Mission Critical by Charles E. Gannon & Griffin Barber & Mike Massa & Chris Kennedy

Author:Charles E. Gannon & Griffin Barber & Mike Massa & Chris Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Military, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781982192600
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2023-01-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Three

“That’s a bad sign,” Jackson said, looking down from the balcony that ran around the upper stories of the Twin Star offices.

Chalmers nodded. Another crash sounded from below.

“Is it, though?” Vat said.

Jackson waved his hand. “That’s like the third raid in the last two nights.”

“Fifth, actually,” Vat corrected. “The market is adjusting.”

“The market?” Chalmers said.

Vat smiled. “We…well, I upset a few apple carts. No one likes price fixing, so they’re regulating the market.”

“But haven’t we been price fixing?” Jackson said.

“If anything, we’ve been undercutting the local market,” Chalmers said.

“And we haven’t been hit since the deliveries in the first week,” Jackson added, looking thoughtful.

“You mean the deliveries I had—” Vat began.

“You had me on a roundabout path through the docks,” Jackson interrupted.

“And made sure no one but locals were with it when it got robbed,” Chalmers added. Suspicion in full flame, he added, “And discussed at length with me at the fights.”

“Yeah, those,” Vat said. For some reason, the grin splitting his face reminded Chalmers of a shark.

“What was in the crates, Vat?” Jackson asked, his tone telling Chalmers he had his suspicions.

“Oh, nothing much, just clear evidence that two of the most powerful brokerages have been engaged in artificial price-fixing to shore up their profits.”

“But those were our shipments, with Twin Star markings.”

“Were they?” Vat asked, his grin becoming positively shit-eating. “Yes, they were marked for our warehouse, but the contents and the shipping manifests uniformly declared we were acting solely as shipping agents for Masok and Sons. What’s more, all records indicate we were the middlemen for shipments between their mainland offices and Fangat Trading.”

“I was wondering why we made a payoff to Masok and Sons,” Chalmers said. When Jackson sent an old-fashioned look his way, he shrugged defensively. “I thought we were just kicking up a bribe to keep them off our backs.”

“As far as anyone at Masok and Sons knew, it was,” Jackson said, an edge of admiration creeping into his voice. “But to everyone else it looked like we were making good on their financial losses, confirming the evidence you gave them.”

“Evidence of what?”

“Of collusion, naturally. Price-fixing, more specifically. The only sin that counts here on the island.” Vat’s smile was no longer simply feral; it was positively beaming with pride. It somehow made his expression that much more malevolent.

“Jesus, man,” Chalmers breathed. “That’s some dangerous fire you’re playing with.”

“Not so dangerous, really.” Vat shrugged, grin vanishing. “At least, not as dangerous as facing a motorized battalion of angry satrap goons.”

Chalmers and Jacks shared a look at the apparent non sequitur.

Guess we all have our share of bad memories, Chalmers thought.

“But won’t Twin Stars get spattered with the fallout?” Jackson said.

“Yes, but only in the sense that we will come out of this with some prize, some ‘fallout ass,’ I believe you breeder boys call it?” He grinned again. “Indeed, we should expect some representatives of the second-tier brokerages to come by tonight or tomorrow, latest.”

“What?” the partners chorused.

“I’m going to assume you understand what fallout is, and are wondering what the rest meant.

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