Solatium: An Aurora Rhapsody Short Story Read online

  Competition in the drug trade was fierce here on Pandora, but it was far less so across the Senecan Federation border on the small colonies of Caelum, Bellici and Palluda. When Eli started shipping his product across the border, it became the business of the Federation’s Division of Intelligence—which meant it became Caleb and Samuel’s business.

  Strictly speaking, Division didn’t have jurisdiction to act on Pandora’s soil, since it was not a Federation colony. But Pandora had no government to speak of, thus no one had jurisdiction to act there. Thus everyone had jurisdiction.

  “I’m going to explosively dismantle his chimeral production line and bring the cops down on the remains.”

  “There aren’t any cops here.”

  He laughed. “Yes, there are.”

  “Well, could’ve fooled me.” She took another bite, stuffing her mouth full of rice, beans and olives, and regarded him over the burrito. Food in her stomach had emboldened her, and he began to feel legitimate heat from her probing eyes.

  One of Eli’s enforcers just spotted you two. I’ll take care of him.

  He didn’t outwardly react to Samuel’s pulse.

  We’re sitting here having dinner. He shouldn’t be suspicious.

  Unless he’s smart. Unlikely, but in case, I’ll take care of him.

  “Why would you help me?”

  Of course she was mistrustful and wary. Everyone around her was using her for their own ends. He wondered if anyone had ever looked out for her.

  “Because you’re a better person than they are. You’re intelligent and quick and you clearly have skills. I can see the potential beneath the grime.”

  Are you seriously using that line again?

  Shut up. It’s true.

  It’s still a line.

  Aren’t you supposed to be handling some goon?

  Handled.

  Caleb shifted his posture subtly to lean in closer. “Besides, you don’t like what you’re doing. You don’t like being a criminal, and you definitely don’t like being beholden to a scumbag like Eli.”

  “How could you possibly tell all that about me? You just met me.”

  A corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk. “I’ve been watching you for a few days and—”

  “Impossible. I pay very close attention—I’d realize if I were being followed.”

  “Yes, you do. But I’m better than you.”

  She snorted and finished off the burrito.

  Goon might have called in reinforcements before being handled.

  ‘Might have’?

  Did. I’ve got a solid bead on one, but if the other makes it past me you’ll have to deal with him.

  Then don’t fucking let him get past you. This woman’s apt to rabbit on me if I so much as cough wrong.

  He took a sip of water and scanned the crowd. “As I was saying. I’ve been watching you, along with several other of Eli’s lackeys. I need someone on the inside, and it was simply a matter of deciding who. I chose you. Did I make the wrong choice?”

  She finished off the chips next and sank back in her chair to study him in silence again. It took all his self-control to meet her gaze calmly and not jerk his eyes around in search of the attack that threatened to arrive any minute.

  “How do I know you won’t double-cross me?”

  Caleb reached in his pocket and pulled out a small translucent film. He laid it on the table but kept two fingers securely atop it. “Here’s a ticket to Romane. Give me the access codes, I give you the ticket and transfer two thousand credits to you. You can leave right away.”

  Also handled. I’m bleeding, but it’s fine, really. Take your time.

  He had her full and undivided attention now and didn’t dare divide his own to respond to Samuel.

  She tilted her head at him. “How do you know I won’t double-cross you and give you the wrong codes?”

  His shoulders rose a fraction. He’d wrangled a first name out of her on the walk over. Names were powerful—which was why he’d given her a false one—and this was the time to use it. “I guess I’ll have to trust you. Are you worthy of my trust, Mia?”

  She stared at him a moment…and nodded.

  Mia focused on walking in a direction that would take her to the spaceport. She didn’t focus on the ticket in her pocket. She didn’t focus on the impossible two thousand credits in her bank account, already deposited mere seconds after she’d departed the restaurant.

  She didn’t need to focus on getting her belongings; she didn’t have any. Well, she had two changes of clothes in a pack she stowed in the closet of a shop run by one of the few people she sort of trusted, but she didn’t plan to retrieve them. She’d buy new clothes when she arrived on Romane, because she had two thousand credits.

  Get a grip on yourself, Mia. You have to make the money last. This is your one real chance, and you better not screw it up. She took a deep breath and began to plan. She should—

  —In the corner of her vision Fletch Godan, one of Eli’s enforcers, crossed the intersection to her left. Was he after her? Did they know somehow? It seemed absurd, but Eli would stop at nothing to keep hold of her. He’d never willingly let her go. He needed her, but more relevantly, he never surrendered anything for which he claimed ownership.

  What if this Federation ‘intelligence agent’—he’d said his name was Josh—failed? What if Eli’s people killed him in the assault? Worse, what if they captured him and he gave her up rather than suffer the unspeakable torture Eli would gleefully subject him to?

  He was too damn attractive to be good at his job, anyway. That devilish smirk and those twinkling sapphire eyes of his were not going to be sufficient to take Eli out, much less a block-sized building of armed thugs.

  She slipped into a grocery to get off the street and pretended to browse the aisles while she worked through her options.

  If she departed Pandora without confirming Eli was dead, she’d live the rest of her days in fear, always peering over her shoulder, searching for ghosts in the shadows.

  But if she stayed and Eli survived, she’d never get away…unless she took advantage of the chaos and managed to kill him herself. Not that she had a gun. Or a blade. Though if she could get her hands on a blade, she knew how to use one. She’d done it before….

  “Excuse me, can I help you find something?”

  Mia blinked out of the reverie to find the store clerk regarding her expectantly. “No, thank you.” She spun and left the grocery before the clerk accused her of trying to steal something. Little did he know, if she were to try she’d succeed.

  She’d spent the first year after fleeing to Pandora petrified the man she’d stabbed in a dim alley on New Orient hadn’t died and was going to show up and kill her. Or her father was going to show up and kill her, or her brother. The fear had faded in time, but while under its influence she’d done stupid things, made poor decisions—decisions that ultimately resulted in her indentured servitude to Eli. She couldn’t make the same mistakes again.

  She felt certain this Josh guy wouldn’t move on Eli’s place until after night fell. This meant she had a few hours. Which was fortunate, because she needed to buy a blade and a coat.

  The industrial district presented a starkly different picture from the rest of Pandora’s public spheres. Gone were the bright lights, multi-sensory ads and constant, raucous music. In their place was street after street of drab, unadorned and unmarked buildings: warehouses, factories, plants and loading docks.

  The night sky gleamed a faint dusty rose under heavy cloud-cover, and the dampness of the air signaled imminent rain. It was the perfect night and the perfect setting for their mission.

  It would be easy to assume this was a criminal ward and every structure hid nefarious deeds, but that would be an error. Perhaps a quarter of the enterprises engaged in gray market or black market trade or outright illegal activity, but the remainder serviced the engine of Pandora’s entertainment economy in a legal manner.

  Eli Baca’s enterpr
ise fit squarely in the ‘nefarious’ category, however, churning out a variety of chimerals that weren’t merely illegal, but dangerous and often deadly. They were supplied to a cross-colony underclass who preferred to spend their meager credits on another hit rather than the medical treatment guaranteed to save them. This style of business could never be completely stamped out. There would always be an underclass, and it would always include people for whom physical and mental pleasure was the beginning and end of their ambition.

  Didn’t mean Caleb didn’t take great joy in trying, though. He checked his pack and the weapons on his belt a final time while Samuel did the same.

  “Wish we could carry more explosives. It’s a big building.”

  He nodded in nominal agreement and activated his personal concealment and defense shields. “More weighs us down too much. We’ll just have to place them appropriately.”

  Samuel chuckled under his breath. “That we can do. Ready?”

  “Always.” Caleb unlatched his Daemon from his belt and exited the alley.

  Eli’s facility was located three blocks in, past a food service broker and two textile packagers. They planned to infiltrate the structure from the rear, incapacitate anyone they encountered, place remote detonation charges at strategic locations throughout the building, exit out the front door and blow the place.

  It was Caleb’s hope Eli would be onsite and suffer the same fate as his facility, but his attendance wasn’t required. The complete destruction of his equipment and assembly lines should put the man in a sufficiently weakened position to ensure an ambitious competitor or subordinate took him out before he could rebuild. Conversely, taking out Eli alone wasn’t enough. Someone would take his place in a matter of days.

  They moved swiftly and quietly, staying close to the building façades and in the shadows. The concealment shields didn’t provide complete invisibility, but in such a poorly lit area they came close, and the near infrared mode in their ocular implants allowed them to see as clearly as if it were daytime.

  Two armed guards stood watch outside the rear entrance to the facility. If they got off an alarm, the rest of the mission became decidedly more difficult. Single headshots would eliminate them—if they weren’t wearing personal shields. But why wouldn’t they be?

  He pulsed Samuel so as not to risk any noise.

  I think we have to waste one of our charges.

  Starting the night with an explosion won’t exactly help the subterfuge.

  I’m not going to detonate it—I’m going to throw it.

  Ah. Pity to waste it, but…yeah. Go for it.

  He retrieved a charge from his pack, counted down with his fingers, leaned out past the wall and hurled it high above the guards’ heads into the next intersection.

  The loud clang as it impacted a wall, the street then another wall immediately drew their attention. They jerked to alert, spun toward the sound and cautiously approached the source.

  Caleb sprinted forward, confident his partner followed a step after him. He reached the first guard the same instant the man became aware of movement and started to shift around. He grappled the guard from behind and slammed one hand over the man’s mouth as the other thrust a blade into his throat. The man struggled in his clutches, but it was a struggle of panic rather than directed intent.

  The guard went limp; he eased the body to the ground and dragged it down the sidewalk and around the corner. Samuel appeared hauling the other body, and they stowed them in an alcove. There wasn’t much pedestrian traffic in this district, so it was possible they wouldn’t be found for…actually ever, since the exploding structure was going to take the bodies out with it.

  Much of the blood from the neck wound had been absorbed into the guard’s tactical clothing, but Caleb’s hand was nonetheless coated in it. He wiped his palm on his pants since he didn’t want a slick grip, but bloodstains were part of the job.

  They headed back to the entrance. From this point forward, time was their enemy as much as the people inside.

  Two massive, reinforced doors still stood between them and the interior.

  Time to see if I wasted two thousand credits.

  Caleb carefully input the complex series of access codes Mia had provided—one mistake and the alarm would sound, alerting everyone in a kilometer radius to their presence—then waited. Seconds ticked by.

  The light beside the doors flipped to green.

  See? I told you she was the right one.

  You are such a softie.

  An additional code was required to get them inside the offices up front, but he was now confident it would work as well.

  Through the doors they entered a storage room. Crates lined the walls up to the ceiling…finished product ready to be shipped.

  Looks like an excellent place for a detonation to me.

  Samuel attached one of the charges to the side of a crate, hidden near the wall. A single charge would obliterate this room and those it abutted—a solid start, but it represented a fraction of the damage they hoped to do.

  The hall outside led to a row of supply rooms where individual components were stored until needed. They startled a tech in the third room and neutralized her before she managed to scream.

  Caleb acknowledged the twinge of remorse that always accompanied these types of kills. Not everyone who worked in the building bore as much guilt as Eli; while they weren’t lily-white innocents, many were surely just trying to get by in life. Some were probably trapped as deeply as Mia. But he had no time to stop and ask each person he met which one they were, and they all knew the risks of working for someone like Eli.

  The bulk of the interior consisted of a series of discrete assembly lines housed in individual rooms that ran nearly the length of the building. This worked to their advantage: they could place charges in the corridors between each room and didn’t need to breach the rooms themselves. Muted but steady sounds leaking through the walls indicated the lines continued to operate despite the lateness of the hour. Though some of the assembly process was doubtless automated, any entry would still be a bloodbath. The people inside were going to die in the end either way, but this way they’d never know what happened.

  They reached the doors to the office space with a minimum of interruptions, all of which were dispatched with a minimum of difficulty.

  Caleb input the additional code, smiling to himself when this light also flipped to green, and flattened himself against the wall opposite Samuel. Anyone they encountered from here on out was certain to be armed.

  How many charges left?

  Two. You?

  Same.

  It’s enough. One for Eli’s office, one for the server room and the rest wherever we can.

  They had barely entered the first hallway when voices wafted around the corner. Exposed and seeing nowhere to hide, they sprinted to close the distance. Ten meters still remained when two men rounded the corner. Shock registered on their faces, but these were trained guards and both had Daemons raised in less than a second.

  Laser fire erupted as Caleb plowed into them, his arms spread wide to knock them to the floor with him. The energy from the lasers hissed and sparked on his shield.

  He slammed his forearm into the wrist of the man on the left, sending a gun skittering across the floor. The other guard began to rise up beside him—

  —and collapsed onto his back, Samuel’s blade buried in his forehead to the hilt.

  The man beneath him persisted in struggling, finally landing an uppercut on Caleb’s chin that sent his head snapping sideways. He thrust his own blade up and into the man’s abdomen under his tactical vest.

  “Fu—!” He brought his other hand to his jaw and tried to blink past the jarring pain. It came away streaked in blood from a busted lip.

  He glanced at the other body and climbed to his feet.

  You threw your blade at him? Really?

  Samuel shrugged dramatically.

  It worked, didn’t it? I have skills.

&nb
sp; The racket generated by the melee would have drawn notice, and soon the sound of pounding feet and muffled yells filled the air.

  Time to wrap this show up.

  Yep.

  Caleb punched a charge onto the wall and moved forward.

  A few haphazard shots deterred two pursuers while Samuel tossed another charge through the open door of the server room, then they sprinted in the direction of the main office.

  A man burst out of the final crossway before the entrance and barreled into Samuel, sending him crashing into the wall. Caleb pivoted to knife him when a rotund, heavyset man with unkempt blond hair and flabby limbs rushed out of a door ahead.

  Eli Baca.

  “Hey!” Samuel growled as he struggled to get control of the attacker’s flailing hand and weapon.

  “I see him!” Caleb raised his Daemon and fired as Eli bolted for the front door. A shimmer rippled over the man’s clothing, an indication he too wore a shield.

  But Eli was slow and Caleb was fast, and he closed the distance with ease. He was two meters away—the door ten—when a sharp crack echoed in his head and everything went black.

  Mia crept down the darkened street toward Eli’s chimeral facility. The air felt eerily silent, the splatter of raindrops on the sidewalk the only sound penetrating the gloom—

  —she leapt in surprise at the roar of an engine as a shuttle took off from a nearby rooftop.

  Well, it was quiet except for that.

  She chastised herself for being so skittish and tugged the hood of her new coat lower to peek out from beneath it guardedly.

  The entrance to the building was on the next block and across the intersection. Some part of her had expected to find the street in front of it transformed into a river of blood, but there was nothing. Perhaps the rain was washing it away.

  She moved as close as she dared to the facility and studied it, perplexed. Everything appeared normal. Two guards stood at relaxed attention outside the doors. No gunfire interrupted the quiet.