“No, I think you’re someone who can provide forged documents.”
The elSha jumped slightly, as if Sato had kicked him. Both eyes scanned the busy promenade for any sign someone was watching or listening. “What are you talking about, Human?”
Sato made a big show of looking over the damaged storefront as if looking for something. “I don’t see any sign of your business, so it’s not legitimate. You chose a former merc pit for your clandestine operation, which means you want mercs noticing. There’s a war underway between the Mercenary Guild and humanity. Do I need to keep going?”
“No,” the elSha snapped. “Shut up and get inside before a UCX agent spots you.”
Rick wondered if there was even such a thing as an agent of the Union Credit Exchange. As soon as Sato moved toward the door, Rick followed. The elSha’s eyes instantly locked on him, and the alien reached for a weapon hanging from a harness around his head.
“He’s with me,” Sato said, just short of the door.
“Go away,” the elSha snapped, glaring at Rick. Clearly his sense of a setup was being tweaked.
“Your choice,” Sato said, taking a credit chit from his pocket and flicking it like someone making a heads-or-tails call. The extraordinarily large red diamond caught the subdued light and flashed as it flipped and landed back in his palm. The elSha’s eyes followed the chit like a cat tracks a mouse making its way across the floor. Its tongue darted out, licking one eye.
Rick didn’t think an elSha could snarl and curse; he was wrong. The alien moved aside to let Sato through. Rick stayed close behind him.
The interior of the former merc pit looked no better than the outside. The distinct odor of burned plastics hovered in the dark room, lit only by a half dozen portable bioluminescent lights scattered around on equally portable tables. Only two of the tables held occupants. One had a trio of surly-looking feline Pushtal with their heads pushed together.
Rick immediately felt his anger rising at the sight of the Pushtal. He knew all too well what kind of business they would be involved in. All three stopped talking and looked at the new arrivals as soon as the elSha door keeper let them in. They scarcely gave Sato a look, but both immediately fixed on Rick as the potentially unknown threat. Oh, you pussies have no idea.
The other table had a seated GenSha and a Kaa. The GenSha resembled a bipedal bison covered in white and green stripes. The Kaa was best described as a huge cobra, with bunches of tentacles for arms, and a reddish strip around the front of its head instead of eyes. They were a rare race in the Union, not commonly seen. Not unlike Humans.
The GenSha looked up from a slate to examine the new arrivals with beady black eyes. The Kaa may or may not have been watching; it was too hard to tell with them.
“What do you need?” the elSha asked.
“Two Yacks,” Sato told him without fanfare.
“Not asking for much, are you?” the elSha said.
“Can you do it or not?” Sato asked.
Rick used his heightened sensory abilities to examine the room in more detail. There was a second door to the rear, which had probably once been the way to reach a kitchen, or maybe an office. For just a second he’d spotted something peeking through the crack between the partially melted door and the frame. It wasn’t enough to tell the species, only that they were being observed. Maybe security? But his EM sensory scan showed no high-tech observation. Everything about this stinks, he thought.
“Sure, anything is possible,” the elSha said, “if you got the stones.”
“You want it to just look good or be fully functional?” the GenSha asked, his voice sounding like someone rolling boulders over gravel.
“You the tech?” Sato asked.
“We’re a team,” the Kaa said in a low hissing voice like a knife passing through meat.
“Really?” Sato asked. “Fascinating. I want two functional Yacks, complete with account linkage. How much?”
Rick tuned out the negotiation part; that really didn’t interest him anyway. Instead, he turned his attention to his surroundings. He could see far beyond visible light now, and deep into the infrared and ultraviolet as well. His hearing likewise went from subsonic up into the high megahertz range. He’d known instinctively how to use all these senses from the moment he’d woken up to see one of Nemo’s big blue cephalopod eyes staring at him.
Using all his senses, Rick probed the wall next to the door he’d seen someone looking through. With a combination of hearing in the ultrasonic range and infrared, he could detect nine beings in the other room, all seemingly crowded around a table. The sounds were far too muffled and overlapping to tell what they were saying, but none appeared to be watching what was going on near Rick.
“Half a million each,” the elSha said. “Pay now, come back in two days to pick them up.”
Rick turned his attention back to Sato, who was shaking his head.
“A million each,” Rick countered, drawing a low hiss from the Kaa, “but we wait for them here.”
“We can’t—” the elSha started to say.
“Fine,” the GenSha interrupted. “Let’s see the chits.” Sato reached into a bag over his shoulder, accessed the metallic case that held their money, and drew out another one-million-credit chit, then held the two up, one in each hand. For further effect, he touched the tiny control on each chit.
Rick had heard about this feature; an internal illumination within the chit came on, throwing light through the red diamond embedded in the center. He’d never had his hands on a
