Overdrive (10 page)

“Pardon?”

“I’m going to the
little boy’s room. Be back in a tic."

In the toilet,
Felix splashed himself in the face with water and looked at himself in the
mirror.

“What the fuck am
I doing?," he asked his reflection.

His reflection
looked a bit confused as well. Here he was with his life in danger, flirting
with a complete stranger when he should be safely tucked up in his room. He and
his reflection shrugged in unison. Oh well. She was rather nice.

Back at the bar,
Cystal was munching away on her own bowl of mussels.

“Get it sorted
out”?, she inquired.

“Yep. Something
just occurred to me. If you’re a first timer as well, how did you know those
guys who walked out before”?

“Oh them? They’re
just business associates."

“Business
associates? What do you actually do”?

“I protect the
business interests of my employer."

“And who might
that be?."

“I’d rather keep
that a secret. Isn’t a women entitled to a few secrets?”

“Depends if that
secret involves having her drinking companion’s testicles forcibly removed by
said employer with a blunt instrument.”

“Oh, nothing like
that. Nothing personal, but my employer would rather remain anonymous."
She smiled at him again in a rather attractive fashion.

“Now what exactly
do you do?”

“Would you believe
I clean toilets?”

“Nope”

“It was worth a
shot. I’m actually a technical engineer."

“Oh. Working on
anything I might know about?”

“I certainly hope
not. Like you, I prefer to keep some secrets."

Crystal laughed.
“Well, everyone’s entitled to them, I suppose."

“That’s very
generous of you."

The next hour
passed quite pleasantly. Crystal was a great conversationalist. She was
intelligent, possessed a dry sense of humor and it certainly wasn’t an effort
to look at her. Crystal, for her part, was equally impressed by Felix, or
Horace as he was now known. Handsome, his shyness concealed behind a façade of
laddishness. He’d have to loose the mustache though – it looked dodgy.

The bar was now
empty – the rather drunken Martians having staggered out some time before. He
and Crystal were getting on so well, he hardly noticed the two men who walked
into the bar and made their way purposely towards him.

◊

Logan wasn’t
particularly impressed. In fact, unimpressed and slightly worried. If he was in
Felix’s shoes, he would have locked himself in his cabin and kept his head
down. But, then again, they were on a Hedonist ship. Hard to resist temptation
when temptation was so obviously asking for a good seeing to.

He and Tarq had
gone up to Felix’s room. The door had informed them that the current occupant,
one Horace Belloc, wasn’t on the premises.

“Bugger."

“What?," said
Tarquin.

“He’s out. Silly
bastard."

“Well, what would
you do in his situation?”

“I’d keep my
fucking stupid face away from others to start with.”

Tarquin gave him a
dubious glance. “Of course you would."

“Of course I would
what?”

“Keep your face
away from others. Its just the other bits that would be the problem."

“What’s that
supposed to mean?”

“You want me to
spell it out for you? You have a problem keeping it in your pants. Most of your
daily inspiration and some of your best ideas have come from your little head."

“Yeah, yeah. I
hate to change the conversation, but seeing as Felix isn’t here, it means he’s
somewhere else.”

“Clever,"
said Tarquin. “Learn that in Military intelligence school?”

Logan ignored him
and sailed on. “Alternatively, he’s somewhere else with somebody else. That
somebody else could be terminating our good friend Felix right about now. That
means we have to find him, and quickly.”

Logan addressed
the ship through his AI. “Minx, location of Horace Belloc please."

“Certainly. Mr.
Belloc is currently on level 21 in Mojo’s bar. If you wish to contact him, you
will have to do it through the bars communication link. His AI is currently
inactive."

“Thank you Minx."

“My pleasure."

“Why didn’t you do
that to start with Log?," asked Tarquin.

“Shut it, you
muppet.”

The two men took
an AG lift down to level 21. They found Mojo’s easily enough, and Felix even
easier, despite his vague attempt at disguise. He was pretty much the only
person in the bar apart from a stunning brunette sitting next to him who was
engaging him in conversation. Felix failed to notice the entrance of his two
friends, seemingly preoccupied with other pursuits.

The woman noticed
them first. She raised her eyebrows as they approached. A startled Felix looked
in their direction, his concerned expression being replaced with one of delight
when he saw who it was.

“You sly dogs,"
he said standing and embracing his friends. “How did you find me?”

Tarquin attempted
to look surprised. “What? We weren’t even looking for you. Decided to take a
holiday. Bit of luck finding you here really. We obviously all had the same
idea for a holiday." He gave Felix a cheeky grin.

“Nice mustache
Felix. Grow it recently?," Logan deadpanned, trying to look innocent.

“Who’s Felix?’,
said Crystal.

“Oh…its my middle
name," a slightly flustered Felix replied. “Cystal, these are my good
friends Logan and Tarquin.”

They shook hands.
Crystal looked at Tarquin dubiously. “Do I know you?”

“I dunno. Do you
watch any gladiatorial shows?”

“Tarq’s a
gladiator," Felix said by way of explanation.

Crystal nodded and
smiled. “That’ll probably be it." She made her excuses and gave Felix a
kiss on the cheek, placing a bar mat in his hand. “See you tonight. My room
numbers on the back."

Conversation
temporarily ground to a halt as the three men turned to watch her leave.

“Not bad,"
Logan grinned appreciately in Crystal’s direction. “You certainly don’t waste
any time do you young man?”

“Better than
tossing off over the holo displays in my room," he said smiling boyishly,
before adding, “Yeah, she’s really nice."

Tarquin ordered
three beers and passed them around.

“Now what sort of
shit have you got yourself into Felix?”

Felix, continually
interrupted by questions, took half an hour to explain. Logan in turn explained
how they found him.

“So you’ve got no
idea who did it?," asked Tarquin.

“I’ve got my
suspicions, especially after Log’s run in with the Templars on Coleridge."

Logan sipped his
beer and grimaced. “Dodgy fuckers. So where are you off to then?”

“Don’t know. They
said they’ll be in contact. I just have to wait.”

Tarquin put his
huge arm around Felix’s shoulder. “Well, now that you have the strong brown arm
of gladiatorial might and the ever present and vigilant military skills of
Logan to look after you. I say we enjoy ourselves until they do get around to
contacting you. What sayeth you Log?”

Logan shrugged. “I
don’t see why not. I wouldn’t have been able to trace Felix if I hadn’t
recognized the ape like walk. I doubt anyone else would’ve picked it up."

Felix punched him
in the arm. “I do not walk like an ape."

Logan made a face
and looked sideways. Tarquin laughed.

Felix made to hit
Logan again but was interrupted by Tarquin’s question.

“What was that
lovely young thing saying about tonight?," he asked.

“Oh yeah. I’m
picking her up at 8. There’s a big ball or something on tonight."

“We know,"
Logan and Tarquin said in unison.

“Well, looks like
we’re all going then. You guys can protect me and womanize simultaneously. What
could be simpler?”

“I’ll go on one
condition," said Logan.

“What’s that?”

“You loose that
fucking ridiculous mustache."

◊

The Meat and Two
Vege club was contained within levels 24 and 25 of the massive Hedonist ship.
All major parties and events were held here, largely due to its central
location and size. A three hundred meter cube, the club had six different mezzanine
levels, various field maintained dance floors and a huge AG bar that hovered in
the middle. For those without an AG harness who couldn’t reach the main bar,
other smaller bars floated, apparently haphazardly, around the place.

Felix, Logan,
Tarquin and Crystal stood on the lowest level of the club. The main level, as
it was called, was filled with at least a couple of thousand revelers all
dressed in suitably debacherous attire. Logan couldn’t remember seeing this
much leather in one place before.

A band, held in
place by a horizontal field 50 meters above and about the same distance away,
were thrashing out a catchy dance number. The band seemed to be competing for
attention with floating dance cages containing up to 10 people. One of them,
under the guidance of a couple having vigorous sex, knocked over the drummer
during one of its passes. The music temporarily ground to a halt. An
altercation broke out between the drummer and the occupants of the cage which
was quickly broken up by security, escorting the human contents away from the
cage and accompanied by cheering from the crowd. He could see Walter mingling
with a group of passengers near one of the bars.

Tarquin nudged
Logan and motioned for him to look upwards. Five meters directly above them, a
transparent blue dance field was filled with mostly nude bodies providing
rather graphic genitalia displays. The two men grinned at each other.

Crystal and Felix
were engaged in animated conversation. Tarquin looked on with an amused
expression but Logan looked a bit sour.

“What’s your
problem. Jealous?," asked Tarquin.

“Nah. Its just
that we came all this way to help him out and he spends all his time cavorting
with some woman he picked up a couple of hours ago."

“Ah," said
Tarquin, knowingly. “Jealous."

“Alright. Maybe.
Do you want a beer."

“Are your trousers
crusty?”

“I take it that’s
a yes”?

“Sure is baby."

Tarquin was
dressed in his gladiators outfit consisting of his leopard skin g-string and
not much else.  Logan had ordered his Coverall to take on a more conservative
appearance of black leather pants and a black singlet with the words “monogamy
is bad for your health."  Felix, minus the moustache and fake nose and
Crystal were dressed as the Prince and Princess of hell, wearing matching red
leather outfits and had little red horns attached to their heads. Logan thought
they looked disgustingly cute.

Logan waved to the
bar closest to him. It descended and he ordered 4 beers from the barmaid. A
crowd of spectators had gathered to watch a large gorilla and an 8’ Polar bear
were arm wrestling a few meters away from them. Many of them appeared to be
betting on the outcome. After much toing and froing, the Gorilla succeeded in
besting his opponent to a mixed response of cheering and booing from the
onlookers. The two furry participants were Transplanters. They’d had their
brains surgically implanted into a custom made body. The transplant procedure
was relatively simple and cheap but actually growing another body was quite
expensive, although not prohibitively so. Stories had circulated of people on
drunken benders who had woken up in their friend’s body, deciding whilst under
the influence that Transplanting would be a bit of a hoot.

On the other side
of the bar, an older man waited to be served. Next to him towered his guardian
angel. Guardian angels were the lowest ranked in Angelic society. Outwardly,
guardian angels looked similar to other angels but unlike their more powerful
brethren, were incapable of generating significant strength fields or
navigating ships. The most they could manage were level 2 fields – fields
capable of fending off projectiles. Anyone could have a Guardian Angel,
providing you could pay. At fifty thousand galactic credits a year and 20% of
their client’s annual income, they were not cheap. Both the Areopagite’s and
the Watchers had tapped into this lucrative market and it was something of a
status symbol to have one.

Looking around,
Logan could see several Guardian angels scattered throughout the bar. It was
hard to distinguish an Areopagite angel from a Watcher. The Watchers, in
general, chose to color their wings various shades. It was difficult to
determine whether any were in the bar due to the myriad of lights flashing,
strobing, oscillating and throbbing.

Logan took the
beers and handed them around. Felix and Crystal seemed oblivious to anything
else but each other. Tarquin was talking to two young women wearing revealing
vampire outfits. He sidled up to Tarquin, and polishing up his best grin,
inserted himself into the conversation.