Bored, I called up my HUD to check what time it was. One of the few neat things about losing an eye and getting a cybernetic one in its place. You can check the time, and nobody knows you’re doing it.

Sarah still wasn’t back, and I was getting hungry. If I left to eat without her there would be unnecessary words said. As nice as our quarters were, they were confining, and I was tired of staying inside four walls.

It was one of those rare times I could understand Sarah’s need to roam.

Temptation and boredom are not a good combination I told myself as I fished out the data chip from its hiding place in my luggage.

If Sarah was going to make me wait to eat and engage in people watching, then I was going to watch another of the video’s Bagley had made apparently without anyone’s knowledge.

If my wife could have a secret while we traveled on the Firefly, then I could have a secret as well.

Like the first vid, it started with some distortion of the visual and static in the audio before becoming clear enough to see what Bagley was recording.

Of all places, he was sitting at the bar in Joe’s. The vid got interesting immediately as Baglely was talking to none other than the man himself, Joe.

“Not one word, Mr. Bagley.”

“Joe, none of what you say will appear in print or in a vid. This is just deep background, off-the-record.”

“Nothing is off the record with you media types,” Joe replied as he absentmindedly wiped off the top of his ancient wood bar.

“You can trust me,” Bagley pleaded, leaning over the bar, imploring Joe to talk.

“I’m not telling you one thing about Sully,” Joe barked, causing Bagley to sit up straight. “Got it?”

“Got it,” Bagley snapped and then leaned forward. “How about answering some questions about your place? I can do a fluff piece, drive more business to your place.”

Joe stopped his wiping. Knowing Joe as well as I do it was easy to see he was carefully considering his words. Bagley was a pain, but he was not somebody to trifle with. An offer to a puff piece could quickly turn into a hit piece if the offer was not handled with care.

“Business is good,” Joe finally replied. “Thanks, but I’ll pass on the offer.”

“Business can always get better,” Bagley countered. “Let me help you.”

“Mr. Bagley, I have all the business I want, and to be honest, if I had more, I’d have to expand, hire more people, you get the idea. I don’t want to do that. My place would lose some of its appeal.”

Now I could see Bagley’s mind at work as he watched Joe from his perch on a bar stool. No businessman ever turns down free publicity, especially positive publicity, and Bagley had a huge following on Beta Prime.

“Is this about your neutral zone status?”

I leaned forward with interest now. I adjusted the audio so I could hear better. Bagley was fishing for something. Asking Joe about me was just an opening gambit, misdirection if you will.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Joe, don’t play me like that. I know what I’m talking about.”

Joe turned his back on Bagley and grabbed a new towel and a pair of glasses. He turned back with his usual expression in place and began polishing one of the glasses.

“I have nothing to say about that.”

“So, you admit it’s true, your place has neutral zone status. Markeson lets you host meetings so deals can be brokered, and you don’t pay any, let’s call it tax, for the privilege.”

“You hear some strange things, Mr. Bagley. Things you might not want to poke at.”

I let out a sigh. As smart and experienced as Joe was, he didn’t understand who he was dealing with. Bagley had already extracted a confirmation from Joe.

I could feel my blood pressure begin to rise and I clinched both fists. If I had been there, I would have taken Bagley outside and had a little talk with him about keeping his nose out of Joe’s business. The kind of talk that left bruises and helped people like Bagley to remember some things don’t need to be reported on.

“What percentage of the negotiations would you say were legitimate, you know, a wholesaler talking to a retailer about availability for a sale or a vendor explaining the new features of a product to a manufacturer.”

“Discussions like that are perfectly legal,” Joe answered. “They take place at every establishment like mine in the galaxy.”

Joe stopped polishing the glass and waved his arms about. “People like to come here to eat lunch or watch a music hologram after work. Of course, business gets done here.” Joe leaned close to Bagley and picked up the second glass. “Legal business.”

Unphased, Bagley asked another question. “I’m not interested in the legal deals that get done. It’s the other ones.”

“What other ones?”

Joe was on dangerous ground now. He’d have been far better off just walking to the other end of his bar and striking up a conversation with another customer and hoping Bagley would leave.

“Ones like meetings Chief Markeson hold here.”

It was Bagley’s turn to wave his arms around before jerking his head towards the hallway that led to backrooms. Rooms where Joe sometimes ran a high stakes game. Rooms that served as places of negotiation that needed to be safe for both parties.

In other words, neutral ground.

What Bagley didn’t understand was the need for a place like that. It kept violence to a minimum. Joe’s two bouncers, Giganto and Baldie, weren’t the brightest steroid enhanced individuals. But they were the best on Beta Prime at what they did. Nothing went down in Joe’s Place unless Joe said it did.

That meant two or more parties could meet and discuss business without fear of a double-cross during the meeting. Later perhaps, but not during the meeting. What made Joe’s Place even safer was the fact Markeson had been the one to declare Joe’s a tax-free neutral zone. With that came Markeson’s protection and a seal of silence.

Bagley was on a fishing expedition.

I knew Bagley. He had no axe to grind with Joe and he knew better than to mess with me.

Bagley wasn’t particularly interested in what a neutral zone was or what “taxes” on that sort of thing were, who collected them, and how much were they. He already knew it was a protection racket run by my former boss, the bent Chief of Police on Beta Prime, Chief Markeson.

No, there had to be a specific meeting he was interested in. Knowing Bagley, he already had an idea of what the terms of the deal negotiated were. He wouldn’t be pestering Joe unless he knew the meeting had taken place.

Then it struck me. Bagley didn’t know who the players were.

Joe finally wised up and walked down to the other end of the bar, leaving Bagley to finish his sandwich and beer alone.

“No wonder you wound up dead,” I murmured.

I pulled the data chip and restored it to its hiding place just as Sarah entered the room. She smiled, looking relaxed and happy.

“I want some hot chocolate,” Sarah announced. That was fine with me. I was starting to wonder if there was more to Bagley’s murder than we realized.