Bavalek,” he said as he struggled to maneuver the corpse into the box, its mass awkward and slippery.
Finally the body was in the box. Michael went to find Bavalek’s head. When he did, he wished he hadn’t. It lay against a toppled desk. Eyes wide open stared accusingly up at him, and the mouth was slightly open in surprise. Struggling to keep his stomach under control, Michael picked up the grisly object with bloodied hands and placed it with the body. He closed the lid. The relief was overwhelming.
“We’ll come back for you and do this properly, I promise,” Michael whispered before losing control of his stomach again, his body convulsing as spasm after spasm wracked his body.
Michael went to clean up.
Twenty minutes later, they were on their way to Nawadji, the air full of the sound of sirens overlaid with the thunderous roar of lifters shuttling emergency crews to the disaster site, with police and DocSec bots racing past. Not one paid the slightest attention to the dust-caked group of marines running hard through the debris-littered street. On they ran. Michael forced the pace. He wanted the pain from burning muscles to flush the guilt of Bavalek’s death out of his mind.
Not that it did.
Delabi trotted back to where Michael and the rest waited tucked out of sight down a narrow alley.
“One of my cousins is waiting down by the wharf,” she said. “He’s not happy but says he’ll put us in touch with someone who can help us out.”
“Can we trust him? Michael asked.
“Not really,” Delabi said. “But he likes money, and the slimy bastard’s always been a greedy little crapstick. Besides, I said we’d come tear his balls off and stuff them down his throat if he messed with us.” She smiled, a smile of feral savagery. “I think he believed me.”
“I would,” Shinoda whispered.
“Any DocSec around?” Michael asked.
“None. We should go, sir. Before he loses his nerve.”
“Lead on.”
Michael followed Delabi. The street ran down to a wall of razor wire that secured the wharf. Inside, cranes maneuvered massive loads off low-loaders and onto waiting barges. The few men around paid them no attention. Delabi turned right at the wire. A hundred meters on, a solitary figure waited outside a gate. His head swung from side to side.
“He looks nervous,” Michael said.
“He should be,” Delabi said. “He told me DocSec took five men away last week for smuggling booze and weed to the marines at Paarl.”
“So why’s he doing this?” Michael asked, pointing to the security holocams perched atop the wire. “The holovid records will show him waiting for us.”
“Easy. We pay him, he pays off wharf security, and everybody’s happy. This is nothing new. It’s been going on forever.”
Delabi’s cousin did not wait for them. He waved at them to follow, then went in through the gate. He stopped only when screened by a wall of cargo containers.
“This is-” Delabi started to say.
“No names,” the cousin snapped, cutting Delabi off, still doing his head-on-a-stick routine. “Just call me … Max will do.”
“Fine, Max,” Michael said. “Which barge?”
“The
“How much?”
“Forty grand.”
Michael glanced at Delabi and Shinoda. They both nodded.
“Okay,” he said.
“Pay me now,” Max said, “then wait here while I go make sure Captain Ho’s ready for you.”
“You little fuck,” Michael hissed. His hand shot out and took Max by the throat. He squeezed so hard that Max could not break the death grip on his windpipe. Michael pushed Max away, sending him backward, tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground.
“Hey,” Max protested, massaging his throat. “What are you doing? You can piss off. There’s no way I’m doing business with you assholes,” he added, starting to his feet.
Michael kicked him in the crotch, and again Max fell back with a soft scream. He folded his body into a ball, hands between his legs, whimpering. “Get him up,” Michael ordered.
Kleber and Mallory obliged, dragging Max, wild-eyed with fear, to his feet. “I don’t have time to play games, Max, so here’s the deal. Take us to this Captain Ho, and then-”
Max must have been dredging down deep to find the last dregs of defiance. “Fuck you!” he snarled. “Why would I do that?”
This time Kleber did the honors, planting a fist in Max’s gut. The blow doubled Max over and drove the air out of his lungs with an explosive
“Now, Max,” Michael said when the man had recovered, “you’re wasting my time. Just do what I say or I’ll cut your weaselly throat and drop you in the river. You know what? I think that’s what we’ll do anyway. I’m sure Captain Ho will talk to us anyway, so thanks for that.”
Terror flared in Max’s eyes. “No, no, no,” he gabbled. “You’ve got to believe me. He won’t talk to you. We’ve had way too much trouble with DocSec.”
Michael nodded. “I can understand that,” he said, “so I’ll trust you. But if you mess with me, I
Max nodded in furious agreement.
“Good. Well, what the fuck are you waiting for? Let’s go!”
Captain Ho was a small, dumpy man dressed in faded blue overalls and a battered cap. His nut-brown face was deeply lined and sported a precisely trimmed goatee. He stared at Michael from blue eyes as hard as pebbles. “You don’t want much,” he said at last. He looked unimpressed by the motley crew arranged in front of him.
“Yes or no?” Michael said.
“Thirty grand, you said?”
“Ten now, twenty when we get to Ahenkro Junction.”
“Fifteen and fifteen.”
“Deal. When do we leave?”
“Hey, what about me?” Max said, his voice thick with complaint. “I should be paid something. It’s only fair.”
“Mind if we bring this piece of crap along with us?” Michael asked.
“As long as I don’t have to listen to him,” Ho replied, a look of utter contempt on his face.
“Oh, come on, Barry,” Max said; his voice was now an aggrieved whine. “How long have we been friends?”
Ho stared at Max like he was something he’d just scraped off his shoe. “You’ve never been any friend of mine,” he said. He turned back to Michael. “I’ll get you some duct tape and cable ties. You can leave the little fuck here when you’re done. I’ll stash him in the power room.”
“Where will you put us?” Michael asked.
Ho thought about that for a moment. “I’ve got just the place,” he said.
“Sergeant, can you take care of this,” Michael said, hooking a thumb at Max, “while I go with the captain?”
“My pleasure, sir.”
Michael followed Ho aft, out of the barge’s bridge and down a ladder to the cargo deck, a flat metal deck covered in massive shapes under chromaflaged netting.
Ho lifted the netting. “Here you go,” he said. “No better place for you to stay out of sight.”
Michael shook his head. He was stunned by the awesome mass of armored ceramsteel in front of him. He
