Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [25]
‘Yer not making much sense, man.’
‘You heard of a Dynamic System Device?’
Rast returned to chewing on her lip, taking her time to answer. ‘Maybe. Thought that stuff was mostly made-up...DSD - wasn’t that someone’s idea of predicting patterns?’
Jo-Jo tapped his head. ‘You’ve supped a bit then.’
Rast folded her arms. ‘As you do . . . when you get an education,’ she finished sarcastically.
‘No offence,’ said Jo-Jo, relieved he didn’t have to explain from scratch. ‘Most mercs—’
‘Yeah, yeah, so what about it?’
‘Carnage Farr’s got one. A DSD. Saw it in virtual. He proved it by showing me some things. One of them was you wallowing in mud on some craphole during the war—’
‘Longthrow?’
‘Dunno - probably. You were with your Capo and a balol.’
Rast’s eyes widened. ‘Jancz and Ilke.’
Jancz. So that was his real name. Not Jed. ‘You tripped a land mine.’
‘How did you know that?’
‘Saw it. Farr buys information to fuel his DSD. Combat records. Everything. And he’s got eyes everywhere, recording.’ Jo-Jo glanced around the buccal. ‘He’s probably got them in here.’
‘OK. So what’s your point?’
‘I was drinking in a bar on Dowl - followed Tekton there. Got talking to a female balol. Kinda thought I might enjoy some rough trade for a change.’
Rast sniggered. ‘Ilke?’
‘Yeah. She did her thing, while her friend - Jed he called himself - did his. He framed me up for importing an illegal uuli species. Problem was the judge had a grudge against me already. Anyway ... to cut it short. . . Tekton’s down there buying up quixite to help his cause on Belle-Monde. Meanwhile your Capo - Jed or Jancz or whatever he calls himself - steals my ship.’
‘When was that?’
Jo-Jo gave her approximates.
Rast thought for a few moments. ‘Jancz and Ilke were down on Araldis a while after that. I saw them when we were trapped in Ipo. Maybe they used your hybrid ‘zoon to bring in the Saqr. They were running the show down there - no doubt about that.’
‘Why didn’t you let him know you were there? Sounds like he coulda got you out of that tight spot.’
Rast - almost imperceptibly - raised an eyebrow. ‘You don’t know mercs, do you, Rasterovich?’
‘Meaning?’
‘Meaning you get hired by someone then all bets are off. You might have worked with a guy on a previous job - turns out he’s your enemy the next time round.’
‘Yeah, yeah, Randall - I know the patter. But what’s it really like? You telling me you’d kill someone who’d been your Capo?’
Randall gave him a level stare. ‘In a breath. A real short one.’
A moment passed between them as the mercenary let Jo-Jo glimpse past the bravado and the jokes. He didn’t like what he saw.
‘So who was your ex-Capo hired by to bring the Saqr to Araldis?’
‘Dunno,’ said Rast. ‘Been working my grey matter overtime on that one since I first saw them. Could be anyone . . . but. . . I’m leaning a couple of directions.’
‘Tekton?’
‘No. The timing’s wrong. And according to Fedor, Tekton’s deal had been done. He’d already paid for the mineral.’
‘Who’d want large amounts of quixite bad enough to torch a planet?’ asked Jo-Jo.
But before Rast could volunteer an answer, the ‘zoon emitted an unnerving howl as if a ferocious wind blew along its strata.
‘What the—’
An image flickered into existence above the Primo vein - a corduroy-filtered representation of the space around the ‘zoon showing a cluster of ships closing on a small pulsing sphere of lights.
‘Thought so,’ said Rast. ‘It’s another shift point.’ She lunged over to the Autonomy nub, elbowing Jo-Jo aside to reach the intercom. ‘Lat, Catchut. Find a tubercle. We’re shifting again,’ she bellowed.
Then she threw herself back into her sink. ‘Buckle up, we’re going in rough.’
Jo-Jo saw what she meant, the ‘zoon’s iconic representation of space showed its trajectory towards the edge of the sphere. Imperfect Shift again. He’d done IS a few times - last time was getting out of Dowl. It was like being squeezed through a fine-meshed sieve.
Where was a bottle of Oort whisky when you needed it?
Jo-Jo slid back into the Autonomy seat and the restraints and the vibration