The man in black used his computerized eyes to zoom in on the drunken man’s face. He captured the image and began processing it. After a few electronic algorithms the computer in his brain soon told him that it was a perfect match with the picture that the ugly Ailanian man had given him earlier. However, even though the man who had given him the positive ID wanted this man named Ward dead, he was not the one who needed Ward dead.
“People in need, tend to pay more…”
The human parts of his brain contemplated what his unseen client had told him earlier in the day. “William Ward, we can’t find him, and we need him out of the picture. He’s here on Ailana doing a job for a person that we also need dead. Who that person is…will not be revealed to you…until the time is right. But once you’ve taken care of Ward…we’ll tell you all about your next target. And remember… we need to keep this operation that we are doing on Ailana a secret from the man you normally report to. Keep in touch; we’ve got a lot of work for you to do. If you want to become rich beyond your wildest dreams, helping us get around these unwritten rules your boss needs to enforce will get you there.”
William Ward slurred his words as he said, “if you see that idiot named John McDonald, tell him about tomorrow, and tell him he better not be late…I gotta go!” He hung up the com and looked up as he began to walk up the stairs again. Suddenly, his heart began to race as he gasped for breath. Fear began to choke him as he realized that someone was standing in his way.
“Bula sent me,” the man in black said in a deep, raspy voice, as he slit the drunken man’s throat. Ward tried to scream as blood came pouring out of the wound. Seconds later, he was on his knees, grasping at his throat. The crimson liquid poured down his hands and arms, landing on the grated walkway. The blood began to fall like rain through the spaces in the walkway and began to splatter on the concrete below. As Ward’s body hit the metal deck, his com fell out of his pocket and began beeping. The man in black reached over and picked it up. Angry words were forming on the com’s small monitor screen.
“What the hell is going on?!I know where Marco is! He’s here with me! What is taking you guys so long?! Why are you not getting back to me?! Where are you?! He’s talking about leaving the planet! I don’t know, when or how soon, get back to me ASAP!…please.”
The man in black’s brain retained enough human emotion to feel almost joyful at the discovery. But shortly after the brief and nearly distant memory, of what it meant to feel such happiness, the computerized part of his brain kicked in again and displayed the following words. Evidence Acquired. Commence with tracking new target. The man in black disappeared into the darkness with a new sense of purpose. Killing was his business, and business was just about to get even better.
Location: The Kiliohu Skymart Apartment Complex…Downtown Polynea.
Ailanian Standard Time: 0600 Hours.
Jhett and Bloke looked up at the body that was still dripping blood onto the sidewalk they were standing on. They didn’t seem the least bit phased by the horrified expression on the dead man’s face.
Bloke shook his head as he said, “What the hell is happening around here?”
“I don’t know…there are a lot of things happening…but I can’t seem to piece all this weird shit together and make any sense out of it,” Jhett said as he shook his head. “However, I think we can assume that son-of-a-bitch isn’t after us…for now at least.”
Bloke reached into his one of the large pockets on the side of his pants. He took out a small, handheld device, which looked even smaller because of the enormous size of the hand that held it. Bloke looked at Jhett and said, “This thing is beeping again.”
Jhett took the device from Bloke and said, “The next person we have to visit lives in this building. They have the product we need, and hopefully, they didn’t do what Sparks did…I’d rather not kill anyone else while we’re here.”
“What about that guy?” Bloke said as he nodded his head upward.
Jhett took a deep, nervous breath and said, “If Herb and Bronson are doing their jobs right…we won’t have to be on this planet much longer. That alone will significantly decrease our odds of running into him.”
“No,” Bloke said, “I mean the guy on the stairs…won’t the cops being showing up soon to pick him up and take him to the morgue?”
“Come on now, Bloke.” Jhett sneered sarcastically, “Surely you understand that for someone to get found murdered, someone has to report them missing first. Do you actually believe for a minute that someone on this planet actually gives a shit about that fool?”
“That’s the thing, Jhett…I think someone did give shit about him. The longer I’ve been on this planet, the more I feel that we are just a part of some sick game…and I hope that some player, who we don’t know about yet, is about to say, checkmate.”
CHAPTER 12
Location: The Morgue at the HanaPaloiFederalBuilding…Downtown Polynea…Ailana.
Ailanian Standard Time: 1630 Hours.
“Kidnappings, murders, suicides…and tax cuts for the rich? Yes, I am responsible for some of it. However, my reluctant colleague was right…there are a lot of horrible things taking place on this planet that I are not my fault…”
Van Dien felt the hair on the back of his neck standing on end as a chill worked its way up his spine.
“Someone is playing a game with me…and causing these things to happen in order to suit their own needs. People are being killed without my prior knowledge…I need to change my strategy because of it…”
He made a fist and started feeling around his jacket, hoping to get a cigarette into his mouth as soon as he possibly could. Van Dien realized that this situation was becoming difficult to deal with.
“How can I work all this mayhem into my plan? I have to find a way to benefit from all this murder and chaos…I must find a way to use these disturbing events in order to destroy Captain Moke Kalapana…” Van Dien’s thoughts were turbulent as he stared at the body on the examination table. The body had a very surprised look on its face, and a very deep cut across its throat. The name on the toe tag read, William Ward.
“Why is he doing this?” Van Dien thought as he gazed at the body, “What is to be gained from such senseless violence? Why does he feel the need to go through all this extra effort? He already has a job…a good job…why does he feel the need to work so much harder now? Who is making him do this? What do they have to gain from all this violence?” Van Dien felt the pangs of nicotine withdrawal and the crankiness that resulted from it. As he looked at the murder victim, he felt a bit of sympathy for him as he thought, “And I bet you were thinking, ‘I never even saw him coming.’”
Van Dien turned and walked past the rows of dead bodies covered with white sheets as he thought, “Polynea is experiencing nearly twice as many murders than normal. The murders are unusual, and thus the CIA seem to be committing itself to their full investigation…I bet Kalapana is hoping to make a connection to a narcotics ring…this could play into my hands quite nicely.”
Van Dien was soon out in the hallway, where he saw a young woman in a white lab coat, with her hair in a ponytail, smoking a cigarette.
“Oh, sorry!” She cried, sounding embarrassed.
“Don’t worry, Cindy.” Van Dien pulled out a cigarette as he cheerfully said, “Ya gotta light?”
Cindy felt her mind going numb as she stared at the white haired man, with a half-cocked smile on his face. Her mind was suddenly flooded with the sounds of people screaming. She closed her eyes, and held her breath for a moment, as she tried to block out the strange memories of screaming that she had no logical explanation for.
“Cindy?” Van Dien said almost impatiently, “Do you have a light?”
“Sure thing,” Cindy said as she snapped out of her daydream. She reached into her lab coat pocket and produced a lighter. She managed to fake a smile as she lit his b
utt for him.
Van Dien exhaled a long stream of smoke and said, “It looks like you are pretty busy down here in the morgue, Cindy. These kinds of murder cases must be especially tough on Agent Winters.”
Her voice suggested that she was about to verbally defend a good friend, “I feel sorry for her, she’s gotta put up with Kalapana’s bullshit all the time.”
“Really? Tell me more.”
She felt a bit excited and said, in a gossipy voice, “I also heard her yelling at him today. She must have been pissed.”
Van Dien seemed interested, “what were they arguing about?”
Cindy took a drag and said, “Kalapana is such a prick, he rarely comes down here. Why should he? The dickhead don’t know shit about anatomy, or forensics, or science at all for that matter. Sometimes, I wonder how he got to be in charge.”
Van Dien raised an eyebrow and said, “Believe me, a lot of people do. I like the way you think, Cindy. You seem so…skeptical…which is a good quality to have.”
She seemed mesmerized, “uh…thank you, sir.”
Van Dien smiled and said, “And by the way, Cindy…has that…weirdo, named Pete Munich, come around here lately? He claims to be in the CIA, but I can attest to you…that he is not.”
Cindy scoffed sarcastically as she said, “I couldn’t tell you…did he come in with his throat slit?”
He looked at her with a serious face and she changed her attitude instantly. “Oh, wait a minute…I remember now,” Cindy said. “He was trying to ask me questions about four biochemists that used to work at the Cedar Hills Institute of Technology.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he kept insisting that I knew them,” Cindy shuffled her feet as she said, “I told him that I never worked there and that he must have mistaken me for someone else.”
Van Dien exhaled a cloud of smoke and said, “It’s from all the drugs and booze Cindy…there is a lesson to be learned from crazy people, like Pete Munich.”
Cindy took a drag and said, “Yeah, he sure was a strange guy, he kept insisting that I worked at Cedar Hills, for a man named Dr. DeWolf Miller. But I told him, ‘Hey man, ya must have me confused with someone else.’ He hasn’t been back since.”
“Good,” Van Dien mused. “He’s been known to harass Audrey Winters as well. The man is a sociopath…and clearly not in his right mind…he’s one of these people who believes that you can tax and spend your way out of a recession…”
Cindy gave the white haired man in the black suit a strange look as she said, “Sir? What do you mean by that?”
“It is possible for a government to tax and spend its way out a recession, Cindy…but I’ve spent a lifetime covering up that fact…it’s something we can’t have people believing at this moment in history. The bottom line is, let me know if this guy, named Pete, gives you any more problems.”
“I will sir…thank you,” Cindy said feeling relieved.
Van Dien exhaled another cloud of smoke and said, “It must be a real drag to be down here…all this death…and boredom to deal with.”
Cindy said, “Well…I’ll be honest with ya…it’s a lot better than being in jail. Ya see I sort of got caught…being immoral…and they sent me to prison for job retraining. And it turned out I had an aptitude for morgue work…go figure. I’m still technically on probation and after work I have to return to my cell here at Hana Paloi…but at least the dead people I work with don’t say anything that pisses me off…”
Van Dien gave her a serious look and said, “Tell me about these murders that Agent Winters and Agent Bauman are so obsessed with.”
Cindy said, “I dunno…people in their apartments apparently doing nothing…someone breaks in unexpectedly and stabs them. Some of them got their throats slit. I guess getting stabbed on Ailana isn’t unusual, but having this many murders, where nothing was caught by a security camera is.”
Van Dien gave her a cocky smile and said, “And what motivated the murderer?”
“I don’t know…none of these people, who got killed, were anyone out of the ordinary.”
“Do the victims have anything in common?”
Cindy exhaled smoke and said, “They were all Immorals…their blood work came back positive for Cutz and Makani.”
“So these murders were drug related?”
Cindy sighed and said, “The victims smoked Cutz…that’s all I can tell you at this point.”
Van Dien said, “I can see why Audrey is so fascinated by these murders…there seems to be some sort of pattern to them. I bet all these…victims…were tracked down systematically…it’s almost as if their killer knew them…and knew how to find them. Polynea is such a large city…it seems as if someone wanted to hide out here they could…unless of course the person, who was looking for them, had a way to track them down.”
Cindy looked a bit perplexed as she said, “sure…I guess you’re right.”
Van Dien looked at her with serious eyes as he said, “Do you want a promotion, Cindy? Do you want to impress your bosses in a way that makes them notice you?”
Her eyes lit up as she said, “hell yeah…absolutely.”
Van Dien handed her a computer data disc and said, “The Military once came up with a way of locating their soldiers in rough terrain without the use of cumbersome electronic devices. They injected them with a radioactive isotope…a very small amount that would not harm the humanoid body, but would allow for them to be detected with a handheld computerized device. It proved useful for locating wounded soldiers, who could not reach their transponders. But I imagine if someone was creative enough, and wanted to locate someone that they previously met on Ailana, like Donny Sparks, for example, in a big city such as this one…that radiation technique might work.”
Cindy looked suspicious as she said, “and do you think that the person, who murdered these people…”
“Read that file Cindy…the technique that I speak of is detailed in it…along with instructions that you could use to determine if my hunch…is correct.”
Cindy thought about it for a moment and said, “This could break the case…”
“And allow you to get that promotion you so desperately want. Maybe even get you off probation and into your own apartment again.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Van Dien smiled and said, “you’ve always made me proud Cindy…now get to work.”
He watched Cindy as she walked back into the morgue. After a few seconds, he pulled out his com and saw that he had been able to intercept a transmission in progress. He put the com to his ear and began to listen in on the private conversation. Having exclusive rights to the latest innovations in espionage technology was certainly making this job easier. He heard a man’s deep voice saying, “Yeah…so far Makula hasn’t done anything. He’s just sort of pissed that his boys aren’t bringing back Makani plants from the jungles, and his Cutz production is down because of it. I dunno what’s happening there…it’s almost like they’re just disappearing or something…yeah maybe Marco is behind it…I dunno…anyway, Makula Pilikoa and his gang don’t seem to be a threat to us just yet…but we’ll let you know if anything turns up…”
He stopped listening to the audio data, and saved it into a file that he put away. He lowered his com and dialed in a few numbers. He put it back up to his ear, and listened to the ringing,
“Clarke here,” a voice on the receiving end said.
Van Dien said calmly, coldly, “Yes Clarke, I have a question.”
“Yeah, what would that be?” His agent replied.
“Clarke,” Van Dien said, seemingly without concern, “I just got done looking at a guy named William Ward, a freeloading human, classified as Moral but since he was such a drunk, I don’t know how that is possible. The point is, Clarke…I found out that Ward might have been doing a job for someone who I am trying to find. However, thing
s have been complicated now since Ward can’t do a certain job, for that person I am trying to locate, because he is missing about four liters of blood.”
“Huh?”
“You heard me, Ward is dead. And because of that, the trail of clues that could have led me to the person, who was paying him to assist with their plan, has come to a dead end. I need to find this person, Clarke, what they are doing could potentially be a threat to what we have worked so hard to accomplish on Ailana…my plan must not fail because of their ambitions…we must find them!”
“Sir, I apologize, we were about to discover some important information about this person, who you are trying to locate…but something went terribly wrong…”
“Really?” Van Dien began to grind his teeth and said, “I think I know why the trail went cold. I just received word that the money, which was supposed to pay the person, whom I requested to handle this matter, is in a different bank account…and now, it appears that I have to contend with a cyborg assassin, who is accepting money from our enemies, in order to make himself an extra buck or two. Do I need to mention how this is making my life very difficult?”
“Uh, yeah I can explain that, ya see …”
“Yes, you had better explain this,” Van Dien said calmly. “Did my cyborg defect because he assumed we were cheating him? This cyborg seems to be threatening to go rouge, and is now doing things that could affect the outcome of my plan. What do you have to say for yourself, Clarke?”
“Uh, no wait! Let me explain…ya see…it was a hacker! We’ve had problems with this computer hacker trying to get to our accounts…as soon as we find the guy…”
“Let me get this straight, you allowed a hacker to obtain access to one of the most important sources of money that I have? Hang up the com, Clarke, you and I are finished talking,” Van Dien said.
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