I was really getting tired of the police station—especially the people inside it who kept taking my weapons. As I’d learned from my encounter on the tram, I might have had assassins on my tail, and I didn’t really want a repeat of trying to take them on unarmed. Well, if they attacked again soon, at least I’d have cops around to protect me.
Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
There was a more somber mood in the station this time, as they had lost an officer. Officer Meela was back, and Diane went over to comfort her—which consisted of taking Meela’s hand and whispering a few things. I think I could have faked comforting someone better than she did, but I didn’t care enough right now. My main concern was to confirm this terrorism threat was behind me…not that I knew what that would mean for me next.
Chief Rudle approached us wearing a pretty stoic expression. “Come on into my office.”
Diane and I followed him in and sat down. “I just couldn’t keep you two out of this, could I? Do you know what this looks like, that I have some off-planet cop running around here, shooting and torturing people?”
“Do you know how much I really don’t care right now?” Diane replied, voicing my own sentiment pretty well.
Rudle ignored her. “The good news is that all the terrorist cells look to have been stopped. We located the headquarters of the cell that attacked the school and found an unfinished dirty bomb. It looks like they somehow knew we were moving in on them and launched their attack before they were ready.”
“Am I still suspended?” Diane asked.
Rudle frowned. “No, I have a job for you. Senator Gredler wants to use this victory against the terrorists as an example of planets working together. You two get to meet the senator and be there for his big speech during the conference.”
Diane looked displeased. “I’m not going to be his puppet. The guy is dirty.”
“You’re a nut case. Hopefully, when his people screen you, they’ll realize that and lock you up.” Rudle turned his focus to me. “Rico, some feds will have to screen you, too, before you can meet the senator. They still think there’s some threat against him out there, so they’re upping security a bit. There’s nothing in your background I should be aware of?”
“Like have I killed senators before?” I’m not actually sure how many. It depends on how you define “senator.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Rudle said. “Apparently, they’ve already gotten in contact with Rikar to ask about you.”
If you’d been watching me closely at this moment, a slight twinge in the muscles near my mouth would have betrayed the emotions rushing through me. “Oh. What are they saying about me back home?”
“I don’t know. You’ll meet the feds tomorrow morning. That work for you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
Diane sighed. “I’ll be there.”
“I wasn’t asking you,” he said sharply. “You cause any trouble, and you’re done.”
I didn’t like Rudle and felt like refreshing myself on what color his species bleeds. I know I had other things to worry about, but it seemed the character I was playing would say something. “You know, she saved a classroom full of kids today. I don’t know where you get off sitting here on your fat ass disrespecting her like this.” I used a subtler version of my scary face.
Rudle looked a little surprised but quickly recovered. “No, you don’t know. I’m just worried about what this one success will encourage her to do next.”
“Are we done here?” Diane asked, though it really was more of a statement, as she had gotten up and started to leave.
I followed. “I don’t like how he treats you.” I really didn’t—he seemed like a useless idiot compared to her—but wasn’t that at the bottom of the list of things I should have been caring about at the moment?
“I could be more patient in my interactions with him, I guess. I always feel like being confrontational, but that never achieves anything.” She smiled. “I just don’t respect him at all. So much of this job is keeping up appearances for the public…not meting out justice.”
Justice always seemed like a completely imaginary concept to me. There is no righting the wrongs done in the universe. If someone hurts you, you simply hurt him back so much that he won’t do it again. If the feds did find me out, they’d lock me up and call it justice, but all those people I’d killed would still be dead.
“I really don’t want to be some show dog for Gredler,” Diane told me. “There is good reason to believe he is in bed with the Randatti criminal syndicate.” She stopped for a moment and seemed to stare out at some distant memory. “I don’t think I can deal with that.”
I was having trouble even pretending to care what Diane was saying with my new and very concrete worries. I don’t like fretting, though, so I tried to push my concerns away. And breaking character is just sloppy. No reason to panic until someone was actually coming for me. “Government is corrupt. It’s just a fact of life. It attracts the wrong sort of people.”
“It shouldn’t have to be that way.”
“It kind of does; people have been complaining about this for millennia.”
She laughed. “Not much of an optimist, are you?”
“I’m a realist; that’s pretty much the opposite, since things in the real world are pretty crappy.”
“Well, then, I hope to stop seeing things as they really are. No use going through life depressed.” She smiled at me. “So do all your vacations go like this?”
“This is the first time I’ve tried taking one.” I liked charming her, but it seemed it was about time I stopped pretending I needed her for anything when I had other things to focus on. Still, I felt resistant to the idea of just brushing her off. I wasn’t used to dealing with a person I sort of liked being around. “I think I’m gonna go relax at my hotel now. They guaranteed me no terrorists on the premises.”
“Sounds good. I’m going to go visit Hana. She and her family are pretty shaken. I should probably be there for them. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the interview with the feds.”
“See you there.” Unless Dip convinces me to do the rational thing and flee the planet.
My hotel. I knew the area around it. I knew multiple exits from the building. I knew things around me that I could improvise as weapons (none of them gun-shaped, unfortunately). A part of my brain—a small part I knew not to listen to—wanted me to panic. But logically I knew staying put was my best option until I had more information. Perhaps more trained assassins would be coming my way. Maybe the feds would see through my story and descend on me at any minute. But I could only deal with what was happening, not what could happen. So I sat in my room and watched a show about a flying creature indigenous to the Corridians’ homeworld while I waited to hear more.
“I would say the logical course of action is to flee,” Dip intoned in my ear.
“I already knew you’d say that and I haven’t fled, so it’s pretty pointless for you to say it. Anyway, where would I go? I like being where the action is. Now, if you catch word the feds are on their way that’s a different story, but for now I’m staying here. Any idea how they got in contact with Rikar so quickly?”
“I’m not sure. It was a safe bet that no one would be able to get in touch with Rikar within a week’s time, but perhaps there is some sort of secondary database I don’t know about that they’re able to access here. So is your current strategy to wait until you’re attacked again?”
“Getting attacked would give me more information, though hopefully my ‘allies’ will contact me before that happens.” The flying creature looked like a cross between a lizard and a bat. I had sometimes daydreamed as a child about being able to fly. That would be an easy way to avoid annoyances on the ground. Plus, it would offer a whole new wrinkle to attack strategies.
“If you do need quick extraction from the city, I now think I have a thirty-five percent chance of full success, with a sixty-seven percent chance of at least a piece of the sh
ip escaping orbit.”
I ignored the joke. “Do you have Vito on the line yet?”
“He is calling in now. I’ll patch him through to you.”
“Vito, can you hear me?”
“Yeah. Kinda neat how you have that robot secretary.”
“Shut up, Vito. I killed two trained professionals who were after me—both human females. Would you know anything about that?”
“Huh? Did they attack you?”
“They were following me. I unfortunately did not get to find out their intentions. Now the question is: Were they our people, or is one of the other syndicates aware of my presence?”
“Well, I have a message for you. They want you to calm down. They do have people there who are going to help you see this through, and they’ll contact you.”
Calm down? Telling someone that always seemed like an easy way to rile him up. I wouldn’t take the bait, though. “Were the two ladies I killed supposed to contact me, and we just had a silly misunderstanding?”
“Uh…I dunno, Rico. But the message was pretty definitive: You need to just relax until someone gets in contact with you.”
“But you don’t know when that will happen?”
“No. Sorry.”
“Well, the feds here might be about to see through my cover story. Do you at least know if that is being handled?”
“I don’t have anything else for you, Rico. But this message was given to me today, so maybe they’re on that.”
“You never know anything, Vito. Is there any point to your existence whatsoever?”
“Well, I—”
“I don’t care about your answer to that. I’m done with him, Dip.”
Dip cut the communication. “So what is the plan now?”
“I will proceed as Officer Rico from Rikar until forced to do otherwise. I wish people would stop instructing me to ‘relax,’ though. I relax when I have a challenging target to focus on. Leaving me in the dark like this…does not put me in a good place.”
“If you don’t find that your employers respect you, that may be a good indication that you need to find another job. Would you like me to locate some planets with good job markets?”
“No. We’ll continue on for now.”
“So you’ll be returning to the police station tomorrow to meet the feds?”
I watched the lizard bat fly quietly over a forest. In a small way, I envied it. “Yes.”
“And if they’ve seen through your cover?”
“Then it will be an interesting day.” I imagined a shootout at the police station. I’d start out unarmed, but there would be plenty of guns nearby. I just had to get one, and there were a few avenues of escape from the building. As I went over every scenario, though, somehow Diane kept popping up in them, and I froze.
But my solution for her was quite simple: Shoot her first chance I got, as she had demonstrated herself to be a lethal threat. Very simple, actually. No reason I should have trouble with it.
CHAPTER 21
“Why are we waiting out here?” Diane asked.
“Because it’s a nice day out.” It was quite warm and sunny. More importantly, if the feds were going to make a move on me, I figured I’d do better if I weren’t caught inside. The easiest escapes were the vehicles up here on the roof of the parking structure.
She stared at me a moment. “I keep getting this feeling there’s a whole side of you that you keep hidden.”
“You have your secrets too, don’t you?” Deflect!
She laughed. “Fair enough. So do you actually want to do this? Be a part of this little show with Senator Gredler?”
I was pretty neutral on the idea, not knowing what my role here was. Certainly, politicians themselves held no interest for me. I had never even voted before. I’ve certainly killed politicians, though, which is taking an even more active role in politics. “All of politics is a silly little show, isn’t it? If you want to get anywhere, you have to play your part. It doesn’t mean anything.”
She smiled a bit. “You’re a pretty cynical person.”
“Cynical and pragmatic. I understand you think this Gredler is dirty, but if you want to do anything about it, this is how you get involved.” I had an idle thought of her actually making enough waves exposing the criminal syndicates that Nystrom would send me back here to kill her. Unlikely.
“Maybe. And maybe I just make too much of things. I convince myself something is an outrage while no one else cares. Maybe it’s me.”
She didn’t know the half of it, but if she did, a better idea would be to ignore it. The syndicates crushed people like her all the time without even noticing. There were three choices when dealing with the syndicates: join them, stay out of their way, or get killed by them. In a way, the syndicates’ keeping most of their activities secret protected normal people. A lot of people had a drive to fight ‘injustice,’ and with the syndicates involved, that was a suicidal tendency.
Not that going along with the syndicates offered much safety either—certainly not from my standpoint. Maybe that was the real choice: danger or insignificance.
The feds’ vehicle flew overhead and landed in front of us. I watched and smiled casually. I had nothing to worry about until I was told otherwise, and I had a number of escape plans ready just in case. Out of the vehicle came a human female and a grayish (male?) alien, both in black suits. At first I was busy trying to recognize the type of alien (bleeds green, I think), but then the female caught my eye. Red hair, killer figure.
I knew her.
My first instinct was to shoot her and run, but that was just the fear talking, and I never let fear take control. Plus, I didn’t have a gun. So I just kept up my stupid smile and waited for her to make the first move. I hate that. I survive by being in charge of every situation.
“Rico! Remember me? It’s Morrigan!” She had a broad, friendly smile.
I still didn’t know what game she was playing, but I tried to match her in looking friendly. “How could I forget?”
“This is insane. I mean, what are the chances?” She turned to Diane. “Sorry, I’m Agent Dawson, and this is Agent Verg.”
Diane shook her hand. She looked a little uneasy. Perhaps she was wondering about my relationship with “Agent Dawson.” I certainly shared that curiosity. “You know Rico?”
“I was part of a group that visited Rikar to see about their joining the Alliance. I talked a bit to the law enforcement there.” She smiled at me. It was probably supposed to look playful, but I found it a little scary. “Particularly to Rico. Well, this will certainly make things easier in getting you cleared to meet the senator.” Morrigan then came closer to me—too close.
She was intimidating me, and she was enjoying it. And I still wasn’t quite sure what the hell was going on.
“What luck.” I managed another smile, but I was being pushed to my limits. I wouldn’t be able to be convincingly social for much longer. I was losing control to primitive emotions, and I intensely hated that. A gorgeous, sweet-smelling woman was almost pressing herself against me, and all I could think about was how I wanted to smash her head in with a rock and run away. It took so much effort to just stand there calmly.
“We need to catch up.” Morrigan took my right hand and squeezed it with a lot more strength than her feminine fingers would seem to possess. “I see your hand is doing well.”
“Yeah.”
“Your hand?” Diane asked.
“Oh, he didn’t tell you about that?” Morrigan said, finally releasing her steel grip. “Not pleasant to talk about, I guess. I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have brought that up. Anyway, let’s go inside and get things ready.”
She headed inside with Verg. When they were out of earshot, Diane turned to me. “What happened to your hand?”
“It was…injured.” Ripped off, to be more precise. By a surprisingly strong redhead.
“This should be a simple matter,” Agent Verg told us…or my personal translator did. His voice was an odd lit
tle hum. “We just have to be extra cautious because of current threats and the high profile of the conference. We have all of Detective Thompson’s data readily available, and Agent Dawson was able to obtain adequate documentation from Rikar for Officer Vargas.” Was Verg also part of a criminal syndicate, or was he an actual federal agent on this planet? Of course, Morrigan could have been an actual agent, too; nothing prevents someone from being in the government and moonlighting as an assassin.
I kept an eye on Morrigan. I still didn’t know what was going on. The agents had taken a room in the police station to interview us, and for now I was just playing along. The assumption was that Morrigan was on my side, since she had so far neglected to kill me, but it was hard to be at ease. Every time I caught her eye, she smiled at me. It freaked me out. Yes, I was being irrational, but nothing was very rational at the moment.
Morrigan turned her attention to Diane. “You have an interesting history as a police officer, Detective Thompson.”
“Everything has been visited and revisited.” She looked a little distressed. I guessed Dip didn’t have full access to Diane’s history; I would have liked to see the more interesting items. “If you’re more comfortable with me not meeting the senator, I won’t be broken up over it.”
Morrigan’s expression turned serious, and she squeezed Diane’s shoulder. It really looked like she cared; she was good. “You and Rico are heroes and deserve honor. This isn’t about Senator Gredler. This is about highlighting how planets can work together to combat threats. We’re all for that, aren’t we?” Morrigan looked at me and smiled again. It was really freaking me out. “Bad people need to get what’s coming to them.”
She was playing with me. Presuming that we were on the same side on this, I was very much not appreciating it. If she was going to kill me, I really wanted her to get on with it. I would have loved a rematch, and she would not take me by surprise this time.
“You’ll be meeting the senator tomorrow at his residence outside of town,” Verg told us. “He’ll tell you himself if he expects you to do anything at the speech. I think we’re done here. But we would like to remind you both not to have any weapons on you.”
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