“After I tag it,” she said. “I’ll put microtic xceivers in the scabbard and inside the hilt plate there.”
“Bolster,” I said.
“If that’s what you want to call the hilt plate, I won’t argue with you.” She smiled.
“Fair enough,” I said.
“To sweeten the deal I had this belt cut and beaded across town, and it goes with the case I ordered.” She laid that out again. Yes, it was amazing.
“Package listing?” I asked.
“No, separate, and a few hours apart, at three different houses in this area. The idea is to confirm he has at least one of the three.”
“Makes sense. Do you have dealers set up?”
“I do, all on commission. As a minor benefit, we should get better than half our investment back, perhaps more. We also hope to get it from him.”
“I see nothing wrong with that.”
She seemed a bit distant. I could guess why. Covert covers are always messy, or at least, have always been so for me.
We had a two-week hiatus before ships arrived. There were few regular routes, this being a destitute backwater. There were sporadic charters and tramps with cargo, such as we’d arrived on. There were UN-sponsored relief ships, and some contract haulers for industrial stuff. If we could pin Randall down a little, there was a good chance we could intercept him as he left. I had no moral issues killing him in public in front of a crowd. Well, one. My daughter. Still, if it came down to it, she was old enough to manage on her own and Naumann would ensure she had a guardian for whatever time she needed before she declared herself an adult. Then she’d have all the assets I’d acquired. It was also very likely he’d have me sprung before I actually got to arraignment. I could trust him that much.
I found a discreet agency that catered to businesses that needed flexible transport schedules. For a mildly extortionate amount of money, I bought into a pool of departure slots they kept open. There were fees for each rollover, and occasional expensive hits if no one in the pool used any of the slots, and I figure those slots were all actuarial, based on statistical planning of how many people would leave at once. A serious disaster would prong the dog, but that would be trouble for everyone.
I assumed this pool consisted of smugglers, military recon, diplomatic protection, lobbyists wanting deniability, business shills trying to keep ahead of the competition, and at least one assassin. The group would probably make for a great bar crawl. Hell, Randall might be the assassin. There was no way to check, though.
Someone bought our devices, all three of them, in close timing. It did make sense. They fitted each other nicely enough to make a set, and it’s not unknown for sellers to break sets up to generate more income piecemeal. We’d have to track them periodically to determine movement.
We had three bags ready for departure. One each personal bag, brandname but low-end, worn and discreet, with clothes, one ID, phones. One full of deniable stuff we’d have to dispose of in a hurry, rigged accordingly. If they actually searched our phones we were in trouble, but we had to have data and tools. We each had a pouch with carefully camouflaged and concealed lock coders, sensors and extra currency and bullion. A detailed search would make it clear we were criminals or spies. However, the mass of stuff was small enough to not spook most border agents, who generally looked for smugglers and known criminals. Truthfully, they were more concerned about deadbeats moving into the system, and wanted to check your accommodation reservations. Only actual intel agents would care about the stuff we had. Except for the one stunner I’d broken down and packed.
I sent a coded message to the embassy via a throwaway pocket unit, into a library and then through. It invoked a clearance, told them I needed a worm into the Earth nets to draw data, and a code I could use to pull said information. The code would be left on a node with nothing to ID what it was for, buried in an inane post. This message went straight to the intel branch, not through any diplomatic staff, so I had a reasonable expectation that would be accomplished and ready wherever I went.
We were busy as hell, tracking what data we could, trying to determine if he might go offplanet or pick another target, and who might have bankrolled the hit. We didn’t get much. He didn’t seem to communicate directly with employers, though he had at least once. I also had to drive around and look busy for my neighbors’ benefit.
I wanted to interrogate people from the major factions who might have leads, but it would take time to develop a source, and I could not attach myself to anyone at the embassy, nor at this juncture, the Caledonians. It would point right at me. I had to infer everything from secondary data.