The Blue-Haired Bombshell

by John Zakour

  ‘‘Zach, the shuttle to the Moon is perfectly safe. I don’t think there’s ever been a crash. The food is even good.’’

  ‘‘It’s not the means of travel,’’ I said. ‘‘I’m just worried about you on the Moon.’’

  We reached Electra’s hover. The door opened.

  ‘‘Zach, I’ve been to the Moon on a couple of occasions to teach at their hospital. It’s a great place. I didn’t get exposure to a lot of people, but those I met were very nice.’’

  ‘‘Maybe, but the Earth and the Moon aren’t getting along all that well these days.’’

  Electra got in the hover. ‘‘So? The Earth would never attack the Moon and the Moon doesn’t even have weapons.’’

  ‘‘Maybe this conference is a trick to get valuable Earth citizens to the Moon to hold as hostages.’’

  Electra just looked at me. ‘‘You know you’re paranoid.’’

  ‘‘That’s why I’m still alive.’’

  Electra smiled at me. ‘‘But I’m not you. The universe isn’t out to get me.’’

  She leaned forward and kissed me. She waved good-bye to me, giving me the cue to step away from the hover.

  About twenty minutes after Electra left, I headed to my office. I drove slow. I was in no hurry to get there, just in case there happened to be any press stragglers hanging around. Who knows, maybe somebody wanted to do a ‘‘Where are they now?’’ story about me.

  ‘‘HARV, are there any reporters snooping around the office?’’ I asked.

  HARV appeared in my dash. ‘‘Nope. You are literally yesterday’s news.’’

  I was slightly relieved and perhaps slightly disappointed, though I was determined not to show it.

  ‘‘Well, back to my normal life,’’ I told him.

  HARV snickered. It’s unnerving to hear a supercomputer snicker. ‘‘Zach, with you there is no such thing as normal.’’

  ‘‘Good point.’’

  I parked my car next to my office and went in. Carol was sitting at her desk.

  ‘‘Morning, Carol,’’ I said.

  No reply.

  I looked at her and noticed she wasn’t moving. I popped my gun into my hand. My first concern was Carol’s health.

  ‘‘HARV how come you didn’t tell me Carol was in trouble?’’ I barked.

  HARV’s hologram appeared next to me. ‘‘Zach, she was fine less than a nano ago.’’

  I gently pressed my index finger on Carol’s neck, searching for a pulse. I found one. I breathed easier. I waved my hand in front of her eyes. They didn’t blink.

  ‘‘She appears to be psionically frozen,’’ HARV said.

  Carol was a very powerful psi. Anybody who put her out of commission had to be at least as powerful.

  ‘‘She’ll live,’’ I heard a familiar voice call from my office. I headed toward that voice. I knew I knew it, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around it.

  ‘‘HARV, who’s in my office?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘Can’t tell,’’ he shrugged. ‘‘They’re disabled the video cameras.’’

  ‘‘Any guesses on who it might be?’’ I said, gun in hand, moving closer to the office.

  Hugging the wall, I peered through the open door into my office. There, sitting at my desk, was Shannon Cannon. She looked a bit distraught. I assumed she was still recovering from her bout with the Ogre.

  I walked into my office with my Colt 2062 trained right on Shannon’s ample chest. Shannon was looking at everything in the office but me.

  ‘‘I assume you’re the one who put Carol on psiice,’’ I said.

  Shannon simply nodded. ‘‘She’ll come around in an hour or two,’’ she said to me without actually focusing on me.

  I stopped about two meters from her. ‘‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’’ I asked.

  Shannon looked unkempt. Her hair was out of place and she had a very nervous demeanor, far different than the cold and calculating bombshell I was accustomed to.

  ‘‘Sexy is dead,’’ Shannon said, not looking at me.

  ‘‘What?’’

  Shannon shook her head. ‘‘Reduced to ashes under my watch, my guard.’’

  Shannon put her head in her hand and started weeping. I was at a loss over what to do. The comforting side of me wanted to put my arms around her and tell her it would be all right, even though I wasn’t sure it would be. My cautious side warned that this lady was one of the most deadly beings on Earth. She could overpower a band of samurai with her breath. I needed to shoot her now and let the police deal with her. My cautious side can be a bit overprotective but I’m still alive, so that’s a good thing.

  ‘‘What are you talking about?’’

  Shannon looked at me, her eyes unblinking as if they had been glued open. ‘‘We were preparing for a highly sensitive meeting. Sexy and fellow councilpeople Carl Weathers and Russ Tree were preparing for a very high level, ultra hush-hush conference,’’ she stopped. Her eyes welled with water. She dropped her head to the table and sobbed, ‘‘They’re all dust now, dead, dead dust . . .’’

  I felt Shannon’s pain from across the room. This was no act. This was a woman who trained all of life for solely one task—a task she had just failed at. I moved up to her, not putting my weapon away but pulling my finger off the trigger.

  I put my arm around her and asked, ‘‘What happened?’’

  Shannon looked up at me. Mascara running down her face made her look like a deranged rodeo clown. ‘‘I have very little idea. I went for my scheduled potty break. Even superhuman mutant psi bodyguards need to relieve themselves on a regular basis. I came back just in time to see Sexy reduced to a pile of dust before my eyes. She had already killed all the others: Weathers, Tree, their personal security, their security back up, the guardbots . . .’’

  ‘‘I get the picture. You said ‘she.’ So you got a look at the killer?’’

  Shannon gazed at me, though I wasn’t really sure she saw me. ‘‘She was a tall wisp of a woman, like she was made of energy itself.’’ Shannon stopped for a moment, staring blankly into space. ‘‘I don’t know how she got in. I couldn’t stop her. Everything I did went right through her. It’s like she was a ghost meant to be seen only by me.’’ She stopped again, thinking about what all this meant. ‘‘She could have killed me. Easily. She wanted me alive to take the fall . . .’’

  If Shannon wasn’t lying or delusional (or both) what she said made sense. If some superassassin really had just murdered three of the twelve most influential politicians on Earth, she had herself a patsy in Shannon.

  ‘‘Surely security footage will verify what you say?’’

  Shannon shook her head. I checked. ‘‘All security in that room was short-circuited while I was out . . .’’ She took a deep breath. ‘‘That’s why I know they’ll be coming after me. I’m the only survivor, so in their eyes I have to be the killer. It doesn’t help my case that I have been known to generate blasts of energy from my body.’’

  ‘‘Yeah, I can see where that might count against you.’’

  She put her hand gently on mine. ‘‘You have to believe me, Zach. I would never do anything like this . . . Not to my charges.’’

  I looked at her. I didn’t know why, but I believed her.

  ‘‘HARV, how close are the police?’’ I asked.

  He replied, ‘‘Talk fast, real fast.’’

  ‘‘You said Sexy, Weathers, and Tree were preparing for a very important meeting. Who was it with?’’

  Shannon shook her head. ‘‘That’s top secret, classified, level XYZ-999. I could tell you but I’d have to kill you first.’’

  I looked out the window. Police heavy cruiser hovers were landing in full force.

  ‘‘Why did you come to me?’’

  ‘‘They are going to put me away. I need you to find the real killer, of course.’’ She put her other hand over mine as I watched scores of heavily armored police and guard bots pour out of the hovers. ‘‘You’ve got to trust me, Zac
h.’’

  I locked my eyes on hers. ‘‘Trust runs down a two-way street. If I’m going to help I need you to tell me who they were meeting with—without killing me.’’

  ‘‘HARV, put up the office’s defenses,’’ I ordered.

  ‘‘Zach, against the police?’’

  ‘‘Just put up the energy shields. I want to make sure they don’t shoot us before I’m even on the case.’’

  HARV sighed.

  ‘‘Who was the meeting with Shannon?’’

  ‘‘Boris Sputnik and his delegation,’’ she said.

  ‘‘Boris Sputnik, the Head Administrator from the Moon?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘How many other Boris Sputniks do you know?’’ Shannon asked.

  ‘‘You have to forgive Zach. He can be a bit slow sometimes,’’ HARV said, mere nanos before the police started blasting through one of my office walls.

  Chapter 8

  Shannon shot up and threw her arms around me. She kissed me hard on the lips. ‘‘Don’t worry, Zach, they’ll never take us alive,’’ she said, squeezing me closer to her.

  I forced an arm free and pointed a finger up. ‘‘First, there is no us,’’ I said.

  ‘‘I always thought we were kindred spirits, both fighting for what we believe is right,’’ Shannon said.

  I get that reaction a lot from crazy superhuman females. It must be my aftershave. We could hear the police banging and firing away at the force field guarding my office walls. It wouldn’t be long until they got through.

  ‘‘Second,’’ I said, holding up another finger. ‘‘If they kill me or take me in, then there will be nobody left to prove your innocence.’’

  Shannon eased her grip on me. ‘‘Sorry, got caught up in the moment.’’

  Police burst into my office, far too many for me to count. Shannon tossed me to the floor split-nanos before they opened fire.

  ‘‘Remember, we want her alive,’’ I heard the commandingvoice of my old buddy Captain Tony Rickey order from the back. The fact that Tony was leading, well, bringing up the rear, of this charge gave me hope that there was hope.

  I darted under my desk for cover.

  ‘‘Remember, Cannon’s the true threat here,’’ Tony reminded his men. ‘‘Focus all fire on her.’’

  The storm police did as told. In unison, they aimed their heavy energy rifles and fired a concentrated blast at Shannon. They were heavily armed and armored, protected from head to toe in plexiarmor. Shannon had been preparing for them though, waiting there with her hands clasped together, energy dancing around her interlaced fingers. Shannon slowly pulled her hands apart, energy cascading around her finely manicured fingertips. As her hands spread farther and farther apart, the energy pulsated more and more, growing stronger and stronger.

  When the blasts from the police hit her, they were totally absorbed by Shannon’s own energy. Shannon spread her arms open wide, like a butterfly bursting free of a cocoon, sending a huge blast of energy at the first wave of police, driving them all to the ground.

  The second wave quickly rolled in . . . Shannon inhaled, then exhaled on them. Despite the fact the police were wearing protective helmets, her toxic breath still did them in.

  ‘‘Retreat!’’ captain Rickey ordered. ‘‘Retreat!’’

  Shannon looked down at me and smiled. Surveying the twenty or thirty fallen policemen littering my office, her smile widened.

  ‘‘How come the police’s toxic filters didn’t stop Shannon’s breath?’’ I asked HARV.

  ‘‘The exact chemical makeup of her breath is top secret,’’ HARV said. ‘‘The police don’t have nearly the clearance needed. They had to guess. They guessed wrong.’’

  I stood up, trying to take advantage of the police who were regrouping.

  From outside, Captain Rickey’s voice came booming at us. ‘‘Zach, this is Tony. You and Shannon have one minute to come out before we raze the building.’’

  Looking out the window I could see at least three hundred police barricaded behind their squad hovers, all with weapons trained on the building.

  ‘‘They have five robotic gunship hovers just one minute out,’’ HARV said.

  ‘‘Shannon, you have to give yourself up,’’ I coaxed. ‘‘It’s the only way.’’

  ‘‘Never,’’ she said. ‘‘I’ve lost my charge. I have no reason to live. I only want you to save my name after I am gone.’’

  She turned toward the window, facing the throng of police, arms open.

  ‘‘Come and get me,’’ she screamed.

  The police hovers opened fire on the window, but the shots were repelled. Right then and there, I was glad that blast-proof window salesbot convinced me to go with the most expensive option.

  ‘‘Zach, the police are arming old-fashioned heavy missiles,’’ HARV told me a split nano before one of the missiles crashed into the window. The force of the explosion knocked me down.

  ‘‘Thanks for the warning, buddy,’’ I grumbled. The window and Shannon both survived the initial blast.

  ‘‘The window can’t take another hit like that,’’ HARV said.

  ‘‘Tell Tony I have the situation under control,’’ I told HARV.

  ‘‘You want me to lie to one your oldest friends?’’ HARV said.

  ‘‘Just do it,’’ I barked.

  ‘‘Fine. Tony says you have two minutes. He also says his superiors want him to use the contained nuclear option if this fails.’’

  Great, no pressure there. I stood up and popped my Colt 2062 into my hand.

  ‘‘I have a message from GUS,’’ HARV said over our link.

  ‘‘Ah, patch him through, I guess,’’ I thought back.

  ‘‘Greetings!’’ GUS high-pitched voice echoed inside of my head. ‘‘I find this quite an unusual means of communication.’’

  ‘‘You’re not alone. GUS, get to the point.’’

  ‘‘I have just completed downloading new billy-club software that might prove most useful . . .’’

  ‘‘Why do I need software to hit somebody across the head with you?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘The new improvements allow me to calculate the rate of impact and increase my mass at the striking area at the exact moment of impact. I will then follow up by injecting this subject with a million volts of electricity.’’

  ‘‘You have twenty seconds to react,’’ HARV said.

  I walked up behind Shannon. She was paying me no mind, training all of her attention on the surrounding police.

  I pulled back GUS. I whacked Shannon on the side of her head. She crashed to the ground.

  ‘‘HARV, tell Tony I have Shannon,’’ I said.

  ‘‘Too late,’’ HARV answered.

  I dropped to the ground on top of Shannon a splitnano before a rocket exploded through my window.

  Chapter 9

  ‘‘Tony says, ‘Sorry about that and we’ll pay for any damages,’ ’’ HARV said as I pushed myself up off the ground.

  I was covered in debris from my office, well, from what was my office. Just then it hit me. ‘‘Carol!’’ I shouted.

  I pushed through some rubble, fighting my way toward Carol’s reception area. HARV appeared in front of me, showing that my office holo-projectors were still functioning.

  ‘‘Carol’s safe,’’ HARV said. ‘‘Tony’s men evacuated her before they hit the place.’’

  Tony entered with three police android officers, weapons still drawn.

  I pointed to Shannon lying on the floor, out cold. ‘‘She won’t give you any more trouble.’’ I said.

  ‘‘Sorry about the mess,’’ Tony said. ‘‘Some of my men and droids get a little trigger happy.’’

  ‘‘DOS, Tony! Your men have taken shots at me for jaywalking before.’’

  ‘‘Yeah, they are under orders to cut that out,’’ Tony said.

  ‘‘But firing on my office when you have forty of your own men and machines down in here . . .’’

  ‘‘We were monitoring
them over their battle armor. We knew they would survive the blast. We also knew Shannon would survive with no problem.’’

  ‘‘And me?’’

  Tony patted me on the back. ‘‘Zach, cockroaches envy your survival skills.’’

  Tony surveyed the damage. ‘‘The good news is that after reviewing the video of your conversations with Shannon, it doesn’t look like you’re under arrest.’’

  I have given Tony a lot of grief in my time but never have I destroyed his office.

  ‘‘Gee thanks.’’

  Tony patted me on the shoulder. We watched as the gray-skinned police droid’s bots secured Shannon’s hands and feet and head with metallic-looking braces. ‘‘It looks like you were just an innocent pawn in Shannon Cannon’s sick game.’’

  ‘‘I don’t think it’s a game. She believes she’s being framed.’’

  ‘‘Then she’s the only one. Zach, I’ve seen the footage from the security cameras. One minute, she’s in the room. She leaves the room, the cameras go blank. Next thing we know she’s standing over the ashes of her victims.’’

  ‘‘So you don’t see her kill anybody?’’

  ‘‘No, Zach, but it would have taken an ultra-mega-high level of clearance and sophistication to disable the cameras like she did.’’

  ‘‘Why bring the cameras back online just to damn herself?’’

  ‘‘She screwed up,’’ Tony said.

  ‘‘Not buying it,’’ I said, though I had no idea why.

  ‘‘Zach, you’re letting that face and body cloud your judgment.’’

  ‘‘She said she caught a glimpse of a blue-haired woman in the room,’’ I insisted.

  ‘‘Yeah, our profilers have heard that one. They concluded she was really seeing herself in a sad attempt to justify what she did. Think about it, Zach. This blue-haired woman has some of the same powers Shannon does.’’

  ‘‘But what’s her motive?’’

  ‘‘She’s crazy,’’ Tony said.

  I raised an eyebrow.

  ‘‘She’s a Moonie, Zach. She’s been a very open supporter of the Moon’s freedom. What better way to show your support than to murder three of the council members who voted against—or were planning to vote against—freedom?’’