An executive on the run from the law has to make some new friends if she is going to avoid the authorities. Sci-Fi Corporate Crime.
With their pulses pounding in their ears, Madeleine and the stranger ran. They were ill prepared for a sport of such vigor, but the threat of pursuit overrode their former agendas. The business woman and the shabby man had arrived at the market separately, but they fled together in the opposite direction of the patrolling World Union enforcers.
Their feet splashed through the puddles in the streets as their legs churned with urgency. Madeleine would have laughed under different circumstances. “A drought for twenty years, and now we have so much extra water we let it pool up,” she thought to herself. She had never been in Newhaven, and she had been quite surprised at the priorities of the politicians in this dying town. Shops and homes stood in ruins, but a few basic provisions in excess were supposed to cure all ails.
Madeleine’s now slippery designer boots gave out as she rounded the corner of the next pock-marked brick building, and she panicked as she fell. The stranger was so close behind her that he could not avoid catching her. He fought to get her back on her feet, but not before Madeleine was nearly overwhelmed by the smell of stale sweat on his body. For a woman that prided herself on first class living, she would have to lower her standards if she was going to get any help from this man.
In fact, she didn’t even know if he was willing to help her. She had not had time to work any of her charms on him, but he had been more than willing to join in her run at the sight of armed World Union officers. Citizens with outstanding warrants always tried to escape the reach of WU scanners. The devices were worn on officers’ forearms, and they continually checked DNA patterns of individuals within a three hundred meter radius against patterns of suspects. The man who ran with Madeleine now was certainly not innocent and perhaps quite dangerous, but this kind of man might know the best way out of a dirty little city like this through some illicit means of transportation.
As Madeleine continued to scheme, she heard her newly acquired companion wheezing. She led the two of them into a covered corner of an alleyway and tried to let him catch his breath before the next break for cover. Upon closer inspection, the corner was covered in large splotches of black mold and reeked of sewage. “What a lovely town,” Madeleine thought to herself.
Half hunched over, the man looked as though he were ready to collapse. Large spots of sweat showed through his already stained shirt. Madeleine was beginning to doubt that this was the mastermind criminal she had envisioned when he coughed twice then vomited all over the pavement beneath them.
“How much did you have to eat?” she asked.
He coughed and vomited bile in response.
“All right. I think I can find my way from here on my own.”
He spit to get the taste out of his mouth and said, “You never flown in space before?”
“Sure. I took an orbit trip once. I was fine.”
“Not a pleasure cruise, dammit,” he said as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “I’m talking about running deliveries to Jupiter’s moons on a freighter.”
“Jupiter?”
“Yeah. Takes a while. Re-entry to Earth gravity is a bitch.”
The man poked his head back out into the alleyway. Once he was assured it was clear, he set the pace this time. Madeleine looked back to see if anyone had spotted them, but the streets were still empty. She had seen enough police drama vids to know that the officers were not finished with their pursuit but only waiting on their backup. The hover carriers were probably rounding up scores of officers right now. Soon enough, the narrow streets would be covered with armor clad police toting “shock sticks” and laser pistols.
Keeping any tone out of her voice that might betray her, Madeleine asked, “Are you freighter pilot or something?”
“Naw, just a deck hand. At least I was, before the WU cracked down on IGS. A handful of pricks cost me my job and made me a suspect.”
Madeleine had been following the news very closely. She knew all about the Inter-Galactic Shipping scandal. Corporate executives were caught in collaboration with black market czars from all over the world. IGS provided cheap, safe transportation for any sort of cargo: in this case illegal drugs, weapons, and any other contraband that needed to get out to the newly settled planets. In exchange, several prominent members of the underworld granted special favors to the company. Sometimes payment came in huge cash bonuses; other times IGS was granted a greater dominance of the industry through “unfortunate accidents” befalling competing shipping companies.
The stranger slowed his pace on the street before bending down to squeeze between two crumbling walls. Madeleine fought back her apprehension and did her best to follow. She hated tight spaces, and she only barely managed to get through the tendrils of rusted beams and piles of rubble without her ripping her leather jacket.
She had already been lucky today. WU agents had raided the IGS corporate headquarters that very morning and had apprehended nearly all of the responsible parties in the scandal, but Madeleine had been on vacation with a certain someone. She had lied about a tour of the Orient in order to protect her lover’s marriage, and now she had spent the day distancing herself from anyone who could recognize her and turn her in. Professions of love were so easily rebuked amidst promises of fame and fortune for the correct informer.
Though less than a day old, the IGS scandal was quickly the crown jewel in the World Union’s Re-Beautification Project. With Earth realty plummeting, the Union had unanimously voted on a stern effort to clean up the planet: both physically and ethically. If the Union could at least present an illusion of safety, property value would once again skyrocket like it had in the days of old, before off-planet residences came in vogue. Therefore, anyone who even worked with IGS would be detained to determine the extent of corruption inside the company. IGS would be an example, and anyone with information would be richly rewarded. In fact, if Madeleine’s current guide through the city knew that she were responsible for his current unemployment and trouble with the law, he could turn her in and probably walk away a free man… a rich free man.
A personnel carrier swooped just over the rooftops of the buildings surrounding the alleyway. The man in front of Madeleine took off at a dead sprint. Shocked at the sudden burst of speed, she did her best to keep up. Was he trying to lose her? Madeleine exercised at all of the best gyms, but she had decided as a young woman that she wasn’t built for endurance training.
She followed her guide into an even narrower entryway, and they squeezed between two buildings. Halfway down the dark corridor, he stopped. Madeleine thought that the man was frustrated or that he was going to be sick again. He started banging on the wall, and Madeleine backed up for the next round of vomiting.
Surprisingly enough, the wall popped open, and a surly man in a dirty t-shirt pulled the two of them inside. Even after he had shut the door, the man never said a word. He put his back to the door, folded his arms across his chest and stared at the two of them.
“H-hello,” Madeleine stammered out. “Thank you for your help…”
From off to the side, a booming voice cut her attempt at friendliness, “Gavin! You finally back on planet to stay a little while?!”
Madeleine glanced over to look at the man. Knowing a man’s name put him in a completely different light. “Gavin, huh? What kind of crowd have you been running with?” she thought to herself.
With a sour face, Gavin replied, “Yeah, Pits. Thought I’d swing by and see how you’re doing.”
Madeleine heard the coarse laughter. She was surprised to see how skinny the appropriately named Pits actually was. His large voice had apparently belonged to a man who used to weigh much more, but the telltale signs of Dry Well Syndrome were obvious. A sort of perpetual dehydration sucked out the moisture from one’s body, leaving a person with a gaunt, hollow look. Such people were always hooked to a medical unit similar to Pits’.
“So those WU personnel carriers overhead have nothing to do with your decision to stop by?” Pits jeered from his ratty couch. The faded green upholstery fought to keep the springs and cushions inside.
“I thought that, maybe for old times’ sake, you could help me out this once,” Gavin replied. Madeleine started to see the lines in his face and how the years were wearing on him when he spoke to Pits.
“You know Pits doesn’t do nothing for free, old man. Medical bills don’t pay themselves.” To emphasize his point, Pits wound the tubes of his hydration machine around his fingers as though they were loose threads.
Madeleine could see where this was going. She stepped in, “We need your help, and we’re willing to pay substantially for it.”
“What kind of scam you got this time, Gavin? You were normally just a muscle kind of guy, not a hustler.”
“I’ve hired him as my muscle,” she snapped.
Gavin vomited again. She pressed on without acknowledging his inability to intimidate.
“You can see the situation. Neither of us wishes to be apprehended. I’ll give you one thousand credits right now to get us out of here.”
Now Pits laughed again. “One thousand? You can’t expect me to go against the WU for less than ten.”
Madeleine laughed this time. “Ten? Are you paying for the city’s WU officers yourself?”
She loved a good negotiation.
Pits’ face grew red. “Yeah. Ten. They can kick me off this little planet just as quickly as they can kick you off.”
“But, that’s where you’re wrong. They’ll kick me off so that they can strip me of my privileges and my considerable finances, but you have nothing worth taking. You’re not worth their effort unless you’ve raped someone or something. I’ll give you five to get us out of here.”
“I’m not doing nothing for less than eight. You can get your little stuck-up ass caught for all I care.”
“Seven.”
“Seven-five.”
She pulled out the credit chips and tossed them to the man on the couch. He slapped them into a scanner. “Christopher Yaeger, huh? That supposed to be you?”
She smiled, “No. That’s supposed to be an untraceable identity. His background will check out, and you’ve got no risk. Happy shopping.”
Pits scowled at her. “High society doesn’t like to get its hands dirty. Who did this for you?”
“Doesn’t matter. Just get us out of here.”
The scrawny man used the slender plastic credit chips to tap out a steady rhythm in the palm of his hand. “Who are you?”
Madeleine shifted, “I’m someone who’s in a hurry, and we need to move this along.”
“I need to know what I stand to lose. Maybe you’re just running ‘cause you cheated on your taxes, but maybe you killed somebody. That makes a big difference. A murderer’s a lot harder to hide,” Pits explained.
He began to pace within the range that his medical equipment would allow. He took his time, enjoying the discomfort of his potential business partners. “I’ve taken a lot of time to build up my connections, my reputation, all of that. Why are you worth the risk?”
She was losing her patience. “Listen, you arrogant little toothpick!”
She was losing her patience. “Listen, you arrogant little toothpick! I have to get…”
A loud banging on the door cut her off. The amplified voice rang through the building from the unseen forces outside. “World Union! We’re authorized to come in, so get down on the ground and put your hands on the back of heads.”
Pits smiled. “They’re probably planting small explosives now. The alleyway is too narrow to allow for a battering ram, but the blast charges are just as effective. That door will blow off, and you’re going to have a lot of questions to answer. Or,” he stretched out the word to bring the maximum dramatic tension. Madeleine hated him as he did. “Or you can just tell me. What does it matter now?”
Gavin made a gesture that said, “Get on with it, and let’s get out of here.”
If she told now, Gavin might just leave her here, or he might be the first to turn her in. Looking around at the hell hole where he used to work, Madeleine could see how far he had come. Apparently, he had been in trouble with the law before, but he had gotten himself on the right track. He contributed to society. He was actually a decent person, but getting arrested now would only drag up the past and make things even more complicated for someone with a prior record.
A scraping sound at the door reminded her of her other option. She was guilty for embezzling, aiding and abetting in smuggling and in planning corporate espionage and sabotage.
She looked back to Pits. He had a gleam in his eye as he saw that she was ready to break. She could hear the explosives technician giving the warning for everyone to clear the door.
“All right,” she nearly screamed. Even Pits took a step back. “I helped embezzle money at a corporate level. I was one of the executives involved in a plot to manipulate an entire company, but I saw the news this morning. I saw IGS get taken down, and I knew the same thing could happen to us. I took my share and told my partners I was out. I realized that my actions could hurt too many people if I kept going with all of the lies.”
The best deception contains bits of truth.
Pits smiled in victory. Gavin looked on with sympathy. Madeleine looked back with a continued act of defeat.
The first small explosive on the door popped.
Pits got down to the ground and instructed the pair. “Gavin, you know the way to the chute. Get her out of here.”
They scrambled through the small opening in an instant, and Gavin pulled the hatch shut just before the troops stormed into the building. They climbed down a ladder quickly and fled through a series of connecting tunnels. Looking backwards every few minutes, they sloshed through ankle deep sludge until they reached another series of ladders. They climbed down another set to hide even deeper within the bowels of the city.
Madeleine looked to her exhausted partner, “I’m so glad that I met you. I could have never done this on my own.”
“You could have told me you had that kind of money earlier. Anybody can get out of trouble in a hundred different ways with credits like that to throw around.”
“A woman never reveals all of her secrets.”
Gavin looked ahead at the endless circuitry of tunnels spread out before them. “It must have been difficult to leave your partners behind.”
Madeleine thought of her colleagues who were, no doubt, sitting in a WU detention cell at this moment. She refrained from smiling as she said, “I knew that we were heading in a bad direction, and I just couldn’t be a part of it any more.
“Gavin, once you get me out of here, I think I can find my way out of this town. But I’ve got a couple of thousand credits to thank you for your troubles.”
“You don’t need to pay me. I didn’t really do that much.”
Looking at Gavin with one of her killer business sale smiles, Madeleine replied, “I like to settle my debts. Just accept it as a heartfelt thank you.”
