Profiteer

Tetsami yawned and turned to face him. If she noticed the emphasis on his statement, she didn’t show it. “Known him years. Never been on a job together, but he has a reputation in the community—hooked into everything. Never heard of him going out in the field, but he’s got more than his share of hatred for the Confederacy.”

 

Dom looked at the bookstore and the rampant anticapitalism plastered all over the facade. “So he might be willing to join our enterprise despite his politics—”

 

“Doesn’t have any politics. He just stocks the bookstore so it’ll fit the neighborhood. Makes his real money with special-order ordinance, hooking contacts together, and helping locals deal with the Confed legal system.”

 

Ex-lawyer, Dom thought. That’s how nuts Bakunin is. An anarchy and lawyers can still find work.

 

“Supposed to have been involved in a revolution against the Paschal theocracy,” she continued. “Gives him lots of points with the politicos around here.”

 

Paschal again, nothing that Argus’ data package hadn’t told him—

 

Dom felt a brief twinge of something—guilt?—over the data he’d ordered from Argus. Of course, he hadn’t told Tetsami about it. Playing things close to himself was an ancient habit, from even before the TEC had slammed security procedures into his skull.

 

He hadn’t told her.

 

Should he have?

 

Tetsami tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. “There he is. Let’s go.”

 

A short, balding gentleman was locking up the front door of the bookstore. As Dom followed Tetsami across the street, he had trouble picturing the man as either a revolutionary or a demolition expert. Dom also couldn’t picture him as part of the spearhead going into the occupied GA&A complex.

 

They got up behind the guy just as he was turning away from locking up the door. Levy seemed distracted. He didn’t notice Tetsami until he almost bumped into her.

 

Levy drew up short. “What?”

 

Tetsami smiled. “Hi, Johann.”

 

Levy let his back fall against the door and he wiped his hand across his forehead. “My dear ... I thought you’d be safely off-planet by now.”

 

Tetsami shrugged. “Something came up. We need to talk.”

 

Levy broke into a sweat. What a great recruit, Dom thought. “Do you know there’s a price on your head?”

 

She nodded. “Can we go in?”

 

Levy nodded as he gave a furtive glances up and down the street. He fumbled open the lock and hustled them into the bookstore.

 

Levy directed them through a display area dominated by tall shelves whose size made the man seem even smaller. The place smelled of old paper and had a sense of permanence about of it that was out of place in Godwin. The free space on the walls was taken up by portraits of socialist deities—Marx, Lenin, Mao, Cheviot.

 

The three of them ended up in a small windowless office in the back of the bookstore. Levy was careful to close the door behind him. He sat behind a green metal desk that was half-buried in books and papers. Tetsami opened her mouth, but Levy shushed her as he rummaged in one of the drawers.

 

He came out with a small electronic box. Dom recognized it. It was a basic countersurveillance field generator. It wouldn’t be perfect—it only caused a pulsing distortion of RF signals—but it was the first sign that this guy had something on die ball.

 

“Who’s your friend?”

 

Tetsami smiled. “We can talk now?”

 

“Believe me, I would have known long before now if my place wasn’t clean.” Levy wiped his forehead again. “Please, what’s going on?”

 

Dom and Tetsami had agreed that she would pitch their job. So Dom was in the unusual position of being the observer.

 

“As for my friend, Johann, he’s my current employer. More you don’t want to know.”

 

“You’re starting a job now?”

 

Tetsami nodded.

 

“They’re hunting for you! You and five, six hundred other people. There are hits every day. People are laying low just because of the crossfire. I could be set for life if I just shot you—”

 

“You won’t.”

 

Dom felt an icy chill fill his gut. Did anyone get away from this? Would there be anyone at the commune when he finally got there? If they were looking for only six hundred people, that meant that nearly a thousand were still—

 

Don’tthink about it, you can’t do anything right now.

 

“Why are you so sure I won’t?” The way Levy said that made Dom tense.

 

“You’re too damn curious. You know I’m sitting on something pretty damn interesting if I’m out in the open at a time like this.”

 

Levy nodded with a weak grin. “I’m interested. I’ll admit that. What are we talking about?”

 

“We are talking about a share in at least a hundred megs or partnership in a corp enterprise.”

 

Levy’s skin took on a grayish cast. “That’s an order of magnitude way beyond anything—” He took a deep breath. “What do you need me for?”

 

“We need someone to crack a box.”

 

“What kind of safe are we talking about?”