The Liberation Paradox

Danny

22:15 (Distortion Time)

14:39 (Twilight Elegance ship time)

Danny had followed the tug driver's directions to a fancy, high-end bar called "The Twilight Club" on the starhopper's habitation ring. No one had stopped him, as in his new tux, he looked every bit the man of influence and sophistication. He looked like the type of douchebag who would crash a multimillion dollar spaceplane in a tuxedo and then ask where he could find a drink.

Danny had left both Mika's cell phone and the backpack with the safe's contents with Marcio. So confident was Danny in the read he'd gotten from Marcio, that he knew Marcio's innate honesty and need for guidance would cause him to follow Danny here. Indeed, Danny was only in the bar for a few minutes, sipping a brandy in a quiet, back booth, when the maître d' approached him about some man who was trying to get into the club. The man insisted that Danny knew him.

"Is he tall, skinny, with curly hair and bad taste in clothes?"

"I believe that may be the gentleman, sir," the maître d' answered.

"Is he carrying a backpack?"

"Yes, sir. He...is."

"Then in that case, I do know him. Please show him back and get him a drink on me."

A few minutes later, Marcio sat across the table from Danny sipping a cup of coffee. Marcio was wearing a black suit jacket which Danny assumed the Twilight Club had loaned him as a condition of entry. He passed Danny the backpack and Danny unzipped it slightly to make sure the money was still within. He had no idea what all the holostamped documents were, but he didn't want to examine them here. They would get staterooms on the ship and once he was in private, Danny would examine the documents, count the money, and look at the stolen accounting data he'd copied to the button drive sewn to his shirt.

Danny removed from the backpack the cigar box that had been in the safe. He cracked the lid, confirmed its contents, and then passed it across the table to Marcio. "This is for you."

Marcio opened the box, looked inside, and then slammed the lid shut. He slid the box back across the table at Danny. "You're a sick man!" Marcio said a little too loudly. Several of the club's other patrons glanced their way.

Danny laughed as he pushed the box aside The box contained Eddie "The Mushroom" Daniau's notorious "mushroom" collection. Marcio stared at the box in revulsion and then shuddered.

Shortly thereafter, the Twilight Elegance's chief of security and no less a figure than the captain herself appeared at their table. They asked several questions about the "accident" on the runway. They seemed eager to sweep the incident aside. At first, Danny didn't know why, but then it quickly became apparent to him. Since the plane that he'd crashed belonged to the wealthy and influential gangster, Eddie Daniau, and since Danny looked like a man of wealth and influence in his new tuxedo, they had just assumed that he must be Eddie Daniau. What's more, when Danny offered to pay for the damages to the spaceport, the captain informed him that she'd already charged the damages against his corporate account on file. Apparently, The Mushroom routinely shipped freight on the Twilight Elegance and therefore had an account with the ship.

Danny knew an opportunity when he saw one. He thanked the captain for her wonderful help and ordered two first class suites, one for himself and one for Marcio. He charged them both against The Mushroom's account.

Once the captain and the security chief were gone, Danny instructed the maître d' to charge their bar tab against the same account and then he ordered two steaks, made of real-cow, not that vat-grown, formed-paste garbage. Marcio had never tasted real-cow before, but he refused to eat until the "mushroom collection" was off the table. Danny excused himself to the Men's room and dropped the box and all its contents into the recycler.