Well, damn. Talk about your party killer. Abby did not let it slow her down.
“Details?”
“Dasojin ships attract an extra bounty, particularly if their HMT is intact when the ship is brought in—intact and unharmed.”
That was bad.
“The Shady Marie and her crew—and you might warn your people that their names and descriptions have been circulated through the systems known—also attract a bounty, provided they are delivered to a Star Shadow representative, alive and functional.”
“Alive and functional?” Case asked.
The Odyssey rep shifted his attention to her.
“That is the contractual wording, yes.”
“Does the new contract extend beyond the life of the first?” I asked.
“Not that we can ascertain, no.”
“Delight and Pritchard,” I said, and waited.
The Odyssey rep glanced to one side, but I couldn’t see who they were talking to—because they were talking to someone, I could see that from the look on his face. I suppressed a smile, and waited.
Gotcha.
When he returned his attention to the screen, he was all business.
“I am authorized to reveal that Agents Delight and Pritchard have gone dark. We do not know if they have been compromised or harmed, but I am authorized to put you on a tentative contract for payment for their retrieval, if it is needed, or any assistance you render them, if they ask. Duration of the offer is for the duration of the contract you are currently under. Agents Delight and Pritchard will be notified of your availability, as soon as they make contact.”
He paused, glanced to his right, again, and then looked back to the screen.
“I am also authorized to offer the Shady Marie and all that are on her, Odyssey’s protection at minimal charge, should you require it.”
Minimal charge? I’d never been involved in the negotiation of Mack’s contract.
“May I?” Case asked, and I nodded.
“State the minimum, and the level of assistance you are offering in return,” the pilot said drawing the representative’s attention, and the dickering began.
From the start, it was clear that Case knew exactly what Mack would pay, and for what, and that she could not be enticed beyond it. When the deal was closed, Abby spoke.
“Dasojin will match that offer—and for no cost.” When she continued, her tone suggested she was smiling as sweetly as a child. “We appreciate all those who come to our assistance unbidden.”
The Odyssey spokesman paled, and he reached towards the comms controls.
“We’ll be in touch,” he said, and the screen went dark.
“Are they gone?” Case asked, and Abby’s reply was smug.
“Oh, yes.”
And Case burst out laughing.
“That was classy, girl,” she said, before letting her laughter fade, and focusing on her console.
“We’re almost there,” she added, and then swore.
I looked at her, half expecting her to highlight a wolf battle cruiser on the forward screen, but she just shook her head.
“Sorry, Cutter. I just remembered Mack was supposed to sign off on a deal, yesterday. I just checked, and he didn’t. Mishamblin took it, instead.”
“Mishamblin?” Abby asked. “Do they do that often?”
“Just recently,” Case said, and shrugged. “They’re expanding, and they think we’re easy prey.”
She smiled.
“Or they did.”
“What did you do?” Abby asked.
“We took five of their clients, as a warning to show that we could.”
A low whistle came through the intercom.
“Mack doesn’t play games, does he?”
“He said we had to show teeth, or they would roll over us like a PZ105 on the plains of Arumgito.”
I made a note to look it up. It didn’t sound good, whatever it was.
“Do you think they’re biting back?”
“It’s a bit of a coincidence if they’re not.”
“I’ll do some digging,” Abby said.
“We’ve got one more jump, and we’ll be at Baskent.”
I looked at her.
“You need me?”
Case shook her head.
“Not for this leg. Maybe once we’re in-system.”
I headed for the door.
“I’ll be in the research centre.”
“See you in there,” Abby said, and I knew she’d find me in the net.
She might not be able to follow me through the research centre, but the net was as open to her as all the stars in space, and she probably knew how to navigate it much better than I did.
“Sure thing, Abs.”
She was true to her world. We met outside the official site of the Mishamblin HQ.
I’d taken a circuitous route through one of the quieter patches of the Underweb, and surfaced through the virtual sidewalk in front of Mishamblin’s front gates. The site was huge.
Abby popped in beside me, and we stood together, admiring the façade.
“Care to join me?” Abby asked, offering me a virtual arm.
I slid my arm through it, and we passed through the gates together.
Have to admit, the company’s public pages were something to be admired. We wandered through them, inspecting services and noting that the prices were only available on application…and that there’d be a consultation fee involved.
“Interesting.”
“Stops them being undercut, and lets them background-check potential clients, without the client knowing.”
“Nice.”
“I’m certain Mack does the same thing.”
That was food for thought. Tens never had said what his specialty was—and Mack had never mentioned it.
“Need to know,” Abby told me, as though that should explain everything, which, I suppose, it did.
We walked through the site, and then back out the gates. Abby led the way through a couple of fast-food and entertainment sites, as well as a server hub, and I didn’t ask her why. I could see the shadowy figures that trailed after us, before evaporating as we slid through the private connection of someone’s way-too-open communications link.
After that, we slipped into the Underweb spyware connection we found there, breaking it loose after us, as a sort of secret thank you. It didn’t take us long to double back to take a look at Mishamblin from the underside.
“Well,” Abby said, satisfaction giving her mental voice a smug tone. “How unexpected.”
Which meant she’d expected to see what we were seeing, all along.
Numerous connections ran from Mishamblin’s underside into the Undernet. Abby and I just hovered, studying the layout, trying to get an aerial view of the nodes and routers we were seeing.
“This could take a while…”
“We just need to spot a connection
