McKinny lead Tracy to a car waiting outside, while his two goons dragged, carried Jessica. “Don’t worry, your friend is going to be alright. For now,” McKinny told her opening the door for her to get inside.
“Where are we going?” Tracy asked, trying to keep her composure.
“To meet your new boss,” He smiled. “Keres Typhon wants to meet you.”
Tracy climbed inside. They tossed, shoved Jessica in beside her, then two men climbed in front and the car sped off. Tracy took a moment to examine Jessica. She had no obvious signs of bruising, and she was dressed. They had probably jumped her when she left the hotel room to get breakfast or something. She knew without checking Jessica was not carrying her pistol.
The ride took twenty minutes. Tracy was surprised they did not call for an air car or faster transport, but the crew did not seem to be in a hurry, nor did they speak to her the entire drive. The tall pine trees gave way to larger oaks and maples. Huge lawns leading up to mansions, many centuries old, lined the streets. Tracy checked her phone - they had not blocked her network access and the maps identified the area as “Gross Isle.”. Some of the buildings were preserved behind faint bubbles of shimmering light. They musth have been stasis shields. Expensive tech, but it was more effective than mothballing a building and leaving it to the elements. Besides, it was a natural barrier to burglers. Drop the shield and you set off the alarm. Step inside, and you became part of the exhibit until they retrieved you, most likely desiccated like a mummy years later. Tracy knew enough about the limitations of the technology to be wary of it. Stasis was good for things, bad for people and animals. Something about the field migrated all the water out of your cells at a constant rate. What’s more, near as they could tell, the victims remained conscious the entire time, no sleep, no rest, just brutal awareness that you were being turned into a giant piece of jerky. It really was the best protection for your property if you could afford it.
The car pulled into the long circular drive at the end of the street, and slowed to a leisurely pace as it wound up the narrow drive lined with paving stones. She could see that this was a three story grand estate with a carriage house in back. A white marble fountain sat out front, gently burbling water into a wide wishing pond. Flower beds surrounded the parking pad. Tracy imagined she had been transported to some estate in England. McKinny parked the car and then let her out. He produced a small silver gun that did not look as much like a weapon as a medical device. He pressed the business end of the device against Jessica’s neck before Tracy could object and she heard a “pfft” sound like air being let out of tire. A moment later, Jessica moaned and started to move. “Come on sleepy head,” McKinny pulled her out of the car easily. My god the man was strong. If a bull could be incarnated in human form, he would have looked small compared to McKinny.
The other guard held the door as Tracy stepped out. Jessica was drowsy, but ambulatory, and McKinny passed her off to goon number one, as he lead Tracy into the house. Everything about the old estate screamed opulence, luxury, and wealth. She did not know who Keres Typhon was, but anyone who held McKinny’s leash was probably not someone she wanted to spend a lot of time with. The massive clan thug lead Tracy into a small dining room and showed her to a chair. The other man guided Jessica to an overstuffed chair in the corner, then left the room.
McKinny, in a show of a British buttler backed out of the door as he closed it behind him. He paused, then said, “Your friend will be awake soon enough but groggy. Mr. Typhon will be with you shortly…. and don’t go anywhere.”
Tracy nodded curtly. She’d considered it, but then knew better. Even if she decided to abandon Jess, which she would never do, she knew this time the snipers would take her head off. Nanites could only do so much. She smoothed her skirt, and sat up right in the surprisingly comfortable chair. She did not have to wait long.
The door opened, and in stepped a man that appeared to be about half the size of Bob McKinny, wearing an embroidered red dinner jacket and black satin trousers. What he lacked in stature he made up for in with intensity. His eyes shone like polished obsidian. His teeth were perfectly straight and white, and his wavy black hair had thin streaks of gray in it. Four more men, none of whom looked as large as McKinny or his goons followed their boss into the dinning room and spread out.
“Ms Richards?” The man smiled. His smile did nothing to make Tracy feel more comfortable. He walked around the table and extended his hand. “Keres Typhon,”
Tracy stood up and shook the man’s hand. His hand was dry and hot like he had just stepped out of an Arabian desert. “You Ms. Richards,” He paused, “May I call you Tracy?”
What was she going to tell him? “My I call you Keres?” She asked.
“I prefer that my employees call me Mr. Typhon, perhaps after this business we have together, we can explore other forms of relationship?”
“Okay,” Tracy said letting go of his hand. He motioned for her to sit, and she did. She felt her dislike for this overly elegant bully grow within her.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Typhon said sitting on the corner of the table, maintaining an advantage in height with her sitting. “But let’s be honest, that’s irrelevant.”
Yup, she definitely didn’t like him.
“Tracy, you are one tough son of bitch,” Tyhpon continued, as if convinced he was the only one worth listening to. “And you’re a pain in the ass. You evaded and disarmed one of my most expensive androids, got shot in the back by one of my best snipers, and lived. And now I find you here in Detroit stalking my enforcers. You even have the balls to come to our office to interrogate us.”
“What can I say, I’m persistent,” Tracy replied,
“All for a missing yacht? All for some rich guy you don’t even know.”
Tracy thought about that. She decided not to say anything about Rodney. “It’s a missing family.”
“Of course there are, there are two missing families,” Typhon corrected her. “And you are going to help me find them.”
Tracy shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but spoke up anyway. “So you can kill them?”
Typhon burst out laughing. He turned to his men and pointed at her, “I like her! I like her already.” Then he stopped laughing, and his voice became cold as ice. “Tracy, I’m not going to kill the families, just the two time double crossing son of bitch who stole from me. You can have you families, but I get Timmy Connacher.”
“What are you going to do to him?”
“It’s better if you don’t ask,” Typhon looked at his finger nails. He stood up and began to pace. “But we are getting ahead of ourselves.” He snapped two fingers and one of the men dressed in black came forward and set a tablet in front of Tracy. He opened the cover and pointed to the bioscanner in the lower right hand corner. “This is our contract. I have an insurance claim and you have agreed to investigate it for me. This claim, when you take the time to read it, you will notice supersedes all previous claims and partnerships. In essence, you agree to work for me?” Typhon stopped directly in front of a groggy Jessica. He put one hand under her chin and tilted up her head. She smiled at him. He pushed her head back down, and she slumped back into her seat. Tracy put her thumb on the contract and the light glowed green. She felt sick for abandoning Rodney, but at the moment she did not see that she had many other options.
The man snapped the cover closed and took back the pad.
“You will find being in the direct employment of Keres Typhon is quite a boon Tracy. You will have access to unlimited resources, and influence beyond your wildest dreams. I dare say you may even grow to like it. If you are as patient and persistent for me as you were for that missing family, ours may grow into quite the mutually beneficial relationship. I have but one stipulation.” Typhon leaned against the table next to her, so he could lean down and whisper clearly and coldly in her ear, “You had better fucking produce results.”
He looked her in the eye. Never had she seen such intense hatred, but not of her. Of something else, something someone had done to him. Typhon would burn the stars to get his revenge, of that she was certain. “Do you understand me?” he asked, holding her gazed.
She nodded.
“Not good enough. I need a verbal response.”
“Yes. Yes, I understand.”
“Perfect.” He stood up and clasping his hands behind his back, he stated, “Just so you know what you are dealing with. Timmy promised me something very valuable. Something I paid him handsomely for. Only, Timmy also sold it to several other bidders. He claims it was all a scam, but I know for a fact that was he found was real. Your job is to locate Connacher before anyone else and retrieve my property.”
“What did he find?” Tracy asked.
“Unimportant.”
“How am I supposed to find your property if I don’t know what it is?”
“You will locate Timmy and it will be on his person. Find him, you will find my property. As far as you are concerned they are one and the same.”
“So all I have to do is find him, what are you not telling me?”
“That I know exactly where he is.”
“If you know where he is, whey don’t you just go get him?”
Typhon paced a little quicker. “I tried that already. You see, Tim Connacher made friends with Geofrey Stikine, whom I think you already know something about. They became fast friends, and so Timmy suggested the Connacher family and the Stikine family take a little trip. What Tim never told anyone as far as we can tell, was that he was planning for this pleasure cruise to become his escape plan. He took my pri… property and together they jumped to a very distant planet.”
“I’m still not seeing my part in all of this,” Tracy said cautiously. She made a calculated risk that pissing of Typhon would not bode well for her.
“After Stikine jumped, we lost contact with them. I sent not one, but two vessels after them,” Typhon now started irritated. “Neither has returned.” He paused.
“And, you want me to go after them?”
“I want you to investigate what has happened to Mr. Timmothy Connacher, his wife, their children and the family Stikine they were last seen traveling with.”
“But you already know where they are?”
Typhon spun on his heal and slammed his fast against the table. Instantly the four men were in combat stances, weapons drawn. “You heard what I said. I lost two fucking ships and a lot of good men going after him. You are going to take a different approach. You are going to find out what the hell he did to my ships, my men, and my property and then you are going to lead me to him. Do you understand?”
Tracy nodded. Typhon had the resources to to track Connacher, but he did not have the brains in his organization to figure out what Connacher had done to protect himself. She was about to ask Typhon if he thought Teddy, Tim, would have committed suicide, but she stopped. She already knew the answer. He was a coward. A brilliant, cunning, conniving conman, but still a coward. He would never kill himself.
“And she’’s free to come with me?”
Typhon followed her gaze to where Jessica sat drooling on herself.
“And restored to full mental capacity?”
Typhon waved his hand. “What do I care. She’s your responsibility. As long as you deliver, you will have what ever it is that you need to locate my property.”
“I’m going to need a ship, and all the files you have on Connacher.”
“I will get you the files,” Typhon smiled. It reminded Tracy of watching a shark grin. “and we have the perfect ship for you. It was impounded two days ago. I just bought it out of the Global Licensing Impound lot this morning. I got quite the deal on it.”
“It’s not stolen is it?”
“Not in the least. Title and all ownership rights have been fully transferred to me as of an hour ago. And as my duly appointed representative, all rights and control of the ship will transfer to you as long as remain in my employment under this contract.”
“What about the crew?” Tracy asked.
“I can provide the crew or you can select your own,” he said. She didn’t hesitate. “I’ll find a crew.”
Typhon nodded. “Very well, then I suggest you get cracking. Oh, did I forget to mention that this offer has an expiration date?”
Tracy met his eyes again. There was no sign of humor in them. “One solar week. If you do not locate my merchandise within seven solar days, then you’re contract will be retired along with everyone assigned to it. And that means you’re friend here as well,” he nodded to Jessica looked like she was finally starting to come out of it.
Typhon walked to the door as one of the men in the black suit opened it. He nodded to the last man in line. “Mr Four here will see to your needs. Now, Find me Connacher,” Typhone said with intensity. “You don’t have much time.”
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