Koban Universe 1 (22 page)

Haveram smiled. “Sounds like a really good offer Carl, but you’d better chose unemployment. However, perhaps boss man
should consider his own retirement, or another line of work. I’ll be coming back here on future trips. I think the nicer people in Brisbane could use a break from Carmody Enterprises and your business fees.”

Carmody, feeling safe and remote said, “Smith, I have a couple of hundred more employees. You can’t fight them all, or stop them before they kill you and your crew. I’ll have control of that ship of yours before daylight.”

Without looking away from Carl, Haveram tossed away the burner, and pulled out the heavy caliber slug thrower he’d removed from the first thug he’d killed. Without looking, he swung his left arm up and fired four shots into the bar mirror. Four holes appeared in the shatterproof plastic based mirror, spaced evenly around the “hidden” camera. Then tossed the gun away.

“Carl, you’ve seen what I can do. I’ll tell you that
the crew that came here with me is just as good if not better, and faster than I am. Had your boss not been too greedy a son of a bitch, things could have stayed as they were. I’m not law enforcement, and my people have their own disagreements with the Planetary Union government. I was prepared to take a live and let live position concerning the corruption I saw here.

“However, in general we don’t like people like Carmody, or his organization, but expect the local law to handle common criminals. Now he’s crossed us, and made a threat that I can’t ignore. Frankly, I don’t like you either, but I’m not ordinarily a killer, and I needed some in
formation from you so you’re still alive. You can stay that way.

“How about we shake hands, and I let you walk away. I mean away from Brisbane and from working for Carmody. He definitely won’t be in business when I leave here in a few days. You might serve to spread the word that I won’t permit a replacement gang coming in and trying to fill the void here. That camera recorded everything. Keep it as a demo tape.”

“Ah…, you’re very persuasive.” Carl hedged. Looking where the camera was framed by four bullet holes.

“I see you’re worried that a stubborn, ruthless man’s persistence will shorten your life expectancy if you
try to quit. Well, that will certainly happen if he stays alive, no matter what you decide to do. You failed him, big time. How about we shake hands on your giving up this life style, and I’ll see that Carmody never bothers anyone again after tonight.”

Carmody warned him. “You take his hand Carl, and you’ll do well to remember why I’m called “Mitch the Switch.”

The two men’s hands met and Haveram asked him, “Where is Carmody? Why’s he called that?”

The Mind Tap image showed him the boss man’s preference to use a slender blade to gut his enemies when they least expected the attack. However, Carl didn’t utter a word. He simply maintained his firm handshake grip.

Haveram repeated the first question. “Where’s his home base?” Again, Carl said nothing; as if ratting out a partner in crime was a line he could not cross. Suddenly, he pulled Haveram towards him, and brought his left hand swiftly up towards the smaller lighter man’s abdomen. It happened in an instant.

The two men separated, with a sad pained look on Haveram’s face. He stepped back from the loyal and dedicated young killer, and turned to face the Tri-Vid camera, blood on his left hand, held
low near his belt. “I see you taught him all you knew, you bastard. Including carrying a knife up his sleeve with an auto blade.”

Looking at the camera, he made a promise to the crime lord.

“You have only until I reach you to live.”

The tall man behind Haveram fell
backwards, and his body draped limply over a table. A slender handle of a knife protruding from his abdomen. Carmody, watching Carl as he died said, “Well, he failed me again. I’d have done it myself after tonight. You finished him too fast.”

“It’ll be fast for you too Carmody. I don’t enjoy it the way you do, and as he did.”

“Ha. Brisbane’s a big city Smith, or whatever the hell your name is. Do you think you can find me before my men kill you and your crew, and take your ship?”

“I’ll have to start looking under rocks I guess. Or I’ll bet you live in a penthouse in the tallest building in Brisbane, where you look out over your soon to be former domain.” Smiling, he fired a final bullet, direct
ly into the lens of the camera.

The last remark was a bit of misdi
rection, to leave the man feeling more secure. Carmody’s precise location, an office in the back of a ratty warehouse full of stolen goods, was only two miles from the spaceport. The directions to it were firmly fixed in Haveram’s memory. The images had transferred from Carl’s mind, when he recalled how he’d watched his boss use his own blade on someone in his main office in a similar handshake of betrayal, just the way he had intended to gut his unsuspecting victim tonight.

Haveram
checked his thumbnail watch laminate.
If I don’t
dawdle,
he thought,
I can terminate Carmody Enterprises,
eat a steak while I play some poker, and get one of the casino lady dealers into the sack before daylight.

He rather liked this crude port town.