Its time for the Quarterly Blog Hop, where you get some free stories for your reading entertainment. We’ve got four stories total, including mine. Mine is a continuation of the flash fiction tale I did for the October 2025 Quarterly Blog Hop – Satellite of Death. You might want to go read that one first.
Enjoy!
Deceptive Decryption
“Can you decrypt it?” Jaxon leaned over Hariden’s shoulder to look at the datascreen.
“You want to back up there, hoss?” Hariden gave Jaxon a nasty look. Jaxon stepped back. “Of course I can but I have to look at it to see what I’m up against first.” He plugged the data recorder into his system’s port. “But first, what’s in it for me? Second, why didn’t you go to your own people? You must be desperate to come to me instead.”
“I came to you because I’m not sure who I can trust I my organization. Something’s not right and until I know what’s going on, I’m playing this close to the vest. As for you, you get my eternal gratitude and the knowledge you helped Galactic Patrol.”
“So, nothing then. Typical law enforcement. Harass me, interfere with my business, but when you need my unique skills you bully you’re way in and demand everything for free.”
“Listen, I know you work for some big players in the crime syndicates. I just can’t prove it yet.”
“Because I’m good at what I do.”
“And that’s why I came to you. I need this fast and discreet. What do you want, within legal limits?”
“Now you’re talking, but if you’re going to limit my choices….” Hariden thought it over. “Let me see what’s involved with cracking your nut here and I’ll get back to you.”
Hariden turned back to his terminal. “Show time. You sit over there. If I need snacks or a drink, you get it for me. Help yourself to some as well. Now, leave me alone.”
Jaxon wet over to the other side of he room. He scanned the bookshelves, covered in books on algorithms and programming, graphic novels, toys, and several pictures of a young lady with a blaster in dramatic poses.
Hariden sat at his station for over an hour, sometimes muttering, sometimes mashing the keys while swearing. Twice he made Jaxon retrieve snacks and a drink. Strange images and graphs flashed on his datascreen, while streams of text and numbers scrolled by. Jaxon found it ominous when Hariden stared at the screen and went “Hmmmm.”
Finally, Hariden turned his chair around to face Jaxon. “And, done.”
“You’ve got it? What’s on the drive?”
“Take a look.” Hariden turned his chair to face his station again. “Looks like shipping information and schedules. Deliveries and trade routes. Pretty standard stuff.”
“Obviously illegal, otherwise why bother to encrypt it?” Jaxon ran his hand over his mouth. Okay, give me the recorder. I’ll go through it later.”
“There’s one other thing on here you need to see.” He pressed several keys and a document displayed on his screen.
Jaxon read it. “My death certificate. Well, that’s disconcerting.” He looked it over. “Well at least I know not to be in any crater’s on the moon around Beta Winos any time soon.”
“Looks like someone’s gunning for you. Just make sure you don’t get yourself deceased before you pay me.”
“You’re all heart. What do you want?”
Hariden stood up, moving to the bookshelves. He picked up one of the photos of the young lady holding the blaster. He showed it to Jaxon. “I want a private meet-and-greet with Saychelle Rulinka.”
“Who?”
“She plays Rowena Everhard in the Blazing Bikes vids. I want to meet her.”
“I’m not a dating service.”
Hariden walked back to his station and sat down. He put his finger over a key. “That’s what I want. Otherwise, I press this key and all your decrypted data goes bye bye.”
Jaxon held out a hand. “Wait a minute!”
“Uhn uhn uhn. An evening with Saychelle. Dinner and pleasant conversation. We’ll see where the night takes us from there.”
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do. But you’ll have a chaperon, one of my guys. And if at any point the young lady requests you to leave, my guy will remove you from the premises and throw you back under whatever rock we can find.”
“Harsh. Fair, but harsh. We have a deal.” He pulled he data recorder from the terminal and held it out to Jaxon.
“You’re just giving it to me like that? How do you know I won’t back out of our deal?”
“You’re Galactic Patrol. Backing out would put a blemish on your sterling reputation. And we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?” Hariden gave Jaxon his best Cheshire Cat grin. “That, and there’s a timer on that recorder. If you don’t enter a password in a week’s time, it will erase itself. Same thing happens if you try to make a copy.”
You little …” Jaxon started. “Fine.” He turned to leave.
“No ‘thank you?’” Hariden called after him.
Jaxon stalked into the night, thinking about the death certificate, wondering who had him in their gun sights.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Be sure to visit the other authors participating in the Blog Hop for more stories:
Knot Quite Yet by Barbara Lund
Game Over by Angelica Medlin
Harvest by Ruth Sard
Deceptive Decryption by James Husum <— you are here
Heh heh heh… the plot thickens…..
Give me more! 😀