Malparadiso Station Season 2.4
Episode 14 Jerzy Shales
Episode 14: Jerzy Shales
Iabbeshank’s map led Yroi to the Lev2 exit from the compound, so she didn’t have to face the surface again. The exit was in a remote spiral of the level, not surprising.
The Beanatha snake woman guarding it checked her ID, both with the Inspector and visually, memorizing her face and card. Yroi also showed the credchip, being as transparent with the guard as possible. She wanted to be able to get back in if she ran into trouble.
The snake woman nodded and gave back the credchip after scanning it for the amount it contained. Yroi told her where she was going, and the Beanatha nodded towards the upward spiral, closer to the tourist areas.
Yroi had not been in this part of the spiral. It was wider and better lighted than Lev3, and further out than the public parts of Lev1 where the shuttle landed. No side tunnels led off, meaning that no one would come down this way unless they had business with Mistress.
Her map had not shown any other exits on other levels. No place to hide if there was trouble. She made her way up the spiral.
Half an hour later, she was in the tourist trap section, lots of trinket shops, fronts for nicer brothels, and exotic grab-n-go snacks. The addresses were not easy to locate, but finally she found the right one. Its wire-reinforced windows were filled with garish gadgets and accessories. Inside she saw racks of tunics proclaiming “I’m a native Stoner” and “Stone me Sentient.”
What she didn’t see was the proprietor, Jerzy Shales or any packaged goods.
Despite the cameras sweeping across the merchandise, she leaned over the sales counter. She peered at the back room, and finally called out. No answer.
She timed the sweeps, and when both cameras she could see aimed towards the front of the shop, she slipped into the back.
Jerzy was there. Dead. Very dead. The green ichor of the saurians covered most of the floor. He was small for his species, but much bigger than Yroi. Their thick skulls made them hard to kill, but someone had managed.
Yroi wanted nothing to do with that, but she needed to get the package. Several small boxes, unmarked, sat on the bottom shelf of the wall on the other side of the body.
She put on the gloves, thick but protective. It occurred to her that she’d touched the outsides of the gloves, so that she might have left DNA on them, but that was better than digitprints.
Careful to avoid stepping in the ichor, she crept around Shales. Balancing on one foot with her short tail extended, she reached for the boxes. She had no idea which might be the right one, so she took them all, stashing them in the interior pockets of her work trousers.
Maneuvering away from the scene, she watched the monitors of the cameras, waiting for them to return to the front of the shop. She slipped out of the back room, moving to the sales counter. She pretended to look at the jewelry there, sparkly bits of flawed beryl and other minerals, The Stone’s most valuable offering, other than its strategic location. When the cameras came back to her, she meandered through the other merchandise. She opened the door to leave, glancing briefly back up the spiral.
She took on the subservient pose of the kleckovans, hunched over, looking down, her arms folded, completely non-threatening. She headed for the snack shop next door, hoping that the proprietor would not make a scene. Kleeks weren’t popular on this level.
Guards were coming down towards the shop from Lev1. Not the local thugs. Official Guards.
Don’t run, she told herself. Just walk. Breathe.