DJ's Mission (8 page)

“Will this be a problem for you? Taking me to
Mocha Delights?”

Tony shook his head. “Not at all, I’ve had many a
fare go there. Is this trip business or pleasure?”

“Business.”

“Then you need to speak with Mocha.”

“Who?”

“The owner.”

“Anything you can tell me about him?”

“Not much. He’s a young entrepreneur who took over
a rundown casino about six, no seven years back and through hard work and
honest dealings with gamblers and vendors has turned it into the premier
destination on Saturn. Not much else to tell you.” Tony glanced in his mirror
again. “He’s not your target is he?”

“Mark. Shooters have targets, hunters have marks.
And no, he isn’t. I’m just hoping to garner some information from him.”

Tony nodded as they zoomed through the atmosphere
of Titan. One of the first things that DJ noticed was the complete lack of
clouds in this region. He knew that the poles were almost always covered in
thick clouds but not the area along the equator. The second was the number of
bio-domes scattered throughout the area. Most were huge, city sized but there
were numerous smaller ones connected by tubes to the larger ones until the domes
nearly covered the entire land. It seemed from his viewpoint that the entire
moon was covered in domes, he knew that wasn’t accurate but that was the
impression he got. According to the files provided by Aeolus, Titan was
slightly larger than Earth’s moon but had less gravity than his home planet.
The government had been trying to terra-form the plant for decades but it
hadn’t completely worked, hence the bio-domes. But there were two basic types
of bio-domes, commonly referred to as Green and Blue. Green, meant a full
Earth-like environment; light, heating, oxygen, everything. Blue, meant that it
was safe to move about with only some sort of breathing apparatus. The
atmosphere would be too nitrogen rich to breathe without one.

As soon as Tony took Lucille through the upper
airlock, DJ could tell which building was Mocha Delights. It was covered in
lights, blue, purple and red neon flashed brighter than anything else in the
skyline.

Tony pointed out the brightly lit nightclub.
“There she is in all her glory. Don’t let the cheesy exterior fool you. It is
pure luxury inside.”

DJ spied a line of waiting patrons which wrapped
around the block outside. Many could be seen wearing their party clothes while
some were in full atmospheric suits. The other thing he noticed that no matter
what they wore, everyone had a weapon. Once again DJ was struck with another
reminder that they were outside the Coalition’s tight control. “Have you had
many troubles with raiders of late?”

“Not in the last month. But don’t worry; there
hasn’t been an attack in Xanadu in over two years.”

“Xanadu?”

Tony nodded to the ground. “The name of the region
we’re in. Just like every other city, there are good areas and bad areas.
Xanadu isn’t a favorite with the SS, so you would think that the bad elements
would move in but for some reason they don’t. Not sure why but I’m sure it
frustrates the hell out of Kassinger.”

DJ knew from his files that Kassinger was the
leader of the SS, a former soldier and confidant of Roger Thomas, his ex-wife’s
husband and beater of women and children. One part of him wanted to rush
straight on and choke the life out of the retired Admiral but he knew that
Iaido was right. He couldn’t charge straight in. He needed to sneak in and out.
And to do so, he was going to need help from Mocha, aka Andrew Young. Iaido had
included a complete dossier on the owner and suggestions on how to use it.

When Tony pulled up out front and the doors popped
open, he calmly slipped on a mask and hopped out to help as if this was a standard
fare and held out his cred-reader which showed his fare…two-hundred and fifty
credits.

DJ grabbed a cred-stix, adjusted the amount he
wished to transfer and placed it in the reader.

Tony nearly dropped the device when the sum of
five thousand credits popped up. “Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot!”

DJ shrugged. “Consider it a tip.”

Tony shook his head. “I can’t accept that. It’s
too much.”

“Listen. It’s not charity. I can see you’re down
on your luck. I’ve been there, more recent than you could imagine. If not for
the generosity of an old friend I would probably be dead by now. But he stepped
in and gave me a hand even when I didn’t know I needed it. Let me do the same
to you.”

Tony shook his head. “But you don’t know me.”

DJ shrugged. “What else do I need to know about
you? You’ve served your country and now you are down on your luck.” He pointed
at the sobriety medallion. “But instead of giving in, you’re fighting the good
fight, one day at a time.”

Tony stammered for a second before nodding. “This
means more to me than you will ever know.”

Placing a reassuring hand on the cancer stricken
veteran, DJ nodded. “I know brother, I know. We all carry demons from the war;
yours are just winning the fight. Do whatever you have to but don’t let it
win.”

It was at that moment when Tony realized that the
bounty hunter knew about his cancer. And by giving him the credits, the Marine
was granting him a chance to return to Earth for treatment. He now had a
possibility to beat the disease. The odds weren’t good but now he at least had
a fighting chance. “Thanks Marine.”

“Semper Fi, brother.”

Tony nodded. “Aye, semper fi…do or die.”

The two veterans shook hands and Tony climbed back
into Lucille. As he pulled off and heading away, DJ heard his voice float in on
the nitrogen winds of Titan. “Watch your six, Marine.”

Chapter 6

Kaitlyn looked at herself in the mirror for what
could’ve been the one-hundredth time that day.

The bruises under her eyes were nothing more than
a memory but every time she looked at herself she still saw them in her mind’s
eyes. She was mid-way through her twelfth year and considered herself pretty,
not beautiful but not ugly either. She always thought that she was the perfect
blend of her father’s attitude and her mother’s beauty.

Kaitlyn glanced over her shoulder at her mother
who was passed out from too much drinking…again. She had been drinking almost
constantly since that first day when Roger had hit them both.

Kaitlyn replayed that day over again in her head.

They had been hosting a dinner party when Roger
had taken a call in his office. There had been nothing unusual at that. Roger
was the chief executive for Titan Avionics and pretty much ran the Saturnian
System which allowed them to live like royalty on Titan City. It wasn’t as
glamorous as New Atlanta, Phoenix or even London but it was still nice. There
were stores, shops, theaters, clubs, parks and dozens of other things to do.
With access to the unlimited credits and influence of Titan Avionics, she was
never bored. There was always something to do until that fateful day when Roger
snapped.

She couldn’t describe it any other way.

He had taken the call in another room and when he
returned he was pale. Extremely pale. Her mother had asked what was wrong and
placed a reassuring hand on his arm. A wave of rage seemed to wash over his
face and he lashed out. Those first few strikes were etched into her mind.
Right now, Kaitlyn knew that if she closed her eyes and thought about it, the
attack would replay over and over in her mind. She had never considered her
step-father handsome, not with his facial scars, but he did radiate power. She
imagined that was what drew her mother to him. But during that first attack,
the rage seemed to fill him and the aura appeared to grow stronger.  Even as he
struck her mother again and again, Kaitlyn could remember rushing to her side
and the sting of Roger’s backhand connecting with her nose.

Even though Kaitlyn winced at the memory of her
beating, she was proud that she had fought back.

In the few years that her real father had lived at
home before going off to war, he had insisted that she learned how to defend
herself. Boxing and gymnastics had been his choice and her favorite activities.
Her mom had wanted ballet and dance. Their compromise was for her to do them
all. Of course since her heart wasn’t really in the latter two, she didn’t
excel at those endeavors. And as much as she loved boxing, once her parents
divorced that sport fell by the wayside. However about that same time she had
learned of an off-shoot form of gymnastics known as parkour and it had become
her one true love.

Parkour is an extremely physical sport which
focuses on efficient movement over and around obstacles. It is a combination of
martial art moves found in styles such as ninjustu and qing gong while blended
with the tumbling and other aspects of traditional gymnastics. The main purpose
of the discipline to teach participants how to move through any environment by
vaulting, rolling, running, climbing, flipping, tumbling and jumping past or
over obstacles. Practitioners are known as ‘traceurs’ although the feminine
form would be ‘traceuse’ as in ‘he escaped without a trace.’ The name was
coined back in the early nineteen-hundreds but the art truly didn’t develop
into maturity as a martial art until the mid-twentieth century when the French
army and the United States Marine Corps incorporated it as part of their normal
training regimen.

Kaitlyn practiced parkour daily and it was the one
area in which Roger had given her his full support. He had even hired her a
professional coach. It was Stephanie who had continued her self-defense
training with the logic that flows naturally with parkour. She was amazing.
Slim of figure with strawberry blonde hair, she seemed to have the fiery
temperament redheads were known for but also had an incredible sense of humor.
It was her visits and their grueling workouts that had gotten her through the
last few months since the beating. One of the best things about Stephanie was
that even as a coach, she didn’t ask her to do anything she couldn’t or
wouldn’t do. Whether it was hours of balance beam work, the uneven bars,
tumbling or just free-running, Stephanie would either lead the way or be right
there beside her.

Glancing at the chronometer, Kaitlyn realized that
she was late and Stephanie was rarely late.

Hearing the front door to their mansion open,
Kaitlyn casually moved behind the couch which put a barrier between her and
whoever was entering, just in case it was her step-father. They hadn’t spoken a
single civil word to each other since he hit her. He’d even threatened to
cancel her sessions with Stephanie. That was until Kaitlyn reminded him that
the pakour coach was under contract and he would have to pay her whether or not
she was giving lessons. Hearing heavy footfalls, Kaitlyn braced herself for
another argument with her step-father. However, her stomach was in her throat
when he walked into the room with UR-L8 right beside him.

“Kaitlyn, I found your ‘bot down at the mall. Did
you forget about him?”

She did her best to hide her excitement from her
voice. “No, Roger. Since I’m grounded and can’t visit the mall, I sent UR-L8 to
holo-vid the latest fashions. Or are you going to take that away from me also?”

Roger sighed deeply. “How many times do I have to
apologize for hitting you? I told you it was an accident. Old habits die hard.”

“And I’ve told you time and time again, I don’t
believe you. Lashing out once in anger or surprise I might understand and
forgive but what you did to mom is unforgivable.”

Megan mumbled in her drunken stupor. “I forgive…me
sorry.”

Roger gestured toward her. “See? Even in her sleep
she forgives me.”

Kaitlyn placed her hands on her hips and set her
jaw. “Well I don’t. I hate you and…”

Whatever she would’ve said next and whether or not
it led to another argument was lost as Roger’s communicator rang and the
doorbell sounded. They both stared at each other for several seconds before
they heard Stephanie’s voice from the foyer.

“This conversation is over,” said Roger before he
turned away to take his call.

The muscles in Kaitlyn’s neck and back relaxed as
her step-father left the room. She hadn’t even noticed how tense she had become
with his entry until that very moment. However, seeing Stephanie’s smiling face
was enough to ease her troubled soul. And as much as she wanted to rush back to
her room to question UR-L8 on his mission, she knew that she was still being
watched by her step-father’s flunkies and she needed to follow her normal
routine. Besides, she longed for the stress relief which came from a good, hard
work out.

Moreover, it had been two months since she sent
UR-L8 off on his mission; another two hours wouldn’t make a difference in the
grand scheme of things. Both her father and Stephanie had tried time and time
again to instill patience in her. Which as a soon to be teenager, was
difficult. Nevertheless, if she wanted to keep UR-L8’s mission a secret from
her step-father she would have to act normal and that meant a two-hour practice
with her coach.

*   *   *   *   *

Stephanie could tell that she had interrupted a
budding argument between her employer and her student. She didn’t know exactly
what was bothering the Admiral but the distraction was good for her mission.
Neither he nor his bodyguards paid her any attention except to ogle at her well
defined curves and that was fine with her. She knew full and well that
deception and misdirection were just two facets of the Art of War.

The worst aspect of this mission was lying to
Kaitlyn. She had a quick mind and a natural aptitude when it came to Parkour.
Stephanie had originally taken the job only as part of her cover. This would
allow her nearly unlimited access to the Thomas’ mansion. She had intended to
just humor the spoiled little rich kid by teaching her some basic flips and
vaults. But after spending one week with Kaitlyn, she had become impressed with
the natural talents and focus of the young girl and had started training her in
earnest. Stephanie wanted to push her to her very limits in the short time they
had together.