Towers of crates were stacked in haphazard blocks. Some were marked as Syndicate goods, most had been rebranded, labeled with false markings from one of Black Mary's various front companies. C.V.s rolled through the twisted paths through the crates, cleaning litter and refuse from the concrete floors.
Sander waved Ilias to a marked point on the gray stone floor. His green eyes quickly adjusting to the dim industrial lighting. As the hoverlift lowered their sealed pallet into position, five men in pale military uniforms stepped around a stack of metal crates. Two carried slung scythes, they stood a little back, blue and green overhead lights glittered across the black gunmetal. Two approached on either side of the Lieutenant Marshal, hands on the auto cannons holstered at their waists.
Sander felt no real danger from the implied threat, and didn't bother touching his own weapon. Ilias climbed off of the hoverlift and the goons heavy stepped to sentry positions on either side of the shushed goods. He hoisted his weapon, adjusting the strap over his shoulder.
Lieutenant Marshal Zero smiled and spread his hands in greeting. His smile was easy and warm; his hands glittered with platinum and gold rings. He extended one hand to Sander, who took it in a firm grip and let go. Zero's eyes were hidden behind gold rimmed scanglasses that no doubt provided him with a steady stream of information across their one way red screenlenses.
"Sander!" said Zero, he turned, " and Ilias! My green-eyed sharks of the starlanes! All went well, I see." His dark hair was slicked back, gleaming against the jewel encrusted communicator cybersurgeried into his left ear.
"Yes," said Ilias, his combo-weapon, Selene, was slung, both barrels pointed at the ground.
"Not entirely," said Sander, at the same time.
Zero's smile faltered just slightly. "Something go wrong, Sander?" he asked, as two of his cohorts stepped forward to bust open the sealed pallet. The ones with scythes stayed at their posts.
"Lost our pilot," said Sander.
Zero's face fell. He slid a hand over his silver trimmed wrist cuff, like a man watching a funeral procession. "That is a true tragedy," he said. "There is no greater loss than that of a crewmember and a friend."
"Yes," said Sander, with a short nod.
Ilias coughed.
Zero glanced at the men checking the pallet. One of them nodded and Zero's face brightened. "But you still shushed the goods and accomplished your objective. Professionalism, even in the face of tragedy, nothing is nobler." One of his men handed him a data lamina, he nodded once and handed it back. "Medical counteragents and genetic template constructs. Worlds turn on this feka, boys." He turned and walked away, waving for Ilias and Sander to follow. "Come, but leave your H.K. androids," he said.
The goons stayed behind, Sander and Ilias followed as did the two men with scythes. Zero's other two men stayed behind, carefully unloading the cargo. More men in syndicate naval uniforms hummed forward on hover lifts with empty crates marked with identifiers from at least twelve different front companies.
"Your pilot...Syndicate troubles, I imagine?" said Zero, glancing at Sander as they walked.
Sander nodded and said, " A battle frigate intercepted us."
Zero flashed a smile. "But you still got away," he said.
"Of course," said Ilias.
"The boys with brass on their high collars," said Zero, pointing to his own, silver trimmed high collar, "are burning through credits trying to find a way to track a ship, once its passed through thin space and entered the starlanes. The reports cross my desk from time to time." He chuckled. "The research is going nowhere."
He guided them through a series of doors that slid open automatically at his presence and into a large open conference room. Chairs surrounded a massive table of laser carved obsidian with Syndicate Stars worked in gold across its mirror surface. One wall was a darkened city at night, spires and lights layered atop rising brown smog. Sander didn't recognize the city, and he's never been in this room before.
"I'm realistic enough to know that some fikilo in some lab is going to work out how to track ships through hyperspace sooner or later, but until then," He slid into a cushioned gray chair at the head of the table. "We enjoy our little golden age." He gestured for Ilias and Sander to sit in cushioned gray chairs to his right and left. "Still," he said, removing a long silver vapor-inhaler from a case by his chair, "Losing your man..." He said, clicking a gold slider, a blue flame ignited at the end of his vapor inhaler. He breathed in the green fumes that curled around his face, breathing them out as yellow smoke. "I keep telling people," he continued. "If you keep killing the honest criminals, all that's left will be the animals." He chuckled and yellow smoke poured from his nose. "My overzealous brethren's narrow minds are unable to process that without order on both sides of the law, you get chaos on both sides of the law."
Ilias and Sander watched him smoke. He looked from one to the other and then chuckled again.
"Let's talk about your payment," he said, leaning back.
How he said it immediately but Sander on edge. Quickly glancing at Ilias, he slid his hands on the table. "I'm not sure what there is to discuss," he said, keeping his tone reasonable. "It's no different than last time, or the time before."
Zero puffed green then yellow fumes. His clean-shaven reflection glimmered across the silver vapor-inhaler as he lowered it. "Yes, well. While I understand the inconvenience, I'm afraid that Ladesic has become, quite suddenly, unavailable."
"What?" asked Ilias. He had placed his weapon on the table. His hand jumped to it but froze when one of Zero's silent guards raised his scythe and switched on its powercoils in one motion, their rifle barrels burned red.
"I don't think I understand," said Sander. The hum of the two guard's weapons vibrated the air. A cold emptiness slid down into his guts.
"Sources have dried up," said Zero, raising the vapor-inhaler. "My pipeline as been severed, permanently."
Sander felt a sudden urge to retch. He glanced at Ilias, who looked ready to forgo his combo-weapon and strangle the Lieutenant Marshal with his bare hands. Sander gave him a quick warning look and turned back to Zero. "Every—Everything passes through this rock," said Sander, struggling to organize his words. "Surely, surely nothing is permanently unreachable, not for you."
Zero gestured and his guards lowered their weapons, but the powercoils kept humming. "I like you, Sander," he said, setting the vapor inhaler on the table. "Your crew gets it done, so I'll lay it out for you," he blew out a short plume of yellow smoke. "There are chains of people that connect me to merchandise across known space. If one link in a chain gets severed, the whole chain to a particular product is lost until I can find a replacement for that link."
"Then find a new link," said Ilias, his golden voice rumbling through gritted teeth.
"Not a link," said Zero, leaning back. "I lost the whole chain."
Sander frowned. He could feel desperation rising in his throat and he forced it down. He needed to think clearly.
"Every single person connected to Ladesic has been...silenced," said Zero, picking his vapor inhaler back up and sucking in another hit. "Not even arrested or censured. Someone killed them all." He pressed his thumb against the table and a stream of data flowed across it, dozens of faces and names, all marked deceased. "Do you see it?" he asked.
"None of them were reported murdered," said Ilias at once.
Sander looked at the flowing causes of death, sure enough, all of them were marked as accidents or natural causes. A string of women, all from different planets had all died of sudden brain aneurysms, all on the same standard day, at the same time, down to the second. Other people had died in working accidents or from heart failure. Two men had died in accidental ship explosions.
"Some of those people were links in other chains too," said Zero. "This, this trail of bodies, has cost me an entire stellar region."
"Strange whoever did this hasn't come after you," murmured Ilias. Sander almost shot him a warning look, but kept still. He wanted an explanation for that as well.
Zero chuckled. "I took steps a long time ago to insulate me from this kind of feka. Plus, not being able to track ships jumping into hyperspace lanes gives Black Mary's a natural barrier against investigation. It's part of this place's natural charm," He puffed more smoke; it stank of acrid chemicals. "The point is," he said, "ladesic is unavailable. I have never, in my life, even heard of a product so utterly unavailable. Somebody from above the highest cadre of military brass has decided that ladesic no longer exists. The bloody word has been erased from every data stream connected to the Syndicate Mainframe. Are you understanding me now?"
With a great surge of hopelessness, Sander nodded. Illias was silent, immobile but for dropping the hand near his combo-weapon back into his lap.