Max Hayes: Club Night

It was evening, artificial evening, on Atkel station. It had been a long day. I had finally gotten the parts for the ship and they were going to be installed tomorrow. It would take at least another day before mechanics would be done so until that time I was stuck here and would have to entertain myself; Kevin already travelled ahead to SC4. I had just eaten at an expensive restaurant on the station and was now heading of to Heaven, a popular club on the station.

The station’s lights were already dimming as I walked through the stations commercial centre. The broad boulevard I was walking on and the walkways running over and alongside it, were bustling with people. With all the shifts on the station, not to mention the different shifts and day-night cycles on the ships docked, the opening times for the shops were a bit arbitrary. A big part of the people out tonight were made up of passengers on commercial flights waiting for transfer. The rest were, for the most part, the station’s workers and permanent denizens and the crews of the ships.

Heaven used to be known as one of the best clubs to go to on the station, but it was this reputation which in time had also made it very popular with all the passengers visiting the station, and this had slowly transformed it into a jet set place filled with businessmen and people on vacation, who were looking for the kind of rough space bar feel, which the place, by their very presence, had left behind years ago. It was still located on a small alley behind on of the main boulevards, but there were enough signs placed throughout the area to insure most could easily find it. As I approached the alley in question I saw it was packed with people almost up to the boulevard. The mass was moving one step at the time so I it was definitely the line and I decided to go somewhere else instead.

Further down the boulevard I passed a place named Twisters. There was short row in front of it and no windows so this was probably a place were you could get a drink, which was all I wanted really. I joined the back of the line and waited. There were two bouncers positioned in front of the door. They talking with each other and I could see them looking in my direction a couple of times. At some point one of them walked up to me past the line.
“You can come right in,” the bouncer said.
“Thanks.” I stepped across the wire. The bouncer had already turned around and walked back to the door, where the other bouncer opened the door for me.
“Have a nice evening,” the other bouncer said as I stepped through the door.
“Will do.”
Just before the door closed I could hear someone in the line behind say, “Bitch!”

I stepped into a small square dimly lit hallway.
“Good evening miss, you will have to leave your sidearm with me,” a man sitting behind thick glass said through a speaker.
“Sure thing.” I dropped the weapon in the open drawer underneath the counter.

“Do you have any other weapons on your person?”
“No I don’t.”
“Please step through the body scanner.”
There was a short flash as camera on the other side made a photo of me the moment I stepped through the scanner. Security was tight. I knew on this station they would match my face to a database of people with any kind of prohibitions. While I waited, I looked behind me and saw the person behind the glass talking into his headset, after which he seemed to be waiting as well. He looked over to me and gave me a gesture to wait, but he looked reassuring.
“You’re clear. Enjoy your evening miss Hayes,” The man said through the speakers in the room. This was going great. I wondered what it was. I had a little run in with some people the last time I was here, but I doubt station security knew anything about that. They would know about the incident, no doubt, but not about my involvement or else I wouldn’t even be here.
Two sliding doors opened and gave entry to the place. The place was crowded, but not congested and I could easily make my way through.
“Hey,” a guy said hesitant while he tapped me on the shoulder, “are you on vacation?”
“No. Why?” I said as I turned myself halfway around.
“Oh, just because many people are on vacation in this place.”
“Okay, have a nice evening,” I said before continuing my way to the nearest bar.
There were three bars in total, two running along opposite sides of the room and one in the middle. I made eye contact with one of the bartenders.
“What will it be, beautiful?” He asked.
“A bitter lemon, please.”
I looked around the club while the bar tender made my drink. It was a trendy place. It had purple neon lights running across the walls and the edges of the bars and hardly any decoration beside that. I liked it.
“Here you are,” the bartender said as he put the drink down in front of me.
I gave him my card and he slid it across the bar surface before returning it to me.
I leaned back against the bar and scanned the crowd. I didn’t see anyone I might know.
After finishing half my drink I started walking around the place. I needed some caffeine.
In the back of the club I could see a broad stairwell running down. Light was flashing from below so I imagined there was a dance floor. As I was moving towards the stairs someone pinched me in my ass. I stopped and looked back. The guy closest to me looked surprised when I looked him in the eyes, but the guy behind him, who was standing with his back towards me, had an activated stance. One of two people he was standing with had a fake smile on their face, and both were nót looking at me. So I took a step back, quickly looked over the guy; he looked like an ordinary guy besides the grin on his face, a bit sleek maybe. While looking straight at him, I decided to smash the drink he was holding out of his hands before continuing on my way.

“Hey!” the guy said angry and with an awkward surprise. It was this kind of stuff I didn’t like about many clubs.
“Fuck you, bitch,” He yelled. By now I was already a few steps away.

After walking down the stairs I came into another section of the club, about the same size as upstairs with bars on either side leaving an open space in the middle. The music was a lot louder here. I emptied my drink and walked up to the bar on the left. The bartenders were very busy.
“Hey,” a guy said, who had just walked up to me and was now standing beside me at the bar, “can I buy you a drink?”
“Eh no, but thanks.” I said with a friendly smile.
There was a short silence as I looked away.
“You like it here?” The guy finally said.
“Yes I do, never been here before. What about you?”
“I come here often.” He seemed worried after he said that. “I work on the station,” he quickly followed up.
“What do you do?”
“Administration.” “Of all the goods moving through.”
“Oh, I’m a crewmember. Our ship is being repaired here.”
“Which one? Maybe I know it.”
“The Falcon II. It’s not a big ship, so you probably don’t.”
“What dock?”
“On the D ring, but it’s currently in a dry dock.” I always wondered why they’d call it a dry dock.
“How long are you staying here?” He probably thought this question might come on to strong because he corrected himself immediately. “I mean, when is your ship ready?
“I’m probably staying here a few more days until the ship’s ready.”
“Big repair?” He asked interested.
“Yes and no. A few parts got fried in one of the engines, they need to be replaced, but they need to pull the whole engine of the ship to do so.”
“Which shop are you using?”
“We’re using Milligan. We know some of the people who run it. We come at this station at least a few times a year, so we know a few people on the station.” I wasn’t giving this kid a lot to work with. I tried to tell a little bit more, instead of simply answering every question, to make it easier for him to latch onto something so we could have a conversation about it, but all this stuff was not likely something to which he would have anything to add. I was really bad at this.
The bartender appeared.
“I’ll have a cola-rum. What do you want?” I asked the guy.
“Oh you don’t have to.”
“Are you sure? It’s on me.”
“Ehm, a beer.”
“A cola-rum and a beer,” I said to the bartender.
Maybe I should ask the questions. “You live on the station?”
“Eh yes, I got an apartment between the A and B ring.”
“Nice location if you have to walk home from a night out.”
“Yes,” he laughed a little, “I used to live down in G. When the main elevators there stopped past two o’clock. So I had to use the stairs from F.”

“How many decks is that?”
“About twenty.” “Way too many.”
“And very unsafe if you had a few,” I added.
“Yes, well a friend of mine, who lived there too, once fell asleep on the way home. He was arrested.”
I laughed. It probably happened more often I thought; the station had a nice temperature and I could imagine someone taking just a small break on their way home at the end of a long night. I never used the elevators on the station, unless I was in a hurry. The bartender returned with our drinks.
After paying for them I raised my glass as a toast, “Have a nice evening, maybe I’ll talk to you later.”
“Yes, you too,” the guy said fast as I started walking towards the dance floor.

I moved to a wall on the other side of it and watched the dancing people. I decided I should probably head back to my hotel after this one. I relaxed and slowly finished my drink before heading for the exit.

“I would like my gun back,” I said to the bouncer behind the glass after I had arrived in the lobby.
“Just a moment,” He said. He stood up and walked into a room behind him.
Less then a minute later he returned with my gun which he placed into a drawer on his side. After pressing a button it opened on my side.
“Thanks Roberto,” I said after holstering my gun and reading his nametag.
“Your welcome.”
I stepped out into the boulevard again and started heading for my hotel. Normally we would always sleep on the ship, but it was now in dry dock so I had to rent a room. I hadn’t been in the club for long but in the meantime the crowds in the street had definitely thinned. Maybe people were done with their evening shopping or some super cruiser was about to depart. As I turned left on an intersection of two mayor boulevards I noticed a person walking a good distance behind me, on the boulevard I just came from. I kept on walking. The reason I took notice was because I remembered him standing outside the Twister when I left. There had been many people standing outside and there were many people walking in the boulevard I just came from right now, but since I had already made several turns after leaving the club, it was at least coincidental to see the same person both there and here.
After walking about fifty meters after the turn, I looked behind once more to see the person still following me. I stopped and turned around. As the person approached, he, it was a man, didn’t try to be inconspicuous and was openly looking in my direction. The man was wearing a thick light brown overall with red patches on his shoulders. It looked like something you wore to your work as a station mechanic or a crewmember. He was wearing a small sidearm on his hip, which looked like a T-MP-9
“Good evening,” I said as the man almost reached me.
“Good evening. You’re Max, right?” He asked friendly.
“That’s right. Who are you?”

“I’m Aiden.”
“Well Aiden, what can I do for you?”
“Oh nothing at all actually, just came by to say thanks.”
I really didn’t know who this person was. I didn’t recall seeing him before.
“You’re welcome.”
“Do you know who I am?” He asked interested.
“No I don’t.”
“That’s okay; I’m not surprised you don’t.”
He left a pause for me to express my supposed curiosity about this mystery. He had seemed okay before, but this was actually rude.
“What do you want?” I asked terse.
I could see he was taken aback by this.
“Nothing in particular. I just wanted to see if I could have a talk with you,” he continued a moment later.
“Well I’m not interested, Aiden,” I said friendly, “If you’ll excuse me.”
“Please wait,” he said, “Ehm. I feel we’re getting off on the wrong foot here.” He seemed sincere while saying this.
“Then tell me what you want.”
“Very well. Last year there was a little incident on this station. You were here then, I believe.”
“I don’t know.”
“You were registered to be on this station at that time.”
“Yes I remember. There was this bar fight, right?”
“That’s correct; there was this guy who beat up a number of people,” he said with a genuine smile on his face. I wondered whether I was in trouble here.
“Ah yes, that was it. I almost forgot.”
“Right. Now these people were all members of the same gang.”
“Who exactly?”
“The people he beat up.”
“Really?” I said with a feigned amazement.
“Yes they were! The thing was,” he continued casual, “the next day some bodies were found on the station, also members of this gang, most of them shot.”
“Maybe some kind of gang war,” I suggested.
“That same day just on the edge of the system a ship was blown up, which, rumor has it, also belonged to this gang.”
“That’s some story,” I said, “I wouldn’t want to mess with the people responsible.”
“Yes. By the way; I don’t know why I’m telling this all to you,” he said friendly.
“Neither do I,” I said.
He continued.
“With all these gang members hospitalized and charged with assault and battery and the investigation that followed the murders, station security gathered up a great deal of evidence surrounding this gang. It was rolled up in the following months.”
“Why couldn’t they do so before?” I asked. I really wanted to know.
“Questions where indeed asked about how this gang could operate on this station unchecked, and some corruption was brought to light. It was quite the case.” These last words worried me.
“What is your involvement with this case, as you call it, mister Aiden.”
“At the time I was working with station security; I was put on this case. Currently I’m a security officer of this station,” he picked an ID-card of sorts out of one of his pocket, which apparently should make it obvious to me he was indeed a security officer, “and I’m just surprised to see you here.”

“I see.”
It was all I could think of saying at this point. Security officer. Maybe coming here had been a bad idea. I even remembered hearing about some corruption related court cases going on in Hannith on the news a couple of months ago. I wasn’t sure if they were related though. On the bright side: I hadn’t been arrested yet.
“But since you’re here, I was thinking I might offer you a drink. Maybe we could discuss your views on these events.”
“I was just heading back to my hotel,” I said.
“I’m sure you’re keen to be on your way, but I assure you, as far as I’m concerned, you aren’t in any kind of trouble. If you were; well I’m sure I wouldn’t be here right now, talking to you on my own.”
“You have a point, officer.” In the end it would be a couple of cases of unreported self-defence, or so I told myself. There were of course some aggravating circumstances.
“I know a great place,” the officer said.
“Very well.”
“Please follow me.”

We started walking to the centre of the A ring.
“How are you enjoying your stay so far?” Aiden asked.
“It’s been okay. Our ship’s in repair at the moment.”
“And with ‘our’ you mean you and Kevin, I presume.”
“Yes,” I said. It was probably important to be careful what I said. “You’re well informed.”
“Well I ought to be, I’m a security officer.”
“You know the names of the crews of every ship docked here?”
“No, not exactly. There was of course this incident last year. The one I happened to mention to you just now.”
“I find it hard to follow you,” I said.
“I’m sure you do, so let me explain; Initially I was only given the case concerning that bar fight. Normally we don’t make a huge fuss about a bar fight but this one had left seven people hospitalized.”
“Sounds like a rough fight.”
“Well it was. According to witnesses these seven individuals had been beaten up in a single sitting by one guy. The station residents weren’t talkative, but some of the passengers remembered he had come in with two others, a man and a woman. One of the witnesses had even been standing behind this trio before they entered the bar and had described them as heavily armed and military looking. Then a colleague of mine found out the victims of a duodectuple homicide he was working on, which had occurred the same evening, were also members of this Illuminati gang. I started to investigate whether both cases might be related somehow.”

“Illuminati gang?” I also had some problems with the term ‘heavily armed’ and ‘military looking’.
“You never heard of it of course.” Aiden said with some cynicism as we walked along another boulevard. Until now, I actually hadn’t heard of the Illuminati gang, but more importantly some people had presumably done some thorough investigation.

“I haven’t. What about this quadruple murder?”
“This one occurred near the lower docking rings. Although there were no witnesses, it was clear a huge fire fight had taken place there. According to ballistic research there were at least three shooters on one side, all highly trained. They were ambushed at some point by multiple shooters but managed to fight their way out. They were then pursued across several decks, where they produced some additional bodies.”
“Sounds like self defence. You said their attackers all belonged to a gang.”
“Yes I did.”
“So what’s the big deal?”
“It wasn’t, at least not at first sight, but there were a number of oddities about the whole case.”
“Like what?”
“Well for one there was of course this guy who had beaten up seven people. On his own! And each and every one of the people had been severely incapacitated somehow, broken bones, you name it, but there were no fatalities. Then there was the ship which got destroyed.”
He left a pause after that. I could see what he was trying to do.
“What does this ship have to do with these other events?”
“It belonged to the same gang, and it happened the day after the killings.”
“I don’t know,” I said, “It’s pretty sketchy. Those three people in the bar and then that fire fight with three people, or at least three people, as you said it, it sounds convincing. Especially because the witness called…that trio, military looking. Would you call me military looking right now.”
“No.”
“It sounds like something a security officer might make up to tie two cases together, which he knows were related. The whole rolling up of this gang, had this anything to do with the fact, I mean the idea of course…”
“Of course.”
“…that these events, or some of these events, might involve the same people?”
“Excellent point,” he said after a short pause. “The place I wanted to take you, is right up there.” He pointed to a spot in the distance on the second storey walkway which ran along the length of this promenade.
A minute later, which we walked in silence, we reached a stairs which would take us up to the walkway and climbed it. We continued along the walkway until we reached the place.
“This is it,” Aiden said.
It looked like a bit like a restaurant. It had an open door so we could walk right in. All the guests were sitting at tables. Some seemed to be eating breakfast or lunch and others dinner but most groups where drinking. Everybody was on different time tables on this station and this place apparently hadn’t specialised on something specific like many others had. The walls were lined with windows, they were in fact 3D screens depicting space and the planet this station orbited, so it looked like you were looking outside the station. Aiden walked ahead of me to a table in the back, but at this point I had very little interest in continuing this conversation. Playing these games, does not in any way excite me. I sat down across from him and looked outside.

“So Aiden, you made a big catch in these gangs,” I said absent.
“Yes I did. Like I said before, the investigation supplied us with much evidence against the rest of the organization.”
“I don’t see the Hannith as having trouble of dealing with gangs on their territory.”
“It wasn’t a simple street gang or we would just round them up, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have organized crime. These Illuminati were somewhere in the middle and we inherited them with the station.”
“So you knew they existed.”
“Yes we did.”
“But you didn’t just arrest them.”
“We had little evidence.”
“Sorry, but that doesn’t sound like something which would bother the Hannith.”
“We haven’t arrested you, have we?” He asked only a little threatening. “And things are changing, especially here. The government has decided we should try to preserve the international character of this station. We can’t lock up anyone even if we know they are criminals.”
“So you let gangs run amok?” I asked. I was sure there was more behind this, but the Hannith had indeed kept the private security organizations on the station when they took over, probably in an attempt to keep things familiar.
“I admit we are still looking for the right balance so we can have the best of both worlds, and then there was of course the corruption. I might have mentioned it earlier.”
“You did.”
“In all the searches we did, we uncovered incriminating information leading back to high placed positions. I’m sure you are aware of the recent corruption court cases in the Hannith government.”
A waitress walked up to the table.
“Good day, can I get you anything,” she asked.
“I’ll have a double whisky,” Aiden said.
“One double whisky,” the waitress repeated.
“A cola for me.”
“And one cola. I’ll bring them right away,” She said with a big smile and walked away.
The view outside wasn’t completely accurate, I noticed. Other planets of the system were being depicted in the distance and there was some kind of nebula being illuminated by the sun. It was more like the artist impression of a scaled down version of the system. It seemed unlikely the corruption cases in the Hannith government would have anything to do with some criminal organization on this station.
I looked around the room to the other guests. I guessed most were passengers on transfer. The waitress returned with our drinks.
“One double whiskey and one cola.” She placed the drinks on the table.
“Thank you.”
“Your welcome,” she said and left us.
Aiden raised his glass towards mine. “To the empire,” he said with a smile. I cheered to that. He didn’t seem too serious about it.
“You don’t drink alcohol?” Aiden asked.
“Yes I do,” I said laughing, “but I already had my fill tonight.”

“You told me your ship was in repair.”
“Yes it is. Engine trouble.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but it would be easy for him to find out. “It’s a small repair but we had to wait for the parts.”
“How long is it going to take?”
“A couple more days at least.”
“At least there’s enough to do here, just try to avoid any fights.”
“I thought you had a big case the last time there was a bar fight here.”
“Oh, we have fights on the station every day.”
“With all the people coming through this place I’m not surprised.”
“It’s like a floating city,” Aiden said poetic. “They always forget to mention this floating city is filled with drunk vacation goers and crews who have been bottled up in cargo ships for weeks.”
“You know, before you guys got the place, there were always some military ships docked here. You shouldn’t complain too much,” I joked.
“True. This used to be a favourite shore leave location, but from one day to the next they just stopped coming,” Aiden said with a fake frown.
“It’s a mystery.”
“Let’s keep it at that,” he said calm.
“You don’t hear me complaining about it.”
“Most of the residents I talked to agree. The station at some point refused Godetian navy ship’s to dock.”
“I could think of worse.”
“According to anyone I’ve spoken, they were the worst.”
“We only come here now and then, maybe twice a year. I wouldn’t know. It’s a lot more crowded then a few years ago.”
“It’s the gate to the west.”
“Do you get paid to say that?”
“Yes I do,” Aiden said jokingly, “Please pass it on to everyone you meet.”
“Absolutely.”
“On second thought; I don’t know if I want the people you meet on my station,” he said with a smirk.
“We’re not so bad.” I said teasing, “We’ve been coming here for years.”
“Never caused us trouble,” he added laughing.
“Exactly.”
I laughed as well

“There’s just one thing I would like to ask though.” Aiden asked after we stopped laughing
“Is this about this case, you keep telling me about.”
“Yes it is. See your ship, I mean the ship which you had then, doesn’t have any weapons.”
“So what’s your question?”
“How did you take out their ship?”
“What makes you think we did so in the first place?”
“I just do. I have no evidence.”
“Doesn’t the fact our ship doesn’t have any weapons mean we couldn’t have done it.”
“You’re right of course.”
I didn’t feel like being forthcoming here. Aiden might say he was just interested, but I wan’t completely sure. Atkel station had always allowed you to check whether you were allowed to visit the station or if there were any outside warrants which they were expected to enforce, but I imagined they might not do so for severe crimes committed on the station. The Hannith taking over could have changed the old rules a little as well.

“Why are you so interested in this, Aiden.”
“I just like to close the case for myself.”
“You’re not completely honest. There’s more to this.”
“For me, there’s nothing more to this.” “I got demoted. That’s all I can think off.”
“You got demoted?”
“Yes. Some of the lines, which came forward from our investigation, ran back to powerful people.”
“You told me some corruption was uncovered.”
“Well, yes it was. Charges were made to some officials on the stations, but others wanted to prevent the investigation from reaching them. At least that’s my theory. In the aftermath of the investigation I got reassigned from criminal investigation to order and surveillance. Without explanation.”
Despite what the tight grip, which the Hannith government kept on their society, might suggest, corruption was part of the system. It was the system.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.
“Don’t be,” Aiden said reassuring. “Besides, I’m sure I’ll be able to return in the future. Let’s talk about something else.”
“Sure.”
“This is just politics,” Aiden said as he looked at his empty glass. “Do you want another drink?”
“Why not.”
Aiden signalled for the waitress.

“I still don’t see how these three cases being connected is relevant for rolling up this gang.”
“Well in some ways it did. The idea these cases were connected made it a huge case instead of just a bar fight, a shoot out and some ship wreck found on the edge of the system a week later. The case received a lot more manpower and resources. The publicity you’re little friend gave the case helped too.”
“Seven injured gives more publicity than twelve dead?”
“It does, especially if you run across a promenade pursued by security.” I didn’t know that.
Poor R, running across the station all on his own.
“Didn’t you get an ID on this guy?” I asked.
“No, we didn’t. Not initially at least. Most of the people who saw him first hand, were already of the station the next day, and after the locals heard he had beaten up Illuminati, they weren’t very talkative.”
“What about the people he was with in the bar. You seemed to be pretty sure who they were. You could have at least brought them in for questioning.”
“We only figured that out after they had left the station.”
“You had witnesses; they could have given a detailed description.”
“The two people he was with didn’t do anything. We didn’t ask.”
“That’s smart.”
“It was a bar fight when I questioned them,” Aiden said a little annoyed, “you’re not going to do an hour long composite for something like that. Besides later we found a clear photo of the guy, made by a single security camera.”
“Oh.”
“I ran it against a database. There were a number of matches. Most from video surveillance of other stations and space ports which are more,” Aiden paused to look for the right word, “intensely monitored than this place.”

We never visited Hannith territory, except for this place.
Aiden continued. “In those pictures this guy, and these are perfect matches, is always dressed in a Therra military uniform. He is usually guarding something. Like a Therra ship, docked on one of our stations.”
Apparently R’s model was being used by the Therra military. I planned to tell Kevin first chance I got. The waitress, the same one as before, arrived at our table.
“Hi. What can I get you?” She said.
“Another one for me.” Aiden said while holding up his empty glass.
“A double?”
“Yes.”
“A bitter lemon for me, please,” I said as the waitress turned to me.
“Very well. I’ll be back in a minute.”
I was interested where this conversation was going, but I had given up trying to figure it out.

“The other sightings of this guy are recent too.”
“How strange,” I said plain.
“Yes, it certainly is strange.”
“So you think this guy belongs to the Therra military?”
“Either that, or his twin brothers,” Aiden said with a confident smile.
“You certainly have been thorough, Aiden. You got it all figured out.”
“Well most of it at least, I don’t know what the motive was.”
“Should there be a motive. Maybe this trio just got in a bar fight with people they barely knew and then the gang attempted to take revenge.”
“I don’t buy that. No one would pick a fight with the Illuminati gang, especially if they were alone on a station.”
I smiled and almost laughed, “Maybe they honestly didn’t know this Illuminati gang. Maybe one of the gang members was harassing another customer and one of them spoke up.”
“Go on.” Aiden said.
“Maybe the gang member didn’t like being put in his place and called his friends.”
“And then they had their special friend deal with him and his friends.”
“Maybe these military looking people then left. Splitting up and regrouping later.”
“But what were they doing near the lower docking rings?”
“Are you serious?” I asked surprised.
“Their ship wasn’t located there,” Aiden explained.
It actually was located there, but I wasn’t going to tell him this.
“I see.” I quickly responded, “I wouldn’t know what they were doing there.”
We were told to switch to a different dock just before we arrived at the one we had been allocated first.
“Maybe they were looking for the Illuminati gang themselves.”
“Why?”
“To take them out,” Aiden said sure.
“I don’t think so, but what do I know. Believe what you want to believe.”
Aiden seemed to think about this for a while.
“What about the ship?” He asked after a few seconds.
“I don’t know. What about it?”
“Did they take it out?”
“How should I know?”
“Right,” Aiden said annoyed. “You do realize, if I would search your ship right now, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a military robot stashed away somewhere.”

“Are you threatening me?” I asked. It didn’t sound like he was.
“I’m just trying to say, if I wanted to give you trouble I could have done so already,” Aiden said both apologizing and angry.
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“Maybe you’re looking for something specific,” I said with a smile.

The waitress returned to our table with our drink.
“A double whiskey and a bitter lemon,” She said as she placed them on the tables and took the empty glasses.
“Thanks you,” I said.
“Can I get you anything else?” She asked distracted.
“No thanks, we’re good,” I replied. “Are you okay, Shirl?” I asked warm but firm.
“Oh. Yes I am,” she said a bit startled. “There was someone at the bar who asked if I knew who you were.”
“I’m sure that happens,” Aiden intervened.
“What did you say?” I asked relaxed.
“I said no, and then he left, almost immediately.” How subtle, I thought. “I didn’t like the look of him,” Shirl said.
“I’m sure it’s fine, but thanks.”
“Enjoy your drinks.” Shirl said hesitantly and walked away.
It worried me, but this conversation had probably made me a bit too paranoid.
“Maybe we should go somewhere else after this drink,” I suggested.
“Oh okay,” Aiden said semi relaxed.

I turned sideways and looked around the place.
“You worried?” Aiden asked.
There was nothing to see.
“Not really.”
“Okay. When we rolled up this Illuminati gang we were thorough. You can never say you’ve got them all, but we did.” Aiden explained confident.
“That sounds reassuring.”
“I see you got a new ship,” Aiden said, changing the topic
“Yes we did. It’s not exactly new by the way.”
“It looks like a nice upgrade.”
“It’s a lot more spacey for sure.”
Our former ship was hardly suitable for the longer trips. It was just too cramped for two people.
“You’re old ship was actually a Danian transport. According to the registration it belonged to the Danian government.”
“I’m sure it did.” In these parts over half of all ships, were incorrectly registered or not at all. Nobody cared because if someone did they would loose a lot of trade and traffic. I was also sure the current Danian government would insist we were the legitimate owners if we ever got into trouble.
“Do you know who this one belonges to?” Aiden suddenly asked enthusiastic.
“I really don’t know. I would guess Dania government as well,” I said. “They gave it to us,” I added.
“Really?” Aiden said smiling.
“Yes Aiden, you can ask them if you want to.” I said tempting.
“Maybe I will.”
“You should, but tell me what the registration said.”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“I am.”
“It belongs to us.” He said plain.

I did bite my tongue for a second. This wasn’t good.
“You’re serious?” I asked surprised and also worried.
Aiden left a long pause before answering.
“No,” He said laughing.
“You asshole,” I screamed out immediately.
He kept on laughing. I held my glass slanted towards him as if I was going to throw it in his face and I started laughing as well.
“Who ho ho,” He said, shielding his face. It was clear I was joking.
We kept on laughing for a while.
“You have to admit that was a good one.” He said after we finally got through it.
“I admit it, officer Aiden. You got me.”
“Still want to know where the ship came from?” He said challenging.
“No. I don’t.”
“It’s Tallarian.”
“Oh please,” I said with exaggerated disinterest.
“Would it matter if it was stolen.”
I thought about it.
“No, it wouldn’t. We actually got it legally.”
“You can’t get it legally if it’s stolen.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Right.”
“The Danian government conquered it from Hazechiel’s forces, and they gave it to us. That makes it kind of legal.”
“Not in my book.”
“We bought it in good faith. That’s a legal thing, right? The same goes for our old ship.”
“Not exactly, but I see where you’re going.”
I was getting a good feeling about Aiden.
“There were also some surface to air missiles on board when we got it,” I slipped in.
“Surface to air missiles?” Aiden asked unsuspecting.
“On our earlier ship. Not this one, of course,” I said smiling.
Aiden frowned. It took a while before he made the connection.
“Aha.” He suddenly said.
“They were these man portable launch systems,” I added.
“I knew it.”
“Why do you care, Aiden?”
“That’s not important, but thank you.”
“I just hope I won’t regret it.”
“You won’t,” Aiden said while looking me straight in the eyes, “I promise.”
“I hope so,” I said firm. “I’d better get going.”
“If you wait one second I have something for you.” Aiden said as I stood up. “A little bounty for your assistance.” He emptied the rest of his glass in one shot.
“That’s alright,” I said dismissive.
“No, you’ll appreciate it. Trust me,” Aiden said as he stood up.
He walked to the bar and I followed him.
“I don’t have it here.” He said while he waited for the waitress to return his card.

When we stepped outside the lights on the boulevard had been dimmed to a soft yellow glow to give the appearance of a well lit street at night.
“We have to walk a few minutes,” Aiden said. “Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Just walk this way,” Aiden said.
“Can I ask where we are going?” I said after we descended to the lower boulevard over a nearby stairs. We seemed to be heading to the centre of the ring.

“Too the central security station actually, but don’t worry, we won’t go in. You won’t go in, I mean.”
“I don’t need any money,” I assured Aiden.
“It’s not money.”
“Then what is it.”
“You don’t like surprises do you? It’s your jacket. You left it in that bar the last time. It’s still in security.”
“Oh.”
“It was brought in at lost and found if you believe it. Someone turned it in. The bar was entered as the location found, the owner was described as the girlfriend of a man named Kevin and the date found matched the evening of the fight.”
“Wow!” I said amazed.
“It ran into it when I did a search for all recent reports relating to the bar. It didn’t seem related at the time, but I remembered it when I established your names, so I retrieved it from the lost and found. It was empty.”
“You are thorough.”
“I am. That’s what got me in trouble,” Aiden said dismissive.
“If you’ll tell me what your problem is, I might be able to help.”
“I don’t want that kind of help.”
“Suit yourself. If you don’t trust other people, don’t expect them to trust you.”
This was Aiden’s problem. I had given him information which could cost me dearly if he turned out a not so nice person after all. I wasn’t expecting it; if he wanted to, he could have given me enough problems with what he already knew.
“It’s complicated and none of your concern,” Aiden said irritated.
“How is it important for you to know who blew up the ship?” It didn’t make sense to me.
“It allows me to connect the cases.”
“You already had.”
“I didn’t have any evidence.”
“You’re not being honest to me. You don’t have any more evidence now.”
“I have your testimony,” Aiden said plain.
“You could have made it up yourself.”
“It’s much more believable to have an audio recording,” Aiden said with an anxious smile.
This sucked. I had been a played.
“You only have some vague hints and suggestions.”
“As you said it yourself; that’s not going to bother us Hannith,” Aiden said before reassuring me, “I’m not after you. You should know that by now.”
There was a long silence as we continued to walk to the A ring centre.

“It’s pretty simple actually,” Aiden said all of a sudden, “someone relayed you’re ships departure and position to an unknown source. If I can proof this ship was after you, I can make it believable the person who send this information was corrupt. Your little testimony is enough to make this work because you basically admit you were able to blow it up and did it as well. Along with all the other evidence I already gathered it’s just sufficient. It won’t be enough for something like a Therra hearing, but for the CI department of RSB it will be.”
There was of course always corruption which was not tolerated, I thought. Either because of envy or strive within the system or corruption which fell outside of it. The big scandals on the news a while back were probably an example of the former. While the links with criminal organizations by station officials could be examples of the latter. Aiden seemed to know what he was doing.

“It will be even more believable if you were still recording our conversation right now.”
“It would,” Aiden sighed, but he was smiling at the same time.
“Great.”
“Do you still want your jacket?”
“Sure.”
We were now nearing the inner boulevard of the A ring.
“If you wait here, I’ll be right back,” Aiden said when we reached the last intersection, “the central security station is right in this street.”
Several minutes passed before Aiden returned. He was holding a jacket folded up under his arms.
“Still here?” Aiden asked. I suddenly realized how trusting I was and how this must have seen to him.
“I thought about running away and leaving on another ship, but I decided I’d better get my jacket first.” I tried to make it sound funny, but it came out apologizing for me being so easy.
“You made the right choice,” Aiden said as he handed me the jacket.
“Thanks,” I said softly, as I swallowed a lump in my throat.
I turned around and walked away, holding the jacket to my chest. I told myself it didn’t matter now because I probably could trust him. I just couldn’t stand the fact he basically got me while I had nothing on him. This had been the case from the moment I met him, of course. I just didn’t like the idea of being so vulnerable to someone else’s intention.
I swung the jacket on. I had forgotten I had lost the thing altogether. We had left in a bit of a hurry at the time. There had been a panic, so there had been a line of other customers trying to reach the exit when we tried to leave after the fight. When I picked up our weapons in the lobby we could see other people already looking and pointing at us and especially R. So Kevin and I had decided it was better if we all split up and regrouped at another location, which we did. Two of us had had quite a number of drinks and in this state we gave R instructions to avoid people and to make sure he wasn’t followed. He was already there when I arrived at the lookout on the B ring, so we had assumed everything had gone without a hitch. The guys which attacked us later on, on our way to the ship, had been a bunch of punks. If we had been sober we would have cleaned them up with ease, but we weren’t. We did manage to fight ourselves out of the ambush, but we didn’t make enough of an impression for them to call it a day. Only after we had set up an ambush ourselves two times in a row, they stopped the chase. We decided to play it cool and left Atkel first thing in the morning. A ship tried to intercept us after we left the station. Our ship wasn’t a match for theirs. We outmanoeuvred them for a while but could do nothing to prevent them from closing in, which they eagerly did. When they brought their ship in close we shot it down from the back of the cargo deck with a super expensive portable anti-ship missile we took from Dania. The thing probably cost more than our own ship at the time.

My hotel was on the other side of the A ring so I had decided to head through the station centre instead of walking halfway around the boulevard. I was halfway on one of the well lit passageways, running through space and spanning across the hole in the centre of Atkel station, when I heard the sound of fast footsteps closing in behind me. I looked back and saw three men running down the passageway towards me. As they neared I recognised the one in the middle as the guy from the Twister, who had his drink smashed out of his hands by me earlier on. The other two I couldn’t place and were not the same guys he was with at the time.
They slowed down to a walk about ten meters from where I was standing.
“We’re going to get you bitch,” one said hostile.
“What exactly do you plan to do?” I asked calm. The jacket covered the holster on my back and this was causing them to misjudge the situation.
“We’re gonna fuck you in half!” The guy from the club screamed threatening.
The guys froze in place when I grabbed my gun from my back. I aimed and fired three double taps. After holstering the gun I headed to my hotel. We should stop coming to Atkel.