“Oh well, thank you anyway, ma’am.” The two of us parted ways and I followed the signs on the wall that led to the hotel’s exit.
I managed to flag down a hover taxi before I left the hotel grounds. I asked the driver to drop me off in front of the parking garage’s entrance. He hesitated at first, but when I pointed at the security badge on my uniform, he stopped complaining and drove. During the entire trip to the parking garage, my mind was filled with different questions, like how much longer I would be able to use this uniform and get away with it. I wondered if they were still looking for me. If I got caught, that was literally going to be the end of my investigation. If my hunch was correct and Wendy was being held captive downstairs underneath the parking garage, then there was no one who could look out for me or come to my rescue. Plus, all outgoing calls on this ship had been disabled and I doubted they would let me make a call to anyone. I was just going to have to be careful and pray that I could continue to keep up with this ruse.
“This is as far as I’m willing to go, ma’am.” The driver brought the hover taxi to a halt behind a large group of protesters who had surrounded the entrance to the parking garage. On the right side of the crowd were the journalists with their cameras; their thumbs were hovering over the shutter button, ready to snap a picture or record footage at a moment’s notice. In the middle of the group was a mixture of curious and some really agitated onlookers who were just itching to throw a punch at the officers standing in front of the barricade near the entrance to the garage. Last but not least were the anti-Martian protesters who were still singing their tired old anti-Martian songs and handing out those gaudy-looking “Taking Back the Universe” pamphlets. “Look, lady, my shift is over. What are you going to do here?”
I stepped off the hover taxi and the driver sped away before I could pay my fee. I got up on my tippy-toes so I could see what was going on. Up ahead, several security officers were trying their best to keep each crowds separated from each other. The least dangerous option for me would be to make my way through the crowd in the middle and work my way up to the entrance of the parking lot. I hoped I didn’t bump into any of those hostile-looking people who just wanted to fight. “Excuse me, but I need to get through.” I began to shove my way through the crowd. After I walked past the first six people, other people in the crowd started to notice me and began to move out of my way on their own. But after I moved past them, I could hear them whispering about me, my uniform, and how someone should ask me about what was happening on the ship. When I reached the middle part of the crowd, I felt someone grab me by the collar of my uniform.
“Excuse me, miss, but…,” someone with a husky-sounding voice said. I already knew that whoever had grabbed hold of me probably wanted answers about what was going on and I didn’t have any time to waste nor did I have any answers for them.
“Let go of me please; I need to get to my post,” I said. I pried the person’s fingers off of my shoulder and tossed their hand aside, continuing to make my way through the thick crowd.
“Fine then,” the person with the husky-sounding voice hissed. I felt another set of hands digging into the collar of my uniform. The person’s thumb brushed up against my middle of my neck.
“Please let go of me!” I hollered. I tried to turn around so I could face my attacker, but the crowd was thick and I was pinned between two protesters who didn’t seem to care that I was being attacked.
“Either you answer our questions or we won’t let you go!” I could feel myself being pulled back. I swung my leg back with all of my might. I struck my attacker’s knee bone with the heel of my shoe. The tight grip that my attacker had on my uniform collar loosened and I quickly pushed my way through the crowd. I wanted to put as much distance between myself and that guy who had grabbed hold of me. When I reached the front of the crowd, there were several security officers trying their best to keep the crowd under as much control as possible. They had set up a security barricade a few feet from the garage entrance. I ducked underneath the barricade. A security officer with a short, curly updo helped me up onto my feet.
“Oh, thank God they sent in some reinforcements.” I could hear the relief in her voice. I bit down on my lower lip. For a split second, I almost felt bad that I was actually leaving them here and not helping them.
“Actually, I have orders to report downstairs to help out with what’s going on down there.”
“Oh,” she murmured after sucking her teeth. She turned toward the young man who was guarding the doorway to the parking garage. “Ben, let her through the door.” Ben opened the door leading to the parking garage and I stepped through it. Just like the map said, there was a flight of stairs that I could take to gain access to an area underneath the ship’s parking lot. Posted beside the staircase was a sign that said in bold black lettering “Martians Only.”
For a moment, I kept my hand on top of the side rail that was attached to the wall. I needed to get my thoughts together before I headed down these stairs and into the unknown. First, I needed to find Wendy and make sure she was okay. I was sure she could provide me with plenty of information and get me up to speed on what had been happening down there. Then I needed to locate the two women who tried to pull Anthe off the scooter she was placed on. I bet they could probably tell me where Anthe and her mother lived and maybe they could give me more info on Anthe’s mother. The thought had crossed my mind that maybe Anthe’s mother wasn’t as innocent as Anthe was making her out to be, and that was something I was going to have to take into consideration. I’d just have to be careful and try my best not to bring a lot of attention to myself.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I immediately brought my hand up to my lips to help hold in my gasp. Earlier, I had tried painting a picture of what her living space might look like in my head, but I was nowhere near close to the real thing. Clustered together and made out of nothing more than long pieces of rusty sheets of metal were the homes and stores that the Martians had made for themselves. A few of the poorly constructed homes were using a blue, tired-looking tarp as the roof for their houses, while others only had four walls and were using the tarp as a door. Low-hanging black wires crisscrossed each other just above the tiny makeshift community. Cone-shaped metal objects sat in the middle of the black wires. Inside of the black cones were large lightbulbs that gave off a very dull light. The marketplace was directly in the center while the homes were on the outskirts. Clear warm puffs of steam rose up from out of the marketplace, and the sweet smells of delicious Martian cuisine filled my nose. My mouth began to water just a bit. Little green Martian children ran unaccompanied, zigzagging between the poorly constructed metal buildings. A few of the children had bare feet. I continued to look over the Martian living quarters, trying my best to figure out where the Martian women were being held.
I spotted two security officers sitting down to eat at one of the restaurants at the front of the marketplace. One of them was shoveling spoonfuls of black beans and fried purple squid down his throat, while the other was pestering him and pointing at his watch. I wondered where the two were off to in such a hurry. If the two of them were stationed down here, it was possible that they could lead me straight to where the Martian women were being held. The officer who was gobbling down his meal slammed his bowl down onto the counter, and the guy next to him pulled him away from his seat and down one of the dimly lit spaces between the metal houses. I quickly rushed down the stairs and followed behind the two officers. I made sure to stay at least six steps behind them as they dipped down the tight alleyways in between the Martian homes. Finally, they jumped over a stack of metal sheets at the end of this small alleyway. I ducked in front of the house that was next to the stack of metal sheets and kept my eyes on the two men, who were walking up to what looked like several metallic houses that had been smashed together.
The shabby-looking metal house was being closely guarded by several security officers; each officer had a small silver ray gun in their hand. Th
ey also had their backs to the metal houses. The two officers disappeared behind a long tattered blue tarp that was tacked over the house’s only entrance. I turned my ears toward the metal house. There were so many different sounds rushing into my ears: a woman weeping, a man yelling, “You need to tell us what you know,” another voice that sounded like a woman asking if she could leave. I could hear more snippets from other conversations that were all similar to the ones I had just heard. Although the pieces of the metal houses were smashed together, there were thin cracks between them. I kept my eyes on one of the cracks in the middle of the metal house. I noticed a Martian woman covering her face with her hands; her orange hair was tossed to the side. When I tried to get a better look at her, my view was blocked by a security officer inside of the metal house. He was walking by with a clipboard in his hand. I leaned against the house that I was hiding behind and placed my fist on my chin. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the place where the Martian women were being kept. It was heavily guarded and, most importantly, it was out of sight from the public, so no one could interrupt whatever was going on inside. I had to get inside of that metal house. I was sure that was where Wendy was right now!
A stern-looking older gentleman with his fingers wrapped around a clipboard was standing in front of the blue tarp. He let the two officers slip through the tarp and into the metal house after he handed a sheet of paper to them. Maybe he would let me through too. I mean, it was worth a shot. I did have a uniform just like everyone else that was standing outside of the house. What did I have to lose? After I gained my composure, I stepped over the stack of metal sheets and walked up to the stern-looking older man in front of the blue tarp.
“Your name,” he spat out in a disgruntled tone.
“Callisto Marine,” I said with as much courage as I could muster. If my name was not on the list, was he going to send me away? Would I have to find another way in?
The disgruntled old man looked over the list that was in front of him, then back up at me. “You’re not on the list. I can’t let you through.”
I tossed my hand up in the air. “You just let those two guys through without looking over your little list.”
He pointed his silver pen at me. “Those two have been here since this afternoon when this crazy mess started. This is the first time I’ve seen you today, so no, I’m not going to let you just walk through.”
I ran my hands over my face.
“Don’t give me any attitude, sweetheart. It’s been a long day.”
“Look, I’m sorry if I’m not on your list. I’ve been everywhere today. This morning, I was upstairs, this afternoon, I was helping with the crowds in front of the parking garage, and now I’m here! I’m just going where I’m told to go! I’m just trying to do my job!” I started letting out short breaths of air to help give off the impression that I was really frustrated.
The disgruntled man patted me on the shoulder. “Okay, okay, take it easy.” He pulled a sheet of paper from his clipboard and placed it in my hand. “Look, all you got to do is walk up to one of those green girls in there and ask them these questions. Whoever you talk to, make sure you write her name down. After that, you do the same thing over again but with a different green girl. Got it?” I heard what he said, yet at the same time, I couldn’t help but to cringe and block out what he was saying each time he so casually referred to the women in there as “green girls” and not Martians. Then again, this guy was pretty old, so it shouldn’t have been all that surprising that he would use such an old term to refer to Martian women.
I glanced over the questions on the sheet. The first question was: What are your feelings toward humans? Just what did that have to do with the robbery that took place? Why did that matter? The next eight questions were just as ridiculous. Do you live here? Are you on vacation? Do you know Mimas Tethys? Can you or do you know anyone who can operate explosives? Do you own a lot of jewelry? And lastly, have you ever been convicted of theft? I squeezed so hard on both sides of the sheet of paper that the top corners started to fold in on each other. How dare the people on this ship treat these Martian women like this? This was beyond deplorable. Did they seriously think that they would find the culprit by asking every single Martian woman on this ship these questions instead of, oh, I don’t know, actually looking for clues that would lead them to the person who committed the crime!
“Hey now, be careful with that sheet of paper. I don’t have many of them left.” The older security officer’s comments about the paper snapped me back into reality.
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
The officer grabbed hold of the blue tarp and pulled it back. “Just go already.”
The moment I ducked underneath the blue tarp and over the building’s threshold, I could feel the tension in the air along with the intensely suffocating heat. I pulled at the collar of my security uniform so that I could get a little bit of relief. All around me, Martian women were fanning themselves with their hands, wiping sweat from off their bodies and, in some cases, trying to hold each other up. How long had they been trapped here and stuffed into this metal hot box like wild cattle? Among the Martian women were at least a dozen or so security officers. Some were asking questions from off of the list, while others were simply walking along the edge of the crowd with their silver ray guns in their hands and threatening anyone who tried to sit down on the floor. I pulled my fingers into the palm of my hand and made a fist. This was torture. The people on this ship couldn’t get away with this. At the right moment, I was going to get photographic evidence of what was going on here. But for right now, I needed to find both Wendy and the two Martian women who tried to save Anthe. I moved over to the right side of the crowd that was directly next to the entrance and carefully scanned the faces in the crowd for Wendy. Anthe had said the two women who tried to help drag her off the scooter were punched in the face, so I also needed to look for two Martian women with bruises on their faces.
Each time I passed one of the Martian women in the crowd, I could hear them sucking in a small breath of air, their bodies becoming more rigid and tense, their eyes turning away from me and becoming fixed on the person who was standing in front of them. They were absolutely terrified of what might happen to them the moment I got close to them. None of the other security officers seemed to care about me. I blended in and started to mimic some of the phrases they were yelling to the women in the crowd. Really, the only phrases that could I stomach hollering out were “Stand up!” and “No slouching!” Toward the back of the crowd, I could hear a woman crying out in pain and an officer yelling out the token phrase “No slouching.” That cry; I recognized it.
I turned the corner and started to scan the group of women in the back of the crowd. That was when I saw her, in the second row, using one hand to wipe away her tears and the other to massage the middle of her back. It was Wendy. It took everything in me not to grab her by the hand and pull her out of this stuffy hot box. I calmly pushed my way through the crowd and placed my hands on Wendy’s back. She jumped forward, so I pulled her back toward me and whispered, “Wendy, it’s me; Cosmo.” Her limbs loosened and she looked back. When her orange eyes met mine, I could feel tears rising up to the surface of my eyelids. I was so happy that I’d finally found her and knew where she was.
“Child, what are you doing down here? And why do you look like these foolish security guards!” Wendy hissed in a low voice.
“I can’t explain. I have a plan. I’m going to get you out of here.”
Wendy began to fidget. I knew that she wanted to turn around and face me so she could give me a hug, but now was not the time for hugs and pleasantries. “What you need to do is leave before you get caught!”
“I can’t leave before I get the information that I need, Wendy!”
Wendy shook her head. “What information?”
“I need to know if you’ve seen two women here with bruises on their faces. These bruises probably look fresh. Like they just got them today.”
A young Martian lady standing next to me with her orange hair in a ponytail whispered, “One of the guards is coming.”
I gently placed my hands on Wendy’s back. “No slouching! Stand up!” When the guard passed us by, I took my hands off her back. “Why are they making you guys stand up like this?”
Wendy shook her head. “They said until they find the rings or until someone tells the truth about what happened this afternoon, we can’t leave or sit down. My knees are killing me right now.”
I wrapped my arms around Wendy. “Hang in there. I’m going to get you out of here soon.” Wendy threw her hand back. Her fingers brushed up against my uniform. It pained me to leave her here with little to no explanation, but at least she knew I was trying to help her. When I reached the end of the back row, I backed up into the corner, took a quick glance to my right, then to my left. The guards to my left had their backs to me and the security guards to my right were still making their way around the wall on the opposite side of the crowd. Now was the perfect chance for me to take a picture of what was going on in here. I reached into my purse and took out my camera. I got up on my tippy-toes, raised my camera up above my head, and quickly took a shot of the entire group of Martian women who were being held captive here. Thankfully, no one noticed me, and the loud cries coming from the security officers covered up the tiny clicking noise from my camera. I wouldn’t dare test my luck by taking another photo, so I put my camera back in my purse and made my way up the left side of the crowd. Wendy said the two women with the black eyes were in the middle row. When I reached the middle row, I carefully looked over every woman that I passed. This was no easy task, since a lot of the women were afraid of me and they turned their heads to the side as soon as our eyes meet. Near the front of the middle row, I spotted two Martian women. They were big boned just like Wendy and even though they turned away, I was able to catch a glimpse of their swollen black eyes. The woman on the right had her orange hair up in bright pink hair curlers. She also had on a striped beige nightgown and white slippers. The woman to the left was sporting a purple dress with plaid stripes. I think at some point she had her hair up in a nice flipped-up hairdo, but probably due to the intense heat, her hair had lost its curl and was now stuck in long thin wet strings around the top of her neck.
Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn Page 10