Hailey's Comet Anthology

by Selma J Lewis

  “We didn’t see any boats on the water as we came in.”

  “How about at the dock?”

  “No.”

  “They’re gone. Harold and Erin Morrissey – the ones from the warehouse deal.”

  “Sergeant,” Derek called to an SS officer. “Put out an APB on Harold and Erin Morrissey. They’ll be docking somewhere with their boat.”

  “A catamaran. ID on the hull is DOAT77892,” Hailey supplied.

  The sergeant nodded, taking note of the information, then stepped away to comm HQ.

  Hailey looked at Falcon, who kneeled at her side. “So, how was your day?” she asked. He looked at her, baffled. “It’s a joke,” Hailey explained, closing her eyes and letting her body relax. “Never mind.”

  Layers of a Wraith

  Derek explained the situation at Mané’s mansion. “It’s a good plan,” Hailey acknowledged, holding a bag of ice on her hip and swallowing a pair of pain pills, “letting Mané get rid of this Kiyoto character. Any intel on that person?”

  “Very little. Lucky says Kiyoto is a ghost of a figure. All they know is that it’s a woman. No one has ever seen her. There are plenty of warrants out on Mané, but EURO hasn’t moved on him because they want him to lead them to Kiyoto – their number-one target.”

  “So, if he’s meeting Kiyoto, you can pick them both up.”

  “I was figuring to nab Mané after he offs Kiyoto.”

  “But capturing Kiyoto could lead to other drug or crime rings that report to her.”

  Derek considered the idea. “I’d have to grab Mané after he leads me to Kiyoto, but before he kills her.”

  “Right.”

  “According to Mané, Kiyoto has a ‘posse’ which I interpret to mean, body guards.”

  “Right.”

  “Unknown number of targets…”

  “I’ll have your back,” Hailey assured him.

  He looked at her. “You can’t even walk,” he said matter-of-factly.

  Hailey bristled at the accusation. “I can shoot,” Hailey replied. Derek picked up on her change in facial musculature and tone of voice but didn’t understand it. He had only stated a true fact. Any Wraith, including Comet, would know that.

  “You’ve changed.”

  “It’s been a long time since I was in the academy, but I assume they still teach you to read bio-signs and body language,” Hailey said flatly.

  “Yes.”

  “Then tell me what I’m feeling,” she challenged him.

  “You shouldn’t be feeling anything unless your LM is malfunctioning.”

  “Really. What are you feeling right now?”

  “I am neutral.”

  “How about confused? Frustrated that you don’t understand something? Nervous about facing Mané and Kiyoto? Worried that I won’t pass you? Relieved that the children are safe? Anything.”

  Derek considered the list she provided. “I suppose I’m…a little anxious about gaining your approval, especially since I don’t understand you and what you expect from me.”

  “Tell me more. What don’t you understand?” Hailey asked.

  “The amount of energy you spend on dealing with people’s feelings, like the children, like me – right now. It’s not crucial to the mission, so… why?”

  Hailey thought about how to answer. She shifted the bag of ice slightly and took a deep breath. “Do you remember what it was like before the LM implant?”

  “Yes.”

  “You had friends?”

  “Two.”

  “Did you care about them? Ever take care of them?”

  “I… suppose I did.”

  “And how do you feel about them now?”

  “I don’t think about them. They are not part of my mission.”

  Hailey nodded thoughtfully. “That’s exactly what the LM is supposed to do.” He nodded agreement to her statement. She continued, “but think about the most special person in your life, past or present – the most important or influential person to whom you owe gratitude or loyalty.”

  “Anna.”

  “Anna?”

  “The med-tech at the Scabbard.”

  Hailey broke into a big smile. “I love Agent Anna! She got me through hard times.”

  Derek finally smiled. “Yeah, me too.”

  “You’re feeling an emotion right now, aren’t you?” Hailey asked, knowing the answer. Derek looked down to hide his expression. “It’s OK, Derek,” Hailey said, purposely using his first name instead of his codename. “We all have feelings. They’re not wrong.” He looked up at her.

  “But when I think about her, I miss her. That’s a distraction.”

  “Not now. It’s OK to take a little break. I happen to think it’s necessary to take a break from the LM now and then. So, why do I expend energy dealing with other people’s emotions?” she asked him.

  He puzzled over that, then came up with a guess. “They can’t turn them off.”

  “That’s part of it. You have to deal with their fear or hatred or nerves or whatever, because you can’t order them to put their feelings on the back burner. The other thing is,” Hailey paused, “I remember being scared, and helpless, and hopeless. If I can lessen someone’s trauma by acknowledging it and addressing it, then I’ve served the citizens of the Empire a little better.”

  Derek nodded, staring – unfocused – at her ice pack. “Do you get attached to people you serve?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “That’s a distraction, isn’t it?”

  “While I’m waiting for the boat to take me to the mainland with this lame leg,” she said, smiling, “I could use a distraction.”

  “Agent Ramirez?” a young voice said from behind her.

  “Cousin Ben, what’s up?” Hailey asked. “Come ‘round here where I can see you.” Derek gave the two a little space. Ben sat on the edge of the chaise on which Hailey rested. She took his hand. “You ready to go?” she asked with a smile.

  “Kevin doesn’t want to go.”

  Hailey nodded. “He was a big shot to the kids here, and he got fed every day. He’s used to this life. He doesn’t know what will happen if he leaves, so he’s nervous.”

  “Will you talk to him?” Ben asked.

  “Sure. Tell Kevin the agents need a cup of water and they want him to bring it.”

  Ben smiled. He got up and ran back into the house to find Kevin. Derek took a seat on a patio chair to watch what Comet would do with the boy. Kevin came out with a cup of cool water. He started toward the male Wraith sitting up, but Derek pointed to Hailey. Kevin turned and handed the water to Hailey. “Thanks,” Hailey replied, taking a sip. “I wanted to thank you, Kevin.”

  “What for? The water?”

  “For helping Frankie. Without you, he would’ve been pulled off the path by that… what are those things?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen them come out like that. They always told us to stay inside at night. I guess they know what they are, but they never told us anything.”

  “I’m gonna call them worm-zillas,” Hailey stated, taking a bigger sip from the cup. “In any case, thanks for helping Frankie.”

  “You were pretty good with that big-ass knife,” Kevin replied.

  “Oh, yeah. Lots of practice. You can get good at anything if you practice a lot. Like you: you were the best havva bean digger, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Kevin shut down.

  “Did you like it?”

  “Hell no. But there was nothing else to do.”

  “I know. You did a great job surviving here and being a leader for the others. Those are skills you could transfer to something else,” Hailey said brightly.

  “Like what?”

  “Oh, lots of things. You could be a coach, or an advocate, or a teacher. Help me out, Falcon.”

  “Uh, miner, farmer, builder, politician…”

  “I don’t know what half of those things are,” Kevin interrupted.

  “Ah, that’s because you wer
en’t allowed to go to school. School is the great equalizer. It gives everyone a fair chance to become whatever they want to be, if they put in a little effort,” Hailey explained. “I, myself, missed several years of school because I was living on the streets just trying to survive. But when I got the chance to learn, it changed my life.”

  “I don’t want to go to kiddie school. That’s where they’d put me ‘cause I’m so dumb.”

  “You aren’t dumb; you’re behind. Those social service people inside are going to make sure you get all the personal teachers you need to catch up. They’re not going to put you in ‘kiddie’ school.”

  Kevin silently listened to the Wraith. At least he’s not arguing any more, Hailey thought. “Did you know it’s your right as a citizen of the Empire to receive an education? They have to do it for you. They owe you! All you have to do is use the determination that helped you survive here and apply it to learning. Part of learning is discovering all the interesting jobs you can do. And you’ll get paid for working!”

  Kevin smiled in spite of himself. “I guess that sounds pretty good.”

  “Damn right,” Hailey agreed.

  “How can I get a cool job like yours?” Kevin asked.

  “Looks cooler than it is,” Derek spoke up.

  Hailey chuckled. “That’s the truth.”

  Mané vs. Kiyoto

  Derek made sure Hailey got to the mainland hospital for the professional care she needed. He knew she really needed to get back to the Scabbard, but this was the best he could do in the current situation. He did comm Lucky to tell her about Comet’s condition. Lucky replied that she would be there within two days to take Comet back home. “Don’t let her work,” Lucky had ordered.

  Derek kept tabs on the bugs he had placed around Mané’s house. No more private conversations occurred, but he did hear Mané firing his security staff and buying ACME sentries to take over their duties, because “ACMEs don’t take breaks for stuffing their faces and taking dumps,” he explained to his brother. “And they don’t have mutinous minds of their own.”

  Meanwhile, Mané built a small explosive he planned to use to get rid of Kiyoto at their upcoming meeting. He was unbelievably sure of himself considering Kiyoto had to have numerous body guards and sentries, and he would undoubtedly be frisked by them. But Derek’s listening device even caught Mané whistling while he worked on the bomb in secret.

  Mané told his distributors not to come to his mansion again until he contacted them with a fake ad in the Gilmar Gazette newsfeed. He didn’t really care about their safety during the imminent retaliatory strike Kiyoto’s squad would most certainly bring down on his house. But he didn’t want his brother to have to build up a new crew when this one was perfectly adequate.

  As the hour for Mané’s meeting with Kiyoto approached, Derek made his way back to Gilmar and back to Mané’s mansion. He noted the new security squad of ACME robots and stayed out of their sensor range. His temporal data node had plenty of information on the construction and abilities of the sentries, but he had no reason to tangle with them and alert Mané to his presence.

  Mané was alone in his house with his sentries. Derek watched from a hiding place on the street, waiting for him to go to his meeting with Kiyoto. He was ready with plans and back-up plans to nab the syndicate kingpin – or queenpin, in this case – and get Mané as well. He would prove his worthiness to Agent Ramirez and SWORD by bringing down the whole organization. His limbic monitor kept his body and brain in readiness to spring into action at any moment.

  Mané’s house blew up.

  The blast originated from the center of the mansion and blew the windows out all around the structure. Derek was hit by the blast wave, but it had weakened substantially by the time it reached him on the street. Getting back on his feet, he ran for the shortest part of the perimeter fence and vaulted over it, resuming his run toward the house which was now in flames. Derek ran around the entire edifice, looking for Mané in case he got out of the disaster area. No ACMEs harassed Derek; they were all destroyed in the blast.

  Mané must have been destroyed, too, Derek thought, playing with explosives beyond his ability to control. Idiot! Derek cursed the fool who now made it impossible to track down Kiyoto. It would be weeks or months before Mané’s little brother, Lanny, got the business up and running again. No, it would not be weeks or months; it would be never. The supply side of the business was dismantled. Kiyoto was in the wind, still a ghost.

  Fire fighters arrived to battle the blaze. Derek commed Hailey to explain what happened. He informed her he would be returning to Trenton immediately.

  “Falcon, I think you should stay there for a day or two,” Hailey suggested.

  “Why?” Derek questioned – irritatedly, he realized.

  “Watch the house. Listen to the arson investigators. Listen to everyone on site.”

  Derek didn’t understand why, but he respected the experience of the older Wraith. He closed the comm and found a place to change into his ordinary SWORD uniform. When the fire was extinguished and the investigators arrived, he roamed the grounds and the burned-out house taking in every scrap of information the experts supplied. He felt something he hadn’t felt since he took a beating from his classmate in his second-year academy fight class. He saw a charred, non-functional ACME robot lying on its back. He kicked it hard.

  The Mané Mystery

  EURO descended on Gilmar. When Mané blew himself up, they were livid. They saw the SWORD agent wandering around the area and demanded to know what happened.

  “You, SWORD, what are you doing here?” EURO Agent Rolf demanded.

  “I am Agent Cochella. I’m on a mission that led me to Dominic Mané.”

  “Is this explosion your doing?” Rolf asked testily.

  “Of course not,” Derek replied. “Wraiths are not so messy.”

  Rolf suddenly shrank in front of the young man in the black SWORD jumpsuit. He knew the kid couldn’t be more than eighteen years old, but a Wraith – any Wraith – was far superior to him in every way – and outranked him.

  “Oh, sorry, sir. How can I be of service?” Rolf backpedaled.

  “You can do your job. Why are you here?” Derek asked, emboldened by the man’s submissiveness.

  “Mané. We always hoped he would lead us to Kiyoto. Always had a bead on him.”

  “Then you were aware of his plot to kill Kiyoto and rely on Kiyoto’s henchmen to retaliate by killing him and everyone in his house.”

  The EURO agent paled. “No, sir. But it’s not much of a plan if he got himself killed in the process.”

  “He expected retaliation, so he planned to hide elsewhere.”

  “So, Kiyoto is dead?” Rolf asked.

  “No. Mané never made it to the meeting. He must’ve accidentally triggered the explosive he was preparing for Kiyoto.”

  “Damn,” Rolf breathed. “Mané is dead.”

  “His brother plans to take over the job Mané used to do.”

  “That’s good! We still have a chance to get to Kiyoto.”

  Derek heard the voice of one investigator talking to another. “…no body,” he heard. Derek left Rolf and went directly to the woman who had said it.

  “Repeat what you just said,” he ordered.

  The investigator looked at the SWORD agent and the approaching EURO mob and accepted her place in the hierarchy. “I said that we can’t find Mané’s body. Lots of ACMEs. No humans.”

  Derek forgot to thank the woman or bring EURO up to speed with his thinking. He retrieved his CAA suit and commandeered a vehicle, ordering the AI to take him to the harbor where he knew the Mané brothers berthed a boat. He had to get there before the boat took off. He commed ahead to the port authority to stop either Dominic and Lanny Mané if they showed up. The PA took frustratingly long to review their surveillance of the last several hours and come back on the comm to report, “I’m sorry, sir. Both of those men shoved off half-an-hour ago in a boat registered to a Ms. Domoko Kiyo
to.”

  Understanding dawned on Derek. He threw his head back on the seat and stared at the ceiling of the car. Then he lifted his comm to his mouth again. “Have a faster boat ready for me when I get there. ETA… nineteen minutes.”

  “On whose authority?”

  “Agent Cochella of SWORD.”

  “Yes, sir, Agent Cochella.”

  When Derek arrived, the port authority was ready and waiting for him, showing him to a sleek speed boat that would easily catch up to Mané’s cabin cruiser. Derek hopped aboard, accessing the specs and use instructions for the craft from his TDN. Instantly knowledgeable on how to operate it, he took off after the brothers.

  He knew where they were headed. He also knew that if they found the island swarming with Sector Security, they’d turn and run. It didn’t occur to him to comm Sector Security headquarters to dispatch a chopper so he’d have eyes in the sky; the Scabbard had taught him that he was a one-man army, equipped and trained to take care of business by himself. It didn’t occur to him to comm Agent Ramirez to tell her what was going on; this was his mission to fulfill. And it didn’t occur to him to bring EURO up to speed on what he had figured out. He single-mindedly raced toward the island, intent on catching the drug czar brothers.

  The island of Morrissey came into sight, a small bump on the horizon. Derek put the boat on autopilot and changed back into his Wraith armor. With his helmet on, he magnified his view of the island. He didn’t see any boats besides the SS craft. He looked all around at the sea, searching for anything. With no trail to follow, he continued toward the island and circled it when he got there. He hoped to find evidence that they had approached or landed at one of the docks on the near side. But they were smarter than that. The must’ve also circled the island and spotted the Sector Security crime scene investigation team’s boat at Morrissey’s dock.

  Derek steered toward the docked SS craft and called to anyone on board. “Did you see any boats circle this island or even come anywhere near?”