, but neither was hers. Sometimes you stopped a beast by bleeding it out, but the easiest solution was to cut its head off.

Besides, she had plans that included the man beside her.