Read Online Merkiaari Wars: 01 - Hard Duty by Mark E. Cooper - Free Book Online Page A

ruin it. I swear I will give you the twenty five thousand. On my honour. You know my word is good.”
    Kanarion nodded reluctantly.
    “I know you think me a fool for keeping to the old ways, but remember this: keeping my word is not the only tradition I uphold. Vendetta is another. I swear if you speak a word of this, my sister will be a widow the next day. Do you understand?”
    Eric blinked. Zhang didn’t sound angry or upset. His heartbeat and other stats were unchanged, but Eric believed every word he’d said. Going by expression, Kanarion did as well. The suddenly scared man nodded jerkily.
    “Good,” Zhang said and turned back to Eric. “Satisfied?”
    Eric counted out twenty-five platinum wafers as his answer and slid them toward Kanarion. The greedy man’s hand darted out and made them disappear, his eyes glowing with excitement.
    “Good bye, Kanarion. We won’t meet again... we better not,” Eric said evenly.
    Kanarion stood and walked quickly away. Eric kept him tagged on sensors but left it to his processor to alert him should the man change his mind and return or do something else interesting. Meanwhile, Zhang had to be dealt with. He slid the remaining wafers of platinum to Zhang and the man pocketed them without counting them.
    “I don’t envy you,” Eric said mildly.
    Zhang grimaced. “My sister loves him and I love my sister. It would hurt her should I have to make good on my threat, but sometimes I think a little accident and a quick funeral for him would be better for her in the long run.”
    “Kids?”
    Zhang shuddered. “No thank god, but she wants them. I must decide soon.”
    Eric pursed his lips, but then he nodded. This so-called businessman would be called something else on other worlds he had visited. Something a little more sinister. Crime boss sounded a little old fashioned and the image it conjured was a cliché, but that’s what Eric was getting from Zhang’s demeanour and conversation with his brother-in-law. Eric remembered thinking about Thurston’s future when he first arrived, and how the station stood guard against crime, but it was obviously already here dirtside. And that was a problem of another sort. Why hadn’t his searches found Zhang’s shadier dealings? His digging still hadn’t found anything of the sort.
    Computer: Narrow search to Yi Zhang’s immediate family. Include financials. Query: Is there any evidence of Freedom Movement affiliation and/or sympathies?
    >_ Working
    Eric decided to probe a little while his processor deepened its search into Zhang’s family.
    “You said he did the right thing by getting you involved. Why?”
    “Because I can do what he cannot. You are not the first mercenary I have hired on behalf of my... of friends,” Zhang said.
    Eric’s eyes narrowed, he had been going to say something else. Family maybe?
    “In my line of work, I have needed such before,” Zhang continued. “My... friends heard that about me and when they found a similar need they came to me for advice.”
    “I see,” Eric said and did see quite well. His processor had finally found the missing data he had needed to get a handle on Zhang.
    Yi Zhang’s company was family owned and run as Eric had expected, and although it must be a front for some criminal activities as well, it really did produce machine tools for the mines. It was a legitimate company, but one family member had not stuck around despite that. His brother, Hu Zhang and severed all ties and changed his name in an apparent effort to disavow its less than legal activities. A noble goal, but that was why a preliminary search had failed to find any links to Zhang. Hu Zhang, was now Daniel King, a politician opposed to President Thurston’s policies. Eric realised immediately why Hu chose the name King. It was just a Romanised version of his real name, but his processor hadn’t made the connection on its first pass. Yet another reason to regret the loss of real A.I computer architecture. An A.I