Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 19:59:24 +0000
From: Guy Trache <pfantazm@hotmail.com>
Subject: Procurers 1.8

The Procurers - Part 8

By Pfantazm

~~~

Author's Note:  This story contains depictions of the future.  If they are
proved to be inaccurate several hundred years from now, enh, that's
science fiction for you.

The characters in this story have unprotected sex, with the basic
assumption that anything that can do them in will have been cured by the
time the story takes place.  If you think you can hang on that long
(especially given the previous disclaimer about accuracy), then, by all
means, follow their example.  Otherwise, stay safe.

Direct interpersonal contact is feasible via pfantazm@hotmail.com.  To
access and review other documents of a similar derivation to the one
herein, locate the relevant directory at
www.pridesites.com/pfantazm/index.html.

A couple of other things before I continue the story.  (You've waited this
long, what a minute or two more.

First, I'd like to thank Marty H. for the gentle prod in the ass that got
this story going again.  (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)  If he hadn't
e-mailed me, I don't know when I would have turned my attention back to
writing.  The dam is broken, and hopefully creativity will flow again.

Secondly, there's this other guy, see?  He's an author at Nifty too,
writing in the Gay Incest category exclusively so far, and he's going by
"Phangasm".  Obviously, this person doesn't spell his name as badly as I
spell mine.  Just as obvious is the fact that he ain't me, and I ain't
him.  Nothing personal, but if he starts doing Author's Notes like this
one and switches to science fiction, I'm gonna beat him up after school.
~~~

1.8 - THE ZYMOBIUS FILE

People, Scott mused, are highly predictable in some ways.  For all their
emotions, their passions, their neuroses, their internal chaos, they all
have their crutches.  And they almost never change.

Humanity as a whole, on the other hand, can be pretty surprising.  As an
anthropologist in his own minor way, Scott_Quinn was in a unique position
to judge this.  Few sentient species had such an equal capacity for beauty
and for destruction.  When Scott reviewed Professor Zymobius' collection
he marvelled at mankind's progress.  Much of that could be attributed to
the life extension process discovered many millennia ago.

In a human's prime, usually no more than seven years away from natural age
25, he or she underwent a medical procedure to freeze the body's
progression into the geriatric stage.  Since life extension could only be
performed once on the human body safely, the choice of when to undergo the
procedure was critical: too young, and one risked feeling the last stages
of puberty constantly for the next few centuries; too old and one risked
looking as though you had already reversed the process so that you might
live out your Golden Years.

Humanity's haste in embracing this new tech had had several desirable side
effects.  With a considerably longer lifespan, the toxic rate of change
imposed by the accelerating cutting edge of scientific advancement and
technology slowed to a more comfortable level.  People were no longer in
such a hurry to get everything done before they died because, barring
fatal accidents, they could more or less pick when that was.

People were also less inclined to put their problems off for their
grandchildren to solve, since they would probably still be alive when
their great-great-grandchildren were born.  Humanity matured.  It couldn't
help it.

Individuals, on the other hand, could still be short-sighted in some
ways.  Take Evan, who, it appeared, took every precaution he could to
remain hidden from everyone.  Despite this, Evan had arranged to meet
Scott in two locations so far: the diner, and the address his agent had
been forwarded when Scott asked to bargain for the file he was working
with.  These two places were within a half an hour's drive of each other.

If Scott were trying to hide, especially on a planet where he lived and
which he was familiar with, he would have Ganymede suggest random sites
from all over the globe.  It would be inconvenient, to be sure, but far
less inconvenient than being found by the wrong people.

Scott hadn't been as successful in tracking Evan as he would have liked.
Halvaga III's internet was divided into regions, each a fraction of a
city's worth of geography and population.  He was 99% sure he'd found the
region that was the ultimate source of Evan's message - and yes, it was
nearby the two meeting sites - but the regions were imprecisely defined.
They overlapped each other crazily, leaving this building isolated in one
region while surrounded by bits of two others, and leaving that building
in a small cluster that was in the same region as a few more similarly
affiliated neighbourhoods on the next continent over.  It was a
frustratingly organic system.  Maybe Evan was using this madness to help
conceal him.  Maybe he thought hiding out wasn't so bad if it didn't take
him too far out of his way.

The upshot was that Scott had located some very likely-looking spots where
Evan might be camped out, but they were too scattershot and too big to
search by looking around and hoping to run into him.

All of this meant that Scott either needed to get Evan to call again for a
while so that he could get a better fix on him, or he needed to get
cleverer than usual.

  * * *

Domino didn't like what he saw.

He was sitting behind a heat shield in an apartment stack that he'd taken
great pains to break into, and staring through his hi-res binocs.

Across the wide gap between this tower and the next one over, he could see
two recumbent figures.  They seemed to be asleep.  They were taking refuge
in an abandoned stack that looked as though a giant had come along and
peeled away a strip of the building's skin so he could properly grab the
pretty little blonde inside and get on with climbing the rest of the way
to the top.  Several stories' worth of unoccupied space was left exposed
to the open night air.

He was still convinced that Evan was a corporate thug, but now it appeared
that he wasn't anymore.  If there was some company that he worked for on
the planet, they'd be able to put him up somewhere better than this.
Domino had tried again to get a more complete background on his assigned
target, but once more he'd only found enough references to him to convince
people that he really existed, and not enough references to get a clear
picture.  One could be led to believe, as Domino had at first, that Evan
was just a drifter from job to job.

There was movement from across the abyss between the two edifices.  The
two men were not asleep.  Evan was sitting up, and the redhead, OxygenJim,
was putting his legs over Evan's shoulders.  Soon their bodies were
gyrating in place.

Domino had only watched the pair as long as he had because he wanted some
insight into the case he'd been given.  He knew that Evan was here, and
that should have been enough.  Now he had a new excuse to watch.  Domino
cranked up the resolution on his binoculars.

OxygenJim's cock was partway erect.  It danced limply from side to side as
the man himself got fucked.  It was a nice size, and Domino pictured
himself 69ing with the slim redhead while he watched the main action.
Evan's cock pistoned rapidly into the broad cleft between the other man's
legs, shining wetly in the pollution-filtered moonlight.  Domino's line of
sight traced back to Evan's rock-solid, flexing ass, up his torso and down
his arm.  One was bracing him against the couch they were on, and the
other was pinching and twisting the redhead's nipple.

Domino's own hand absently rubbed at his crotch while he watched.  In his
mind, OxygenJim was using his lips, gaped wide in the pleasure of the
fuck, to stroke and suck on Domino's hairless ballsac.  Domino yanked at
his belt, undid his pants and let his best friend out to play.  The tip of
his hooded cock sparkled with juice.  He massaged his cock on his knees
while he stared at the flesh show ahead of him.

OxygenJim was saying something now and gesturing at the arm of the couch.
First, Evan tried shuffling back, but had no room.  Next he leaned down
and hauled OxygenJim's body upright, still poised on the length of Evan's
manhood.  The two smiled at each other for a moment before OxygenJim began
to bounce on his partner's prick.  Evan leaned the other man back and
chewed on the nipple he had been fingering before.  He cradled the man in
his arms, one across his back and shoulders, one on the back of his head.

Domino's own little fantasy was blown, but who cared?  While he jerked his
hard cock furiously with one hand, his other burrowed down the back of his
trousers.  It was awkward, but his finger reached the entrance to his ass,
and he rubbed it around the opening.

In the other tower, OxygenJim slid up and down over Evan's lap.  The
creamy skin of his hips and ass rippled with the slender muscle beneath.
His eyes were closed, and his mouth was hanging slightly open.  Domino
wondered whether the man was gasping with each stroke, or if he was
moaning, or if he made no sound louder than his steady breathing.

This wasn't working. Domino, careful of his cover, got up more on his
knees and wrench his pants down around his thighs.  Now he could slip his
finger right into his hole, spread wide in his kneeling position.

Evan lay with his legs together, his eyes screwed shut and his face tensed
in pleasure.  His chest was damp with sweat.  He had a hold on his
companion's cock and was jerking it slowly.  OJ's body fell forward
slightly and he held himself up by his arms.  He didn't skip a beat
fucking himself on Evan's member.

Domino's prostate sang.  His finger pressed and stimulated it.  The visual
he was getting from across the empty space between them was turning him on
so bad.  All at once he wished that he could go over there, to kneel
beside them, taking turns between kissing Evan's lips and taking OJ's
slender prick into his mouth.  He also knew that it would ruin the magic
of it all;  the illictness of watching such a private act, even if all the
neighbours could see if they knew where to watch, made this a secret joy
for him alone, not to be shared with anyone.

Things were slowing down across the way.  Now OJ was leaning back, and
Domino could imagine Evan's stiffness targetting OJ's hot spot.  Evan
found his second wind and started pounding his friend's ass from below.
OJ's face twisted in what looked like pain, and Domino could see the glint
of his wet cum fire into the darkness.  Evan still had his hand guiding it
and he aimed it straight into his face.  Domino could picture OJ's cream
splattering juicily across Evan's handsome face, down his chin.

The voyeur felt his own orgasm approach.  He grabbed for the cloth he kept
in his B&E kit and pressed it in front of his cockhead just as it fired.
The soft cloth cloyed at his sensitive tip and sent violent shocks through
his body as it spasmed.  The force of his cumming weakened him and he
pitched forward just as OJ had done, and he had to hold himself up with
his one free hand.

Domino sat back on his heels, scooped up the binocs again, and gazed out
the window.  Evan and OJ were similarly cleaning up.  Domino wondered if
he came at about the same time as he and OJ had.

Well, he had been of a mind before to do what he could to keep these two
alive, and now he was more resolved than ever.  BoTan promised they would
be kept alive and he intended to ensure it was a promise they kept.

  * * *

Plan B was failing.  Worse than that, Meicross was getting bitchy.

Anytime Scott immersed himseld in a problem, the pilot would go into the
same mother-hen act he'd been performing for decades.

"Scott, you're not working on trying to crack that file, are you?" he
called back from the cockpit.

"I'm not," Scott replied calmly.  He was trying to determine where in the
area of Avenita City Evan was holed up.  A hostel?  Rooftop?  A friend's
house, where Scott would never find him?

"You're awfully quiet.  You should rest your mind and do something else."

"Might I remind you that you are the employee in the business," Scott said
from his workstation, "and in no real position to be telling me where my
attention should be directed?"  The data miner hated pulling rank.  The
two had been closer companions than their working relationship implied.
It flew in the face of the years that they'd been all but business
partners since before Scott_Quinn became an independent.  It was a crass
thing to do.

Besides, it never worked.

"Might I remind you," came the rejoinder, "that every time you overwork
yourself, I gotta be your nursemaid, and you can't do any work.  You got
this hotel job coming and you need to be ready."

This was the first part of it.  Meicross was right.  Even if Scott could
lay his hands on Evan's file that second, life would go on, and there was
no backing out of the new contract on Panopia.  His obsession, and it was
rapidly becoming one, could be damaging.

He closed the city plan on the screen, and prepared for a trip into town.

Minder was summoned subconsciously and floated over to Scott's shoulder.

"I'm going to the meeting site early," Scott said, popping his head
through the cockpit door.  Meicross sat on the backrest of his pilot's
chair - currently 90 degrees away from conforming to gravity - and
watching the local television stations, which also appeared sideways on
the screen.  He looked at Scott for a moment, then said, "Okay, boss.
Be safe."

"Always," Scott said, smiling and he disembarked.

The spacedock was like a world of its own, and in more sense than one.
Legally speaking, even though Daybreaker was in contact with the ground,
it wasn't part of the planet.  This meant Scott had to pass through
Customs every time he went out on Halvaga III.

He climbed into the car he'd rented and, before starting it, turned on
the navigation systems.  He familiarized himself with the route to the
rooftop cafe where he was to meet Evan.  Then he started the car, and
drove it himself this time.  Seeing the area on the plan was one thing;
wandering around it in person would give him a new perspective.

First he drove directly to the skyscraper where the cafe was and into a
parling lot therein.  Then he drove himself fairly aimlessly around the
neighbourhood.  Meicross might be satisfied that Scott had stopped working
at his computer, but that didn't mean he couldn't keep looking for Evan's
bolthole directly.  The magnetically-generated roads allowed him to
examine his surroundings from almost any angle.  The roads crisscrossed
each other at many heights and it was easy to get confused as to where one
was.  Scott kept the building with the cafe on top in sight where possible
as a reference point.  It was an abnormally short structure compared to
those around it, so the cafe itself was in plain view from almost
anywhere.  This was why, as Scott caught sight of it, he could make out
the people on the rooftop with his bioenhanced vision.  One person in
particular.

Scott cast about for a place to park where he could still see the cafe's
terrace.  He wasn't paying enough attention to the road, and his car
bounced harmlessly against the side guard beams of the road.  Other
vehicles honked behind him.  Soon he found a place to turn off onto a
quieter airway.

Three things were for certain.  First, that was Evan on the roof already.
Second, both he and Scott were each an hour or so early for their
appointment.  Last, Evan was not alone.

  * * *

Raven and Sasha sat down at Evan's table, the only occupied one in sight.
They were both still dressed to type:  Raven in his long, black cloak;
Sasha in a flowered shirt, shorts and sandals; and Evan in his biker
jacket.

"It's good to see you again," Sasha began jovially.

"The pleasure is mine," Evan replied.

"I really hate to be rude, but wasting time in a public place is never a
wise idea.  Do you have our prize?"

Evan reached down by his chair side and pulled up his pack.  He laid it on
the table and extracted a small blue box.  "Fresh from storage."

"Not cold storage, I hope," Raven said.

"Now, Raven, our friend Evan has already assured us that he knows what
he's doing," Sasha chided.  "On the other hand, I'm sure Evan won't mind
if we look one over?"

Evan opened the box's hinged lid to show what was inside:  about a dozen
small, round, yellow objects.  Evan could balance about half of them on
his fingertip at once.

Sasha reached out and shut the box.  "Keep that closed, now."  The
revolutionary never seemed to get angry.  He merely corrected errors
sternly.  "Show Evan his prize, please."

Raven took a transfer agent from this pocket and laid it before Evan.  His
crimson eyes lit up when he saw the figures.

"May I?" Sasha asked.  Evan nodded.

Sasha passed the box to Raven, who slipped one of the items out of the box
and into a small machine.  After a moment it beeped and Raven said, "It's
viable.  Excellent condition.  Most likely, they all are."

Sasha's mood improved.  Even Raven almost cracked a smile.  "Goddess,
thank you," he said to the sky.  "We've been waiting for these a long
time," he told Evan.

  * * *

It took Scott a long time to circle back around to the cafe parking lot.
He jumped out of his rental car on level 78 and raced for the elevator
tubes with Minder bobbing along behind.  In all that time, Evan might have
left again.

Scott stepped out of the tube onto the terrace and looked around to get
his bearings.  He'd had nothing to worry about.  Evan and two other
gentlemen sat at a table near the edge.  Scott watched as a blue box and
an agent were passed between them.  So Evan did have another deal running
on the side.

This line of thought was interrupted when the muzzle of a weapon touched
the side of his head and a strangely deep female voice said, "You move and
you carry your head home in a doggie bag."

  * * *

Another apartment break-in, another surveillance session.  Watching this
Evan character was getting to be a serious hobby.  From behind his heat
shield, he saw the biggest woman he'd ever seen frogmarch a fifth
participant into Evan's little tea party.  She was the bouncer at The
Black Hole, as he recalled.  Domino didn't watch too long.  Evan might be
his current assignment, but guarding his karma was a lifetime's commitment.

He'd relayed his bits on Evan, the meeting and his friend OxygenJim to his
temporary employers.  He left out the part where he found their little
love nest.  Always leave something back for yourself.  Karma, man.

The boys at BoTan had sworn up and down that they held no grudge against
Evan and that they only wanted their McGuffin back, but Domino had been
playing this game too long not to know the rules by now.  He scanned the
skyline for a BoTan termination force to come down on Evan and his friends.

Domino's attention flipped back to the meeting at the table.  Evan was
standing, and it looked like everyone was trying to figure out what
everyone else was doing there.

He did a visual sweep again and saw people in dark clothes carrying large
cases on the roof of the building beside Evan's.  He pulled out his
agent.

When OxygenJim was coming home that last day, and saw the BoTan thugs at
his door, he made an emergency call to Evan.  Domino was watching from the
shadows and got himself a copy of the emergency override code.  He used it
now.

  * * *

"So what were you doing there?" Raven demanded.

"I was waiting for your meeting to end so that mine could begin," Scott
explained.

"I'm gonna waste 'im," said Penelope!, the bouncer.

"Don't!  I need him," Evan told her.  Scott gave Evan a plasticrete-
melting look as Evan's agent rang.  "I gotta take this."

"Now?!" Sasha shrieked.

"Yes, now!"  Only one person should have access to his pager now.  "OJ?
What's wrong?"

"Not OJ.  This is Domino, the man who's been following you."

(I'm from off-planet.  I don't know any BoTan corporation.)

"How did you get my put-through code?  Is OJ alright?" Evan asked.

(I'm gonna waste 'im, I swear!)

"OJ is fine.  I'm not at the burned-out apartment you share.  You should
be concerned about your own safety."

(Would you put that thing away?)

"Is that a threat?"

(How else would you know to come here?  This place is deserted.)

"It's a warning.  BoTan thugs are on the building beside you.  More are
coming.  They're going to fire on you."

(If I were a corporate spy, why wouldn't I have hidden myself better?  Why
hasn't the shooting started?"

"Everybody, down!" Evan screamed.

The floor near the group shattered as an energy discharge punched through
it.  All five of them dove for cover among the cafe tables.  Evan and
Scott ended up behind the same one, overturned to shield them from the
direction where they first few shots had been fired.

"We should be dead now," Scott observed.

"Wishful thinking?"

"Any decent energy weapon should go right through this table."

"Low grade only, because of wild shots."

If a shot missed it would keep going until it hit something else.  "So
we'll have cover from the table till it melts.  At least they're
*considerate* murdering thugs."

"Everyone else is a customer, right?  They're going to start firing from a
new direction soon.  You have any military strategy in that chiphead of
yours, Quinn?"

"Some."

"What do we do?"

"Pinned down, no weapons, looks like the perfect time for an RLH
manoeuvre."

"RLH?"

"Run Like Hell."  Scott bolted and scrambled toward the door back
downstairs as low as he could.  Evan hesitated momentarily, then sped off
to catch up.

Sasha and his crew came to the same strategy and Evan could see them
heading the same way even with Penelope! firing back at the snipers.

Scott, his back pressed to the wall, projected to Minder, *Which way down?*

Minder hovered over to both the elevator's entrance and the emergency
stairs.  >The stairwell appears less populated.  There are two body
temperature signatures located on the other side of the door to the roof.

"We take the stairs!"  Scott commanded.  "Minder sees two warm bodies
guarding the way down."

Raven stood before the metal door and kicked it straight through the
jamb.  Cyborg leg muscles come in handy, Scott thought.  Penelope! was
through the door next, her gun ready to clean up anyone who might have
survived through getting a door in the face.  Scott saw two pairs of legs
on the first landing and heard the thugs groaning.  "Inside!" Raven said.

Sasha dashed into the building and down the first flight, kicking at the
door as he passed.  Evan and Scott followed, and Penelope! took point.
Scott heard more shots being fired above him, this time through the
doorway above him.  He looked up and saw Raven trapped by the gunfire just
inside and left of the door.  Scott started climbing back up the stairs,
but Raven waved him on.  "Get out of my way, past the landing!"

Penelope! escorted him past the second turn, and Scott saw Raven land
heavily on the stairs where he'd been standing.  He'd hopped the rail.
"Very handy," he muttered.

Evan waited while Scott caught up to him.  "What floor are you parked on?"

"Seventy-eight.  Why?"

"I'm on 75.  I need off this planet!"

"You're kidding," Scott said.

"Please, no jokes.  I'll share my file with you, anything, please!"

Scott jerked his head toward downstairs and restarted the 10-storey dash.

Evan kept pleading.  "I got another civilian involved in this mess.  At
least take him."

"I'll give you both passage to the next planet I go to.  I don't care.
Just stop nattering and start running."  Scott thought a second as the
steps passed quickly beneath his feet.  "Where is he?  I'll pick him up.
It'll be safer."

"Got your agent?"

Scott fished it out of its pocket and passed it back to Evan.  The purple-
haired man connected it with his own, and he started tapping the screen.

"Can't you just tell me?" Scott groused.

"It's already in here, encrypted.  Here," he said, handing both agents
back.  "Where he is, and how to approach him.  He's armed and scared.
Where am I going?"

Scott tapped the screen twice and transferred _Daybreaker_'s location to
Evan's agent, then disconnected it.  "It's on there."  *Minder, let
Meicross know they're coming along for the ride, please.*

>Right away.

"Minder will follow along with you to give you directions and help me
track you.  I'm not waiting for you if the thugs get you."  They were on
78.  "Be fast."

"One last thing," Evan said, and he dug in his pack while he and Scott
stopped at the door.

Penelope! tugged at his jacket.  "Get a move on!"

Evan pressed a bitbox into his hands.  "Jasper 220.  Just in case I don't
make it."

Scott nodded and Penelope! dragged Evan off down the stairs.  Minder
lurched downwards with him.  The data miner listened at the door for
thugs, then entered the parking lot.