No Shelter Among the Stars

Chapter 8- Gypsy

Gypsy held his gaze. "Are you still working for the Syndicate?" Her fingers slid a small device from a compartment hidden beneath the black belts strapped across her pants.

Luben placed the vial on the table between two of the flashing digital laminas. He eyed the microscope top. "Gypsy, girl, do I need to explain how the galaxy works?"

"Oh no," said Gypsy. "You made yourself very clear last time."

"I play both sides," said Luben. "Everyone does. This miserable little city is a Syndicate military base for fikilo's sake! The price of living in a Syndicate galaxy is that we have to give them something every now and then. It's taxation."

Gypsy leaned forward, the small device clutched in the palm of her hand. "I don't pay taxes, Luben."

"I'm holding your one way out of here in my hand," said Luben. "You really want to go back on the street, helping some crew do a high stakes job for a sandwich?"

"How many people have you sold them?" asked Gypsy. She could feel her emotions rising, the anger flashing in her amber eyes.

Luben shrugged. "Over the years? More than a few. You got to hand someone over ever so often to get them to trust you. It's how I can get what I can get." He raised his hand defensively, pointing it at her. "I never give them anybody who wasn't going down already."

Gypsy slipped her thumb against the button on one side of her hand device. "Who were these people? These people you sold out, because they were already going down?"

Luben leaned forward. His thin mouth broke into a snarl, revealing small white teeth; "They weren't me."

"How many of these drunks are yours?" asked Gypsy.

Luben didn't look around. "My men are at the entrance, Gypsy. You know I always make my recruiting meetings private. Not that it matters. Get out of my sight. Have fun thinking about your principles while your slurping nutrients from a garbage depository."

Gypsy closed her eyes and pressed the button. Pure white flashed in front of her eyelids, microbuds in her ears protected her hearing from the main blast, but it didn't filter the screams of Luben and the drunks around her. She opened her eyes to see him on his knees with the table tipped over and blood dribbling out of his ears. She dove next to him tossing the digital laminas aside and sifting through broken glass and smashed light fixtures. Closing her eyes had saved her vision, but she still saw white spots dancing in front of her as she searched. Finally, she caught hold of the vial and slipped it in her pants.

She rose to her feet just as two of Luben's men walked inside. They looked around in shock at the general devastation, then at their moaning boss, and then at her. The sensebomb in her hand had emitted a frequency shattering anything glass or ceramic in the cave, but most other objects were intact other than tables or chairs that had been knocked over by people collapsing to the floor. She had hoped that the burst would reach outside, but the two guards looked unharmed.

Exasperated, she flicked her wrist and a small pistol slid into her hand, from a clockwork mechanism strapped to her wrist. She slipped her finger against the trigger and fired twice. The frag bullet exploded in midair, shredding one man's face. He dropped with a shriek. The other shot missed completely, but both men dropped for cover. Gypsy sprinted past them firing blindly in their direction. Explosions peppered the air and tore chunks from the floor and wall. She really needed to practice her shot more.

The unharmed guard was already pulling a pistol from inside his coat as she turned and fled the pub. She flicked her wrist again and the pistol slid back down her sleeve as she rushed forward into the street. A hand autocannon roared and bits of street exploded around her. One bullet caught her in her right shoulder blade, pitching her forward into a knot of people. Gasping at the sudden pain, she barely regained her balance and fled down the alleyway and out into one of Black Mary's main roads.

Once making it into the crowded street, she stopped running. She kept her pace even as she caught her breath and pushed her way along at the same general speed as everyone else. Her shoulder blade stung, and the pain extended to that whole joint. Choking a little as she tried to take deep calming breaths, she pulled off her long coat and turned it around to look at the back as she walked. There in the shoulder of her coat, a bronze bullet was stuck between a couple of the structured polymer fibers. With an effort, she yanked it out and dropped it to the ground as he fibers realigned themselves. Then she pressed a hidden button and the coat turned from black to blue. She pulled the coat back on, pain shot through her shoulder as she did so, but it was gratifying that she hadn't spent her last bit of coin for nothing. Not all her jobs had been for protein bars.

One of the microbuds in her ear fluttered.

"Answer call," she said, pushing past a man and a woman arguing over a nutrient pack.

"Gypsy, its Alban."

"Good, I'm on my way over to you now. Do you have a ship for me?" she said, hiding her prize in one of her coat pockets.

"Might, do you have a way off this rock?" he asked.

"Might," she said.

Static shuddered through her ear. "How's Luben?"

"He'll live. Tell me about the ship."

"There is a matter of my finder's fee," said Alban.

"We will discuss that when I get there. Give me a nice quiet table towards the back, I don't want anything fiking this up."

"Are you sure that you got what you need?" said Alban.

"Yes! End call." The microbud fluttered again as it broke the connection. She looked down at the vial and the nanowire inside bouncing up and down as she walked.

"Like, seventy four percent sure" she murmured. She pushed her way past a group of teenagers all dressed alike. A hand went for her pockets and she swatted it away.