Hailey laughed at the familiar “take me to your leader” line. A taxi took her to a nearby park. There she set her suitcase down and then set herself down on a bench in the shade. She put an earbud in her right ear and listened to the bug she had slapped on Derek’s shoulder when she whispered to him.
With her other ear listening to the sounds of people and nature around her, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply the fresh planet air. Even in a city, planet air was fresher than the recirculated air on the Scabbard and on every transport in the Empire. She straightened out her legs in front of her and let her head fall back against the bench, appearing to be asleep. As she sat thus, relaxing, a sound caught her attention. She concentrated on it and determined exactly where it was coming from.
“Don’t even think about it,” she warned. The young man who was about to steal her suitcase froze. Then he grabbed the handle and started to make his getaway. Hailey pulled out her pocket knife and, without opening the blade, threw the solid metal gadget at the thief’s head: direct hit, of course. The man dropped the case and put his hand on his head. Relieved that he wasn’t bleeding, he turned to face Hailey. “Bring that back,” she commanded.
“Fat chance, bitch,” the man replied nastily. He picked up the pocketknife and opened it, pointing it at Hailey.
“I’ll want that back, too,” she said.
“Come and get it,” he taunted.
“Bring them to me,” she repeated, pulling out a bigger blade. “This isn’t my biggest one, but it’s good for throwing,” she informed him. She tossed it into the air and caught it by the blade, holding it in throwing position. The man dithered for a moment, then started to run away from her, leaving the suitcase behind. She sighed. As spectators who witnessed the face-off looked on, she threw the knife and hit the thief in the back of the thigh. He tumbled to the ground, swearing and writhing.
Some people started to his aid, but Hailey called out loudly, “No one touch him. He’s armed.”
“You bitch!” the thief yelled back at her.
“Is that the only word you know?” Hailey called back. “Now get up and bring my suitcase and two knives back.” He didn’t move, except to clutch at his bleeding leg. “I’ll call for a medic as soon as you bring them back.” He still didn’t budge. She pulled out her gun and pointed it at him. “Now,” she said calmly.
The man rolled over onto his hands and knees. He didn’t put weight on the stabbed leg, so had a fair amount of trouble getting up to standing. With the knife still embedded in his leg, he picked up the pocketknife and began to hobble back to the suitcase. With difficulty, he pulled the suitcase along to return it to Hailey at the bench. She had already put her gun away and extracted first aid supplies from her vest. By the time he got back to the bench, his strength gave out and he collapsed on the ground in front of her. She immediately extracted the knife and sprayed antibiotic, numbing, clotting gel onto the wound and wrapped a clean cloth around his thigh.
To her great surprise, some in the crowd applauded her. She heard several people punch 1-1-1 into their comms. “Ambulance is already on its way,” she informed them. She could hear the siren with her enhanced hearing. They would hear it soon.
Before the ambulance arrived, though, a Sector Security officer who patrolled the park showed up. One in the crowd informed him that the woman on the bench had stabbed the man on the ground. The officer hurried over to the scene and quickly determined that Hailey was the criminal one of the two. He ordered her to stand up while he extracted his cuffs. “No!” someone shouted. “The one on the ground is the thief.” Hailey pulled out her ID and showed it to the officer.
His eyes widened. “SWORD?”
“Agent Ramirez,” she answered, “at your service.”
“No, ma’am. I answer to you. Should I take this man to jail?”
“He’s going to the hospital first, but then you can book him as a thief. Take some of these witnesses’ statements while they’re still here.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the officer said. He used his comm to record statements while Hailey re-stashed her weapons and pulled her suitcase behind her as she slowly made her way to a different part of the park.
All the while, Hailey monitored Falcon’s conversations with SS officers. He finished his interview with the captain and left the SS central office. Hailey continued to listen as she watched Trenton life go by in the park. She always found it helpful to study the vibe of the citizens, though she didn’t always have time to create a full societal vector assessment. Nevertheless, she could tell by the way people held their personal possessions close to them, and never let go of their children’s hands that this city, or maybe just this park, was not a comfortably safe place for normal citizens to linger.
Hailey, herself, had not been there ten minutes before she was robbed. She determined to wait until dusk to see what happened when night fell on the park. The loss of sunshine brought a chill to the air, so Hailey found an isolated spot where she could change into her CAA suit with built-in temperature control and various holsters for a variety of weapons.
Wanting to disappear from public view, she donned her helmet and stashed her suitcase high in a tree and returned to the main path to watch, in comfort and safety, the nightlife of the park.
Using her implanted night-vision abilities, Hailey could see every human and animal by their heat signatures. Her helmet alerted her to anything that might creep up behind her, though no one would even see her, as her matte-black suit blended in to the darkness of the shadows perfectly. Even when someone walked by with a flashlight and accidentally shone it on her, they didn’t see her. She wandered the park purposefully, looking for anyone who acted suspiciously. Most citizens seemed to avoid the park at night. Only a few brave souls traversed the walking paths.
A hundred meters ahead, a man dragged a crying child by the hand. The child had to be at least ten years old, too old to be crying. Hailey picked up her pace. “Jared, if you don’t stop acting out,” she heard the man say, “then you’ll lose your computer privileges for the rest of the week.”
“But Dad,” the youth whined, “I don’t want to go to piano lesson. Mrs. Showho is gonna yell at me for not practicing!”
“Then you should have practiced.”
Hailey turned away from the pair, convinced that the child belonged to the man. In her earpiece, she heard sounds of rustling, then mild grunting, then a door closing, then quiet. Falcon had changed from his SWORD jumpsuit into his Chameleon Adaptive Armor suit, just as Hailey had. She checked the location of the tracker and found it to be static in a hotel downtown. She now didn’t know where Falcon was, but she knew he could take care of himself. She continued her nighttime stroll through the park.
Near midnight, Hailey spotted a homeless man huddled in the doorway of a locked maintenance shed, trying to keep warm. She extracted a folded emergency blanket – thin as a sheet of foil – from a compartment in her suit. Removing her helmet so she wouldn’t frighten the man with a voice coming out of the dark, she approached him with a friendly greeting.
“Would you like a thermal sheet?”
“Who are you? What do you want? You keep your distance, y’hear?” the man replied angrily.
“I’m Hailey. I want to give you a blanket. And I’ll stay back here,” she said, taking a few steps back. She tossed the folded blanket to the man and he eagerly opened it and wrapped it around himself.
“Hailey, huh? What are you doing in the park so late? It’s not safe for young ladies at night,” the man said.
“I took a self-defense class. I’m fine. How about you?”
“Screwy stuff happening lately. I’m sure you’ve heard about it.”
“The child trafficking,” Hailey replied. “Yeah, I heard about it. Actually, I’m helping a SWORD agent who’s here to solve the problem.”
“SWORD is here? Well, now something’ll get done.”
Hailey made a note to tell Ram that his PR efforts were working if street peop
le in Trenton on Gostlan had faith in them. “I’m sorry I can’t do much to help you. Oh, wait. I have a protein bar. Would you like it?”
“Thanks,” the man said. “Just toss it over here.”
“I’m glad you’re taking precautions. One more question, if you don’t mind. Are there any street kids you know who’ve gone missing?”
“Street kids? Ain’t many street kids in Trenton. Them social workers are always rounding up runaways and bringin’ ‘em home, whether they wanna go home or not.”
“Are you sure they’re social workers?” Hailey asked.
“Yeah. They wear those green vests with the patch on ‘em. Saw one hauling a kid outta the park yesterday afternoon.”
“Do the kids fight them?”
“Naw, those green-vests lure ‘em away with burgers and chips. Before they know it, they’re on their way home. Program must work; I never see the kids come back to the park. I guess they work things out at home. ‘Course, the kids could be going to a different hideout if they run away again. I wouldn’t know.”
“Sir, it’s been very enlightening talking with you. Thanks for your time.”
“Got plenty of it,” the man answered, ripping open the wrapper on the protein bar and taking a bite. “Thanks for the stuff.”
“You’re welcome.”
Hailey pinged Falcon’s comm as she walked toward the town center. Within a minute, Falcon commed her back. “Agent Ramirez,” he said by way of greeting.
“Where are you?”
“Seventeen meters west from the northwest corner of Third and J Streets.”
Hailey rolled her eyes at the ridiculous precision. “I have information to share. I’m at Forty-third and R Streets. It’d be faster if you come to me. I haven’t seen any taxis for the past half hour.”
“I’ll be there in approximately sixteen-point-six minutes.” Falcon cut the comm. Sixteen-point-four minutes later, Derek arrived at Hailey’s location. “What’s your information?” he asked without preamble.
“I think the kidnappers are posing as social workers and rounding up runaways.”
“The children who are missing didn’t run away.”
“How do you know?”
“Because their parents informed SS that they didn’t run away. They were abducted.”
“Did you have parents?” Hailey asked.
Derek was momentarily stunned by the question, but he recovered. “Not since I was nine years old.”
“Did your parents know everything you did or thought about doing?”
“My parents were… they didn’t really care what I did.”
“I think you need to surveil some of the families and find out what kind of homes they are providing.”
“That will take a lot of time,” Derek replied, clearly not excited about such a task. “In the morning I’ll check out Social Services and you surveil the families.”
Hailey sucked up her pride and answered, “Got it.”
“Agent Ramirez,” Derek started.
“Comet.”
“Uh, yes. Comet. How did you get this information? Sector Security didn’t indicate that the children might be runaways or that the traffickers might be social workers.”
“Posing as social workers. They wear green vests with some kind of identifying patch. Offer the kids a burger to get them to come along quietly. I got this information from a vagrant in South Park.”
Derek’s eyebrow went up at the mention of a vagrant. “That’s not a reliable source.”
“On the contrary, street people know what’s happening on the streets. You lived on the streets; you should know that.”
“I didn’t live on the streets,” Derek claimed.
“Then where did you go when you were ten?”
“My personal information is not relevant.”
“Forgive me for prying. I grew up on the streets of Fansha. I figured most Wraith recruits were anonymous youth.” It suddenly occurred to Hailey that when she left Fansha with the recruiter, Mango, she never thought about what the other kids on the street would think about her disappearance. “Anyway, trust me: street people usually have a good sense of what’s going on.”
Derek stood still, not knowing what to say or do with the awkward conversation. Hailey rescued him by suggesting they get some sleep and have a good breakfast before resuming work in the morning. His own nighttime surveillance yielding nothing, he agreed. Together, they walked to the hotel.
Hailey slept in her suit since she neglected to retrieve her suitcase from the tree in the park. She got up early so she could see one or two of the families in their morning routine. With a hotel restaurant breakfast to go, Hailey made her way to the nearest home listed in the mission briefing as having a missing child.
The Nozak family rushed about tensely. Two children and two parents frustrated each other as they each tried to use the washroom and get breakfast while being in each other’s way. She listened through the walls of the house from across the street, hearing everything inside clearly. “Susanna, I told you I needed that shirt cleaned for today. I have an interview with a new client! Can’t you remember anything I tell you?”
“Your shirt is not really my highest priority, Ted. Lucy, come here. I’ll help you with your hair. My, it’s tangled this morning. You must’ve been tossing and turning up quite a storm in your bed last night,” Susanna chit-chatted, falsely cheerful in front of her daughter.
“Dammit! Whose backpack is this? I nearly broke my neck!”
“Oh, Lucy,” Susanna whispered. “Did you leave that where your father would trip—”
“There you are,” Ted growled.
“Ted, she just forgot. Don’t –” Hailey heard the sound of the backpack hitting the child. “Ted! Stop!” Screeching of chairs and a whimpering child blended in with Ted’s swearing and Susanna’s begging. Hailey dropped her breakfast and ran to the front door. She knocked on the door loudly. The noise stopped.
Ted whispered, “Keep your mouths shut, y’hear me?” He opened the door. “What.”
“I’m here to speak with your wife, sir.”
“She’s all yours,” he muttered, pushing past Hailey and heading off to work.
Susanna tentatively came to the door. “Yes?” she asked.
“Ma’am, I’m with SWORD. May I come in and speak with you?”
“I have to get my children to school.”
“Oh? How many children do you have?”
“Three. Uh, two. Two that go to school. Excuse me.” Susanna returned to her frightened daughter and called to her son, “Charlie, are you ready for school? We’ve got to get going.”
“Mama, who’s that?” Lucy asked, pointing at the Wraith who now stood inside the house.
“Look, SWORD person, I don’t have time to talk to you.”
“Let me help you get the kids to school. Can I call a taxi for you?”
“The bus comes down the street; it’ll be here any minute.”
“I’ll make sure it waits for your kids,” Hailey replied, stepping outside to flag down the approaching school bus.
With the kids safely on their way to school, Susanna acquiesced and allowed Hailey to come in to talk. “Ma’am, I’m Agent Ramirez. I’d like to ask you some questions about your third child.” Susanna’s face tensed up. She pressed her lips tightly together. “How long has he been missing?”
“Three weeks,” Susanna replied, letting slip a short sob. “Sector Security can’t seem to do anything to find Conner. Is that why you’re here?”
“Yes, ma’am. But Conner is not the only child who’s gone missing. There are thirty-three open cases in Trenton alone.”
Susanna closed her eyes. “I know.”
“Ma’am, is it possible that Conner ran away?”
“No! Of course not! Why would you say a thing like that?”
“I noticed the bruises on Charlie’s arm, and I heard your husband hit Lucy with the backpack. You have several scars on your head… It’s logical to as
sume that Conner was also abused by your husband. Perhaps he had enough and ran away.”
Susanna bowed her head and wiped a tear away from her eye.
“It’s crossed your mind, hasn’t it?” Hailey asked gently.
“Yes.”
“Ma’am, I believe that your son has run away and has also been abducted.”
Susanna looked up suddenly. “What do you mean by that?”
“There’s a child-labor black market operating out of Trenton. We don’t know where the traffickers are taking them, but I think I know how they are taking them. Street youth may be targeted.”
“Conner,” Susanna lamented. “I hoped he would come back on his own. I’ve spent every hour the kids are in school looking for him. Lost my job because of it. Ted was not happy about that…” Hailey pictured Susanna hunting frantically for her child, just as Hailey’s mother, Karen, must’ve hunted for Hailey when she was taken.
“Ma’am, I understand your trials. I wonder, is there somewhere you can take your kids and stay for a while? A relative’s place, maybe?”
“I don’t know… What if Conner comes home and I’m not here for him?”
“With your permission, I could leave a listening device in your home and monitor for Conner’s entrance. I’m concerned about you and your other children. I wouldn’t want Charlie or Lucy to run away as well…”
Hailey convinced the mother to take her children away from their abusive father and stay with a sister in a nearby suburb. She did leave a bug in the house and recorded everything that occurred there. She would listen to it at ten-times-normal speed every night. She was quite sure, however, that Conner would not be coming home on his own.
Finding the next closest house on the list, Hailey found a beer-drinking mother on the stoop of a run-down house. Inside, a voice yelled at a televised sporting event. “Ma’am, are you Liz Kanamali?”
“Who’s asking?” the woman replied.
Hailey's Comet Anthology Page 28