A young lady wearing an all white Qi Pao dress walked to the entrance of Zarkerie’s Starlight Antiquities. A slim figure with all the right curves in that tight dress to show it all. Her dark hair was stacked neatly under a fancy dark pillbox hat with a thick black veil covering most of her face.

It was an off-hour and the store door was locked. Yet, she did not skip a beat. She rang obscured button that was purposely hidden underneath the rustic iron knob.

When she got no answer, she rang it again. And again, patience obviously, not one of her virtues.

“Yes, what do you want?” the cranky voice of the old owner finally greeted her.

“I’m here to speak to Mr. Zark.”

“I’m Mr. Zark, so, what do you want to speak to me about? We do not open the store for the next two hours.”

“Oh, I don’t want anything that you may have at the store-”

“Why, have you been in our store before? Don’t you know we have everything that a fine lady like yourself might like.”

“I’m here on the behalf of SVI Group.”

“I see. And you’ve got a key to support that?”

“Certainly,” the woman said in a joyful voice. “Where do I…”

“Press the handle halfway in and three marks to the right,” Mr. Zark said.

It took her three tries to get the combination done right. But when she did, a little screen popped out right next to the handle, and she waved her hand against it.

Her credentials seem satisfactory as Mr. Zark soon answered. “You may enter. I will be to see you in a minute.”

It was more like fifteen, not on the account of Mr. Zark needing all that time to get ready, but on the account of him disliking being buzzed three times in the off-hours.

“If she came here from ten quadrants away, she could wait two more hours for me to open. Didn’t I post my working hours on the front door? When are people going to learn to read?!? Maybe I should install a trap door under my entrance, and for anyone that does not read the sign - bam! I open it and drop them down and send them straight to the darkness of space outside. Where they belong,” he muttered to himself and then started to giggle at the idea.

“So, what can I do for… your employers.”

“They are interested in procuring another item,” she said and took a memory card out of her pockets. “You will find all the information here.”

“Okay. Give me a minute,” Mr. Zark said, took the memory chip, and walked slowly to the back office.

Again it was more than a minute. This time on account of Mr. Zark trying to figure out how to give his client what exactly they asked for, and, more importantly, how much to charge them for it.

When he came back, his face was even more frowned and his cranky voice mirrored his mood.

“You expect me to send someone to assault a fully operational battleship?”

“To obtain the item. It was analyzed, and that proved to be the most preferred manner.”

“Do you think I command an army or something?”

“We do not know how you do it. That’s why we are ready to pay your fee. Which is exactly going to be…?”

“I’m not sure I can take your job. I need to think about it.”

“There is a time limit here.”

“What?”

“The battleship will be in the nearby quadrant in exactly two weeks. It’s either then or never.”

So, it’s true. The battleship is coming. “Fine. I’ll make my decision soon, then.”

“How soon do you think it will be?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe a day. Or two.”

Let them cook for three days, and then I’ll give them the price.

“I’m going to be on the station for the next three days. If you decide to take the job, send your asking price here,” the young lady said and then just waved her fingers as a good by.

“Fine!” the old man barked at her.

I better do it sooner, or these clowns are stupid enough to try and hire someone else. Imagine the chaos then? And the lost opportunity?

***

Lucky decided to take Jammie for a drink during their lunch hour. They walked toward Summer’s Bar, but then just when Jammie started to think what good food they may be serving inside, Lucky pulled Jammie by the hand.

“We’ll have our drinks there,” he said and pointed to the Starlight Antiquities.

“There? With the old man?”

“Yes, Jammie. With the old goat. Trust me, there is more to that man than meets the eye.”

Jammie nodded her head and let Lucky lead the way.

The store was all empty. When the old man got out from his office to greet them, they exchanged pleasantries. Then, Lucky mentioned how they need to talk to him about something. Private. And then they were lead to the side room, opposite the man’s office.

An awful lot of doors, Jammie thought as she realized the room they were in had three exit doors.

They set in front of an old antique desk, and the old man offered them drinks. Lucky readily accepted for them both, an eager smile on his face. They were served some yellowish liquid inside some dirty, old crystal glasses, and Jammie decided to give it a pass after the liquid did not pass a smell test.

Lucky took it on himself to lay it all out, saying how smart and resourceful Jammie was.

Jammie did not know what she disliked more, the old goat frowning at her like crazy yesterday and this morning, or smiling with his teeth-missing mouth now.

That’s the most crooked smile I ever saw, Jammie made a mental note. It almost belongs in a cartoon.

The old man let Lucky talk, only on occasion giving Jammie his head-spinning smile and saying, “Good girl, good little girl.”

Jammie thought that ‘good little girl’ was said with enough malice in it to kill a cow.

“Good you came to me with such a plan,” the old man said in the end.

“Sure I know a lot of people in the government here that could sign such a contract, and it would be crazy not to institute some valid maintenance program here on the station…”

Jammie felt like a bucket of ice-cold water has been dumped on her, fully knowing there was a BUT coming somewhere soon.

“But you see… I cannot help you. You would need, as I understand, at least a thousand square meters of open space, and my space in my warehouses are all packed! Nobody is buying antiques anymore!”

“Makes even more sense then,” Jammie said coldly. “Make a room there. Put antiquities away, and start making money.”

“It’s not so easy, young lady. I put a lot of money in those antiquities. I would not, under no consideration, take a loss on them. Not even on the smallest of an item!” the old man said with vigor.

“But…” he said after a long moment of silence.

They waited for him to spit his thoughts out.

“Unless…” the old man started to say and stop again. “Oh, well, it’s a long shot.”

“What is a long shot?” Lucky asked, obviously unable to recover from the disappointing refusal.

“I could… introduce you to people that have… empty space on this station. I could put a word in for you,” he said as if he was still thinking about it.

“Naturally, I am expecting eight percent finders fee, calculated on the amount of contract value,” he added swiftly

“Eight percent my ass!” Jammie jumped up. “You’ll get your five percent and that’s going to come from the profit side, after all expenses paid. I’m not doing this for nothing, and neither is Lucky here,” she said pointing it to her boss.

The old man was for a second lost to the words, looked at Jammie and then at Lucky, waiting for help from him. But all he got was a stare from gleaming, smiling eyes and a few head nods from suddenly resurrected Lucky.

“I guess you finally found yourself a good worker, Lucky.”

“That I did. We are all lucky to have her here. And with your help, she’ll be a good partner too.”

“If you say so. I agree. But…” the old man said. “For this contract to work, I need a favor first.”

“What is the favor?” Jammie asked right away.

“Oh, it’s next to nothing. I mean, for a properly trained engineer like yourself…”

“Tell me what it is and I’ll tell you if it’s nothing… for a properly trained engineer like myself.”

The old man growled at her. “It’s just some electronics. They need to be fixed.”

“Show me,” Jammie said.

“You wait here,” the old man told Lucky and took Jammie through one of the exit doors. They got on an old, iron elevator that slowly started to move down.

“This all yours?” Jammie asked as they started to pass the floor down that seemed like a huge warehouse with rows of boxes of all sizes, piled on top of each other.

“It all belongs to my partners and me, yes.”

“How can you even know all the stuff you have?” Jammie asked as then went down floor after floor, showing the same kind of warehouses. One floor was completely dominated by furniture, the other by some electronics, many Jammie never saw before in her life.

"What, do you think I'm a moron? Of course I know what I have."

They stopped ten floors down.

With a touch of his hand, he opened a cupboard and took out an old red leather suitcase. He placed it carefully on the table in front of Jammie

“Can you fix those?” he said as he opened the suitcase let Jammie look inside. “You fix those and you have yourself a deal.”

Jammie's heart raced as she looked at the inside of the boxes. Metallic balls, fist-size, silver-colored with funny indentations and markings on them. She had to bite her lips not to burst out laughing.

“Do you even know what these are?”

Jammie put her hands over her face, rubbing it.

How to proceed about this? I was not ready this morning, and the old goat almost skinned me alive. Calm down. Just calm down. Calm down and think.

“If you don’t, say so now, child. No crime in it.”

“Of course I know what these are…” Jammie said, putting acted anger where joyful blabbering would have been. She was going to burst out talking about how Mr. Lamateen, that wonderful school teacher one day made her do this side project that she was not supposed to talk to anyone. She was going to blabber like a little girl to show how clever she is…

…And be all stupid about it. Never show them the cards. Never let them know what you know and exactly how smart you are.

“The question is not if I know what these are, but what are they doing here?” Jammie said and turned her face she decided to frown on her own to look at the old man. “What the hell are you doing with the most powerful bugging devices that the Union military ever produced?”

The question made the old man twitch. Well, half-twitch, because that was all it took for the old man to gain his focus back.

“Good, so you know how to fix them?”

“Depends,” Jammie said, and then stopped herself from speaking more.

If they are just powered down, I just need to open them up with a security key and power them up with oid-7. If they are completely broken, I can open them all up and find parts that are working, and put them together.

“Depends on what?” the old man said, and then added as Jammie was not giving him an answer. “Young girl. I’m not ready to wait here forever till you figure out what you want to say.”

Jammie snapped. Maybe for the first time in her life. “You. Are. Not. Ready To. Wait? YOu impolite old prick! Just the possession of this can send you to jail till you die of old age, rejuve treatments denied! And you want to suck me into repairing them for you??? Are you out of your fuckin’ mind?

“And stop calling me ‘little girl’! It’s disrespectful, and I do not like to be disrespected! Do you??”

The old man was lost to words there, but his eyes searched Jammie's face, scanned her better than a machine can.

“How much?” the old man said after finding something in her face that made him say so.

Jammie sighed. The game was over. “Certainly more than just giving us a warehouse someplace.”

“And a contract from the government.”

“Certainly valued more than that.”

“How much more?”

“I would need some equipment I do not have to work on them.”

“I can provide,” the old man answered swiftly. “How much?”

“Hundred thousand credits!” Jammie burst out, not able to control herself anymore.

Ten of these balls and my ailing mother has a rejuve. Goodby pain.

“Fine,” the old man said, calm in his voice, and extended his old hand. "Fix as many as you can. My partners and I will pay."

She shook it eagerly.

“Tell me the equipment you need. You start right away,” he said as he started to walk away. As he started to turn, she saw a little smile he hid in the corner of his lips.

Fuck. He got me again. He would have paid twice.

“Yes, I would have paid twice,” the old man said with his back turned.

Mind Reader? They do not exist. Only in fantasy novels. Or do they?

Jammie sighed deeply.

Wrong question, little girl. The right one would be, the one you do not dare to ask yourself, what kind of business is this man in if he has this equipment and is ready to pay a hundred thousand credits for each of these bugs.