Hailey's Comet Anthology

  Hailey sighed. “If you don’t want an explanation, I can go straight to the ‘arresting you’ portion of our meeting.”

  Kinkade sputtered, “Arrest me? What for? Accusing you of killing my son?”

  “Hiring a hitman to kill me because you accuse me of killing your son.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “Does a former Wraith by the name of Sam ring a bell?” Hailey asked. Kinkade’s heartrate, eyes, pores, and skin temperature screamed Ding! But he denied it.

  “Never met a Wraith. Never paid anyone to kill anyone.”

  All lies, Hailey noted. If only her built-in lie detector was admissible in non-SWORD court... “You can deny it all you want, but I’m still going to arrest you for it.”

  “You just go ahead and try. My lawyers will take over and your career will be history.”

  “You have no idea how Wraiths work, do you?” She thought about that. “You have no idea how anyone works. You do what you want and when someone objects or complains or gets hurt, you throw money at the problem and your henchmen sweep all the dirt away. I have news for you: it’s not going down like that this time.”

  “I have nothing to hide. It’s your job to prove my guilt, not my job to prove my innocence. Show me the evidence that I hired a hitman to kill you,” he said smugly.

  Hailey thought about the refunded payment, the cryptic messages sent between client and killer, the complete lack of solid evidence that Sam Minutio had ever gone after her. Her testimony would’ve been enough in a SWORD court, but it was not enough for a conviction in a public court. Hailey darkened. This man is going to get away with it again! she realized. “How many people have you and your son hurt without the smallest measure of remorse?”

  Kinkade scoffed. “You paint us as monsters. We’re good people.”

  “Good people don’t require a dozen armed bodyguards and a building full of lawyers. Tell me, why are your lawyers so busy if they’re not cleaning up your messes?”

  “Everyone knows I have money. Everyone wants a piece of it. People make up stories all the time, demanding payment for some wrong or another. I don’t even know those people. Never met most of them.”

  “Why would you pay them if there’s no basis to their claims?” Hailey asked.

  “You clearly have no idea how business works. My business relies on my good name. It’s less damaging to my reputation – and more economical – to pay off these losers than have the stories be taken seriously in the news. It’s always been this way for the wealthy. It’s the price of doing business – and being successful at it.”

  “I see. So, you did not wager on the life of a young girl at Artie’s school. Artie did not break a different girl’s arm during a sexual encounter.”

  “Of course not.”

  “Be honest. How many women did Artie sleep with?”

  “I don’t know and I don’t care. He was quite popular with the ladies and probably had sex with many. It was all over the society news. He didn’t hide it.”

  “What he did hide was luring non-socialite women to his yacht and locking them in their cabins.”

  Kinkade waved a dismissive hand. “Big deal. Every woman who takes a free ride with a man above her class on a ship above her station has to expect limited access. If you let ‘em run loose, they’ll rob you blind.”

  “Do you understand that he was creating a clubhouse for his friends? A sex-trade clubhouse?”

  “Prostitutes are plentiful,” Kinkade said.

  “They were not prostitutes!” Hailey said emphatically. “They were young women from college and pub jobs. They were not willing participants! Artie confined them in tiny, cold rooms, raped them as he pleased – with ACMEs to insure cooperation – then offered them to his friends as sex slaves. Just for fun, he made them compete in nude wrestling matches and dancing contests. He put a collar and leash on one of them and beat her until she was bleeding.”

  “You’re exaggerating. Artie may have liked adventurous sex. Who doesn’t? But you have to understand that kind of riff-raff from clubs and pubs get what they deserve. If they got on Artie’s ship when they knew they were not his equals, well, they were asking for it.”

  “Excuse me,” Hailey said, anger simmering beneath the surface. “I have to send a comm message.” Lucky, I need you inside. Bunker in the basement. Record everything. Kinkade stared at her, glancing at the open door and tensing up for an escape attempt. “Don’t even think about it,” Comet said without looking up at him. Battle sounds came from upstairs. Hailey looked toward the door.

  Lucky came down the stairs with a robot arm in her hands. “Nothing is ever easy, is it?” Hailey asked.

  “This was pretty easy,” Laura replied.

  “Useless robots,” Kinkade muttered. “Can’t even take down an old woman!”

  “Who you calling old?” Lucky responded. “I’m middle-aged, at most.”

  “I’ve rethought our plan for this guy,” Hailey informed Laura.

  “What?” Laura asked hesitantly.

  “We have no solid proof about the contract. And Kinkade’s lawyers can get him out of any mess. He’s gonna walk if we go the legal route.”

  Kinkade began to look around nervously for any escape. Hailey pulled out her blade and let the light glint off it into his eyes.

  “Comet, don’t do it,” Lucky warned.

  “There’s no justice.” She stood and approached Kinkade.

  “I have witnesses that you were here! And surveillance!” Kinkade screamed. “I’ve got cameras everywhere!”

  “Surveillance recordings are easy to erase, and I’ll deal with the staff once I’m finished with you,” Hailey explained.

  Kinkade began to tremble. He looked anxiously between the two calm, yet terrifying, women.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be bargaining at this point?” Hailey asked lightly. “You know, pay your way out of this mess? But, then again, money doesn’t mean anything to me, or to my friend over there.”

  “Comet,” Lucky rumbled.

  “Now you listen carefully, Kinkade,” Hailey said, laying the blade against his carotid artery. “Your creepy son gave his robots high-powered rifles and clumsy orders. They shot a hole in the wall, which I tried to plug. But when it became structurally unsound – and your idiot son had sent the ship away for three weeks – he put us in the storage dome and set the robotic guards on us, then ran for his bedroom, which he thought was sufficiently strong to withstand the vacuum outside. He left us to die in that closet with the words, ‘Bye, bitches.’ Before he got to his saferoom, the whole place tore apart. That’s what killed him.”

  “You lie! If all that was true, then you wouldn’t be here right now!”

  “Our shelter was weak, but most of the air escaped before we plugged all the gaps around the door. With the reduced pressure, the dome held. I found oxygen masks and we survived until the ship came back. Lucky can tell you how many people came out of there. Go ahead, Lucky. He doesn’t believe me.”

  “We pulled out four civilians and Agent Ramirez,” Laura supplied. “We found Kinkade amid the wreckage of the prefab. The engineer of the ship helped us. You can ask him.”

  Kinkade was speechless. Hailey hauled him up to his feet, keeping the sharp edge against his neck. “I know you hired that Wraith to kill me. Samantha Minutio; called herself Sam.”

  Kinkade gained a little courage. “Shows what you know. His name was Sam.” The moment he said it, he realized his admission. He swore. Hailey smiled.

  “I hope you got that, Lucky.”

  “All recorded, Comet.”

  Hailey let go of Kinkade and returned her blade to its scabbard. “He’s all yours.”

  Epilogue

  “How’s the prisoner?” Hailey asked.

  “Lawyered up already,” Laura replied. “Local Sector Security might be intimidated by him and his legal posse, but they’re more intimidated by SWORD,” she elaborated with a smirk.

  “And you say I’m always s
caring the locals,” Hailey said with a smile, then returned to her tablet work.

  “What are you working on?” Laura asked as she took a seat near Hailey. The transport was due to leave soon.

  “Plan B.”

  “What, pray, tell, is Plan B?”

  “I had a little chat with Kinkade before you came inside. He explained to me how things work for the rich and famous.” Comet continued to type as she explained her project to Lucky. “I’m making sure he goes down, one way or another.”

  “You still haven’t explained ‘Plan B’,” Laura pointed out.

  Hailey looked up from her tab. “His life is all about his business, right? His business relies on his good name. His gold-plated name is attached to every property he owns – hotels, condos, casinos, office buildings – everything.”

  “True.”

  “I’m making sure that every hotel guest, every condo tenant, every casino patron, every business contact knows what a filthy name is under that gold-plating.”

  “Ah. Vacancies will deplete his wealth. That’s really hitting him where it hurts.”

  “Yeah. Already, the news outlets are spreading the story and digging for more.”

  “More satisfying than slicing his neck, huh?” Laura asked.

  “I wasn’t gonna slice him,” Hailey sighed. “If I learned anything from Raven, it is to do the unexpected. With his cadre of lawyers working to clear him in court, Kinkade won’t see this one coming.”

  “Either way, he’s ruined.”

  “With all his hotelier experience, maybe he can get a job as a bell hop.” Comet returned to her tab and happily resumed her typing.

  Hailey’s Comet 8: Evaluation

  By Selma J. Lewis

  Rehabilitation

  Agent Ramirez sat in the weight machine, pushing on a plate with her right leg. The hydraulic piston she pushed against adjusted automatically to the pressure, speed, and number of repetitions she performed on the exerciser, ensuring her workout was the most efficient possible. On a display, Hailey could watch her progress.

  She switched to her left leg. The piston didn’t budge at first, then it readjusted for the significantly weaker leg and allowed Hailey to push it. Hailey muttered a curse at the display, utterly disgusted with the numbers.

  “That’s better than yesterday, Agent Ramirez,” Helen, the physical therapist, encouraged. Hailey bit back a nasty reply and continued to push her left leg to improve. “Hey, take it easy, Agent. That leg is still fragile. You shouldn’t push it too hard until the bones are completely healed.” Hailey ignored the advice. She pushed harder. The therapist hit the stop button on the machine causing the piston to give way completely. Hailey’s leg flew out of control and landed on the floor next to the machine.

  “Dammit!” she yelled. “What’d you do that for? You trying to re-shatter it?”

  “I’m trying to manage your therapy,” Helen replied calmly. “If you can’t follow directions, then you won’t be working out today.”

  “I want a new therapist,” Hailey demanded.

  “Take it up with the medical director,” Helen answered. She pulled the switch on the whole workout room and left.

  Hailey fumed in the seat of the machine. Finally, she pivoted in the chair and put both feet on the floor. Using the strength in her right leg only, she stood. She looked at the crutch the doctors insisted she use leaning against the wall. “Go to hell,” she spat and kicked it into the wall. She heard a pop in her hip and felt a jolt of pain.

  Hailey hopped on her right foot to the door. Her recovery room was down the hall, thirty meters away. She looked left and right, then hopped as quickly as she could to her door and grabbed the jamb to make the turn. She threw herself onto her bed and tried in vain to find a comfortable position. Her doctor entered not a minute later.

  “Lost your crutch?” Doctor Louisa Kandahar asked casually.

  Hailey knew she had been spotted hopping down the hall. “It’s just faster that way.”

  “Why are you twisted like that?” Kandahar asked.

  “Just trying to find a… there was a thing on the back of my…” Hailey gave up trying to invent a reason. “I think I dislocated my hip,” she admitted.

  Kandahar did not lay into her about undoing all the careful work she had done in surgery. She had worked with Wraiths for seventeen years. She knew they were not the most patient patients. “Agent Ramirez, may I have a look?”

  Hailey lay on the bed, then rolled to her right side so Dr. Kandahar could examine the left hip. “Indeed, you did,” she stated. “The question is: how?”

  Hailey didn’t answer. Helen came in with the broken crutch and an angry expression. “There’s a dent in the PT room wall! What the hell did you do?” Hailey closed her eyes and still didn’t answer. “Your handler is going to hear about this!” she promised, then exited the room.

  “Agent Ramirez,” Dr. Kandahar said calmly, “you’ve destroyed the acetabulum. We’re going to have to go back to surgery and replace it. You’ll have to start all over again. I wouldn’t be surprised if you rebroke your femur in a few places. Well, we’ll check on that, too.” She continued to examine Hailey’s hip and leg, muttering about the force that must’ve been applied to cause the damage. Hailey cursed again, but this time, she cursed herself.

  Handler Laura Schwartz sat by Hailey’s bed after surgery. She wanted Hailey to have a friend nearby when she awoke. Laura knew Hailey was frustrated, and this new set-back was going to be hard for her agent to face. Laura was determined to stay by her side this time, making sure she went forward, not backward.

  When Hailey awoke, she looked around and found her only friend nearby. “Lucky,” she whispered.

  “Hey, there, Comet,” Laura replied with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

  “Numb,” Hailey replied.

  “Gotta love pain meds,” Laura said cheerfully. “I saw the dent in the wall…”

  “Please don’t yell at me right now,” Hailey sighed.

  “Not yelling. Not even judging,” Laura assured her. “Just noting your level of frustration to do damage like that with a broken leg.”

  “Well, now it’s more broken,” Hailey replied, closing her eyes.

  “You’ve been on medical leave before. Why so impatient this time?” Laura asked.

  “I need to finish my mission,” the Wraith replied. “I’ve never failed to finish a mission before.”

  “I forwarded your reports. Clamp was ordered to complete the mission,” Laura revealed, unsure of how Comet would take the news.

  “Clamp,” Hailey remembered her classmate. “Everything go all right?”

  “Yeah, no worries.”

  “Did he get Fornaio? She was the mastermind.”

  “Yes, everything’s wrapped up nicely. Don’t worry.”

  “I should’ve finished it…” Hailey muttered.

  “You couldn’t even walk, Comet. Give yourself a break.”

  “I’ve never failed a mission before.”

  “You didn’t fail this one. You were ninety percent finished; Clamp just wrapped it up.”

  “Still…”

  “Well, it’s over, so let it go. You have a new mission.”

  Hailey looked at Laura, surprised. “I still can’t even walk.”

  “Your mission is to carefully bring a Wraith back to full service.”

  “Cute, Lucky.”

  “Honestly, Comet, recovery will be faster if you listen to the medical people.”

  “Where’s Jax?”

  “Jax? I don’t know.”

  “Could you find out?”

  “Why?”

  “If he’s nearby, maybe he can stop by the Scabbard…”

  “I’ve told you before, you always get sentimental when you’re in the hospital.”

  “So I’m sentimental. So what? I could use a morale boost. It’s been twenty-two years since I’ve seen him – even talked to him.” Her voice got quiet. “SWORD won’t even let us comm each o
ther.”

  “They don’t want you two distracting each other,” Laura said sympathetically.

  “Then give him some R&R on the Scabbard while I’m here.”

  “He’s not my asset, Comet. I don’t have control over his schedule.”

  “You could talk to his handler, Hawk.”

  “I can try, but Hawk isn’t thrilled with you ever since you took Jackson out of the field for two months. Besides, the powers-that-be assign the missions.”

  Hailey looked away. “It’s been twenty-two years,” she whispered. “What do I have to do to prove myself?”

  Laura felt a brief stab of sorrow for Hailey. It passed instantly, thanks to her limbic monitor. Nevertheless, she took Hailey’s hand in hers and promised to look into it. “In the meantime, I’m here. I’ll be here as long as you are. Perhaps my presence can help, somewhat.”

  Hailey smiled at her handler. “It helps,” she confirmed. “Thanks.”

  Introduction

  With Laura’s support, Hailey made steady progress in rebuilding the strength in her hip and leg. Dr. Kandahar was pleased with her recovery, but not ready to release her for field work. Hailey was allowed to stay in her quarters instead of sick bay as long as she showed up for PT twice a day.

  Jackson never materialized and Hailey didn’t press the matter with her handler. She knew Laura didn’t forget her request, but she also knew that the last time she demanded to see Jackson, she put SWORD on the defensive. They were not keen to give her any sense of power over them again despite her decades of faithful, obedient service since then.

  In the absence of her only romantic interest, she filled her free – resting – time with visits to the gym to see her favorite academy coach and teacher, Crash, chess and card games with Lucky, friendly chats with Agent Anna, the med tech who always solved Hailey’s implant problems, the occasional meal with Ram, her busy father, and long soaks in the therapeutic hot tub. During one of her soaks, she pushed on her limbic monitor so she could feel her true feelings for Jackson, but she missed him so much, she had to let the LM take over again before she cried out of loneliness. Just a comm connection would be enough… she thought.