Fool's Gold: Carson Lyle's War - Part One (8 page)

"No," said the tallest mountain. "You need to explain how we're going to recoup the loss of our cargo."

Son of a bitch.

Lyle straightened, looking up at the man. He was huge. Over two meters tall and even through the bulky, rough looking, flight jacket, looked solidly built. Genetic manipulation, maybe? The other two were similarly built, but slightly shorter. All three shared the same grizzled appearance, as well: Long, dark hair. Unshaven faces. They didn't look like they would be part of the 501st. Maybe they were local haulers hired by Grey Corp that were supposed to meet him and take the cargo? That would make sense. Maybe they could take him to the 501st? Maybe.

"Look," Lyle said. "This would be the third time people have picked me up to go
talk
somewhere, this week. I'm done with that." He slapped his hand on the table. "Have a seat, I'll buy you guys a drink, and we can talk right here."

He'd hoped getting them to stay in a public setting would put their conversation on an equal footing, and maybe it would give him more time to figure a way to fix this mess.

Lyle was a little surprised to see them sit down. The two slightly smaller men sat in the booth on either side of him and the large mountain pulled a chair over and sat down. Even when seated he still towered over everyone at the table.

"So," the mountain said. "You land, get taken into custody for two days, and get dumped here. That's not what we'd have expected given your reputation. You've pissed off a lot of people. Care to explain?"

Lyle knew he had to be careful. Judging from the way the man was talking, they didn't seem like hired guns for the 501st. They had to be directly associated. What should he tell them? And how much? Carson knew it looked extremely suspicious to be arrested at landing and then just let go. If the roles were reversed, he'd automatically assume someone to be finking for the Authority. He could tell them what the agents wanted him to do, but that just might leave a shadow of suspicion hanging over him in spite of that honesty, or worse yet, they'd kill him on the spot just to be safe. He decided it might be better to spoon feed them just enough information to keep their interest…for now.

"Hey! It wasn't my fault," he said. "I had no idea this job was on Authority radar. All the documentation was in order…or so I thought. Looks like Grey Corp screwed us both."

The big man shook his head. "No. The question is: Why don't you have a reservation on the detainee transport? How is it you're not in shackles? I mean, they impounded your ship. There had to be charges."

Lyle glared straight back at the man. "I don't think I ever got you name."

"Kagan," the man said. "This is Dex and Varga."

"I don't know what to tell you. Maybe they realized they didn't have a legal leg to stand on for charging me with anything, but Grey Corp's name is all over that contract. I would bet they're probably not so lucky. Someone might want to give them a heads up on that."

"Don't worry about them. Not your problem," said the man to his left.

Lyle scoffed. "The Authority has the ship and the cargo. If you want it so bad, you know where it is. I'm done with this job!"

Kagan laughed. "You're half right. We do know where the ship is, but you're not done with this job."

Lyle pointed to the tumbler on the table. "Have you been drinking this stuff?"

"So you're all talk, then?" Said Dex, the man to his right. "See? I told you guys, didn't I?"

"What the hell does that mean?" Lyle said, looking at the man and almost forgetting the situation he was in.

"Aren't you Carson Lyle? You're supposed to be the best. You deliver on time, every time."

Lyle stared at him, irritated. This whole deal was a fiasco fit for one of the bottom feeders.
If
he got out of this in one piece, he'd have a tough time living it down. This would follow a hauler's reputation around more than most other screw ups.

"And," Varga continued, "Carson Lyle is supposed to be the guy that does it better than the rest while telling the Authority to kiss it, all at the same time."

Kagan nodded. "He's got a point. You're not supposed to be one to tuck tale when the Authority throws a little interference your way."

Lyle shrunk, in the booth, just a little.

Kagan went on. "We're going to steal that ship, and our cargo, back. It would all work better if we had the ship's captain driving her." He looked around the room at the drunken malcontents in the bar. "That is unless you want one of these guys taking your best girl for a ride."

Lyle laughed. "I don't know how far you're going to get regardless of who's at the helm. I nearly ripped a booster off, coming through the gate. You'd make escape speed like it is, but not fast enough to steal a ship."

"The booster's fixed," said the man on the left. "They plan on taking the ship and the cargo back to Atlantia tonight."

Lyle was stunned. Not about the quick turnaround on the repair, but that they were able to get into the ship in the first place. The lock on the hatch should have blown a hole in the side of the ship too big to fix in two days.
Dammit, it was the agents!
Authority scumbags just having their way with the Old Girl…it was infuriating.

"I think the real Carson Lyle would want to take his ship back, and moon the Authority pukes with his cheeks pressed up against the cockpit glass as he flew off. Don't you think that would make a great story for your legend?"

"The real Caron Lyle has had kind of a bad week," Lyle said, picking up the drink, and turning it up to finish it off in one shot. It didn't burn as much this time. The nerve endings in his esophagus were probably shot already.

"The timetable is pretty tight. So we need an answer. You agree to help and we make it back to the Outer Rim, you'll still get paid…with the bonus," Kagan said. "How's that sound now?"

The offer caught his attention. Walking away from this mess with a million creds would help ease the pain, for sure. But stealing the ship from Authority impound? Who were these guys? Even if they did manage to get off the ground, the local Air Authority patrol would be on them before they got up to speed and they'd forced down or worse. On the other hand, helping would build some trust. Maybe he could use them in some way to find that mech commander after they got to the 501st?

"So what's your plan?"

"Unlike you," Kagan said, "Grey Corp doesn't like failing a customer. They've maneuvered things behind the scenes, at great expense, to give us a window of opportunity."

Lyle scoffed.

Kagan smiled. "It's all in the preparation."

Dex said, "Let's just say it won't be
their
pilot that'll show up at the dock on schedule tonight."

Lyle raised an eyebrow. "Do you know about the agents?"

"Agents?"

"Yeah. Two of 'em. They're the ones that had me since I landed."

Kagan stroked his beard. His partners looked at each other, as if to know what the other was thinking.

"I'd heard stories about them," Lyle said. "But the stories don't even come close. One of them made me pass out by just shaking my hand. That's how they got me." He noticed the looks on the three men's faces. "Is this a problem?"

Varga said to the others, with a measure of enthusiasm, "You think it's the new version?"

"It doesn't matter," said Dex. "Those robots lack any kind of flare for the job. I hope we get a shot at them."

Are they f-ing crazy?
They talked like they knew what the agents were, but if they did, how could they talk like that
knowing
what they were? Who the hell were they?

"It doesn't change anything," Kagan said. "We still need to get that ship tonight. Last chance, Lyle. In or out?"

Carson Lyle sat, exchanging looks with each of the men. He could walk away now, have nothing, and have to dodge the law and start over. It wouldn't be the first time. Or he could help these guys escape to the Outer Rim, with his ship, and have to dodge more than just the Authority, not knowing how long it would be before he could set foot in the inner territory again. But that would also give him the chance to get long overdue revenge on the man that took away everything else the Authority hadn't. There was only one, truly acceptable choice.

He turned his stare to Kagan and pointed at him. "I'm doing this for my own reasons. Not for Grey Corp, the 501st, or the Outer Rim colonies. You get me?"

The big man leaned in, ignoring the finger pointed in his face. "If your reasons jeopardize my reasons, there will be pieces of you, in space, from here to the Earth gate."

“Noted,” Lyle said. “So what about the pilots?”

Kagan looked to the bar. “Hey, Myrtle! You have a sec?”

She finished settling a tab and came around from the back of the bar. When she got to the table, Kagan turned himself out from the table toward her and she took a seat on his knee. She looked at Lyle and gave him a quick wink and turned back to Kagan.

Lyle felt a little sick to his stomach.

“What’cha need love?” She said.

“I need a favor,” Kagan said. “See those two bloaks over near the window?”

She craned her neck around Kagan’s broad shoulders to see. “Oh yeah. What about ‘em?”

“I want to buy them a drink after we leave, anything they want, but tell them it’s on the house and you can keep whatever’s left.” He pulled a small wad of credits from his pocket and put them in her hand.

Her faced lit up at the sight of the money. “Absolutely, love!”

Kagan put an arm around her waist. “One more thing, though,” he said reaching into his inside jacket pocket and gave her a small pouch. “Can you drop one of these in each mug?”

“Of course I can. Anythin’ for you!”

“Thanks. You’re too good to me.”

“You just remember to come back to me when you in town next,” she said, giving him quick kiss and hopping up from his knee.

“How can I not?” Kagan gave her a playful pat on the bottom as she walk off. She giggled with delight.

Kagan turned back to the table. Dex and Varga were snickering. Lyle wasn’t sure what he just saw or if he even wanted to know.

“Pilot problem solved. Let’s go.”

Chapter 15

El Dorado Space Port

Nightfall.

The darkness had descended on the docks an hour earlier. The El Dorado Aurora dazzled the night sky with shimmering golden waves. To conserve power at the port, the only lights still on were nearest the access hatches of the ships docked there. Lyle and the three mountains were behind a fuel truck about a hundred meters away from
The Majestic,
concealed by the night. Dex scanned the perimeter of the ship through night vision binocs.

“Looks like they still plan on taking her out tonight. There’s only the two port police rent-a-cops at the hatch and we know the grounds crew finished prep thirty minutes ago.”

“Alright. You guys get into position,” Kagan said. “Three minutes.”

Without a word, Dex and Varga disappeared into the darkness. Lyle didn’t even hear them go.
Who the hell are these guys?

Kagan reached into his jacket and handed something to Lyle. “Take this.”

He couldn’t see what it was, but it felt like an ID card. “Forged credentials?”

Kagan nodded. “We’d like to get out of here without any incident. We’re just going to walk up, all casual-like, flash our badges and our smiles and see what happens. Hopefully these guys are too tired and too stupid to go by the book.”

“That’s the big plan? What if things go south?”

“Then we have an incident.” Kagan checked the time on his data pad. “Let’s go.”

Lyle and Kagan moved from behind the cover of the fuel truck and headed through the darkness towards the two guards at the hatch. Lyle looked through the blackness, trying to locate Dex and Varga. What were they up to?

“You never did say,” Lyle said. “What did you put in those drinks?”

Kagan chuckled. “Gastrointestinal therapy nanobots.”

“What?”

“And let me tell you, they get very ill-tempered when dropped into alcohol.”

Lyle suddenly got a disturbing mental picture of the pilots curled up in the fetal position, unable to control certain bodily functions. Those guys weren’t flying anywhere anytime soon.

Lyle and Kagan penetrated the dome of sodium vapor light that illuminated the guards near the hatch. The guards looked up for a second, then unslung their weapons from their shoulders and held them in the ready position.

“Stop right there,” the left guard said. “State your business.”

Lyle took a breath. “We’re here to take this ship and cargo back to Atlantia, per Authority Customs order.”

The guards paused for a long second.

Shit.

Both guards stepped forward. One slung his weapon back over his shoulder and held out his hand. “Credentials?”

Lyle and Kagan handed over their cards. Kagan fumbled with his when pulling it out of his pocket. Was it an act? Lyle wondered.

The guard pulled a data pad from his pouch, while his partner stood an extra meter away with his rifle at the ready. They were being extra cautious, Lyle noted. This could get back really quickly. Where were Dex and Varga?

‘“I thought Tucker and Freely were hired to fly this P.O.S?” Said the guard with the rifle.

P.O.S?
Lyle didn’t like the insult to Mad Jack and almost told the man what he thought about it.

“Yeah,” Kagan said. “But they came down with a bad stomach bug. Probably something they ate or drank.” The big man made wet, farting sounds while gesturing an exploding abdominal episode from his backside.

The guard checking the IDs waved a hand. “Alright, alright, we get it.”