"Dom's going to be busy, too." said Harlan, still not happy.
"Not like you are. He should be able to help me then. I am going to
-need the second best thief in Crater City for a few hours."
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+need the second best thief in Crater City for a few hours."
+
+==== Silver Santorini: Resistance Operative ====
+
+Silver left about three hours later. Harlan had come up with a crazy
+plan to take over the Syndicate's Big House. It might work. Maybe.
+They had batted it around and added and subtracted until they were too
+tired to think.
+
+She stepped out into the cold night air, breath fogging out in front
+of her. Most of the streetlights were out, and the route was dark. She
+walked through rough neighborhoods and past collapsed buildings. The
+sidewalk was broken, but she had no problem walking.
+
+Until a shadow emerged from a dark door and came up on her left.
+
+"Hey, gorgeous. I got a warm den for you."
+
+"Go away."
+
+"I can be really nice to you."
+
+"I doubt that. Go away."
+
+"C'mon, sweetie, just come with me for a little while." A hand reached
+out and grasped her arm and just as quickly let go. "Yeeow!! You stuck
+me! I'm gonna..."
+
+He didn't finish his sentence because the knife she held in her right
+hand switched from his hand to his throat. She pushed him back. "One
+last time. Go away. Or die."
+
+Her cold green eyes stared into his reddened ones and he shuffled off
+to seek easier prey.
+
+Unruffled, she slid the vibroknife back into its sheath on her wrist
+and strode off into the night, wondering what Liam was doing.
+
+Liam Murphy: Advisor to President for Life
+
+==== Maloney; Resistance Operative ====
+
+Liam Murphy was at home, feet up, with a drink in his hand, staring at
+plans for the pirates' invasion of the Emerald Palace, the
+headquarters for the Resistance. He had given copies of the plans to
+the Boss earlier that evening, Now he was studying the plan, trying to
+find any flaws in their defenses.
+
+A breeze ruffled his hair for a moment. Just for a moment. He went
+still, not breathing. Listening. Murphy stood and moved silently
+across the room, gun in his hand. He turned the setting to lethal.
+Sliding behind an animated tapestry, he waited.
+
+A few seconds later, a man moved along the hall to the door to the
+room. Murphy could see only a shadow. He continued to wait.
+
+A flash of movement and a bearded man jumped into the room, gun held
+out in front of him in a two-handed grip. There was no one else in the
+room. Murphy was effectively hidden behind the tapestry. The man's
+voice spoke a few words sotto voce as he whirled in place to get a
+complete view of the room.
+
+The intruder turned, heading back down the hall, saying "He's gone.
+Someone must have tipped him."
+
+Murphy waited five minutes, then ten, then twenty before he moved. He
+closed the little tube that contained the plans and slid it in his
+pocket. He picked a slim book from the shelf beside him and left.
+
+He made no attempt to get his AirStrider. Best scenario: it had a new
+GPS and a bug on it. Worst scenario: it had a bomb.
+
+He had another ride stashed a few blocks away and had rehearsed
+getting to it stealthily.
+
+They would have left someone to watch the condo. With glacial
+slowness, he crawled from a window in the back to the fence. He had
+cut a hole in it which reconnected itself until he needed it. He
+needed it now.
+
+Blending with the night, he reached the AirStrider in minutes after
+getting through the fence.
+
+The machine started silently and he lifted into the air, heading for
+the Emerald Palace.
+
+Only then did he get the shakes. He thought about how much he hated
+these people who had taken him and used him until his soul was nearly
+as putrid as theirs.
+
+He had been kicked off a passenger liner when he had run out of money.
+He frowned. When he had lost all his money gambling in the first-class
+lounge. Landing on a slimeball planet, he had tried to use what skills
+he had to earn his way off. No one, it seemed, wanted a
+lawyer/accountant. Even one with a degree from Harvard. The planet
+Harvard, which was entirely devoted to higher education.
+Law/Accounting had been easy for him. His mind worked logically.
+
+Then a military fleet arrived in system and he had been recruited to
+join them. They could definitely use his advice, they said.
+
+Two systems later he learned why he had become the chief
+councilor/chief accountant for the fleet after they decimated a poorly
+populated, but very rich world. They didn't kill anyone. They just
+took. Everything. Including women and children.
+
+A year later they landed on Agalder and took over.
+
+Three years ago, when he was considering suicide, he learned about the
+Resistance. In his logical way, he formulated a plan to approach them.
+It took months to get a message to them.
+
+One night, he had been walking home from a bar when a strange noise
+made him pause. It sounded like someone calling for help. He ran
+toward the sound. It came from behind a hedge. He pushed his way
+through the hedge until he was free. Large hands closed over his mouth
+and eyes and picked him up. Tape was placed around his face so that
+all he could do was breathe. His arms were taped and he was placed on
+a Strider. He remained passive, praying that this was the Resistance.
+
+They arrived at a destination about twenty minutes later by his
+reckoning. He was placed on a grav sled and taken inside a building.
+Dumped onto an uncomfortable surface, he smelled the harsh odors of
+the medical profession and sighed. They were going to interrogate him.
+
+He woke up with no memory of the questioning when a soft voice called
+his name. He was groggy but otherwise comfortable. He opened his eyes
+and saw an angel. That was when he met Silver. She ministered to him
+professionally. She was a Nurse/Healer, trained at Johns Hopkins - the
+planet. She could have been a doctor but didn't want that profession.
+
+She helped him maintain his dignity through the recovery from
+anesthesia with kindness and humor. That was when he fell in love.
+
+She would ask him questions at times and he answered with no
+reservations. He told her his story - all of it. She listened intently
+and commented occasionally, non-judgmental.
+
+The Boss came in and introduced himself, leaving out his relationship
+with Silver at that time. But he sat down and they talked. For hours.
+Over dinner. Until Murphy's eyes were drooping. They let him sleep
+then. The next day they made him part of the Resistance.
+
+Now he had to get to them or die - painfully.
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projects / universe.git / commitdiff