YEAR: 25

Braheton City, Central Tharsis, Mars

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"What do you want?" said the man who Ric had shoved against the wall. "Who are you?" His nasal voice broadcast genuine distress. Ric jostled him again and his dark, lank hair fell across his face. He was practically glued to the side of the building now.

"You've been following us for the past two kilometers. You clearly know who we are."

"You're crazy! Let me go or I'll loke the Police!"

Alex, his anxiety spiking, had to agree that Ric was acting irrationally. Whether this person was following them or not, the situation had gotten out of hand. Close up, Alex could see that the man was even older than he had thought, pushing fifty by the looks of things. "Maybe you should let him go, Ric."

The man wheezed, spittle flying from his mouth. "Yeah, see! I don't have anything valuable. Let me go and we'll all be fine."

In one movement, Ric turned the man around and thrust him back against the wall to face him. Alex flinched at the sound of his skull smacking the concrete. Ric pulled his locator from his pocket and held it up to the man's face. "Go ahead. Loke the Police."

For a moment, Alex feared that was exactly what would happen as the man reached for Ric's locator, but then he dropped his hand and sighed. "Fine. Shit, I don't get paid enough for this."

Ric relaxed his grip, but only slightly. "Who's paying you to follow my friend?"

"I couldn't answer that even if I wanted to. I'm way down the ladder."

Ric shook him, hard enough to crack his skull again, and glared down at him. "Take a guess."

"Ow! Fuck. I'm too old for you to be throwing around. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

"No," said Ric, his jaw working. "She didn't. And being much younger than you, I can do this for hours if I'm needing to. So tell us who, and why, and I'll stop."

The man squirmed in a fruitless attempt to escape. Ric looked unfazed, and Alex wondered with apprehension how often he'd done this before. "Fine," the man said at last, wheezing again. "Carlos Cañon. That's the only name I know, but don't bother looking up Carlos unless you want to be shipped home from university in a biohazard box. I've been told this goes higher than him anyway. I told you, I'm lower than a rat in the organization. All I know is that I'm watching your buddy here, waiting for 'transport of objects.' I report back his movements, that's all."

Alex spoke at last, his need for information overcoming his anxiety. "What objects?" The man didn't reply right away, prompting another violent jolt from Ric.

"Answer him."

"I don't know! Something heavy, something contained and not easily moved, is what I understand. Shit, I think I'm bleeding."

"Okay, relax," said Alex, not sure if he was talking to Ric, the other man, or himself. "Let him go, Ric."

The man wheezed again. It may have been a laugh. It was hard to tell with Ric's arm across his windpipe. "Yeah, Ric. Let me go and I won't tell your mom you beat me up."

Ric drove a fist into his stomach and he crumpled, his face turning red, then white as he tried to suck in air. As Ric and Alex stepped out of the alley back into the street, Alex began to shake. Adrenaline, he thought, but knowing that didn't prevent him from feeling ill. Ric hurried him along until they were most of the way back to the dorm, then slowed as they approached the entrance. He gave Alex a sidelong glance. "You're probably wondering if I do that on a regular basis, aye?"

Alex eyed him warily. He felt safer now, but far from calm. "The question did cross my mind."

"I hope you'll no be disappointed to learn I've never beaten a man before. No an older man, at any rate."

"You were pretty good at it for someone who hasn't done it before."

Ric looked at him soberly for a few seconds, then broke into a grin. "Aye, I was, wasn't I?"

"That wasn't a compliment," said Alex, but Ric had already started walking away towards the main doors. He pulled out his loke and talked so rapidly into it, and with such an unfettered accent, that it barely sounded like English. Some other students came between them, and by the time Alex caught up with him on the escalator he'd lapsed back into proper English.

"Aye, it was just like Space Pirates. I wish you'd been here… No, I'm fine… Tay, for God's sake, don't be telling Darius." Ric rolled his eyes at the locator, even though he didn't have video on, making the gesture useless. "No, I haven't had time to update my Feed… aye, I've been keeping up on yours, but…" Ric looked helplessly at Alex, who had no assistance to offer. His nerves were still overworked from their recent encounter, and he didn't even know who Ric was talking to.

They exited the escalator and made it through security and over to the elevators, Ric all the while delivering an edited version of their adventure to the person on the other end of the loke. Ric was so absorbed in his conversation that he forgot his dislike of elevators, and they made it up to their floor and halfway down the hallway to their room before he stopped dead in his tracks. Alex had to pull himself up short to avoid crashing into him.

Ric, oblivious to this, waved his free hand about in an animated fashion. "I told you I'm fine, and I'll no turn on the holo. My word ought to be proof enough." Ric paused to listen and then sighed. "All right! I'm giving you to Alex. He's incapable of lying, so he'll tell you the truth."

Alex took the loke from Ric and the person on the other end spoke before he had a chance to say anything. It was a female voice, young, with the same lilt as Ric's. "Is he all right, then?"

Alex looked at Ric, who shrugged as if the matter were completely out of his hands now that he'd handed over the locator. "Um. He's okay. The other guy, not so much."

"Are you sure?" She sounded anxious. "Don't be fibbing or I'll tell Darius exactly what happened. You can tell Ric I said that."

"Really, he's fine." Alex searched for something better to say. Whoever she was, her worry seemed genuine, and he felt the need to reassure her. "Not a scratch on him. Even his ridiculously expensive haircut still looks fashionably tousled."

She laughed with obvious relief. "Aye, well, I suppose he must be all right if he hasn't gone running for a comb. Thank you, Alex."

"You're welcome," he got out, before Ric snatched back the loke and gave him a look while speaking into it.

"Are you mocking me? You must be, because that's the only thing that makes Alex grin that wide. At any rate, do you believe me now?" Apparently she was satisfied, for Ric said his goodbyes as they entered the dorm room. He tossed the loke on the desk and flopped down on his bed opposite Alex. "There's a crisis averted. She was ready to go tell people I'm mugging strangers. Da would haul me back to Copernicus quicker than a skunk if he got wind of that, never mind what Darius would do."

"She did mention Darius." Alex waited, but Ric didn't volunteer the obvious, so he asked. "Who is she, by the way?"

"Sorry, I thought you knew. That was Tay."

"Tay's a girl?"

"Are you daft? Of course Tay's a girl. Why would you think otherwise?"

"You've only mentioned her to me twice. The first time was, 'Too bad Tay couldn't help me with this fighting class' and the second time you said, 'Tay would knock me on my arse right now.'"

Ric grimaced. "Never tell her I said that. Anyway, she's a girl, sure enough. Her full name is Tessa. Tessa Corcoran."

"Tessa?" A wisp of something—memory or fancy, he couldn't be sure—flashed through his mind and then vanished. The sensation of less than perfect recall was so foreign that for a second he felt disoriented by it.

"What's wrong?" said Ric, regarding him curiously.

"Nothing. The name sounds familiar, that's all."

"You're thinking of Tressa of Tarvania from Space Pirates," said Ric, ignoring Alex's protest. "Only don't mention that to her if you value your neck. She's no fond of the reference, and she's quite good with the sword."

Alex noted the warm note of praise. "Are you and she…"

"She's seventeen." Ric sounded legitimately offended.

"I'm sorry. I just thought… you seem close."

"We are close. We grew up together. But I don't care for her in that way; she's like a sister to me."

"I understand." He battled back a brief but bitter ache in his heart as he thought of Sadie. "She really was worried, you know. For the record."

Ric sighed. "I'm knowing that. It's why I hardly share anything on my Feed. I'd have half of Ruy loking me every ten minutes to check up on me. Speaking of which, perhaps you ought to finish going through that holodisk before I have to beat anyone else up."

Alex reluctantly nodded. He knew he had to do it. He would do it. He just didn't want to. He'd prefer that this intrigue vanish on its own.