Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(58)
“James, I’ve been speaking in your head longer than I care to remember. Just took a few hours to backlog and pour through our old notes. You know it’s all recorded somewhere.”
“Just a few hours, huh?” James’s gut felt queasy. If it had taken Smitt only a few hours to find him on the comm, what other mistakes had he made? Was a squad of monitors coming for them right now? What if they had already pinpointed their camp and captured Elise?
“Sorry, James,” said Smitt. “You might be clever, but you’re not very creative.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“I was trying to be nice.”
“Well, don’t be. What do you want?”
“Listen, you’re in a heap. A big f*cking pile of shit. Levin’s about to bring a blackhole’s worth of pressure down on you. The agency is out for your blood.”
“I wasn’t aware of that. Thanks for telling me.”
“No need to get pissy at the guy risking his neck telling you. You’re the one who brought this down on yourself.”
“Spit it out, Smitt. And I swear, if you somehow found a way to track my location through this subchannel, this will be the last you’ll ever hear from me until one night when you’re least expecting it…”
“Damn it, James. Shut up and stop threatening me. Listen! Valta wants to step in. They’re willing to make it all right. They’ll fix the shit with ChronoCom. Do you hear me?”
James frowned. Could the solution be that simple? Would Valta just sweep in and fix this mess he’d made? He shook his head; nothing is ever that easy, especially when it came to a megacorporation.
“What are they offering?” he asked.
“Sweeter than the original deal. They’re willing to buy out your entire contract. Tack on that last year. You get to go straight to Europa!”
James froze, speechless. This offer, too, was unbelievable. How could they actually offer him a better deal after the mess he’d made? Something was very wrong here. “What do they want in exchange?”
“That person you brought back. Is she one of the scientists?”
“Yes,” said James, distrusting where this conversation was heading.
“Which one?”
“Why do you care?”
“Valta cares. They’re willing to erase this entire event for both of us if Valta can claim indentured ownership of this scientist.”
Indentured ownership. Common contract terminology used during the Gas Giant mining rush requiring miners to work their homestead for a certain amount of years in exchange for the mining companies paying for their transportation fare. In other words, Valta wanted to claim Elise as a slave.
“Good-bye, Smitt,” James said, this time saying the words out loud as well.
“I see. I’m sorry. For everything. I hope you can forgive me one day.”
“I already do. I know you were doing what you think is best.” James was about to cut the connection when he stopped short. “Smitt, did you ever find out what that residual tear back on the Nutris Platform was from?”
“No. Been a little crazy here since you got back.”
“Find out for me, will you? The entire job felt wrong, especially since I wasn’t allowed to make the retrieval until after the disaster happened.”
“I’ll see what I can find out. Hey, James, keep this encrypted channel open for incoming messages. It’s the only way I can keep in touch with you. Keep the subchannel a one-way receptacle if you must, but keep it pingable. Please.”
James hesitated, recalling the last twenty years of his life, with Smitt as the only constant. This guy was the closest thing to family he had. It might help to have someone on the inside. Could he gamble with Elise’s safety? Had Smitt ever intentionally steered him wrong? Even with the incident earlier today, James believed Smitt when he said he’d stepped in for James’s own good. Did he still trust Smitt?
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “No promises, but it’ll stay open. For now.”
James was left standing on the roof alone with his thoughts. He looked out for several kilometers at the slow-moving ocean waves grounding against the buildings. His eyes followed the smaller chunks of concrete that broke off from the structures and fell into the ocean. Sometimes, the ocean didn’t want those pieces and pushed them back against the buildings, hammered them against the crumbling walls until they were swept out again. The process repeated a half dozen times.
There was a thunderous crack as one of the large skyscrapers groaned and pieces of debris slid down its curved side, falling into the dark brown waters below. The dying building wouldn’t last another year before it, too, would be swallowed up by the encroaching plague of shit.
The sun was still climbing up the sky, its sick orange glow beginning to scorch the Earth. The radiation haze on the fringe of the city was less severe than where he had left Elise. Speaking of which, he needed to get back to her. He still wasn’t confident of her wrist beam skills, and though there was only a small chance she might have blown her leg off, leaving her was a risk he had had to take in case Smitt was tracing the subchannel.
A few bounds later, James was streaking from rooftop to rooftop, throwing out the kinetic coils and hearing the howl of the wind rush by him. He could have just flown directly back to their camp, but he wanted to conserve his levels. After all, who knew when the next time he could recharge would be. He would have to learn to be more efficient from this point on.