Six
Boss Nash Family Space Station
Wayfarer Star System
11 August 2017
A repeating, rhythmic noise chipped away at Adrian's subconscious. He turned over and clutched the pillow around his head. He just wanted the noise to stop, but it didn't. As consciousness took over, he realized what the noise was. Mirriam had been ordered to notify him when a message was received from Boss Nash.
"Allrightallrightallright! Already!" Adrian flopped onto his back and stared up at the dark ceiling. "Yes?"
"You wanted to be notified when Boss Nash made contact." Mirriam made more of a statement of fact than a question.
"Does this mean you have received a message?"
"Well, that was your order. I didn't sound the alert just for kicks. Besides, if it hasn't worked by now, no amount of beauty sleep is going to make a difference."
Adrian sat up and swung his legs over the right side of the bed. Grumbling something about making a note to pull Mirriam's higher logic circuits, Adrian moved to the desk to his right and plopped down in the padded chair. The computer monitor came to life and displayed the text message. He read it twice before turning the monitor off. The starship had been in hyperspace for almost ten hours with still half a day to go.
Adrian rose again when they were two hours out from the Wayfarer system. He freshened up, dressed in the black pants, boots, and leather shirt that had become the image of the bounty hunter known as Cobra. He left the duster and eyepatch behind in his quarters. Adrian used his metamorphic abilities to change the left eye into a sightless orb when required. He walked down the corridor, climbed the ladder to the upper deck and went aft into the galley. Within minutes, the smell of his cooking began wafting throughout the starship. Twenty minutes later, the Sorceress – calling herself Teelana – stepping into the galley. Her arrival was preceded by the growl of her stomach.
"Well, good morning to you, too," Adrian grinned, setting plates of steaming food on the round table.
Teelana frowned. "I thought you would have made more." She slid into the cushioned seat that wrapped around three-quarters of the table. The open side of the table faced the starboard bulkhead where a large monitor screen was mounted to the wall.
"We have been granted an audience with Boss Nash."
"What he means, dearie, is that the two of you have been invited to dinner on his family's space station," Mirriam elaborated, with a touch of irritation.
"So, we don't want to arrive with full stomachs," Adrian said, masking his ire with the computer. "That would be rude."
They finished a light snack of eggs, sausage, and toast in short order. Adrian cleaned up the remains, put the dirty dishes and such into the washer and joined Teelana on the flight deck.
The counter wound down to zero and Miriam dropped the starship back into normal space. As the sensors probed the surrounding space, a map of the local space appeared on the forward arc of the wall monitor. The fourth planet out from the star, Wayfarer was the hub of all activity in the system. All eleven crime families maintained lavish mansions on the surface where immediate family resided. They ruled their empires from those estates as well as corporate offices in the planet's largest city, aptly named Wayfarer City. In addition, each family maintained two massive space stations within the star system. One station was strictly a massive factory complex where raw materials were refined to produce whatever the star system required. Excess was sold on the black market for a substantial markup. The other station was a complex like Los Vegas in space; casinos, residential blocks, restaurants and anything else one could imagine. Only one planet and its two moons remained vacant. A thing ring of debris around the larger moon indicated that something artificial had once been there.
Their destination was the fifth planet and its single moon. A massive industrial complex orbited the moon while a slightly smaller station orbited a gas planet about the size of Neptune complete with a stunning expanse of ice rings. Adrian set the course while Mirriam, reluctantly, called the station control for approach and docking instructions.
The closer they drew to the station; the more impressed Adrian was with the construction. Their course had taken them past the industrial station. Where that one had been more of a rectangle built up and expanded as needed, this one was designed on a more vertical plane. The central structure was a series of four interconnected towers locked into a thick base. Massive hubs reminding Adrian of hockey pucks were anchored to the base by massive tubes. These were the docking areas, and the Ladyhawke was being directed to one of them. Each hub had a number painted on the top and bottom. They had been assigned to hub number three.
Sensors indicated that the massive tapering structure below the docking ring housed the series of fusion reactors that powered the immense station.
Mirriam didn't like handing over guidance to the hub control, but if they were ever going to dock, she had to swallow her pride and deal with it.
"And I thought the orbital docks in the Val-kyrie home system were huge," Adrian said, awed by the sheer size of the station. He wondered if the warrior women had ever attempted anything like this. He made a mental note to ask Anyssa the next time he saw her.
Ladyhawke was guided in to a slot along the outer hull about a quarter of the way around to the right. The layout appeared to be something like a parking garage only scaled up for starships. Like spokes on a wheel, starships were nosed into the open slots on each ring. The entire assemble was five rings deep – each inner one smaller than the previous – with a total of five levels. There were a lot of empty spaces in the outer rings, but the inner ones were almost full. Once settled in place, a boarding tube extended to link up with the port side airlock. The airlocks were hidden behind armored panels just forward of the three ports concealing the countermeasures tubes.
Docking clamps and power conduits were connected by robotic arms in short order. Mirriam accepted the changeover to station power, but blocked any attempts by the station's computer to add her to the network.
Adrian and Teelana stopped by their respective quarters. Adrian morphed his left eye into a sightless orb complete with the same scars running vertically from brow to cheek bone as the original bounty had sported. Rumor had it the man lost his eye in a bar fight, but more reliable reports stated that it had more to do with a dangerous bounty Cobra had been tracking. Adrian settled the eyepatch into place, shrugged on the duster, and stepped out into the corridor. He was only packing one pistol nestled under the left arm in shoulder leather. A combat knife balanced it under the right arm. He had several spare clips for the pistol tucked into a hip pocket.
Teelana stepped out of her quarters across the corridor from Adrian's settling the cape across her shoulders. The silver circlet was already in place on her head.
At the airlock, Adrian punched the control to equalize it with the station. While they waited, Teelana flipped the hood up on to the top of her head. The lock cycle completed and the hatch opened. The pair passed through the inner and outer doors to the boarding tube. Mirriam closed the hatches and promised to await their return with breathless anticipation. Both had warned her, War Wing, and Falcon to be on their best behavior while they were on the station. All three AIs grudgingly agreed.
The short walk through the semitransparent tube ended in a starkly grey docking arm. Metal grates ran the center length of the arm with plates on each side. The grates made the conduits under the floor more accessible, however, it was best if one did not suffer from claustrophobia when venturing down there. The walls and ceiling were lined with exposed support ribs. Aesthetics was not an issue in this part of the station. It had to be functional rather than pleasing to the eye.
The docking arm joined the main concourse where the scenery was more pleasing to the eye. Signs in multiple languages directed visitors to lifts to reach other levels in the docking hub and where the customs station was located to enter the station proper. Adrian and Teelana followed the arrows toward customs and stepped onto the walkway belt that facilitated getting around quicker. Adrian couldn't help comparing the wide corridor and walkway belts to airport terminals on Earth. Apparently, certain similarities were universal in basic design.
They reached the customs section in short order and awaited their turn. Traffic moved along at a steady pace and they soon found themselves facing a humanoid who looked unhappy in his job. Or maybe he was just having a rough day.
Cobra and Teelana presented their identification. If the man recognized the bounty hunter, he hid it well. "Purpose of visit? Business or pleasure?"
"A bit of both."
"There are no bounties here for you, hunter," the man growled. Apparently, he had a low opinion of bounty hunters.
"We are here at the invitation of the station owner, Boss Nash," Cobra explained. "Now, if you would rather report that we were turned away at customs, be my guest." He leaned in to add in a more conspiratorial tone, "However, I'd make sure my life insurance was up to date before doing so."
The agent turned to the computer at hand, tapped in a few commands, paled noticeably at the answer it gave, and looked up. "Your invitation is confirmed." He handed back the indent cards. "Follow the signs to the tram hub. The hotel and restaurant is on the far side of the station." As an afterthought, he muttered, "Enjoy your stay."
Speaking up for the first time, Teelana said with a smile, "We will. Have a nice day!" She waved as they walked past the agent into the station.
Cobra slid back the cuff of his left fingerless glove to reveal the wrist comm strapped there. He keyed a preset frequency. A return tone sounded a second later. Pulling the glove back into place, he picked up the pace toward the tram dock.
"Remember, we want to keep a low profile. Move around like shadows," Teelana reminded him.
Cobra stopped dead in his tracks when they emerged from the adjoining tunnel. "I don't think that's going to be a problem."
Beings from hundreds of races moved about on whatever business they were on the station to conduct. There were representatives even Teelana could not identify. Beyond the tram hub was the vast space of the tower. Hover vehicles of every shape and form soared through the designated lanes at various levels in the massive structure. Cobra had assumed, incorrectly, that the towers were a solid mass, but the reality was very, very different.
The towers were very hollow. Many levels of traffic lanes for aircars flowed between the projections from the outer walls. City blocks jutted out with no aesthetics, rhyme or reason. Some sections were blocks. Others rounded in more pleasing shapes. Garish colors lit up the livelier sections that housed casinos, gaudy houses, and things better left unmentioned.
Cobra and Teelana joined the thrones of people heading from the tram station. He diverted them away from the terminal in favor of the aircar taxi station off to the right. Cobra wanted to get a better feel for the place, and the best way to do that was from the air.
The driver did not give his fares a first glance as they climbed into the back. He knew where the hotel was in Tower 3. Ordinarily, passengers wanted to go by the most direct route. This pair, however, wanted the scenic route so that they could observe the goings on around the station. Like most of the aircars, the taxis had an open compartment. He always likes to feel the wind against his face as he flew. It was as close to flying as he could get in an artificial environment such as this.
Twenty minutes after passing through customs, the pair arrived at their destination. Cobra paid the fare plus a generous tip, and then took in the sight of the hotel and casino Boss Nash owned and personally operated. Compared to the others the strip, Nash's hotel was almost mundane in appearance. A wide staircase led up to the main entrance fronted with towering colonnades. The rather unassuming name Nash's Place stood out in bright neon lettering on the façade above the colonnades. Cobra understood that during the 'daylight' hours, polished brass lettering could be seen in place of the lighted sign. Currently, the station's lighting was set to just after dusk.
Cobra and Teelana strode leisurely up the steps and entered the lobby. Here, the decor was more ornate. Paintings of people neither recognized adorned the walls. Some were not even human or humanoid. Chandeliers grander than anything seen on Earth hung from the ceiling. At the lowest point, those monsters were more than thirty feet above the floor. While brightly lit, it was the indirect lighting that cast the most illumination. Bright white light was everywhere, but it wasn't painful to the eyes. Plush carpeting covered the floors in the seating areas and created walkways to the check-in counter off the left, the bank of lifts just past the counter, and across the way to the stairwells on the far right.
"The floor and columns look like they are covered in marble," Cobra observed. If the surfaces really were marble and not some cleaver substitute, that spoke to just how rich the crime families were.
"Tastefully done, at least," Teelana agreed. "Compared to the ads for the others we looked at."
An alien from a species neither one recognized checked them in, handed over keycards for their room, and informed them how best to get there. Cobra and Teelana took a lift to forty-third floor. A short walk down several connecting corridors brought them to their room. Cobra slid his card into the slot to the right of the door. The light above it changed from red to green and the door slid to the right. Ever the gentleman, Cobra gestured for Teelana to precede him inside.
Lights came on automatically as they pair moved deeper into what was a small apartment. The entryway had a small closet on the left. A short flight of steps went down to the main floor. The bulk of the chamber was taken up by a lavish sitting room furnished with comfortable-looking chairs, a couch, and what looked like a loveseat. Off to the immediate right was a kitchen. Opposite that on the far left was a well-stocked wet bar. A large picture window flanked by smaller ones looked out into space. The moon the station orbited dominated the view on the right while the gas planet could just be seen beyond the edge of the moon on the left. Separate bedrooms, one on each side of the sitting area, were just a tastefully done as the rest of the apartment.
Emerging from their chosen rooms, the pair continued scanning for surveillance devices, but came up empty. They could talk freely.
"So far, so good," Teelana said, sounding a touch disappointed.
"You expected this to be harder?" Cobra asked. He shrugged off the duster and dropped it across an armchair and dropped into a plush chair facing the windows.
Teelana walked over to the kitchen to get something to drink. "I expect we will have company at any time."
"A premonition?"
"A feeling."
They waited patiently for hours with no contact from Boss Nash. He had to know they had arrived. The time for the dinner date had not been set, so Cobra figured it would be whenever the boss decided. Rather than wander around the station seeing the sights and experiencing life in an open system, Cobra decided they should stay put. Without a scorecard, they could quickly get into trouble. With no backup support, that would be problematic. Besides, Cobra had a feeling that Boss Nash might prove a cordial host. Then again, a rattlesnake was a lovely creature – from a discreet distance.
Cobra dozed on the chair facing the panoramic view. Teelana had retired to her bedroom. Cobra suspected that she knew something, but decided not to say anything. Her senses were heightened thanks to her magical abilities. More than that, the other powers of the mind unlocked in her via Castle Grayskull's Pool of Power gave her an advantage over others. He had gotten a glimpse of that power when she had used it to heal injuries suffered in the battle with General Rongar's army on a planet in the unclaimed buffer zone between the Horde Empire and the Val-kyrie territory.
His ruminations broke off at the sound of the main hatch opening. A rattle of bottles. The squeak of a wheel. The maid service had ignored the lighted Do Not Disturb sign above the keycard slot.
"Hey, lady," Cobra called out, irritated. "The Do Not Disturb sign is lit for a reason."
A gruff voice answered him. "My boss wants a word with you."
Cobra turned his head to the right. A humanoid as round as he was short stood over by the kitchen, laser pistol out and pointing in Cobra's direction. The maid stood over by the closed hatch with her cleaning cart.
Without warning, blue/white energy balls soared across the room. One impacted the maid, slamming her against the hatch. The other struck the male square in the chest. The impact didn't knock him backward, but the powerful electric shock played havoc with his nervous system. Face screwed up in agony, mouth open in a soundless scream, the ruffian collapsed as soon as the magic missile dissipated.
While Teelana had been laying on her bed, sleeping was the furthest thing from her mind. She had been meditating. Immersed in the flows of magical energies, Teelana focused on the immediate environment looking for anything out of the ordinary. In a place like this, ordinary was more a state of mind. It reminded her of stories people had told her of Las Vegas on Earth. Magnify that by a thousand and you would have any station in the solar system. And then there was spaceport on Planet Wayfarer that was a world unto itself.
Her senses suddenly focused closer to home. Two people were approaching. One female. One male. Both stopped outside their suite. The female's fear radiated almost blindingly in Teelana's magic sight. The male had darker thoughts. Malevolent thoughts. Teelana sprang from the bed like a lithesome cat thanks to her physical training. The outer door was open and the pair coming inside when Teelana reached her bedroom door. After Cobra's pronouncement about the lighted sign, she fired off two magic missiles at the intruders.
Cobra pushed himself up out of the chair. "And that's why the sign was on." He walked over to the goon while Teelana checked on the maid. He patted the man down for other weapons besides the one still clutched in his limp right hand. Cobra found none. He plucked the pistol out of the goon's hand, and pulled his own with his right hand. He glanced Teelana's direction. She nodded in return. The maid was recovering.
Teelana ushered the maid and cart out the door amid the woman's apologies for the intrusion. She claimed that she had had no choice because to the laser pistol trained on her. Teelana heaved a quiet sigh once the blubbering maid was gone. Evidently, the blubbering had gotten on her nerves.
The goon was coming around as Cobra donned his duster. "This how Nash welcomes people he invites to his domain?" Cobra said, not impressed.
The hired muscle stared at the maw of pistol aimed at him. "I don't work for Boss Nash," he spat.
"Well, in that case," Cobra replied, holstering his pistol and covering the goon with his confiscated laser, "take me to your leader."
Teelana scowled and rolled her eyes. Couldn't resist it, could you? She sent telepathically. Cobra flashed her a quick grin and winked.
Boss Lazar paced his private suite in a building he owned on Nash Station. All eleven bosses owned buildings on one another's stations. By agreement, no one could start trouble on another boss's station without suffering repercussions. Since Cobra was not an employee of Nash's organization, Lazar could act with a like more latitude. He still had to be careful since the bounty hunter was on the station at Nash's invitation.
Lazar was in his early fifties, with graying hair, severe features, and a belly gone to pot where it had once been flat and toned in his youth. He had worked his way up the family ladder and inherited the business when his father was killed in a dispute with another boss. That had been during the final construction of the family stations. Before the detente had been agreed to by all twelve families.
Since that time, he and the other families had risen to even great heights of prosperity, though not without the occasion conflicts with each other, and unaffiliated organizations. Now, everyone was scrambling to be the family to boast having the man who took out Cardas in his employ. Lazar was determined to be that one.
"Where is Brant? He should have been here by now," Boss Lazar scowled angrily.
"Cobra isn't someone to take lightly," Dariand pointed out. He was Lazar's number one. His orders could be considered Lazar's orders. "I told you you needed to send someone with more tact. Brant has about a much tact as blunt force trauma.
The door chime rang. Boss Lazar Sighed. "That better be Brant with Cobra in tow. And he'd better have a good reason for being late."
The mountain of muscle closest to the door strode over and keyed the control panel. An instant after the hatch opened, a body hurtled through. Brant covered almost three meters before hitting the floor hard, rolled another few meters and finally came to a halt. A man dressed all in black sporting a goatee and an eyepatch covering his left eye. He was followed by a strikingly beautiful brunette dressed in silver and blue and wearing a long cape with the hood drawn up on top of her head.
Cobra dismantled Brant's weapon, casually tossing pieces in random directions. The power cell was tucked into a coat pocket. The pair leisurely strolled across the deep pile carpet and stopped before the boss's desk.
"Next time you want an audience with me, send a proper invitation," Cobra growled evenly. "You send a hired gun and I'll send him back in a ditty bag. And itty, bitty ditty bag." He let his one-eyed gaze travel about the room full of thugs.
The other hired guns were just shaking off their shock of seeing one of their own treated so roughly. Normally, that would earn one the same kind of treatment in spades. Th families did not take kindly to anyone challenging their authority. However, they were confronted with the dilemma of the challenge coming in the form of the duo who ended the reign of the head of the most ruthless gangster in history after late Boss Navarro. No one was very eager to enforce their boss's authority in his own house.
"Boss Lazar. Dariand," Cobra stated with cold indifference.
"Nash didn't tell us the circus was on station," Teelana added, her blue eyes radiating like chips of ice.
Lazar's frown turned to fury at the blatant insult. He pegged Cobra with a stare that would have turned a lesser man into a blubbering mass begging for forgiveness.
Cobra stifled a laugh. "She beat me by one second." Spotting a cigar box on the corner of the desk, he walked over and lifted the lid. Another calculated insult. He pulled one off the top and let the lid snap shut, and held the pilfered prize up. "Got a light?" Lazar whipped his left hand up and smacked the cigar out of Cobra's hand. Guess not. Cobra took another cigar from the box. Spotting several glasses on a silver tray filled each filled with an amber liquid and cubes of ice, Cobra bit off the end of his pilfered prize, and spit the wad into one of the drinks.
Teelana winced inwardly at the ruination of a perfectly good drink, but kept her face in an emotionless mask.
Cobra fished a lighter from a pants pocket, struck up a flame and held it to cigar tip. A few indrawn breaths, a small cloud of fragrant smoke, and Cobra was happily puffing away. Unconcerned for about the collection of hired muscle scattered about the room, Cobra dropped himself into a comfortable chair facing the desk. "So, you wanted an audience. Here I am. Talk."
Lazar took a deep breath to control his temper. This bounty hunter was acting cockier than usual. A bad sign. Especially since he had a powerful sorceress at his back. "I have been trying to contact you for days."
Cobra snorted. "All of the bosses have. So what? All of sudden you have jobs for me now that I'm no longer on the Queen Mother's Most Wanted List? If you weren't currently the third most power family in the quadrant, I'd say kiss my ass. However, considering your status I will say slurp my butt."
Lazar spread his hands, struggling to contain his anger at the man's blatant disrespect "All I wanted was to talk."
"You have a funny way of issuing invitations," Teelana observed.
Dariand Spoke up. "We didn't think you would come."
Cobra blew a smoke ring at the ceiling. "Well, that's the first thought you got right. I don't work for any of you-" He stopped to think about that a moment. "Well, only for the right price. But I maintain my neutrality for a reason."
"You did us all a service going to Horde Prime's penal planet and ending Cardas once and for all," Boss Lazar said.
"I didn't do it for you," Cobra countered. "For any of you."
Sneering, Dariand demanded, "Then what did you do it for?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," was all the explanation Cobra intended to give.
"We could always compel you to play ball. Wouldn't be the first time we've brought a bounty hunter into line," Dariand said, voice dripping with malice. "Just because you have a wi-"
Cobra interrupted, "Don't finish that word unless your life insurance is paid up."
Cobra's warning was punctuated by tendrils of blue magic fire curling around Teelana's hands. All the gunmen in the room took an involuntary step backward. Oh, they were brave enough breaking heads and other limbs when loan payments were late, or someone needed to be intimidated. When it comes to intangible things like real magic, they, like most beings, feared what they did not understand. Dariand saw the gathering magical power and wisely swallowed the rest of his statement.
"And why should I and the other bosses not try to add you to our respective stables of bounty hunters?" Lazar asked evenly.
"Well, adding the man who took out Cardas would be a feather in your hat, but I never took any of you clowns as being stupid enough to paint a bull's eye on your operations," Cobra explained at length. "Until now."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lazar demand angrily.
"Ask Boss Navarro."
Boss Navarro. The unofficial Boss of Bosses. His operation was the most powerful of all the crime families. Cardas had been runner up. It could safely be said that Cardas learned all he knew from Navarro. However, there were some things that none of the other families would delve into. Navarro had no inhibitions whatsoever. He was brutal. Revenge killings were not limited to immediate family. Anyone who knew the crime boss's enemy was a legitimate target. And he regularly traded in the one area other families only dabbled in on occasion.
Slavery.
The Val-kyrie had a thing about slavery. They hated it with a passion known only to them. While the slave trade was a lucrative enterprise in the outer regions, it was a very, very dangerous occupation because when the warrior women went after slavers, no survivors were left in their wake.
Boss Navarro had a thriving slave trade boing in the outer rim near the only region of the galaxy left unexplored. He had scoffed at repeated warnings from the Val-kyrie to cease all slavery operations.
Ten years ago, Queen Mother Silvara decided that the crime families were overdue for a reminder as to why it was good business not to anger the warrior women. A single battlestar was dispatched to the Wayfarer system to carry out her order. Upon dropping out of hyperspace, a warning went out to Boss Navarro's operations to the effect that anyone in his family's employ had one local solar day to evacuate all businesses including the family space station.
Within the first hour, a mass exodus was observed from all holdings belonging to Boss Navarro. At the appointed time, the battlestar moved in. The moment the warship got within range of the space station, its commander opened fire with the ten primary cannons. Within minutes, the station was reduced to an expanding cloud of debris when the power core breached.
Unknown to anyone at the time, a strike team had been assembled on a strictly volunteer basis to go to the planet and burn Navarro's empire to the ground. The reason for the volunteers was because all enforcers remaining on the boss's holding, all family and relatives and anyone foolish enough to remain would be killed. This was one of those rare occasions when the warrior women made war on women and children, and the volunteers had to be able to live with those acts for the rest of their lives. In this case, when the call went out to the ground forces assigned to the battlestar for volunteers, the major in charge of the operation had so many that she had to pick and choose who would go and who would stay behind.
At the exact moment the battlestar opened fire on the space station, the strike force annihilated all planetary holdings of Boss Navarro. The boss himself lived long enough to see his empire reduced to rubble, all family executed and all employees foolish enough not to abandon him killed on sight. Navarro was never found, but speculation was that he had been left alive but incapacitated in his mansion when a powerful explosion turned it into a smoking crater. Other theories say he was quite dead when the mansion was razed to the ground, but it hardly mattered either way. The Navarro Empire died in hellfire in a matter of minutes at the command of the Queen Mother. The other families were reminded that they remained in existence at the whim of the warrior women. And, to a lesser extent, by the whim of Horde Prime; who occasion had cause to do business with the various families.
To this day, the moon where the Navarro family station orbited remained barren. All the areas where the mansion and business holdings had been located in Wayfarer City still bore the scars of that day. A vivid reminder to all comers the virtues of not angering the Val-kyrie.
Boss Lazar paled at the mention of the former Boss of Bosses. When Cardas assumed the top spot after Navarro was destroyed, he remained a brutal head of his operation, but he knew where to line was to avoid Navarro's fate. However, he crossed Horde Prime one time too many and was send to the infamous penal planet Hel where he would ultimately meet his end at the hands of an infiltration force from Earth. While that little bit of information was strictly suppressed, other details about how Cardas had been able to continue directing his empire until Cobra went in and supposedly ended his reign had been embellished enough to be believable.
Cobra pushed himself up out of the chair and wandered around the room. "While I would never take undue advantage of my new association with the Queen Mother, you never know what can happen. You might get into one of those armored tanks of an aircar the families like so much on the planet and it suddenly blows up." He looked pointedly at the wall opposite from the desk. "Or you might be riding in your private turbolift and suddenly the gravity goes haywire, it plummets to the bottom and you get turned into jelly." He strolled around to bank of windows where he drew one of the expensive drapes aside. "Or you could be just looking out the window at all you survey."
To punctuate his remark, a small spider webbed hole suddenly appeared in the tall pane. Something smacked into the picture six inches to the right of Lazar's head. The boss's head snapped around to his left to stare at the neat little hole in the glass and picture.
Dariand was unimpressed. "We will not be intimidated by the likes of you."
"That's easy for you to say!" Lazar snapped. "You're not the one he's gunning for."
Cobra smiled. He had them right where he wanted them. If this worked out, the families would stop bothering him. He hoped. "Relax, Lazar. If I was gunning for you, you wouldn't be standing there bitchin' about it."
"If something happens to him, it would fall to me to avenge him," Dariand declared, a dangerous tone in his voice.
Cobra was steadily walking toward the door. He stopped a handful of steps away from it and turned back.
It was Teelana who answered first. "What makes you think you would live long enough to try?" Her voice was quiet, almost conversational, but it sent shivers up and down spines all around the room. Even Cobra felt it.
"Just remember, Lazar," Cobra warned, his voice like that of death itself, "if anything happens to us-" he gestured toward the picture with the butt of his cigar "-fifteen minutes later, that's you."
He and Teelana swept out of the room without interference. When they were in the turbolift heading for the ground floor, Cobra commented idlily," That was fun."
Teelana turned her head just enough to regard him with open skepticism. "You and I need to talk about our respective definitions of 'fun.'"
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