Staggering out of The Rusty Nail at 5 am in the morning was hardly doing any good for Russell Johnsons image. But then nothing Russell did was good for his image, if he could, in fact, be said to have any image left. He was most definitely drunk, a situation he did not see any downside to, truth be told. He preferred drunk to sober on most occasions, that had been the chief reason for his being fired, well that and the train full of Corsair artefacts being found by the LPI, whilst his brief from Interspace had not said anything about being fired for illegal acts, brazen stupidity seemed to be something they frowned upon.
He stumbled back to his apartment, making little headway owing to his rather wayward manner of walking. Eventually he arrived, placing his Ident card onto the reader, pausing momentarily to turn it the right way up, he opened the door into his apartment.
Drink this. The voice was recognisable, but Russell put it down to an auditory trick, there was no way shed be here not after the things she had said when theyd last parted ways. Drunken fool and other much less pleasant words had been bandied about, feelings had been hurt and Russell had been left to drink the last of his money away. He grabbed the proffered glass and drank the contents, it hit him quickly, his vision becoming less blurred and his movements more in keeping with sobriety.
He looked at the woman and groaned.
Oh god, why you? What have I done wrong now? It was her, Ariene De Vite, head of Interspace Commerces shipping division and his former paymaster.
I have work for you, something your rather unique talents will be eminently useful for. Ariene despised this man, but his contacts within the Corsairs were unparalleled, if anyone could pull of aiding the Corsairs undetected it was, unfortunately, him.
It seems your connections are required. Senior figures wish to aid the Corsairs against a possible threat from the Outcasts. You are going to be the fellow who sorts it out.
Yeah right. Why would I help you? I mean whats in it for me? Russell was not impressed, his evenings efforts to get thoroughly wasted had been in vain, all because she wanted something.
