A Bar Room Brawl On Ganymede by Robert Scanlon

Author:Robert Scanlon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-12-13T23:46:24+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

I pick myself up, thanking Ganymede’s low gravity for the lack of injuries, and take myself back toward the types lingering at the junction. I’m thinking maybe I can waste a few credits on these guys, and use them to get me into the Blue Bar.

The guy I spoke to before sees me coming, and opens his mouth to talk. “Hey, never seen a woman leave the Blue Bar by herself—”

A figure jumps in front of me before I can respond. The guy is swarthy, partially bald, with long, greasy, straggly black hair on either side of his bald head. He has beads of sweat all over his forehead.

I try to shove him away but he pushes closer. I shove again, but once again he comes up close to me, and holds one finger in front of his lips to motion for silence. I decide to retaliate, and I move up close to him. Taller than he is, my chest presses against his neck.

“I’m not offering you a free fondle. I want you to notice I have a plasma baton, and I also want you to know I’ve already used it twice today.”

“I knew Frederic.” His eyes search mine for recognition.

But I won’t give the game away that easily. “Who is Frederic?”

His eyes widen and his mouth breaks into a smile. “Smart girl.” He leans in to me and I sway back, repulsed by his sweaty visage. “He’s your father,” he whispers. “We were friends.”

“Prove it.”

“The last time you were here, you were six, with your brother. His name is Michelangelo. Your father used to call you ‘the divine one.’”

“So? It wouldn't be too hard to find that information. It still doesn't prove you were friends. You could have been his worst enemy and still known that.”

“Then how about something more personal? Your father took you to my restaurant, and you tried Europan icewater mollusks for the first time.”

How could I forget the other moon’s famous “delicacy”?

I remain impassive. “If that’s true, what did I say?”

The man looks unsure, as if he is recollecting something. Then he smiles again. “You said ‘It was like eating three slimy erasers fighting each other.’”

I grimace. “It certainly was. How did you know my father?”

Once again he holds up his finger to his lips and motions me into a dark doorway. He opens a door and gestures for me to go inside. I follow him.

The door closes behind us and we’re in a small, sparsely furnished foyer.

“Who are you?”

The man indicates I should sit in one of two tub chairs. He takes a seat in the other. “Your father and I go back a long way. My name is Pedro. Frederic told me you’d be back someday.”

“So how did you find me?”

He shrugs. “This is a mafia moon. Anything is available at the right price. Speaking of which, what possesses you to visit the Blue Bar?”

I tell him about Jordi, the bounty hunters, and that I need to clear out of Ganymede as soon as possible.

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