Fool's Gold: Carson Lyle's War - Part One Read Free Page B

posted on a nearby wall.
    Just enough time to go planetside and take care of some business.
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
     
     
    Atlantia City
    Planet Atlantia
     
    Lyle caught a cab at the shuttle port, and directed the driver to head to the East Ward of the city. It was a twenty minute ride and traffic was cooperating. As the cab made its way east, Lyle saw the organized rat race of pedestrians purposefully moving, to and from the shuttle port, gradually give way to clusters of people with hopeless looks on their faces just milling about outside of rundown buildings and homeless destitutes dressed in rags curled up on the ground here and there. The transition of the surrounding cityscape from a dingy metropolis to a depressing piss hole, was a familiar one. The East Ward was one of the lesser maintained areas of the city, populated mostly by the lower working class. They were good people; hard working and honest...mostly. It was also a good place to be if you wanted to drop off Authority radar which is why Lyle called it home.
    The cab stopped in front of a large, rundown apartment building. It was one of the older, original buildings that dated back to the original migrations of colonists from Earth. Pre-fabricated living modules stacked like blocks in a building framework. People suckered by the sales pitch of new opportunity twenty light years from Earth were given their own little cube of heaven. It was a far cry from the brochure. Now the building was hardly even visible behind a web of jury rigged gutters, downspouts and catch basins hanging all over the building. City water had become so expensive, most people relied on the Atlantia’s sparse rainfall for their needs.
    The cabbie looked around, a little nervous. This was apparently not his regular area.
    "You sure this is the right place?"
    "Yep." Lyle said. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a twenty credit bill and handed it to the driver. "Turn the meter off and wait here. Gimme about ten minutes." Then he turned to the door.
    The driver picked up his radio mic.
    "Stop!" Lyle said. "Don't call in."
    "But—"
    Lyle pointed to the twenty in the driver's hand and said, very carefully, "Don't call in." Then he pulled another twenty out of his pouch and held it up where the driver could see.
    "Got it," the driver said, putting the mic back on its hook on the dash. He watched Lyle go into the apartment building and up the stairs. When Lyle was out of sight, he slipped his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out data pad, opened the messenger, tapped three words and put it away.
    Back in thirty.
     
    ***
     
    "Carson!" The woman said, when she opened the door. "My stars! How've you been?"
    "Can't complain too much, you?" Lyle said, hugging the much shorter woman.
    "I've been well. You shouldn't stay away so long!" She said, moving to the main living room. "Sit down. You want a drink? Somethin' to eat?"
    Lyle sat down on the couch. "Thanks, Betty. I can't. I gotta catch the shuttle in an hour. Won a big contract this morning."
    "Really? Where to?"
    "El Dorado."
    "Big contract…to El Dorado? You remember what Jack used to call any big run out to that hell hole, don’t you?"
    “Fool’s Gold,” Lyle laughed.
    “There was a reason for that.”
    "I know, but the money's right." He smiled. "Very right."
    Betty sat down in a chair opposite Lyle. "I hope it's worth it with that dodgy jump gate and all. Jack used to tell me about problems coming out of jump space on the back side. She doesn't like it, you know?"
    Lyle nodded, "I know. I've been working on her jump tolerance and the last gate report says they worked on it a couple months back so it should be better."
    "Well, I hope so. Jack will haunt you if you hurt her. That ship was his life outside of me."
    "The payoff is worth it. You'll get enough to keep things going for a good bit."
    "You don't have to give me any money! I wish you'd stop. You work hard and deserve to be happy."
    "I'm