Title: Back Room
Characters: Danny, Freakshow
Alternate Universe: Space AU
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,123
Genre: Suspense
From outside, the store looked obnoxiously plain. Nestled in amongst the more extravagant mismatched buildings of varying architectural styles was a singularly Earth-designed building, only two stories, with faded white paint on the façade and dark red shutters opened to the smoggy light outside.
The sign, not neon or digital but rustic wooden lettering, read "Showenhower's Fine Antiques". It was just inconspicuous enough to be the front for a much bigger, less legal antique operation.
The Corps didn't usually handle little issues like this. Planetary unrest, species disputes, anything inter-planetary really; that was more their speed. However, the proof they had was undeniable. National treasures from all planets had gone missing, and through extensive field work (and one inside source), all lines led back to the black market dealer Freakshow - aka Fredrick Showenhower.
Danny put the sunglasses on that had been clipped to the neck of his high collared jacket. Turtlenecks, tight pants, white hair, purple contacts; it was a look that would blend right in with the other eccentric types that usually frequented this less-than-glamorous scene. His crew knew Danny was the best at disguises, so he had been nominated for the sting – they didn't know for what reason he knew so much about makeup, certainly not that the white hair he sported was natural and his face bore a lot more foundation than they could tell. It took a lot to cover faintly glowing green skin, after all. As far as anyone knew, a 20-something year old human was stepping casually into the Showenhower's store in late evening on Terra II.
There was a physical bell over the door that rang sharply when he stepped inside. Behind the counter sat the Chloris he'd seen every other time he'd been in, to build his persona of an interested customer. Her yellow eyes flitted over to him from her book, and without a word she stood and went behind the curtain at the end of the store. Danny meandered through the few rows stocked full of bizarre trinkets from many different planets. Their origin and function were detailed on a little digital screen that flashed through different languages, the only current technology he'd seen in the store.
"Well, if it isn't my newest favorite customer!" came the shrill voice Danny had heard far too frequently over the past few weeks. Fredrick loved to talk. It came with being a salesman. It didn't make it any easier to talk to him, though, but Danny forced an easy smile as he straightened up. Fredrick was frighteningly pale with sharp features and a long nose, broken from some past altercation. He was only a little bit shorter and no doubt he'd dealt with far scarier species than the human he thought Danny was, so Danny didn't worry about appearing threatening. He was pretty sure Fredrick trusted him as much as any man could in his line of work.
"I was admiring this," Danny said, gesturing to the bejeweled, shimmering blade on the middle shelf. He looked over Fredrick's shoulder at the spiky Chloris. "Pruning tool from Alia? I do have a lady friend who's big on pruning, hopefully it'll still be here around her birthday."
"Tch. I'm a 'lady friend' now?" came her tinny voice through his earpiece. Danny almost jumped. He'd forgotten he'd been wearing it, and the sound of his Chloris teammate Sam – who was staying with the ship in orbit miles over Terra II – was jarring. He managed to remain still however.
"Well," Fredrick mused, tapping his cane against the shelf and smiling wide with his thin red lips, "it certainly is a fine gift for any lady friend. But I have a feeling that little doodad is not the kind of thing you came all this way for, Mr…?"
"Polt," Danny offered easily.
"I'm sure." Fredrick turned, his red coattails floating out behind him. "If you are looking for something a little more… extravagant, to really sweep your lady friend off her roots, I may have a few items in the back."
The Chloris grabbed Danny's arm suddenly, the thorns at the end of her fingers pricking his skin through the sleeve. She pulled out a black light and shone it on his exposed wrist, and sure enough there was the UV stamp they had carefully painted on, the simplistic circus tent emblem that all Fredrick's real customers bore.
"He's clear," the Chloris called. Danny pulled his arm back. Little spots of green were seeping out of the puncture wounds under his sleeve, which he hastily tugged over his hand. Fredrick motioned with his cane for Danny to follow him and the Chloris assistant behind the heavy red curtain. Danny sucked in a breath and obliged. This was it.
The short hallway was pitch black and Danny had to wait in complete darkness while Fredrick tapped in a long code by the other door. The floor started to shake, and Danny realized it wasn't a hallway they were in, but an elevator. The car descended for a short time before slamming to a disorientating halt.
The door shot open with a burst of frigid air. Before them was an entirely different store. While Showenhower's was rustic and traditionally Earth, this back room was more up-to-speed with the technology they used in the Corps. Everything was lit a calculating blue by florescent lights overhead. The room had stairs down to rows and rows of drawers, all locked with digital screens. It was cramped and shady and exactly what the Corps was looking for. Inside each of these drawers, Danny suspected, was some national or planetary treasure swiped one way or another from museums or archives.
Fredrick deftly tapped another keypad with the jewel at the end of his cane and with an airy hiss, a portable screen slid out. He plucked it from the slot and pulled up a program. "This is the archive of everything in here, Mr. Polt," Fredrick explained, placing it into Danny's hands. "I'm sure you're more than capable of using one of these, but all you need to do is pull it side to side and you'll be able to browse. If you click on an object's picture –" he demonstrated by pressing the tiny image of some bizarre looking animal statue – "it'll give you a larger preview image and a description, as well as the location in the storage." Sure enough, the screen on one of the drawers to his right lit up white instead of blue. "You can search by planet, by category, by type, anything you like to make your… shopping experience easier."
This was the same technology they used for inventory on his ship. He was starting to wonder if there was some operative in the Corps giving Fredrick this tech, but it wasn't the time to wonder. If they were able to bust this operation, any kind of double agents would eventually be exposed. Now was the time to focus on actually taking down the operation.
"Holy crap," came Tucker's voice, shaking Danny out of his concentration. "Danny, can you look up again?"
Danny couldn't answer but he also couldn't look up. Fredrick was watching him with sharp eyes, expecting Danny to browse through the catalogue. Danny obliged, shifting through the icons. He recognized a few of the items from the news after they had been stolen but didn't let himself click on them. Not that he had any reason to believe the authorities were this close to him, but men like Fredrick were never truly at rest.
"Why are these items outlined in orange?" Danny asked, pointing out one to Fredrick.
The man smiled, his artificially sharpened teeth glinting in the blue light. "Those are our newest additions!" With another keystroke a few floor panels began to rise, showing glass boxes with items suspended in them. "We like to keep them out and cycle through things as they come in. It's one thing to see the item in a hologram, but having them out before you gives it a sort of… majesty."
Danny was feeling a sickening déjà vu as he passed through these shelves, so much different from the store front far above them. To his right he saw a rolled-up parchment that had been stolen just a month prior, the ancient Stellegara relic that eventually led the Corps back to Fredrick. One of the goons who worked that particular heist had given away this location in exchange for a lighter sentence. Danny passed by it with as disinterested of a glance as he could, and sure enough Fredrick called for his attention. "This," he declared excitedly with a dramatic sweep of his hand, "is a neat little item known colloquially as the Infimap. It hails from the frigid north of Stellegara, so cold only its inhabitants – and the bravest of adventurers – can stand it. Quite a tough item to obtain, I might add. It's the earliest known starmap in the galaxy, if you're a history buff like I am. Of course, all this you can read on the card, forgive me. I just like to hear myself talk." He trilled out a laugh. You're the only one, Danny thought grimly.
"You've got a good eye," Danny replied, "I am a bit of a history buff. But that's not exactly what I'm interested in."
"Did you have something in mind when you came in today, then?" Fredrick asked coolly, tucking his cane under his arms and folding his hands together.
"Yo, Danny, back up," came Tucker. "I think he's getting suspicious."
Sam chimed in, "Remember, this is your first time in the back. As far as he knows, you don't know about anything in here."
Right. Danny looked around as discretely as he could. "You said there was something to impress the ladies?" Sam snorted over the intercom and he turned his smile towards Fredrick. "The girlfriend from Alia I mentioned has really expensive taste. She's into jewelry big time. A little shallow but hey, she's cute."
"Asshole," Sam snickered over the line.
"Well, if it's jewelry you're looking for," Fredrick said, visibly relaxing and throwing his hands out, "I've certainly got things for you. There's a category for it right on the pad you're holding."
Danny searched for it on the pad but he heard Tucker say something along the lines of "over there" when the sunglasses swept past the far wall. He looked over again to see another heavy curtain with more natural, white light behind it. "What's over there?" he asked, tucking the pad under his arm. "If I'm allowed to ask."
"That's some stuff that hasn't been inventoried yet." Fredrick swept past Danny. "It's not even priced, really, since it's so extremely hard to put a price on the last remaining artifacts of a desolated civilization."
Danny's hands felt cold all of a sudden. "O-oh?"
"Interested?" He pulled the curtain back with his cane, the natural light looking far more inviting than the creepy blue he was in.
This tiny storage room was tall, extending up towards the surface. A rolling ladder was attached to the far wall and dusty plastic boxes with tarps were stacked up along every shelf. "No doubt you've heard of the Phantom Planet. You may be young, but not quite that young, am I right?" Fredrick pulled the tarp off one of the boxes to reveal a gleaming pile of papers, cups, bracelets, and other trinkets. Sticking out of the edge was a book with a title in his native language. He had been too young to know how to read when the Fentons had taken him in, but he could recognize the writing regardless.
"Of course," Danny replied hoarsely. "The… the Corps went to induct them into their organization only to find that the planet had been destroyed by a passing asteroid. There were… uh… no survivors." None that were documented, anyway.
"And such a shame," Fredrick replied somberly, shaking his head and taking off his hat. His bald, pale head gleamed in the light. He quickly donned the hat again and his face twisted back up into an eager grin as he pulled the damaged book out of the box. "Such a fascinating race! All about bioluminescence and light. You know their very skin glowed faintly in the dark?" He flipped through a few pages of the book and turned it to Danny – there were illustrations of the festivals he had never attended.
Danny unconsciously rubbed at his arm. "No, never heard that."
"The Corps only knew of them for all of, what, a year? They only managed learn so much in that short amount of time. Not nearly enough to properly remember an entire planet. Therefore a lot of this is relatively useless – just memorabilia, really – but so unique!" He tucked the book back into the box and deftly swiped a silver orb from the other side of the pile, rubbing at it with his sleeve. "My crew managed to snatch some free-floating items that the Corps couldn't. It's all damaged in one way or another, but every piece is unlike anything else in the universe! Hard to put a price on that, wouldn't you agree?"
He handed the orb gingerly over to Danny. There was a square notch on the top and very fine patterned details along the surface. "Like the rest, damaged. I've tried that button on the top but nothing. Doubt I'll be able to find a battery to fit that one, I'm sure you'll understand!" He laughed and continued prattling, but Danny didn't hear him. He turned the orb over in his hands, his throat turning dry. The orb felt natural in his hands, as if he'd held one before. He turned it so that the notch rested under one palm and splayed his fingers, twisting his hands in opposite directions.
The device let out a great whirring sound and Danny dropped it in surprise. It spun on the floor by its own momentum before righting itself on a little top-like needle. The details on the surface began to glow green line by line until the notch at the top exploded in green, releasing an aurora-like glow through the room.
Fredrick stared at the device, gripping his cane, then his attention turned to Danny. "Oh, um, sorry," Danny stammered, picking the sphere up. He fumbled with it for a moment before finally getting it turned the right direction. With whining sounds it powered down, retracting the needle and falling still in his hands.
"Okay I don't know what you did in there but you better bail out now," Sam instructed.
"So, um, about the jewelry? I'm not really interested in this stuff anymore. A little too unpredictable."
"Quite," Fredrick snapped in a voice much deeper than his usual one. He followed Danny out of the storage room. His assistant was hovering by the doorway and had to back track to get out of their path in the narrow hall. Trapped between the Chloris and the shopkeeper, Danny got his first pangs of nervousness. Of course he just had to mess with that toy, didn't he?
But… he had had one just like it when he was younger. He could vaguely remember his mother – was he sitting on her lap? – turning it in front of him and setting it down, letting the green lights shimmer on the ceiling of his nursery. She used to do that when he couldn't sleep. The green light reminded him of her eyes.
If Fredrick suspected Danny of being a spy, he never indicated it. He was no longer smiling or chatting lightly, but if anything he was just pissed at Danny for messing with his "priceless" artifacts. Danny couldn't help but look over at the back room as he passed through the rows of jewelry he was supposedly buying for his "girlfriend". The toy was just the surface. Who knew what else of his culture was there under those tarps? Packed away, waiting to be slapped with a price tag and sent home with some nefarious black market buyer? He allowed himself one last look at the room as Fredrick checked his communicator and instructed his assistant to go up to the surface level to take care of another customer.
With very little interest, Danny decided on a large blue jewel encircled with little diamonds. If Danny had been paying for the object himself he would've baulked at the price, but these creds he was handing over were from the Corps, and if the sting went well, they would get it all back. Fredrick was a little more back to his old self with more money in his pocket, so he smiled his shark grin at him while he led Danny to the elevator.
It opened before Fredrick could hail it. The local Terra II police, dressed in full gear, spilled out of the elevator, barking at him to get on the ground. The quiet and unnerving blue room was suddenly alive with shouts and alarms and the sounds of electricity. Danny pocketed his "purchase" and doubled back behind the shelves towards the back room. After flipping on the hood, Danny's black outfit helped him to blend into the store – which is what he was hoping for. It wasn't until he bolted that he heard one of the police yell "Hey you!" from behind, but he knew he would make it.
"Danny, where the heck are you going?" Tucker yelled. Danny didn't answer. He only had a few seconds to manage this. He reached blindly under the tarp and felt for the edge of the book, and when he felt the leather-like cover under his fingers, he yanked it loose and tucked it haphazardly into the inside pocket of his coat. Two police units ripped the curtain aside and yelled at him to halt, but Danny pulled his badge out from his jacket in the same motion.
"It's okay. I'm with the Corps. Captain Daniel Fenton." He relinquished the badge and also procured the necklace he'd bought off Freakshow.
"Oh, right, or course," the woman on the right said, nodding her helmet. "The lieutenant told us you'd be heading the operation. Good work, kid." She reached up to pat his shoulder as the three of them walked out of the storage room. The store was swarmed with both local police and Corps members. A few brushed past Danny on their way to the back storage room to seize what was left of his planet's culture. Well… it was better them than people like Freakshow. On the elevator up with the two police units and some fellow Corps members, Danny ran his fingers over the edge of the book.