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Authors: Glynn Stewart
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of pimps and extortionists. He needed the gear and the backup though.
“ We’ll do it,” he said simply.
“ All right then Captain,” Carney replied, leaning forward across his desk. “What’s your plan?”
#
Jenna and Kellers were waiting in David’s room when he and Narveer returned to the hotel. Walking into the room, David dropped the case he’d received from Carney – the first part of the requested gear, mostly the flash-bangs and Nix-Six canisters – next to the door.
“Well?” Jenna asked.
“Is it safe to talk?” David asked, glancing at Kellers.
The engineer nodded, pointing at a small black box sitting on the table by David’s bed. “There’s only a standard, accessible-by-court-order-only, recording box,” the engineer told him. “That’s showing an empty room right now. It looks like we haven’t attracted enough suspicion to rate special attention.”
“Good,” the Captain answered, looking around his officers. It would take a warrant for System Security to bug his hotel room, but given that one of his people was in a high security cell, he would have given the warrant if he was the judge.
“Carney’s in,” he continued. “Basic gear is in that case,” he gestured, “and we have a drop-off location for a crate of stunguns and SmartDart ammo.”
“A crate is a few more stunguns than the four of us can use,” Kellers observed, glancing around the room.
“ We need manpower,” David admitted. “Carney’s people have promised to draw the guards away from the Blue Jay , but we’ll need to get ourselves and Damien from the security cells to the dock – and believe me, CSS is going to know what we’re doing. Much as I wanted to avoid it, we’re going to have to involve the crew.”
“Unless you were planning on flying the ship with half a dozen people, we needed to anyway,” Jenna reminded him. “We need at least twenty of the spacers aboard if we want to be able to get anywhere without the ship coming apart around us.”
“ Conveniently, we’re getting a crate of twenty stunguns,” David said dryly. “I want each of you to approach the people you trust most in your departments and feel them out. Make sure they all know that anyone who stays is being released with two months’ pay – it’s the least I can do for our crew, this wasn’t their fault.”
“ You might want to try bribing them to be involved , not to leave ,” Narveer boomed with a laugh. “I don’t think we’ll have an issue,” he continued. “The pilots will be in.”
“Don’t commit anyone to this until you’ve talked to them,” David warned . “Kellers – I want you to pick up the stunners and ammo. Let’s try not to draw attention to ourselves.”
“ I have a scheduled meeting with Damien tomorrow evening,” he continued. “That gives us at least twenty-four hours before the Hand should arrive, based on what the Guildmaster said.”
“ We only get one shot at this,” David reminded his people, glancing around the hotel room, his gaze finally settling on the case of grenades by the door.
“If we mess this up, we join Damien in the High Security cells,” he finished quietly.
“Or we can watch the boy who saved our lives swing, and lose our ship,” Singh summarized bluntly. “Is anyone here not in?” the Blue Jay’s First Pilot demanded.
Silence answered him.
#
After the one visit from his lawyer, Damien had seen no one except the pair of Enforcers who came to escort him to the gym to exercise and eat. Time didn’t quite blur together, as the day after the lawyer visit they at least gave him a tablet with access to a basic entertainment and education library.
While the library wasn’t exactly up to the minute on current news – at a guess, someone had to manually review what articles and events could be included – it did allow him to research the previous cases of Mages attempting to modify their rune matrices.
There weren’t that many cases anyone was
“ We’ll do it,” he said simply.
“ All right then Captain,” Carney replied, leaning forward across his desk. “What’s your plan?”
#
Jenna and Kellers were waiting in David’s room when he and Narveer returned to the hotel. Walking into the room, David dropped the case he’d received from Carney – the first part of the requested gear, mostly the flash-bangs and Nix-Six canisters – next to the door.
“Well?” Jenna asked.
“Is it safe to talk?” David asked, glancing at Kellers.
The engineer nodded, pointing at a small black box sitting on the table by David’s bed. “There’s only a standard, accessible-by-court-order-only, recording box,” the engineer told him. “That’s showing an empty room right now. It looks like we haven’t attracted enough suspicion to rate special attention.”
“Good,” the Captain answered, looking around his officers. It would take a warrant for System Security to bug his hotel room, but given that one of his people was in a high security cell, he would have given the warrant if he was the judge.
“Carney’s in,” he continued. “Basic gear is in that case,” he gestured, “and we have a drop-off location for a crate of stunguns and SmartDart ammo.”
“A crate is a few more stunguns than the four of us can use,” Kellers observed, glancing around the room.
“ We need manpower,” David admitted. “Carney’s people have promised to draw the guards away from the Blue Jay , but we’ll need to get ourselves and Damien from the security cells to the dock – and believe me, CSS is going to know what we’re doing. Much as I wanted to avoid it, we’re going to have to involve the crew.”
“Unless you were planning on flying the ship with half a dozen people, we needed to anyway,” Jenna reminded him. “We need at least twenty of the spacers aboard if we want to be able to get anywhere without the ship coming apart around us.”
“ Conveniently, we’re getting a crate of twenty stunguns,” David said dryly. “I want each of you to approach the people you trust most in your departments and feel them out. Make sure they all know that anyone who stays is being released with two months’ pay – it’s the least I can do for our crew, this wasn’t their fault.”
“ You might want to try bribing them to be involved , not to leave ,” Narveer boomed with a laugh. “I don’t think we’ll have an issue,” he continued. “The pilots will be in.”
“Don’t commit anyone to this until you’ve talked to them,” David warned . “Kellers – I want you to pick up the stunners and ammo. Let’s try not to draw attention to ourselves.”
“ I have a scheduled meeting with Damien tomorrow evening,” he continued. “That gives us at least twenty-four hours before the Hand should arrive, based on what the Guildmaster said.”
“ We only get one shot at this,” David reminded his people, glancing around the hotel room, his gaze finally settling on the case of grenades by the door.
“If we mess this up, we join Damien in the High Security cells,” he finished quietly.
“Or we can watch the boy who saved our lives swing, and lose our ship,” Singh summarized bluntly. “Is anyone here not in?” the Blue Jay’s First Pilot demanded.
Silence answered him.
#
After the one visit from his lawyer, Damien had seen no one except the pair of Enforcers who came to escort him to the gym to exercise and eat. Time didn’t quite blur together, as the day after the lawyer visit they at least gave him a tablet with access to a basic entertainment and education library.
While the library wasn’t exactly up to the minute on current news – at a guess, someone had to manually review what articles and events could be included – it did allow him to research the previous cases of Mages attempting to modify their rune matrices.
There weren’t that many cases anyone was
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