If You Sing These Words, We'll Never Die
Title: If You Sing These Words, We’ll Never Die
Author: rivlee
Rating: PG
Summary: Frank Perconte’s typical life as a space thief is about to take a turn for the different. Written for uniformly as part of camp_toccoa's Fic For Victory 2012.
Characters/Pairing: Perconte, O’Keefe, Luz, Malarkey and various others. Cameos from some of The Pacific and Generation Kill boys. Gen.
Disclaimer: No profit is made, harm or offense is attended. Title from My Chemical Romance’s Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back.
Author’s Notes: Nat, I know you really wanted the Star Wars prompt but since I’ve never watched the movies, I’ve given you Space!AU instead. Thanks to skylilies for spending hours listening to me freak out over this and for reading over the first part when I was losing my mind.
Frank Perconte was a man who knew how to acquire things. Intel, credits, weapons, pass pills, artifacts, forged ship manifests, airspace clearance, even a ship decent enough to stay in the air. He wasn’t a legend yet, not like Vest, the fence and fixer who was at the top of the Corporation’s watch list. The Corporation owned the world, but Perco and his co-workers were fighting to take it back.
He wasn’t a legend, but Perco had made a name for himself among his fellow space smugglers and criminals. Theirs was an underground that spanned the galaxy and they protected their own, even if it meant going to the darkest edges of the boundary border planets.
Patrick O’Keefe was a newbie to their world. Fresh out of the capitol at Ivy City, his family fell on hard times when his dad refused to take the fall for some Councilman’s fuck up with the Corporation’s budget. It was a hell of a transition to make, going from the sleekness and modernization of Ivy City to the backwater wasteland that was Serafina, Satellite 101, but O’Keefe still held on to that fresh blush of innocence, naiveté, and adventure.
Perco just couldn’t help but see an untried young kid who should not be here. Their way of life wasn’t easy. He’d lost count of how many kids had stumbled through their door, brought into the fold by Roe and Spina who helped smuggle them out of god-knows-where through the medical transport. Overturn was high, and it usually wasn’t an early retirement that caused it. Perco couldn’t help but be protective of O’Keefe. The kid reminded him of the world outside, what it was like before the Corporation decided to try and burn all the satellite and border planets out.
Revolution was always a hair-trigger from breaking out here and boys like O’Keefe? They’d be the first to die. Hell, half the people in their complex thought he was some high level spy. As if O’Keefe was even capable of lying.
“I’m going to get him killed,” he said.
“Probably,” Jay De L’Eau agreed.
Jay was much like O’Keefe, in the sense that he came from one of Ivy City’s richest families to ever downfall. He was highly educated and too damn smart for his own sense or good. Over the years he’d grown to be the very best at his job, rising to a journeyman in their ranks of thieves, con men, and spies. Perco was hoping that he’d take the offer and train O’Keefe to be just as resourceful, without all the ruthlessness. Jay had learned to shoot with little to no hesitation, growing out of a distaste for weapons and violence thanks to sheer necessity.
“You going to do this for me?” Perco asked.
Jay shrugged, his oversized jacket gaping at the back with his movements. “I know why you came to me and not J.P. You think I’ll see myself in the kid and try to make it easier for him.” He leaned forward, gesturing with one gloved hand. “I can’t do that for you Perco. No one used the kid gloves on me and that’s the only reason I’m still alive. This isn’t a game and your new boy? He needs to know that we’re talking about real risks and consequences in the most fatal sense of the words.”
“He’s got to learn to crawl before he can fly, Jay.”
He nodded in agreement. “Then you’ve got to take him to the Tripartite.”
Perco flinched. He’d been hoping to avoid that, but it looked like there was no choice.
“I better go wake the kid up.”
“Take Luz with you,” Jay offered. “He always manages to smooth things over.”
It was a good idea; one Perco would’ve stumbled across if he even had a half a brain right now.
“Thanks, Jay.”
Jay just smiled and waved his hand, setting off the door sensor. Perco got the point and slid through the disarmed beams.
*****************************
“Who are we seeing?” O’Keefe asked, leaning over the pilot seat.
“The Tripartite,” Luz said. “Jesus, Perco, does this kid know anything?”
Perco rolled his eyes and waited for the dock master to hail them. Traveling to Satellite 506 was a treat. There was no need to lie, forge, or steal clearance space. Johnny Martin always kept a docking port open for them.
The cabin filled with a beeping sound as they were finally hailed.
“Perco, is that your tiny, shot-up ass trying to get into my airspace?” Johnny asked.
Luz laughed out loud while Perco just shook his head and smiled. “How the hell are ya, Martin? I need to go see the Tripartite. You got some room in the inn?”
“Depends on what you brought me,”
“I’ve got Luz with me.”
“Hey, no selling my ass for a parking spot,” Luz said. “Christ, Johnny, we got a new meat with us. The kid’s probably going to piss his pants if you don’t let us land.”
“You think I take orders from you, George Luz.”
Luz smirked. “Depends on the order, doesn’t it?”
It was Johnny’s turn to laugh. “Oh, hell, Luz, what would this world do without you? Okay, you boys can land. We got some room at K-5. Try not to scrape the vault walls.”
“If Luz keeps his hands to himself this time,” Perco grumbled.
Luz held his hands up. “There was a bug.”
“On my lap?”
Luz solemnly nodded. “I swear to God, it was right there.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, Luz,” Johnny said. “We all know you can’t keep your hands to yourself.”
O’Keefe made a strangled noise behind them, something between laughter and despair.
“You got a cat on there?” Johnny asked.
“Just the new kid wondering what he stumbled into a bit too late. See you later, Johnny-Boy.” Luz hit the button and cut off the communication. “I love that tiny man.”
Perco snorted. “He’s barely smaller than you and he will kick your ass.”
“But I’m loveable. Everybody loves me, Winters said so.”
“Winters is one career move away from being a preacher man. He doesn’t count.”
“Who’s Winters?” O’Keefe asked.
“A man you will never meet unless it’s time to say hi to your maker,” Perco said as he landed the transport. “He’s a high level contact working for the Corporation’s biggest money rival, Nixon Network.”
“Isn’t that whole company declared illegal?” O’Keefe asked.
Luz laughed. “Yeah, but they won’t do shit. Lew Nixon knows too much and every time they attempt to shuffle him loose the mortal coil, he ends up inspiring revolutions. Nixon Network supplies damn near everything for the rebels. He can’t give an official sponsorship or protection, but he can drop names and intel. Hell, we owe this ship to him.”
“You’ve got years before you meet Winters or Nixon,” Perco said. He unbuckled the straps on his chair and stood up. He grabbed O’Keefe’s arms and dragged him behind Luz, walking to the exit doors. “They only deal with people like Vest and Speirs, the high-levels.”
“And Luz,” O’Keefe said, clearly starting to figure out the way of the world.
“Eh, what can I say, I get around.” Luz hit the panel to initiate their exit. “Come on boys, stand in the invisible box.”
“What?”
Perco pushed O’Keefe next to Luz. “Security system. Luz bought it off The Vera’s crew. I still think it’s a shitty practical joke.”
Luz waved his hand. The lights on the ship flashed and the screeching started.
“Run,” he said.
O’Keefe ran after Luz, hands over his ears and managed to slide through the doors right as they started close. Perco, the smallest of the bunch took his time to slip out. There were few advantages to his stature, but not worrying about getting killed in the exit doors was high on the list of pros.
“You paid for that?” O’Keefe asked once they made it through the lock. He looked like he needed a stiff drink and a new pair of shorts.
Luz shrugged. “It’s effective.”
O’Keefe went quiet as they walked through the city streets. It always took a minute to adjust to planets with natural atmospheres. It wasn’t like the other satellites where everything, including the sunlight, was regulated and controlled; 506 was a satellite planet, one of the few that took to the terraforming project. The only shitty part of it was the climate. There was no such thing as a balmy summer breeze on 506, it was usually winter.
“So, is the Tripartite a group, a building, or an institution?” O’Keefe asked. His lips trembled in the cold, his pale skin flushing red thanks to the icy wind.
“All three,” Luz said. He looked perfectly at home, like always. It’s what he did, slotting in anywhere and acting like he owned the place.
“They run everything,” Perco said. “Nothing happens without Skip, Penk, and Malarkey’s knowledge or say-so. They’re the go-betweens. Skip’s the face; he deals with the legalese and the politicians. Greases the wheel so to speak. Think of him as the respectable one. Penk, he keeps everything in order. He’s the man who gives Vest his jobs and his reputation. Penk’s more the silent type.”
“And Malarkey?”
“Malarkey and his boys handle the more,” Luz paused in his explanation. “There’s not a nice way to say this, kid. Malarkey and his boys are the clean-up crew. They take the fatal and final actions.”
“They’re assassins,” O’Keefe said. He stopped walking. “You kill people.”
“We don’t, usually,” Perco said.
“It’s a living,” Luz said. “Someone has to do it. The Corporation’s got their people, and we’ve got ours. Malarkey and his boys, they just even the playing field. You ain’t in Kansas anymore, O’Keefe. Once you start this, there’s no clicking your heels and wishing for home.”
O’Keefe’s brow wrinkled at the reference. Perco tried not to roll his eyes. Luz considered himself a connoisseur of the Old World, spending all his free credits traveling the ‘verse for art festivals and shit.
“Ignore him,” Perco said. “He got lost in one of the archives as a toddler and thinks he learned everything by osmosis. Apparently it makes him hot shit to drop references older than the foundations of the Corporation.”
“You just don’t appreciate culture,” Luz argued.
Perco rolled his eyes and decided it was better not to answer. O’Keefe already looked one more argument away from pissing his pants.
Luz acted like a tour guide for O’Keefe as they walked through the city, getting closer and closer to the Aldbourne District. The streets started to get narrower, the buildings smaller, with the rising smell of mold and damp as they approached the Tripartite’s seat. Luz looked backed at him in concern when O’Keefe pulled his arms tighter across his chest and tried to make himself as small as possible.
“Christ, kid,” Luz said, “you better loosen up. These are your new co-workers and you’re making a hell of a first impression here. Stop acting like someone’s about to rob you. No one’s going to think you’re a narc if you’ve got Perco and me with you. They might think we’re trying to sell your virtue for some credits, but other than that no worries.”
O’Keefe didn’t look reassured at all. Especially not when Luz slapped him on the back.
“We’re here,” Perco said.
O’Keefe looked at the depilated building, with its cracked windows and rotting door, in confusion.
“Isn’t it a little obvious as a place of illegal transactions,” he said.
“Not in this part of town. Most of these places hold the headquarters for some of the most important business this side of the boundary. Looks are deceiving and all that,” Luz said.
Perco nodded in agreement before preparing himself for the first of many security measures. He touched his hand to the broken metal panel next to the door and tried not to flinch at the warm burn of the scanner.
He stood back as the door slid upwards, revealing the elevator to the next entrance.
“That was door number one, time for what’s behind number two,” Luz said.
Perco laughed and held out a finger for the needle and blood sample.
“So, fingerprints, blood, what’s next?” O’Keefe asked.
Perco waited to answer until they stepped inside the elevator. The doors closed and the cabin pressurized, before the eye scan came followed by the voice recognition prompt.
Luz smirked at O’Keefe’s gaping face when the doors slide open to reveal a receptionist desk and a row of seats.
“All of that just to get to a waiting room?” he asked.
“We take our security seriously here, Mr. O’Keefe,” Kitty Grogan said.
Kitty might’ve looked like your average office manager, but Perco knew she had at least four weapons at the ready, not counting the rigged explosives set throughout the room.
“They ready to see us, Kits?” Luz asked.
“I need to take your new toy through the gauntlet first,” she said. She pushed back from her desk walking with the practiced pace of the trained solider.
Kitty was barely over five feet tall but she was intimidating as hell. Perco could feel his back straighten as if she was calling them to attention. Luz did the same while O’Keefe kept looking between her and them. Perco wanted to give him some support, but Kitty was basically the first test.
“Come with me,” she ordered.
O’Keefe blanched but he followed her command, hurrying into the side room she pointed at. Kitty never let anyone walk behind her, a survival tactic after a bounty hunter tried to sell her to the Corporation.
“Good luck, kid,” Luz yelled before the door slid shut.
“Fuck,” Perco muttered, his heart finally starting to slow down.
“How the hell does Kitty do that?” Luz asked.
Perco just shook his head and collapsed into one of the seats. If O’Keefe could get past Kitty’s inspection without actually breaking down, he might just survive.
************************
O’Keefe was quiet after Kitty brought him back. He looked a little worse for wear but not permanently scarred. Perco patted him on the back.
“Kitty’s uh, she’s a survivor of hell. The penal colony two moons over? She grew up on it. Comes from a long line of thieves, grifters, and fighters.”
“You could’ve mentioned that,” O’Keefe muttered.
“There’s no warning for her,” Luz said. He put down the tablet he’d swiped off Kitty’s desk. “She’s the watchdog for a reason. First tiny badass line of defense.”
“You have to go through this every single time?”
“If we’re coming here, yeah. This is HQ, ground zero. This building has more people, intel, clandestine arrangements, and training grounds hidden in its cracks than some planets,” Perco explained.
“Don’t tell the new boy all the secrets yet,” Kitty said. She walked over to one of the hidden touch screens, disguised as a fish tank, and typed in a code.
Perco and Luz both grabbed on to O’Keefe as the room started to move.
“What the fuck?” O’Keefe asked, scrambling to stay upright.
“You’re going to see the Tripartite,” Kitty said. “We’ve got to go up to the entrance level.”
“Why does it feel like we’re going down?”
“Eh, some shit the engineers designed. It fucks with your brain. I don’t do the mechanical science technobabble,” Luz explained. He righted himself as they came to a stop, smoothing down his jacket and hair.
O’Keefe still held on to Perco’s arm. “Where the hell have you taken me,” he whispered.
Perco tried hard not to laugh. The experience was definitely showing O’Keefe’s less polite side.
“You’ll see,” he promised.
The lights dimmed for a moment before one side of the room slid open to reveal the long hallway to the office.
“Good luck,” Kitty said, not so subtly shoving them out of the room.
It was hard not to flinch when the reception room descended to its original position, leaving them in the dark.
“You think they could get some lights in here,” Luz said. He walked at the head of their line and pounded on the door. “Someone could get hurt.”
“I don’t think they’re worried about their liability,” Perco said.
“No one likes lawyers, Perco,” Skip Muck said in greeting. He smiled at them, disarmingly charming as always. “Hey, guys, good to see you. A little late for your appointment, but our Kitty is always thorough.”
O’Keefe didn’t say anything just shuffled his feet and found the ground interesting.
“Don’t worry, O’Keefe, she’s had a handful of all of us. You only have to be worried if she threatens to break your balls off. Come on inside, Don’s put out the nice napkins.”
Luz pecked Skip on the cheek as he passed by, calling out to Penk and Malarkey.
“Thanks for seeing us, Muck,” Perco said.
Skip waved him off. “It’s not like it’s a hardship, Perco.”
Perco nudged O’Keefe until he moved and walked into the office.
Office really wasn’t the right word to describe the floor of the building where the Tripartite spent most of their working day. It was more a large multi-purpose room, one corner holding the kitchen, the other a training floor, with monitors and screens all around, constantly tracking information.
Luz was already settled down with some of Malarkey’s crew near the training mats. Penky however, was over at one of the screens talking to the crew of The Vera.
“Christ, Chuckler, how many times do I have to tell you. Hoosier cannot have a dog on that ship,” Penk said.
“But, come on, Penky. He makes Hoosier happy.”
“He also raises red flags we don’t need in terms of contamination. Look, drop it off at Serafina. I’ll find it a good home. Now, you and your boys need to get that cache off Gloucester and bring it to Liebgott. Don’t forget your friggin’ rain boots this time.”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Chuckler said before signing off.
“I’ll bet you fifty credits they’re going to get caught again,” Skip said.
“It’s not even worth a bet, since it’s a fact,” Penk said. He rubbed a hand through his hair. “Perco and the new blood here?”
“Right behind you, Alex,” Skip said.
Penky turned, his golden eyes catching in the artificial lighting streaming through the high windows. His face softened as he studied them. Penk was the best of the lot of them. He didn’t have Skip’s natural charm and daring, or Malarkey’s ability to draw everyone in with a sharp wit, but he did have an innate sense of warmth and kindness. He was too damn good for their business, but he kept all of them grounded.
“Good to have you home, Frank. You going to introduce us?” he asked.
“Patrick O’Keefe, meet Skip Muck, Alex Penkala, and over there being a miserable bastard in the corner is Don Malarkey. The Tripartite, meet O’Keefe.”
O’Keefe awkwardly waved at them. “Hi, guys.”
“Christ,” Malarkey called, “where’d you get this one, Perco? Raiding the schools now?”
“I was the one who came to Perco,” O’Keefe.
That got the room’s attention.
“I’m sorry,” Skip said, “I think I just heard crazy talk.”
“Spina and Roe offered to take me to the medical colony, but I asked to meet Perco. My sister, Gwen, she always read about the boundary planets and saw his name pop up.”
“You volunteered for this shit?” Malarkey asked. He walked over to them and got right in O’Keefe’s face. “Are you really that fucking stupid?”
Perco had said pretty much the same thing when Roe dropped O’Keefe at his doorstep. Then he’d heard about the hows and whys of him and felt like a jackass.
He stepped in between the two. “Back up, Don. The kid’s like De L’eau, if you catch my drift.”
Malarkey stared at him, eyes boring into his own looking for something. Malarkey, for all his bad singing and dirty jokes, had a hell of an intuition about people.
“Yeah, I caught it Perco. Let’s go upstairs, we need to talk.” He pointed at O’Keefe. “You stay here and follow Skip and Penk. You’ll be working for them anyway.”
O’Keefe defiantly titled his chin. “I’m not good enough for you?”
Malarkey laughed. “You’re not the murder-for-hire type, kiddo. That’s not a bad thing. Let’s just keep your gun-toting cherry unpopped for the time being. Now go play with the nice logistics men while me and Perco have a chat.”
O’Keefe knew when to shut the hell up and nodded at Malarkey’s order. He turned to Penkala, probably recognizing another quiet soul, and followed him over to one of the boards.
He couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder as Malarkey dragged him up the stairs. The crew was down there and Grant, Babe, and McClung were evil when they smelled new meat.
“Perco, pay attention,” Malarkey said as they stumbled on the stairs.
“Maybe I could if you gave me my arm back, Don.”
“I would if you stopped getting fucking distracted.” He knocked on the door to the security room.
“Come in,” a voice bid.
Malarkey opened the door and shoved him inside.
“Frank,” Skinny Sisk said with a smile. He put aside his keyboard and held out a hand. “How the hell are ya? Haven’t seen you since that incident in New Belgium.”
Perco took his hand and pulled him into a hug. “I still have blood on those trousers, you asshole.”
Skinny laughed. “I’m not sorry. You fucking dropped me.”
“Blame, Roe, he should know better than to use me as a crutch.”
Skinny shook his head. “We never blame Doc for anything. He’s magic.”
“Are you two done?” Malarkey asked.
Skinny pointed to their boss. “What the hell crawled up his ass?”
“I thought you were going to tell me.”
“I didn’t see anything on my screens,” Skinny said. He gestured to the floor-to-ceiling monitors that covered all of the Tripartite’s bases and current agents.
“Skinny, go get a coffee. In fact,” Malarkey said as he tapped one of the security screens, “go get everyone a coffee. At Smokey’s.”
Perco felt his eyes widened at that. He must’ve fucked something up bad.
“An intergalactic coffee run, Boss? Really?” Skinny asked. He’d already pulled off his headset and grabbed his bag.
“I’m craving the hazelnut blend. Go on, go. Take Babe with you, he could use the fresh air.”
Skinny gave a small salute and walked off, patting Perco on the shoulder as he passed.
“Okay, what the hell did I do?” Perco asked once the door closed.
“It’s more about what you’re going to do,” Malarkey said. He took Skinny’s seat and tapped on one of the screens, bringing up the training floor below.
“I’m sorry, did you get mutant powers while I wasn’t looking? Since when can you predict the future?”
“Since it’s really fucking obvious you’re already hung-up on that Ivy City boy down there.”
Perco didn’t like being attacked. It brought out his inner-kid, bullied for being tiny and looking different from all the other kids on his colony.
“He’s not Buck,” he said before he could even think about it.
Malarkey’s flared nostrils were the only indication of his anger. Buck Compton was one of those people no one talked about. He wasn’t quite dead to their crew, he cared for Malarkey in his own way, but he had still left the Tripartite and Nixon Networks. He’d left Don. He’d come from a charmed life and gone back to it, after a brief period of slumming with Malarkey. Buck wasn’t a bad guy, it was just hard as hell to live out here, so far removed. It wasn’t for everyone and Buck Compton was very much meant for something more civilized than the dirty, run-down border planets.
“I’m sorry, Don.”
Malarkey nodded. “I may have deserved that but it doesn’t change the truth. You’re invested in that kid, Perco. He looks and acts like a lightweight. I’ve spent less than five minutes with him and can already see he can’t do covert work.”
“The same could be said about Jay.”
“No, it couldn’t. Jay is amazingly self-aware. He knows how people expect him to act but that’s not who he is deep down. That rookie down there? He’s the greenest fucking thing I’ve seen since the last time I went to New Ireland.”
“You leading yourself up to a point somewhere here?”
“Are you going to be able to work with him?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Malarkey shook his head. “You got a thing or two to learn about value and worth. Never thought I’d see the day when it came to you Perco. Could’ve sworn you were just going to hold out for Luz.”
“You’re talking stupid, Malarkey.”
“Whatever, Perco.” He shook his head. “You’re going to learn. Guess the hard way is the only chance we’ll have to get it through your thick skull.”
***********************
Skinny’s off planet coffee run took two days and brought back a gunslinger.
“I didn’t recall telling you to pick up a sniper,” Malarkey muttered into his cold cup.
Skinny shrugged. “He followed me home. What the hell was I supposed to do?”
Shifty Powers laughed from his seat next to Skip. He was one the finest marksman in the whole ‘verse. Shifty had worked with the Corporation for a few years, knew their ins and outs, but memories of home brought him back to the fold. After he saw the plans for the coal colonies, he left in an understated blaze of glory. There was a trillion credit bounty on his head but no one was going to turn Shifty in; they’d have to catch him first and no one, besides McClung, came close to matching Shifty in a gunfight.
It was damn good to see Shifty again. He had a calming presence about him that took the tension out of everything. It was hard not to be assured about life when you had him watching your back.
“Shifty’s here to teach O’Brien how to shoot,” Malarkey said.
“O’Keefe,” Perco corrected. He was busy watching Chuck teaching O’Keefe how to fight. “Why the hell are you using Shifty?”
Shifty knew it wasn’t an insult to his skill or abilities. He shyly smiled, quietly self-assured as always. “Having only been here for an hour, I think it would be better for O’Keefe to learn with the rifle before moving to a pulse gun.”
“Really, not the other way?” Skip asked.
Shifty nodded. “He’s got a thing for observation. Even know, he’s got an ear cocked this way.” He pointed to the men on the mat. “He might not be the lying type, but you’d be a fool not to use him on covert ops to gather intel. O’Keefe looks just like the type of kids Corporation and Ivy City use to run errands. He looks out of place as hell to us, but we’ve got to think like Ivy City.”
“So, we really are making Jay all over again,” Penk said.
Perco winced at the thought. He didn’t know if Jay had ever been really innocent, there was certainly a layer of bitterness and snark around him now. He didn’t want to see that happen to O’Keefe, see him lose that wonder for the world.
“Not right to compare the boys like that,” Shifty said, ever their wise man. “Jay was groomed to to be the heir to his family, he was raised to be ruthless and calculating. Patrick there, he was truly sheltered. Parents probably never expected him to do more than work in a corner cubicle at one of the big companies. Damn near travesty to see such talent wasted, I declare.”
“Aren’t you glad I went for coffee?” Skinny asked.
Skip and Malarkey both rolled their eyes in unison but Penkala openly laughed.
Perco sighed. He didn’t know why he put up with the bastards on most days. At least they helped to pass the time in between jobs.
*******************
“Perco, wake the fuck up.”
Perco squinted as he took in the artificial light of the Tripartite’s barracks. Floyd Talbert was leaning over him, looking equal parts annoyed and panicked.
“What the hell.”
“You need to get your ass up and dressed. We got to get off planet now.”
That woke him right up. He jumped off his bunk, feet slamming on the metal grating of the floor.
“What happened?”
“Alley and Lieb got caught up in some shit. Dominguez is trying to get them out, but he needs back up. Luz and Skinny have already flown out.”
“What’s going on?” O’Keefe murmured from his bunk. His hair was disheveled and there were pillow creases deep in his face. He winced as he tried to sit up, sore muscles and bruises courtesy of Chuck’s relentless training.
“Who’s he?” Tab asked.
“Later,” Perco said. He tugged on his boots and dug out a shirt. Any other supplies would be in the ship’s kit. “O’Keefe, we got to go do a job.”
That woke him up. “What job?”
“We don’t have the time for this,” Tab said. He wasn’t quite yelling yet, but the urgency was increasing in his voice.
“Skip will explain in the morning. Go back to bed,” Perco ordered.
O’Keefe sleepily nodded. “Be safe.”
Perco didn’t bother to reply, since the kid was already curled up under the covers.
“You’ve got some talking to do,” Tab said.
“Later,” Perco repeated.
They both waited until the doors to the barracks slid close before they broke off in a run. Luz and Skinny should’ve been able to unfuck most of the situation, but if Dominquez was calling in for even more reinforcements, something had seriously gone wrong.
Malarkey was waiting for them at the Tripartite’s personal docks.
“Roe and Spina will meet you there,” he said.
“Are they picking up a patient or a corpse?” Tab asked.
Malarkey shook his head. “I don’t know yet. Take the shipping lanes Nixon set up. Go as fast as you can, but try not to get the Corporation’s watchdogs up your ass. I’m sending Babe and McClung to clean up the mess, no matter what happens.”
Tab grabbed the tablet Malarkey held out with the mission parameters, hoping into the hatch. Perco lingered outside.
“About O’Keefe.”
“I’m not going to send the kid to his death already, Perco. I’m not one for wasting my money or resources like that. He’ll stay here and even if we all get called out, he can learn from Kitty. Don’t let yourself get distracted thinking about what’s going on back here. You’re going to have to bury it. Lieb and Alley need you, focus on them.”
Malarkey turned and marched back into the main building before Perco could say anything else.
Tab was already buckled down and starting the controls.
“Jesus, can I sit down first?” Perco asked.
“I’m starting to think you don’t understand what urgent means, Perco. Tipper could be missing half his face by now and you’re worried about some kid whose biggest concern is if the hot water runs out?”
“No one said Tipper’s face was half blown off. Or that he was even on the mission.”
“Roe and Spina don’t fly out for paper-cuts, Perco.” He waved the tablet. “Penk put a more detailed explanation in here. I suggest you look it over. We’re going into a stand-off.”
“Not with the Corporation though, more forces would’ve been tapped.”
“Raiders from a third company that’s trying to take over the Nixon Networks lines. No proof yet that it’s an independent company funded by the Corporation. I’ve already sent messages out to The Vera and Vest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Speirs is already on the satellite. He always gets involved in shit that’s not even under his purview.”
Perco stayed quiet as they took off. The Tripartite’s ships had special clearance, and since Kitty was basically the dock master, there would be no chatting with Johnny Martin. There was no playful banter to calm the nerves and offset the churning of Perco’s gut. He braced himself as they passed through the artificial atmosphere of the satellite, scuttling through the open gate under Tab’s sure piloting.
“Tab,” he said, staring out in the vast expanse of space.
He looked up from his screen, face bathed in the blue-green light of the board. “Yeah, Perco?”
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Tab smirked. He leaned over, patting his shoulder. “Don’t you worry, we’ll get you back to your boy. Maybe even with some spoils of war to boot. That is, if Speirs doesn’t clear out the whole planet first. I swear to god, he stole one of the satellite frontier planets just to store all his shit.”
Perco laughed, starting to feel better with Tab at his side. He still couldn’t let go of the bad feeling, his gut had saved his ass more than once, but there wasn’t much they could do now. He watched the stars as they passed and started to slip in the state of mind needed to deal with missions gone FUBAR.
Part Two
Author: rivlee
Rating: PG
Summary: Frank Perconte’s typical life as a space thief is about to take a turn for the different. Written for uniformly as part of camp_toccoa's Fic For Victory 2012.
Characters/Pairing: Perconte, O’Keefe, Luz, Malarkey and various others. Cameos from some of The Pacific and Generation Kill boys. Gen.
Disclaimer: No profit is made, harm or offense is attended. Title from My Chemical Romance’s Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back.
Author’s Notes: Nat, I know you really wanted the Star Wars prompt but since I’ve never watched the movies, I’ve given you Space!AU instead. Thanks to skylilies for spending hours listening to me freak out over this and for reading over the first part when I was losing my mind.
Frank Perconte was a man who knew how to acquire things. Intel, credits, weapons, pass pills, artifacts, forged ship manifests, airspace clearance, even a ship decent enough to stay in the air. He wasn’t a legend yet, not like Vest, the fence and fixer who was at the top of the Corporation’s watch list. The Corporation owned the world, but Perco and his co-workers were fighting to take it back.
He wasn’t a legend, but Perco had made a name for himself among his fellow space smugglers and criminals. Theirs was an underground that spanned the galaxy and they protected their own, even if it meant going to the darkest edges of the boundary border planets.
Patrick O’Keefe was a newbie to their world. Fresh out of the capitol at Ivy City, his family fell on hard times when his dad refused to take the fall for some Councilman’s fuck up with the Corporation’s budget. It was a hell of a transition to make, going from the sleekness and modernization of Ivy City to the backwater wasteland that was Serafina, Satellite 101, but O’Keefe still held on to that fresh blush of innocence, naiveté, and adventure.
Perco just couldn’t help but see an untried young kid who should not be here. Their way of life wasn’t easy. He’d lost count of how many kids had stumbled through their door, brought into the fold by Roe and Spina who helped smuggle them out of god-knows-where through the medical transport. Overturn was high, and it usually wasn’t an early retirement that caused it. Perco couldn’t help but be protective of O’Keefe. The kid reminded him of the world outside, what it was like before the Corporation decided to try and burn all the satellite and border planets out.
Revolution was always a hair-trigger from breaking out here and boys like O’Keefe? They’d be the first to die. Hell, half the people in their complex thought he was some high level spy. As if O’Keefe was even capable of lying.
“I’m going to get him killed,” he said.
“Probably,” Jay De L’Eau agreed.
Jay was much like O’Keefe, in the sense that he came from one of Ivy City’s richest families to ever downfall. He was highly educated and too damn smart for his own sense or good. Over the years he’d grown to be the very best at his job, rising to a journeyman in their ranks of thieves, con men, and spies. Perco was hoping that he’d take the offer and train O’Keefe to be just as resourceful, without all the ruthlessness. Jay had learned to shoot with little to no hesitation, growing out of a distaste for weapons and violence thanks to sheer necessity.
“You going to do this for me?” Perco asked.
Jay shrugged, his oversized jacket gaping at the back with his movements. “I know why you came to me and not J.P. You think I’ll see myself in the kid and try to make it easier for him.” He leaned forward, gesturing with one gloved hand. “I can’t do that for you Perco. No one used the kid gloves on me and that’s the only reason I’m still alive. This isn’t a game and your new boy? He needs to know that we’re talking about real risks and consequences in the most fatal sense of the words.”
“He’s got to learn to crawl before he can fly, Jay.”
He nodded in agreement. “Then you’ve got to take him to the Tripartite.”
Perco flinched. He’d been hoping to avoid that, but it looked like there was no choice.
“I better go wake the kid up.”
“Take Luz with you,” Jay offered. “He always manages to smooth things over.”
It was a good idea; one Perco would’ve stumbled across if he even had a half a brain right now.
“Thanks, Jay.”
Jay just smiled and waved his hand, setting off the door sensor. Perco got the point and slid through the disarmed beams.
*****************************
“Who are we seeing?” O’Keefe asked, leaning over the pilot seat.
“The Tripartite,” Luz said. “Jesus, Perco, does this kid know anything?”
Perco rolled his eyes and waited for the dock master to hail them. Traveling to Satellite 506 was a treat. There was no need to lie, forge, or steal clearance space. Johnny Martin always kept a docking port open for them.
The cabin filled with a beeping sound as they were finally hailed.
“Perco, is that your tiny, shot-up ass trying to get into my airspace?” Johnny asked.
Luz laughed out loud while Perco just shook his head and smiled. “How the hell are ya, Martin? I need to go see the Tripartite. You got some room in the inn?”
“Depends on what you brought me,”
“I’ve got Luz with me.”
“Hey, no selling my ass for a parking spot,” Luz said. “Christ, Johnny, we got a new meat with us. The kid’s probably going to piss his pants if you don’t let us land.”
“You think I take orders from you, George Luz.”
Luz smirked. “Depends on the order, doesn’t it?”
It was Johnny’s turn to laugh. “Oh, hell, Luz, what would this world do without you? Okay, you boys can land. We got some room at K-5. Try not to scrape the vault walls.”
“If Luz keeps his hands to himself this time,” Perco grumbled.
Luz held his hands up. “There was a bug.”
“On my lap?”
Luz solemnly nodded. “I swear to God, it was right there.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, Luz,” Johnny said. “We all know you can’t keep your hands to yourself.”
O’Keefe made a strangled noise behind them, something between laughter and despair.
“You got a cat on there?” Johnny asked.
“Just the new kid wondering what he stumbled into a bit too late. See you later, Johnny-Boy.” Luz hit the button and cut off the communication. “I love that tiny man.”
Perco snorted. “He’s barely smaller than you and he will kick your ass.”
“But I’m loveable. Everybody loves me, Winters said so.”
“Winters is one career move away from being a preacher man. He doesn’t count.”
“Who’s Winters?” O’Keefe asked.
“A man you will never meet unless it’s time to say hi to your maker,” Perco said as he landed the transport. “He’s a high level contact working for the Corporation’s biggest money rival, Nixon Network.”
“Isn’t that whole company declared illegal?” O’Keefe asked.
Luz laughed. “Yeah, but they won’t do shit. Lew Nixon knows too much and every time they attempt to shuffle him loose the mortal coil, he ends up inspiring revolutions. Nixon Network supplies damn near everything for the rebels. He can’t give an official sponsorship or protection, but he can drop names and intel. Hell, we owe this ship to him.”
“You’ve got years before you meet Winters or Nixon,” Perco said. He unbuckled the straps on his chair and stood up. He grabbed O’Keefe’s arms and dragged him behind Luz, walking to the exit doors. “They only deal with people like Vest and Speirs, the high-levels.”
“And Luz,” O’Keefe said, clearly starting to figure out the way of the world.
“Eh, what can I say, I get around.” Luz hit the panel to initiate their exit. “Come on boys, stand in the invisible box.”
“What?”
Perco pushed O’Keefe next to Luz. “Security system. Luz bought it off The Vera’s crew. I still think it’s a shitty practical joke.”
Luz waved his hand. The lights on the ship flashed and the screeching started.
“Run,” he said.
O’Keefe ran after Luz, hands over his ears and managed to slide through the doors right as they started close. Perco, the smallest of the bunch took his time to slip out. There were few advantages to his stature, but not worrying about getting killed in the exit doors was high on the list of pros.
“You paid for that?” O’Keefe asked once they made it through the lock. He looked like he needed a stiff drink and a new pair of shorts.
Luz shrugged. “It’s effective.”
O’Keefe went quiet as they walked through the city streets. It always took a minute to adjust to planets with natural atmospheres. It wasn’t like the other satellites where everything, including the sunlight, was regulated and controlled; 506 was a satellite planet, one of the few that took to the terraforming project. The only shitty part of it was the climate. There was no such thing as a balmy summer breeze on 506, it was usually winter.
“So, is the Tripartite a group, a building, or an institution?” O’Keefe asked. His lips trembled in the cold, his pale skin flushing red thanks to the icy wind.
“All three,” Luz said. He looked perfectly at home, like always. It’s what he did, slotting in anywhere and acting like he owned the place.
“They run everything,” Perco said. “Nothing happens without Skip, Penk, and Malarkey’s knowledge or say-so. They’re the go-betweens. Skip’s the face; he deals with the legalese and the politicians. Greases the wheel so to speak. Think of him as the respectable one. Penk, he keeps everything in order. He’s the man who gives Vest his jobs and his reputation. Penk’s more the silent type.”
“And Malarkey?”
“Malarkey and his boys handle the more,” Luz paused in his explanation. “There’s not a nice way to say this, kid. Malarkey and his boys are the clean-up crew. They take the fatal and final actions.”
“They’re assassins,” O’Keefe said. He stopped walking. “You kill people.”
“We don’t, usually,” Perco said.
“It’s a living,” Luz said. “Someone has to do it. The Corporation’s got their people, and we’ve got ours. Malarkey and his boys, they just even the playing field. You ain’t in Kansas anymore, O’Keefe. Once you start this, there’s no clicking your heels and wishing for home.”
O’Keefe’s brow wrinkled at the reference. Perco tried not to roll his eyes. Luz considered himself a connoisseur of the Old World, spending all his free credits traveling the ‘verse for art festivals and shit.
“Ignore him,” Perco said. “He got lost in one of the archives as a toddler and thinks he learned everything by osmosis. Apparently it makes him hot shit to drop references older than the foundations of the Corporation.”
“You just don’t appreciate culture,” Luz argued.
Perco rolled his eyes and decided it was better not to answer. O’Keefe already looked one more argument away from pissing his pants.
Luz acted like a tour guide for O’Keefe as they walked through the city, getting closer and closer to the Aldbourne District. The streets started to get narrower, the buildings smaller, with the rising smell of mold and damp as they approached the Tripartite’s seat. Luz looked backed at him in concern when O’Keefe pulled his arms tighter across his chest and tried to make himself as small as possible.
“Christ, kid,” Luz said, “you better loosen up. These are your new co-workers and you’re making a hell of a first impression here. Stop acting like someone’s about to rob you. No one’s going to think you’re a narc if you’ve got Perco and me with you. They might think we’re trying to sell your virtue for some credits, but other than that no worries.”
O’Keefe didn’t look reassured at all. Especially not when Luz slapped him on the back.
“We’re here,” Perco said.
O’Keefe looked at the depilated building, with its cracked windows and rotting door, in confusion.
“Isn’t it a little obvious as a place of illegal transactions,” he said.
“Not in this part of town. Most of these places hold the headquarters for some of the most important business this side of the boundary. Looks are deceiving and all that,” Luz said.
Perco nodded in agreement before preparing himself for the first of many security measures. He touched his hand to the broken metal panel next to the door and tried not to flinch at the warm burn of the scanner.
He stood back as the door slid upwards, revealing the elevator to the next entrance.
“That was door number one, time for what’s behind number two,” Luz said.
Perco laughed and held out a finger for the needle and blood sample.
“So, fingerprints, blood, what’s next?” O’Keefe asked.
Perco waited to answer until they stepped inside the elevator. The doors closed and the cabin pressurized, before the eye scan came followed by the voice recognition prompt.
Luz smirked at O’Keefe’s gaping face when the doors slide open to reveal a receptionist desk and a row of seats.
“All of that just to get to a waiting room?” he asked.
“We take our security seriously here, Mr. O’Keefe,” Kitty Grogan said.
Kitty might’ve looked like your average office manager, but Perco knew she had at least four weapons at the ready, not counting the rigged explosives set throughout the room.
“They ready to see us, Kits?” Luz asked.
“I need to take your new toy through the gauntlet first,” she said. She pushed back from her desk walking with the practiced pace of the trained solider.
Kitty was barely over five feet tall but she was intimidating as hell. Perco could feel his back straighten as if she was calling them to attention. Luz did the same while O’Keefe kept looking between her and them. Perco wanted to give him some support, but Kitty was basically the first test.
“Come with me,” she ordered.
O’Keefe blanched but he followed her command, hurrying into the side room she pointed at. Kitty never let anyone walk behind her, a survival tactic after a bounty hunter tried to sell her to the Corporation.
“Good luck, kid,” Luz yelled before the door slid shut.
“Fuck,” Perco muttered, his heart finally starting to slow down.
“How the hell does Kitty do that?” Luz asked.
Perco just shook his head and collapsed into one of the seats. If O’Keefe could get past Kitty’s inspection without actually breaking down, he might just survive.
************************
O’Keefe was quiet after Kitty brought him back. He looked a little worse for wear but not permanently scarred. Perco patted him on the back.
“Kitty’s uh, she’s a survivor of hell. The penal colony two moons over? She grew up on it. Comes from a long line of thieves, grifters, and fighters.”
“You could’ve mentioned that,” O’Keefe muttered.
“There’s no warning for her,” Luz said. He put down the tablet he’d swiped off Kitty’s desk. “She’s the watchdog for a reason. First tiny badass line of defense.”
“You have to go through this every single time?”
“If we’re coming here, yeah. This is HQ, ground zero. This building has more people, intel, clandestine arrangements, and training grounds hidden in its cracks than some planets,” Perco explained.
“Don’t tell the new boy all the secrets yet,” Kitty said. She walked over to one of the hidden touch screens, disguised as a fish tank, and typed in a code.
Perco and Luz both grabbed on to O’Keefe as the room started to move.
“What the fuck?” O’Keefe asked, scrambling to stay upright.
“You’re going to see the Tripartite,” Kitty said. “We’ve got to go up to the entrance level.”
“Why does it feel like we’re going down?”
“Eh, some shit the engineers designed. It fucks with your brain. I don’t do the mechanical science technobabble,” Luz explained. He righted himself as they came to a stop, smoothing down his jacket and hair.
O’Keefe still held on to Perco’s arm. “Where the hell have you taken me,” he whispered.
Perco tried hard not to laugh. The experience was definitely showing O’Keefe’s less polite side.
“You’ll see,” he promised.
The lights dimmed for a moment before one side of the room slid open to reveal the long hallway to the office.
“Good luck,” Kitty said, not so subtly shoving them out of the room.
It was hard not to flinch when the reception room descended to its original position, leaving them in the dark.
“You think they could get some lights in here,” Luz said. He walked at the head of their line and pounded on the door. “Someone could get hurt.”
“I don’t think they’re worried about their liability,” Perco said.
“No one likes lawyers, Perco,” Skip Muck said in greeting. He smiled at them, disarmingly charming as always. “Hey, guys, good to see you. A little late for your appointment, but our Kitty is always thorough.”
O’Keefe didn’t say anything just shuffled his feet and found the ground interesting.
“Don’t worry, O’Keefe, she’s had a handful of all of us. You only have to be worried if she threatens to break your balls off. Come on inside, Don’s put out the nice napkins.”
Luz pecked Skip on the cheek as he passed by, calling out to Penk and Malarkey.
“Thanks for seeing us, Muck,” Perco said.
Skip waved him off. “It’s not like it’s a hardship, Perco.”
Perco nudged O’Keefe until he moved and walked into the office.
Office really wasn’t the right word to describe the floor of the building where the Tripartite spent most of their working day. It was more a large multi-purpose room, one corner holding the kitchen, the other a training floor, with monitors and screens all around, constantly tracking information.
Luz was already settled down with some of Malarkey’s crew near the training mats. Penky however, was over at one of the screens talking to the crew of The Vera.
“Christ, Chuckler, how many times do I have to tell you. Hoosier cannot have a dog on that ship,” Penk said.
“But, come on, Penky. He makes Hoosier happy.”
“He also raises red flags we don’t need in terms of contamination. Look, drop it off at Serafina. I’ll find it a good home. Now, you and your boys need to get that cache off Gloucester and bring it to Liebgott. Don’t forget your friggin’ rain boots this time.”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Chuckler said before signing off.
“I’ll bet you fifty credits they’re going to get caught again,” Skip said.
“It’s not even worth a bet, since it’s a fact,” Penk said. He rubbed a hand through his hair. “Perco and the new blood here?”
“Right behind you, Alex,” Skip said.
Penky turned, his golden eyes catching in the artificial lighting streaming through the high windows. His face softened as he studied them. Penk was the best of the lot of them. He didn’t have Skip’s natural charm and daring, or Malarkey’s ability to draw everyone in with a sharp wit, but he did have an innate sense of warmth and kindness. He was too damn good for their business, but he kept all of them grounded.
“Good to have you home, Frank. You going to introduce us?” he asked.
“Patrick O’Keefe, meet Skip Muck, Alex Penkala, and over there being a miserable bastard in the corner is Don Malarkey. The Tripartite, meet O’Keefe.”
O’Keefe awkwardly waved at them. “Hi, guys.”
“Christ,” Malarkey called, “where’d you get this one, Perco? Raiding the schools now?”
“I was the one who came to Perco,” O’Keefe.
That got the room’s attention.
“I’m sorry,” Skip said, “I think I just heard crazy talk.”
“Spina and Roe offered to take me to the medical colony, but I asked to meet Perco. My sister, Gwen, she always read about the boundary planets and saw his name pop up.”
“You volunteered for this shit?” Malarkey asked. He walked over to them and got right in O’Keefe’s face. “Are you really that fucking stupid?”
Perco had said pretty much the same thing when Roe dropped O’Keefe at his doorstep. Then he’d heard about the hows and whys of him and felt like a jackass.
He stepped in between the two. “Back up, Don. The kid’s like De L’eau, if you catch my drift.”
Malarkey stared at him, eyes boring into his own looking for something. Malarkey, for all his bad singing and dirty jokes, had a hell of an intuition about people.
“Yeah, I caught it Perco. Let’s go upstairs, we need to talk.” He pointed at O’Keefe. “You stay here and follow Skip and Penk. You’ll be working for them anyway.”
O’Keefe defiantly titled his chin. “I’m not good enough for you?”
Malarkey laughed. “You’re not the murder-for-hire type, kiddo. That’s not a bad thing. Let’s just keep your gun-toting cherry unpopped for the time being. Now go play with the nice logistics men while me and Perco have a chat.”
O’Keefe knew when to shut the hell up and nodded at Malarkey’s order. He turned to Penkala, probably recognizing another quiet soul, and followed him over to one of the boards.
He couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder as Malarkey dragged him up the stairs. The crew was down there and Grant, Babe, and McClung were evil when they smelled new meat.
“Perco, pay attention,” Malarkey said as they stumbled on the stairs.
“Maybe I could if you gave me my arm back, Don.”
“I would if you stopped getting fucking distracted.” He knocked on the door to the security room.
“Come in,” a voice bid.
Malarkey opened the door and shoved him inside.
“Frank,” Skinny Sisk said with a smile. He put aside his keyboard and held out a hand. “How the hell are ya? Haven’t seen you since that incident in New Belgium.”
Perco took his hand and pulled him into a hug. “I still have blood on those trousers, you asshole.”
Skinny laughed. “I’m not sorry. You fucking dropped me.”
“Blame, Roe, he should know better than to use me as a crutch.”
Skinny shook his head. “We never blame Doc for anything. He’s magic.”
“Are you two done?” Malarkey asked.
Skinny pointed to their boss. “What the hell crawled up his ass?”
“I thought you were going to tell me.”
“I didn’t see anything on my screens,” Skinny said. He gestured to the floor-to-ceiling monitors that covered all of the Tripartite’s bases and current agents.
“Skinny, go get a coffee. In fact,” Malarkey said as he tapped one of the security screens, “go get everyone a coffee. At Smokey’s.”
Perco felt his eyes widened at that. He must’ve fucked something up bad.
“An intergalactic coffee run, Boss? Really?” Skinny asked. He’d already pulled off his headset and grabbed his bag.
“I’m craving the hazelnut blend. Go on, go. Take Babe with you, he could use the fresh air.”
Skinny gave a small salute and walked off, patting Perco on the shoulder as he passed.
“Okay, what the hell did I do?” Perco asked once the door closed.
“It’s more about what you’re going to do,” Malarkey said. He took Skinny’s seat and tapped on one of the screens, bringing up the training floor below.
“I’m sorry, did you get mutant powers while I wasn’t looking? Since when can you predict the future?”
“Since it’s really fucking obvious you’re already hung-up on that Ivy City boy down there.”
Perco didn’t like being attacked. It brought out his inner-kid, bullied for being tiny and looking different from all the other kids on his colony.
“He’s not Buck,” he said before he could even think about it.
Malarkey’s flared nostrils were the only indication of his anger. Buck Compton was one of those people no one talked about. He wasn’t quite dead to their crew, he cared for Malarkey in his own way, but he had still left the Tripartite and Nixon Networks. He’d left Don. He’d come from a charmed life and gone back to it, after a brief period of slumming with Malarkey. Buck wasn’t a bad guy, it was just hard as hell to live out here, so far removed. It wasn’t for everyone and Buck Compton was very much meant for something more civilized than the dirty, run-down border planets.
“I’m sorry, Don.”
Malarkey nodded. “I may have deserved that but it doesn’t change the truth. You’re invested in that kid, Perco. He looks and acts like a lightweight. I’ve spent less than five minutes with him and can already see he can’t do covert work.”
“The same could be said about Jay.”
“No, it couldn’t. Jay is amazingly self-aware. He knows how people expect him to act but that’s not who he is deep down. That rookie down there? He’s the greenest fucking thing I’ve seen since the last time I went to New Ireland.”
“You leading yourself up to a point somewhere here?”
“Are you going to be able to work with him?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Malarkey shook his head. “You got a thing or two to learn about value and worth. Never thought I’d see the day when it came to you Perco. Could’ve sworn you were just going to hold out for Luz.”
“You’re talking stupid, Malarkey.”
“Whatever, Perco.” He shook his head. “You’re going to learn. Guess the hard way is the only chance we’ll have to get it through your thick skull.”
***********************
Skinny’s off planet coffee run took two days and brought back a gunslinger.
“I didn’t recall telling you to pick up a sniper,” Malarkey muttered into his cold cup.
Skinny shrugged. “He followed me home. What the hell was I supposed to do?”
Shifty Powers laughed from his seat next to Skip. He was one the finest marksman in the whole ‘verse. Shifty had worked with the Corporation for a few years, knew their ins and outs, but memories of home brought him back to the fold. After he saw the plans for the coal colonies, he left in an understated blaze of glory. There was a trillion credit bounty on his head but no one was going to turn Shifty in; they’d have to catch him first and no one, besides McClung, came close to matching Shifty in a gunfight.
It was damn good to see Shifty again. He had a calming presence about him that took the tension out of everything. It was hard not to be assured about life when you had him watching your back.
“Shifty’s here to teach O’Brien how to shoot,” Malarkey said.
“O’Keefe,” Perco corrected. He was busy watching Chuck teaching O’Keefe how to fight. “Why the hell are you using Shifty?”
Shifty knew it wasn’t an insult to his skill or abilities. He shyly smiled, quietly self-assured as always. “Having only been here for an hour, I think it would be better for O’Keefe to learn with the rifle before moving to a pulse gun.”
“Really, not the other way?” Skip asked.
Shifty nodded. “He’s got a thing for observation. Even know, he’s got an ear cocked this way.” He pointed to the men on the mat. “He might not be the lying type, but you’d be a fool not to use him on covert ops to gather intel. O’Keefe looks just like the type of kids Corporation and Ivy City use to run errands. He looks out of place as hell to us, but we’ve got to think like Ivy City.”
“So, we really are making Jay all over again,” Penk said.
Perco winced at the thought. He didn’t know if Jay had ever been really innocent, there was certainly a layer of bitterness and snark around him now. He didn’t want to see that happen to O’Keefe, see him lose that wonder for the world.
“Not right to compare the boys like that,” Shifty said, ever their wise man. “Jay was groomed to to be the heir to his family, he was raised to be ruthless and calculating. Patrick there, he was truly sheltered. Parents probably never expected him to do more than work in a corner cubicle at one of the big companies. Damn near travesty to see such talent wasted, I declare.”
“Aren’t you glad I went for coffee?” Skinny asked.
Skip and Malarkey both rolled their eyes in unison but Penkala openly laughed.
Perco sighed. He didn’t know why he put up with the bastards on most days. At least they helped to pass the time in between jobs.
*******************
“Perco, wake the fuck up.”
Perco squinted as he took in the artificial light of the Tripartite’s barracks. Floyd Talbert was leaning over him, looking equal parts annoyed and panicked.
“What the hell.”
“You need to get your ass up and dressed. We got to get off planet now.”
That woke him right up. He jumped off his bunk, feet slamming on the metal grating of the floor.
“What happened?”
“Alley and Lieb got caught up in some shit. Dominguez is trying to get them out, but he needs back up. Luz and Skinny have already flown out.”
“What’s going on?” O’Keefe murmured from his bunk. His hair was disheveled and there were pillow creases deep in his face. He winced as he tried to sit up, sore muscles and bruises courtesy of Chuck’s relentless training.
“Who’s he?” Tab asked.
“Later,” Perco said. He tugged on his boots and dug out a shirt. Any other supplies would be in the ship’s kit. “O’Keefe, we got to go do a job.”
That woke him up. “What job?”
“We don’t have the time for this,” Tab said. He wasn’t quite yelling yet, but the urgency was increasing in his voice.
“Skip will explain in the morning. Go back to bed,” Perco ordered.
O’Keefe sleepily nodded. “Be safe.”
Perco didn’t bother to reply, since the kid was already curled up under the covers.
“You’ve got some talking to do,” Tab said.
“Later,” Perco repeated.
They both waited until the doors to the barracks slid close before they broke off in a run. Luz and Skinny should’ve been able to unfuck most of the situation, but if Dominquez was calling in for even more reinforcements, something had seriously gone wrong.
Malarkey was waiting for them at the Tripartite’s personal docks.
“Roe and Spina will meet you there,” he said.
“Are they picking up a patient or a corpse?” Tab asked.
Malarkey shook his head. “I don’t know yet. Take the shipping lanes Nixon set up. Go as fast as you can, but try not to get the Corporation’s watchdogs up your ass. I’m sending Babe and McClung to clean up the mess, no matter what happens.”
Tab grabbed the tablet Malarkey held out with the mission parameters, hoping into the hatch. Perco lingered outside.
“About O’Keefe.”
“I’m not going to send the kid to his death already, Perco. I’m not one for wasting my money or resources like that. He’ll stay here and even if we all get called out, he can learn from Kitty. Don’t let yourself get distracted thinking about what’s going on back here. You’re going to have to bury it. Lieb and Alley need you, focus on them.”
Malarkey turned and marched back into the main building before Perco could say anything else.
Tab was already buckled down and starting the controls.
“Jesus, can I sit down first?” Perco asked.
“I’m starting to think you don’t understand what urgent means, Perco. Tipper could be missing half his face by now and you’re worried about some kid whose biggest concern is if the hot water runs out?”
“No one said Tipper’s face was half blown off. Or that he was even on the mission.”
“Roe and Spina don’t fly out for paper-cuts, Perco.” He waved the tablet. “Penk put a more detailed explanation in here. I suggest you look it over. We’re going into a stand-off.”
“Not with the Corporation though, more forces would’ve been tapped.”
“Raiders from a third company that’s trying to take over the Nixon Networks lines. No proof yet that it’s an independent company funded by the Corporation. I’ve already sent messages out to The Vera and Vest. I wouldn’t be surprised if Speirs is already on the satellite. He always gets involved in shit that’s not even under his purview.”
Perco stayed quiet as they took off. The Tripartite’s ships had special clearance, and since Kitty was basically the dock master, there would be no chatting with Johnny Martin. There was no playful banter to calm the nerves and offset the churning of Perco’s gut. He braced himself as they passed through the artificial atmosphere of the satellite, scuttling through the open gate under Tab’s sure piloting.
“Tab,” he said, staring out in the vast expanse of space.
He looked up from his screen, face bathed in the blue-green light of the board. “Yeah, Perco?”
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Tab smirked. He leaned over, patting his shoulder. “Don’t you worry, we’ll get you back to your boy. Maybe even with some spoils of war to boot. That is, if Speirs doesn’t clear out the whole planet first. I swear to god, he stole one of the satellite frontier planets just to store all his shit.”
Perco laughed, starting to feel better with Tab at his side. He still couldn’t let go of the bad feeling, his gut had saved his ass more than once, but there wasn’t much they could do now. He watched the stars as they passed and started to slip in the state of mind needed to deal with missions gone FUBAR.
Part Two