by Unknown
Val thought about it, and the thought scared him enough to even get angry…”Don’t be stupid!” He said as he jumped up. Then he started to pace from one wall to another himself.
Now it was Timor’s time to stare at him.
“I am sorry - I was wrong.” Val said after a moment. “The reason I got so upset is because I know you might be right. But the bottom line here is that we cannot even start to contemplate such possibilities because sincerely we do not know enough… If we stop to think about all possibilities, it can drive us crazy and we might not be any closer to finding answers. ”
Val gave him a long calm look.
“We need to just concentrate on the evidence trial and see where it take us… if it is going to take us anywhere at all. At the same time, let’s hope that citizens will not go crazy with panic.”
Val tried to dismiss the idea and concentrate on putting those pieces of the puzzle together that were tangible and in front of him. Yet, the fear of unknown remained with him.
Chapter 7 - Mikka’s Trip
Mikka knew her target better than he knew himself. She spent long hours going over files watching target’s body movements, listening to his voice….She practically lived his life. There was certainly enough material. It seemed everything was there, even the smallest details of his daily rituals.
She also got the target’s id which she will be able to put into a police pod. The black market dealer on Zalirus had already got one waiting for her. So she would be able to track her target once she lands on Zalirus. She felt ready.
The job seemed all too easy for her. The only requirement was to terminate the subject by the end of 120d. That left Mikka plenty of time to execute it all perfectly.
To her great surprise, there were no other requirements. Usually she never had it that easy. Usually she had to do more than just pull a trigger.
Why someone wanted to pay that kind of credits to make such an easy kill was somewhat suspicious to her. Yet, Mikka’s handler was always reliable. No funny business ever, always straightforward. Her perfect score never got compromised. So she decided not to look into that any further.
I guess that is what the guy must be worth…she finally told herself.
Her initial plan was to get to Zalirus on a regular cruiser. Buy a premier tourist ticket and get there in style. She would lose an extra few clicks, but she had plenty of time on her hand anyway. Except, she realized that the security at the space port have been heightened with the heaviest presence of the police force she ever witnessed.
They would definitely try to match her id card with her current DNA, and compare that with their database. They may even go as far as check her souris imprint. That info would be stored in some database, which will be easily accessible for centuries to come.
Mikka didn’t need, didn’t want that.
Stay off the grid, always stay undetected…her master, 4 years she spend with him, had drilled it deep into her brain. Your secrecy is your security.
So, instead of the cruiser, she went by boarding Tokirir’s ship, a private bootlegger transporter which was stationed about a five hour flight from the Capital.
It was a highly risky venture, and not just because of the possibility of being caught by the emperor’s police. Things went wrong on these old transporters all the time, and they were known to disappear to the darkness of space without ever being found.
As if that was not enough problem, Tokirir wasn’t sure he wanted to fly to begin with. His long yellow beard swayed like a moss on the branch of the tree as he shook his head. She had to drop extra 100k credits to change his mind.
This was going to be her last ‘business trip’, so why not?
She walked on the terrace the last time after securing all her belongings. Then she sealed her can, and let the air transporter pull out her whole apartment out, leaving a hole where her apartment once was.
But then, she wanted to take everything with her for coming back to the Capital was not on her wish list. She listed her hole to be sold for 60k credits, a bit less than the market price. But she was happy to see the transaction completed before she even got on the space transporter.
Leave no trace of yourself, she told herself and felt almost poetically melancholic. Nobody will ever know I lived there for 5 years, that I killed here…that I …
The transporter, besides being made of mostly propulsion system, had a little room for anything else. Her 10 by 7 step container went into the pressurized cargo bay together with 20 other containers which were all packed with smuggling goods like illegal electronics, substances and exotic food.
She was the only passenger beside Tokirir and his two person crew, a woman and a man hardly into their twenties.
They all proved to be as talkative as Tokirir himself, so Mikka decided to stay away from small chit-chat. That left two options, meditating for five days straight or taking a sleeping pill. So, as they made the space and the trajectory was all set, she went to her can, and locked herself in there. For a while she sipped the beer, drew a butterfly she never saw in her life, looked over target’s files. As they made the first click, she decided to take a pill before laying down in her recuperation pod, and had a four-day long sleep.
Tokirir made a good speed as he promised, so she ended getting to Zalirus in half the clicks and within 5 days.
After avoiding and bypassing the Space Port and its custom controls all together, they landed at a deserted place where no human presence could be detected. It was on the far side of the planet from the Space City. But within minutes after they landed, a few air transporters appeared in the distance. One of them was hired by Mikka, and it was to take her whole can to a new hole.
The one she got was on the island of Silfa, between the Space City and Zalirus Dessert. The apartment was in the complex of only 5 floors, her can making the fifth one. It had 10 times bigger terrace than her old place, big enough to park her jetter on it with ease. But cost only two thousand credits for a twenty year rent. She could hardly believe her luck. The previous owner saw the credits, signed over the deed and gave the keys without as much as saying ‘have a nice day.’
It all could not have worked better.
The money I pocketed by exchanging the apartments alone could feed me for 1000s of years, she thought happily. Should have done this a long time ago,
She stared at the blue water from her window feeling the sun reflection of the waves caressing her face.
Her new neighbor, two floors down, seemed engaged with the small grill. He was maybe but a few years older than her. A baby girl came out of his apartment caring with all her effort a try with meat paddies on it.
“Good job, my little princes.” The man took the tray and with the glass of wine cheered her before he started to place the meat on the fire. The girl danced and goofed around with a smile never leaving her face.
“Run and tell your mom, it will be only five more minutes.” He interrupted her happy dance.
I can be happy here, she thought as she glanced back at the water and saw a fishing boat far out. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a yacht. I never had a yacht. Maybe… Right after I finish this job. I can get anything, anything I want.
Everything seemed to be working out just perfectly for her.
Then, she sobered up and went back to work. She laid out some of her guns on the commode, picked a few pieces, took them apart and put them back together.
The call to the black market dealer came after that, and they met within 30 minutes in the coffee shop, a ten minute flight from her new place.
He didn’t say nothing, but took her credits logged into a golden ring which Mikka so elegantly placed on the table in front of him. A minute later came back with a wrapped box, the size of his huge hands.
She took it without unwrapping it, and left.
On a way back, she realized that she had not said a word, certainly not more than a single word to anybody during the last five days.
But before she let the dep
ression sip in, she unwrapped the box and entered the victim’s id code. The screen went live revealing where the victim was.
Another nice toy to add to my collection. If I stay here on this planet, who knows how often it may become useful.
She analyzed where her victim was, thinking when exactly to strike him down.
Looking at all the information and files around her, she understood it may take time for the right opportunity to present itself. But she would wait. She was good at that.
It was her last job, and it would be done perfectly.
Her waiting game had just started.
Chapter 8 The Call
The call Val got from his EI commissioner interrupted his morning cup of tea. For Val it was not all that unexpected. Not filing any new reports during the last 24 hours was kind of asking for it.
“I think that you are wasting a precious resources and time.” His commissioner started firing right away, showing him who the boss was.
“The evidence is not complete yet. We still have a lot to look into.”
“I am telling you-“
“Commissioner, are you telling me to say what you want me to say, or do you expect me to do my job and find out what really happened?”
“Of course I , I…Suddenly the captain got very protective. My god, thought Val, the Capitan is involved in this, somehow…do not know how, but, there is definitely something her.”
“I am not trying to influence this investigation in any way, and I am certainly not involved in this accident in any way. I just do not think you want to use our department’s credits this way. If you waste company resources on this unnecessarily, there has to be repercussions, you know?”
Like he is reading my mind. He is not that smart, really not that smart, so what the hell is going on here?
“Okay, Mr. Commissioner, I will do my best to finish all of these very soon, today, max tomorrow. And we will be on our way back home in no time.”
“Well, that is good to hear…but, this is only as long as you agree with what we found, I am not trying to put any pressure on you, you understand…?”
“Okay Mr. Commissioner, I understand, and I am actually looking forward to come home. And I am sure EJI Timor is sharing my opinion as well.”
“Good to hear that.”
“We will be certainly looking forward to getting those tickets…it’s a disaster here anyway. No decent stake in days.”
“All right Val.”
“So if you can throw in some extra seats at Capital Garden for us.”
“Okay, we can look into that when you come here.” Answered the commissioner as he logged off.
“So, are we going home…?” asked Timor who just woke up and came from his room.
Val didn’t say anything for a while.
“We actually have a job to do, and places to visit…and you are already running late.”
“Where are we going now?”
“To meet someone interesting.
“You know, Chief, I am starting to be scared every time you say that.”
An hour later, they stood in front of a dark brown heavily reinforced steel door.
“Well, they did warn me that you really do like to do this in person, face to face.” Timor said to Val as they ringed the bell and waited for the door to open.
Only, nothing seems to happen. Timor looked nervously up and down the street. Semi-detached homes with white bricks and black iron cast fence stretched on both sides, curving gently up the hill.
“Are you sure we are supposed to do this?” Timor asked uncomfortably as Val ringed the door again.
“These are called townhouses, and they are very typical for this planet. They look stunning don’t they? Glad you had a chance to see them. You will never find them on the Capital. The land is just too expensive over there.”
Timor was not sure if he found more fascinating those 3-story homes or huge chestnut trees decorating their entrances, providing shade with thick green leaves and dark brown branches which rose above house roofs.
“But we came unannounced…”
“Yes, I know…There are a lot of advantages in that. Just give it a minute. The locator said that Dr. Larik is at his home now.”
Mikka took out her gun. It was an ancient sniper rifle which lacked any electronics and could not be detected through regular police scans. She liked to use special natrium bullets in a vaxi casing that would evaporate within minutes of being exposed to oxygen in the air.
By the time they found the body, there would be no trace of the bullet, no trace of what killed him.
Her very first assignment was done in exactly the same way, and she found out satisfactory that her last one will as well.
It completes the circle, she thought as she stroke her weapon, feeling the soft plastic of the handle that will absorb all the power of the shot. Its meter long barrel had enough power to connect with the target over a mile away. The victim could be hit before anyone could hear a shot, and if needed she could ride her air scooter away before anyone cared to look for her.
Mikka pressed the gun to r cheek and looked through the scope. She was high in a tree crust, up among the birds’ nests. She was there, holding her position and waiting patiently, for the better part of the last 24 hours.
With her stealth suite on, she was not worried about being seen at all. Nobody could spot her even if they stared straight at her. And her suite emitted air leveled temperature canceling her body heat to any sensors. Yet, she dared not move much and her body started to feel very tense, begged to be stretched. But she patiently waited thinking, this is my last job, make it perfect, and you are out of here.
As she steadied her breathing and relaxed her muscles, memories of the last job came back uninvited. She remembered, and that was a bad thing.
Her target was Mivixuz the Thrid, the youngest member of the House of Zaliz. He was so young, a newborn, but somebody said that he was never to see his 18th birthday. She never knew why.
Like most of her jobs, it had to be made to look like an accident. So she took months to follow him, moved around him like a shadow and then later like a cat begging for a treat. She found his patterns, his likes, deep desires.
The first time they talked, she dressed like his favorite school teacher, wore the blond wig that resembled her hair and even tried to smile and talk just like she would. As she ‘accidentally’ spilled her coffee on him, she apologized and begged for forgiveness. Instead of being upset, he offered to buy her another cup from the same coffee place she just walked out of. Before they were even served yet, he turned around and met her smile with another. He was taken.
“I can’t believe how much you remind me of someone…and you, are you really sure you have no twin sister anywhere, that you are newborn? You are kidding me, right?” His smile was so genuine, his excitement so easily encouraged.
So young, so naïve. What could have he done wrong to deserve it?
The second time he talked to her, in a fully packed nightclub they decided to meet, she spiked his drink.
It was just a mild tranquilizer, the type that would mix with the alcohol and would be difficult to discover afterwards. It was mild, but it made it very easy for her to take him in her arms and out of the club, like they were ready to continue their relationship somewhere else.
But instead of continuing their relationship, she put him in front of her on his fancy jetter, and fly then high up above the Central Lake. Then she just dropped him down like a sack of flour. What she didn’t expect was for him to open his eyes as soon as she let go of him, for him to realize what was happening, for him to yell in disbelief, otter horror.
She would have still had a time to race down and save him had she changed her mind. Had she changed her mind…
‘Why did he have to die? ‘ She didn’t know. She never asked.
Right after, she crashed his jetter in the water, scanned for heat signatures just to make sure nobody saw anything, and that police would have nothi
ng but to rule it as a misfortunate accident.
She didn’t know then that his face, the last face of him she saw, a face that instantly lost its seductive smile, and suddenly turned to outmost confusion and fear, would still be in front of her to that moment.
She let her thoughts go with a new breath and looked again through her scope.
Impatient thoughts, she wanted to drop them completely but they kept coming back, suggested that she flies over to the house and enters it through one of the windows. Her stealth blanketed jetter was parked on two branches underneath her.
The windows seemed glass, something that could be easily cut out. She could get her victim there then. But before she could changed her plan, a black sedan pulled over right next to the house, and two man walked out.
They were both dressed in the black suites with their cuts referring to the latest of the Capital’s fashion. The older of them walked with a full authority, like the earth underneath his feet belonged to nobody but him.
She zoomed on them as they approached the door, and became even more tensed as she saw the face with deep lines and the head with a receding gray hair. It looked very familiar to her, a face she knew she saw before. Yet, she could have not remembered from where.
Mikka didn't want to delay her plans, and as the door opened and her target appeared, she instantly decided to drop all three of them.
Hitting her target anywhere would be lethal within milliseconds, so she chose to go for a shot at his abdominal area. That would leave his face untouched, easier to identify him, confirm her kill. The last thing she needed is for her handler to debate if she had done her job.
But the other two… She would take their heads off. Let the police search through their brains looking for their trackers. Even if they find them, who is to say they will work properly. Let them spend time looking for who they were.