“Why would I negotiate with an android?”
“I’m not an android and you’re not negotiating with me. You’re negotiating with the feds. I am merely their proxy. Your organization is too heavily guarded. If the feds made a push to take you down, it would be inconvenient for Pilo and the feds. So, my employers have asked that I come to you and offer terms.”
“They couldn’t send me a message? They had to send you?”
Betta took a step toward the bar. A claw was on her shoulder and the sound of pulse rifles charging filled the room. The blue glitter of cybernetic skull caps briefly flashed at all corners of the bar. They were gone just as quickly.
“I just want to try a Cosmo,” Betta muttered. “Don’t you have anyone on staff? What about Marco? He normally works this shift, right?”
“How do you —” Jalys shook her whole body in a shiver. “Call Marcus down. We will sit at the bar,” Jalys directed her command to the company of nearly a dozen Lyten in full armor. Betta could now see them out of the corner of her eyes.
She skipped to the bar and hopped up on one of the tall stools. She wished she was as tall as the Lyten. It was a little daunting to watch Jalys merely straddle a stool and sit quietly. She wore an aquamarine dress that hugged her curves as she sat. Betta marveled at how so much bear and fur could fit such an outfit and still make it look good.
“Are you old enough to have a Cosmo, little Human?” Jalys asked.
Betta laughed. “I’m 26 cycles this week. I’m plenty old enough for a Cosmo.”
Jalys leaned forward. “You laugh and you sit comfortably in my establishment after insulting me. You’re not an idiot, and you came with plenty of protection, so I can only surmise that you’ve been brainwashed by the feds.”
“More like their indentured servant until I can pay off a debt.”
“Oh?” Jalys inclined her head to the even taller, though lankier, black bear in a tux that appeared on the other side of the bar.
“Madam Jalys.” His voice trembled as he bowed. “How may I be of assistance?”
“Marco, my dear. This… Human female has requested you make her a Cosmo. Do you know it?”
Marco’s eyes widened, revealing thin white at the edge of brown pupils. “That’s an Old Earth drink. I know it. Would you like one as well, Madam?”
Jalys considered and then nodded.
Marco turned his back to them and began pulling bottles.
Betta’s heart fluttered in anticipation. She didn’t miss the way Jalys studied her.
“You’re their prisoner, their slave,” Jalys admonished. “All this time we feared a little girl with a talent for numbers.”
“I’m not a little girl.” Betta tried keep her voice low, but it came out high and sharp.
Jalys laughed this time. A low snorting, guttural sound that came from her chest.
The pink liquid was set before Betta in a fountain glass. It was just the way she imagined it. She lowered her face to suck in the sweet scent through her nostrils. She was surprised to find that it didn’t smell of flowers, rather it smelled unnatural, artificial, not pink and delicious.
“Before we drink.” Jalys placed a paw on Betta’s hand. “Let us get things straight. You realize that you are the trade, my dear?”
Betta looked longingly at the drink and back at Jalys. “I understand how you would make that assumption. This is the first time I’ve been revealed. A lot of people are looking for me on the darkNet. So, in that respect, you are correct. Consider it a show of faith.
“Over the last decade, we’ve tracked down most of the independent black-market activities on Arys-27. This gave your organization a larger hold on both those commodities and interests. Pilo and the feds feel it is time that you give back.”
“They want a bribe to look the other way?”
“Nothing so crude. They want to legitimize your trade and request you halt any illegal activity.”
Another laugh from Jalys. “Why would we ever agree to that? You said it yourself, it would be inconvenient for Pilo or the feds to stop us.”
Betta did not laugh, nor did she turn her gaze away from Jalys. “Inconvenient, but not impossible.”
Jalys downed the glass of pink liquid in one gulp and Betta felt a pang of envy.
“Is that all you have to say, little Human? Is there more the feds want you to say?”
Reaching for the drink, Betta brought it close to her lips, then set it down as the smell turned her stomach. She really wanted a sip, but the scent warned her that it wouldn’t stay inside for long. Even so, she wanted to experience the Cosmo, and this female bear was starting to worry her. Her training said to stay on the path, but something else, something stronger was warning her that it might be time to back out of The Tabor while it was still safe.
Ignoring her instincts, Betta ploughed ahead. “There are 27 crates on the hauler. The feds are ready to take possession of them. They are supposed to be headed to Alpha, right? I was just telling Bor how much I love Alpha. The people, the vids, the music, the fashion! But I don’t know that anyone really likes the genetic experimentation or the trafficking of non-federation sentient creatures.”
“’Non-federation sentient creatures.’ You sound like one of their advertisements. Listen, Betta Reganta — daughter of George Reganta, smuggled in an Android stasis pod when she was just five years old – listen very carefully. The feds will not touch those crates, and if they try, there will be a ten percent reduction in their force, and George Reganta dies.”
Betta didn’t hesitate though she felt fear for the first time. Someone had to be speaking in Jalys’s ear just like the feds were chattering in her own. She said, steadying her voice as she went, “And if my father dies, you and I die together.”
“Enough. Enough,” Jalys said. “You’re just their puppet. I mean for them to hear me. Betta, if your father dies, it will be the fault of the feds. We are done here!”
Betta reached for the Cosmo. A clawed hand pulled her away before she could put it to her lips. Grasping the glass in her hands, she raised it as they moved. Before the sweet liquid could pass her lips, her ears buzzed and the glass fell to the ground and shattered.
“Team 81-B has moved in to acquire.”
There were several federal agents in the room now, their skull caps deep black to match their eyes, which changed when in combat mode. Each of them had rifles out, bearing down on the armored bears in the room.
Jalys waved a single claw, her eyes meeting Betta’s. “Today,” she said sadly, “you are free, Betta Reganta.”
Every agent in the room dropped to the floor unmoving. The buzz in her ear became a squelch that became an unnerving silence.
“What did you do?” Betta asked, her voice came out as a squeak.
“I executed a failsafe I had hoped I would never have to use. They forced my hand. I’m sorry for your loss.” Jalys said.
“What do you mean?” Betta knew what she meant. There was a little sliver of hope in her mind that begged it wasn’t what she thought. “What else did you do?”
“Just like you, I report to someone, and that someone makes these types of decisions. I warned you.”
Betta felt the strength give out in her legs for the second time in her life and she dropped to her knees. This time the feel of biting glass brought her mind back to the present. “You killed them all. You killed them. My dad?”
A claw was on her shoulder, holding her down before she even thought to rise. Reaching down, Betta grabbed a piece of broken glass and lunged for Jalys. Bor caught her movement easily, the light snap of her wrist breaking was the only warning she had before the pain came. Bor secured her in a tight hug against his armor.