NOVEL NEXT Chapter 82: Escape Route
"... You must know better than anyone that the city is going up in flames," Betelgeuse said, leaning forward from the soft, satin-backed chair and placing his elbows onto the flimsy faux-wood plastic table.
A warm and mellow light suffused the room they had brought him to, giving it a sense of peace that, given the circumstances, came across as eerie.
Kanogg was sitting opposite him, on a steel chair that appeared to have been modified to take her great bulk. Her attention was on the blood-crusted interior of the box of Incunabula that had been placed on the floor beside her.
The brain-tekkie who called himself 'Mr. Killian' was the only other person in the room, and he was meticulously sifting through the pages of the various Incunabula Nie Feng had brought, scanning through Increments and Etchings and taking notes with the arachnoid appendages that were attached to his neck.
The ends of two of Mr. Killian's mechanical appendages had been outfitted with opposable phalanges, which were used to hold onto a digipad and a stylus. The stylus was clacking with controlled precision onto the digipad's screen-surface, and Betelgeuse could observe on the back-lighted screen that Mr. Killian's notes were being taken down in illegible doctor's handwriting.
Douglas could use a mechanical arm, Betelgeuse suddenly thought. Once I receive payment, I should ask if they'll sell me a cheap prosthesis. Kanogg looks like the kind of person that dabbles in illegal mods.
"I do," Kanogg replied, turning her attention from the box of Incunabula to Betelgeuse.
"... So, you have plans to leave as well, then," Betelgeuse said, catching on.
"That goes without saying," Kanogg returned, the eyes behind her glossy black mask unblinking.
Hrnh. She's suitably tight-lipped. But if she's leaving, it must mean she has the resources to do so.
Think—what would she need? What will she accept?
She's an opportunist. Mama Pimps always are. But Kanogg also knows when a relationship can be mutually beneficial.
It's all about knowing what the other wants. Once I know, I can deal.
Thump!
The brain-tekkie snapped the lid back over the container lid, interrupting Betelgeuse' thoughts. Mr. Killian turned to Kanogg and said: "It's done. I've routed the information to your transceiver."
"Hm. Let's talk money," Kanogg said, waving her additional arms at Mr. Killian and indicating for him to take a seat by her side. The brain-tekkie did so, and when he sat down his back was unnaturally straight.
Betelgeuse cast a sidelong glance at Mr. Killian's glimmering gemstone eyeballs and wondered if he was one of those 'machine-freaks' that went so far as to screw with their own brains.
"He's prepared an itemized list?" Betelgeuse asked.
"Yes," Kanogg confirmed. She lowered one of her additional arms which had been equipped with a wrist-transceiver and scrutinized the transceiver screen. "As you said, there's twenty-eight in total. Four Hollows, five White grades and nineteen Ash.
"For the Hollows, three of them have one Etching each. The last has two etchings, but it's bloam-corrupted, so I'll have to excise the problematic portion. This means I'll pay for three Hollows, each with one Etching, and one Hollow with no Etching.
"For the Whites, all have one Etching. One of them relates to penis-enlargement, and I don't intend on growing one. Been there, done that—too damn distracting. I'll pay for four Whites with one Etching each, and one White without any Etching.
"As for the Ash, there are two without any Etching, sixteen with one Etching, and two with two Etchings. I'll take them as they are."
As she went down the list, Kanogg vocalized what she would be paying for with unflagging precision.
"I don't read Aluaan so I'll have to take your word for it," Betelgeuse nodded almost immediately, so quickly that Kanogg's head jerked a little. He wasn't going to quibble about things he couldn't confirm. He'd already taken a cursory look through all the Incunabula and concluded that the numbers of Etchings matched Kanogg's tally.
"How about the two intermediate qualitys?" he went on to ask.
"Both of them are Hollows," Kanogg said, clasping both pairs of hands before her. "Both of the Intermediate quality ones only have one Etching each.
"Sure," Betelgeuse grinned, showing teeth.
In business, a relationship of trust had to be established. The last time Betelgeuse had met Kanogg, they started off by almost killing each other—at the time, Betelgeuse was fine with pushing the envelope merely because he considered it a one-time-off transaction.
Now that the decision had been made to leave Saltilla—to effectively become a fugitive—he had a vested interest in preserving the relationship with Kanogg. In fact, Betelgeuse' greatest chance at improving his position lay with Kanogg.
Kanogg was possibly his ticket to freedom.
Betelgeuse tapped on his transceiver screen, scrolling through the list of INC Marketplace markets, noting that the prices had increased an incredible amount since the last time he had dealt with Kanogg.
It was obviously an effect of the General Strike roiling Saltilla.
Betelgeuse picked out the relevant information with a practised eye, and realized immediately that the market prices were becoming almost nonsensical. He didn't know if it was because of liquidity issues or if some Protectorate black-market baron was bidding up everything.
uWGS.1 ['unverified White Incunabulum (Good-quality, single previous owner, 1 Etching)'] - 29383.92 CHIT
uWGS.0 ['unverified White Incunabulum (Good-quality, single previous owner, no Etching)'] - 24042.42 CHIT
uHGS.1 ['unverified Hollow Incunabulum (Good-quality, single previous owner, 1 Etching)'] - 22291.01 CHIT
uHGS.0 ['unverified Hollow Incunabulum (Good-quality, single previous owner, no Etching)'] - 18907.67 CHIT
uHIS.1 ['unverified Hollow Incunabulum (Intermediate-quality, single previous owner, 1 Etching)'] - 14328.22 CHIT
uAGS.2 ['unverified Ash Incunabulum (Good-quality, single previous owner, 2 Etchings)'] - 13992.85 CHIT
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
uAGS.1 ['unverified Ash Incunabulum (Good-quality, single previous owner, 1 Etchings)'] - 10701.29 CHIT
uAGS.0 ['unverified Ash Incunabulum (Good-quality, single previous owner, 0 Etchings)'] - 8299.65 CHIT
Doing a rough tally with his transceiver-calculator, Betelgeuse' eyes widened to realize that the full amount was about 499,366.12 CHIT, which converted to about 71,338.02 Credits. Obviously, the amounts would have been far higher if he had managed to secure a price on the verified markets.
But an agreement was an agreement.
At a 10% discount, Betelgeuse would be getting 449,429.51 CHIT, which converted to about 64,204.22 Credits.
Almost 13x my father's monthly salary. No biggie.
And that was on Earth. If I recall what Douglas said, doesn't it cost only 4000 CHIT to purchase a two-bedroom apartment in the Talonne?
It was an incredible amount of money to Betelgeuse. But he considered that there was more that he could do to push it, to maneuver himself in preparation for the coming difficulties.
"I'm willing to give you a further discount. Another 10%," Betelgeuse said, raising his eyes.
"...You… are?" Kanogg couldn't help asking. Her eyes may have been hidden behind her black mask, but her hands, her original hands, trembled imperceptibly. Betelgeuse had managed to get under her skin.
This would be the best way to get her to open up, Betelgeuse intuited. According to his calculations, he would stand to lose about 7k Credits, but open an avenue to further discussion.
"Let's call it 400k CHIT," Betelgeuse said, doing some mental conversions and finding that it amounted to about 57k Credits. "How about it?"
Kanogg blinked.
"But… why?" she asked, genuinely curious at what could get the wily Beteugeuse to offer a discount. She remembered how he had been during their first transaction. He literally held onto her physically so as to forcibly prevent her from absconding.
"I'll say it straight. You have plans to leave, I have plans to leave. I think we could stand to work together in closer proximity," Betelgeuse said simply.
Some seconds of awkward silence interspersed. The brain-tekkie looked absolutely unperturbed.
"You're dangling a carrot. I want to know what you want to know before we deal," Kanogg said drily. She was unwilling to keep everything so vague.
"Not so much what I want to know as how we can work together to get out of Saltilla," Betelgeuse said, leaning forward even further and cutting out anything that might be construed as bullshit. "The whole place is going down, you know that. But you'll need resources and a fighting force. We have a Primary who can generate water. We have a disciplined fighting force. What say you?"
It was a bold gambit. Her additional arms were contorting into strange shapes. If Betelgeuse didn't know better, he'd have thought Kanogg was Bloaming.
"You and your band of renegades will join us?" Kanogg asked. Her deep voice was modulating higher.
"There are other things, of course... I want Mr. Killian to help me with a graft and a prosthetic replacement for one of my guys," Betelgeuse said, "but it's a dangerous world, I think you could stand to use our help."
The brain-tekkie turned his facemask-covered lineaments and locust eyes to regard Betelgeuse.
"I have my own enemies. You'd be going up against Gimmarash gangsters. Not to mention the Union," Kanogg said.
"I'm used to fighting," Betelgeuse returned, maintaining the smile upon his face.
Kanogg lowered her additional arm; then, thinking better of it, she proffered her original right hand. Betelgeuse took it and locked down the firm handshake.
"Pleasure doing business," Betelgeuse laughed. "Now, there's the question of how I can secure my money…"
A couple of hours later, Betelgeuse descended the steps to see the Jegorichians splayed out across the lobby on the ground floor, some of them sleeping, some of them engaged in some kind of yoga-like movements.
Caution had gone to the wind.
Still, he couldn't quite find it in himself to care. So much had seemed lost and aimless before. Now, he knew the way forward.
"So what was it you had to spend so long discussing with her, anyway?" Thete asked, her prosthetic eye juddering in its socket as it tracked Betelgeuse' trajectory towards her.
The PLPs—Thete, Douglas and Voke—were gathered to one side of the room, sitting on the couch beside a large and snoring Entuban. Tenzhian and Aisya were there as well, leaning against the adjacent wall.
"It's a 'her', right? You called her a 'her'. Though she's very mannish." Douglas said, his mouth full of biscuits dredged up from some strange tin he found. The tin had been lying beside one of the tables leaning against the staircase.
"She gives me a bad vibe," Voke said, his expression sullen. Betelgeuse wondered if he was remembering what had happened the last time they were here. Maybe he was thinking about the serving girl Betelgeuse had compelled.
"I have a way out," Betelgeuse said, cutting through the banter and looking emphatically at Tenzhian.
Betelgeuse' expression had completely transformed from the mask of moroseness it had been just several hours before. Now there was a kind of infectious optimism to him that Tenzhian found exceedingly strange and a little incongruent.
"What… well, you'd permit me to ask how, at least?" Tenzhian sounded, narrowing his eyes and leaning forward with his elbows placed upon his knees.
"We're with Chief Kanogg. Or she's with us. The Lotuszhink is what they call themselves," Betelgeuse said. "You see, she wants out of Saltilla, just like the rest of us. She'll provide the transport and the route, we provide the muscle, protection… and the water you're able to generate."
"Betelgeuse!" Aisya remarked, jutting her chin out at him. "You mean to say that you used my brother's—"
"Good," Tenzhian said, interrupting Aisya but putting his hand upon her shoulder to head off any brusqueness that might have been communicated. His eyes reflected the brightness in Betelgeuse' eyes, and for the moment he allowed himself to hope.
It had been a long time since he hoped. Maybe it had been the correct decision to give command to Betelgeuse.
Betelgeuse nodded at Tenzhian's acknowledgement.
"There's some preparation that still needs to be done. Kanogg needs our help but—"
Betelgeuse turned to regard the rest of the Jegorichians who appeared to be in various states of languor, then returned his gaze to Tenzhian.
"I've a good feeling about this. Oh, and Douglas," he added, turning to his most loyal follower, "I've gotten you a prosthetic arm. Later on, Mr. Killian will call for you."
"What!?" Douglas remarked, jumping to his feet and waving his arm stump emphatically. "Shit, how much did it cost?"
"Four thousand CHIT for the industrial-grade prosthetic, repurposed from an actual Caturdhara Contractor. Deca-phalanged. Superlonglasting battery. One of the higher-grade ones. You better like it, or else," Betelgeuse said, the tips of his lips curling upward in the hint of a smile.
"God!" Douglas remarked, his eyes wobbling strabismically within their sockets. Some of the other Jegorichians were looking over at the PLP with some measure of curiosity, and even Entuban had been roused from his sleep with a muffled "Wha? What—?"
And, to the side, Voke glanced at Douglas with surprise on his face. Was this really the Douglas that always made snide remarks every time someone made a reference to the Almighty?
Douglas! Calling out to God! Who woulda thunk!
The time was set. The Lotuszhink would leave by mid-week. Until then, they would have to gather supplies, plan and recuperate what needed to be recuperated.
Kanogg had already outfitted a convoy of illegally modded holo-vehicles. Their plan of escape was far from elaborate.
In fact, it was quite a bit simpler than what Betelgeuse had expected: blast a hole out of the side of Saltilla and fly off in the direction of Jegorich, where Kanogg already had people waiting to receive them.
Kanogg knew where the wall was thinnest, and she'd already begun preparing the explosives. Tenzhian's ability to generate Nitroglycerin only accelerated the Lotuszhink's plans.
The Jegorichians themselves were permitted by Kanogg to take up in the Lotuszhink headquarters, and anyway it was only going to be a temporary arrangement.
As for Betelgeuse, there were still several things he needed to do. Most importantly, he'd decided to graft the White Incunabulum onto his Brain Meridian.
Luckily, a brain-tekkie just so happened to be on hand.