Shore Leave (pt. 2)

Lloyd was shoved down into a chair. The suits had split the two of them up, although he did see that she got taken to the room next to him. One of the guards stood over him.

"OK, wise guy," said the guard, "who are you?"

"I'm Lloyd Edgerson," answered Lloyd, "I'm the navigator off the trader My Other Option. I just got here earlier today."

"What were you doing with the girl?"

"Kissing her."

"You know her then?"

"Never seen her before in my life. I went down to the beach, took a nap and when I woke up, she was on top of me. Thought it might have been part of theresort's hospitality."

"Did she tell you anything?"

"She said her name was Leonia and that she was in trouble and begged me to save her."

"That's all?"

"That's it. If you've got any questions, you can send a reqeust to the ship. It'll confirm my identity."

"We'll see about that."

The guards left the room and closed the door. Llyod got up and tried the handle. As he expected, it was locked, but he was never one to dismiss a simple solution. The room itself looked pretty standard. Hard cement walls, a couple of small ceiling vents, but even standing on the room's table, he couldn't get up at it. No obvious sensors, but he just assumed he was being watched. So he gave a friendly wave to all four walls. Again, no point in not being polite. At the moment, his limited suite of options was exhausted and there's nothing left to do but just wait. Lloyd slumped back into his chair and hoped Sam or Jake could help sort things out. He also wondered just what it was they wantedLeonia for.

* * *

Sam was packing the gear, when the knock on the door came. There were only two other people on the island that she wanted to see and neither of them were likely to be knocking at the door. She tossed the last few things into her bag and quickly headed out onto the balcony of her cabin. She hoped that the person doing the knocking came straight from the underground facilities and didn't have people posted around the outside of her bungalow. She dashed down a paved walkway towards the beach and headed off towards the casino entrance.

On the way down, her wearable bleeped. Jake was calling in.

"What's up, big brother?" she asked.

"I didn't see exactly where they went, but I've got a pretty good idea of where he's at. Meet me at the casino bar."

"I thought you sobered up."

"I'm buying a few drinks to get some more information on the Security stations, the bartender has been surprisingly forthcoming. Cute too."

"I know your rugged good looks are irresistible, but remember we've got a job to do here."

"Don't worry sis. I'll see you in five."

"On my way."

* * *

The door opened and the guard returned. "Your story checks out, Mr. Edgerson. We were hoping to confirm with your fellow crew members, but the data off of your ship makes it a mere formality."

"Happy to be of help, sir."

"On behalf of the Diamond Sands Resort, I'd like to extend our deepest apologies. We'd like to give you these vouchers and a few casino chips for the trouble we've put you to."

"That's awfully nice of you. So, I'm free to go?"

"Right this way, Mr. Edgerson." The guard steped out the door into the hallway. Lloyd was about to follow when the guard started. "Freeze! Who are--"

His query was cut off. There was a series of sharp clicks and bullets ripped through the guard. Lloyd threw himself against the wall next to the door. From the hallway there was silence for a few moments, then a door was kicked open. Some shouts, a woman's scream, and more loud clicks. Bodies hit the floor.

Then he heard Sam's voice, "Where's Lloyd you bitch?"

"Sam! In here!" Lloyd called out. "Don't shoot me!"

A figure in black synth-skin poked her head around the corner. Lloyd assumed it was Sam from her general size and build. In her hands was a silenced SMG.

"What the hell are you doing?" asked Lloyd.

"Busting you out of here," snapped Sam, "can't get very far without our Navigator."

"You don't have to bust me out! They talked to Option and realized I was just a tourist. They were letting me go, Sam!"

"Shit!" hissed Sam.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" shouted Jake from down the hall.

"You better take this," said Sam shoving a pistol into Lloyd's hand.

"This is insane," muttered Lloyd as he followed Sam down the hall. They stopped when they reached Jake who was standing in the room next door with Leonia and a couple of dead guards. Leonia was scared out of her wits. She'd also been hit a couple of times.

"Please, take me with you! Get me out of here!", said Leonia.

"You've been nothing but trouble, lady," said Lloyd. "Why do they want you so badly?"

"I'm a sub-sector VP for SuSAG," said Leonia. "This place is owned by Korashi LTD. I was here on Fist to make a buyout offer. Korashi appeared to be eager to have us buy them out, but shortly after I got here, my bodygaurds were attacked. I fled down to the beach and that's where I ran into you. If you can get me out of here, I'll see to it that you all get a big reward."

"I've heard that before," grumbled Jake, "how do we know she's not lying?"

"We don't," said Lloyd, "but seeing as how you two have shot up the security staff, I guess we've got to get the hell out of here and taking the lady along is hardly going to make our position any better or worse. In fact, unless she's telling the truth, we're probably going to be looking at some serious jail time. So come with us Leonia."

Sam and Jake peeled back their synth-skin coating and now merely looked eccentric rather than sinister. The four of them made their way out of the security area and mingled back into the general flow of tourists. They emerged back onto the beach and hurried back to the landing pads.

Their aircar had a couple of guards standing next to it. "Down a level," whispered Jake. The four backtracked down to the lower landing pads. Sam hopped into an open air car and hooked her wearable to the control console. A few seconds later, the engines switched on and the car floated up. "Scootch over, I'll drive", said Jake. They all piled in and Jake went gliding away from the pad. After putting a little distance between themselves and the resort, he opened the throttle.

"OK, Leonia," said Lloyd, "where to?"

"Just give me a comm unit, I can contact my ship and let them know what happened," she said.

"Here," said Sam, "use mine. But I'm listening in. Any funny business and you're cut off."

Leonia glared at Sam, but took the comm unit. A few minutes of frantic conversation later, she handed back the comm unit. "They're coming out to meet us."

"I hope they get here quick," said Jake, "it looks like we've got company."

A flight of grav cars came buzzing up behind them. Three open-topped vehicles, each mounting a large gun in the back. Jake pushed the throttle forward and the engines began to whine as ran flat out. Their pursuers fell back only slightly before realizing what was up and raising their speed to match. The lead vehicle let off a long burst of machine gun fire. Jake threw the aircar into a slew and slid out of the way of the tracers. Now the flight took on a spiraling weave as Jake attempted to make the shot harder. A line of smoke shot off from one of the other pursuit vehicles and a missile came roaring after them. Jake pulled it level for a moment and then veered away at the last second. The missile's tracking was thrown off and it went spiraling away. But the maneuver had caused them to lose ground. The enemy was closing in on them. Soon they'd get a solid lock and there'd be nothing left but a fireball.

There was a bright flash and one of the grav cars turned to flaming pieces. There was a loud roar as fighters went streaking overhead. The other two pursuers suddenly turned tail, but it was too late. They were no match for the fighters who sliced among them and picked them off one after the other.

"It looks like they got here just in time," yelled Leonia over the roar of the air car's engines. "Those are SuSAG fighters. We should be safe now."

Safe was a relative term. As soon as they landed at the spaceport, they were swarmed by security and taken off to jail while their escapades were sorted out. There was a lot of legal wrangling and it took the better part of a week before they could be let out. In the end, the court had found that Korashi had started an undeclared trade war and that Leonia and her companions were cleared of any wrongdoing.

"I could use some new bodyguards," Leonia said as they left the courthouse. "You three seem pretty capable."

"Considering what happened to your last bodyguards, I think I'll pass," said Jake.

"I'll admit that I got into this job because I wanted some excitement and adventure," said Lloyd, "But this has been just a bit too exciting for me. I'm looking forward to a nice boring trading run."

"We'll see how boring it is out in the Borderlands," said Sam, "You might wish you were back here."

"If you're going into the Borderlands are you stopping at Pandora?" asked Leonia.

"In about a month," said Lloyd.

"Then take these passes," said Leonia, handing them each a smartcard. "They're VIP passes. It should make your shore leave there much more pleasant than it's been here on Fist. It's the least I could do for the people who saved my life. These should also help your captain when it comes time to load his ship up for the next run. He might be very interested in some pharmaceuticals we make out there."

"Thanks," said Lloyd.

"And when you get back," said Leonia, "look me up. Maybe you'll change your mind." She gave Lloyd a quick kiss. "Have a good trip, Lloyd."

"Yeah. You too, Leonia," said Lloyd.

Leonia stepped into her waiting aircar and was gone. Lloyd and the twins flagged down a taxi to take them back to the star port.

"Look at that," said Jake. "We do all the rescuing work and he gets the girl."

"I didn't get the girl," said Lloyd, "for some reason I thought it'd be more fun to hang out with you guys."

"Some fun," snorted Jake, "I spent all of shore leave in jail."

"Not the first time," said Sam.

"We've still got one more night," said Lloyd. What say we have a BBQ on the ship tonight. We'll set up a grill by the ship, have some burgers and beer. Enjoy a little tropical sun before we have to load up the ship and get out of here. Besides, we'll have to do something to appease the Captain. He couldn't read us the riot act on this one, but he wanted to. Plus, we can let him know that we've got a bit of leverage in Pandora. That's sure to soften him up."

"The kid's got a point," said Sam.

"Guess we'd better stop off for some steaks then," said Jake. He tapped the glass and let the driver know about the change of plans.