Chapter Two – Thieves

Thirty minutes earlier…

It was time to make her move. Two days she'd been here watching them, just to be certain, and now she was more convinced than ever that these were the men she was looking for. One of them had just disappeared out of the back of the wooden hut that housed the stocks while the other one was manning sales up front, giving her the perfect chance to slip inside now and see for herself. She quickly slipped into the gap between the rows of huts and round the back of the stall, pushing open the wooden door quietly to let herself in.

Inside there was only a small amount of storage space for stock, but the shelves against each wall were piled high with packets labelled 'The Costello Brothers' Finest Sugarleaf'. Moving quickly, she picked up one of the cartons from the shelves and opened it to see the loose, dark brown dried leaf packed inside. She took a small pinch of it between her thumb and forefinger which she then placed on her tongue. The leaf dissolved almost instantly, leaving behind the familiar taste she recognised: sweet, almost sickly, with just a faint hint of tobacco. These were definitely the men she was looking for.

She put the carton back down and looked round at the other packets stacked on the shelves, trying to estimate just how much sugarleaf they had in here. She was just beginning to count them when she heard the door to the hut open again and she spun round quickly to see a man walk in.

"Joe, do you think we should…" he was saying, but broke off as he saw her. They both stared at each in surprise for a couple of moments, but then he moved to stand in front of the door to block her exit and shouted out again. "Joe, I need you back here."

"I'm selling right now, Al," came the reply from the front of the stall.

"No, Joe, I really need you back here," the man repeated.

The woman didn't say anything, but there was the sound of someone huffing as a man walked round the section of wall that separated the front of the stall from the storage space. "Al, this had better be…" he began, but then he too stopped when he saw her. "So what do we have here?" he said aggressively.

"It seems we have a thief, Joe," the first man said in response.

The woman just eyed them both rather coolly. "Actually, you'd be wrong there," she said, her voice completely calm, "This isn't Costello's Sugarleaf, you see; it's Nova Pleiadean Sugarleaf. And I happen to be Dominie Nova, which I think makes you the thieves."

The two men exchanged glances with each other and then glared at her. "This is ridiculous," the one called Joe said. "Have you just come here to accuse us of stealing? I heard your leaf yield wasn't too good this season but blaming it on us is just preposterous."

She shrugged casually. "Actually, my yield's been fine, thank you very much, although a few of my export shipments have gone missing recently. And all this leaf has my genostamp on it. Check if you don't believe me."

They exchanged glances with each other again, looking more worried now but saying nothing.

She gave them a mocking look. "You really think I didn't GM protect my own crops?"

"Well," the one named Al snarled, "Maybe so, but would you be willing to testify that this leaf is all yours in court?" He was reaching into this inside of his jacket, going for a handheld laser gun, maybe?

The intimidation tactic wasn't going to work. She quickly reached into her own pocket and pulled out a wallet containing an ID which she held up for him to see. She watched his face fall as he read 'Dominie C. Nova, First Lieutenant, Intergalactic Federal Authority.' His hand dropped to his side as he looked at his brother with a defeated expression.

She smirked at them both. "You still want to take this to court?"

They were both glaring at her, but in a manner that was more resentful now than threatening. "Well, you're not going to give us a choice, are you?" Joe said disdainfully.

She shrugged again. "Actually, I don't have much patience with the court system. I see no reason why we can't just settle this now. If you're prepared to reimburse me for all the leaf you've stolen in the past two months, plus, say, ten per cent, I'd be happy not to press charges."

"You want cash up front?" Al growled.

She met his gaze with a challenging expression. "Yes, that's exactly what I want," she said, holding out her hand expectantly. "When you're ready, gentlemen."

They glowered at her silently for a couple more seconds, and then Al turned to instruct his brother. "Joe, get Lieutenant Nova the cash."

Joe looked astounded that Al had given in so easily. "No! There's something odd here about her not wanting to take it to court. I think…"

"Joe," Al said forcibly. "The cash. All of it. Plus ten percent."

Joe just stared at him angrily, before giving a huff and shooting one final glare at Dominie as he went to collect the cash from the safe kept in the corner of the stockroom. He took the money out and handed her a wad of galactic paper credits, which she counted before giving a satisfied nod and tucking them into the inside pocket of her coat.

"I'm glad we got that sorted out, gentlemen," she said, giving them both a curt nod as she turned towards the exit. "I hope we don't ever meet in this way again."

As she opened the door to leave she suddenly heard the sound of movement behind her and whipped round again, her hand going to her own laser pistol which she had tucked into her waistband. As she spun round she saw Al holding Joe off, who seemed to have picked up one of the larger packs of sugarleaf and was about to try and hit her with it. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of the smaller brother trying to restrain the taller, more thick set one.

"Joe," Al was saying. "Don't. It's not worth picking a fight with a fed."

She smirked again. "Wise choice," she said to Al, and then turned and strode off back into the throng of people crowding the market.

Back to the present…

Where were the toilets? That was what she needed. The block of chemical restrooms that always attracted mile long queues no matter how many of them there were, and that space behind them where those who'd had too much Acaritan Ale went to throw up. She quickly zoned in on the restrooms and hurried towards them, staggering the last few paces until she'd reached that empty zone behind them that stank of piss and vomit – not the most pleasant area of the Festival – where she leant against the back of one of the portacabins and bent over double, as if she was about to throw up. Although she made a retching noise nothing actually came out, and even in the dim light she still saw the shadow of the man approaching behind her a couple of seconds before choosing to react to it.

She waited until he was practically on top of her before spinning round suddenly and slamming a fist into his solar plexus. Caught by surprise, he made a slight "mmph" sound and doubled over slightly, but he wasn't incapacitated by it. He recovered quickly and tried to land a blow to the side of her head, but she managed to dodge it and quickly landed a kick to his ankles which sent him hurtling to the floor. She wasn't surprised she was faster than him – it was Joe, the burly one, who'd gone after her, but she suspected that despite what he'd said about not picking fights with feds Al had been in on it too.

As Joe fell she grabbed hold of his wrist and twisted so that his arm became trapped behind his back. He crumpled to the ground and she knelt down so that her knee was pressing into the small of his back, pinning him to the floor. She then took out her laser pistol and pressed its muzzle to the back of his skull. "What exactly was your plan, Joe?" she said mockingly, "Poison me so that I'd pass out here and you could steal the cash back off me? Well, it didn't exactly work, did it?"

Joe just grunted in response, and she twisted his arm even further to force it higher up his back, causing him to wince in pain.

"Your brother's a sly one, isn't he?" she continued. "Making me think he was going to let it go, and then sending you after me. I expect this was all his idea. You don't seem to have the brains to come up with it yourself."

Joe gave a snarl in retaliation. "Bitch."

All she did in response to that was give his arm another shove, provoking another grunt of pain.

"Is this the part where you tell me to get a good lawyer?" he growled, his voice full of anger and disdain. "I expect you'll definitely be taking us to court now, won't you?"

"I suppose I could do, yeah" she replied nonchalantly, "But actually, it's easier to just do this."

She pulled the trigger on the pistol.

There was barely any noise, just a slightly muffled zapping sound as the pulse of gamma rays blasted a small hole in the back of Joe's head. Dominie felt the tension in his muscles go slack and she straightened up to leave him lying on the floor, brushing herself down and tucking the gun back inside her waistband. She shook her head as she stepped over his body to head back into the market. "You know what I hate even more than thieves?" she said to herself as she began to walk away. "Idiotic ones."

A smug smile was beginning to play on her lips and she started to reach a hand into her pocket, but stopped immediately as she heard a voice she recognised speak out behind her. "Wait!"