The eggs on Alex’s plate were mostly burned, the meat was greasy and not cooked all the way through and the fried local equivalent of potatoes weren’t exactly fried. Alex still ate them, Emil had been so proud of himself when he’d handed him the plate. Tristan had given Emil what he’d prepared and set about making more for himself, while watching Alex.

The Samalian was probably making sure Alex didn’t do anything to throw off whatever this was for.

He cleaned the plate, then went back inside to continue working. He stopped by his pack to get an immune booster. Tristan wouldn’t care that Emil’s food was responsible if Alex got sick. Then he ate two nutrient bars.

He was mostly done now. Orville Pantor had been in the movie industry for a few subjective decades, His company was solid enough to pass most checks, it had all the permits needed to hire actors, camera people, and anyone needed to make a movie. Alex had been amazed at how many permits were required. It almost felt like that was a scam to get more and more money from production companies.

He’d managed to attach the name of Orville’s company, ‘In The Dark Production,’ to a few movies that had been successful far from here. He’d been careful not to place Orville too high on the production list those who had actually worked on it would have noticed, but still close enough to the top that his presence would have been expected to have an impact on the finished product. He’d even given himself a quick course in movie production, in case Orville had to converse with someone. 

The cameras had been ordered and were ready for him to pick up. He knew which broadcast station had the priority codes he needed, and since Tristan wanted the best equipment possible, Alex had found that. The Samalian had missed that the planet had a research company, that among everything else it did, came up with state of the art systems specialized for the movie industry.

The downside of getting it from them was the level of security around their systems. He’d managed to get in, their computer was friendly enough, and their coercionists attentive, but not on his level, but that hadn’t helped him as much as he’d hoped. It wasn’t so much that he couldn’t control their system, it was that they were paranoid about anyone getting a hold of their equipment. Their reputation was based on them, so if a competitor got their hands on one in mid-transport and sabotaged it, it would be disastrous.

They had multiple levels of encryption, that he could get around, they a randomized system to determine which hover would get the order, then each order had six different possible routes it could take, each of them with some variations in it to make it difficult to find even if he knew which route it would take.

He’d have to either hire enough people to cover every possible route, which was out of the question. He wasn’t risking someone blabbing. The other alternative was to be at the Research company, and follow the hover from there and make things up as he went. Possible, but that was more Tristan’s style than his.

Alex had spent hours looking for a way to get in there and take control, but everything he’d come up with had had a high margin of error, which led to the job becoming too visible.

So in the end, he’d abandoned the research company to focus on where the hover went. The routes might be random, but their destinations weren’t. When they got close to the receiving company, the number of possible routes dropped a lot, so a small team could ambush it, but that would be in a city, how likely would it be that they could get the equipment before the Law arrived, or that nothing would be damaged. Again, this was more the kind of job Tristan would pull.

Alex’s plan let the equipment get delivered. The security there would be high, but Orville had the right credentials to drop by to visit the station, discuss rates for hiring their broadcasting services. All he had to make sure while he was there was that no one noticed the equipment being transferred to another hover, instead of moved within the station. That would be easy to arrange, especially on site.

He spent the morning tracking down a shipment from the research company that went to the broadcasting station he needed to hit. 

It would have been easier to create the order, but their products were in such high demand that orders were put in months and years ahead of time. 

He could backdate such an order, but the company’s paranoia worked against him. The orders were held on five different servers, each doing random integrity checks, and a sixth copy was printed and held physically on site, to be used as a last verification before the order went out.

This was definitively a Tristan plan. Alex wasn’t so good at manipulating people into doing what he wanted. There had been an order going out to the broadcasting company. It delivered in eight days. That Gave him ample time to have Orville seen there.

He stood and stretched. Outside he heard Emil laugh and he headed to the ramp, his stomach knotted. Tristan had Emil in the air so he could study a leaf still attached to a branch up close. A small animal was chittering at him and Emil laughed again, sending the animal scurrying away.

Tristan deposited Emil to the ground and waved at Alex. “How is it coming along?”

“It is, Things are lining up.” Alex grabbed a handful of fruits and looked at their supplies. “I’m going to do another suply run tomorrow.”

Tristan took out a fruit and handed it to Emil. He grabbed a slab of meat for himself.

“I’m going to have to spend a few days in the city, so I want to make sure you don’t run out of anything.”

“Are you getting my father?”

“No,” Tristan said gently before Alex could formulate a response. “This is something else Alex needs to take care of while he’s here. Don’t worry, we’re still trying to contact your father, but you need to remember that once we do, it’s going to take him a few months to get here.”

Emil nodded and walked away.

Tristan watched him until he was in the middle of the clearing, then he fixed his gaze on Alex.

“Eight days. You’re going to have everything on the list then. I have to be away for most of that because Orville needs to be seen. He has a few meetings at the broadcasting station. As well as some locations he wants to check for his movie.”

Tristan’s lips quirked up. “You’re going to wear a mask?”

“No,” Alex stated. “I’m just using a name. I’m still going to be me.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m not like you. I might tell people I’m someone else, but I don’t try to play on their emotions.”

Now Tristan smiled. “I don’t use masks to play with your emotions.”

Alex glared at him.

“A mask is to be someone else. You think that Alex Crimson is going to be able to convince those people he’s really Orville, maker of movies?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the movie you’re making?”

“What?”

“You’ve just been found out. What was the thing that made you realize you were going to spend your life and money running around the universe recording people faking it?”

“I—”

“They now know you’re a fraud. What’s the camera you’re going to use?”

“The Jolak 435,” Alex said without thinking since it was the model Tristan needed.

“Good. What’s the movie?”

“It’s the story of this Merc who goes around using people and ends up with lots of money but dies alone.”

Tristan grinned. “Why are you making that moving?”

Alex almost told Tristan he was doing it to piss him off but forced himself to changed direction. “Because tragedies sell.” He had no idea if that was true.

“Good. Believe what you’re saying. That’s one of the things you need for a mask to fit. While you are wearing the mask, you need to be that person, you need to believe it completely, no matter how different from you he is.”

Alex went to snap at him, he didn’t need that, but the enormity of what the Samalian had just revealed to hit him hard.

Jack hadn’t been just an act. In the moment, Tristan had actually believed he could love? That—that was impossible. That monster couldn’t love, it had been an act.

“Alex?”

“Leave me alone.” Alex walked by him and went to the hover. He needed to think, and he had to prepare it for Orville’s trip.

He took out the roll of clear film he’d ordered from the movie supply store. It was used as a backdrop. It could be programmed to show any still image. It was based on the technology that made screens possible, but it didn’t have the processing power to run moving images.

It took Alex most of the afternoon to apply it to the sides of the hover. It would have been faster with help, but he didn’t want Tristan anywhere close to him right now, and the Samalian obliged him.

With that film on the hover Alex connected it to his datapad and went through some of the images for it. Turning it into a delivery vehicle for a clothing store, a high-end laundry, a restaurant supplier, then a caterer until finally he made it a deep blue with stars close together, forming the words: “In The Dark.”

He shut it down and leaned against the hover’s side. Emil was back at the cooker following Tristan’s instructions. He watched them, The Samalian all smiles while Emil focused on his pan, in which he seemed to be frying vegetables.

What could Tristan have in mind that required this? This becoming Emil’s friend. It would be much simpler if they just left him in Cryo until this was all over. It would also be safe. Alex couldn’t see one good reason for Emil to learn to be comfortable with Tristan.

When this was all over Emil would end up scarred for the rest of his life. That’s what happened to anyone who got involved in Tristan’s schemes.

And the scarring could happen sooner. Tristan was all smiles and pleasant, but there was a vicious temper under all that. Alex had learned that lesson the hard way. Would it be safe to leave Emil alone with Tristan for a full day? How about the multiple days he will be reinforcing Orville’s presence in the city?

Alex cursed softly. What was the point in all this? Their target was supposed to be Masters. When he ran a job against someone, Alex always made sure to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. Masters was the one who should suffer, not Emil.

Why was he torturing himself with this? That he’d be here or not, it wouldn’t change anything, except he wouldn’t see what Tristan did to Emil. He wouldn’t be able to stop the Samalian, nothing could.