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  The troopers filed out into the bay. Already there to meet them was a hoard of raiders. Letsego had heard stories about Black Crescent. They were not the nicest bunch out there, and the Peacekeepers would pay anyone a hefty sum of notes for information on their operations.

  The raiders were dysfunctional but intimidating. Most of their skin was pale from being cooped up on this asteroid or on a ship for too long. Their clothing was a mismatch of fatigues and spacers clothes. Their hair ranged from shaved heads to Mohawks to dreadlocks. But it was the collection of weapons they carried that really worried Letsego. Machine guns, grenade launchers, crossbows, even some machetes. If they really wanted to they could take out the small band of troopers in seconds.

  Castle approached the man who looked to be in charge. “Where’s your boss?”

  The raider flexed his muscles hefting the machine gun he held. “Eh troop’. You need anything you talk to me about it. You’re on our turf.”

  The lieutenant wasn’t impressed. “Listen, shit for brains. If your boss wants to get paid, you will take us to him now. I’m not going to ask again.”

  The raider smiled. “How about you give me a little cut of that payment, and I’ll take you to the boss?”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” Without hesitation, Castle pulled out his pistol and sent a round through the raider’s skull.

  This was the second time Letsego had seen the man kill. It had not been necessary this time. It had not been necessary with Chavez. As the raider’s body collapsed, Letsego could see the hint of a smile on Castle’s face. He liked killing. This man was dangerous.

  As every person in the bay, both trooper and raider, raised their weapons, Castle holstered his. “Either someone goes and gets me who’s in charge around here, or this will keep happening.”

  The air was tense. This was the definition of Mexican standoff. Sweat ran down Letsego’s brow as he gripped his rifle tightly. He was not ready to die here in this dark part of the galaxy.

  “Stop, stop, stop.” Mr. Black walked down the gangway. “Please, gentlemen, ladies. This is not necessary.” He walked up to Castle, ignoring the weapons being pointed at him. “Lieutenant, what seems to be the issue here?”

  Castle stayed casual. “It’s fine, sir. One of these fine ruffians was just about to go and get their boss.”

  Mr. Black smiled. “Well, that would be wonderful. Mr. Nadeem should know we are coming.” He waited but none of the raiders moved.

  “You heard the man,” Castle barked. “Go get him.” Within a couple seconds two raiders had scampered off to get Mr. Nadeem, whoever that was.

  They all waited, weapons still raised. The minutes ticked by, but finally Nadeem appeared. “Lower your goddamn weapons!” Everyone did so, hesitantly. Nadeem approached Mr. Black, stepping over the body of the dead raider. “Mr. Black, not really the best way to start off a business deal.”

  Mr. Black shook his hand. “I am sorry, my friend. The lieutenant here got a little overzealous.”

  “Well, next time he gets over zealous I’m going to flush him out an airlock.” He paused. “You’re late. Your business associates are already here.”

  “Excellent. We will get the cargo unloaded. If your men don’t mind, my troopers could use a hand.” Nadeem nodded, motioning for his men to help out.

  The operation got underway, but just as Letsego headed for the cargo bay he was pulled aside by Castle with one of the sergeants.

  “Wait, I’ve got a special task for you two. We need to tie up some loose ends. The pilots are waiting up in the cockpit. I want you to take them to the airlock and put a bullet in each of their heads. This ship is going to be torn apart for scrap. What’s two more dead bodies?”

  The sergeant didn’t hesitate. “We’ve got it, sir. Come on, Johnson. Let’s get it done.”

  “Be careful,” Castle warned. “Carpenter is a sneaky bastard.”

  Letsego’s mind raced. The chances of him getting out of here on his own were slim. He would need Carpenter. As he walked up the gangway he thought of ways to prevent the smuggler’s death.

  Letsego followed the sergeant towards the cockpit. The man was big, but the Peacekeeper should be able to overpower him. Getting off the ship with Carpenter and Ramirez would be harder. But events were developing too fast and they would have to make up the plan on the fly.

  They approached the cockpit door. The sergeant turned to Letsego. “Get ready.” Letsego nodded and raised his rifle. He would hit the man from behind when he was distracted by Carpenter.

  The sergeant reached for the door controls. Letsego poised to strike. The sergeant punched a key and the door hissed open. Letsego was about to butt stroke the man in the back of his head when the sergeant spoke.

  “Oh, shit.”

  The cockpit was empty. Carpenter and Ramirez were nowhere to be seen.

  The sergeant activated his communicator. “Lieutenant. This is Gold. We’ve got a problem. The cockpit’s empty. The pilots are running.”

  They had gotten off the ship through the rear maintenance access panel. They had droppeddown behind the landing gear out of sight from the rest of the bay. David peeked around the corner. It looked like the troopers were squaring off with a small army of raiders. Good. That would hopefully keep them preoccupied while he and Alana made their getaway.

  The interceptor was about half a kilometer way. There was ample cover between them in the form of other ships and cargo containers. Once they got there it would take David a couple of minutes to spool up the engines. A couple of minutes after that the two of them could be halfway out of the Belt.

  They stayed low as they made their way across the bay. David led the way. He opted to keep his pistol holstered. If they ran across anyone they would need to deal with them quietly.

  He hit the deck when he heard the gunshot. It echoed throughout the cavernous bay. He looked around for the source, but couldn’t find it.

  “What the hell was that?” Alana asked, worried.

  David shook his head. “I don’t know, but whatever went down seems to be over. We keep moving.”

  It took them ten minutes to make it to the interceptor. Luckily there was no resistance. All the focus in the bay still seemed to be centered on the confrontation at Catalyst.

  David climbed up on the hull of the interceptor. It was a two seater. The ride would be uncomfortable for Alana and him but it would be fast. That’s what mattered.

  They entered the cockpit and David powered on the electrical systems. The status display popped up. He smiled. “Despite their looks, these raiders run a tight ship. The ship’s full on fuel and ordinance.”

  Alana nodded. “We’ll need one. Hopefully not the other.” She scanned her display. “All the systems are powered on. Just waiting on the engines.”

  “Go do a once around. Make sure we’re not tethered.” Old habits die hard. David wanted to make sure that the area around the ship was clear before he powered on the engines.

  Alana left and David continued through his pre-flight. He cut a few corners for the sake of time. It looked like they were going to get off this rock and leave Windcorp in their wake.

  Even through three inches of plexi, David could hear the gunshot. He’s eyes snapped up. Standing on the pad in front of the interceptor was Castle. He held Alana by the neck with a gun pointed at her head. His mouth was moving but David couldn’t hear anything. Still he could make out the words. “Get the hell out here.” David didn’t have much of a choice. He hesitated but ultimately made his way to the cockpit hatch.

  As he stepped out someone struck him from behind and he tumbled down the hull onto the pavement. He struggled up to his knees only to be greeted by the muzzle of a gun.

  “Get up,” Castle directed.

  David complied. As he did two troopers grabbed him from behind, stripping him of his pistol and knife. A short distance away, Alana was being held by another trooper. A crowd was forming of both troo
pers and raiders, undoubtedly drawn by the crack of the gunshot. Mr. Black came into view.

  “Mr. Carpenter, I am very sorry to inform you that your services are no longer required. Don’t worry, the other half of your payment will be deposited into your account. Windcorp appreciates your service.” He nodded to Castle.

  The lieutenant placed his pistol against David’s head. “Goodbye, Carp. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

  “What is going on here?” The voice was foreign but music to David’s ears.

  Mr. Black spoke. “This is an internal matter, Mr. Nadeem. Business you should not concern yourself with.”

  “The hell it is.” The man came into view. He was a raider. “You are about to kill two people on my station. That makes it my business.” He walked up to David and Alana and looked them over. “What did they do?”

  “They have outlived their usefulness,” Mr. Black replied.

  Nadeem thought this over. “I want them,” he said definitively.

  Mr. Black was not happy with that. “Mr. Nadeem, this is not part of our arrangement. Windcorp will-”

  “Mr. Black, your lieutenant here killed one of my best men. Consider this compensation. These two will fetch a pretty note on the slave market.” He looked at Alana. “Especially her.” She spat in his face. He wiped it off and grabbed her throat. “Fiesty. I like that.”

  David struggled against the troopers. “Let her go, asshole!”

  Nadeem laughed. He turned to Mr. Black. “So what’s it gonna be?”

  Mr. Black nodded. “Fine, they’re yours.”

  Castle protested. “Don’t do it, sir. Let me kill this bastard.”

  “Stand down, lieutenant. Dead or enslaved, it doesn’t make any difference to Windcorp.”

  Castle stared David down. David knew he wanted to kill him. He wanted to raise that pistol and put a bullet in his head. Instead he compromised. “Fine.” The blow to David’s gut made him collapse in pain. “But it’s a real waste. I would have gotten so much pleasure from killing you.”

  David struggled to stand, but even as he did the troopers were handing Alana and him over to the raiders. “Take them to the Cage,” Nadeem directed.

  Two raiders grabbed David under the arms and dragged him across the pavement. Another two dragged Alana. She struggled against them, true to form. David didn’t bother. They had lost this round. Their escape attempt had been foiled. But at least they lived to fight another day.

  Letsego watched as the smugglers were dragged off and his heart sank. At least they weren’t dead, but locked up in the bowels of an asteroid was not much better. He was going to have to get off this rock on his own.

  “Alright, nothing to see, gentlemen,” Castle said as he marched back to the transport. “We’ve got work to do.”

  There was nowhere to run. Letsego was surrounded by men who would kill him in an instant if they knew who he really was. Once again the Peacekeeper operative had only one choice. He had to continue this masquerade.

  19: Crimson Terrors

  The Cage was aptly named.

  Rusted steel and metal chains made up the cylindrical contraption that confined David. It was small, perfectly sized so that he couldn’t stand up and could barely sit. A cage was the only term to define the device. It would not be easy to escape from.

  What made it even more sinister was that it was suspended from the ceiling. The whole scene was from a horror movie. Dozens of these cages dangled from the ceiling of a massive cavern. Most of them were empty, but some were occupied by captives in varying states of health.

  “Goddamn it! Let us out of here,” Alana screamed in rage from a cage hanging twenty feet from David. She had been at it since the raiders had locked her up. Her palms were raw and bleeding from shaking the bars.

  “Give it a rest, Alana.” David had experienced too much excitement in the past two days to expend his efforts on this.

  She leaned back against the cage, breathing heavily. “Why are you so calm?”

  “Because getting all riled up is not going to solve a damn thing.”

  “And what is? Another one of your plans?” she snarled. “Yeah, ‘cause those seem to work out just perfectly.”

  David controlled his frustration. “Listen, you have made your displeasure with us taking this run very evident. Repeatedly. And I admit it. I messed up. I never should have taken the job. I should have listened to you when you said we should bail out on Prospect. I never should have let us get in bed with Windcorp in the first place. We are here now. There is nothing I can do to change the past. But if we are going to get out of this God forsaken hell hole alive we cannot fight each other!”

  Alana was silent. David could see the anger in her eyes. But he knew she knew he was right. “Fine,” she finally said. “Then how do you plan on escaping?”

  “No one escapes,” a soft voice said. “You only leave when they let you.”

  David looked to his right. In a cage not so far away was a man in a tattered business suit. A once fair and handsome face was now pale and undernourished. “Well pardon me if I don’t share your optimism,” David quipped.

  The man looked him over. “You look strong. Maybe you’ll be lucky and they’ll send you to the mines. I hear that’s the better way to go.”

  “What’s the worse way?” Alana asked, not wanting to know the answer.

  The man gave a weak laugh. “People like you and me. We’re soft, we’re pretty. They can get a lot more money out of us by selling us.” His face contorted with fear. “They parade us around, auctioning us off to the highest bidder. The things they made us do. And I was never good enough. They’ll probably just kill me.” He smothered his face in his hand, tears streaming. “Oh, God. Just kill me.” What followed were the cries of a broken man.

  David looked over at Alana. The angry fire in her eyes had vanished. Now it was replaced by fear and despair. “I’m going to be a sex slave,” she said as she stared off into the darkness. “Wonderful.”

  “Alana, look at me.” Slowly her eyes rose to meet his. “We are getting out of here if it’s the last thing I do.”

  She gave him a weak smile. “Okay, D.” She didn’t believe him, and why should she? Their outlook was bleak. We’re gonna need a miracle.

  Following Lieutenant Castle, Letsego pushed the grav sled through the corridor. It moved easily, floating inches off the floor. On it was a large metal crate. It had no markings other than a large red label across its lid marked SEALED. Behind Letsego, other troopers pushed along five other similar crates.

  The operative didn’t know what he had expected when Castle had unsealed the cargo hold, but it wasn’t this. The hold was vast, taking up nearly half the transport, but the only thing in it had been these six containers. Letsego wondered what could possibly be inside the boxes that Windcorp and the Federation would go to so much trouble to exchange. He doubted it was mineral samples like Mr. Black had said.

  Castle led them through a blast door and into a large room. Mr. Black was already waiting for them. “Please place them in the center, gentlemen.”

  Letsego and the troopers did so, lining the crates up neatly. He took a moment to survey his new surroundings. The room was big enough to hold a large interceptor. On the far wall was an observation room, separated from the main room by a plexi window. Other than that and the blast door there were no entrances into the room.

  The troopers moved the last crate into place. “Excellent,” Mr. Black said. He walked up to the first one and opened the lid, ripping the sealed label off. Letsego could not see inside, but a smile crossed Mr. Black’s face. “Excellent,” he repeated and turned to Castle. “Post your men. Our associates should be here shortly.”

  Letsego was given a position by the blast door. The rest of the troopers were positioned around the room. He didn’t know what to expect but he kept his mouth shut. Within five minutes the door hissed open.

  The first person to wal
k in was Captain Nadeem. He was flanked by a squad of raiders. After him came an oriental man who also was accompanied by a security detail wearing red uniforms. This must be the Federation representative.

  Mr. Black extended his hand to the Federation man. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Prime Minister Chen. Mr. Titus sends his regards. Thank you for coming all this way to meet us.”

  Prime minister? Could this really be the leader of the Asiatic Federation? If so this deal with Windcorp must be far more important than Letsego had first thought.

  Chen shook Mr. Black’s hand and gave a slight bow. “Mr. Black, from what Mr. Titus tells me, what you have in these crates is something I need to see with my own eyes. I just wish he had found the time to come out here himself.”

  “He thought it would be an unnecessary risk for the two of you to be seen together.”

  Chen nodded. “A wise thought.” He turned his attention to the crates. “And I do not plan on spending more time here than I must. Shall we get down to business?”

  “Of course, Prime Minister,” Mr. Black obliged. “Lieutenant Castle, please do the honors.” Castle began opening the rest of the crates. “Prime Minister, how much has Mr. Titus told you about this shipment?”

  “Enough,” Chen stated flatly. “Though, it all seems a bit far fetched. I would appreciate it, Mr. Black, if you started from the beginning. If I am going to purchase this technology you are peddling I must completely understand it.”

  “Don’t worry, Prime Minister. By the end of this you will not only understand what you are purchasing, but see it working with your own eyes.

  “In the two centuries since mankind took to the stars, remnants of half a dozen advanced species have been discovered throughout the galaxy. But no one has found evidence that any of these civilizations had technology that rivaled humanity. That is until now.” Mr. Black nodded to Castle, who with the help of another trooper, began unloading the first crate.