Emily had to find a way to contact the woman in the picture she had been shown of Juneau. She pulled her copy of the photo from her bag and studied the background for other clues of the woman's whereabouts. Again, there was that look of a club in the background of the photo. She absolutely didn't have the time to go through every club in Mesca. Who could she contact? She felt like she had writer's block, only spies couldn't get writer's block. Could they? Maybe she had a covert block.
She decided to head out into the city; perhaps she'd get some inspiration from that. Mesca, even though it was a big city, felt like a place with lots of small cities in it. A city of neighborhoods like New York used to be. As she walked out of the hotel onto the square, they were setting up for market. It was Saturday, and that took her aback; when was the last time she had consciously realized what day it was? Usually they tended to run all together, but as she stood staring at the square she was it was market day, Saturday, in this part of Mesca. The vegetable peddler was setting up his stall even though the day looked like rain. There were rows of carrots, still on their stems with the leafy greens, next to the bright red, shiny tomatoes, and lying right in front of the leeks, big bushy leeks, next to the lush full heads of lettuce. Three different colors of peppers, red, yellow, and green were piled high. They stood next to fresh melons, cut open for a taste, so they could be sold. The melons flanked pineapple, which must have been imported for it was too cold on Mesca, or the surrounding planets to grow them. There were flats of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, piles of peaches, apricots, and nectarines.
On the other end of the table there were mounds of potatoes and every kind of cabbage you could think of for preparing the Mescans favorite dish of cabbage and potato dumplings.
The cheese cart was next to one of the vegetable stalls. Looking at some of the soft, fragrant cheeses oozing from their rinds she wanted only to home to the kitchen to cook, but she knew that would be a long time in coming. There had to be every type of cheese imaginable -- cheeses that she knew from Earth -- which meant that artisanal cheese makers had come to Mesca after the nuclear winter to create their artistry once again. Edam, gouda manchego, brie, camembert, just to name a few, were piled on the table.
Emily shook herself out of her reverie. "I've got to find this woman." She took the picture out of her bag and started asking the vendors if they could i.d. her. As she moved from stall to stall -- the crowd seemed to part, making her progress easy. It was like magnets that repel each other. A static electricity was charging the air. Emily could feel that something was about to pop.
And pop it did, literally. It was the pop-gun sound of rifle-fire and she dropped quickly behind a cart of apples. She watched as first a bright red apple and then several green ones spattered into apple sauce.
She scrambled backward trying to keep her eye out for the sniper and not lose her balance and go sprawling. As she slowly worked her way behind a pear wagon she saw the muzzle fire of an 810 Meegan -- this was the choice of any sniper worth his salt, and definitely the weapon of choice; the one that NASA assigned to all their operatives.
Obviously she was on to something. It had to be the next vendor. It was galling to her that she might lose a lead. It wasn't going to happen today. She threw her bag over her shoulder -- carrying it like a messenger bag, and dove for cover as the pop, pop, pop started again.
"Damn," she pulled her gun from her waistband holster. It was useless to put a gun in your bag. You had to dig for it. As she pulled the weapon out, and glanced around, she caught sight of the 810 Meegan again. This time, rather than scramble back, she steadied herself, took the gun in both hands, and fired.
The 810 Meegan cartwheeled to the ground quickly followed by its operator. She jumped over the apple cart and darted around a cart of oranges hoping to get to the sniper before anyone else. She knew it was a long shot, but she hoped he might have been careless and was carrying i.d. As she pushed her way through two men, she saw Juneau lying at her feet. What was next?
This couldn't be the real Juneau. Was it that damned look-a-like from J9? the only real way to tell was blood i.d., but she didn't have the time or the i.d. kit to do anything with the blood.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Fixer #8
Emily sat for a moment trying to decide on a course of action. Did she approach the woman first, or Juneau? Well, she'd have to get to Nevas 4 and then make the decision.
The trip to Nevas 4 from Terris Minora was easy. The physics were hard, but the jump was easy. Emily had never really understood the principles behind it, but the ease of movement made her job so easy. Do a job, make a jump! No one knew where you were going. She stepped into the float just like back on Earth, but because the distance between Terris Minora and Nevas 4 was so great, she had to take the jump float. It worked on the principles of teleportation. You entered the float, it flew to approximately fourteen miles planetary orbit and then the whole ship was teleported, (picked up and droped) in a fourteen mile planetary orbit around your destination planet. The float flew to the tube station and there you have it, travel that would take hundreds of years in about two hours.
The Nevans were an interesting group of poeople. The original settlers had left Earth when the teleportation jump had been proven successful. Many of them left Earth because of religious and political differences with those around them. The leader/president/guru of Nevas was a man named Redran Joll. Joll was fanatical about personal freedoms. In his world there would be no oppression for differing points of view, there would be openness to to everyone's ideas, there would be no political parties, and if anyone else wanted to lead, they could, although the duties of a leader were nominal on Nevas 4.
Because there wer no rules as to who could come on planet -- that would be discriminatory -- it had become a haven for a collection of interesting law-skirters. Not law-breakers, skirters. Just on the fringes of what was right and what was wrong!
Emily knew that this made her job more difficult because no one felt compelled to offer any kind of information.
Upon her arrival on Nevas 4, she took a horse-drawn cab to her hotel in Mesca. She was staying at the Condes de Mesca, it was an exact replica of the Condes de Barcelona,the luxury hotel in Barcelona, the capitol of the country Catalunya.
The Condes de Mesca was the height of luxury, in a modern decor. The suites were divided into a living area done in shocking blues and greans and a sleeping area of pale gold with red oak accents in the bedstead and the hardwood floor. The view wasn't as lovely as that at the Condes de Barcelona, but it was close.
The trip to Nevas 4 from Terris Minora was easy. The physics were hard, but the jump was easy. Emily had never really understood the principles behind it, but the ease of movement made her job so easy. Do a job, make a jump! No one knew where you were going. She stepped into the float just like back on Earth, but because the distance between Terris Minora and Nevas 4 was so great, she had to take the jump float. It worked on the principles of teleportation. You entered the float, it flew to approximately fourteen miles planetary orbit and then the whole ship was teleported, (picked up and droped) in a fourteen mile planetary orbit around your destination planet. The float flew to the tube station and there you have it, travel that would take hundreds of years in about two hours.
The Nevans were an interesting group of poeople. The original settlers had left Earth when the teleportation jump had been proven successful. Many of them left Earth because of religious and political differences with those around them. The leader/president/guru of Nevas was a man named Redran Joll. Joll was fanatical about personal freedoms. In his world there would be no oppression for differing points of view, there would be openness to to everyone's ideas, there would be no political parties, and if anyone else wanted to lead, they could, although the duties of a leader were nominal on Nevas 4.
Because there wer no rules as to who could come on planet -- that would be discriminatory -- it had become a haven for a collection of interesting law-skirters. Not law-breakers, skirters. Just on the fringes of what was right and what was wrong!
Emily knew that this made her job more difficult because no one felt compelled to offer any kind of information.
Upon her arrival on Nevas 4, she took a horse-drawn cab to her hotel in Mesca. She was staying at the Condes de Mesca, it was an exact replica of the Condes de Barcelona,the luxury hotel in Barcelona, the capitol of the country Catalunya.
The Condes de Mesca was the height of luxury, in a modern decor. The suites were divided into a living area done in shocking blues and greans and a sleeping area of pale gold with red oak accents in the bedstead and the hardwood floor. The view wasn't as lovely as that at the Condes de Barcelona, but it was close.
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