War Criminals by Gavin Smith (ereader for textbooks .TXT) 📕

‘In part, Triple S have the resources they do because of our backing. You actually have a similar amount of personnel,’ Campbell explained.

But not all of them are prepared to volunteer for active service, Miska thought, though she saw no reason to share this with the corporate snake sitting opposite her.

‘But,’ Campbell continued, ‘it’s too early for us to make such a commitment, untested, to your organisation. I think perhaps a small job first, see if we’re compatible.’

‘Can we do that?’ Vido asked Salik. The mercenary broker gave it some thought.

‘It depends. It can’t contravene any of your current contractual obligations. Which means you can’t do anything down on Ephesus,’ Salik finally told them.

‘But what about one of the gas mining aerostats?’ Campbell enquired. Salik gave it some more thought.

‘I would have to check with my legal team. There would be a nominal administration fee, but my sense of it is that would probably be okay,’ he told the New Sun exec before turning to Miska. ‘You going to do this?’ he asked her.

Miska really didn’t want to. She had started the Bastard Legion determined that she would take work from whomever, but the truth of it was she didn’t like Campbell, didn’t like Triple S and preferred working for the CA.

You’re starting to think like Torricone, she chided herself. That was the clincher.

‘If we can make it work,’ she said cautiously. Even as she said it she didn’t like the way it made her feel. Campbell held out his hand. Miska couldn’t help but stare at it as if it was made of live slugs. Vido had to shake Campbell’s hand for her.

‘I’m surprised you’re entertaining New Sun’s offer,’ Salik said, sipping from his coffee, after Campbell had left. Miska just shrugged.

‘Might I have a beer now as well, please?’ Vido asked. He was now slumped on the sofa. Miska had to resist the urge to apologise to him for her lack of diplomacy making his life more difficult than it needed to be.

‘What are they doing here?’ Miska asked Salik instead. ‘What’s this fight all about?’

Salik didn’t answer. She knew he couldn’t, it would be covered by client confidentiality, but something about his body language suggested that he didn’t know. Not knowing something like that could come back to bite Salik. New Sun must have paid him a great deal of money just for him not to ask questions.

‘This is the first time they’ve shown an interest in the gas mining operation,’ Vido pointed out.

Miska couldn’t shake the feeling that even with her Bastards’ ballsy successes, Triple S (elite) backed by a sizeable QRF from Triple S (conventional) were a better choice for physically taking the aerostats, but the real fight for the gas mining operation would take place in the net.

‘Will you check with your legal team and let us know?’ Miska asked.

Salik nodded.

‘You know this will sour things with MACE?’ he pointed out. Miska nodded.

‘I’ve never been popular,’ she told him, and drained her beer.

‘Hard to see why,’ Vido muttered. She glared at him. ‘Sorry, stressful couple of days.’

‘Why don’t you finish your beer and I’ll meet you back on the Daughter?’ she suggested.

Vido raised his glass in reply.

Miska stood up.

‘Sophie Ashmead,’ Salik said. Miska grimaced.

‘I get it,’ Miska said, ‘you can’t have that kind of thing on the station. Go after whoever brain-wiped her as aggressively as you like with my blessing. Beyond buying the intelligence I had nothing to do with it, but I can’t burn a source or nobody will work with me.’

Salik gave this some thought and then nodded.

‘Fair enough,’ he said. It was another thing that she liked about him. He was an adult. He understood the rules. He stood up and hugged her.

‘You be careful,’ he told her. It sounded like the sort of thing that people always said, a useless platitude to someone in her line of work. Miska just smiled and headed for the door, Nyukuti in tow. It was only when she was out on the Central Concourse that it occurred to her that he might have been trying to warn her about something in particular.

Chapter 7

Miska knew she didn’t want to get in bed with New Sun. She might try to take an amoral approach to choosing business but something about Campbell really bothered her. If Raff’s suspicions about them being a Martian shell company were correct then that was another mark against them, though when it came to old Earth nations, particularly developing nations like America, you had to take their perspective on Mars with a pinch of salt. Much of it was propaganda that justified defence and intelligence spending. That said, the Martian regime was not a nice one: a bad mix of monopoly capitalism and Small Gods’ cult-of-personality dictatorship.

It’s only oppressive when you disagree, Miska mused. She was wandering down the Central Concourse. Nyukuti was a few steps behind her putting his CP training, to use. She decided that she was going to see what the offer was from New Sun before she made a decision. She composed a few messages and sent them to the version of her dad who existed in the Hangman’s Daughter’s systems.

‘Corporal Corbin!’

It took Miska a moment or two to realise that someone had called out to her. It had been a really long time since anyone had called her that. Looking around at the various bars that opened out onto the Central Concourse she saw a hulking figure with a crew-cut in the kind of well-ironed shirt and slacks that suggested military personnel on a night out.

‘Jones?’ Miska asked grinning. ‘Hey!’ She crossed the distance and hugged the hulking figure. Even with her reinforced skeleton, the powerful return hug threatened to collapse her ribs. Jones released Miska and looked down at her. Jones still had the look of a fresh-faced farm boy, though Miska knew that she had to be in her mid-thirties