The Harbor was technically close to water, but it wasn’t a harbor by any description save perhaps safe harbor. It was close to the massive reservoir of water at the center of the dome. It was designed to grab the deluge that occurred when condensation on the dome caused a rain to fall inside. It was processed, recycled and sent back out to taps. The Harbor was wedged in beside it. A former processing station since taken over and turned into a bar, holo-parlor and arcade. It was popular with the less savory teenagers and young adults of New Amazon. If you wanted to make a name for yourself in the underworld of New Amazon, you hung out here. SATO Security, and its inheritor, System Alliance Security ignored its existence. Provided whatever was happening didn’t involve compromising the stability of the dome, they didn’t care. The New Amazon police force cared only so far as civilians got hurt. They steered clear of this place. Lest they see a high-ranking corporate fixer by accident and find themselves with the worst kind of assignments.

Miles blushed when the bouncer leaned in and said something that Hazel couldn’t catch over the din of the music. They were waved inside, and Miles went to a private room. There were already a few people there.

She knew Pinto based on holo-photo she’d seen. He had a cybernetic arm. It was older model. His hair was shaved at the sides his long black mohawk was lain over the left side of his head. He had an obvious cybernetic eye. He looked to be in his twenties. He was wearing a faux purple leather jacket, blue jeans and faux leather boots. He was smoking a cigarette and had a beer in hand. One foot was on the table, and he was leaning on it. He had the same dusky skin Miles had. Probably due to his native American ancestry. He wasn’t a large man, but he wasn’t small either. Hazel still had several inches on him. There was another woman, also early twenties. Her hair was dyed bright pink. She had less obvious cybernetic eyes the irises were bright rainbows and a blinged out data port on her arm and also at the base of her neck. She wasn’t unattractive and her completion was closer to Hazels. She had a portable computer on her lap. Even as thin and small as they were they were a magnitude more powerful than the processor in her mother’s military grade holo-phone. Also, expensive. Rounding out the group of young adults was a larger man. He looked slightly older than the others, he had cyber arms, legs, eyes and even some of his torso was chromed out. He was an inch taller than Hazel. He was bare chested and was wearing an old biker vest. Likely pulled from the ice and resold at the local RRR. He was standing up with his arms crossed. His race was hard to figure, he had so many implants. At the head of the table was a chubby man. He was in his fifties, and he didn’t have many implants at all. He was watching the group. When Miles and Hazel entered his blue eyes snapped to Hazel. Hazel met his stare in kind, and he looked away first. The largest of the youth looked at Hazel then walked up to Miles.

“Shit man, you didn’t tell me your girlfriend was such a babe!”

Miles stuck his middle finger up at him.

“Fuck off Dimi.”

Dimi’s hand touched Hazel’s behind. She slammed her palm into his chest and pressed him up against the opaque holo-glass. He looked surprised by her strength.

“Touch me without my permission again and I will joyfully rip your arms off and ass-fuck you with them.”

He laughed at her she shook her head and released him, and he reached to do it again. All his cybernetic strength and weight was used against him as he slammed hard into the cement floor. Her foot found his still very organic throat. He struggled to breath. Hazel glared down at him.

“Don’t push me.”

Miles touched Hazel’s arm gently and she released the pressure. Dimi crawled a few feet and sat on the couch nursing his throat staring at Hazel. Miles was looking up at Hazel, she wasn’t sure if it was fear or shock in his eyes. Hazel crossed her arms. Pinto had been watching the whole scuffle with something akin to amusement. He looked at Hazel.

“Shit. Maybe we should use you for the muscle.”

Hazel shrugged.

“I thought you wanted me to fly something.”

“Yea, you’re saving us a bundle.”

Hazel shrugged.

“What’s the job?”

“Depends.”

He looked at Dimi.

“We good Dimi? Or are you going to keep sexually harassing our pilot?”

Dimi was still rubbing his neck which had Hazel’s boot print firmly imprinted on it still. He nodded to Pinto after looking at Hazel sheepishly. Pinto nodded he looked to the single middle-aged person in the room and nodded.

“The job is you’re hitting a transport. Only want one thing from it. Hardcase, Asset number is 6587125. It will be clearly labeled. Payment is 20k. Black credit chit. Anything else on the transport is yours.”

Hazel frowned.

“You’re leaving out an important piece of information: Whose transport?”

“Does it matter? I have the landing pad number.”

Hazel quirked an eyebrow.

“It would be nice to know who we’re pissing off.”

Pinto looked between Hazel and the man finally he nodded in agreement with Hazel.

“Yea, she’s right.”

Hazel blinked, glancing at the team, they were all nodding. She couldn’t believe they wouldn’t have asked that question and she was the amateur? She looked at Miles and shook her head. He blushed and nodded. The man at the head of the table frowned.

“Crusader Technologies.”

Hazel frowned. The rest started looking at each other Pinto was white. The other woman in the group was shaking her head. Miles was tugging Hazel towards the door and Dimi was scratching the back of his head like he had no clue what was going on. Hazel shook her head.

“That’s why you left the name off.”

Pinto started shaking his head.

“No way man, no way. We’re out. Twenty grand isn’t worth that kind of heat. You were trying to rip us off.”

The guy held up his hands.

“Its an unmarked transport. Okay I’ll cut you in for ten percent, one million. Its also going to have some primo military grade cybergear, and weapons on it.”

Hazel shook her head.

“Why would they have it unmarked? What about their fighter escort? I know how this works.”

The man’s lips pursed.

“What do you know, you’re a kid.”

“My family own’s a corporation. They don’t send anything valuable enough to steal for ten million without some heavy support. One box, and ignoring a bunch of other hardware? What’s in it?”

“Look you guys don’t ask questions, do this and you’ll be set for years. I got your clearance codes and IDs already ready to go with the New Amazon port authority.”

Hazel shook her head.

“Yea, my friend didn’t ask questions she ended up drugged and tortured until we pulled her ass out of the black site. Will no one else take this job? Is that why you’re hiring a bunch of inexperienced kids? You want Miles and I in on this I want hard intel. How many escort fighters, how many guards? What kind of transport, model and year, what is its destination?”

Miles was looking up at Hazel now, confusion in his eyes. That was the first hint Hazel had given him she wasn’t just a normal teenage girl. Everyone was looking at Hazel now. She looked at them.

“What? You weren’t going to ask? You were just going to wing it?”

Pinto looked at Miles then Hazel.

“Miles didn’t say you were a pro.”

“Miles doesn’t know everything about me.”

She looked back to the man who was staring at her. She shrugged and grabbed Mile’s arm.

“Come on, you don’t need this money. I got you.”

Miles pulled back.

“No, I’m going to make my own way. I’ll go if the team is going.”

Pinto shrugged.

“I’m in.”

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Hazel sighed, released Miles and crossed her arms. The man took a drink. Hazel could see a few drops of sweat on his brow. He was desperate for them to accept the job. Mile’s friends had dollar signs in their eyes and weren’t thinking clearly. Hazel being who she was never worried about money, so she was thinking with her head. She held up her hand.

“Pinto, I’ll help, lets go buy drinks together.”

Pinto looked at Miles, who shrugged. Pinto motioned for her to follow and left the room. The pair went to the bar. Hazel leaned over and pointed at the most expensive alcohol. There five bottles in a locked cabinet, all one-hundred-year-old single malt scotch. The bartender gave her a strange look.

“I’ll take two please.”

Pinto looked at Hazel like she was crazy. Hazel reached into her mother’s pack and pulled out a black credit chit. She knew it was the one with two hundred and fifty grand on it. She also knew each bottle was about a hundred and twenty. Just because she’d watch her mother buy one as a gift for Amee. The woman checked the chit and shrugged. Pulled down two bottles and after deducting the price handed the chit back to Hazel who held up her hand.

“Keep it. Six glasses please.”

The bartender grinned at Hazel and put out six glasses on a tray.

“Enjoy. You need anything else you just let me know.”

Hazel nodded and picked up the bottles and motioned her head towards the tray, Pinto looked at it and back to Hazel.

“Those are like a hundred grand a bottle, and you didn’t even ask the price.”

Hazel nodded.

“Did Miles tell you who I was?”

“Nah, just that your family was corp.”

“When I go to Aurelius Credit and ask for a credit account, do you know what they ask me?”

Pinto shook his head.

“They ask me if I want to bother with a limit.”

Pinto blinked at her.

“My last name is Aurelius. I tell you this because you guys, you’re looking at the money, I’ll be fine if this goes south, you guys, you’ll be screwed. He’s desperate for you to take the job. He started sweating the moment he thought it was going south. No one else wants this job, probably because if Crusader is doing stuff under the radar, they’re probably shipping to someone who you also don’t want to piss off. What is the fixer’s usual cut?”

“Ten to twenty percent.”

“Then why are you accepting him getting a ninety percent cut with all the unknowns?”

Pinto blinked at her.

“I could pay you one million right now to back away. I can’t replace the guns, or the cybertech but you’d be better off then you will be after this job.”

Pinto frowned.

“This isn’t about the money or the tech, its about the reputation. We do this job, sky is the limit.”

“So, you’re going to hit the biggest security contractor in the System’s Alliance, and their customer, who you don’t know who it is, then brag about it?”

Pinto gripped the bar and stared at the glasses.

“How do you know so much? I mean you’re like a teenager.”

“I listen a lot and I pretend I don’t care. I’m just a teenager a lot. I was going to do that here but you’re going to get my boyfriend killed at this rate.”

Pinto nodded.

“Now get the tray, I didn’t buy these to look at them. I think it will make my point to the fixer. Who is he?”

“His name is Charlie, old school, just got back to Earth.”

Hazel frowned.

“My mother worked with him before. It went badly. Ask for more. His reputation is on the line he’ll pay. I heard her say he was in exile because of a screw up. Probably why he couldn’t find a team.”

Pinto picked up the tray of glasses and followed Hazel to the room. There were a few wide smiles when she put the bottles down. Charlie leaned forward and picked up one of the bottles, he read the label and looked at Hazel. He seemed to be the only one to realize they were drinking bottles worth a hundred thousand credits each. Hazel sat down and poured herself a glass and drank it down like it was water. She had no appreciation for alcohol truly, she’d had all kinds by now. Miles blinked at her as he tried and coughed a bit. She leaned forward and looked at Charlie.

“Let’s hope this goes better than the Gremlins did.”

Charlie went white. Hazel leaned back and started sipping another glass. Pinto looked at Charlie.

“What’s she talking about?”

Charlie tugged on the collar of his shirt.

“Just a job that went a bit wrong but turned out alright. Turns out client didn’t need what they had.”

Hazel poured a glass of scotch and pushed it to Charlie.

“Take a drink, you’re going to need it, Charlie.”

Charlie lifted the glass, the liquid sloshed slightly due to his shaking hand. He took a long sip, his eyes still on Hazel. Pinto sipped his glass and put it down on the table.

“So, I hear, you have a reputation for screwing people over, Charlie. I think we need a bigger cut if we’re going to do this.”

Charlie took another drink and swallowed hard.

“All rumors I assure you.”

Hazel took another drink of her scotch.

“Is that why you were exiled to Titan, taking whatever job you could to pay off your debt to the… who was it?”

Charlie was sweating profusely now. He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead. He downed the rest of his glass and put it down on the table.

“How much?”

Pinto glanced at Hazel.

“Fifty-Fifty split. And you tell us who the customer is, so we know who we’re pissing off.”

She poured another glass for Charlie. He wiped up more sweat and then took another drink.

“The Holy Order of God.”

Hazel blinked. Of all the things she was expecting to hear, a group of fundamentalist Christian fanatics was not it. Everyone else had the same expression she did. Hazel shrugged.

“I have no problem screwing them over. They repress, women, free speech, prochoice, uh…everything basically. What the hell do they need military gear for? Should have led with that Charlie.”

The rest of the group nodded in agreement. Charlie’s tense shoulders relaxed slightly he took another drink of scotch.

“I’ll do fifty.”

Pinto offered his hand. Charlie took it and shook it. Hazel poured herself another glass, took a sip and looked at Charlie.

“When is the transport scheduled to leave?”

“Uh, tonight.”

Hazel put the cork back in the bottle they had opened. Pinto nodded. Hazel stood up.

“I’ll be right back, where’s washrooms?”

The woman, who Hazel didn’t know the name of yet pointed towards a corner of the Harbor. Hazel wandered in that direction and tapped her wrist tapped the contact for Apollo.

“Hello Hazel, are you enjoying your evening out? I am not sure the Harbor is appropriate for someone with your legal age on your ID.”

Hazel smiled in spite of herself, of course he could track her signal. He could scan planets.

“Uh, well Miles is about to be in a world of trouble and I’d like to help him stay out of it, could you help?”

“I see no reason why I cannot at this moment. What do you need?”

“Well I said I could fly a transport…but I don’t know to fly one of the 29th century ones, could you uh do it for me? Oh and could you do some cloaked scans for me?”

“Of course. Is this…criminal activity?”

“Uh, why? Are you programmed not to do it?”

“No, I am just intrigued by my family’s criminal proclivities considering the status we hold.”

“Uh, well, I’m my mother’s daughter?”

“Yes, Aunt Enid doesn’t seem to pay much attention to laws, does she?”

“No, she does not.”

“What do you need scanned?”

“Space Dock eighteen-c. There should be a transport, just need to know what kind of security they have?”

“Is the transport the one you’ll be stealing?”

“Yes.”

“I will identify it, find a pilot’s manual and update your holo-tablet with the appropriate software so that you will get instructions on the fly. If need be if you connect to it by wire, I can take control.”

“Thank you so much Apollo, you’re saving a few lives today.”

“Do not mention it cousin. I was growing bored of these strange archaic episodes of tv where an English chef helps restaurants by insulting their owners. Sometimes organics are strange.”

“Tell me about it. Just don’t go calling us meatbags.”

“Technically organics are better described as fleshy waterbags.”

“Somehow that sounds worse.”

“I am currently on route to the space docks. Sending you video feed.”

Hazel wandered into the washroom, by the time she got finished with her business and was washing her hands the hacker joined her. The shorter woman looked up at Hazel and smiled.

“Thanks for helping out. Charlie would have screwed us. Thought you were just a kid. Guess I was wrong. My name is Zebra.”

Hazel nodded.

“Interesting name. I would think you’d pick something that could change its stripes.”

Zebra laughed softly.

“No, that’s my given name, my handle is Spicy Sauce.”

“Ah. That’s more what I’d thought it would be.”

Zebra tapped her fingers on the counter and looked back up at Hazel.

“I don’t mean to be… well I don’t mean to doubt your skills but how are you going to fly without a data port? I mean you have no chrome whatsoever.”

“How do you know that?”

“Uh, I got bio-scanners in my eyes. So, could you tell me? I saw you talking to someone.”

“Like people used to fly? With my hands. Also I can hook into my holo-tablet. I have software assist.”

Zebra opened her mouth to say something more and Hazel held up her finger. She started watching the holo-feed of target. There were scrambled signals.

“Apollo, what are those scrambled spots?”

“Cannot say, they are effectively blocking my sensors. Possibly additional security. I have the model of the transport. Sending the manual now. It should be fairly easy. I still suggest you wire your holo-tablet into the data port in case you get engaged by hostile actors.”

“Thanks Apollo.”

“Also, I have the entry codes, they didn’t scramble the person’s fingers. You’ll need to defeat the biometrics, however. I have scans, but I do not believe you have the tools.”

“Send them. Someone here can help. I’ll leave the comm link open.”

Zebra was staring at Hazel. Hazel looked at Zebra.

“I have a scan of the space dock, but they had sensor scramblers. I also have the entry code and a bio-scan of someone who has entry permission, but they have biometric security enabled on the doorway. Can you beat that?”

Zebra’s mouth opened and closed a few times as she blinked at Hazel. Finally, she found her voice.

“Uh, yes but I’ll need to be at the panel. I don’t really want to be there.”

Hazel shrugged.

“Sorry for the bad news?”

Zebra nodded then blinked a few times.

“You were doing that on an open comm-link?”

“No, encrypted.”

“Who are you talking too then?”

“I know a guy with a stealth drone. I figured it as better than going in blind.”

“Give me the data, I’ll see what I can do with the scrambled sensor readings.”

Hazel tapped her holo-tablet to Zebra’s and established a secure local datalink then sent the information requested. Zebra was looking at information in front of her eyes. Hazel assumed she had a built-in display in her cybernetic eyes that mimicked the one in her own contacts.

“You are seriously connected Hazel. How the hell do you know someone with access to System’s Alliance surveillance level technology?”

Hazel shrugged.

“Like I said my family owns a corporation.”

“I can work with this; I’ll be able to get us through the doors. Tell your guy friend, thank you. Probably just saved us. This is way more secure than Charlie led us to believe. Fuck. Miles should have brought you in earlier.”

“I wouldn’t have been as much help earlier. I had some…intensive training recently in this sort of thing.”

“Cool. So, you can fly this transport?”

“I’ve already got a flight manual. Anything I need to get on the fly is there.”

“You’re a real Pro Hazel. Wish the rest of the gang was like you. They never do prep.”

Hazel smiled and nodded while silently thanking Apollo for being awesome.

“We should tell the boys. We might be able to pull this off. Ten million each. Yesh I’ll be able to retire to a colony world and live in luxury in a few years.”

Hazel nodded. The pair went out to the bar.