Fool Me Once (Privateer Tales)

by Jamie McFarlane

I was running past obviously condemned buildings. In many spots the walls had completely crumbled away. Tali had said to hunker down. I was running in the open. It was mostly dark out but any vehicle would have the ability to light me up. I dodged through an opening in a wall and placed my back against it. My chest heaved with exertion. I wanted to see if I was being followed. I peered around the wall and didn’t immediately see anyone.

  Project light amplified path.

  Immediately I was able to see an outline of the floor of the building, making up for some of the details my eyes couldn’t quite make out. Still out of breath, I scrambled over piles of crumbling brick and other stuff which wasn’t quite as pleasant. I climbed a dilapidated staircase to the third floor. The exertion was nearly too much and caused my head to throb even more. I felt faint but I wouldn’t give in.

  I took up a position by a broken-out window, being careful not to fall through the floor but also staying out of sight from the street.

  “Lena, you stopped moving. Are you okay?”

  “Yes. I’m holed up in an old building. I haven’t seen them …” A light caught my eye. There was a vehicle moving slowly down the street. It stopped directly beneath my floor.

  “What’s going on? You stopped talking.” Tali’s voice whispered into my ear.

  “They’re here. Somehow they found me. I’m dead.”

  “What do you mean they found you?”

  “They just pulled up in a car.”

  “I’m three minutes out. Shoot at the car. Do anything to slow them down. Don’t give up, I’m coming!”

  “No. You can’t. They’ll kill you too. Please don’t.” I couldn’t bear to have one more person hurt because of me. They would take her and make her a slave.

  I actually heard her snort derisively over the comm. “That’ll be the day. Do what I’m telling you. Shoot the car and if anyone comes in the room where you are, light ‘em up.”

  I hated that she was coming, but there wasn’t much I could do at this point. I looked out the window again and they were already out of the car looking up at the building. I opened fire with two blasters. They immediately started firing back. I could see only two figures below firing up at me. I ducked back in to take cover. I moved to a different window and started firing again.

  I felt a sharp pain in my hip, just below my waist. A round had been fired through my cloak. Whatever they had fired was a heavier round or my cloak was not able to absorb it. I'd been facing the window but the hit spun me around and I fell in a heap on the ground.

  “Wow. The bitch never learns. You are such a pain in the ass, I should kill you right here and now. The only reason I’m not going to is because I want you to pay for what you’ve done to me. I’m gonna use you in the worst way.” I could see Alexander’s outline in the doorway.

  Frak. How had they found me so easily and why didn’t I just shoot him. Twice I had let him live and twice he’d hunted me down. If I ever had the chance …

  “You make that up all by yourself?” Tali’s voice asked from a dark corner of the room.

  Alexander didn’t hesitate but turned and fired in the direction of the voice. I also didn’t hesitate. I had two blasters in my hands and fired them both repeatedly in his direction. He slumped to the ground.

  “Hey. Maybe you stop that a minute?” Tali’s voice came through my earwig.

  It took me a moment to connect with the world around me and I finally stopped firing.

  “Don’t shoot, okay?” Tali’s voice sounded like she was finding humor in the situation.

  “Okay, I’m done,” I replied.

  I caught movement from the other side of the room, opposite where Tali’s voice had come from and the direction Alexander had fired.

  “How did you get over there?” The world darkened around me and I slipped from consciousness.

  RECOVERY

  I woke up with a start, head throbbing, and a terrible ache in my side. Not my worst start to a day, but it had to be in the top ten. At first I believed I was back on the Red Houzi base, as that was where I had most often felt this way. I opened my eyes warily, ready to take action.

  “Whoa there girl, you’re safe.” I couldn’t make out the speaker's voice initially, then it hit me. Natalia.

  “Tali? Where are we?”

  “Safe, kiddo. You’re in my home.”

  “We gotta get out of here, they’re tracking me somehow. You’re in danger.”

  “If I’m in so much danger, then why are you the one who is on my couch, bleeding all over everything?”

  “You don’t get it. They have me bugged.” I tried to sit up. Tali was sitting on a low table in front of the couch. She pushed me gently back down.

  “Call me the exterminator, and you’re right, you had two bugs on you. Sub-dermal, pretty cheap, the kind they use in the slave trade. Right now they are making their way through the sewers. I wrapped them in peanut butter. Rats carried them off. And you, my friend, have been shot up and beaten.”

  “What about Alexander?”

  “Who? The diatribe guy?”

  It took me a moment to catch what she was implying. “Yes.”

  “Yeah, not sure, we had to get outta there pretty quickly. I got a medic friend of mine coming over. You took a pretty good beating tonight. What in the world were you doing in The Skeg?”

  “Trying to lay low. I’ve been staying at a new place every night.”

  “I see where you’re coming from, but that’s not going to be the right answer. Lay back, Jordy will be here shortly. I patched you up, but you’re still bleeding internally and I’d bet you have a concussion. Was it diatribe guy who smacked you around so much?”

  “Yes. He's the one who followed me. They are Red Houzi. I need to get out of here. I can’t draw you into this any further. You should have left me there.”

  “Look. The only smart thing you did all night was call me when the shit got real. We’ll deal with Red Houzi if it comes to that.”

  “Anyone home?” A male voice came from a room or two away. I had no idea of the layout of Tali’s home. All I could see was Tali sitting on the table in front of me and an old brick wall behind her.

  “Back here, Jordy.”

  Jordy was much closer to my idea of what a Special Forces operative would look like. Two meters if he was a centimeter, broad shoulders, tanned face, thick-muscular arms and a quick smile. He carried a small synth-leather case.

  “Whoa, that’s not right,” he said, looking at me. If I didn’t hurt so much I might have been offended. “Somebody’s been using pretty girls for punching bags again. Want to tell me where he’s at?”

  “You take care of him for us?” Tali asked, her voice suddenly taking on a silky quality. Hmm, she had some game in that rock hard face of hers.

  “Better believe it.”

  “Patch up Lena here first?”

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way. What hurts the most?” He looked at me with those crystal clear blue eyes.

  “My hip.”

  “Alright. Let’s take a look at it.”

  I started to peel my skirt downward, it was hard to shimmy it off while lying down. The material had lost its flexibility and there was a hole the size of my fist on the right side. I hoped my panties would maintain enough integrity to not also pull off. Fortunately, Tali was quick with a blanket to keep as much of my dignity intact as possible. I appreciated the gesture.

  “Ooh, that’s a right nasty hit there. AK blaster round if I know my wounds, which I do. Bet that hurts plenty. Not a bad spot to get hit, though. Your skirt’s a goner, and I wouldn’t make any quick moves in those panties. Sure a shame about …”

  Tali, who had been leaning over to also inspect the wound, drew back and slugged him in the shoulder. “You don’t talk about a woman’s panties.”

  Jordy’s voice got a little higher, “I’m just saying … they aren’t being held on by much.”

  She slugged him again.

  “Okay I give! So you wan
t the good news or the bad?” He looked at me, his bright blue eyes twinkling.

  “Bad news.” It hurt to talk.

  “You’re going to end up with a scar. It’ll be a lot smaller than it is now, but no way are you getting outta this without a scar. I got the bleeding stopped and I’ll put a patch on there that will get you up and running in a couple of days.”

  “I can’t stay here.” I said.

  “We’ll talk about that later. Let him finish,” Tali said.

  “Let’s take a look at that pretty face of yours.” Jordy gently held my face in his large hands. He probed my jaw delicately with his rough fingers. I jerked back when he touched my cheek. Jordy swore under his breath and for a moment I saw a shift in his face from the carefree playboy character to someone much more dangerous. He probed the rest of my face, carefully avoiding that spot. His finger paused on the long scar that ran across my right eye. “Story behind that one, I’ll bet.”

  He waved a small instrument over my cheek and sighed with relief. “Oh thank you, Jupiter, it’s just a fracture. So any other clothing you want to take off for me before I patch you up?”

  He was laying it on pretty thick and I wasn’t probably his best audience. He was exceptionally cute, but was also a player. I'll admit it was nice to have the attention of such a good looking man, but I was sure Jordy and I were never going to happen.

  “No, you’ve seen it all.” I didn’t have the energy to banter with him.

  His hands were steady and he took great care in applying medical glue to my battered face. He tsked at the sight of several other poorly healed lacerations on my face and gently applied a medical patch over my fractured cheek.

  “Not even a whimper. This isn’t your first time around the block. I’m sorry for being such a cad.”

  He turned to Tali. “You really going to give me his address so I can take care of him? Where’s Godzilla?”

  I saw Tali’s face betray a smirk before she responded. “Godzilla’s locked up in the bedroom.”

  “Thank God. That thing hates me.” He turned back to me “Lena, it was lovely meeting you. Let me buy you some lunch when you’re feeling better, sound good? And don’t worry about this guy. I’m guessing you won’t hear from him anymore.”

  A smile tried to break out on my face but it hurt so much I quickly quashed it. “Thank you Jordy.”

  “What’s a guy to do if he can’t rescue a damsel in distress?”

  If I didn’t hurt so badly I would have laughed.

  “You want help with the creep?” Tali asked.

  “Seriously? You really know how to hurt a guy. I’ll go take care of him and you take care of the patient.”

  Jordy had given me some sort of injection and the pain subsided but I was also having a difficult time maintaining consciousness. I could hear them whispering a couple of meters away but I wasn’t able to make out what they were saying.

  When I woke up again, I was in a bright room, sun streaming through the windows. My face hurt but I no longer felt any pain in my hip. I also noticed I was wearing a thin white night gown. Most importantly, I had to use the facilities in the worst way.

  I pushed myself up to a seated position and then froze in place. At the end of the bed lay what had to be a cat, only this one had to weigh at least twenty kilos. The giant orange tabby cat looked at me lazily and then resumed cleaning its fur.

  “Oh, good, you’re up.” Tali walked through an open door into the room carrying a tray. “And you’ve met Godzilla. She doesn’t normally take to people right away, but she seems to like you.”

  “I really need to go.” I said.

  “Look, we can talk about that later. You need to recover first.”

  “No. I mean, I gotta go.”

  “Oh. Ohhh! Don’t worry about Godzilla, she’s mostly harmless. Bathroom’s at the end of the hall.”

  I scooted out of the bed, although I hated to leave its warmth. I was on the upper floor of a two story house. A railing separated a hallway from a staircase that led downstairs at the opposite end, just in front of the bathroom. I noticed ruefully that I was wearing a different pair of panties.

  I looked at my face in the mirror and pulled back the med-patch. The healing had already started and the skin under my eyes had a greenish tinge. I'd completely missed the black and blue phase. Nothing looked too out of place other than some swelling, so I replaced the patch. I lifted the nightgown and pulled back the patch on my hip. All in all I had fared pretty well. Four on one and I was up and walking around the next day. Oh geez, I hoped it was only the next day.

  I padded back to the bedroom where I found Godzilla spread out on her back receiving a rough scrubbing from Tali’s fingers. The cat was making deep rumbling sounds that I was glad she hadn’t made when we were alone.

  “Hungry?”

  I looked at the tray. Fruit, toast, and yogurt. It looked delicious, but I had to get this cleared up and get out of here. Tali was in danger. I sat on the edge of the bed.

  “I shouldn’t have called you and you shouldn’t have come for me. I need to leave. You’re in danger.”

  “Right. Let’s have this conversation now,” Tali said and stood up to face me. Godzilla rolled around trying to get her attention.

  “These people, they’ll never stop looking for me. They own me. I appreciate you saving me, but you don’t know what they’ll do to you …,” I said and then in a quieter voice, “what they’ve already done to me.”

  Tali’s face contorted indignantly. “Own you?”

  “You know what I’m saying.” Tears of shame streamed down my face.

  “No ... I don’t.” Tali sat next to me and pulled me close to her, stroking my hair. I sobbed. I remembered holding Jenny like this when we were scared.

  “Let them come,” Tali said with resolve.

  “It’s too much …” I didn’t know how to communicate this to her.

  “Get over it. Do you know why Jordy came over?”

  I shrugged. I wasn’t sure.

  “Because we were teammates. I’ve trusted that man with my life and I’ve walked through fire for him. He would never turn his back on me, nor would I turn my back on him. It’s called honor, Lena. That’s why I chose you.”

  “Chose me?” I had no idea what she was talking about.

  “Yes, Lena. Honor. I’m an investigator. When I asked about your past, I was trying to learn about your integrity. I already knew everything you told me when we first met, but you didn’t lie or embellish to make yourself look better. You gave it to me straight. No normal investigator would take your case once they learned about your past. You showed mercy to the very man who abducted you and twice you refused to kill the man who savaged you.”

  “You make it sound like I had so many options.”

  “That’s the thing, Lena. You’ve had no end of options but you choose personal sacrifice every time. Get this straight though, no one owns you. You hear me?”

  “I know.”

  “This wasn’t your fault. You didn’t ask for this, bad people do bad things. It’s horrible, but it’s true. You were doing the best you could for your sister and they took that from you. You are not less of a person for doing that, you are more. The only thing you have to learn is to stop hating yourself.”

  I wanted to believe her but I wasn’t prepared to deal with it. “What now?”

  “Good. Now, you eat. You’ve been down for three days.”

  “Three days? I thought Jordy said I was all fixed up?”

  “He lied.”

  “What a coward.”

  “Couldn’t agree more. You feel up for a trip?”

  “Where we going?”

  “One of my nerds says she has something, wants me to come take a look.”

  “Is this about Jenny?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s go!” I stood up.

  “How about some clothing?” Tali asked.

  I looked down at the thin white nightgown and laughed, despite
myself.

  “Mom will be crushed. I haven’t had the heart to tell her your skirt got ruined. That was an expensive piece. Mom is pretty high-end. You’ll have to settle for leathers. You’re smaller than I am but I have some stuff I can’t wear anymore.”

  I wanted to ask how I had gotten into the nightgown or even flown back to her house. Surely she hadn’t tossed me on the back of her bike. I figured it would come up at some point.

  “Sounds good, think my boots will go over them?”

  “Probably not, but don’t worry, shoes I have in abundance.”

  I followed Tali into another room on the second floor. It had been converted from a bedroom to a dressing room. One entire wall was covered with shelves filled with shoes and boots of every kind. Tali immediately started rummaging through a stack of folded clothing. She handed a pair of white synth-leather pants to me.

  “Try those. I have a pretty good eye for size. Lots of weekends working for Kathryne.”

  I pulled the pants up underneath the nightgown. I had to wiggle to get them over my rear.

  “Show me already!”

  I lifted the nightgown and did a little twirl. I loved how the leather felt on my skin.

  “Oh, they never looked that good on me. Merde, Jupiter sends me a model to test my humility. I’ve got these boots …”

  By the time I got out of her dressing room the only thing I had left of my own was my cloak. If it hadn’t had an active armor component she would have replaced it too. I felt reassured to have my blaster back.

  The house must have been a couple of hundred years old. The stairs creaked as we went down and the walls were uneven. Tali assured me that the bones of the house were solid, but the original building supplies were all manufactured from materials readily available on Mars surface when Puskar Stellar was first built.

  When we left the house, I realized we weren’t in town. I saw nothing for kilometers other than the shed Tali led me to.

  “The wind gets pretty bad out here. If I don’t park the bike in the shed it gets messed up.”

  “Is all this yours?” I asked. It seemed incredible to think someone could own this much land.

  “Yup. It’s an original homestead. Plenty of room for Godzilla to run around.”