Lost Flyght – Chapter 20

It’s time to accomplish one last errand before we head back to Lee Shipyards and onward to Ossun. We need that AI if we’ll ever fly for Flyght again. Hell, if we’re ever going to land on another planet again. Skylar can’t just flit around between orbital stations, especially if we have cargo to transport. Considering how well the superhero seeds are (not) working out, I think we should concentrate our efforts on staying busy with clients. I’ll have to figure out some other way to make money with the superhero seeds, and I’m going to need one more wealthy suitor for my network.

“So, the plan is to drop off Skylar and Jinzo to this AI dealer, and then you, Gus, and I will go shopping for Gus’s sister’s wedding,” Malina says, turning her hand over to access her wristlet. “I know three great stores we can check out. They should still have a good selection of dresses, even though Carnival is tomorrow.”

“I wish we could stay for this big party,” Skylar says, looking out the window of our autocab. “It sounds like it’ll be a blast.”

“It is. And it’s fun the first few times you go, but then it’s the same same same every year after. You’re not missing much.” Malina’s smile is warm and kind. I’m glad she decided to stick around for the day. It’s too bad she won’t be at Gus’s sister’s wedding. I could use her strength to get through that too. But her family is not connected to Gus’s.

“Well, we need to get out of here, anyway.” Skylar checks her wristlet. “We have to take care of this and catch a shuttle with Eamon before the end of the day if we’re going to stay on schedule. Just gotta iron out a few details, and then we can pack up.” She rests her head back on the car seat. “I wish we could have one more day of sun and swimming, though. That was really nice.”

“We’ll come back,” Jinzo says. “I promise.”

There’s a moment of confusion when the autocab pulls up outside of a spot I don’t recognize.

“Are we here?” Malina asks, looking out both sides of the car.

“I don’t see…” Jinzo opens the door, but I bolt out past him to the sidewalk.

Oh… Oh no.

Eamon’s office is completely cleaned out. When we were here yesterday, the space behind the floor to ceiling glass was decked out in high tech wallscreens, and staff were helping several customers. Today, it’s empty.

Skylar joins me at the window. “Shit. Shit. Fuck,” she hisses, pounding her fist on the glass. “I’ll kill him if I ever see him again.”

Malina stands back on the sidewalk, a puzzled twist to her lips as she plunks her sunhat on the top of her head. Gus strokes his beard, looking up and down the street.

“This is definitely where we were yesterday.” Gus joins us at the storefront.

I place my hand on the glass and try to look inside. The wallscreens are gone, but the faded spots on the wall show they were there and had been for some time.

Jinzo examines the door mechanism. “I think it’s not fully latched. Let me see if I can…” He exerts force on the door handle, twisting and pulling up, and then kicks the bottom of the latch. The door swings open. He gestures to me to wait. “Let me go in and take a look.”

My eyes follow him as he walks around the showroom and makes his way to Eamon’s office, where Skylar and I did business with him. Jinzo comes out after a moment and proceeds to the backroom that we never saw. He returns after another minute.

“Seems empty,” he says, shrugging and holding the door open. “But the back is… interesting.”

Skylar and I are in first with matching open mouths of disbelief.

“It’s like he was never here.” Her voice is full of awe.

“But they were here, all of them,” Gus says, escorting in Malina. “We didn’t imagine our trip here. The real question is, where did they go?”

“And why,” I fill in.

The white floor is dirty with tracked-in sand and grit. They must have had several people come in and clean the place out. In Eamon’s office, everything is gone, but the chairs we sat in and his desk. The desk I placed the bottle of the Happiest of Hot Sauces onto.

I swallow my anxiety. I was trying to keep the origin of the Happiest of Hot Sauces quiet, and I blew it by giving it to Eamon, didn’t I?

“Come see the back room,” Skylar says, interrupting my thoughts and making me jump. I press my hand to my chest to calm my fight-or-flight instincts. My heart is beating fast enough for me to run to Laguna’s moon, Salinas, and back.

The backroom is not what I expected.

Skylar sighs. “This is not an AI shop. This is a cybernetics shop.”

Several robot skeletons line the far wall along with tanks to grow fake flesh. Everything is off and quiet, though. They left nothing running. I sweep my hand over a nearby desk, and the dust patterns indicate computers had been here, but they’re gone now.

Confiscated, probably. Either by the authorities or by a competitor.

Cybernetics and bot making are strictly regulated. Athens Industries owns the patents on the sexbots that are so popular here on Laguna and all over the Californikos System. And the military makes their own specialized bots for terraforming and exploring hostile habitats, but that’s about it. Cybernetics technology is one of the many things that led to the downfall of Earth. We don’t do that kind of thing anymore.

At least, I thought we didn’t.

“Why are we always getting caught up with people doing illegal shit?” I ask the room. No one can answer this. I throw my hands down at my side as Gus and Malina come to stare into the room. “Well, now we know how we got Ai. He’s been making sexbots on the side.”

And that would make him a target for Athens. Why do I keep getting tangled up with Renata and her ridiculous company?

Skylar’s cheeks harden. “I told him that if he was doing shady shit, I didn’t want to work with him. He lied to me. Straight to my face.”

“And he has you ladies on record as clients?” Jinzo asks, coming forward to usher me out of the room.

“Yep. He was going to take us as clients, and I gave him a bottle of the Happiest of Hot Sauces, too.”

Jinzo closes his eyes and hisses.

“I know. Dumb move. But I was hoping to find another distributor. I didn’t know about this.” I wave at the room as we leave and pile out to the sidewalk.

What do we do now?

“Excuse me, madam. Do you have a moment?” Malina approaches an old woman sitting in a chair on her front porch across the street. This section of town is a mix of business and residential, and this woman’s townhouse faces Eamon’s store.

The old woman, wrinkled from head to toe, smiles and waves us over.

“Are you friends with Eamon?” She opens her front gate and invites us in. “Come in, come in. I was just sitting down for a little rest.”

She lowers herself to a couch on her front porch, and we crowd around her front steps.

“Are these all your network, miz? They’re a fine looking bunch.”

Malina laughs. “No. These are friends.”

“Sorry to bother you while you’re resting, but how do you know Eamon?” I jerk my thumb over my shoulder at the cleaned out storefront. “Ever talk to him?”

“Sure did. Lots of times. Nice young man. He got along well with one of my two husbands. Well, one of the two left, that is. Anyway, he would sometimes come by for a drink on the porch or drop off bread from the bakery up the street.”

“Sounds like he was a good neighbor,” Gus says, leaning against the stair’s banister. “Did he seem like an honest guy to you?”

She shrugs. “Men. They can be sweet to your face and still stab you in the back.”

“Well, that’s… comforting,” Jinzo whispers.

The old lady laughs and waves her hand. “Men are mostly sweet. I’ve been very fortunate. But Eamon?” She shakes her head. “Not fortunate at all. He told me that this was his third office. He moved from Rio to Palo Alto to here. And now I see his past has caught up with him.”

“What happened?” Skylar shifts her weight back to look more casual.

“People were there last night, right around dusk. Men in suits, taking the place apart. Didn’t see Eamon at all. The shop had been open during the day, but then closed at its regular time. We were out here having dessert after dinner when we saw the store being emptied.”

“Did Eamon come back at all?” Skylar’s wondering if he was taken too.

The old lady shakes her head. “No. He didn’t return.”

So he may be out there, or he may be in custody. ‘Men in suits’ doesn’t really tell us much about the people who cleaned the place out, though. Could be secret police. Could be military. Could be Athens. If Ai were still around, I would ask her to access the cameras around here and find out more. There are bound to be cameras on every corner, even if I can’t see them. This is a wealthy world with plenty of people who don’t want to be bothered with crime.

We thank the woman for her time and return to the sidewalk.

“What do we do now? We need an AI.” Skylar sighs as she digs a pair of sunglasses from her bag. “It’s a really good thing you didn’t give him a deposit, Viv. Talk about lucky.”

I rub the goosebumps from my arms. “I just had a feeling. If Athens came for him, they’ll definitely be coming for me now. They have my name in his files and the hot sauce.”

“Try not to worry about it. You have one billion other things to worry about, anyway.”

Too true.

“Hey, if you guys need an AI for a ship, I can help you.”

All heads swivel to look at Malina.

“Oh yeah. I figured you had this covered, so I wasn’t going to say anything. But I’ve got a guy who’s good at this. Provides AIs for all of my ships.” She shrugs. “I can introduce you. His office is out of Mayashu, on Ossun.”

We stare, our mouths open. Malina chuckles. “What?”

“I do not deserve a friend like you,” I say, completely awestruck.

“Oh, please.” She blushes and waves her hand at us. “It’s nothing.”

“Most AI dealers have a backlog of months,” Jinzo says. “Are you sure he can help us?”

“Of course. It’s not a problem. I’ll get you in as soon as you get back.”

Skylar tackles Malina with a hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She pulls away, her eyes wide. “Sorry. Sorry.” Skylar tries to straighten out Malina’s hat, but Malina laughs and brushes herself off.

“Think nothing of it.” She shoulders her bag and takes a deep breath. “Well, I’ve had more fun in the last day than I’ve had in a whole month! Is this what your life is like all the time?”

I shrug. “Pretty much. I would rather be sitting on the porch at home reading a good book, though.”

“I completely understand. Let’s go shopping for a dress. You still have a wedding to attend.”

Malina smiles at Gus before taking my arm.

And trying to push aside my anxiety over Eamon, Athens, and a million other things, I shop for dresses like my life depends on it.