"I need a few favors Raff," I put up my hand as I saw his nostrils flare, "I'm leaving town."
"When?"
"Immediately."
"Sounds good, what do you want?"
"Keep an eye on Sil, if people start nosing around her, company intel people, I want you to talk to them."
"And tell them what?" He eyed me cautiously.
"Sell me out," I grinned at him. "Tell them where I got the fake ID, tell them I left town, tell them you think I was headed to Kalamath if you want. Just don't tell them I'm leaving because I don't want Sil to get in trouble, tell them you threatened to give me up, you didn't like the way I was scaring Sil into cooperating."
He looked at me a minute, then slowly nodded.
"Sil was right about you." He said after a minute.
"Disappointed?" I asked.
"Nothing to be disappointed about," he said turning his back to me and flipping down the welding shield as he went back to work.
I left and walked cross town down to the bus station, showed my new ID and bought a ticket to Chinook, the other major spaceport on this world. I had no intention of going to Kalamath, as places go it was a hell hole, but it was just the kind of place I would have been expected to go.
13
The trip to Chinook was a long one, nine days. Bus was not the way most people traveled there, it was over three thousand miles away with a lot of stops in between. Most people took a shuttle, but the bus was cheap and the preferred method of travel for second class citizens like myself.
I had to lay over in six different cities on the trip, one layover was for the entire night. I took advantage of the time to change my wardrobe and buy some tools. When I got to Chinook I was going to have to find an income, and quickly. I had no contacts there, and only a vague idea of what I was actually going to do. The questions and problems were numerous of course. First of all I was too old to pass myself off as a freeborn without a lot of questions being asked. So because of that I had made my age ten years younger on my ID. At least the time I had spent in the hibernation tank made that one a little easier to pull off and thankfully, age was hard to tell on Animorphs. We were designed to stay in our prime as long as possible. I'd have to keep an eye on my appearance though.
Then there was the question of what to do for a job. I had a lot of training of course. But a freeborn wouldn't have any of that, so I couldn't claim it. That left a lot of low paying opportunities, if I could even get somebody to hire me.
I had enough money to live for a month when I finally hit the city. Finding a cheap place to live wasn't too hard to do. But it wasn't as cheap as I would have liked. Next I hit the spaceport and looked for whatever work I could find.
What I eventually got was a job sweeping and cleaning in a bar. It didn't pay much, but it kept me fed and paid the rent. It was a start.
Over the next four months I kept my eyes and ears open and explored the lay of the land. There was a lot of graft and corruption in the town. A lot of crime too. The corporations were being ripped off by the politicos on the one side, and the organized gangs on the other. The gangs were all pretty small affairs and they usually kicked back to the local politicos and police so things wouldn't get too hot on them.
The government then used the gangs as an excuse to make things harder on the corporations and bleed even more money. The only reason the corporations didn't pull up stakes here and go to one of the other spaceports was that with the politicians and police being so corrupt in this area, they were easy to bribe. So the corporations could do stuff here that normally they wouldn't be able to on a planet as 'civilized' as this one. So in other words it all worked out and everybody was content, if not happy, with the arrangement.
As for going back to Earth, I was working on trying to get a contract as a general laborer on a small freighter. I'd have to buy in of course, outfits like that always needed money and would happily look the other way if you wanted to invest. So I was looking for a way to get some fast cash. That was the hard part, that and finding a Freighter that was going to be heading for the Solar system.
Actually the freighter turned out to be not that hard. Several smaller concerns did a run to the Earth's moon, mostly to pick up custom equipment that couldn't be manufactured anywhere else but the Earth system. I had approached several of these groups, and a few were interested.
If I could come up with the money of course.
I had made a few friends here by this time. Nobody close, I wasn't that trusting of strangers. But it's nice to have some people to spend your free time with. Especially if a few of those someone's are female.
"Whatca' thinkin' of Neti?" Mumbled Reshera sleepily turning to me on the small bed.
"The future, and what it holds." I whispered softly.
"Still tryin' to get off planet?" she murmured slowly wrapping herself around me.
"How'd you find out about that?" I asked curiously as I nuzzled her body.
"Word gets around Hon. I've been workin' in this port for twenty years now. I'm always keepin' an ear to the gossip, especially if it concerns one of my lovers." She purred as I licked her throat.
Reshera and I had been lovers for nearly two months now, she was the only Leopard I'd met here. While she was older than both my real and pretended age, that didn't make much of a difference and I liked her maturity.
"What are you runnin' from anyway?" She asked surprising the hell out of me. "Owwwllll!" she the yowled and I realized that I had her throat in my teeth and was growling quietly myself.
"Sorry," I said releasing my grip and getting myself quickly under control. "But you have to admit that was one hell of a stupid thing to ask while I was grooming your neck."
"I didn't think ya'd do that!" She complained rubbing her neck and pulling away from me. "That smarts."
I grabbed her and forcibly dragged her back to me, "Let me kiss it and make it better." I rumbled avoiding eye contact.
"Umm, okay I guess." She acquiesced. "Not that ya seem to want to give me a choice in the matter." She growled slightly.
"I just don't want you to be afraid of me that's all," I murmured while nuzzling and rubbing her neck gently. "So I'm out to prove my good intentions."
"Horny is more likely." She chuckled while slipping her tail around to rub between my legs and in my crotch. "Hmmmm?"
"Well maybe just a little," I admitted with a small purr.
"So you want to talk about it?"
"About being horny?" I asked grinning and trying to change tack.
"No about what you're runnin’ from." She chided me gently as I rolled her onto her back.
"Why do you think I'm running from something?" I sent one of my hands down to explore her thighs while moving my body between her legs.
"Because I know people, and I know when someone's tryin' to change the topic." She said and grinned while wrapping her legs around my waist and drawing me inside with her free hand.
"Maybe I'm running
to
something," I gasped and set my hand to playing around the dock of her tail.
"Hadn't thought of
that
love!" She gasped herself and we both ceased further intelligent conversation.
"Want to talk about it?" she asked much later as we lay quietly together on my bed.
"Nope."
"I might be able to help ya', you know."
"You just want me to change the subject again I suspect!" I laughed at her.
"Well ya' do have such an interestin' way of doin' it Hon!" She chuckled back. "But I'm not without influence in these parts."
I thought about that a moment. "I need sixty thou to buy into one of those freighters. I got a thou in the bank."
"And?"
"I'll do anything short of killing someone to get it. Any suggestions?"
"You have any problems with breakin' the law?"
It was my turn to laugh. "Do you?"
"Neti! Really, I am the soul of honesty!"
"Oh sure! I'm not stupid Reshera, your lifestyle is way beyond what you make at the docks. Just because you haven't invited me around to your place doesn't mean I haven't taken a look."
"You've seen my place?" She said shocked and looking very surprised.
"You're not the only one who takes an interest in their lovers. Take that portrait you have above your bed," I continued with a smile. "I bet that cost more than you make in a year, maybe two!"
That was when she started to change the subject.
I didn't hear from her for several days after that, but on Thursday one of the regulars who worked down at the same office as Reshera told me she wanted me to stop by during my break. Getting away wasn't too much trouble, it was pretty slow between lunch and quitting time.
"Just don't loaf, get back here quick Neti!" said Hal, the Otter who worked the bar and managed the place. He was easy going for the most part, but as I was now the afternoon bouncer he didn't like me being gone too long, especially on a Thursday.
I went down past the Port offices, and the ticketing agents. Past the food shops, the souvenir stalls, the maintenance facility, until I came to the warehouses. I cut down between two of them, and looked for the small office I wanted. It didn't take me long to get there, I was pretty familiar with the whole area. I had cased it out shortly after arriving and still strolled down here occasionally.
I walked up to the door and knocked. I didn't try it, all the doors down here were always kept locked. Too much pilfering went on and security was tight. When I came here on my occasional 'inspections' I was always having to dodge security patrols.
"Who is it?" Buzzed the speaker in the door frame.
"Neti, here to see Reshera."
"Come in," the door buzzed and I waved at the optic sensor as I strolled inside. Reshera herself came and let me inside the office from the vestibule herself.
"Hey ya there handsome!" She smiled and gave me a quick buss.
"Hey yourself. What's so important that you had to roust me on a Thursday of all days?"
"What's so big about Thursday?" She asked curious.
"Payday. There'll be a lot of drunken and rowdy folks tonight. Makes Hal nervous, he doesn't like fights."
"Oh. Well a job just opened on up here for a general laborer. I though ya'd like ta be the first one to apply for it," then she whispered in my ear. "And the
only
one."
"What's the pay?" I asked curious, then 'oofed' as she elbowed me in the stomach. I got the message. "What do I do?"
"Give me your ident disk, and go see the manager. I'll take care of the rest."
I handed it over and went to the door she pointed at. I knocked lightly.
"Who is it?" Came a brusk and very human sounding voice.
"I'm here about the laborer position." I replied slowly.
"Come in."
I opened the door and walked inside. It was a pretty nice office, large with nice furnishings. This guy was not only adding to his salary, but he was blatantly showing it off as well. Either he was very stupid, or very powerful.
I looked him over unobtrusively, he looked to be about thirty five, a little over weight, and about five and a half feet tall. Small for a Human, but not too small.
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself? I haven't got all day you know!" He demanded looking at me while I waited there.
"When do I start?" I asked quietly.
"What makes you think I'll even hire you?" He asked sarcastically. "I gotta' shitload of dumb cats working for me already!"
"But none of them know anything about the Hanfield line of security systems. Which is the one you're using here in your warehouse. While all the others in this area are relying on more inexpensive models."
He looked at me a second time. "You know security systems?"
"I know a few things."
"Ever run one?"
"No," I smiled "Just err, played with them. Till I got what I wanted."
He smiled, "That's more like it. Reshera vouches for you, and I do need a new hand quick. The old one got himself in too much trouble with the gaming tables. You don't gamble do you?"
"Not if I can help it," I chuckled.
"Good, show up tomorrow at second shift. I'll have somebody fill you in then."
And so began my career with the local rackets. The scam was pretty standard, but well run. My new boss, Mister Hannson, was a pretty smooth operator and cautious too. Once a week or so, we raided another one of the warehouses in the area. Sometimes we did it more often, sometimes we did it less. And we were careful about what we took, usually small physical amounts to make it look like pilferage by the local employees, but expensive enough items to earn good money.
But every once in a while a big job would come through. And that was what we were doing tonight, six months later. We were raiding a large shipment of computer memory blocks, very expensive stuff all right, and under very tight security. I handled my end without a hitch, even if the security system was one so new most people hadn't seen it.
I had of course, what was new here was still five years old back on Earth. The bonus I would be getting from this one job alone would put me past the halfway mark in the cash I was going to need to buy my passage out. Things were going well. Not great, but well.