Mark “Coop” Cooper

Location: Savannah City, New Savannah, United Commonwealth of Colonies

“Come with me if you want to live.”

Coop had to restrain himself from lashing out with a vicious elbow as something hard pressed against his hip. It was the end of the duty day, before he needed to get ready for the Gold party, and he was in the crowded gym. He’d only been in the state-of-the-art fitness facility a handful of times since he arrived on New Savannah, but seeing Eve today made him feel restless, and he needed to do something. Working out seemed just as good an idea as anything else, and drinking might not be the best idea with SRRT training starting soon. He had no idea what the SGM had planned, but he knew it was going to suck.

Coop took a deep breath and let his fight or flight instinct, nearly all fight, ebb, before looking over his shoulder to smile. “Is it me or are you just happy to see me.” He had to look down to see Aiko with her fingers pressed against him in the form of a gun. It was actually pretty cute.

“If this was my physiological reaction to you, it would lead to some issues.” Aiko had never specifically said she was only interested in dudes, but Coop had shot down her suggestion of a devil’s three way. The last thing he wanted when fucking the flexible spacer was another dude’s dick flapping around.

“So, why are you here?” Coop put down the 100 kilogram dumbbells he was using for his cool down set of bicep curls. He’d never seen her in the gym before. She obviously worked out, he’d seen what was under the CMUs, but lifting weights clearly wasn’t her exercise of choice.

“It’s go time.” She left it at that, grabbed his hand, and dragged him out of the gym. He just had enough time to grab his uniform bag from its cubby.

“Can I at least get something to drink?” Coop protested weakly. “I need some electrolytes if…”

“Not that type of go time, and believe me we’re going to talk about that.”

“Um…ok…” Coop tried to play it cool, but knew he utterly failed.

It would have helped Coop more than once when he was forced to climb out of a window due to the boyfriend arriving home unexpectedly.

Thankfully, Coop was in civilian workout clothes, so he didn’t automatically stand out as military. His size would make anyone ninety percent sure he was a combatant of some sort, but that ten percent hesitation might save his ass if things went sideways. He didn’t have any of his gear with him, and Aiko was moving with a purpose toward the front gate.

“Where are we…?”

“Shhh,” Aiko shushed him as they approached the guards in full Dragonscale armor paired with some corporate security guys in sleeker, black armor.

They scanned their GICs with the guards, and were allowed to pass. Despite the intense nature of the last few days, and the high alert the planet was on with the general elections in full swing, the RADM didn’t feel like they needed to cancel any passes, leaves, or confine everyone to base. So, it was easy enough for them to walk right off the grounds and toward the line of cabs waiting to pick up soldiers heading into town.

“Nope.” Aiko grabbed his elbow and pulled him away toward a long-term parking lot just to the right of the entrance. “I’ve got a ride.”

Was Coop’s first thought. It was a hell of a lot cheaper to just catch a cab to the bars and clubs. Even a cheap car was thousands of dollars.

Aiko saw the confused look on his face and frowned. “What is the first thing you do when you walk into a new place, Coop?”

“Know the exits, and know how to get to them if I need to,” Coop replied reflexively. He’d been thinking that way ever since he almost got gutted by some gang member over a few thousand calories when he was eleven.

“Exactly, now what do you do when you get out of the building?” Aiko didn’t look back as she wove in and out of vehicles.

“I…” Coop hesitated. “I guess I’d need to find a ride.”

“That’s two points for the genius.” Aiko stopped next to an ancient, wheeled vehicle. “Now, if shit has hit the fan, and you need a quick exit, isn’t it better to have your own set of wheels than to need to steal a ride, or worse, wait for a cab.”

“I see your point,” Coop surrendered.

“Rule number one if you want to survive in this little side business, Coop. Make sure to always have a quick getaway planned; especially, when there is ten grand on the table.”

Coop immediately picked up what was going on with the mention of the money. “They want to talk now.”

“They’re waiting for us at the bar.” Aiko nodded as she hopped in the car and started up the engine. Despite how decrepit it looked, it didn’t cough or struggle to start. “Rule number two is to maintain your shit,” she stated when Coop hesitated again and studied the car. “Let’s go, we don’t have all day.”

Getting out of the area immediately surrounding the defense complex was a pain in the ass. Traffic was thick, and Aiko almost hit somebody at least twice. There was a lot of yelling and screaming, and Aiko even went for the gun in her glovebox once, but Coop stopped her. First, because waving a gun would draw attention, and second, because it wasn’t an approved personal defense weapon by Commonwealth law. In fact, it looked like one of the laser pistols he’d help steal off the asteroid base.

Coop didn’t even ask. There were so many things he didn’t know about the woman sitting next to him, but that’s what made it so fun. He checked himself as they approached their destination, and got his head in the game.

Aiko drove around the block twice looking for anything suspicious. Neither of them spotted anything, so they pulled into a spot on the street. Coop kept his head on a swivel as they left the car and entered the bar. It was starting to fill up with everyone who needed to get their drink on after work, but the booth at the back was conspicuously empty. Aiko shot the bartender a look, and he nodded toward the booth.

Coop scanned the crowd looking for anything out of the ordinary. There were a couple of big guys in the crowd, but they were all slouched over their drinks, or in conversation. They could be military, former military, gangsters with enough cash to spend on enhancements, or revolutionaries who’d sacrificed their bodies for the cause. Either way, Coop needed to keep an eye on them. He slid into his seat and immediately felt the bottom of the table for anything out of the ordinary. Bombs didn’t have to be big to maim a person. He knew that all too well.

“Here.” Aiko was doing the same thing on her side of the table, but she found something. She pulled a small PAD out from under the table, which had an envelope attached to it. She opened it and whispered, “Answer the questions and you’ll get your money.” The letter in the envelope was hand written, in poor handwriting, but it was still something you didn’t see every day. When you could send a message across a system by tapping away on polyplast why would you write anything out anymore?

“Go ahead.” She slid the PAD over to Coop. “Make us some money.”

The PAD activated when he touched it, but didn’t ask for a GIC scan, this one had been tampered with. That was fine with Coop, he wasn’t going to give anyone this shady his info. On the PAD was a list of questions that he went through one by one. They didn’t ask anything about him personally, but they were all about New Lancashire, Cobalt Station, and anything else that happened in the sector.

Coop could see why they were paying ten grand on the black market for the info. It wasn’t exactly all classified, but it wasn’t info the fleet gave to the public. The questions asked a lot about logistics, supply runs, MTOEs, and specifically the chain of command in the area. Whoever this was wanted a lot of detail on who could order who to do what, and Coop did the best he could to answer. When he got to the end of the questions there was a legit submit button, like he was taking a test back in high school.

“You do the honors.” Coop handed the PAD back to Aiko to finish everything up. “You’re making a grand off this, so you’ve got to do something.”

“I do plenty,” she replied, but took the PAD and hit the big, green button. Coop half expected the booth to explode, but it didn’t. In fact, there was a chime on the PAD and on Coop’s own PAD. Ten grand had been transferred into an account Aiko had established under false names she’d gotten a hold of. Over the next few weeks, they’d siphon little bits of the money into their actual accounts to avoid suspicion from the Ministry of War Finance and Accounting Service.

“Done.” She tossed the PAD back on the table and got to her feet. “Let’s go.”

“Are you worried we’re going to be late for the party?” Coop thought he could engage in some light ribbing since he’d just made her half a month’s pay in fifteen minutes.

“No, I’m good, but your girlfriend might be a little upset if we’re behind schedule. Bitch looks like the rangers have lodged something big and firm up her ass, and I don’t need hassling about my business from her.”

For once in his life, Coop wisely kept his mouth shut and did his grumbling in his head.

***

Noah watched the pair leave the bar without even looking. He’d discretely placed a few pin-sized cameras around the bar to get better vantage points on everything. He’d also put a few outside the bar, so he watched them hop into an old-fashioned car and drive off. It wasn’t until they had left the building that he started moving.

“I’m still drinking.” Able hissed as the pirate captain of Dawn hopped up and started moving.

That was the only protest Able got out before chugging his beer and following. A few other members of their newly assembled crew filed out behind them. Like always, they thought Able was in charge and Noah was just his small, shifty aide.

“We should follow them,” Noah made the order sound like a suggestion, as the six men stepped out onto the curb just as the car turned the corner.

It looked like it was heading back to the defense complex, but Able still waved for two of the guys to hop on the hover bikes they had stashed in front of the bar and follow. “Report back if they go anywhere new.” Able kept the orders simple, and headed back into the bar.

“Everything good?” the bartender asked. When a quarter of his clientele suddenly got up and left, a business man tended to take notice.

“Just figuring out the tab.” Noah chucked a money chip at the man to cover the whole crew’s drinks, which was a substantial sum. To avoid detection, they’d been at the bar for over an hour.

There was more to the statement than just tonight’s bill. It had been a hard few months, especially after someone stiffed them out of tens of millions, and tried to kill them to cover up their tracks. Able wanted them to move on to new jobs, but Noah just couldn’t let it go. He didn’t have much of a code of honor, but when someone fucked with him they had to pay. Anything else looked weak, and the small man detested anything weak.

After the entire York Sector blew up, he’d move into the Midworlds and done a few jobs, got some cash, and assembled a small crew. Dawn didn’t need a lot of people, so they were able to keep the newbies fat and happy off a few hijackings. Noah kept a portion of the proceeds to get info on the York Sector, and now that he had it, he’d cross reference it with other data he’d paid for. Hopefully, with this recent information, he’d have the name of the person that ripped him off. Once he knew that…he left those happy thoughts to his imagination.

“What now?” Able asked discretely as he leaned on the table.

“Now…we wait for an opportunity.” Noah smiled at the bartender, and the man did the smart thing and got as far away from the pirate captain as the bar allowed.