Chaos Cipher (58 page)

‘
This way
Captain Mowser, I’ll take you to your business associate. He’s very
keen to meet you.’ And she turned to smile at Kelly. ‘Please join
us, Miss Kelly Banner.’

She stepped
around him and seemed to float on long elegant steps along one of
the walkways. Kelly burned with intensity.

‘
Who does
that prissy little tart think she is?’ she complained in a matter
of fact way. ‘I can’t believe she just cut me out like that…Did you
see that? Does she realise who the bloody brains of this operation
is? She must know I’m the official owner of
The Griffin’s Claw
,
right?’

‘
Chillax,
Kelly. We’re in good company, aah. Do as aie do.’

‘
Oh good,’
Kelly growled, ‘I see you’ve fallen completely for the bloody femme
fatale act she’s got roused up for the occasion.’ After which Kelly
bit her lip and tolerated stoically, smiling fallaciously at
Estelle as she looked back and awaited them.

Caspian
followed and Kelly stayed close, a discomforted expression still
etched on her face. They ambled along wide walkways suspended above
dance platforms. Caspian looked over the barriers to catch sight of
the dancers and clubbers, all seducing each other in a writhe of
rhythmic motion to the entrancing waves of sound. Their eyes were
wide open pools of glazed blackness as stimulants coursed through
their blood, gluing them in a wavering sea of ecstasy and bodily
sprawl. They bunched up to the speakers in extol of the vibrations.
Caspian grimaced.

‘
Music’s
really takink a towl for de wurst these dais,’ he said.

‘
That stuff
isn’t music,’ said Kelly, ‘it’s a language of digital neuro-sonic
mixes.’

‘
You must
mean the Cymorgs.’ Said Estelle over her shoulder. ‘They’re an
interesting culture. I understand some lexical
cymatics.’

‘
Well wi
dun’t deeg eet,’ said Caspian. ‘Ma place ees in spaice. As yew ken
eemagine, eets quiet owt there.’

The woman
smiled insincerely back at them, maintaining her enigmatic ethos as
she led the way through several people grouped casually on the
walkways, some already now crowing over mature topics with
indecipherable cadences, semantics lost in the crescendo of bass.
They gazed suspiciously at Caspian as he passed and he could feel
their judgements, their eyes swatting him away, regarding him with
chary contempt as some drifter from the astro-field colonies,
optics shimmering with information. They were into the higher-class
levels of the establishment, few reached this place without invite
and some more than others wanted Kelly and Caspian to feel
unwelcome.

Light easy
steps led them up into a private platform which had an excellent
view of the dancers. Three men sat waiting by a low levelled table,
three empty seats arranged around it with complementary drinks
already set up for them. A fresh bottle of champagne sat in a glass
bowl filled with ice, the cork still fixed. The man in the middle
stood to greet them, a white strike of through the side of his
gelled back blond hair, a wide charming smile affixed on his star
burned face. ‘Why don’t you both have a seat?’ he
offered.

Kelly and
Caspian both sat back into the curved levitating seats, the third
seat was occupied by Estelle.

‘
Haf-lah!’
the man in the middle said, gesturing towards their courier, ‘may I
introduce Estelle Bennett. She has a spectacular intuition about
people. She warned me about you both.’

‘
They do seem
like a real motley crew,’ Estelle said directing her comment to
Caspian. ‘I’m not usually a chaperone, I’ll have you
know.’

Caspian
smiled and shrugged.

‘
But we
decided I’d be a lot less menacing than any of these three mugs,’
she teased placing herself next to the biggest of the three men and
taking a stimulant diffusion pipe from him. She crossed her legs,
leaned back and poised herself for aplomb indulgence.

‘
Let’s see
then,’ said the man in the middle, ‘a South African Captain, a
Megalo-Britai navigation coordinator and starnavis owner, a Polish
pilot, a Canadian engineer and an idiot Swedish computer technician
who didn’t even make it into the club. My better judgement would
say you’re nationless rogues.’

‘
If you’re
eager to meet Scuttle we can have this arrangement take place down
in the Grill and Billiards.’ Kelly offered with a sardonic
inflection. ‘What he lacks in attire, he makes up for in his
ingenuity so be careful with who you’re calling an idiot! Unless,
you’ve got something against the Swedish?’

‘
No, no,’ the
man grinned, ‘that’s quite alright. This can all take place without
him.’ And the man started to laugh. ‘I thought his name was Lukas
McGill? Why do you call him Scuttle?’

‘
Not your
business, that’s why.’ Said Kelly.

The man with
the strike through his hair leaned forward to touch the low
levelled glass table. The transparent material illuminated evenly
and warmed the atmosphere with quiescent photonic ambience, a
masterful pre-set chosen by the host in preparation for the
meeting. Caspian recognised Jerrus Armelius right away, slick blond
hair gelled back, a white streak running through the right side of
his head like lightning all now much clearer in the even lighting.
The man had a bronze face and a firm jaw line, like some Atlas
analogue, bearing all the characteristic features of masculine
prowess.

‘
On to
business then,’ he smiled wide. ‘You may know me as Jerrus
Armelius. These are my associates,’ he said turning to his right
and nodding to the biggest of them, ‘Dwight Mortel,’ and to the
left, ‘and John Ripley.’

Dwight and
John nodded in unison. Caspian acknowledged with a returned
nod.

Dwight was
very still; his shoulders wide and without slack, seemingly always
on guard. The bio-salon regenerated some facial hair around the
sideburns but it looked far too neat a cut to have been by a hand
razor. His large jaw and thick nose looked like it had been through
a mallet workshop, the forgery of years of cage fighting. John was
a little less intimidating, with quite a friendly smile and a spark
of intelligence in his eyes. He had a crop, slap n’ go hair cut
that was only usually sported by military types. Caspian knew by
the way they were looking at him and Kelly they were using ocular
relays to record and assess them.

‘
So,’ said
Jerrus, ‘you’re after drills, aren’t you?’

‘
Yer
s’roite,’ said Caspian, ‘maderafekt wi need sumthinke reel soleed,
I’m tawkink sheet dat cuts through nanocarbon, yew
deeg?’

‘
Oh yes,’
Jerrus and his pals laughed, ‘oh yes...we dig for sure. Digging is
one thing we do all too well.’

Estelle was
smiling furtively behind a fall of smoke that swirled through the
lurid light of the club. John Ripley’s attention seemed only mildly
engaged, his eyes were off in the distance, analysing their
surroundings, keeping watch.

‘
Let’s talk
about our offers.’ Said Jerrus.

John and
Dwight set their whiskey tumblers aside and activated the holograms
on the table. Several animated versions of Harbeck and Co’s
drilling hardware catalogued before them.

‘
Talk to me
about what kind of equipment you’ll need. You’re going to love
this,’ he added, side-tracking slightly as the catalogue animated
systemic features of the drills. ‘I used to be an explosives
expert. True story, a real explosives expert, when I was in service
for the Syridan army. I was one of the front runners playing around
with cavitation fusion. Have you ever heard about
cavitation?’

Kelly and
Caspian shook their heads.

‘
If you ride
in a speedboat the propeller eventually erodes in the water. The
bubbles that are formed are actually hot enough to make the
propeller fin look like Swiss-cheese, my favourite cheddar by the
way. We figured one day that if the collapsing bubbles can get so
hot, then are we talking about a kind of energy here? Pistol
shrimps use the same technique, the power of a collapsing bubble.
Cavitation bombs blow holes in the mantle on some locals moons, if
it vibrates, we can shake it...ha ha, was our motto, I
think.’

‘
Wi dunt want
anythinke like thet.’ Caspian explained.

‘
Well what
type of earth are you drilling through?’ Dwight asked.

Caspian
turned to Kelly. ‘You’ve ghot the eenfo, roite?’

Kelly
compliantly removed a data polymer from her pocket and unpacked the
translucent pad from a plastic cartridge. From it, several data
charts and diagrams bloomed into existence for them all to see,
interpreted by the table’s projection screens. The data covered
everything, earth minerals, acidity, aridity, coarse grain,
sediment types, lithification materials, depth coordination charts
and intended area in square metres. Jerrus Armelius analysed the
data closely.

‘
Where are
you digging?’ John tried again.

‘
I told you,
its top secret.’

‘
Is it for
gold?’

‘
Sut!’ said
Caspian, ‘ind iznut fir diamonds either, men.’

‘
Then, what
is it for?’ Dwight pressed pensively.

‘
What ees
this, ai fukken interrogasen or sumthinke?’

‘
A lot less
painful,’ John Ripley smirked. ‘For you.’

‘
Eets nut yer
beesness where wi graft, ek-se! Jost sell us the goods!’

‘
According to
these charts you’re going really deep.’ Said Harbeck, ‘so you’ll
need something strong that can build vertical support struts above
it. You’ll also need sediment displacement fields. I’m assuming
you’ll want to repeat this dig so…’

‘
Sut oke, wi
jost need de wun deeg, sha.’

‘
Just the one
dig?’ Jerrus inquired.

‘
Yes,’
Caspian said clearly. ‘Wi ghot ah pletfum an awl de necessities wi
jos ni de elemints.’

‘
Which are
what?’

‘
Obsiduranium
edge borers.’ Kelly divulged.

Harbeck’s
visage drooped to a displeased frown. He sat back and closed down
the holograms.

‘
That
technology is highly regulated by Oligarchy hands and the black
alloy is very, very carefully monitored. Even if I could get you
the equipment, I’d have spies all over my ass and I simply can’t
afford to draw attention to myself in my line of work.’

‘
Also,
Obsiduranium is too dangerous on Earth,’ Dwight
explained.

‘
Ah thet’s
dwass!’ Caspian furiously snapped, ‘c’mon now Ie know yew ken flog
us thet material, it was leested on yore iteenary when wi ferst
ghot in touch. Wi guot saifty margins men! It’s a smawl amount of
blek alloy, okai?’

John leaned
over to whisper in Jerrus’ ear. Low frequency infrasound thumping
through the club revived the atmosphere from one of business to a
euphoric plateau. Kelly waited anxiously.

‘
Okay,’ said
Jerrus, ‘I’ll get you the Obsiduranium edge drills and we can
negotiate a deal. What is your budget?’

‘
Wier
contracted to five million Atomons.’

‘
I’m afraid
that your budget isn’t going to cover the whole price I’m
offering.’

‘
Weil how
much, aah?’ Caspian pressed impatiently.

‘
We can
discuss that at a later date,’ Jerrus smiled deviously. ‘I will
take the five million as a deposit and the Obsiduranium will be a
rental, once you’re done with your dig operation you will be
contractually obliged to return the drills to us.’

‘
Wait,’ said
Kelly, pulling Caspian aside from the table ‘no way, Caspian don’t
even consider that offer. We’ve come here to buy not to do shady
deals. We can’t go on jumping from pocket to pocket like this.
Supposing he starts dropping interest rates in our lap?’

‘
We’ll have
an official contract,’ Dwight assured, overhearing her concerns.
‘You’ll sign it, after reading the details. There are no interest
rates on this transaction.’

‘
That’s
right,’ Jerrus confirmed, ‘we want to keep our customers not
cripple them. And if your investment is worth it, as you claim it
is, then who knows what fortune you’ll dig up from the earth. We
want you happy with our service and happy to return for other
business agreements…ya dig?’

‘
But the
profit from our dig isn’t for us, it will only cover our past
debts,’ said Kelly, ‘most of it is going to our financer. The rest
is tied up.’

‘
We’ll take
care of your debts,’ Jerrus sanguinely offered.

‘
Why?’ asked
Kelly with an incredulous laugh.

‘
What’s the
name of your starnavis?’ He asked.

‘
The Griffin’s
Claw
,’ she replied
stiffly.

‘
Nice name.’
Said Ripley.

‘
It’s a nice
starnavis shuttle,’ she responded.

‘
I wunteed to
kawl eet the Bulaweyo.’ Caspian added.