Space DogS

James was waiting for Revo in his usual haunt; a local bar, down a side street off the main clubbing district. If you had wandered into the bar you would not have seen anything unusual. The married couple that owned the bar are serving drinks behind the long bar that occupied the length of the room.They are happily talking to the customers, taking food orders and generally gossiping about local events.  A chalk board displays the special offers on drinks and meals written in a careful hand in bright green and white. A waitress glides between tables serving and depositing steaming plates of food, smiling at all the regulars.

James was in the centre of the room, watching the entry points, ready to run towards an exit if needed. If Revo wanted to threaten him, he would find it difficult in here. James knew the couple who ran the bar and glanced at them waving, glass in hand. There were a congregation of glasses already on the table. A drink magically appeared a few moments later to join the choir. The waitress made to remove the empties.

“No leave them there until I leave” He told the waitress.

“Ok love. But if we get short I might have to fetch them.” She smiled at him and moved away.

Revo’s scent appeared behind James.

“Hello Revo.” said James to the smell.

“Been here a while I see. “ Revo snorted waving his hand at the assembled glasses.

Revo moved to the seat facing James. The smell followed only to be replaced with a thicker mustier hue. James risked a glance around and saw the stomach of a very large man towering above him. The man smiled a most disturbing smile not helped by a nose that had been broken a few times.

“Who is your friend?” asked James.

“Not a friend. Let us call him a business associate who has an interest in the shipment you were making.” said Revo

“Can he sit down please. He is making the room nervous.”

Revo looked around and saw a number of people taking an interest in what could be tonight’s entertainment. The man asked politely for a chair from a neighbouring table and sat next to Revo. James got a better view of the man. His hair was long and tied behind his head. He was muscular, but not from the gym. These were muscles from real hard work. The man had a worn blue leather jacket. He was still smiling.

“Do you have a name… friend?” asked James

“My name is Lucious.. but  you can call me Lu.” said the man still smiling.

“Ok Lu. Since we are being sociable. What do you want to drink?”

“A beer will be fine. In a bottle.”

James called the waitress over. “3 beers please. Tiger White if you have it.”

Revo queried “So James. That shipment. What happened?”

“I picked the shipment up from the warehouse, loaded it into my ship and launched. I had only been travelling an hour when I was contacted by the U.N. scout ship Adrianna to stop and be searched. I stopped. Four U.N. marines entered my cargo bay and started opening up that shipment. They did not ask for the manifest or seemed interested in any other cargo. They were most upset to find the crates contained what was on the manifest - medical supplies.That’s when the trouble started.”

The beers arrived on the table. The waitress started picking up the empty glasses.

James smiled at the waitress and paid.

“I need to pee.” said James, unsteadily standing up and started to head towards the toilets.

The toilets were at the back of the bar, out of sight of the main room. Next to the toilets was a door marked ‘Authorised personnel Only’. James opened the door and went into a corridor. Smells from the kitchen to the left assailed him. He went to the right and out the fire exit. He miraculously recovered a steady gait as he walking briskly away from the bar.

“Not so drunk as you would have us believe Mr. Hood.”

James turned to see Lu a few feet away, as always… smiling. In the yellow light of the bars outdoor sign, the smile made him look like the Joker from the Batman comics. Scars that were hidden in the bright bar light were shown as shadows around his mouth and cheek. James then realised Lu had no choice other than to smile.

“Where is Revo?”

“Still in the bar waiting for us. But I do not think we need to require his presence any more to continue our...chat.” Lu waved his arm towards a van in the street. “Let us continue in my office”

​

The side of the van slid open as the pair approached. The dimly lit interior did nothing to alleviate the feeling of foreboding James felt as Lu’s hand gently pushed on his shoulder towards the van.

“Mind your head”, said Lu. “Sit over there” indicating the far side of the van away from the door.

James did as he was asked and sat on the seat. It was black leather and gave an exhausted sigh as he sat down. James looked around the interior. Black seemed to be the theme. The windows at the front where blacked out seen through the glass partition. A burly man’s back and helmeted head could be seen at the front of the van in the driver’s seat. The back of the van had no windows, but did have what looked like a black fridge. Darkened computer screens were on most surfaces along with a small black desk and an array of black devices. James was sure some were blinking black lights at him.

Lu closed the van side and sat at the desk. He pressed a button on one of the keypads. The keys on keypad started to glow a faint blue colour with the letters in white.  The monitors sprang to life. James  noted that some of the screens showed the outside of the van. He did not recognise most of the views, but his eyes homed in on one particular screen - eyes widening.

“Thats my ship.” He splurted. “How did you get a surveillance drone on my ship?”

Lu smiled. There was no humour in that smile.

“Now Mr. Hood. Can we start again. What REALLY happened?”

“Where should I begin?” asked James, brain thinking furiously.

“Right at the start, so we can be sure we have the same ‘single point of truth’ if you may”. Lu opened the fridge and fetched 2 beers he opened them and put them on the table. “Take which-ever you wish” he said.

James picked up the nearest. Lu picked up the other.

“Drink.” said Lu. “It’s good beer.”

When James hesitated, Lu took a long swig from the bottle. “Not very trusting are we Mr. Hood. I like that.” Lu smiled again. This time some warmth entered the smile.

James looked at the bottle and thought - “Well if this is to be my final drink I might as well enjoy it” James drank the cool beer. “Not bad.” he said and smiled.

“Now Mr. Hood. Please tell me what happened.” asked Lu. Lu put his half full bottle on the table.

“Revo met me in the Percy’s Ledge last week.” James pointed in the direction of the bar they had just vacated with his beer. “Revo said he had a little collection job for me, as he had a clashing appointment that he couldn’t miss. Five medical supply crates to be picked up and delivered to his warehouse. He said that he needed them quickly and my ship met his needs. The job sounded easy enough. The warehouse was a standard two day’s flight away, but Revo wanted the round trip done in three days and would pay for the extra fuel plus a bonus. It sounded like a standard pick up.”

“Mr. Hood, with Revo’s reputation you knew that nothing is as it seems?”

“Yes. But I have done a number of pickups. I do not question who owns the goods or where they come from. I am simply a delivery boy”

“Really Mr. Hood. You do not strike me as a simple delivery boy.”

“Yes sir, it was obviously something more.”

“Call me Mr. Lu please.”

“Ok Mr.Lu. I am always suspicious. When we arrived at the warehouse we smuggled in a scanner to find out what was in those crates. “

“Ah ha. Good. Scanners are illegal in warehouses to stop people snooping other people’s property. I would like you to tell me how you did that later please, but for now what did you find?”

“Four of the crates had medical supplies and the other one could not be scanned. It was emitting a strange energy signature, so that was the real delivery.”

“Good. So what did you do.”

“We told the warehouse guards that we had a problem with the anti-grav trolley and could only ship the crates one at a time. We took the first crate into the ship and hacked into the warehouse computer adding a drop off we wanted to make ourselves. We returned with a crate. That crate was empty and held another crate inside.”

“Like Russian dolls Mr. Hood, very good”

James continued “The guards told us where to make the drop of our own crate. We went to the medical crates and removed the outer crate which we used to hide the medical crate. We then  moved it to where the guards told us and returned with an empty medical crate that had been hidden back to the ship. We then came back and returned the medical crates one at a time to our ship.”

“Good. So you hid the goods in the warehouse and left with the other 4 medical crates plus an empty one.”

“Yes, but as we were going backwards and forwards to the ship we distributed the medical supplies between the crates so we ended up with 5 crates of medical goods.”

“We left orbit and as I said in the bar we were stopped and inspected by the U.N. scout ship Adrianna. They came on board and demanded to see our cargo. They homed in on the medical supplies straight away and did not seem concerned over anything else. They were most upset to find exactly what was on the manifest 5 medical supplies. If they had been smart they might have realised that there was less goods than there should have been.”

“Hmmm.” said Mr. Lu looking distracted.

“Those were your goons weren’t they?” asked James.

“Very astute Mr. Hood. Yes they were my ‘goons’ as you put it.. and soon to be unemployed goons. “

Mr. Lu looked at James and seemed to be thinking.

“You have me at a disadvantage. You have my goods… safe… I take it.”

“Yes. We had a ‘friend’ pick up the crate shortly afterwards. The crate was in an alias to be safe, so anybody with the relevant credentials could pick it up. “

“Have you opened the crate?”

“No. I know the energy signature of weapons when I see it. I would guess that the crate would also be booby trapped. I have no interest in those sorts of goods, but have delivered them on occasion.“

“Well this is good news and everything went better than I expected.” Said Mr Lu, to the surprise of James. “If you had followed orders explicitly Revo would have been ordered to take care of the crew who had lost my cargo.”

“But you did not lose the cargo?”

“Ah, but the cargo was intercepted by the U.N. and Revo is currently sweating buckets wondering whether I would take out my vengeance on you rather than him.”

“... but you intercepted the cargo?”

“Yes… but I wanted the cargo to disappear. The buyer is a most disagreeable chap. He would have demanded retribution which would have happened and the return of his money, which I would be happy to return, but that is a fraction of the cost of the real goods.”

“So you set me and my crew up to steal a cargo you knew was worth a lot of money, but feigned your own ignorance of the content of that cargo!”

“Yes Mr. Hood. Your ingenious sleight of hand has however had the same effect. But in this case I am not taking out the clients vengeance on yourself.”

“Poor Revo.” thought James.

“Do not worry about Revo.” Said Lu. ”He will disappear, but not in any final way. He will have a new ID and face within a day, and I will shuttle him out to another space port. He still has good contacts and helped me find you.”

“How is that good?” asked James.

“Simple. You are now employed. This was a job interview.” Mr.Lu opened the fridge and this time brought out a bottle of champagne and two chilled glasses. He  poured them out and handed on to James.

“I will give you the coordinates of where to drop the crate, and I have another job for you and your crew.”

“Great” said James with a fixed grin.

The van started and moved away from the Percy’s Ledge. James saw the bar sign of a man standing at the edge of a cliff, looking to jump off. That must be Percy thought James. ‘Lucky bastard’