by Chris Fox
vanished. It was replaced with an unfathomable rage toward this terrorist who had finally earned his title. She pushed him back by the chest with her free hand before kicking him back into his desk, re-aiming the gun at his head.
"This is not the only way, Otto. And it won't be a way, because this idea ends here and now."
"Sorry, kid, but that ain't an option."
"If you don't agree to stop this now, by the light of the stars, I'll shoot you wear you stand!" It took all the effort in her to make this sound intimidating. She wanted to stop him, but she couldn't bear shooting him. She had to talk him out of it, although with her rage, she wasn't sure she could stay calm.
"Looks like you're going to have to shoot me darlin’," he said, taking a full step toward her.
Najima shot directly past his head. "Not a step closer, Otto al-Kara, or I swear you will be dead. I don't want to hurt you Otto!"
"Then help me."
"I will not help you commit murder, Otto!" Najima screamed.
"Then I'm sorry...” He replied solemnly. “Sorry that you are so weak, Najima Dezetoiles. Brat!"
Najima had forgotten in her anger! Brat was approaching her from the doorway, caught in her peripheral vision. She spun toward him, but he was already prepared, knocking away the gun with a swift blow to her wrist. She spun on her leg and delivered a swift kick to his gut, and he tumbled back toward the door. But before she could regain her balance, she felt a monumental pain on the side of her head, before all feeling was dulled, and she watched through blurred sight as she tumbled to the floor and into darkness.
∞∞∞
Not long had passed when Najima could feel her head again. She could tell because her hand went to check her injuries, and the blood from her head was still wet. She still had time. She jumped to her feet and ran to the door, banging on the keypad. It did not open, buzzing a rude noise and flashing a red light to show it was locked.
She had to stop Otto! It was her foolishness that allowed Otto the ability to carry out this disgusting plan, so if anyone were going to fix it, it had to be her. Her daggers and gun were gone. She quickly looked around the room for some alternatives, some way to possibly get through the door. She opened Otto's terminal, but it was blocked by a password - useless. She checked under the cover of the cot, in the small dresser filled with nothing but clothes: nothing!
In her anger, Najima ran to the door and began kicking and hitting it. How could she have been so stupid? She let him trick her with inspiring words. How could Otto ever think that hurting people would help them. This was inexcusable, and it was all Najima's fault. She hit at the door with her fists and screamed at the top of her lungs until she felt a tug in her wrist where Brat struck her. She grabbed it like she had touched a hot pan, worried she had injured herself further. It was fortunately only an ache from a dark bruise. The least of her worries.
She dropped to her knees and knocked her head slowly on the door. There was nothing she could do. She couldn't hack through a keypad in a million years, and there was no feasible way through the door. She kept banging her forehead on the door as if it would somehow divine an idea, until she was wiping tears from her eyes, and mopping her bloody brow onto the hem of her tank top. "I'm sorry..." she said, and wrapped her finger through her anklet with her clean hand.
"Najima? Najima, please don't hit the door."
"Anna!" Najima screamed. She wasn't alone. Surely she had thought all of them had left for the bombing.
But sure enough, Annapurna's voice rose from the other side of the door. "Please Najima, I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"Annapurna, you have to open this door!" Najima pleaded.
"You know I can't, Najima."
"He is going to kill dozens of people if you do not open this door right now," Najima said, hitting the door with her fist. "You said it yourself this morning. You wouldn't be here if he was killing innocent people. Well he's about to do that right now, Anna. He is going to kill countless people!"
"This is different. It's something we have to do. We have to take out these officials if we want to help the people. We don't have a choice."
Najima wiped another round of tears away, gritting her teeth, and focusing her emotions to a dark corner of her mind. "He is going to hurt people, Annapurna. This is not the way to make a point! There is always a choice. There is never one answer to anything, especially murder."
Her voice was weaker, almost inaudible through the room. "Najima, stop. Otto says we have to do this. You're hurting me. You can’t say that."
Najima finally stood from the foot of the door and stared straight at the grey metal, as if she could see straight through it. "No, Annapurna. You're hurting yourself. Just like I did. We both believed Otto had good intentions. And we were both wrong. But I am not okay with being complicit in the deaths of people who have a life to live." She stepped back from the door, and threw a running kick straight to the center, before banging once more with her fist. "Their deaths are on your hands too," Najima yelled. "This is your fault."
There was no reply.
"I promise I can stop this Anna, but I can't do it if I'm trapped in here. You're the only person in the whole galaxy who can save those people right now. Please, Annapurna."
But there was no reply.
Najima waited, but heard nothing. After a couple minutes, she let herself calm down, and began pacing to think of a new answer. The air vents in this room were much too small to crawl through, like in a film on the Stream. Maybe the rock was weak enough to be chipped, but with what? Another several minutes of walking like a tiger at the zoo until Najima heard a slight beep.
The keypad now glowed yellow - closed, but unlocked. She reached the door in a breath, and leaned on her back leg, ready to kick any attack on the other side of the door as she tapped the keypad. The door slid aside, and Najima stopped her attack.
Annapurna was before her, trembling with fear when she saw Najima's preparing to kick her. They looked into each others eyes, and the fear was too much for Annapurna, as she dropped to the floor and began bawling. Najima knelt down and hugged her, "I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you."
"It's my fault, it's all mine..." she blubbered, but Najima shook her by her shoulders until she looked up from the floor.
"It's all our fault. We were stupid, and Otto is smart and charming. We made a mistake, okay?" Najima brushed Annapurna's hair out of her face. "But I promise you, I'll fix this."
"They can't die, Najima. I'm so sorry for everything," Annapurna sobbed.
"Where are my weapons and where did the others go?"
"He took them. They went to the old minaret on the east side of town. You can see the whole town from there." Najima said goodbye, and hurried toward the hangar, where she knew she could find her raft. But Annapurna called out to her, and stopped Najima in her tracks. "You're a good person. I hope you know that."
"You are too, Anna. Too good for people like Otto. But that's what he needs right now: good people. Take care of him alright?" She nodded feeble from her place on the floor as Najima rounded the corner before waving her hand with her grin. "Alvida!"
∞∞∞
The sun was at midday when Najima's raft finally came to a rest in front of the eastern minaret. The structure's age showed, with ornate carvings into the earthen walls that extended up to the orange sky. The Trogan was parked in front of the entrance. Otto al-Kara would be at the top. Najima hurried through the doorless archway and into the wall-lined stairwell.
On the first floor - although several stories up - with only small windows looking out upon the town, Priya sat at a mobile terminal. As soon as he saw Najima walk through the door, he panicked, spun around, and grabbed a pistol. He pointed it at Najima, but it shook wildly in his hands. "What are you doing here?!" he hollered.
Najima had assumed a cautionary stance, but relaxed it, and began approaching Priya. "Just calm down Priya, I'm not here to hurt you." She stepped slowly but steadily closer to Priya's chair. His h
and shook even more vigorously. "I'm just here for Otto. I know you all think this is a good idea, but it's not."
"He told me that if you escaped, you'd be here. He told me to shoot you."
"But you're not going to do that, are you?" Najima was mere meters from Priya now.
"Stop, Najima!" he said, practically screaming.
"Put down the gun Priya." She was almost within arm's length.
And Priya pulled the trigger.
But the gun didn't fire, even as Najima stood directly in front of Priya. He pulled the trigger feebly several more times before Najima gently took the gun from his grip. "Left the safety on," Najima said, before tossing the gun away. "I'm surprised you actually pulled the trigger."
Priya hung his head in shame. "I was scared. I'm sorry, Najima. I didn't want to hurt you or anything... It's just that Otto..."
"Otto is the problem, Priya. But that's why I'm here. We can't let him do things like this."
"I didn't want to!" Priya pleaded. "But he said it was for the best. And there's a problem. All this terminal is doing is monitoring CP traffic, like that map I showed you yesterday. I can't control the bomb. It's on a timer! I can't stop it."
“I’ve already taken care of things, Priya. Where's Otto?"
Pirya mumbled incoherently, asking what Najima meant by taken care of things, before she calmly repeated her question. "He’s at the top... I'm sorry, Najima."
She merely ruffled his hair. "Just