Gambler (18 page)

"You're just going to accept that?" said
Aart, incredulous.

"You don't know what it's like here," said
Nova. "If we don't leave when he tells us, he'll just call the
cops. And trust me when I say they'll throw us into prison just for
the fun of it. None of you are ready for that."

"Such a nice place," Orion said. "I don't
know why we don't come here more often."

Nova rolled her eyes.

"Kind of explains why you're so friendly,"
he said, smiling at her.

Nova slumped into a nearby chair and the
others did the same. The bartender came around with their drinks
and they sipped in relative quiet.

"Any injuries?" Aart asked.

"Are you kidding?" Gus said, pointing to his
forehead.

"Pfft. That's nothing!" said Aart. "Anyone
got some real injuries?"

"Just a few scratches," said Orion.

"Yeah. I think I'll get a bruise on my arm,
but they're a lot worse off," said Tyra, pointing at the prone men
on the floor.

"Nova nearly died!" Tanguin said.

Nova frowned at her and Tanguin blushed.

"As if the great Nova could die," said
Aart.

"It wasn't that big a deal," Nova said.
"Tanguin took care of it."

"With a chair," Orion said. "I saw it all.
Everyone be careful of that one, she's a lot more deadly than she
looks."

Tanguin flushed a deeper red and sipped on
her drink. The Hunters chuckled, drawing worried glances from the
other patrons.

Nova slurped the last of her drink. "Any
plans from here?"

"I think it's nearly morning," Aart said.
"Any recommendations?"

"Nah," said Nova. "Besides, I have to get
back on this case. I've got some unfinished business here."

"I think I have to rest my head for about a
week," said Gus, prodding his forehead and wincing.

They stood and ambled from the bar. Nova
heard the room erupt into conversation as the door swung shut
behind them. Hunters weren't uncommon on Tabryn, but the fight had
been quite extraordinary.

"Alright, back to the Maw for us," said
Aart.

"Make sure you actually go there this time,"
Nova said. "Tanguin, I'm putting you in charge of making sure he
gets there."

Tanguin groaned. "You know he never does
what I say."

"Just remind him of all the times we've
saved his arse. Then tell him that next time I'm going to let the
slug eat his brain."

Aart scowled. "That's the last time I throw
you a surprise party."

Nova smiled and put her hand to her
forehead. "Thank goodness. I wouldn't want another brawl like that
for quite some time, thank you very much."

"Admittedly the brawl wasn't part of the
plan," conceded Aart.

"See you back at the Maw," said Gus as he
and Tyra left the group for their own ship.

"Yeah. Say hi to Vicki for me," Orion said,
gazing dreamily into the distance.

"In your dreams," said Nova, rolling her
eyes.

"You bet," he replied. He skipped off before
she could smack some sense into him.

"Thanks for coming," Nova said to Aart and
Tanguin.

"Thought you could do with a laugh," said
Aart.

"You have no idea. I'll be honest with you
two, I was pretty much ready to quit before you showed up."

"You never quit!" said Tanguin, shocked.

Nova shrugged. "It's this place. It messes
with my head."

"I don't blame you," Aart said. "It's a
bitch of a place."

Nova looked around. "And this is the good
area."

"Are you alright after your fight with the
cyborg?" Tanguin said, frowning.

Nova nodded. "Makes me want to take out the
whole casino though."

"Me too."

"So why help him?" said Aart. "You could
just leave the job now. If it's taken you this long to solve it, I
don't think anyone else will be able to. Just leave it; let Cracos
keep bleeding money."

"I don't intend to help him. He's more of a
criminal than whoever is taking his money. I plan to make him pay
for it."

"You know," Aart said. "In lots of circles
we would be considered criminals."

"I know, I know." Nova waved her hand at
him. "But it fits into my own warped sense of code, okay?"

"Warped is definitely the right word."

Nova scowled.

"Wish I'd seen you mech fighting."

"You've seen my fighting before."

"Yeah but this is different. This is on your
home turf. It's special."

Nova chuckled. "It was special all right.
Nearly died from blood loss."

"You're better now though right?" said
Tanguin.

"Yeah."

She pulled up the side of her shirt to
reveal the jagged stitches that held her skin together in a raised
ridge. Fresh blood dribbled down from where she'd strained it
during the fight but it looked a lot better than it had a few days
ago.

"That's disgusting," Tanguin said, her face
turning white.

"It hurt at the time."

"I bet," Tanguin said.

Nova let her shirt fall back into place.
"Alright, you two. Leave. Go back home. Tanguin, please try and
talk some sense into this maniac. He knows what about."

"Yes sir," Aart said and saluted.

He and Tanguin turned towards the shipyards
and started to shamble away.

"Thank you for coming," Nova called after
them.

They turned back and smiled at her. "What
are friends for?" Aart yelled back.

Nova smiled and waved. They disappeared into
the mass of ships. Nova turned back for Inner Tabryn and Crusader.
She felt a lot better than she had on the way over. Usually, she
liked to do things on her own, but there was something to be said
for teamwork. She just hoped that Aart got the message and stopped
his foolish ideas about defying the Confederacy.

She walked back to Crusader and collapsed
onto her bed, still buzzing from her Blue Saturns. It sent a
pleasant tingling all the way to her toes. She closed her eyes and
drifted into sleep.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

Nova woke up feeling far less joyful than
she had when she went to sleep. Her head pounded with the after
effects of the Blue Saturns. She couldn't believe that after all
these years, alcohol still came with the same damned bad
side-effects. At least now there were drugs which mostly took care
of it.

She went to the food generator and typed in
the code for Parapem, placed the blue square on her tongue, and
waited for the magic to take effect. She slumped into her command
chair.

Video footage of the casino filled
Crusader's front screen. Nova scowled when she remembered the
recording she'd watched the day before.

"What else is going on in that damned awful
place?" she asked Crusader.

The video screen zoomed out so that there
were four separate displays. Nova studied each of them in turn.

The bottom left corner showed the card
tables and Nova shook her head as she saw the elderly man, Ted,
playing again. She was relieved to see that he appeared to be doing
better than the previous nights. Another part of her was sad to see
him still wasting his time, and money, away at the casino. Of
course, she could understand. On a planet like Tabryn, the man
probably had no family, no one to look after, so he may as well
flush his credits away on cards.

She watched the man for some time as he
played hand after hand. Her eyes flicked to the other screens, but
always they returned to the elderly man. His back hunched over his
cards and his tattered jacket sported many holes.

Finally Ted stood and tossed a chip to the
dealer who nodded before turning to the rest of the table. Ted
shuffled towards the cashiers, pulling chips from various pockets
until by the time he reached the woman behind the desk his hands
were over-flowing.

Nova's eyebrows rose. "Hopefully that makes
up for his losses all the other nights," she said, mostly to
herself.

"I should think so, the elderly man usually
does quite well," Cal said from his position by Nova's side.

Nova turned to the robot with a frown. "I've
sat next to him at least twice, and he's lost all of his chips each
time."

"You must be mistaken. He has walked out of
the casino with credit every night."

Nova bit her bottom lip as she turned back
and watched the elderly man push a sizeable pile of chips towards
the woman behind the desk. His entire countenance had changed, the
bent shoulders were now straight and he held his head high. He even
appeared younger than Nova had originally thought. He joked with
the woman behind the counter with calm confidence and flicked her a
chip. It flipped through the air and landed on the desk in front of
her. The man winked and held out his cred stick.

Nova watched with an open mouth as the
numbers on the stick skyrocketed. "And he wins that much every
night?"

Cal was silent for just a second as his
internal systems processed video footage from the previous nights.
"Yes, he has gained between ten and fifty thousand credits each
night."

"Son of a bitch," Nova swore.

CHAPTER TEWNTY-TWO

"I want every bit of history you can get on
that man. Scour the Cloud and don't you dare leave one file
unopened."

The sound of Crusader's computer kicking
into full gear echoed around the command pod with a whirring,
reminiscent of an old-fashioned helicopter. Nova paced about the
command centre, scraping both hands through her hair.

"C'mon!" she said, twirling her hand for
Crusader to begin.

"Theodore Granite. According to preliminary
records, he is seventy-eight and lives in a small apartment. He has
no family and few friends."

"Deeper," Nova said, waving.

"However, further analysis shows that this
identity only came into existence three years ago." Crusader's curt
tone suggested the computer was annoyed that Nova had interrupted.
"He appears to have little in his name aside from a bank account
and the apartment. Records of where he came from originally and
what his real name is, cannot be found."

"Get me those bank account details."

"I'm afraid his account has a security level
which my processers would take over a decade to crack."

"We don't have a decade," Nova said through
clenched teeth. "Get me Tanguin."

The official file on Theodore disappeared
from the screen to be replaced by Tanguin's face. Dark patches
circled her eyes and her hair was bunched up on one side.

"Tanguin. I need a favour from you straight
away," Nova said, leaning her hands on her chair as she stood over
the controls.

"Nova? Why the hell are you calling me so
early? Call back when I'm not asleep."

"Take a Parapem. This is important."

"You should have thought of that before you
made me drink those Purple Blasters last night."

Nova rolled her eyes.

Tanguin patted her hair with her hand and
blinked, her eyes bloodshot. "What do you want?"

"I need all the bank records for a Mister
Theodore Granite."

"Gee, Nova, that sounds a little illegal,"
Tanguin said, yawning.

"Please, Tanguin. I'm nearly there, I'm sure
of it. I can't get off this planet soon enough."

"Get on it, Delta," Tanguin said.

Silence filled both their rooms, broken only
by the whirring of Delta's cooling fan.

"All known bank history recovered," Delta's
voice was smoother than Crusader's, more human.

"Send it to Crusader," Tanguin instructed. A
moment later the documents appeared on Crusader's monitor.

"Thank you," Nova said, locking eyes with
Tanguin. The two stared at each other, their expressions saying
more than words ever could.

"Be careful," Tanguin said, more awake.

Nova sighed. "You too."

Tanguin's face disappeared.

"What do the bank statements tell us?" Nova
asked.

"There is a significant quantity of money.
At this point in time, one million five hundred and twenty-three
thousand credits. A deposit of ten thousand credits was just
made."

"That would be the money he just won," Nova
pondered. A part of her wished for a logical explanation, that the
man was innocent and just eccentric, but in her heart she didn't
believe it.

"Where does he withdraw credit?" Nova
asked.

"No withdrawals," Crusader replied.

"What do you mean?"

"There have been no withdrawals."

"Before that then, where did he last take
money out?"

"No money has been withdrawn from this
account."

Nova's eyebrows bunched together as she
stared at the statements. Crusader wasn't wrong; down the page was
a line of credits made every night from the casino, but nowhere was
there a sign of the credit being withdrawn.

"He must use a different account to get the
chips," Nova said. "What other bank accounts did Delta find?"

"No other bank accounts found for Theodore
Granite."

"Dammit!" Nova said. "He must have another
name."

Her eyes moved about the command pod as her
mind raced with the possibilities.

"Where is he now?" she asked.

The image flickered and showed the view from
the exterior casino cameras. Ted strolled out of the casino with
his ragged coat and a slight skip in his step. Nova watched him
with narrowed eyes all the way down the street until his silhouette
disappeared outside of the camera's frame. Only then did she turn
away.

"Nothing," she said. "We still have
nothing."

"We have a suspect at least," Cal piped
up.

"Yes, but I wish it wasn't him."

Both Crusader and Cal were silent at that
last statement and made no comment.

"I'm going back to bed."

***

Nova slept through the day and awoke feeling
refreshed. As soon as she sat up, the lights returned to her pod
and she stretched. Her body felt oddly out of sync with the rest of
the world. It was getting towards night time and yet she was only
just waking up. As a bounty hunter she was often running on a
different time zone to the planets she visited, but she still
hadn't got used to the feeling. It made her body confused and she
hesitated at the food generator for some time. Should she be having
breakfast or dinner?