An Airless Storm by Peter Grant

Author:Peter Grant [Grant, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sedgefield Press
Published: 2018-06-08T22:00:00+00:00

14

Infiltration

CONSTANTA

The immigration officer slipped her passport chip into his reader and scanned the pages rapidly. “You’re from Onesta? I don’t think I’ve met anyone from that planet before. Welcome to Constanta, Ms. Funar.”

“Thank you.”

“What brings you here?”

She feigned a blush. “Well… I met this man, and he lives here, and he’s invited me to visit him to meet his family.”

“Oh, I see. What’s his name?”

“Andrei Constantin.”

“Ah, yes.” The officer glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as he checked her passport, wondering if he should ask her to be more precise. Constantin was, after all, the most common surname in the phone directory – not surprising, since the planet had been named for the family that had organized and led its colonization – and Andrei was the most common man’s name. There were probably scores, maybe even hundreds of men with that combination. No, he decided. She looks harmless enough.

“Do you intend to work while you’re here?”

“Ah… I don’t intend to right now, but I suppose that depends on how well things go. If that changes, who should I see about a work permit?”

Sounds honest, too, he thought. “You’ll find our Immigration Department very helpful, Ms. Funar, particularly since you’re an accountant. We issue short-term work permits for up to two years, with very little formality, to people whose qualifications will be useful to the planet.”

“Oh, good! Thank you.”

He made a quick entry into the system, then removed her passport chip and returned it to her. “Have a pleasant stay on Constanta, Ms. Funar. You can collect your baggage through there, then go through Customs on your way to the planetside shuttle.”

“Thank you, sir.”

She’s a bit old for me, he mused as he watched her walk away, but she’s kept her looks. She’s still got it, and then some. If her boyfriend doesn’t watch out, he’ll have a lot of competition for her.

Customs proved to be as little obstacle as Immigration had been. As she walked down the space station’s passage toward the planetside shuttle, her luggage obediently following her on a powered cart, Jehona thought to herself, Remember, your name is Antonia Funar, from Onesta. You’ve never heard of Patos, or Jehona Sejdiu, or the Fatherland Project, or anyone or anything else from your past. Live your new character, believe that you’re her, and you’ll become her. Anything less, and they’ll find out about you, sooner or later – and that’ll be a horrible way to die!

Over the next few weeks, she polished her command of the local dialect, drove and walked all over the city to internalize the details of the maps she’d committed to memory, rented a small but comfortable apartment, and bought a used car in good condition, a common model that would not arouse comment or be out of place anywhere. She paid extra to have a service tech go over it in detail, to make sure it was reliable and worth its price. She also bought several seemingly innocuous items from local suppliers, paying cash wherever possible.

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