Hard Luck Hank: Prince of Suck (19 page)

“You don’t have to know what it is to
bend it, stupid. What do you think I was working on it for? It was bent. Now
you just bent the other side.”

“I’m not a heavy lifter.”

“Clearly. Come over here and pick up
this end. And don’t drop it.”

“No. Help me find 19-10 first.”

Delovoa pointed, his face angry.

“He’s over there.”

I looked at the wall where he was
pointing.

“What? Where?”

“How should I know? You think I can see
through dimensions?”

“Can’t you build some scanner? You said
it was using unstable elements or whatever.”

“It will be contained by the armor. If it
wasn’t, it would kill him. Besides, the station has radiation leaks all over.”

“From what?” I asked, alarmed.

“From you dropping big pieces of it.
Belvaille is falling apart. You know that. Why do you need to track him anyway?
You said his guns can’t hurt you. He didn’t even kill the Ank.”

“But he’s following me!”

“Then turn around and shoot him next
time.”

“No, he’s following me in those other
dimensions,” I said.

“That’s not possible. He’s slower than
you when he does that. And you take the train.”

“I’m telling you, he knew where I was,
twice, and listened to what we were saying. He may be listening to us now,” I
said, looking around.

“He can’t. It would take too much
energy.”

“But do you know if the armor can hear
us? In this dimension?”

“How should I know?”

“Then how do you know it takes energy?”
I challenged.

“Because it doesn’t run on fairy dust.
This is just how machines work. If it’s moving, if it’s listening, if it’s
interacting with anything, no matter what dimension, it needs power. He can’t
possibly be following you all the time. You’d outpace his Messahn armor and he
would waste his chrodite-399.”

“Then how do you explain him following
me? I went alone.”

“Did anyone know where you were going?”

“Well…Fat Neep. His gang. My people.
Anyone that saw me. Anyone they told.”

“Not exactly secret.”

“So there’s no way to track him or
predict where he’s going?”

“I don’t know what the armor is or its
signature. You can scan for anything, but you have to have some pretty specific
criteria. Shiny armor with four arms isn’t good enough.”

“Is it possible to make me some armor
like him? Where I could also go into his dimension?”

“Are you kidding? I had a tough enough
time making the trains able to haul your jelly gut down the street. Besides,
it’s not like he steps over and it’s this wide open field with just him. It
would take me years to try and figure out the theories of all those interlaced
manifolds, let alone make a practical device.”

I grumbled, but he had eased my panic a
bit. I was thinking I had a permanent 19-10 hovering a few feet behind me.

“This is a long shot, but do you know
Two Clem?” I asked.

“The actor?”

“Yeah. He’s missing.”

“Since when?”

“Months.”

“No, he’s not. I saw him a few weeks
ago.”

“Where?”

“Here.”

“Here, here? Your place?”

“Yeah.”

“No one is supposed to come over.”

“I’m not going to be a prisoner! I have
guests when I want.”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“It wasn’t really a talking session,”
Delovoa answered delicately.

I rolled my eyes.

“So how can I find him?”

“Have you checked his apartments?”

“No, but I’m sure the Order has, and
they say he’s missing.”

“I don’t know if he’s still in the
Order,” Delovoa said casually.

“Really? Does Hobardi know?”

“Or he’s trying to take control from
Hobardi. One of those.”

“Those are hugely different things!
Can’t you remember which?”

“No. A fake religion isn’t very high in my
priorities.”

“Can you tell me if he comes back?” I
asked.

“I will if you help me fix this. And
don’t drop it this time.”

Judge Naeb declared his candidacy for
Governor.

That put us at 1,843 people running for
the five City Council seats and 206 running for Governor. And there still
hadn’t been any declarations from the Olmarr Republic, the Sublime Order of
Transcendence, or the Totki.

I should just let them all fight it out.

Actually, that might happen whether I
let it or not.

We had finally moved all the women
prisoners from the Royal Wing to Hank Block. We converted the roof of one of the
apartment buildings. That was about the best we could do without requiring a
lot of manpower to watch them.

It was theoretically possible to escape
but it would be a ten story descent through electrified wire. If they escaped,
they probably deserved to.

I stood outside the building looking at
the rooftop prison as MTB walked up to me.

“How are the recruits coming?” I asked him.

“We lost five more people.”

“What? More?”

“Yeah. I think you were right. A lot of
groups had us infiltrated. Now that the election is coming, they don’t need
anyone in the Kommilaire and they are pulling them back to their regular armies.
What happened to Fat Neep?”

“19-10 killed him.”

“Oh, I heard you did.”

“Yeah, I told them that. Until I can
figure out some way to deal with 19-10 I’m not going to tell anyone he exists.”

“The Ank and the Reserve guards know,”
MTB said.

“But they won’t tell anyone.”

“Isn’t that dishonest?” Valia asked,
approaching.

“I’m not lying,” I said defensively.
“Well, I guess I am. But it’s not like I’m benefiting from the lie. If I tell
everyone about him, they’ll just say, ‘hey, stop him,’ which is what I’m trying
to do anyway. And the city is on edge as it is.”

“The election has everyone anxious,” MTB
agreed.

“It’s not just that. The city, the
galaxy, is kind of like…balancing. It’s going to fall one way or the other.
Three months ago the Ank Reserve Boards lost 50% of their value in one day
because they ran out of white chalk to write the tickers and instead used red
chalk. People went nuts and thought it was some Sign.”

“The Totki have been going around
interrogating people. That’s going to get out of hand,” MTB said. “We don’t
have enough people to stop them anymore. At least if you’re not there.”

“And they’ll just run away from you,”
Valia chimed.

“I think I got a fix for the Totki nuisance.
But check this out, Delovoa saw Two Clem a few weeks ago.”

“Where?” Valia asked.

“His place.”

“Did he break past Delovoa’s security?”
MTB asked, amazed.

“No, no. Nothing like that. But the
point is he’s alive. And Delovoa hinted Two Clem might have had some falling
out with the Order.”

The pair was silent, so I continued.

“I’m wondering if Hobardi wants us to
find Two Clem so he can kill him.”

“So should we stop looking?” MTB asked.

“Yeah. In any scenario at the very least
it didn’t happen like Hobardi said. The Olmarr Republic didn’t take him. And
he’s not captive. If they have organizational issues, that’s their own damn
problem.”

“What’s your solution for the Totki,
Boss?” Valia asked.

I smiled.

“Go get Rendrae and meet back at my
place. I’m going to get something to eat first.”

This was a gamble.

I had known Rendrae for a long time and
I knew he loved news. Ate news. Dreamed news. Probably had little baby news
somewhere he had birthed after being impregnated by other news.

But he was also pretty honest. Honesty
was a good trait if you had the ability to turn it off when you needed to.

The city listened to Rendrae. He was
their gossip god and “Force for Facts.”

I now had to do one thing I had never
attempted or even heard of him doing in the century and a half I’d known him:

I had to get him to fake a story.

“Have a seat, friend,” I said.

Rendrae did so. He was guarded. He did
not smile. He stared straight at me. I never went out of my way to speak to
Rendrae, he went out of his way to speak to me. He knew something was wrong. It
didn’t take the galaxy’s foremost journalist to figure that out.

It was just the two of us here as I
didn’t think having witnesses would help.

“Would you care for something to eat or
drink?” I asked.

Rendrae merely shook his head. I think
he was honestly frightened.

“I found out who killed Su Dival,” I
said.

Rendrae scooted forward in his chair,
almost bursting out of his jacket.

“Who?” he asked.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

Rendrae, never at a loss for words, just
sat there.

“But I know who ordered the
assassination of Su Dival,” I said.

Rendrae squeaked.

“Who?”

“Judge Naeb.”

Rendrae’s brow furrowed.

“Or that’s who I’m going to say did it,
anyway. He didn’t, obviously. The problem is, I know who killed Su Dival for
real. But it doesn’t matter that I know. It won’t help anything. I have to stop
the Totki from shaking-down the citizens. That won’t lead anywhere except to
factional conflict. So I’m going to say Judge Naeb, who is now officially
running for Governor, had Su Dival assassinated to take him out of the way. And
then we can kill Judge Naeb, who is a
terrible
judge, as you know. And
maybe kill a few more guys that I finger as the assassins.”

Rendrae’s mouth was open. He was
sweating. He had slumped back on the chair.

“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

“Because you can either report what I
just told you, that Hank is framing a judge and doesn’t care about Su Dival—and
I don’t, he was a lunatic—or you can report the fake story. And have…I don’t
know, daily updates on the labyrinth of back-dealings and scheming that brought
it all about.”

“You want me to make up the stories?” Rendrae
asked weakly. “Like the-the bad fiction writers who tell pirate tales on the
loudspeakers before bedtime?”

“I’m sure they’ll be much better than
that, but yes. Rendrae, if you tell the truth, there won’t be anyone left to
hear the tall tales.”

“I promised I wouldn’t falsify a story.
That is the difference between me and everyone else. No matter what.”

“I remember you standing up for
Belvaille. When the Navy came here to take us over. You were ready to give your
life to spare the station. You won’t tell a lie to save it now?”

“Who really killed Su Dival?”

“An assassin named 19-10. He can portal
short distances. He’s basically impossible for me to find. So telling people
about him doesn’t help and it sounds like I’m making excuses.”

“You’ve seen this assassin?”

“Oh, yeah. On more than one occasion.
And there was nothing I could do. But look, help me out here. I am struggling
with this election. My Kommilaire are leaving in droves. I can’t maintain law
and order in the best of times.”

“How will me lying about Judge Naeb
help?” he asked.

“Besides removing the worst judge and a
terrible candidate, and stopping the Totki intimidation squads, it will be hot!
Belvaille’s longest-serving judge up on murder charges. We don’t even have a
government yet and we have our first political scandal.”

“A fake one.”

“Do you think I always give the most
appropriate punishments to only guilty people? I do what I can. Only good
things will come from this. People will be entertained. And entertained people
are less likely to murder each other. We have a perfect bad guy for them to
hate.”

Rendrae sat there for a long while.

I said what I could say. I thought it
best to ease back and wait.

“I’m not going to milk it,” he said
finally. “I will start it but I won’t keep making up lies just to keep it
going. If it has legs, and I imagine it will, then other people can report on
it.”

“Great! That’s all I ask.”

Rendrae stood up.

“Why do you have all these statues in
here?” he asked slyly. “And don’t say it’s because you’re a collector. I’ve
known you too long.”