Hard Luck Hank: Delovoa & Early Years by Steven Campbell Page B

explosion?”
    “If we blow up a building, they’ll shut down
all of Belvaille and make us leave. How about Suffocation?” I asked.
    “That might work, but I can’t see how we could
just suffocate Monhsendary. If we sabotage the city’s air system it could kill
quite a few people,” Delovoa said.
    “Assassin?”
    “I thought you said you were against those. And
what’s that have to do with proving the city is dangerous?”
    “Electrocution?” I asked.
    “Hmm. That’s pretty good. Lots of ways to get
fried in a metal city.”
    “Do you think it would stop the Navy from
building here?” I asked.
    “No. Electrical problems aren’t uncommon. We’re
a space station. They’ll just chalk it up to a malfunction. If we killed a
dozen soldiers then they’d probably assume it was murder.”
    After the shooting at Sonidara’s, Knuckle
Squads quadrupled their efforts. They were going after gang bosses now and even
grabbing people in their homes while they were sleeping.
    The real problem was stopping retaliation.
Monhsendary was under the impression that the worst Belvaille had to offer was
kleptomaniac sex addicts. In reality, we had some tens of thousands of armed,
violent criminals who would have no problem murdering every last Navy soldier
in the city.
    It was only the repercussions we feared.
    “So then how can we do it?” I asked Delovoa.
“How can we get rid of Monhsendary and simultaneously make Belvaille look bad,
but not so bad they hammer us out of existence?”
    Delovoa had given the demonstration on the
nerve toxin and Monhsendary had approved mass-production. So far, Delovoa
hadn’t manufactured any more. At some point, however, the Adjunct Overwatch was
going to demand it.
    “What did he say exactly?” Delovoa asked.
    “That they were going to use the port and turn
the station into a Navy city and we all had to leave.”
    “Well then it’s obvious,” Delovoa said.
     
    I had to keep an eye on the Adjunct Overwatch
but I couldn’t have people standing around City Hall. The Knuckle Squads would
get them.
    I thought about using children, who seemed to be
immune from getting beat up for the most part, but kids weren’t extremely
dependable and I’d feel like a jerk.
    Bullabar was a mutant who fit the role
perfectly. He looked like he was about four years old though he was something
like eighty. He had originally fled to Belvaille for running all kinds of scams
based on his appearance. Who didn’t trust an infant?
    So every day Bullabar “played” on the sidewalk
across City Hall and reported on their activities.
    After some months of nothing, the gang bosses
were getting anxious because they were having trouble restraining their men,
who really wanted to put the screws on the Navy at this point. Not to mention
the bosses didn’t like getting dragged out of bed in the middle of the night
and kicked in the face.
    When the Adjunct Overwatch paid a personal
visit to Delovoa, demanding to know the progress on the nerve toxin, I knew we
had to push ahead.
    I had the appropriate facilities people file
reports with City Hall. The Navy loved reports. And while Belvaille engineers
weren’t very efficient or proficient, they knew how to cover their asses. So it
wasn’t uncommon for them to submit reports indicating there were problems in
the city’s infrastructure. That way if anything broke spectacularly, they could
point to the reports and do their best to avoid getting fired for incompetence
or thrown in jail for manslaughter.
    “I can’t fake a military tele,” Delovoa said
flatly.
    “What? I thought you said you had top secret
clearance and you worked in the Department of Pots and Pans or whatever!” I
demanded.
    “I do. That doesn’t mean I can hack a tele. No
one can do that. I could send him a tele message just like anyone else.”
    “That’s not the point. We only have a short
time left. Were you asleep during this whole plan that we’ve been going over
for months?”
    “Not