“There was a curious fishing cruiser. We shooed them away.”
“Which way?” Derek asked.
The crewman pointed south-easterly sending Derek back into full-speed pursuit of the Kiyoto cruiser. Using every tool available in his high-tech helmet, he scanned the sea for the fugitive craft. There: up ahead, he spotted a boat which was the right size and going in the right direction. He pushed the speed boat harder, chasing the brothers.
He overtook the cruiser and cut across its path, forcing the yacht to veer off course. He circled the craft, pointing his gun at the cabin and ordering its occupants to come onto the deck. The yacht cut its engines. Derek held his gun at the ready, assuming they’d come out shooting.
A man emerged from the cabin with his hands held up in submission. He kept his head down, as if trying to hide from the menacing black pirate that had overtaken their fishing cruiser. A woman followed him, squinting up into the bright light of day. Neither person was a Mané. “Who else is in there?” the Wraith asked. “Come out now,” he ordered.
“There’s no one else,” the woman said, keeping her open hands above her head. Derek could see she had just lied. He ordered the man to tie the two boats together. He boarded the pleasure craft and went into the cabin. It was a small space with one closed door. He flung the door open, ready to shoot the Manés if necessary. What he found was a child cowering in the corner of the small space.
Instantly, he lowered his weapon. His helmet alerted him to a quickly advancing person behind him. He spun around and put up his hand to stop the ax the man was swinging at him. The man’s momentum flung him into the Wraith when his hands and ax were blocked. Derek pulled the ax from his hand and holstered his gun.
He stepped over the man and climbed back out onto the deck. The woman saw him with the ax and screamed, thinking her husband was dead. The husband came running when he heard his wife scream. In the middle of the mayhem stood Falcon, Agent Cochella, the one-man, do-it-all, infallible graduate of the SWORD Wraith academy. He had boarded the wrong boat.
He had the wrong boat! The failure stabbed Derek in the chest like a knife. He had terrorized innocent citizens of the Empire whom he was supposed to serve with honor. He stood there, looking at the huddled couple still unsure about their fate.
Derek set the ax down within reach of the man who, Derek reasoned, deserved the right to protect his family. He stepped onto the side of the boat and hopped the short distance to the floor of the speedboat. Putting a hand on the rope that held the boats together, he loosened the connection.
The couple watched him intently. Finally, the man stood up straight and cried, “What the hell?”
The Wraith turned his back on the family and reached for the starter. Hailey’s voice came to his mind. 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. He turned back to the couple and removed his helmet so they could see the face of a human instead of the specter of a Wraith.
The woman’s fear diminished noticeably. “He’s just a boy,” she whispered.
“A boy,” Derek replied, “trying to be a Wraith. I apologize for what just happened. I thought this boat held fugitives – drug traffickers whose network enslaved hundreds of children like your child in there,” he said, waving his hand gently toward the cabin. “Please excuse me.” He bowed slightly, then turned back to the controls of his craft.
“Hey, Wraith,” the man called. Derek turned. “You rescued the kids?”
“My superior did.”
The man looked satisfied. “Bless you and your superior, then,” the woman said.
“Thank you, ma’am. Again, I’m sorry.” He donned his helmet once more and started the engine.
“Go get ‘em, Wraith!” the man yelled. The couple fell into each other’s arms and hugged, laughing with relief, then calling their child out of his hiding place. Derek sped away, humbled, or rather, humiliated.
’Fessing Up
By boat and then by SS chopper, Derek returned to Trenton to report to the superior Wraith. He didn’t feel worthy to call her by her codename anymore. “Agent Ramirez,” he said as he entered her hospital room.
“Did Lucky tell you not to let me work?” Hailey asked without preamble.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I told you I was capable of being a back-up gun. I can sit in a chopper or car and …” Hailey looked carefully at Falcon. “What’s wrong?”
“I lost him,” Derek confessed.
“Explain,” Hailey ordered.
“Instead of meeting Kiyoto, Mané rigged a bomb in his own house. At first I thought he accidentally blew himself up, but there was no body. I realized he had left previously and boarded a boat with his brother to go hide on the drug production island.” Derek stopped explaining as he realized his other failure: Mané had told Lanny to go to Morrissey’s Island two days before. If Lanny boarded Mané’s boat with him today, then Lanny already knew the island was compromised. They went somewhere else right away. Derek’s chase of their yacht to the island – and the fishing cruiser away from the island – was all a waste of time. He didn’t want to admit his hiccup in logical thinking, so he reported the facts. “I went after them, but they weren’t at the island, understandably, with SS swarming the place, so they must’ve gone somewhere else. Any point on the compass. I don’t know.”
“So Mané is in the wind.”
“His plan was to get his face altered surgically, but that was before he discovered his supply chain on the island was dismantled. Now he has nothing.”
“He’ll have Kiyoto coming after him,” Hailey pointed out.
“No, he won’t.”
“You said he didn’t meet Kiyoto.”
“There is no Kiyoto. Mané invented the phantom boss to keep EURO at bay. They wouldn’t touch Mané when they really wanted Kiyoto, and EURO would never find Kiyoto.”
“Are you certain?”
“The boat Mané took was registered to Ms. Domoko Kiyoto.”
“Dominic Mané was Domoko Kiyoto,” she breathed. “What do you know. That’s good work, Falcon.”
“I failed.”
Hailey nearly laughed to herself. “Mané was beyond your mission. You broke up the child-trafficking ring. Mission accomplished.”
“I think you completed that mission,” Derek said quietly.
“You discovered the truth about one of EURO’s most frustrating cases. Don’t worry: they’ll find Mané again. EURO’s more capable than the people of SWORD like to admit.”
“I guess I should give them all the information I have about the boat and the brothers.”
“ASAP,” Hailey agreed. Derek left the room to turn over his intel to EURO. Hailey sent a comm to Agent Chan in the Scabbard basement. Agent Chan, if you have time, could you look for a fugitive named Dominic Mané and his brother, Lanny, formerly of Gilmar on the planet Gostlan?
A few minutes later, Chan replied in the affirmative. Then, Good news, Agent Ramirez! Please come see me when you’re next on the Scabbard.
Hailey smiled. He had done it! Chan had found a way for her to link up with Jackson. She was grateful that he didn’t spell that out on traceable SWORD comms. I knew you were the best, she wrote back.
Epilogue
Laura arrived two days after Hailey was brought to the hospital in Trenton. “The Wraith who refused to heal,” Laura said upon seeing her asset in a bendy-bed yet again. She approached Hailey and shook her hand, the friendliest greeting a Wraith with a limbic monitor could manage.
“I haven’t received a report from Falcon yet. Do you know where he is?”
“I think he’s working on it.”
“What’s taking so long? How hard can it be?”
“He’s never made a real report before, and this mission didn’t go exactly how he expected it to. I imagine he is dithering over what to put in it.”
“The facts.” L
aura’s expression repeated her question: how hard can it be?
Hailey smiled. “Cut him some slack. He had to deal with me, too, you know. That didn’t make the mission any easier.”
“Did you confuse him with your social skills?” Laura asked with a sideways smile.
“Damn right,” Hailey said proudly. “I think I’m the best field trainer there ever was.”
“You’re only supposed to evaluate him, not train him.”
“I wish Viper had done even more training when she was evaluating me. It took me forever to learn about regular humans.”
“Comet, no one knows as much about dealing with regular humans than you do. Maybe you should teach a class at the academy,” Laura teased. “Seriously, though, are you going to sign off on Falcon for solo duty?”
“No.”
“Really? Your comm said he completed the mission.”
“He did, but…” Hailey didn’t want to explain Falcon’s self-doubt. He had told her about the family on the pleasure boat that he had scared half to death. He told her that remembering her words led him to apologize and beg pardon, that when he explained the rescue of the slave children, the civilians hailed the Wraiths. He was so taken aback by all the feelings around him and even inside him that she felt he was not yet ready to be on his own. “Falcon needs me a little longer, I think.”
“He needs you. You, specifically?”
“That’s my professional opinion.”
Lucky stared at Comet, still baffled sometimes by the unexpected things she said and did. She shook her head. “OK. If you say so.” Laura thought for a second. “But if you’re going out in the field with him again any time soon, I’m going to make sure medical puts you in a body cast. You’ve got to stop popping that hip joint.”
Hailey laughed.
On the transport back to the Scabbard, Derek came around to ask Hailey how she was doing.
“Lucky brought the good meds, so I feel a lot better. She’s threatening to put me in a body cast, though,” Hailey said with a smile.
Derek returned the smile, barely. “I wanted to thank you, Agent Ramirez. I’ve learned a lot from you this past week. I hope I will one day be a Wraith you can be proud of.”
“Before the mission I asked you a question.”
Derek nodded. He remembered the conversation.
“I said I’d ask you again after the mission was completed.”
“Do I believe it is my privilege to be respectful, to esteem and serve with devotion the citizens of the Empire?”
“You said it was your duty.”
He thought about it. “Those kids who all hugged you before we left, the social workers who will get those kids adjusted to societal life again, that family on the boat who pardoned my mistake and cheered me on to get the bastards, the EURO and SS agents who do their best without implants and actually get things done… It is my honor, Agent Ramirez, to serve the citizens of the Empire.”
Hailey’s Comet 9: Humanity
By Selma J. Lewis
Agent Cochella meets Ram
Director of Public Relations, Ronald A. Méndez, visited Agent Hailey Ramirez in the medical center of the Scabbard space station. He never visited any other agent who was recuperating from mission injuries, but he had a certain bond with Agent Ramirez. Not an emotional bond; Ram was incapable of having human emotions thanks to an experimental limbic monitor SWORD implanted in his brain decades before. Instead, he had a genetic bond with Ramirez.
“Hi, Papa,” Hailey said when he entered her room. “What brings you here?”
“Two things. One, how are you recovering from your thrice-injured hip?”
“Lucky’s making sure I don’t leave the Scabbard for any reason until I’m completely healed. I guess I’ll be here a while. Maybe we can have lunch together sometimes.” It was a vain hope inside Hailey that her father would ever have a spark of human feeling for her, but she wanted to spend time with him nonetheless.
“We can certainly share mealtimes, if you wish,” Ram replied. He didn’t crave human interaction, and certainly never considered socializing to be a priority in his duty-driven life, but he did understand what he called “the social script” and the need of other humans to be social with each other. No one besides Hailey ever wanted to socialize with him. He was disconcerting to deal with, never showing emotion, humor, or empathy, and never telling a falsehood or shading the truth even for the purposes of politeness or sparing someone’s feelings. He simply existed to fulfill his purpose: ensure the continued important work of SWORD by making sure the organization was always seen in a good light by the population as well as the government who paid the bills.
“What’s the second thing?” Hailey asked.
“The graduate you were sent to evaluate, Agent Derek Cochella, has been involved in an embarrassing incident on the planet Gostlan.”
“Oh?” Hailey replied, not fooling her father one bit.
“I believe you are aware that he boarded the boat of a family on a fishing expedition, held them at gunpoint, and, realizing his mistake, apologized to them, informing them that he was a Wraith.”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“Are you also aware that the family related the story to people on shore who convinced them to share it with a news outlet?”
Hailey cringed. “Bad press, huh?”
“If he had simply left the family without a word, he could have avoided this all together.”
Hailey nodded.
“I wish to speak to your junior agent to explain the proper way to handle such a situation.”
“So, why don’t you?”
“I suspect his actions have something to do with you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Hailey, you are the most socially adept agent with a limbic monitor that I know. I suspect you have tried to pass on your skills to an agent who does not yet possess a sufficient understanding of SWORD’s place in the Empire. It is best for him to follow the training of his academy teachers.”
“Not the odd-ball Wraith.”
“Correct.” Ram seemed to miss entirely the self-deprecating joke Hailey made. She was an odd Wraith. Everyone knew it. Some at the Scabbard disliked her intensely because of it. Others in the galaxy loved her intensely because of it.
“I understand your reprimand. Perhaps I’m not a good candidate to be an evaluator.”
“You did not approve Agent Cochella serving solo missions.”
“Not because of the boat incident. I believe he lacks the self-confidence he needs to work alone.”
“No Wraith lacks self-confidence. What did you do to him?” Ram asked without judgement.
“I attempted to teach him his purpose as a Wraith.”
“All graduates know their purpose is to serve the citizens of the Empire.”
“It’s our honor to serve the citizens of the Empire,” Hailey said. Ram looked at her, not understanding her point. She explained. “Papa, do you know how many times I said that line before I started to understand it? Four hundred and seventy-nine times I told citizens it was my honor to serve them without honoring them at all.”
“To serve is a noble endeavor. It is honorable.”
“I have a different opinion. I do not seek honor for serving; I honor the people I serve. Restated, our mantra could be: It is a privilege to be respectful, to esteem and serve with devotion the citizens of the Empire.”
“I think you spend too much time pondering the esoteric nuances of language.”
Hailey smiled. “Probably. Nevertheless, that is the mantra that motivates me to serve. You can fire me if you don’t like it.”
“Fire you?”
“A joke, Papa.”
“I’m relieved you do not wish me to set you on fire.”
Hailey stared at him. “Did you just make a joke, Papa?”
“I attempted a joke. Apparently, it wasn’t humorous enough to elicit the desired response. I apologize.” Hailey laughed out loud. Ram furrowed
his brow. “That was not a joke.”
“I’m sorry my reaction was late.” Hailey chuckled. “The fire joke was a good one. Thank you.”
Ram shook his head, not understanding his daughter and her intricacies at all. Nevertheless, it was good to see her smile. It had never been his intention for her to be sucked into the dangerous and lonely life of a Wraith. SWORD had manipulated him and his daughter and gotten two exemplary agents out of it, but he knew she could have had a normal childhood and adult life with love and friendship in the galaxy had she not been kidnapped by SWORD when she was four years old. Ram did remember things like love and friendship even though he could not feel them anymore.
“Hailey, I’ll let you rest. I wish you a speedy recovery.”
“Bye, Papa,” Hailey replied, still smiling widely at his unexpected joke.
Hailey’s physical therapist entered her room to find her in a good mood. “That’s nice to see,” he said. “Let’s get started before you lose your good humor.”
“And with that, the good mood dies…” Hailey joked.
Ram summoned Agent Cochella to his office. The young agent, Falcon, was barely an agent. He had served one mission in the field. He didn’t know why he had been summoned to the office of the Public Affairs director.
“Your mission report,” Ram began without preamble, “states that you chased a suspect watercraft, stopped it, found it to be inhabited by innocents, and released them immediately to go on their way.”
“Yes, sir,” Falcon replied.
“That is not the full story, is it?” Ram asked.
“It is a concise reporting of the facts, sir.”
Ram could read Falcon’s bio-signs clearly: he was omitting something. “I already know what you are hiding,” Ram informed the young Wraith. “You boarded the boat, searched it, and disembarked, all the while holding the innocents at gunpoint.”
Hailey's Comet Anthology Page 37