Chapter 15

The four of us met in the main room a little later. It was obvious even to me from the satisfied looks on Katherine's and Mari's faces that they, too, had enjoyed themselves.

I asked Sam how she was doing and she gave me big grin. "I'm good. Don't you worry about me." She had listened in on my conversation with Anna through my implant and was happy with the way it went.

We talked for a while and decided to go to dinner when people's stomachs started to grumble. I made sure the optical unit was on me. The units are small disks that can be attached onto clothes to observe and listen. Katherine thought it was unfair that only I could talk to Sam while we were away. That brought me up short and I stopped at the door.

"I'm so stupid," I said just as Sam reminded me of the same thing I was thinking about.

The women looked at me and asked what I was talking about. I walked back to Sam's carrier, opened it, and grabbed out some items. I handed one to each of the ladies.

Each carrier was equipped with small earpieces that could be given to other people so that they could talk to the AIAs. It also allowed the wearers to communicate with each other and would allow the AIA to keep track of them in places like cities and space stations. They were small and unobtrusive. Mari was looking at the one in her hand and was thinking the same thing about herself as I had.

"I can't believe I forgot about these."

"The only reason I remembered is when Katherine said something. I knew they were there but this is the first time I've ever used them," I said. "Well, we have them now and you can talk to Sam anytime now. They have discreet encoding so you can have a private conversation if you want to." Anna, Katherine, and Mari fit them into their ears and did a connection test. Each tested out fine and we were on our way.

We went to the outer edge district and wandered around looking for a place to eat. It was just after lateshift had started and people were out eating dinner. The diner where we had lunch was packed so we kept looking. We found a pizza place and decided to go there and give it a try. We ended up stuffing ourselves because the pizza was so good. We offset it a little with garden salads and the ladies limited themselves to only a beer apiece. We'd need to hit the gym tomorrow and burn some calories off before we left.

Afterwards we continued around the edge of the station and found a billiards hall in a less populated area. We played pool, which I got stomped at and Anna dominated, and darts. I'm much better at darts and held my own against them, winning two of the four games and coming in second the other two times by a close margin. The other winners were Katherine and Mari.

We stayed for a couple of hours, again with the ladies only having a single beer, and then called it a night, wanting to go to bed early in preparation for a long day tomorrow. We left the billiard hall, the station lights were dimmed, and the area we were in was almost deserted. As we were walking, Mari reached up as if to scratch her head. She put her hand behind her head and held out three fingers, closed her hand, then three again, before dropping her arm without breaking stride.

Very quietly I said "Six bodies coming."

Anna and Katherine whispered back, acknowledging the warning and started talking about the pizza place we had eaten at. Sam told all of us that she'd monitor and be ready to call station security. I loosened up my jacket and kept walking. The area was deserted at the moment with no one close. We were to one side of the wide walk way and I saw the men coming down the center in our direction. They would pass within about 5 meters to our left.

In any civilization, there are those that choose not to play by the rules of society. Some, like myself and the Privateers, bend the rules a bit (OK, a lot sometimes) but we don't break them. The rules are there for a reason and we like the results for the most part. Others simply can't seem to abide by them and tend to make the people around them miserable because they can. They fall into several categories like thug, gang member, terrorist, or whatever. Looking at these guys, I thought they fell into the low level organized crime category. Decently dressed, fairly competent looking, and someone most people would tend to avoid.

I watched them out of my peripheral vision as they pulled up next to us in a loose line. I picked out the two in front and watched as their hands went into their jackets and started pulling objects out. I had already been reaching into my jacket when almost simultaneously Mari and I yelled "NOW!"

Mari brought out her stunner and took one down immediately. The problem with stun guns is they take a second or two to recharge for the next shot. She got around this by shooting the one closest to her while stepping toward her farther target and bringing her right boot around. With her height she was able to connect solidly enough that the guy flew almost two meters before hitting the ground and not moving. She then fired her stunner into another attacker and dropped him.

Katherine, who had been walking on Anna's left avoided the grab at her by spinning away, bringing an elbow around an into the man's kidney. When the guy arched his back in pain, Anna punched him in the throat. He was lucky, if he'd been a few more centimeters towards Anna he would have had a crushed trachea. As it was, he dropped to his knees, clutching at his throat as he suddenly found it difficult to breathe and Anna brought her knee up into his chin and laying him out.

I had been at a slight disadvantage as I had to pull out and fire my stun gun across my body which cost me a second or two. As the guy I hit went down I dropped the stunner and continued to reach forward with my right. He had a knife in his right fist and was leading with that hand. I was able to grab his right wrist and twist it away and pull him towards me. I dropped my left shoulder, drove the heel of my hand into his gut and grabbed his belt. I then lifted with my whole left side while pulling to the right, basically throwing him up and over and using his arm as a handle, and smashed him into the ground like a hammer.

I spun back to check on the women, all were recovered and in defensive postures, and Mari covered the men with her stun gun. She looked towards me and the man at my feet. His arm was at an unnatural angle and his legs sprawled out and bent in weird ways. Her eyes went back to the others and she said "I think you broke him, Max."

"Not my problem." I picked up my stunner and held it at my side. Sam told us station security was on the way. When Mari saw that I had my stunner in hand she started frisking bodies with her free hand. She pulled something out of one pocket and looked at it. She placed it on the ground, grabbed the hand of the guy that had been carrying it, and pressed a thumb to the screen. The device lit up and she tossed it to Katherine who immediately started poking and swiping at the screen. She must have found something that didn't please her.

"Fucking shit!"

Anna looked at the screen and pretty much echoed the sentiment. Katherine showed the screen to Mari who looked grim. Katherine then showed me. It was a cheap texting device, bought almost everywhere. On screen was a series of texts that were received showing where we had been that day. It started with a text of the diner's name, then Nola's shop, the pizza place, and finally the billiards hall.

"Someone's either tracking her purchases or been tailing us. If they were tailing us they were good because I didn't see anyone," Mari said.

I shook my head and watched over bodies. Station security was showing up about that time and we stood with our hands in the air and, in Mari's and my case, stun guns dangling from our thumbs. Security took our weapons but didn't secure our hands and let up drop our arms.

We stood back and let them take over, with medical personnel allowed in once all the men had been checked over. An amazing array of items had been recovered, including a small gas canister, zip-cuffs, ball gags, and other paraphernalia.

The scary thing was an electronic lock-pick kit. I looked at it and knew it was a decent one. I had one of my own but of military grade. Privateers used them in boarding vessels. We were trained on a variety of models in school and this was similar to one of them. They are very hard to come by and highly illegal outside of security forces, military, or Privateers.

An investigator came over to get statements. While she was talking to Mari, Philippe and Brian showed up and walked immediately towards me. Philippe did not look happy and Brian looked bored. No one stopped them which showed how smart they were.