Galactic Vice by Jake Bible

Author:Jake Bible [Bible, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2018-01-16T22:00:00+00:00

21.

“Crap,” Tipo said as he rubbed at his forehead. “Kalaka? This isn’t good. The last thing we need is for that guy to lock onto Etch. Kalaka loves working new criminal informants. He must see something in Knowles.”

“Sixty percent of Knowles’ take is what he sees,” Angie said as the two of them sat at the corner table of a small tea room that was kilometers away from the Jafla GV Squad’s headquarters. The clientele gave them surreptitious glances, but only because the two looked out of place in such a prim and proper setting.

“Sounds like Kalaka,” Tipo said. “But greed is about as corrupt as he gets. The guy has personal problems, but I am fairly sure he’s not on the take.”

“Fairly sure? Great, S’lunn. As long as you are fairly sure,” Angie scoffed. “Knowles should feel one thousand times safer when I tell him that.”

“Kalaka isn’t working for Gants,” Tipo said with confidence. “That much I know. Does he shake down bar owners and shopkeepers? Yeah, he’s that kind of asshole. But he’s not working for the syndicates. Not his style.”

“So the sixty percent angle is legit?” Angie asked. “Kalaka is that transparent?”

“More like that shallow,” Tipo replied. “Jorg knows all about Kalaka’s issues, but Kalaka has one of the best networks of CIs on Jafla. The captain lets Kalaka be because he’s useful when the time comes. That time has been coming more often lately and Kalaka is milking that for all he can. Must be why he’s feeling bold enough to risk pissing off Gants.”

“So Gants isn’t paying Kalaka off?”

“What? No. No way. Gants is way above Kalaka’s little hustles. He was talking shit to Knowles about that. Push comes to shove and Kalaka would turn tail and run for the hills before taking on Gants head to head.”

Angie thought about that, nodding her head as she stared down into her teacup. Something floated at the top of the cup and Angie winced. She had no idea what she’d ordered when they sat down. She hated tea. She hated it even more as she watched the something wriggle and squirm as it secreted a brown substance into the water. She pushed the teacup away from her.

“It’s not that bad,” Tipo said as he sipped at his own tea. “Refreshing.”

“This network of CIs that Kalaka has,” Angie said. “Does it include stim junkies?”

“Sure,” Tipo said. “Stim junkies, prostitutes, muggers, stick-up men, heisters, petty criminals. He’s worked the street hard to get people under his thumb.”

“Could he have tipped off those junkies that came at Knowles?”

“Huh. Didn’t think of that. Maybe.”

“Find out.”

“I don’t even know where to begin with Kalaka. No one in the Squad does or Jorg would have been able to take over those CIs and boot Kalaka out a long time ago. I ask the wrong junkie the wrong question and it’ll get back to Kalaka. He’ll lock his shit down tight and we’ll never find out if he was behind the attack or not.”

“Probably right,” Angie said and nodded.

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