I stifled a grimace. How’s it feel, Rusco, to be giving your friendly neighborhood warlord like Mong a helping hand in the arm’s race? Maybe it could have been you down on Megal when the bombs dropped? The automatic voice rattled in my head: Well, if it isn’t you, it’s some other slimeball playing delivery boy.
Yet somehow these circular kind of reasonings didn’t soothe me. More than ever I wished I’d never walked into Pazarol’s warehouse.
“Sounds pretty heavy. What’s in it for me?”
“You’d be looking at 10 Gs if everything works out. As for risk, plenty of raiders out there. Those are lawless territories. We’ll need firepower to keep our investment protected. The ore freighter can move at impulse power only, sub warp, no more. It’s more than she was made for, but will move her from Besi 6 to Jasmel space in a week or more.”
“Skgurian raiders always find a hole.”
He chuckled. “As for the split, it’s a three-way deal. The Tanza boys at Gizren’ll take their cut plus a few bribes along the way. I take mine, and you get yours.”
“So, why don’t you do this yourself?” I asked. “You seem to have capable men. What do you need me for?”
“That’s the complex part, Rusco, nothing’s ever straightforward. I got other business commitments going on. My team’s maybe not so savvy in foreign affairs. Blinky says you’re competent. You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t trust him and his good word.”
“Sure, and what’s the real reason?”
He looked at me for a second, wearing a feral scowl, gripping his goatee. “I need a shamster down there to grease the wheels and make this work. Dammit! I don’t trust those Tanza boys—always fighting and scrapping amongst each other like a pack of wild dogs. Stringing each other up in banyans and letting the buzzards gnaw at them. This’s a rush job here. We need the crystals right now to make fareon boosters. Or this buyer, a certain ‘Dark Angel’, will go elsewhere. I don’t want to lose this deal. As I’ve said, you’ve got a reputation. So I took Blinky’s recommendation to heart.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be. Just get the job done and everybody’s good, and maybe there’s more where that came from.”
“Let’s cross that bridge when the time comes.”
“Don’t get cocky, Rusco. You’re wanted by a dozen agencies and cartels around the galaxy. Men who’ll have you snuffed out for a yol if they catch up with you. On lists galore.” He snuffled a laugh. “A bounty hunter’s dream. Your reputation precedes you—grand larceny, willful destruction of property, first degree murder, assault, border jumping, explosives, on and on.” His face took on a brighter cast. “What I’m saying, Rusco, you’re my kind of shyster. Welcome to the club.” He patted my arm.
Somehow I was not liking being on Pazarol’s ‘good’ side. The man was a slimy douchebag, even slimier than the lower echelon of thugs I sometimes did business with.
“The Tanza boys won’t just take a simple cash deal. They’ll want to escort the load too, or some fool thing like that. I want you to thwart them, if possible. It just muddies the pie. Convince them otherwise. I don’t care just as long as the shipment makes it on time and in one piece.”
“I’m mulling it over, Pazarol.”
He gave me a cold inspection. I’d seen less predatory looks on steel-fanged viper fish.
“Tell me more about the product,” I asked.
“Fresh tech, a quarter price. Fresh off the black market. Double the range, fareon state-of-the-art. Got a bunch of the devices here.”
“Do I get one?”
“If you say pretty please and suck my dick.” He looked around, enjoying the snickers of his henchmen. “For you I might swing a deal, with that lady friend thrown in on the side. One of the boys at the other end might equip you with a choicer one, once you’ve got the job done.”
I shafted him a glare much like a wolf before it leaps in to rend the rabbit.
“Just kidding, Rusco. Wipe that murderous grimace off your face. Geez, you’re a humorless man. This client I’ve got a deal with’ll take the crystals and enhanced beams without fuss. An up and coming space bully. Thinks he’s Captain Jojo, going to take over the universe.”
“One of those at every transhub.”
“You betcha. Keeps us in business.” He laughed it off, a sour, hacking cough. “Wants raw crystal as well to manufacture his own weaponry. I shake my head, say, ‘I can do it for you cheaper’ and he says, ‘no, I want to manage the trade myself’. I say, ‘Okay, I can deal, half in advance’, he says, ‘Fine’. First rule of business, Rusco, is please the customer. Clichéd, but true. A sale is a sale.” He looked at me with a cock-eyed grin.
I didn’t know why he was telling me all this. I think it’s one of those good guy ploys: let the new guy in town think he’s more important than he is, some bigger part of the overall picture, then he’ll work harder for you, stay loyal.
Pazarol’s harsh voice tipped me out of my musing. “Okay, that’s out of the way. What’s your plan of operation?”
It was too late to back out. That time’d passed an hour ago. Suddenly I didn’t want to deal any more.
“We’ll go in as negotiators, me, Wren, Raez, pack weapons and explosives, in case things get ugly. We don’t want things going haywire.”
“Whatever, just as long as you don’t damage my product.”
“What do you think I am, an amateur?”
“Just so we’re on the same page,” he grumbled. He patted my arm a second time. He
