Secrets of Parliament Part 5 - A Day on SkyPlex

Players: Milowe Perkins Rhett Vaugner Clive Barker Trish Quasar Amnon Duul

And introducing agent 435-21-786: Death Nail

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Milowe Perkins entered the establishment of Millie’s Bar. He’d seen Trish and the two gentlemen Rhett had spied enter the place but he hadn’t been able to get a good look at either suspect.

Suspect? Why were they called suspects? They were called suspects because that’s what Rhett always called people that were associated with any of the individuals they were commissioned to spy upon. Everybody was guilty of something was his philosophy. These folk were guilty by association.

Milowe was inside the bar, yet he’d lost track of where Trish had gone with the other two. He searched every table, every booth, he even searched the bathroom. No luck. He didn’t know where the trio had gone. The two gentlemen didn’t seem the type to be drinkers, but you never know.

After twenty-five minutes in the bar Perkins decided to give up the hunt. Somehow they’d slipped away from him, he’d just have to return to Rhett and tell him the bad news. Well, he would….after he had a couple shots of Maltese Vodka himself.

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Trish Quasar retuned from escorting Shepherd Book and Simon Tam back out to the streets of the Sky-Plex merchants district. She had witnessed Milowe following her going into Millie’s, but she was sure she’d given him the slip. The meeting concluded, she had taken the two visitors out by an alternate route. Now she was back with Clive Barker, in his room. She was sure the showman would want to tall about the two gentlemen.

Trish Quasar was another victim of the government study program. Like Clive her ancestors had become lost out in space after their departure from “Earth that Was” yet her family had crashed on some lonely world a distance outside the White Star System. Luckily for her, and her great, great, great, grand folk, the planet was mainly made up of water-ice and as the story goes they were marooned there for a period of time. As fate would have it another lost vehicle had come to their rescue after homing in on a distress beacon the ship had been broadcasting and the survivors of the crash had been saved. The supplies were just about to run out so it was good that they were found in time. It was still a little sad though, because as the family history went her great, great, great, grandmother had lost her husband there.

The rescue vessel had also been lost and it took some time before it eventually found it’s way to the new system. Trish’s distant grandmother had by that time remarried to one of the rescuers from the other ship. Her lineage picked up from there.

Back in Clive’s room she sat across from him.

“ Well, what do you think?” He asked.

“ I think they’re dangerous!” She replied. “ Not so much as to say the two of them, only who may be after these folk. If you’ve noticed from the wanted banners in the post office there is no mention of what they’re wanted for. Not theft, not robbery, not murder or extortion. There’s no reason as to why they’re wanted and that’s unusual.”

She was right, Clive knew it. But he also knew more. Trish’s family had been quarantined on the same lonely world that his people had been forced to live upon. It wasn’t a prison planet, but his people still hadn’t the freedom to come and go as did the inhabitance of the other worlds. This was a good reason for his folk to side with the rebels of the independence side when war broke out. After the war, restrictions had eased up a bit and the folk from his world were allowed to travel the verse, yet still with restrictions. Clive had joined the browncoat force, as had Trish, and the two had spent most of their time in the intelligence division.

Their tactics and strategies had helped win many battles and had been instrumental in the fight for Serenity Valley. Sad to say that tactics and genius war planning could not save that terrible fight alone. The battle for Serenity was lost and many of the commands of that terrible conflict were being hunted down. Imprisonment, again was something Clive had no intentions of experiencing. He would die first.

He looked at Trish.

“ I understand Trish, but we must help these people.” He looked at his associate.

With a heavy sigh she agreed.

“Ok, then. You mentioned robbery,” He pushed a photograph across the small table towards her.

“ Do you ever recall seeing these folk?”

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Milowe Perkins close the door behind himself. He had returned to Rhett Vaugner hideout, which was no more then a rented second floor room with a vantage point across from “Omar’s Show Odysseys”

“Well?” Vaugner requested an answer.

“ Sorry boss, lost them.” Milowe replied as he took a seat across from his investigator associate.

Vaugner hated when he called him “boss”. They were just two guys working together for the Palmer Agency, that was all. He couldn’t help it if Perkins didn’t take his job seriously. He could smell the liquor on Milowe’s breath.

“ Oh! But you could find your way to a wine bottle.” Rhett’s words had a bitter ring to them.

“ Sorry boss no!” Perkins said, “ It was vodka.”

Vaugner looked down in disgust.

‘Ok, then. You ever see these people?” Rhett pushed a picture he’d been looking at over to the bigger guy.

“ This is from a surveillance capture over on the moon Lilac. A robbery in the township of Lehi.”

Perkins studied the photo……..he immediately became shocked although he calmed himself down enough not to show any outwardly sign. There was the profile of his cousin JAYNE. He was driving a four wheel land trotter and there was a girl snuggled up close to his back. The girls face was partly obscured by strands of her hair blown across it, but Jayne’s profile was as plain as day.

“Nope boss, ain’t seen either of them anytime, anywhere.” He hope Rhett bought his lie.

“ I wish you’d stop calling me that!” Vaugner said. “ Here, look at the girl closely. This is the one their most interested in.”

For sure Perkins didn’t recognize her.

“ Look at this.” Rhett continued. He shoved a picture of the wanted poster of River Tam in front of the big man.

“ Yeah, I can see a resemblance, but that don’t mean much. Could be anybody.” Milowe said.

He was right. Rhett knew it. The capture wasn’t that good an image to go by. Still it had been an avenue worth investigating.

“Ok, here’s your assignment for today.” Rhett gave up on the picture. “ You are to pull surveillance on an individual named Harvey Hanson. He’s an associate of someone on Persephone named Badger. Look him over and follow him until 3, at which point you’ll stop surveillance and go to the staging dock and pick up someone with the code number 453-21-786. That’s all we have for today.” He finished.

“Oh, one last thing, try to be sober when you pick up the agent!” Rhett concluded his daily agenda.

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Milowe found himself in somewhat of a bind. He’d recognized his cousin in suspicion of a bank robbery on Lilac, yet Jayne coulda been there for a number of reasons. What was he to do?

Milowe was disturbed at the thought of turning in a family member. Especially to Rhett. If it turned out to be true that *&%$# ( Chinese for asshole ) would never let him live it down. An idea soon popped into his brain. “ A letter!” Jayne and his crew sometime came to Sky-Plex. He picked up posts there. On occasion he would contact Milowe. Jayne would tell him about his adventures and tell him about his crew and his ship, a firefly class transport. It wasn’t the biggest vessel in the navy, but Jayne said he was in the market for a bigger one. That’s what he would do, write his cousin a letter.

At 4:43 Milowe had just made it to the post establishment before closing.

“ Hello there Milowe! Been a while since you’ve visited these parts.” The postmaster said.

“ Howdy Mr. Duul Yeah, been a while Looking to send this letter……to my cousin Jayne. Got a little heads-up to give him.”

Amnon Duul knew Jayne, and he knew the scam he was playing on his own cousin. But who was he to get mixed up in family affairs?”

“Great! The usual?” The postmaster asked.

“ Yeah, just stick it in his slot there. Sooner or later he’ll get it.” Milowe said.

Amnon slid the letter into the postal slot labeled “J. Cobb”

Milowe left and headed back to his own apartment.

End Part 5