The flight down from the spaceport to the planet was easy, it was a very cold, very clear dawn. John went past the Airport, nobody asked him anything on comms, a sign that everything was in order.
He was early and so was Derek, right on top of New Babbage’s Tech Hub main building. After landing, the two men greeted each other and went inside briskly.
“John, you’re finally here! Thanks for coming, this job will be much easier with you. I need someone reliable on this”, said Derek while leading his friend inside through a labyrinth of doors with access cards and biometrics. “I’m taking you to see Helena, my logistics operator. Or, I should say, our operator now.”
Helena was a very sweet old lady who had been at Microtech hub for as long as she could remember. She welcomed them in and swiftly added John in the delivery system. Of course, he needed to provide proof of his delivery track record, have his biometrics read, access card granted, but in Helena’s hands, all of that happened so fast that his hatred for “paperwork” didn’t even have time to kick in.
Eventually she raised her eyes from the terminal and smiled. “Welcome aboard John! Now make the delivery to the Box Alliance Locker just at the end of the corridor. I’ll leave you two to catch up and then we can talk about the next job. That won’t be on the official books, a fair warning.”
At the cafeteria, Derek took John to meet some of his contacts and made introductions. The mystery was not unraveled though and John was feeling a bit uneasy. His gut feeling told him this was going to be more than just a delivery. They met a tall guy, Mark, who seemed to be a trendy nerd and Diane a brilliant “mad scientist” who seemed to know more than they let on. The few words they exchanged, seemed to put them at ease though, they felt John could be trusted, and that’s what Derek wanted to achieve all along.
Finally alone in a corner of the cafeteria and a couple of double-espresso’s in front of them, Derek spilled the beans. “Look, this is all new to you and today you’ve met a lot of people that you may not remember right now, but they will remember you. We’ll be interacting with them a lot. The important thing is that you’re in the Microtech system now and the people who give me jobs and side-jobs trust both of us.”
“Why all the secrecy? I bet this isn’t about delivering just some nano-tech parts”, said John as he took a sip from his coffee.
“That’s about right. You’ve read about Microtech and it being THE startup paradise, so I won’t bore you with the details. There is a legit part of the business, making deliveries and there is a Grim Hex kind of shady underworld of high-tech going on here. Corporate espionage, ‘borrowing’ intellectual property, prototypes, sabotage, the works. And it’s ruthless, it can get really ugly”, whispered Derek. “What I need a partner for is delivering secrets from one startup to another, not the shady kind, but the very top-secret kind that they can’t send by electronic means. It’s actually legit, or so I’m being told, as they know I have some principles, but the startups involved really do make secret partnerships to get a breakthrough more than we think.”
“Then what’s the big deal?” John laughed.
“Hey, keep it quiet. The big deal is, if you take a good look around, everyone here is a pro. We are pro delivery guys. There are also pro spies, pro mercs, pro scientists all working together or against each other. So our next mission, which will come from Helena, is for the 2 scientists you met earlier. They need a prototype from one of the secret labs and in turn they will share data with them. This is very high risk, because we will have the spies and the mercs on our tail. They are aware of what’s going on, but not how it’s going to happen and which courier will deliver the real package and which will deliver the decoys. And neither do we. We’ve got to make this work at any cost. Are you in?”