Sly Mongoose

Chapter OnePepper lay strapped to a blunt, cone-shaped heatshield with a hundred miles of Chilo's atmosphere to fall through yet. The edges of the 2,000-degree fireball created by the shock wave of his reentry licked and danced at the edges of his vision. A small taste of hell, he thought, as the contraption under his back wobbled and threatened to overturn.When the roaring abated, Pepper cracked free of the crude heatshield and ran his spacesuit through a self-check. Even with the protection of the ablative plastics he'd just ridden down out of orbit, the suit had become a bit toasty.But within tolerances. Inside, Pepper only broke a gentle sweat.He threw the blackened cone away from him and re-oriented himself to face downward. Dirty brown and yellow clouds choked the world below him as far as he could see. The planet Chilo in all its glory: sulfuric acid-laced clouds, crushing pressure, no breathable atmosphere. Not somewhere most would call home.A quick look straight below again. It really didn't feel like he was moving faster than the speed of sound.He'd survived deorbiting in nothing more than a spacesuit and a personal heatshield. But now the tricky part approached.A tiny buzz in Pepper's ear got his attention. He yawned, ear drums popping. His dreadlocks, bunched up inside the helmet, scraped against each other as a young-sounding male voice piped up in Pepper's helmet. The man sounded bored with a side of professional neutral. For the man behind that particular voice, this was just another shift, just another day. "Unidentified reentry vehicle, this is Eupatoria Port Authority, come in. "Air thundered past Pepper, buffeting him."Hello, Eupatoria, " Pepper said. The spacesuit's radio still worked. That would be helpful."Yes, unidentified vehicle, your transponder seems to be down. "Pepper threw out his arms to maximize drag. "I don't have a transponder. ""That's a finable offense, " the voice replied. "What are you deorbiting in? We're having trouble tracking you. "Pepper explained the situation in brief while scanning the horizon.There was a long pause on the other end. Then a polite cough. "You deorbited with a handmade heatshield and an armored spacesuit? ""The situation was complicated. Can you do me a favor? I need you to provide me with coordinates. Where I am, where I'm headed, and where I might be able to land. " Eventually this slowing parabola would end.A brief off-mic murmur drifted by. "Unidentified . . . just please hold. "He wasn't going anywhere. Pepper caught the glint of a far-off structure: a tiny thread reaching up from the clouds into the dark depth of space. Shame that hadn't been an option. A lot less excitement to just take an elevator down to one of Chilo's floating cities. At the bottom of that thread might even be Eupatoria and the somewhat surprised Port Authority officials who'd started the day out thinking today would be a day like any other."Sir? ""Still here, " Pepper said."What's your name, sir? ""Juan Smith. " Pepper's last alias. Over the last few decades working as assassin, spy, and general all-around human weapon, he'd gotten used to a regular rotation of false names. In the centuries before that, he could dimly remember even more identities and names.A crisp, older, and quite officious woman joined the discussion. "Mr. Smith, voice identification has been confirmed. Mr. Smith, you are aware that you are wanted for the murder of the entire crew of theSheikh Professional. ""Ah. " Pepper nodded. That would come up."Well, Mr. Smith, this is quite an unorthodox methodology for deorbiting yourself, and you must realize that eveBuckell, Tobias S. is the author of 'Sly Mongoose', published 2008 under ISBN 9780765319203 and ISBN 0765319209.