by Forbes West
“Nobody here but us chickens!” he says, nonsensically. The three of you watch him watch you until you’re inside the elevator and the doors close.
When you get back to your apartment, you instinctively pile all the furniture against the front door. Since you are still hopped up on that Adderall shit, you take the first watch.
Winniefreddie leaves in the morning, going back to her apartment on the fourth floor.
The next day is a bitch. You and Saki both wear sunglasses, completely hung over and sickened by the adventure you have just been through.
The most disturbing thing to you both as you sit behind your computers is the overwhelming sense of normality at play. Dee makes a joke about you two having a “fun” Christmas. The Bureau agent, Alexandros, asks how your Christmas break was and talks about his kid, who you don't care about, for twenty minutes. You state in reply to Alexandros that you were shot multiple times and almost drowned in the Super Sargasso Sea before that. He laughs long and hard and pats your shoulder with one manicured hand. “Oh, you. What a jokester!” he says.
The miners and the managers and all the independents come and go out of their apartments as they please. You get phone calls about noise complaints from apartment 616, and you even talk about renewing an apartment lease for 212 without issue.
You leave and go to the bathroom every half hour to sneak a little line of Adderall, just to keep your energy up.
For lunch, you eat at Subway, being very polite to the Ni-Perchta girl behind the counter and explaining to her very slowly what you want on your sandwich as she doesn’t know English that well. When she accidentally puts on provolone, you ignore it and let it go. “This.” You take out a couple of Dii-Yaa bills. “This tip.”
“No tit,” she responds.
“No, tip. You keep. You keep tip.” You hand her the bills.
“Oh-oh, okay. Okay.”
Jittery and sick, you try to eat but barely get a mouthful down. The events of the last couple of days stick with you. You clench and unclench your fingers in nervous motions, which you watch with an almost clinical detachment, and hum the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme. Saki tells you that your lunch hour is up and that people can hear you singing. You ask her how she is doing and she simply says, “Not good.”
The day ends with someone complaining to you about a dog barking up on the sixth floor, which you dutifully note in the system. You and Saki clock out for the day only to hear Alexandros and Dee calling you to come into Dee’s office.
You both wander in, too exhausted to think. Alexandros closes the door behind you.
“Guys, we just have to have a little meeting, a little strategy meeting,” Dee says. “I’ve been informed by the Chief of Security, our Mr. Botha, that our two other Mission Security members, Robert and Tadeo, have been transferred to another Mission for the time being. For a time.”
You and Saki say nothing about this, though Alexandros looks at you very closely and seems to scrutinize your faces. He hasn’t shaved for at least a couple of days, and his eyes have thick bags under them. Dee seems to be buying whatever Botha has told her.
“The Bureau will be sending over around forty of the Ni-Perchta security forces. The Witch-Lord will send an Ephor and his apprentice on over as well to coordinate with us,” Alexandros says. “If anyone should ask, please inform them that these security forces are here to help re-build part of the railway and not because of any general security concerns. Some people might think there is a security problem that’s really not there at all. People easily panic,” he says with confidence.
“Is there a security problem?” you ask.
Dee and Alexandros laugh at you. “No, no, of course not. It’s very routine, you know. Helps the security forces get to know the area. To get the lay of the land. No real security threat here whatsoever. We wouldn’t want a panic and people shipping back to Earth,” Dee says.
“What about Mathias and the lady, Petty?” Saki asks innocently.
Dee licks her lips compulsively. “What about them? They haven’t been seen around here since, oh...”
Alexandros laughs so loud it makes you jump. “Mathias…he’s long away from here.”
“Well, guys, I don’t want to hold up your evening at all,” Dee says. “Please, please, enjoy. Get some rest after your time off. Looks like you two need it! All that partying, huh? God, I wish I was young and fit like you two.”
You both say goodbye and leave the glass-enclosed office. As you wait by the elevators, you see that Ernesto and Te-La-Calles, the Ni-Perchta foreman, are replacing the glass in the offices with glass out of a box marked Bulletproof. Ernesto is cursing at Te-La- Calles in Spanish as the Ni-Perchta almost drops a glass sheet onto the tiled floor.
Alexandros takes out his gun and gives it to Dee, who puts it in her purse while looking around to see if anyone’s spotted her doing so. You look away before they see you.
* * *
Upstairs, you take a long, hot shower and put on a fresh flight suit. You wait until about midnight before you venture upstairs, where the lobby is now swarming with Ni-Perchta security forces in traditional metal armor and cloaks. Armed with spears, bows and arrows, and rifles, they sit around the food court and the lobby as an armed camp, whispering to each other. You hide your gun in a side pocket and keep the ori-baton collapsed and in your right hand. The Ephor Dwelka Storma is there as well, sleeping on a cot set up in the lobby. His snores echo through the space.
A couple of Ni-Perchta walk over to you and you hold up a key. “Benbow, Benbow owner. Have to check, uh, beer levels. Beer. Beeeeer,” you pronounce carefully.
One of the Ni-Perchta smirks and in perfect English replies, “Yeah, sure thing.”
They wave you through.
You open the doors to the Benbow and step through the Nemo Gate into the abandoned bar. Looking around, you stalk out the front doors of the place and into the green countryside outside. The land is softly caressed by the light of two of the seven moons. The other moons have disappeared as they do during this part of the cycle, they say.
You walk to the idle S.B. Crue and climb on-board, listening for a moment before you climb the last rung of the metal ladder that leads to the deck. Your heart skips a beat as you hear an owl, or some other creature, cry out in the dark.
Taking out a flashlight, you walk over to the small compartment where you put the gym bag full of Dii-Yaa money, take it out slowly, drag it across the deck and unzip it.
“Well,” you say, looking up at the stars. “Coming home soon enough.” You laugh a little. “Goodbye stars, goodnight moon, I’ll be home again so very sooooon...”
With the gym bag over your shoulder you climb back down the ladder and into the Benbow. “Goddamn planet,” you mutter.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s true,” Winniefreddie says, revealing her true form as she steps out of the shadows. It’s her of course, exactly her, but a fit and firm version of herself. “Yeah, that’s really true. Wanna duel?” Winniefreddie says this so evenly, so nonchalantly.
She cracks her knuckles. “I’m serious, you wanna duel? You didn’t tell me about that. You told me everything except that.” She points to the money.
You don’t know what to say at first, your mouth moving a little but no words coming out. “Look, Winnie, I had to drag all that crap through everything. I had to bring it out of the sea, walk it miles back, find Hamilton,” you nervously explain. “I’m sorry, I didn't want to share. I was going to leave.”
“I just lost my goddamn sister and you’re going to tell me you had more work to do and you deserve the whole share?” Winniefreddie says quite simply, as if remarking on the weather. She then snaps her ori-baton out and extends it.
“Here. Here, I’m sorry, I just wanted to go back home with something. I wasn’t thinking.” You open the gym bag and pull out the money. “I’m sorry. I should have told you I got the cash.”
A solemn look comes over Winniefreddie’s face. “Think I’m stupid? You we
re probably in it with Tek as well.”
Fear turns to anger. “If I was with Tek, why are you still here? I could have blown you away last night. Just like that. I could have ended…”
Winniefreddie interrupts. “Saki was there. You probably didn’t want to chance it with her there. No more complications for you. I know what kind of girl you are.” She takes off her glasses and puts them into her jacket pocket. “You’re a simpering little bitch who doesn’t have the guts to do all the shit work yourself.”
You swallow, watching her intently.
“Do you know about duels out here? Did they tell you about that? Why did you think you could just waltz right past the security forces downstairs?” She smiles. “Just a bunch of dumb Winkies, huh?”
Fear has kick-started the adrenaline in your body. “They thought-…”
“Oh, please. They’re ignorant but they aren’t stupid. I told the Ephor I wanted to duel with you and to let you come on in. I’m giving you something you didn’t give Guy or Treena or me—a chance to fight back. Can you do that? I don’t think you can.”
You snap out your baton, not knowing really what to do next. Winniefreddie lifts her own baton and telekinetically snaps yours out of your hands.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Sarah. I really won’t. Unless you accept the challenge. I’m fair. Unlike you. But if you don’t accept the challenge, then that’s fine. I’ll just walk back and tell the Ephor and the Ni-Perchta. And you’ll be branded a coward and an outlaw by their laws and be hunted down like an animal.”
“Good god, fine,” you croak out.
“Where do you want to do it then? Here? Inside Sargasso-3? Where do you want to die?”
“Let’s get this over with. Here. Here and now. I want you to know I had nothing to do with–”
Winniefreddie picks up your ori-baton and throws it back to you. “It’s on, then.”
You snap out the baton. Winniefreddie watches you intently. With as quick a motion as you can possibly muster, you take out the pistol and fire three times. She rolls out of the way and from both of her hands shoot out these two white, snake-like, ugly and fearsome looking creatures about seven feet tall. They have black shark eyes and stand on two long legs with white, razor-sharp claws. You’ve never seen anything like this before—the creatures just appeared out of her hands. A psychotic magic trick? They rush at you with such speed.
You shoot at them but miss. You drop the gun onto the ground in a panic as you have no more bullets. You suddenly remember the strange ring that Hamilton gave you and press the rectangle on it.
The world grows silent and dim. The creatures keep rushing at you but you roll away from them. They cannot follow you now as your whole body has disappeared into invisibility. They look around, hissing and snapping their jaws.
Winniefreddie looks frightened and pulls out her own pistol. She fires twice into the air in front of her. “Where did that bitch go?” she spits out.
You take out your ori-baton and swing it like a baseball bat, not doing anything special, just slamming Winniefreddie in the face with it. She is knocked hard to the ground. You walk over to her and kick her twice in the face. “I didn’t set up your sister! I didn’t set up your sister! I didn’t set up your sister!” you scream, kicking and kicking her. The snake creatures disappear into smoke.
You wrench her pistol out of her hand and fire twice into her, killing her instantly. The sounds of the world return to normal. You look around to see if anyone has come by or heard anything. The gun is hot to the touch now, still smoking, and you throw it on top of dead Winniefreddie.
No one comes in the still night. You are all by yourself under the stars, with a dead Winniefreddie. You feel numb and almost like you can see yourself outside of yourself.
You feel for your crucifix and then remember it’s gone. You wonder if Winniefreddie deserved what happened to her and your conscience answers no.
You walk back into the Benbow, pour yourself a beer, drain it, pour another one, drain it, pour another one... The guilt stains you and you feel you can never wash it away.
You take out your ori-baton, and just like you saw Hamilton do for that doppelganger who attacked you out in the Sargasso, you do for Winniefreddie, except you dispose of her by telekinetically dragging her body hundreds of yards away from the Benbow itself and throwing her into the river. Using the ori-baton takes so much concentration to “feel” what you are picking up that it leaves you drained. After a short rest, you take all the cash from the gym bag and burn it in the Benbow’s fireplace, telling yourself that the cash has an innocent person’s blood staining every note. Winniefreddie did not have to die. You should have said something.
Around dawn you walk back into the Mission. The Ephor, Dwelka, is awake now and watches you with interest, unblinking as you wait next to the elevator. The Ni-Perchta that are awake cheer three times in succession. They beat their shields and chests in unison, again three times in succession. Storma walks over to you.
“Her death has been noted in our logs.” He bows slightly, perfunctorily, and walks away.
* * *
With two hours of sleep and another rail of Adderall, you make it back into work. Saki looks better and more relaxed than yesterday and she takes most of the internal phone calls for the day.
The security forces hang about like the watchful sentries they are. They look at you at times and make comments amongst themselves, comments you can’t begin to decipher, but you know they’re about you. The Benbow stays closed all day, and some residents complain to you about it. The security forces make them a little nervous too. “I’m sorry. I have to ask the owners of the Benbow,” you state, but the residents just wish to complain and complain, it seems.
A lonely older man who describes himself as an ex-pilot and independent miner won’t stop talking to you and Saki. He sits at your desk for a good hour. You immediately forget his name after he leaves—Jim or Tim something. He hangs around the lobby, blathering about politics, the weather, flash storms, ori-reactors, and other rambles.
That night you go up to the fifteenth floor, and wearing a complimentary swimsuit, do a few laps around the pool. Bern is there, naked of course, which makes it extremely uncomfortable at times.
Saki jumps into the pool and swims up to you in a sort of awkward dog paddle. Her hair is covered by a bathing cap. When she sees the concave ass of Bern getting out of the water, she wrinkles her nose and immediately turns to you. “So you talked to that Winniefreddie girl?”
“She shot herself last night. Her sister is dead.”
Saki treads water next to you.
“Well! Can’t take the heat, stay out of the oven, right?” she says sadly. You squint your eyes at her. “Yep.”
“Sorry,” she says. “You …”
You nod. “I told the Ephor, Storma.”
She nods slowly. “There are so many screwed up things about living off-world.” You both float in silence for a few moments before she continues the conversation. “So what will happen with the airship and the Benbow?”
The flash of memory reminding you that you just disposed of Winniefreddie outside the Benbow blows through your mind. “I don’t…” You start to cry a little so you dunk your head under the water. “Wait, don’t you care about what I just said to you? She’s dead. She’s dead and you just want to talk.”
Saki stares at you. “I know.”
“You used to do it by yourself? Salvage work?” you say, sniffling.
Saki shrugs. “Boring, though. And not enough money for it to be worthwhile. It was interesting at first. Sort of oddly su-sur-”
“Surreal?” you say.
She smiles. “I was going to say surprisingly screwed up, and peaceful too. Depending on what building you hit up in Sargasso-3.”
You and Saki get out of the pool and hit the hot tub after Bern leaves. You sit there in the tub for a long while, dozing off a little.
“Hey, you ever smoke marijuana cigarettes? Reefer
?” She pronounces it “leefer”.
“Reefer,” you say back to her.
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“Yes.” You blink a few times, about to pass out. “Yeah, yeah, that sounds great,” you continue. “So tired.” You both get out of the pool and dry off just enough that you wouldn’t be tracking water all over the place.
You stand in the elevator, eyes down, and hit the stop button. “She challenged me to a duel. She thought I was holding out money from her. Please don’t tell anyone,” you say, not looking at Saki.
“Did you?” she asks coolly.
You shake your head. “Damn fool thought I was but, I wasn’t…” You compose yourself before continuing. “Ask the Ephor, it was a legal duel and she challenged me. Whatever a legal duel is, we did it. Goddamn girl.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” she asks quietly. “That you weren’t holding out money on her?”
You laugh. “You don’t. But if I had the kind of money to fight a duel over, I’d be long gone from here, don’t you think? Please don’t tell anyone.” You hit the floor button again.
Saki sights. “All right. All right then. Winniefreddie is…was not thinking things through. What a world we live in.”
“Please don’t tell anyone.” You beg.
Saki says she won’t.
You beg a god you barely believe in anymore she doesn’t.
* * *
Saki’s apartment is decorated in a mixture of Japanese war flags, Bob Marley posters, and tatami mats. Pictures of Japan and Route 66 line one wall, making for an eclectic mosaic of photographs. There are tens of pictures of Saki in front of random American landmarks giving the peace sign. A couple of pictures of her and Guy, one with them kissing each other.