by Mike Smith
“Downsides?” Jessica repeated incredulously. “You’re the sheriff, you’re meant to look dimly upon such nefarious activities. Furthermore, you’re meant to do everything in your power to ensure that such captives are rescued, post-haste, and returned to their obviously concerned families.”
“Downsides,” John insisted firmly. “That involves me answering many questions as to just how you came to be here. Questions that are likely to result in Alex being thrown into leg-shackles, at best, possibly turned over to High-Lord Stanton, at worst. If I refuse to answer such questions it’s likely to have a very negative impact on my career, health and most likely life, in that short order. Finally, I should point out that as a victim of a violent kidnapping you seem to be in remarkably good health and have an excessively large degree of freedom, considering you’re discussing your most recent captivity with the local Law Enforcement Department. From my perspective I would even go as far as to question your very kidnapping, as it all seems very…cosy.”
“Now listen here, sheriff,” Jessica snarled, leaning across the short divide of the table, catching him by the lapels of his uniform. “I need rescuing. Right now. If you don’t, then I’m certainly going to jail, charged with first-degree murder of Lord Greystone. Tempting as that might be, I don’t understand why you’re so willing to protect him.”
“Life here isn’t easy and nobody gives a damn about us, except Alex. He allows at least a dozen tenants to live on his property, at no cost, saving them from starvation. He funds the only school we have, which educates over thirty children. He stocks our only hospital, with whatever medicines and antibiotics he can find; do you need me to go on? In short, he fulfils the role that your father should be doing.”
“So to compensate that gives him the right to go ahead and kidnap me? I think you’re a bit behind the times sheriff, as offering up your firstborn daughter, as a reward for services rendered, went out with the Dark Ages.”
“Of course not,” John snorted indignantly.
“Then contact my father and tell him where I am.”
“If I do that, I’m handing Alex right into the hands of High-Lord Stanton, I cannot do that. I will not do that.”
“That’s not your decision to make.”
“Even this far out, on the very edge of the Imperium, I’ve heard the rumours that Greystone and Stanton have—history.”
“That's impossible,” Jessica blurted out, but as soon as she uttered the words it made her wonder. Certainly Alex had alluded to some prior knowledge about her fiancé, but had refused to divulge anything more, no matter how much she pressed him. But still it was ludicrous; Alex was lord over some distant backwater planet, while her betrothed was High-Lord of one of the most powerful families in the Imperium. “Then we’re back where we started, at an impasse,” Jessica sighed.
“Perhaps, perhaps not. I’ll talk to Alex and give him an ultimatum. One month. If he hasn’t contacted your father by then, and if you still wish me to do so, I’ll contact him myself. You have my word.”
Jessica stared at him speechless, his words ringing through her head, if you still wish me to do so, and why wouldn’t she? Still she had felt the seductive pull of this place, just that very morning, how had Alex described it? People are happy here; we’re a long way from the Imperium—and the High-Lords. Obviously Alex had come here to escape from something, or someone, and hadn’t she done likewise? Glad to be finally free of her impending nuptials.
“Deal,” Jessica exclaimed suddenly, surprising herself, just as much as the sheriff.
John looked momentarily shocked, then relieved, obviously worried at what might have happened had she refused his offer. Taking her hand, he shook it firmly and she was surprised at the warmth of the touch, realising that it felt good to have at least one friend here. Alex, friend or enemy, she couldn’t work out which, but it looked like she now had four weeks to find out. Her musings were interrupted by the sound of the door being swung open so hard, that its very hinges shook.
“By the High-Lords,” John yelled. “How many times have I told you to knock?”
“Sorry sheriff,” the young man replied breathlessly. “We’ve got trouble. At the bank. Somebody is holding it up and they’ve taken hostages.”
“Where’s Richards?”
“Not in today, it’s his day off.”
John simply cursed, grabbing his hat from the desk, sweeping it back onto his head. He was almost out the door, before remembering that he still had company. “Where is Lord Greystone?” he demanded.
“That’s the other piece of bad news, sheriff. Lord Greystone is already there. I passed him on the way and upon hearing the news, he simply strolled into the bank as if making a withdrawal, cool as ice he was.”
“That’s the last thing we need. It’ll be a massacre,” John cursed a blue streak, before turning back to Jessica. “Well, aren't you coming?”
“That depends,” Jessica replied thoughtfully. “If Lord Greystone gets himself killed, does that mean I get to go home early?”
“No.”
*****
“By the High-Lords, what do you think you’re doing?” Alex demanded, astonished, as Jessica strolled into the bank, alone.
“And who the hell are you?” a stranger screamed out from across the room. “This is like a goddam cattle market, people just wandering in left, right and centre.”
“Lady Jessica Hadley, eldest daughter of High-Lord Hadley. I came to pass on a message that if you boys agree to lay down your weapons, you won’t be harmed.”
“What is it about this place? Do they breed Lords and Ladies here? First this one,” the man swung his pistol around to point at Alex. “Now you.”
“We’re not leaving without our money,” added another menacingly, holding a wicked looking rifle, swinging it backwards and forwards.
“That went well,” Alex said sarcastically. “Whose great idea was this? John or yours?”
“Well, I thought that at least it was worth a try. John was worried that it was going to be a slaughter.”
“Theirs or mine?” Alex growled. “Don’t answer that. If you must know, I had everything under control.”
“Oh, I can definitely see that,” she shot back, waving her hands at the multitude of guns pointing in their direction. “You’ve got them right where you want them.”
“You’re nothing but trouble,” he muttered, looking up in despair.
“You accuse me of being a magnet for trouble?” she replied, ignoring his thunderous expression. “As from where I’m standing it seems like trouble follows you everywhere.”
“Excuse me,” a third voice broke in. “I hate to interrupt this lovers’ spat—”
“Don’t—” Alex snapped.
“—even think of going there,” Jessica finished, heatedly.
“We don’t have time for this,” the first gunman grumbled. “If she knows that we’re here, then so does the sheriff. If she’s really Hadley’s daughter, then she’s worth even more to us than what’s in the vault. Bring her along.”
“I don’t think so,” Jessica replied, crossing her arms, unimpressed. “I’ve already been kidnapped once this week. Twice would be setting some sort of new record.”
“You’re taking her, over my dead body,” Alex added in a belligerent tone.
“Why, I think that’s the first thing that we can actually agree upon. You dead,” she quipped in a sugary tone of voice.
“I’ll take her, let’s go,” the second gunman stated, ignoring them. Pushing through the small crowed of hostages, he took a firm grasp of Jessica by her forearm, obviously prepared to drag her from the building if that was necessary.
“Coo-ee,” Jessica smiled brightly. “You're a big strapping lad, aren't you?” she looked up at her assailant, as he towered over her, being at least a foot taller. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you manners?” Reaching across with her remaining free hand she clamped it around his massive fist, which encircled her forearm and, with a
pparently little effort and a grimace of pain from him, she casually freed her own arm but refused to release his. Instead with the same mocking expression, she continued to twist his wrist, further backwards, much to his shock and disbelief.
“What you probably didn’t stay in school long enough to find out,” she carried on calmly. “Is that I’ve got the added advantage of over two hundred years of genetic engineering. Which makes me far more intelligent than you and irresistibly attractive,” she brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear, smiling coyly, deliberately ignoring the snort of disbelief coming from Alex. “And far stronger than you could ever imagine.” At this her eyes narrowed and her expression started to slip into a far more predatory look. Meanwhile, she continued to exert more and more pressure, bending his wrist back further and further, to such an unnatural angle that nobody in the room was surprised when with a crack, that echoed around the now deathly still room, the wrist snapped, broken only by his scream, a moment later.
Still she did not release him.
Instead with him now on his hands and knees, whimpering, she reached down and grasped him with both hands and started to lift him, centimetre by centimetre, inch by inch, until his feet were dangling just above the ground. A stark reminder to all that while at first glance she might look just like them, on a genetic level, she bore very little resemblance to any of them.
“Drop your weapons,” Alex ordered, brandishing his fusion pistol. Pointing it at the remaining gunmen, who could only stare at the scene before them, horrified. “You’re totally out of your league here, now you know who and what she is. She could do the same to every last one of you and there isn’t a thing that you could do to stop her.”
The sounds of their weapons clattering to the floor, was only interrupted by the choking noises, as the man Jessica held firmly in her grasp, flailed helplessly at the hands around his throat. He started to turn an alarming shade of blue, as his frantic efforts to escape became weaker and weaker.
“Jessica, stop it. Before you kill him,” Alex interjected sharply when it became obvious that she had no plans to release him.
“He would’ve done the same to me,” she replied, contemptuously.
“Which is what separates the likes of you, from him.”
“You know with just one twist of my wrist, I could snap his neck like a stick?”
“Fine,” Alex replied, exasperated, turning his back on her. “Go ahead. Kill him. See if I care, but I’m not going around cleaning up after your mess. You get to dispose of the body.”
With an abrupt jerk of her wrist, the body hit the floor with a thud and, with a terrified moan the man laid there clutching at his throat.
“I think that we can take it from here,” a voice echoed from behind and Jessica whirled round, just in time to observe Sheriff Abercrombie slide a dark pistol back into his holster. She idly wondered just how long that he’d been standing there, as she hadn’t heard him enter. Jessica speculated what he would have done with the pistol had she not released the man.
“All hail the cavalry,” Alex replied sarcastically. “Glad that you could join us John, but don’t you think you’re a little late?”
“Better late than never, anyway, you and Lady Jessica seemed to have everything under control,” John replied calmly, his gaze sweeping the room, quickly surveying the scene. He motioned his deputies forward to restrain the now unarmed thieves, as they stepped over the prone, but still coughing, body on the floor. “I must say that I’m impressed. I think Lady Jessica must have a positive influence on you, because upon hearing that you had decided to intervene, I expected a double-digit body count.”
“Well, I was trying to avoid any bloodshed,” Alex muttered sotto-voiced, returning the fusion pistol back inside his jacket. Jessica didn’t even realise that he had it, but suddenly comprehended the risk that she’d taken, when in actual fact Alex had been armed the entire time.
“Then we should all thank the High-Lords for Lady Jessica’s timely intervention,” John agreed good naturedly.
“Which we’ll have a long conversation about, soon, as I expressly remember leaving her in your safe company. I’m sure her father would be thrilled to hear about how you sent his eldest daughter, alone, into an armed bank robbery.”
“Well, yes,” John coughed, colouring slightly. “A means to an end and all that. Anyway, you’re free to leave, me and the boys can take it from here.” John purposefully stepped on the broken wrist of the assailant on the ground, who squealed like a pig, hastily withdrawing his hand that had been reaching for a discarded pistol on the floor.
“In just a minute,” Alex stated, looking around at the small crowd that had been in the bank at the time, all observing the surreal display of strength demonstrated by Jessica. Somehow he didn’t think that his earlier story, that she was a mad cousin, was going to hold up against that impressive display. “Take Lady Jessica outside, I’ll be with you shortly. I need to talk to these folk first.”
*****
Jessica tried, only half-heartedly, not to look as if she was trying to eavesdrop on the subsequent, hushed conversation, between Alex and John, but really she strained to overhear every word.
“You had no right to send her in there,” Alex whispered furiously. “I took her away from Osiris to keep her safe, not so that you could send her into the midst of a pack of wolves!”
“And just how long are you planning on keeping her here anyway?” John voiced the question. Needless to say, Jessica was also very keen to learn the answer to this.
“As long as it’s necessary. You know a little about me, at least a little more than most. I’m far better qualified to protect her than those incompetents back on Osiris. Anyway, her best protection is anonymity, if nobody knows where she is, then they can hardly do her any harm, now can they?”
“Anonymity that’s pretty much blown now, you saw what she did. She’ll be the talk of the town before sunset, by tomorrow everyone will know. Before you know it word will reach Hadley, then we’ll have his entire battle fleet descending upon us.”
“There’s going to be no battle fleets. I’ve talked to those who were there and explained the situation. They’ll keep quiet about what they saw. She saved their lives and I made it clear that now she needs their protection.”
“And just who are you protecting her from? You cannot keep her here indefinitely; her father and High-Lord Stanton are both looking for her, eventually they’ll find her.”
“I don’t know who is looking for her but I’ve got a very good idea who might be and he owes me a favour or, at least he will, when I don’t kill him. I just need some time.”
“Fine,” John sighed. “I can keep this group tied up in the system for a couple of weeks and make sure they don’t talk. After all we’ve only got one public defender and he’s got a case backlog that will stretch into the next decade, just whatever you plan to do, please make it quick. I feel like there is an hourglass out there somewhere with our names on it and the sands of time are fast running out.”
*****
Alex watched, from a distance, as John and his deputies rounded the men up and, having already restrained them, pushed them off in the direction of the only jail. Shaking his head in disbelief, he called out in a clear voice, “You can come out now.”
“How did you know that I was there?”
“Lucky guess,” Alex muttered, turning round to face her. “I assume that you overheard everything?”
“Pretty much.”
“My, what big ears that you have, my Lady,” Alex said with a smile. Seemingly helpless to touch her, he reached out with a finger and brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear. “I guess that you should add exceptional hearing to your growing list of traits, along with your intelligence, strength and how did you phrase it?” Alex held up his finger, as if trying to recollect, “Oh that's it, being irresistibly attractive.”
“I might have been exaggerating, just a little,” Jessica confessed. “It doesn’t bot
her you?”
“Not at all, I can appreciate beauty,” he purposefully misinterpreted her question.
“No, not that, my strength?” Jessica suddenly broke away, looking at the ground, uncertain. “I remember the very first time that I used it, I was still young and came across one of my father’s servants beating a young boy. I pulled him off the boy and in the process threw him halfway across the room. I still remember the looks that I received; shock, horror, fear and loathing. Ever since that day I’ve taken great care to conceal my—traits.”
“I think,” Alex said, reaching out to tip her chin up, so that he could look her in the eye. “It’s what one does with their gifts that counts. You did a good thing today, as without your intervention it was likely that many others were going to get hurt. You saved more than one life today, because of your actions.”
“I could have killed him today, had you not stopped me.”
Alex looked from her troubled eyes, down her cheeks, to her graceful neck, the tendons taunt, remembering how only a short time ago, she almost broke a far thicker neck. Thinking about it made him recollect another time, with a different pair of hands wrapped around another neck, just as delicate as hers. But this time the owner had no intention to release them and certainly didn’t share any of her doubts. He had only been able to look on, helplessly, as hands tightened around that neck, as she had started to choke, unable to even cry out for help. Abruptly the owner of the hands looked up, and as their gazes had locked, Alex had been shocked to recognise who the hands had belonged to…
“Are you okay?” Jessica was looking at him strangely.
“Yes,” Alex shook his head, dispelling the last remnants of the memory. “You would have stopped before killing him, trust me, I should know.”
“You don’t seem surprised by my strength?”
“I know who you are and have heard all the rumours around the abilities of the High-Lords and Ladies, so I just assumed…not that I was planning on arm-wrestling you or anything. I don’t suppose that you can really flap your wings and fly?” Alex’s lips formed a smile at the mental picture.