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Chapter 2: Vance.

A burley guy in a black vest lead us through the trees. It was dusk according to the Stratton's internal systems, and now a fine mist fell upon the woods through which we walked. Sprinklers high above in the craggy ceiling of the botanical gardens did there best to fool the plant life sprouting below they were living on something that, you-know, had a weather system.

'This place always gives me the creeps,' I mutter to Abby. The yellow globes hovering over the path project shadows from the trees around us. Its creepy. Definitely creepy.

Abby didn't respond, her eyes scanned vigilantly around us, alert and tense. Old habits die hard. Fine, I'll talk to Victors thug.

I caught up with the chap ahead of us. 'So what's your specialty? Bribery? Extortion? I hear there's a good racket on in forgeries right now...'

The big guy stares at me with unsettlingly small eyes. 'I hurt people.'

I smile and start to walk slower. 'Nice, nice...'

I resign myself to my own company for the remainder of our late night stroll.

At length a greenhouse on a hill hove into view ahead of us, a dim light flickering inside against the growing dark outside. 'This way,' the heavily built guy rumbled, turning of the path and leading us up to the small building.

A shadow moved about inside and Abby, apparently now content we weren't about to be ambushed, turned her attention to it. 'Grandpa!' She yelped happily, running the rest of the way. The shadow looked up in surprise before a smaller shadow threw itself happily at it from the doorway.

Happy chuckling came from inside as our friend in the tank top gestured vaguely in the direction of the glass building and ambled off back down the hill. 'Thanks chuckles,' I mutted under my breath and head inside to join Abby and her Grandfather.

He'd put us up for the job hijacking the Interceptor (A Martin Special Operations Boat with an interesting cargo – another time, another story) and was no doubt doubly relieve that his granddaughter had survived the experience... and that the cargo had to.

'Leighton.' Abby's Grandfather smiled over her shoulder at me as he released her from his grasp. 'How are you lad?' His hair was white, combed back around a bald crown like a barren hilltop, but he shook my hand with a solid grip, a firm intellect sparking in his eyes.

'I'm great Vance. How are the tomatoes?'

'Try one, you tell me.' Vance threw a small round fruit to me. I bit into it, relishing the rush of flavour. Fresh fruit in space, a luxury.

'Amazing.' I said around a mouthful.

Vance laughed. 'Well, welcome home, and congratulations on a job well done. Damian's received the package, and that clown Brighton's over the fucking moon.'

'Grandpa,' Abby said reproachfully. Abby's perception of her Grandfather was further from the truth than my own. He may be all cuddly and friendly now, but Vance was brutal. A gunrunner, a good one, he'd been good enough to have carved out an empire... a small one admittedly, but still an empire. A string of asteroids across this sector, all of which, despite technically being owned by one of the great solar powers Earth or Mars, were realistically run by Vance.

Despite the warmness of our reception, there was an edge in the air. A slight tension passed through my shoulders. Something had changed.

'Huh, well anyway, well done the pair of you. You'll have seen you've both been paid.'

I had indeed. 'Thank you' I said inclining my head politely – which was notably more reserved than my reaction when I'd checked a few hours ago.

'We have, and now we're going to go to a bar and get so wrecked this dump looks pretty.' Abby grinned to show she didn't mean it, yet despite that, and the cheeky glint in his Granddaughters eye, darkness flared behind the old man's pupils.

I suppressed a shudder as Abby happily skipped back to join me, oblivious to it as ever.

'Well then...' Vance half turned, then frowned.

Here it comes...

He raised a finger. 'Actually, a moment if you have it. Now that I think of it... I potentially have another job for you.' He wrung his hands a moment, sighed and then looked us both in the eye, one at a time. 'I had hoped to keep you out of this, but, once again, my family are the only ones I can trust to deal with a... delicate matter.'

Abby's happy smile faded. 'What is it Gramps?'

Vance turned to his vegetables. His voice took on a philosophical air. 'Space isn't as empty as it used to be. Used to be that man thought that we were the only ones once... Alone amongst the stars. The galaxy was our birthright, the universe our inheritance.'

Abby nodded, the smile gone as the talk of business rearranged her face into the family scowl.

Vance picked up something on the tip of one finger and moved it into the light. A ladybug. 'To this little guy, this greenhouse is a galaxy, each plant a planet in its own  right. Everything's a universe, it's just a matter of perspective... even a shitty little astroid.'

Abby's shoulders tightened. She was getting impatient. 'What do you mean Grandpa?'

Vance raised his head, looked at us both with blank eyes. 'Tensions are rising, this crate wasn't made to hold all these people.' He sighed, then fixed me with a loaded stare. 'Someones out to thin the herd.'