Mission to Sector ZZ1219 Read online

  “You are, after all, with the Governor,” Janet replied quietly, making sure the smile was gone.

  “Yeah, but that is entirely diff…” He cut his eyes to the woman he realized he was having feelings for that had nothing to do with her Naval accomplishments. “Never mind. We’d better just do the best we can. I just wish there was a different way to accomplish… whatever it is exactly we’re supposed to accomplish at that damned ball!”

  “You and me both,” Janet muttered. “Richardson better know what he’s doing or I’m going to take that Dominator of his and put it where none of the suns shine.”

  “Yo’ Boss,” asked the tall, slender man waiting for Bond Cretorian at the civilian entrance and exit to the military section of the orbiting Moon-Ship station. “You get one of them lady generals to go with you?”

  “Just a captain,” responded Bond. “Best they got here that’s not married. Guess it would have made too much stink if I’d insisted on that. Good thing though that broad made the calls. I don’t know how I missed the fact that she was getting the military escort and I was not. She knows she’s nothing without my help. You done good, Banger. I had my doubts about you at first, but you sure been doing a bang-up job.

  “Ha! You hear that?” Cretorian said with a loud laugh. “Bang-up job! Banger! Ha!”

  “Sure, boss. That’s slick. I’m just glad I got the chance to hook up. Things were getting hot for me back central way. Too bad about your other boy, but it sure worked out good for me.”

  “Sure did, Banger. Get us back to the office. I need to get some things done. That shipment of rations you found needs the paperwork done up. I need to get the staff on that. Uh… what you got going next?”

  Since Banger had suddenly appeared, just when his number three lieutenant had wound up caught in a raid, which was not even at one of his own operations, things had been going exceptionally well. The other idiot had just got caught by chance at one of the many illegal joints being run by small timers.

  Banger had just made contact trying to sell some looted goods. Good stuff. Bond had been able to make triple the going rate. He never looked a gift horse in the mouth. Banger had said he could…

  Bond laughed aloud. Banger had said he could acquire quite a few other things. He had been true to his word. The look changed suddenly. Anger now distorted the features. “It’s a good thing this worked out. That hoity toity bitch tries to get one up on me again, and there’ll be hell to pay!”

  If Banger had not mentioned how bad it was that Bond was going to the ball with a nothing B-girl on his arm, when the Governor was going to be there with the cream of the crop goody boy as her escort, he would have never caught the slight. “Damn her!”

  “Yeah, boss?”

  “Nothing, Banger. But remind me after this is over and we’re set, to give mighty miss a little present. What was it you said they did back on earth when things weren’t right?”

  “The horse’s head in the bed?”

  “Yeah. Have to be something different. Don’t know where we’d ever get a horse. Cost more than my whole damn estate. You think a scrimmin’s head would do?”

  “Sure, boss. It’s the thought that counts, huh?”

  Banger stumbled slightly when Bond slapped him on the back and laughed hugely. “You got a wit, Banger! A real wit! Can’t believe how lucky I was to find you.”

  “Sure thing, Boss. Guess I’d better drift. Got a line on some recalled small arms. Defective sighting systems, but a bit of work and we could probably get them fixed. Or… just sell them to the asteroid miners just the way they are. Most of them probably hit more with bad sights than they can with good sights.”

  Bond Cretorian was still laughing when Banger left him when they reached Cretorian’s office building.

  As soon as he could duck out of sight safely, Johnny did so and shifted his appearance from the Banger persona to his normal one. He shook his head. Not that it was really difficult to slip back into his own personality, but it was getting tiresome having to switch identities as often as he was forced to do so in trying to accomplish the demise of the governor’s plot.

  Captain Butler probably, and Captain Echart for sure, were going to want to do him bodily harm over Bond Cretorian. At least Janet was going to be there. He wanted the three people most at risk to be where they would visible when what he had planned came to fruition during the ball.

  Johnny made for the tiny quarters he was using in the poorest section of town. It was suitable for three of his personas and kept him close to where he needed to be most of the time. It was time for some rest. Even his stamina was beginning to give out.

  There was only one variable left that he would like to resolve. He would do that the next night. Right now, rest was more important. It would not be unexpected for him not to show for his swamper’s job at Smokey’s.

  He had intimated that sometimes, after payday, he might miss a day or two. “Got to see my girl when I gots the credits, you see, or they won’t let me in,” he told Smokey. Since he had offered to work for significantly less than the going rate, Smokey had agreed.

  As Guy Richardson, Johnny entered Smokey’s the following evening. “Cherokee,” he said, bringing the man over when the place was still nearly unoccupied.

  “What’s it going to be tonight?” Cherokee asked, still trying to remember what it was about the man that kept nagging at his memories.

  “Little reminiscing, Cherokee. Just a little reminiscing.” Johnny watched the man’s eyes. Flat and black, seldom showing much of what he was feeling or thinking, Johnny could see just a touch of curiosity in them.

  “Hear you were on Franklin Seven when the Ecronians tried their ploy there during the Transition Campaign.” Johnny saw the flash in his eyes.

  A quick look around and then Cherokee leaned forward, partially over the bar, his face inches from Johnny’s. “You’d better say something, quick, to not make me skin you alive, like my ancestors used to do.

  “There are only a handful of people outside my unit that know about Franklin Seven. It’s treason to talk about it. I may be a lowly bartender in a crook’s joint, but I’m loyal to the Confederation. Talk quick, or I will kill you dead, no matter how much I like you.”

  Johnny had his proof. It was there in Cherokee’s look. His stance. His readiness to do exactly what he said. Meeting Cherokee’s gaze, eye to eye, Johnny lifted his hands to his mouth, cupped them to his lips and blew into the shape they had formed. A soft hoot owl call sounded and Cherokee staggered back.

  “Johnny Oneshot!” he said, mostly under his breath.

  Johnny put a finger to his lips, and then nodded.

  “Man, you saved our whole unit!” Cherokee said, stepping forward again. His voice was low and he checked around the area before he spoke. “I haven’t thought about…that…for a long time.”

  “Need a favor,” Johnny said, very softly.

  “My life, or anything else I can do,” Cherokee said, voice not only awed, but reverent.

  “It could be on the line,” Johnny said.

  “Whatever it takes, if you need it.”

  “I knew I could count on you,” Johnny said. “I can’t tell you what is going on. You’ll learn about it after the fact, I assure you. If a group of people come through here sometime… people you’ll recognize… in a hurry… let them into the tunnels below.”

  Cherokee’s eyes widened. “You know about them?”

  Johnny smiled slightly and lifted one eyebrow.

  “Of course.” He looked over at Smokey, who had just come into the main room. “Okay if I go with them?”

  “Absolutely. We could use you if they have to come through here. There’ll be some things you’ll recognize, ready for use, if need be, at the first cubby.”

  “Understood.”

  Johnny slid a couple of credit chips across the bar. “Good service, as always, Cherokee.” With a wink that none of those approaching could see, Johnny turned and left.

  Cher
okee slipped the credits into his pocket. It was only some time later he thought about them and took them out. He whistled softly. “Get out of jail money,” he said to himself.

  He secreted them in one of the tiny slit pockets all of his clothes had. He might miss this place… a little… but if he needed this much credit to help out Johnny Oneshot, relocation would be just fine. Anyone that had done what Johnny Oneshot had done for him and his unit on Franklin Seven got anything he wanted, at whatever cost or risk.

  Willi was on pins and needles the following morning. Smokey had given only a token objection when she had informed him she would not be performing the night of the ball. That she had been invited and more or less had to go.

  “Yeah. Gotta go, too, as it turns out. Going to be some business conducted and…” His words faded away quickly. “Never mind. No problem. No Navy or other service people going to be in here that night anyway.” He turned and left her abruptly.

  Chapter Four

  -

  Trying to rest, Willi wound up pacing as much as resting, all day long. Finally, she got dressed for the evening. She had been ready for over an hour when her room communicator buzzed. She hurried down when she heard Johnny say he was there to pick her up.

  Her step faltered slightly when she saw him standing just outside the door of her building. It was not like she had not been to formal functions before. She was the daughter of the Matriarch of one of the leading Trading Families in the galaxy.

  She did not care for them for the most part. But she had attended many and had seen men in formal dress before. Handsome men. Johnny Oneshot was above and beyond anyone else she had ever seen in similar attire. Perhaps with the exception of her father when she was just a little girl, she suddenly thought.

  Johnny took her arm on his and stepped toward the transport that Willi just then noticed, her attention having been completely on Johnny initially. “How did you get this?” she asked, recognizing the most expensive and luxurious limousine transport of the time for what it was. They had handled the shipping for one for a planetary governing body in one of the mid-sector systems.

  “Oh,” Johnny said, quietly, “I do have my contacts.” He continued without pause as he handed her into the transport. “I must say you look marvelous this evening. I did not think you could look better than you did in the red shimmer, but… well… you do. You’re even better at this than I imagined.”

  “Why, thank you,” Willi replied. “I think. And you… look very… distinguished… yourself.”

  Johnny waved a hand negligently. “All men look the same in formal.” He finally looked around at her after having punched in the destination for the driver. “There is still time for you to high tail it out of here. You sure you want to do this?”

  Willi nodded. “But I still don’t know what it is I’m supposed to actually do.”

  “As I said, I will need a distraction at some point tonight. You are quite distracting, simply because of your beauty, anyway. When the time comes, you’ll recognize it and do whatever is needed.”

  “But I still don’t know what…”

  “Trust me,” Johnny said. “More importantly, trust yourself. It might all come to naught, tonight, anyway, if the right opportunity doesn’t present itself.”

  Willi openly studied his face as she sat there beside him. “I have a feeling that things have been arranged such that an opportunity will most undoubtedly present itself.”

  “Probably,” was the only thing Johnny said.

  “Just who are you tonight?” she asked when he did not elaborate. “And me, too, I suppose.”

  “You, of course,” Johnny said, turning that sardonic smile toward her, “are the estimable Marilyn Monroe, Entertainer Extraordinaire. I am Guy Richardson. Simply a small businessman wishing to do business with the government here.”

  “You aren’t simply anything,” Willi snorted. “Anyone with an IQ that brings them in out of a solar storm can recognize that.”

  “Hopefully, I can carry off the act,” Johnny said dryly. Then he grinned at her. “Shouldn’t be too hard actually, as long as I have you on my arm. No one will even see me. All eyes will be on you. I’ll just fade into the background. You really did make an excellent choice in attire for tonight. You are breathtaking in that dress.”

  “I know you are just trying to reassure me; but thank you. I honestly did not think the red shimmer appropriate for tonight.”

  “Oh,” Johnny said, “It was not. That was going to be part of the distraction.”

  “What? You were expecting me to go in that dress, knowing how it would look? I ought to brain you!”

  “I told you that you were going to be my distraction,” Johnny said innocently.

  “Yes, I know, but still…” She frowned at him as her words faded. He had said that. Suddenly her frown deepened. “Wait a minute. You know very well that… oh, never mind!” She hated to be scammed and she knew he had just scammed her. There was no doubt in her mind that he had suggested the red shimmer dress, expecting her to choose something more appropriate.

  “Actually,” Johnny was suddenly saying as he entered something on the control pad. “I just thought of something that will make the distraction even more effective.”

  “What?” Willi asked, as Johnny’s eyes turned to her face, and then dropped, slightly, to her neck and upper chest. She knew she colored slightly.

  “You’ll see,” he said, lifting his eyes to hers again.

  It was not long before the limousine stopped. “I’ll be right back,” Johnny said, stepping out of the vehicle. He was true to his word. It was less than two minutes and he was back beside her on the seat.

  “Here you go,” he said, after having indicated to the operator to continue to their original destination. Johnny handed Willi a jewelry case. A large one.

  When she opened the case, Willi gasped. She turned large eyes to him. “This isn’t real, is it?”

  “Of course it is. Can’t turn the Governor’s greedy eyes with costume jewelry.”

  “You’re borrowing this or something, right? You did not buy it?”

  “Yes, I bought it. A jeweler isn’t going to loan that out. Certainly not on short notice. To someone she doesn’t know.”

  “But…” Willi said, very softly, looking down at the necklace the box contained. It was not that elaborate. Actually, the design was fairly simple, but elegant. And the gemstones were absolutely exquisite.

  “I… I… I can’t wear this,” she suddenly said, handing the box back to Johnny.

  “Part of the job you agreed to do.” Johnny’s voice was soft. “It’ll help. Believe me, I know Governor Myers has had her eye on that particular piece ever since it showed up in the sector. It is Old Earth and with something of a history. When she sees that on you, she will be livid. You are going to be her worst enemy from that moment on.”

  “Well, gee thanks!” Willi could not take her eyes off the necklace. She had never seen anything quite like it. It seemed to just shimmer with light. Again, her eyes went to Johnny’s. “Will it… will it really help if I wear it?”

  Johnny nodded.

  With some hesitation Willi picked up the necklace and tried to fasten it around her neck. Her eyes flicked to Johnny. “I can’t get the clasp,” she said. “It’s not an auto coupler.”

  “Here. I’ll get it.”

  Willi handed the necklace to him, turned her back, and lifted her hair out of the way. She shivered slightly when his hands touched her neck as he fastened the old-fashioned clasp.

  “There you go. All secure.”

  “I wish I could see what it looked like.” Her voice was just a little wistful.

  “Ask, and ye shall receive,” replied Johnny touching a control panel. A ceiling panel flipped down and Willi looked at herself in the large mirror.

  “Wow!” she said softly.

  “Wow! is right,” Johnny said just as softly. “Even if she did not already want it, she would tonight, just seeing it on you.
”

  Willi looked at him again, the trader in her coming to the fore. “You will be able to get your money back for this, won’t you? After we use it tonight?”

  Johnny shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter. As long as it serves its purpose, it’ll be money well spent.”

  “But this cost a fortune! A large fortune! Two or three or four large fortunes!”

  “Now, now,” Johnny said, taking her hand as they stopped and the door of the limousine opened. “Let’s not discuss this in public, my dear. Such a trifling matter.”

  Willi saw the group of people outside the limousine and forced a smile. “Of course.” She shot him a look only he could see, fortunately, that said, “Oh yes we will discuss it later, and it is not trifling.” Those that saw them, though they did not see the look, pretty well knew that she was giving the look to him. It was in her posture.

  “Sir Guy Richardson escorting Marilyn Monroe,” Johnny told the attendant by the limousine.

  Though she could not hear the man, he obviously relayed the names to the liveried personage at the entrance of the event center where the huge Inaugural Ball was being held. The watching crowds were well under control. Willi was not that surprised to see that Naval personnel, rather than the city’s regular enforcement officers, were handling the security.

  Suddenly realizing that this was a huge event, and seeing the mass of media people all about, Willi found herself walking closely at Johnny’s side, her arm gripping his tightly. “I did not even think about all these people and the media! They might even see this on broadcast distribution!”

  Johnny knew she meant her family might see her. It probably was not really very nice of him, but he said, “Probably.” Her reaction was just what he had thought it might be. She crowded even closer to him. He liked the feeling.

  “Sir Guy! Sir Guy!” called someone from one of the major media groups. “A word, Sir!”

  When Willi felt him stop, she stopped beside him, barely able to look in the direction he had turned. She cut her eyes up to his face and almost grinned when she saw that old sardonic smile and heard him say, “Ah… a word… how about… broccoli... how’s that for a word?”