Seeds of Corruption

[Alkonium]

"I'm observant, and immediately before Stark called me up to his office, I had won a poker game with a straight flush." James replied.

"Sir, a woman by the name of Kathryn Davis is here to see you." The guard said to Stark on his helmet-mounted communicator. "Very good. Send her in." Stark replied.

[Writer]

"Ah, so you're the gambling type... the type that can actually gain something by gambling." He extended a hand toward James. "Jerry Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Taylor & Marx Pharmaceuticals."

 

He stood. "Please excuse me for a moment... I seem to hear the restroom calling my name..."

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Kathryn Davis radiated confidence as she entered Stark's office and took a seat across the desk from him.

 

"The Organization apologizes for the slight delays in completing this transaction," she said, getting straight to business. "It is rare that we don't have an operative on Alpha Centauri, but such was the case." She shook her head dismissively. "I trust you are prepared to complete the payment transfer... but of course you're going to want to see the merchandise first."

 

She took the clip out of her hair and it fell loosely around her shoulders. At a glance, the clip would have appeared to have been made of some sort of metal. A second look would have confirmed that it was in fact glass. Kathryn smashed it against the desk and the glass shattered, revealing a tiny chip that had been sealed inside. Withdrawing a chip reader from her purse, Kathryn slid the chip into the slot designed for it.

 

"That reader will show you enough to prove that we have followed through with our end of the deal," Kathryn told Stark. "I have my instructions to remain here until you have made the payment transfer to one of our accounts."

[Alkonium]

Stark then keyed a few numbers into a terminal on his desk. "The money has been transferred to your account. You have no idea how useful this information is to me. I appreciate the Organisation's promptness to provide the information I need." He said to her.

[286]

"Sir, we have been ordered to escort you to see Henry Stark. It is advised you come peacefully."

 

"It is curious that Henry Stark, with whom this unit has no prior connection, would choose to suddenly have you escort this unit to him. Especially as ill-equipped as you are to deal with this unit, but it will comply none the less." 286 stated standing up and grabbing his box.

 

He turned to Cody and said "It was a 'pleasure' to deal with you, and this unit 'hopes' to deal with you sometime again in the future."

 

Then 286 let himself be escorted by the Tau.

[steven]

"We've dealt with bigger enemies with less equipment," The Tau mercenary replied before leading the strange robot to their client. Behind the double-side glass, Null was lowering his plasma riffle he was aiming at 286 in case things got our of control. But since the robot was going willingly with his men, it was deemed unnecessary.

[Alkonium]

Stark watched as 286 entered his office. "You're probably wondering why I requested you see me." He said to the robot. "I have a job for you. I know what your talents are, so don't bother acting modest."

"Let's go." James said to Yery. "My car's just outside."

[Writer]

Just before she left, Stark's office, Kathryn Davis sent a small string of code to the chip in the reader, which unlocked the remainder of the information for Stark's use. Then, she walked out.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Once he'd left Jennifer at the bar, Jon did indeed go to the restroom. But he didn't stay there. At the mirror, he withdrew a small bottle from one of his suit pockets, shielding his face with one hand, he sprayed it; instant spray-on hair color. He put the bottle back in his suit pocket once his hair had been sprayed fully bright red. Then, he gave his beard and mustache a light trim and shed the suit jacket. Even if there were cameras in the mens' room, which Jon was almost certain there would be, he was here as Galactic Police Force Major Jerry Taylor... and even if Stark didn't appreciate the Terran Union or any of its police forces and organizations, it wasn't as if Major Taylor was doing something out of the ordinary. So Jerry Taylor had changed his look. GPF officers did that often.

 

Hidden beneath the suit was a series of small, inflatable 'muscle enhancers', air bags designed to alter physical appearance ever so slightly. The greater majority of people looking at Jon now would not recognize him as Jerry Taylor. Satisfied, he left the bathroom, flashed his badge to a guard, who obligingly let him through a secured door. Security were alerted to 'observe, but don't detain' when it came to GPF. And Major Taylor wasn't going to any area that had major secrets to keep.

 

In the end, he didn't seem to find what he'd come for. He filtered through a few stacks of paper scattered about, but didn't pick anything up. Then, he left. On the way out, he made a quick stop by the bathroom to comb out the red coloring and deflate the muscle enhancers. As a final touch, he messed with his beard and mustache a little, to mask the fact that they'd been cut.

 

His final stop in the casino was back to the bar.

 

"I'm terribly sorry," he told Jennifer, "but work is calling me away from vacation." He smiled apologetically. "One of the many problems with being on the board... call me later..." He passed her a business card and headed for the door. If he'd judged her right, Jon expected she'd call the number fairly quickly. If she was smart, she'd suspect him of being someone other than who he'd claimed to be. The number was discontinued, but gave a second number to call. The second number was also discontinued and gave a third number.

 

The third number had an answering machine attached to it, which Jon never checked. The opening message announced, "If you've been given this number, I may or may not be sorry for you. To put it bluntly, you've been deceived by a master of deception. You may try... and you may even succeed, but I'm Jon Martin. I always get what I want. And that means you've been played. Have a fantastic day."

 

The phones would ring many times before admitting to being discontinued. The third phone was set up to ring a total of twelve times before it went to the machine. By the time, Jennifer Cleo realized she'd been speaking to Jon Martin the entire time, he'd be long gone... no trail for the bounty hunter to follow.

 

As he reached the shuttle, Maria Carter came from an entirely different direction, carrying assorted bags of food and other supplies.

 

"You went shopping?" Jon asked incredulously.

 

"We needed stuff," Maria replied bluntly. "Did you get the information?"

 

Jon tapped his forehead. "All up here."

 

They entered the shuttle. A few moments later, it took off and flew away from New Chicago, and then out into space, leaving Alpha Centauri IV behind.

[286]

"You're probably wondering why I requested you see me." He said to the robot. "I have a job for you. I know what your talents are, so don't bother acting modest."

 

"Modesty was not a factor programmed on the first H-Chip, so that would be impossible. Assuming that the job you intend to give this unit might have a tad of difficulty due to your social level, this unit would like to remind you that it does not take jobs cheap. Also assuming that you did not intend to cheap this unit, you may offer your job now." 286 said. It was already a bit of an annoyance being escorted up here by these Tau.

[Alkonium]

"Don't worry, I can and will pay you well. I want you to track down James Dalton, and bring him to me. Bring him to me alive, and you get one million terran units. Kill him, and you get nothing." Stark told 286.

"As comfortable as I am in a casino, anything to do with Henry Stark gives me the creeps." James said to Yery as he drove away from the casino.

[Master_Archon]

Cody's brow furrowed in great annoyance and dissapointment, his new found 'friend' had just been escorted away by the head honcho of the planet's personal soldiers. On top of that he was about to hire the armored robot as one of his crew; one, because delaying bounty hunters would be easier, and two, he would come in handy for some hefty jobs that were going to be coming up in the future.

 

Plus, he and his crew were the last at the bar...besides the beautiful bounty hunter, which was just plain wrong!

 

"You're dissapointed Cody, were you hoping to hire him that baddly?" Murphy asked pointedly.

 

"Sure, could you imagine how easy it would be to get out of hunter situations with that guy! Plus I imagine he can use a ship's gun terminal, we do need someone to take up that second gunning position after all!" Cody annouced to Murphy irritably, practically shouting.

 

"Keep your voice down you loon, don't forget there's one of 'them' right next to us," Jesse said in a low tone.

 

"Oh, forget her! She's obviously not interested, probably came here on more formal hunting business, besides, I'm ticked, the moment before I'm about to make my offer, that cheap jerk, Mr. Stark, goes and takes my client away. No doubt hiring him to hunt someone! Why couldn't he call all of us up, we're not incompetent, we're Outlaws, we do all kinds of jobs!" Cody blurted irrately, his anger rising.

 

"Cody, now you're just mad because you're not getting the money 286 is probably getting right now," Murphy pointed out bluntly.

 

"Heck yeah!" Cody responded angrily, clenching his fist, the veins in his fist and arm begining to glow slightly, static could be seen crackling along his fingers.

 

"His mind is growing unstable again Jesse, we might need to hold him down," Murphy told the gynoid.

 

Cody opened his hand and closed his eyes, breathing in deeply, the glow and static dissapating. "We may have been chinsed from our client, and we may not be getting some much needed money right now, but we still don't know the outcome, let's wait for Mr. Roboto to come back, before we jump to conclusions..." Cody said trailing off, slumping down in his seat, his face blank, but his hidden eyes still angry.

[Tysyacha]

Yery Golightly stood up and nodded. Most people were scoffers when it came to her subtle "hunches" and "premonitions", but those who knew her and trusted Chancists would bet their very lives upon these warnings. She turned to James, her glass empty.

 

"Yes, let's. I should say that things are getting a little too stuffy in here, and a lot too complicated. Shall we?" James Dalton hooked his arm through hers, and she rearranged the long skirt of her platinum column dress. She was, oddly, sweating.

 

Once she and the gambler were both outside, basking in the balmy late-night air of New Chicago, they strolled to his "car", which was electric, of course, and powered alternately by hydrogen fuel cells. Gasoline had long become a relic of the ancients.

 

"So," said Yery, smelling a slight deodorant failure under her arms, "who was that old lady who came to get you? Some friend of yours, or your mother?" She guessed not.

[Alkonium]

"I talked to my mother yesterday, she's still on vacation on Luna. All I know about that old lady is that she works for Henry Stark. Other than that she could be anyone." James replied. "So, what brought you to Alpha Centauri IV in the first place?"

[Tysyacha]

"Not Henry Stark," Yery said darkly. "I found out that if you can't manufacture or serve any kind of food to hoity-toity patrons on Terra, you're basically useless. So, I decided to try my luck here in New Chicago as a freelance Chancist. Would you believe that some of us are bankrolled by wealthy clients? Even corporations, which I hate like my own death.

 

"Not me. I don't play that game. The House may always win, but in my opinion, a good Chancist who chooses to work for the 'dark side' deserves to miscalculate every time. Don't they realize they could be paid by a far wealthier single individual, and they are free to say anything without worrying about whether it's 'the party line' or not?"

[Alkonium]

"I guess not, though I've never needed the services of a chancist when I'm at the poker table. I understand what you mean about Terra." James commented. "Hmmm, I think that car is following us."

[Tysyacha]

Yery glanced in the rearview mirror of James Dalton's car. "It does seem rather odd that the car's not keeping to a safe two-second following distance. Plus, why is it moving so slowly? Almost like a cat at night. Can we lose him?" Even though she had no idea if the driver of the stalking vehicle was male or female, threatening sentients were always 'him'. Men had not been kind to Yery in the past, and she was wary of them almost by reflex.

[starmark2k]

“Damn IT!” Jennifer shouted throwing her phone at the wall of her rented apartment. She had just called the Number and proceeding numbers left by the man she now knew was Jon Martin. She had the man in her grasp and let him slip right through her fingers, he had played her like a fiddle and now she was angry. If the bounty wasn’t for him to be alive she would have gladly taken her pistol and pointed it against his skull and blew the brains right out of the thief’s body.

 

Their may be no trail to find him, but the man must still be on the planet, the hunt was still on and it was personal. It was time to stop playing it Subtly in dresses and time to grab her grenades and start blowing and shooting her way to the marked man.

[Alkonium]

"I think I can lose him." James said, and at the first chance he got, he took a sharp turn into an alleyway. Fortunately for him, New Chicago wasn't as heavily layered a city as Old Chicago back on Terra. Here, you could see the sky from the ground. His car's guidance system, an AI program named Jeeves popped. "James, you are not driving on a known road. I will have to take control of the vehicle. and fix the problem." It said to him, looking and sounding similar to twentieth century actor John Cleese. "This is why I keep you off most of the time. You're worse than my insurance company." James replied, pressing a switch on the dashboard, and the image of Jeeves vanished.

[Writer]

A meeting had been called. Quite some time ago, the Organization had been... 'acquired' by Henry Stark and now the head of the hacker group, known only as Org1 arrived to the casino for the meeting. Unlike Kathryn Davis, Org1's tattoos started on both arms and wrapped around his entire body.

 

"I know why you have called me here, Mr. Stark," he began as he was ushered into Stark's office. "You have expressed concerns with Kathryn Davis. It is understandable... her movements have been rather unpredictable as of late." He smirked, just a little.

 

"We have the situation under control," he went on. "One of Davis'... 'unscheduled' stops released thief Jon Martin from Mercury and she's been traveling with him ever since. He is the reason she can remain one step ahead of us. But we have one of the best bounty hunters in the business on his trail. She'll take him... she'll bring him to us... and we will open his eyes to the fact that his friend is not who she pretends to be."

 

He chuckled. "It's all very easy, sir. And it should be done within the week."

 

- - - - - - - - - - -

 

"This message is for Jennifer Cleo," the recording began. "The Organization has acquired new information on the whereabouts of Jon Martin. Pursue immediately."

 

During its last touchdown, the shuttle being used by Maria Carter and Jon Martin had been ID'ed and its next destination was recorded. They were going to Terra.

[starmark2k]

Once again Jennifer found herself in another seedy spaceport on the hunt for Jon Martin, the only difference was she had landed on Terra this time. Thanks to her mob connections she had managed to get a more specific location for the bounty so she wouldn’t have to spend days scouring the planet for any connections to Jon. This time her search had expanded looking for the thief’s alias Jerry Taylor, although he would probably throw away that ID she would look for him in case he had to use that ID for some reason.

[Writer]

This time, the name was Lewis Michaels. The target was a bank, of all places. He walked in, presenting the front that he was overwhelmingly rich and was looking to transfer all of his accounts into one. The bank erupted in a flurry of action when they learned there was the potential for half a trillion to be deposited in an account in their bank.

 

They were extremely hospitable, even giving him a tour of the large building in which their work was done. Sometime during the tour, he excused himself to go to the restroom. It was all so very fun, but work had to be done.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Kathryn 'Maria Carter' Davis was giving the shuttle a once-over. Jon had told her of his encounter with the bounty hunter and she had to be sure they were tracker free... never underestimate bounty hunters...

 

"Or the Organization," she said aloud to herself, a look of horror crossing her face. "Oh, God what have I done?" She swept her fingers through a tangled mess of wires beneath the piloting console and a tiny piece of machinery snapped off.

 

"Regrowth tracker?" she whispered. "No..."

 

A regrowth tracker used tiny bits of energy taken from whatever it was connected to to recreate itself if it was ever broken off. Damn thing couldn't be removed unless you had its deactivation code... and even for a good hacker like Kate Davis, that was damn near impossible.

 

"They know where we are," she decided aloud. She had to get to Jon... right the hell now!

[starmark2k]

A few photographs but in the right front of eyes and Jennifer soon had a location on the man called Lewis Michaels A.K.A Jon Martin. She wasn’t going to play it subtly this time, she didn’t care if it was bank where the man had entered. She was going to go into that building and drag the man out at gunpoint and if he resisted, that just meant she’d have to kick some ass.

 

se walked into the bank with her pistol and knife holstered to her thighs, and holding a semi automatic rifle in her hands. The alarms went off as she passed the mag-scanners detecting her weapons, but just ignored them. Security she stared as she strolled pass as if she was walking through a park on a sunny afternoon.

 

She kicked the door to the gents toilets and ordered a couple of bystanders out of the room as she walked over to a cubicle and ripped the door off it’s hinges.

 

“Hi Jerry.” She said with a smile. “The number you gave me didn’t work so I thought I’d get the right one… Let’s start with your name.” She held her semi-automatic gun up and pointed it at the thief. “I wouldn’t Lie this time.”

[Writer]

Having the door ripped off its hinges was hardly the most surprising thing Jon Martin had ever seen. Seeing Jennifer Cleo again was significantly more surprising. The gun in his face was no surprise at all.

 

"I'm Lewis Michaels," he said without blinking. Without so much as the bat of an eye, he slid a business card into her gun hand. "And yes, I do remember you. Look, I'm really sorry about what happened last time. It won't happen again, okey doke? So here's what we'll do."

 

He pushed her gun down and leaned forward to whisper in her ear. "I don't know who you're working for and I really don't care. I know any bounties on me are only valuable if I'm alive, so we're playing this by my rules. I'm here for one piece of information. You can come with me while I get it... and then, I'll go with you."

 

"Spend the morning with me, doll," he offered. "I'll show you just how sorry I am for what happened last time we met."

 

It was all a show to this man. He knew there were cameras in the bathroom (what public place didn't these days?) and he certainly hoped she'd play along with him. If she didn't... well, then he'd have no chance whatsoever of escape. And that would do no good. He really hoped she'd take his offer...

 

... but then again, when had bounty hunters ever played the games of others? Jon figured she would reject his offer... he just hoped she didn't shoot him in the process...

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Kate Davis didn't even bother putting on the elaborate disguise that she normally used when she appeared to the public as a representative of the Organization. In reality, the 'Maria Carter' identity was her natural appearance. It struck her as somewhat amusing that her false identity was matched with her true physical appearance. But she had worse things to worry about now.

 

"Excuse me," she said softly to a bank teller on floor one of the large building. "I'm looking for Lewis Michaels... he came here, yes?"

 

The teller shrugged. "Haven't a clue."

 

Kate smiled. "Thanks anyhow... would it be alright if I looked around?"

 

Again, the teller's response was paired with a shrug. "Don't see why not..."

 

Kate thanked him and moved away...

[Alkonium]

James looked behind him, and saw that the car was still following him, so he decided to try and lose him in the Residential Canyons on the outskirts of the city. Because Alpha Centauri IV's atmosphere was already safe for humans, little terraforming was required, giving the planet a unique appearance among the worlds of the Terran Union. One such unique feature was deep, lush canyons, filled with large caves along the sides. Outside the cities, the rich made their extravagant homes here, while inside the cities, however, these were the slums, where the poor would live, as there was no place on the surface where they could. "Hold on to something, this is going to get a bit rough." James said to Yery, slamming his foot on the "gas", and hoping the driver of the car following him would not be able to activate his anti-gravity boosters in time.

[starmark2k]

“No more games.” Jennifer stated aiming her weapon back at the thief. “I may need you alive for the money, but after you played me don’t think I won’t take killing you as a substitute payment… Now we’re going to my car outside and you will cause me no more trouble or I’ll put a slug through your ear!”

[Writer]

Jon sighed. It had been worth a try... he just hoped whoever it was that wanted him didn't want to kill him themselves. "Alright," he mumbled, "no need for ear piercings by bullet. I'll cooperate."

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Kate Davis was in the elevator coming down when it clicked open on the fourth floor to admit Jennifer Cleo and Jon Martin. For his part, Jon did an admirable job of paying very little attention to her... and even if Jennifer recognized Kate as an accomplice of Jon Martin, the bounty was for Martin alone. So Kate knew she'd be left alone.

 

Now, if someone from the Organization showed up... then Kate would have something to worry about. But for now, her biggest worry was to disappear... a job that would have been so much easier with Jon Martin at her side.

 

The elevator dinged and slid open and Kate pushed out ahead of Jon and Jennifer. Time to find a new shuttle...