The hotel room was dead quiet as Logan prodded around my mechanical arm. The solder in his hands buzzed as a tiny spark glanced over the bedside table and flickered off the plates that we had to pry off to get inside.
Finally, the silence broke when my brother grumbled out “Try moving now.” My metal fingers squeezed closed, then opened again. It felt sluggish and numb, but for a field repair it was a good job. Logan was no Doc Ingram, but he had the engineering skills to step up when it was needed. Such a skilled man. Such a kind man. Such a forgiving man, even? Returning the soldering iron to its case, Logan looked back at me and spoke like he could read my mind. “I still think you’re an idiot. I told you in very clear terms not to get into trouble.”
I rolled my shoulder, regaining a bit of feeling. “Fair, fair, but… Now we know the Archer Moon agency is on our backs. That’s valuable information, right?”
Before Logan could respond, Meadows spoke up from the dark corner he had been lurking in. “Despite his inability to follow simple instructions, it is useful info. What I find most interesting is that he confronted you instead of waiting for you to get outed. If he really wanted to collect your bounty, he’d be smart enough to let you commit the crime first.”
Part of me was taken aback by Meadows’ comment. He mixed in with the shadows when he stood still, looking more like a smear on the wall than a three-dimensional person. Like the little blotches of blue when you close your eyes. Nonetheless, he made an unfortunately sensible point. “He’s right,” I said to Logan “Moon was either trying to scare me away from something he knows about or was trying to make me show our hand so he could poach it.”
Logan stood up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “In any case, it’s one more thorn in our side. One problem on a growing list, and we don’t even know why we’re here yet other than to find some random technician.” His brow furrowed as he looked angrily towards Meadows. “Then what? We supposed to interrogate him? Kill him? What did you need us for?”
Meadows raised his hands defensively. “I didn’t bring you two here to cause harm. Believe me, if this outing were to just scratch my sadistic itch, I could have done that alone.”
My metal arm jittered slightly as I reached across the table and picked up the bottle of champagne that I had nicked earlier. If nothing else, I at least got free booze from that shitty encounter. “And just what can’t you do yourself, hm?” I took a long swig. “Why not just wave your hand and have some shmuck working here bring the guy to you?”
The man’s mismatched eyes cut through the dark and glared at me. “My utilities don’t work that way, boy. The more committed they are to keeping something secret, the harder it is for me to have them spill it.” He stood up, walked into the light, and took the bottle from my hand. “Now listen closely. We have a job to do, and we need to do it with some amount of professionalism.” With that, he poured the alcohol into the bucket Logan had been throwing ruined bits of metal and wire into.
My glare went from the wasted booze up to Meadows. “That’s not a polite way to treat your coworker.”
“Subordinate.” Meadows spitefully corrected.
With the tension in the room growing, Logan decided to sit up from his stool and brush the soot off his once nice suit. “That’s enough. We’re here, we’ve got a job, and it won’t get done with us cooped up in this room together.” He looked to Meadows, still keeping eye contact with me. “Where do we go to find this technician? What does he look like? Will he be armed?”
Finally, his piercing eyes were pried from me, and his scowl transformed into the same fake smile he wore on every occasion. “I am so very glad you asked, my friend. His name is Edmund Wallace, and he is an inner system gentleman, so I wouldn’t expect him to know how to shoot. On the topic of his whereabouts…” Meadows clasped his hands together. “That is your job to find out. I know he’s somewhere on this station, but whether he’s disguised as a guest, hiding in the crew quarters, or in the damn walls is unbeknownst to me. All I can tell you is that wherever he is, the people I questioned haven’t heard from him in quite some time.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
I started to put my head in my hands, but my metal arm began to spasm and shake. I tried to ignore the continuing glitch as I took my time to grieve. “Great, so you put us with a needle in a haystack and say ‘good luck’?”
“I won’t be leaving.” Meadows shot back, perfectly calm in the most terrifying of ways. “You don’t know much about me, boy, but know this. I am just as committed as you to getting this shit done, and I’ve been spending the last two years working constantly to get us this far. Now is the time for you to pick up your end of the bargain.”
I looked at Logan, and he looked back at me the same way he’d watch me when I’d poured one too many shots. Sometimes you got to swallow your pride before you vomit on some governor’s shoes. “Fine. We’ll start looking.”
“Good to hear…” Meadows said, attention suddenly split between us and something else. “…I believe there’s someone at the door.”
And sure enough, a knock came right after he said that. Logan tensed up, hand hovering over the pistol he had sat on the desk. He muttered, “Jesse if you got room service, I swear…”
I raised my hands, struggling a bit with my mechanical right. “I’m not that much of a fool.”
Meadows eased over to the entrance, cautiously grabbing the door handle and opening it. He stayed behind the door, keeping his presence hidden. On the other side was a casino employee, holding a yellow envelope. He held out the package and spoke. “I have a parcel for Jesse Burrows. From the Archer Moon agency.”
I shot an eyebrow up, easing from my chair and meeting the young man. I took the package in one hand and slammed the door shut with the other. I raised it to my ear as I spoke to the others “Nothing’s ticking at least.”
Logan stood; eyes locked on the envelope. “Whatever it is, I doubt it’s good.”
Meadows stayed in the dark corner, glaring at the parcel intently. “I don’t sense anything dangerous… Open it.”
Just in case, I used my mechanic arm to force open the sealed fold, yet nothing exploded or sprayed poison gas. Inside were a clump of photographs, and from the size of the prints and quality of the images it was with an expensive inner system camera. I pulled one out, and the revealed images were rather unexpected. “Oh. That’s not good.” Is all I said as Meadows lurched closer.
Inside the pamphlet were dozens of pictures of Meadows inside Las Platillo, whether he was with us or doing his creeping. All of them featured the bald man, and by the look on the scarred witch doctor’s face, he had no idea his beauty shots were being taken. One wouldn’t have thought that with all his tricks and spells, Meadows would have been unable to tell he was being watched.
I turned one of the photos over to show Logan, who simply pinched the bridge of his nose and cursed. “Fuck… Out of all the things we needed, it wasn’t Archer Moon tailing Meadows.” On the other side of the photo, there was a handwritten message. All it said was ‘So much for just enjoying the casino.’
Still looking over the handwriting, I noted. “At the very least, he’s still just bark and no bite. If he had an airtight connection between Meadows and illegal activities, he would have just broke down the door. All he knows for certain is that we’re in contact with an unsettling creole.”
With a sigh, the bald man grimaced as he rubbed over his head. After a long exhale, Meadows looked at both of us. “It’s still not good, and certainly was not in my predictions… Change of plans, boys.” His mismatched eyes met mine. “Congratulations young man, you don’t need to knock on doors anymore. You, my friend, are coming with me.”
I immediately interjected. “What? Why?”
“Because,” Meadows continued, “with that man apparently aware that I am up to no good, I am in need of muscle. And since you have unfortunately proven yourself incapable of being left alone, it can’t be your infinitely more competent sibling.”
Logan took his pistol off the desk and hid it in the small of his back where it usually stayed. “Isn’t your whole M.O. going by undetected? No offense to my younger brother, but he’s not necessarily the pinnacle of being covert.”
I nodded my head and gestured at my chest, wishing with all my heart not to be stuck with Meadows. “You should listen to him. Look at my vest. Does that say ‘unmemorable’ to you?”
Meadows held up his hand to me while he looked to Logan. He had too much on his mind to deal with antics. “That was back when I thought we had time. Now we need to move fast and hard before Moon either calls the feds or sicks security on us. The troublesome one will behave if he knows what’s best for him, and you, Logan, I expect to be kicking on doors instead of knocking. We need to find this damn technician, and we need to find him fast.”
Briefly checking my revolvers, I took a deep breath. “Fine. Who cares about enjoying your time in a resort, anyway? Back to the fray, gentlemen.”