Chapter 4: Interested Parties

The taxi dropped them off outside the hotel. They were staying where the instructions from their employer had specified. It was a non-descript, higher-end hotel that was commonly found around spaceports. James and Tarra entered the lobby and approached the desk expecting to find an AI-based clerk. Unexpectedly, a human clerk appeared from a room behind the desk.

"Yes, sir, how may I help you?" the clerk asked. He was dressed in what was obviously a hotel issued uniform. James was somewhat surprised to find personal human service at a hotel desk. His estimation of the hotel went up significantly. He wondered how much a room was going to cost.

"Do you have any messages for a Mr. Didgi?" James inquired. Tarra smiled at the use of the Mr. Didgi alias.

The clerk scratched his head lightly, "Let me check..." He typed a few keys on a pad, "No we have no messages for anyone by that name."

James nodded, "Well, then we'll need a room for few days. I'd like a suite if possible."

"Certainly, we can accommodate you." The clerk and James dickered on the price until James got a substantial discount for paying in cash up front for several days. A porter, another human, appeared for their bags and to escort them to their room.

Tarra flopped down on the large couch in the lounge area of the suite. This hotel was far more luxurious than any she had stayed at in the past. Ragnor's culture just did not run to this level of opulence. She could see an enormous bed through a door next to a private, recessed whirlpool. She looked up at James with a smile and said, "This room is fantastic and you got it for a song."

"Federation credits do have a fairly good exchange rate against the Draco. If we have to wait, we might as well wait in comfort."

He took his remote comm out that he used to always keep him in contact with Didgi, his ship's AI. It functioned as a standard comm, but had specialized circuitry for communicating back to the Didgeridoo. The remote comm's communication with the ship was undetectable by conventional means. James' contacts in the R&D industry had provided the unit as part of his ongoing engineering consultation. Neutrinos were generated at the ship and looped at the remote comm. The linked neutrinos were used to establish the comm-link. Since there were only a handful of these comms in existence and no others outside of an R&D lab, it was impossible for anyone to detect it or eavesdrop.

"Didgi, did the sweep come back clean?" James spoke into the remote comm. Didgi was able to use the remote comm to connect to James' comp-pad and use the scanners and detectors that James had carefully miniaturized and hidden in it. She was able to check for listening and viewing devices in any area he was in. With that link active to the comp-pad, Didgi had a lot of the monitoring and scanning capabilities here that she did in the ship. It did tend to drain the power of the remote comm faster, but that was not a problem in an urban setting where a lot of energy was available to keep the power cells topped up.

"Yes James, all clear. I'll continue to sweep occasionally to ensure it stays that way. By the way, I've detected several scans directed at us from the surrounding area. I've modulated the stealth shield at a low level to block them. The last few were more sophisticated and higher power. Someone is taking an interest in us." Even from the small remote comm, Didgi's voice was easy to hear and understand.

James frowned. It wasn't unusual to get a random scan in a spaceport. This pattern that Didgi described was out of the ordinary however – not to mention quite rude. It was the equivalent of staring at a stranger. Not something to worry too much about, but still disconcerting.

"Have you pinpointed the source of the scanner?" James wanted to know.

"Yes, it is coming from one structure in a block of buildings. They appear to be warehouses on the street next to the spaceport."

"Keep an eye on that building and let me know if the nature of the scans or frequency increases to where we need to worry about it."

"Aye Aye, Captain. I'll buzz the comm if needed. Didgi out."

Tarra had a worried look on her face; she looked at James and said, "I don't like the sound of that. You don't get repeated scans like that except from someone who is up to something."

"I agree. It could just be someone unusually curious. Hell, it could be our benefactor. But it could also be a prelude to something worse. The Didgeridoo is equipped to handle trouble if it comes to that and Didgi knows how to respond to threats. If something is tried, they will be in for a big surprise."

"How long until do you think it will be before we get contacted?" Tarra wanted to know.

"I would not think too long. There will be a record of our landing and they should be monitoring traffic. Until then, let's forget about probing scans and other worries. We can relax a bit in this luxury and enjoy the change of scenery. It's one of the perks of this job."

"I can think of something I'd like to do to relax." Tarra's voice had turned seductive.

"Hmmm. I think that is an excellent idea and we've got plenty of time to kill before dinner..."

She stood and whipped off her shirt sending it flying. Her large breasts swung freely as she sauntered towards him and pressed them into his chest. A rainbow of multi-hued colors raced across her arms, chest and face; clearly showing her excitement as her chameleon chromatophores shifted beneath her skin. The vibrant display brought a huge smile to James' face.

Tarra brought her arms around and encircled his neck. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation. "Well, if you put it like that..."

They enjoyed dinner at a little out of the way restaurant a few blocks from the hotel that the front desk clerk recommended. On the walk back to the hotel, a small man bumped into Tarra who stumbled slightly before catching herself.

"Sorry," mumbled the man and he began to walk quickly away.

James took three quick steps and tripped the man from behind. As he fell, James wrestled his arm up behind his back. He then put his knee into his lower back holding him down with his weight. The man groaned underneath him and struggled to get up.

"Lay off! You are hurting me!" He said as he thrashed about.

Tarra looked worried. "James, what is going on? He didn't hurt me when he ran into me."

James growled, "Check your waist purse. He took your comp-pad when he bumped you." He bent the pickpocket's arm up further behind his back. The man stopped struggling and winced in pain.

Tarra opened up her purse attached to her belt loop and said, "Damn it, you're right. It is gone. You little shit." She strode forward and kicked the would-be thief in his ribs - hard. He howled in protest.

"Where is it thief?" James' voice was low and full of menace.

"I don't know what you are talking about. I didn't steal anything."

"Drakshit, I saw you take it because I was looking for it the instant you bumped into her you little sneak. I didn't see where you stashed it as you turned and walked away. I've got a nice vibro knife here. I can start cutting away your clothing to find it. The knife has been a little touchy lately; the depth setting won't stay locked correctly. This might get a little bloody. Oh well, no skin off me." James put more pressure on his arm and then, miming a vibro knife, pressed his thumbnail against the thief's neck.

The pickpocket whimpered in pain and shouted, "Ok, ok. It's in a pocket in my left sleeve. Now let up on my arm, you are breaking it!"

James felt along the thief's left sleeve and felt the outline of Tarra's comp-pad.

"Yep, it's there." James glanced around quickly. The altercation had not drawn much attention. That in itself told him a lot about the type of neighborhood it was.

"Nighty night." James said as he pulled a small pistol from his pocket. He pressed the butt of the pistol against the thief's head. His thumb mashed down on a small stud at the base of the pistol butt. A soft pop was heard as the same charge that was in a disabling round burst and the thief slumped into unconsciousness. James reached into the coat sleeve and pulled out the comp-pad. He handed it up to Tarra.

"Bastard." Tarra said as she took it and kicked the unconscious form in the side again. "What now?"

"He's not worth spending time with the police on. Given the corruption we've already seen, it is likely they wouldn't do much of anything anyway. We'll tell one of the shops here to call it in to the cops. Hopefully they'll get here before some other local piece of shit decides to roll this one."

James stuck his head in the door of an electronics shop and said that someone had collapsed on the street and needed help. They quickly made their way to the hotel two blocks away.

Back in the room, Tarra was quick to check her comp-pad and couldn't find anything that was noticeably wrong. "Didgi, can you link to my comp-pad and verify that nothing is amiss?" Tarra asked, knowing that Didgi constantly monitored the remote comm in James' pocket.

James pulled out the remote comm and Didgi's voice answered, "I linked to it as soon as James said it was stolen by that thug. Nothing was accessed nor was there any other damage. However James, I have detected a bug planted in this room that I did not register earlier. I'm currently jamming it through your comp-pad."

James scowled, "Where is the bug?"

"It is most likely in the light fixture by the couch - based on my scan sweeps. Check the base of it."

James moved quickly to the lamp and examined it closely. He used his fingernail to remove a small thin black plastic disk from the bottom of the fixture. He set the plastic disk on his comp-pad.

"It's trying to send a burst transmission every 10 seconds. Want me to burn it?" Didgi asked.

"Yes. Can you get the receiver too?"

"No, I don't know where it is as the transmission is omni directional and I don't have the power in your comp-pad to affect it. Say bye-bye to the pretty disk." A brief snap and the listening disk curled up and a section of it visibly warped as the burst of power Didgi let off from James' comp-pad overloaded its nano-circuits.

Tarra wrinkled her nose as she looked at the curled disk. "James, this planet is decidedly unpleasant. Can we cancel the contract?"

"Not without being in breach of it ourselves. Remember, I am a Bonded Courier through the Merc's Guild and this is a contract through them. That gives us some protection from interference, it also comes with a cost – we must follow the contract ourselves.

I doubt these events are being done by our employer which would give us cause. I don't know what is behind this, but it is likely that our landing in a private ship – one that is clearly expensive – has drawn the attention of some unsavory locals that hope to find a payday. While this may seem like a well-developed planet and this an established, big city, the reality is far less. There are only 2 cities over 10,000 people on this entire planet and this is the largest by far with around 60,000. Pretty typical of planets out here in the non-Federation frontier areas. The settlements are concentrated on this continent along the coast of the largest ocean. Over 95% of this planet is still unexplored from the ground and most of that is deep jungle."