The Ballard of Cairo
Part thirty-three: Asking questions
The Red Rose bar
Wolcott City, Wolcott
The Draconis Combine
Cairo looked at the patrons of the bar: mercenaries, gamblers, Mech-junkies and just plain scum. He saw the man he was looking for. Lyle Jones was said to be the biggest source of information outside of ComStar. If it was illegal or immoral, Jones knew about it. The small, weasel-looking man sat at the bar, a heavy on ether side.
Cairo walked up to them like he was taking a stroll in the park, then hit the first heavy in the back with a stun-stick. The man went down, his body convulsing as five thousand volts of electricity shot through his nerves system. The second heavy tried to grab Cairo, only to get a kick in the super plexus, sending him to the ground, winded.
Jones made a run for it, but caught the shaft of the stun-stick on the back of his head. A few of the barflies decided to get involved, only to be warned off by Lenny Rodgers, a massive combat-shotgun looking like a toy in the Maori's hands. Cairo picked the information-broker off of the ground and held the stun-stick centimetres from the man's face. "Where is Sebastian Cain? Tell me or I'll get nasty!"
Jones blinked, "You're not nasty now?"
Cairo shook his head; "I'm only a bit tetchy at the moment. We could go for nasty if you want."
The information-broker looked at his two bodyguards. The one who had taken a shock from the stun-stick was still twitching, while the other was barely able to sit-up, let along help him. "Borghese, Lyran Alliance. He got in trouble with the local police force and had to run. He took a short garrison job till the dust blows over."
Cairo could see the man was too terrified to lie to him, but decided that a little fear never hurt. "He better be, you little runt, or I'll come back for you and I'll be angry...and you DO NOT WANT TO SEE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY!" He dropped the man to the ground and walked out, Rodgers covering the bar with his shotgun.
DropShip Wataru,
Wolcott spaceport, Wolcott,
The Draconis Combine
Cairo walked onto the bridge of the DropShip and turned to Jackson. "Borghese, Lyran Alliance. Get us there." As he turned to leave he saw O'Brien sitting at the com-unit. He had hardly spoken to her since Huntress, two mouths before. He had told her to go back to Outreach, but she had stayed and he couldn't bring himself to throw her off the ship. He left the bridge and stormed off.
Rodgers turned to the others, "I'm telling you: he's lost it big time. He almost killed two people, and dammed near crippled a third. He needs help, like a psychiatrist or something!"
O'Brien turned back to the radio so that no one could see her cry.
To Be Continued...