Garret's Gambit by Dale Mayer (best sci fi novels of all time txt) 📕

“We have one here by the same name.” He was busy working on the computer and viewing the monitor above the fireplace. “I wonder if it’s related?”

“Yeah, but there are a million pubs with the same names, all around the world,” Astra said.

“Yes, and it happens to be a great way to keep track of business, so people don’t have any problems moving stuff from one location to the other.”

“Meaning, they’re connected somehow, like a franchise or something?”

“That’s certainly a possibility. I hadn’t considered the idea that they might have made the association legal.”

“There are advantages to having a business be legal like that,” she murmured.

“There can be disadvantages too,” Garret said, as he studied the name of the place. “Maybe we should go pay this one a visit?”

“I think that’s a grand idea,” Charles said. “I’m not so sure this is all that innocent, if you look at it closely. Just see where it’s situated.”

They all studied the screen for a long moment.

“It’s on the outskirts of town,” Garret noted, “close to a main highway, close to the waterways for moving stuff in and out, and close to shipping lanes. But then, the location of a pub is important, like a gas station.”

“Yes,” Kano said. “Location, location, location.”

“But it’s also good for easily moving goods and materials,” Charles noted.

At that, Kano turned to look at him, asking, “What kinds of goods and materials?”

Charles shook his head. “I’ve been working with MI6 on sex trafficking in England,” he said. “We have a real problem that we’re trying to lock down. We were looking for this type of location, and this looks ideal to me.”

“If there’s ever such a thing that’s ideal,” Astra murmured.

“Oh, absolutely there is, but, in this case,” he said, “I wasn’t thinking of Garret’s brother, as much as this other problem.”

“In case you don’t know,” Garret said. “Astra works in cybersecurity, hunting cyberpredators.”

Charles looked at her in surprise. “I’m really glad to hear that. It’s such a sad world out there.”

“I know,” she said. “We’re working on it.”

“Of course you are,” he said warmly. “It’ll take a whole lot more than just a couple of us to do this.”

“It will,” she said, feeling a kinship she hadn’t expected. She studied the pub on the screen and said, “So I suggest we go get a beer then.”

“I do too,” Charles said. “So, my dear, would you like to come have a beer with me?”

Not sure what he was up to, she nodded in agreement. “I’d be honored, but what about these two?”

“Oh, we’ll be there,” Garret said. “Just not out front.”

“Are you going hunting?” Astra asked.

“Absolutely,” he said, giving her a hard smile. “We’ll do the best kind of hunting there is.”

“I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” she said slowly.

“You’ll be safe,” he said. “I promise.”

“You can’t promise something like that,” she said. “We have no connection linking Gregg to this particular pub, other than the name.”

“Ah, maybe not,” Kano said, looking up from his phone. “What we do have is the pub owner’s name, who is the father of one of the men who works for Kingdom.”

“Here we go again,” Garret said. “Everything keeps coming back to Kingdom.”

“It seems that way, doesn’t it? So let’s go pay that pub a visit.”

*

Dressed in black and already in the alleyway outside of the pub, Garret and Kano had pulled out the blueprints, searching for the secret entrance, knowing it had to be somewhere close by. They weren’t exactly sure where, but there had to be some entrance they hadn’t seen. Charles and Astra had gone in for a beer, and after discussing the plan with Amy—and getting her personal banking information, with more than a little resistance—had left her at Charles’ home to rest.

The place was locked, so she couldn’t leave; that was another safeguard Charles had in place. Her sister had agreed with that, and Garret had to admit, he was grateful that Amy hadn’t caused a stink over it, especially since she had already pulled a fast one and taken off on them earlier. They didn’t want her doing it again. Garret had explained to Astra that they couldn’t afford to waste time looking for Amy, when everyone should be looking for his brother. She hadn’t argued and had just agreed.

So now Garret and Kano were positioned in the back alley, looking for an entrance. Hearing a sharp whistle, he turned to see Kano, pointing down at a grate. It lifted easily, no noise at all. It was also made of a lighter-weight material than it should have been, and, except for an occasional vehicle parked directly on top of it, it probably didn’t get much weight on it on a regular basis.

They quickly lifted the fake grate and set it aside, and, with the flashlight shining down, they used the ladder to get to the bottom. Just before he went farther down, Kano pulled the grate into place above his head. Someone here must know about this. It was just too unbelievable, but it was also good news for them. Down at the bottom they saw a series of tunnels.

“This is more like it,” Garret said. “We were looking for something just like this.”

They followed the path to the right, toward the pub. The pathway was angled, with a ditch runoff in the center, but it wasn’t a culvert for sewage by any means.

“I wonder how long this has been down here?” Garret asked.

“Probably from way back when, maybe two, three hundred years ago,” Kano said. “The building is at least that old. And it’s not all that uncommon to have secondary entrances and exits to get into some of these places.”

“No, it’s not that uncommon,” he said.

“Think how much easier life would be if we didn’t have to put these kinds of things into a lot of the buildings we inhabit.”

“Well, the thing is, most people don’t have to do that,” Garret said.

They headed in the direction of the pub and eventually