“Speaking of dirty, where’s your partner?”

  “Oh, Ilan’s been a busy man today, making sure everyone in Desperido is safe from the aggression of the outside world. I told him to celebrate. He’s passing time with a care worker.”

  “Is he paying her?”

  “Naturally. Our contractors must receive proper compensation. Ilan and I embrace the same philosophy toward our own services.”

  Her sigh said she had anticipated this moment.

  “You intend to talk price.”

  “After a fashion.”

  “My price.”

  “You, senora, cannot be bought.”

  “That’s a problem for you, Raul.”

  “Awkward but not insurmountable.”

  “Simple. Kill me.”

  “Not part of the plan.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m a problem solver and a dream maker. So are you.”

  “You have an outlandish sense of humor. I don’t.”

  Lumen was game for my verbal volleyball, so I served another.

  “This town does not exist without you.”

  “It was here long before me, and will be long after.”

  “The bricks, the stones, the bunkers. Yes. But not the ecosystem. That is your invention, senora.”

  “Ecosystems are fragile. Especially the manmade variety.”

  “It’s delicate work. Requires vision, attention to detail, and the blessings of those who control the levers.”

  She nodded. “Correct. One disruption can destroy it.”

  “Unless the disruption is welcomed and allowed to fully integrate. Best of both worlds. Yes?”

  “Name one example.”

  “Desperido in two weeks.”

  “A daring claim, Raul. Based on what?”

  “Education and cooperation.”

  “Neither of which you’ll receive from me.”

  “After tomorrow, you might be inclined to change your mind.”

  “Why’s that, Raul?”

  “Prices. When the resupply tumbler leaves, the residents will once again see how the ecosystem you created has deprived them of the profits they deserve. They’ll demand the new price structure that I promised.”

  “And will never deliver.”

  Ship passed by carrying a tray of empties.

  “How about a whiskey, my friend? No worms, please.”

  “Sure, Raul. Coming up.”

  “And you, senora?”

  “My head is clear. I’ll keep it so.”

  I leaned back and waited for the liquor. Lumen’s body language answered the most important questions about what lay ahead for Moon and me, but I needed more intel. When the whiskey arrived, I thanked the kid and sipped. Nice texture. Smooth. Relaxing.

  OK, time to dig.

  “I have no desire to interrupt the operation tomorrow. In fact, my partner and I will be silent observers. You’ll follow the routine.”

  “Sounds like an order.”

  “Deference to your seniority. I want to confirm that the details I’ve heard about the transfer process are accurate.”

  “Huh. You’ve been picking everyone’s brains, or so I’ve been told.”

  “I have. Education! Since you’re here, senora, I’d like to run through tomorrow’s procedure. Feel free to correct me where wrong. Yes?”

  Lumen said nothing.

  “Very well then. To my understanding, the residents will deliver their products to the supply depot behind the cantina starting at first light. You will scan their items and enter them into a manifest. Items will be sealed inside Interprovince-approved shipping containers. Roughly a third of the town provides goods on any given week. Depending upon the diversity of product lines and buyers, you’ll fill forty to fifty containers. A separate rifter will be stocked with recyclables.

  “The tumbler’s Nav will notify you on final approach. You and a handful of others will transfer the containers to long-bed rifters, which will line up at the tumbler’s usual parking spot. Good so far?”

  Lumen shifted her ass in the hard seat but stayed mum.

  “I’ll take that as ‘Yes, Raul. Perfect!’ The tumbler will consist of two crews. The first will focus on the product containers. You will hand over the manifest to an auditor. He will calculate what the residents are owed based on projected night market value minus costs for everyone along the supply chain.

  “After you provide your endorsement stamp, the auditor will transfer a lump sum to Desperido’s central account, which you control. You’ll later distribute UCVs based on each product’s relative value. But you mostly guesstimate, and the margins are razor thin.

  “The first crew stores the goods in a special section of the tumbler. When they finish, the crew of record unloads proper resupplies as ordered in advance. You will use another manifest – the only official one – to verify delivery, recyclable collection, and make payment.

  “The entire transfer will take twenty minutes at most. The only residents who are present will be the six or eight volunteers who packaged the products and fill the shelves with new supplies. Quick and quiet, so the tumbler can maintain its delivery schedule.

  “Afterward, you’ll deduct residency fees from individual accounts to pay in part for supplies but also a tribute to the Horax to keep them at arm’s length. In the end, these people are left with enough to live on but little more. You depend on their desire to live apart from society as motivation to remain here in abject poverty.

  “You’re right, senora. It’s a fragile ecosystem. One disruption … well, damn. I see why it requires a firm hand on the wheel. Why security cams cover every angle of town. Why these people are so easily swayed by a few hundred creds. They came here to live free from the burden of a society where they don’t fit. With one hand, you give them free rein to create; with the other, you squeeze them to the last drop.

  “It’s a fascinating arrangement, but it’s far from new, senora. You see, I’m familiar with a scant bit of history. Humans relied on this model going back to ancient times. Desperido is what they used to call a company town.”

  Damn if I didn’t love to talk. Even better was watching my listener break cover while I burrowed deep into their brittle psyche. Few held firm against my verbal offensives, but Lumen proved herself a different breed. Her eyes betrayed nothing.

  Then she made a tactical error. She opened her mouth.

  “Everything you said is accurate, Raul. But it’s not the truth.” She pushed back her chair and stood. “You will never know.”

  So ended my latest attempt to show conciliation. Oh, well.

  Lumen ordered Ship out from behind the bar and returned to her duties as if our confab never took place. I finished my whiskey, and Ship asked if I’d like another.

  “Not this time, my friend. Will you be there in the morning to package the products like usual?”

  He shrugged. “She hasn’t told me different. But I did betray her.”

  “And a fine backstabbing it was. Tomorrow’s process will be routine, with or without you.”

  “I’ll try not to piss her off in the meantime.”

  I chuckled. This kid was catching on.

  “Great plan. I have an idea, Ship. Why don’t you venture over to our new residence tonight? My partner and I play card games and watch the stars. What do you say?”

  He straightened his shoulders and beamed.

  “I’d be honored, Raul. Although I don’t know card games.”

  “Never seen you play one either, old man!”

  I hadn’t heard from Theo all day. I should have known better.

  “You forget. I was a human once.”

  “I suppose you’ll want me to craft a deck from your syneth.”

  “If it’s too much work, Theo, I can manage.”

  The D’ru-shaya grumbled and went silent.

  “After sundown, Ship. You’ll be our very first guest.”

  The sun leaned low against the horizon when I met Moon at our new abode. He returned from his afternoon encounter with two care workers, as I discovered, and appeared serene by Moon standards. He lit a cigar and settled onto the bed. I leaned against the counter where Esai was shot and incinerated days ago.

  “If I ventured a guess, my friend, I’d say you’re reasonably happy.”

  He pondered my question inside a cloud of smoke.

  “Am I smiling, Royal?”

  “No. You rarely smile unless engaged in slaughter.”

  “Then happy is the wrong word. I’m lighter. I feel lighter.”

  “Huh. How do you mean?”

  “I think you’re onto something, Royal. The more I’m with a woman, the closer I feel to …”

  He didn’t want to say it, so I did.

  “Being human again.”

  Moon shaded his eyes. “Yeah. That.”

  “You don’t sound enthused.”

  “Why should I? I’ll never go back, even if it was possible.”

  “Totally with you, partner. It’s a hell of a dilemma. Let me ask this: How excited would you be if I suggested we ought to kill eight or ten folks tonight for sport?”

  His eyes ballooned. I knew the answer right off.

  “How soon?”

  I sighed. “Still some work to do, I see.”

  “I never said the sex diminished my appetite to kill.”

  “No, but I had hoped. Not a problem, my friend. We’ve been working on your psychoses for years. I won’t give up. And the truth is, you’ve restrained yourself pretty goddamn well since we moved our headquarters.”

  “It’s not easy, Royal. Nobody would miss these people if they vanished off the face of the planet.”

  Interesting observation. History said otherwise.

  “Actually, every planet has legends about towns where the inhabitants disappeared under mysterious circumstances, never to be found. Desperido and its lost souls might become an exceptional tourist destination.”

  “I’m being serious. You’re making fun of me.”

  I didn’t care for his tone, so I pushed on.

  “Not at all, Moon. We will be killing people here, and soon.”

  “You learned something. How did your talk with Lumen go?”

  “She’s planning to take us down.”

  He choked on smoke.

  “Herself?”

  “She hired out.”

  Moon stifled a laugh. “When will the idiots arrive?”

  “Unclear but soon.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Lumen talked to me for a short while. She confirmed what we learned about the tumbler process. It was classic misdirection with bad acting. She couldn’t hide her excitement.”

  “Not a surprise. She backed down too easily the first day. I told you the plan with Vincente and Mando wouldn’t work. They won’t be dead for at least another ten or twelve days.”

  He made good points except …

  “I wouldn’t rule out Plan A just yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “I doubt she commissioned the job through the Horax. There’s something off about Lumen’s connection to Cardinale. Too much of her story we don’t know. The kid has been in her service for years, and he never heard her discuss the arrangement. All he knows is that she makes tribute payments, and the Horax sends its monkeys here once a month to monitor the town.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “It’s entirely possible our dear Senora Lumen doesn’t want the Horax to know there’s trouble afoot. If Cardinale has to send in guns to restore order, she might decide Lumen has forfeited her status as de facto queen of the desert.”

  Moon blew smoke rings as he contemplated this new scenario.

  “Ouch. How do you want to play it, partner?”

  “When the time comes, leave one breathing. I’ll do the rest.”

  “Sure, Royal. You always have a plan.”

  “What kind of wolf god would I be if I wasn’t constantly thinking ahead, around, and beyond? Speaking of, I trust you have no plans tonight. The kid will be here soon. I thought we might play cards.”

  “Ship?” Moon threw up his arms. “Why? And cards? We haven’t played cards since …”

  “Bessios. I know. Long time.”

  “Forever.”

  “It’ll be nostalgic. Besides, he’s a novice. An easy mark.”

  Moon curled his hands as if prepared to strangle me.

  “I hate houseguests.”

  “Oh, chill your syneth. You’re not used to them because we haven’t had any proper visitors for nineteen years.”

  “They didn’t survive the defense shield long enough to say hello. And the last ones tried to rob us.”

  “So tonight, we lay out the welcome mat to our most valuable associate. I have big plans for Ship. He’s a blank template in search of a design.”

  Moon rose from the bed and paced the little room, puffing away like an ancient steam engine.

  “You’re wrong, Royal. He’s a scared kid who will turn and run the second he learns the truth about us.”

  “Oh, my dear friend. The best get their start when they’re young, like we were. He’ll grow into the job.”

  The evening was equal parts awkward and entertaining. Ship grew more loquacious as the hours advanced. He opened up with anecdotes about the locals, his happier times on Everdeen, and how he expected his life to change with a new arm. He adopted a few of my colloquialisms, tried out a mixed metaphor for size, and echoed my specialized profanities.

  Moon forced a smile on occasion, but he didn’t see the true potential of this kid. I wondered whether he’d been infected with a tinge of jealousy. It made sense. He and I surveyed the breadth and depth of the nine universes without anyone else for two thousand years. How dare I bring a third person – let alone a wayward human kid – into our company?

  Eh. We had to start somewhere. Our plans were cosmic in scope. One did not create an army out of thin air.

  That reality hit home the next day.

  18

  W E FACED THE OGALA HILLS to the north. The one road into Desperido cut straight and true toward those grayish peaks until it disappeared like a mirage. Moon and I waited along with Lumen, Ship, and seven volunteers. The rifters hovered beside the central avenue bearing dozens of containers. Nobody spoke after the tumbler signaled its approach from ten kilometers out.

  Lumen studied her tablet and ignored us. She went about business per usual from the first check-ins to the packing and loading. Yet she had to have felt tension inside the supply depot when locals shifted their eyes between her and us. They weren’t sure who to trust. Some might’ve wondered why we hadn’t taken over the operation.

  Patience. It’s a lovely damn concept.

  When the blurry outline of the tumbler emerged, Moon raised a holo from his pom and fingered a door in the defense shield. Unlike the security perimeter we installed at the fort, this shield was too large and clumsy to include incineration rays. We relied on a more exciting set of tools. A few of our special inventions. The holo showed their locations throughout the surrounding desert. Not a minefield, exactly.

  Yeah, OK. Sort of.

  I made a mental note to warn the townsfolk before anyone decided to take a pleasant evening stroll amid the sagebrush and the lizards.

  Ship responded when I waved him over.

  “Tell me something, my friend. Where is everydamnbody? Turnout’s pitiful.”

  “You expected a big crowd, Raul?”

  “Look, nothing happens in this town except once a week when that big fella shows up. I’d expect a touch more enthusiasm.”

  He shrugged. “Crowds were bigger a few years ago, but everybody’s seen a long-haul tumbler. And it’s the same thing every week. Kind of dull, actually. A business transaction.”

  “There’s at least two hundred thousand UCVs on those rifters. Livelihoods are made on days like this.”

  “Nothing they can do now. Auditor pays, Lumen signs off.”

  Elian, whose team produced a healthy batch of Motif for this week’s transport, watched in dutiful silence as Ship added:

  “If you want to see a crowd, visit the depot in two hours. The fresh commodities go fast. Especially the protein pellets for kiosks. It’s very competitive when people abuse their allotment.”

  “Any fights?”

  “Sometimes. Then Lumen fires up her shock club.”

  “Delicious! Nothing like watching humans tear each other apart for food.”

  Ship snickered. “They’re more like slap fights.”

  “Eh. Amateurs.”

  The tumbler rolled through the outer perimeter. This wasn’t your ordinary six-wheel vehicle for city driving. It was a road train, with four separate cargo holds connected by accordion-like bridges, sandwiched by identical navigation cabs. Eight meters tall and too wide to share the road with personal sedans, these bullies had connected the Aztecan economy to its fringes for centuries.

  Their navigators kept religious schedules and slowed for nobody. If your manifest wasn’t in order, you were shit out of luck until the next delivery date.

  The tumbler pulled into the heart of Desperido with the dramatics of a fire-breathing dragon. (Side note: Contrary to the accepted belief that such creatures were fantastical, Moon and I encountered two species in the universe inhabited by the least number of humans. Yes, there was a correlation.)

  The vehicle’s wheels – taller than me by a head – kicked up a cloud of red dust when the tumbler braked. A door rolled back midway along the third hold. Five individuals jumped out. They wore white coveralls, matching short-brimmed caps, and dark glasses. A man with a red bar across his chest and a tablet in his hand took lead.

  The auditor, I presumed.

  I counted two women among them. They stood at attention with hands clasped behind their backs like good little soldiers while the auditor exchanged words with Lumen. The senora threw open a holo of the manifest. The auditor tossed it into a database and ran the market value assessment. Like Ship said: Kind of dull.

  While I kept my promise as a silent observer, I focused on the assistants who I reckoned would soon load the illicit cargo. Their sunglasses blacked out their eyes, but I detected enough nuance in their body language to know they set their sights on Moon and me.