by R. E. Graham
“Right now, we need to focus on going into hiding. After that, then I’ll get you your evidence.”
Varius clenched his jaw knowing she was right. The pair climbed the stairs to upper levels.
“Level 5: Retail” was written in big bold faded white letters on the walls near the doorway. A man carrying several bags of goods entered the stairwell and walked passed the pair. He didn’t even look up to see the dried blood on Eva’s face.
“We need to get you cleaned up too” Varius said as he surveyed her appearance. “You look like you got the crud beat out of you.”
“Haha, I did. Follow me, I know a place we can go.”
Tremendous skyscrapers towered over the retail district built atop the parking garage. Long ago Lucifer had become so crowded by citizens that entire sections of the city would be demolished to make way for garages as large as neighborhoods so that the storefronts, restaurants, and other businesses could be built in the air atop them. Eva navigated easily through the busy crowds of shoppers while Varius kept bumping shoulders with people.
“Hey buddy watch out!” a rude man shouted angrily before he realized he was speaking to an inquisitor. “Oh, I’m so sorry sir.”
Varius just waved and kept on walking. When he looked up he realized he had lost Eva. He looked all around him for his captive but could not spot her anywhere.
“Come on Eva don’t do this now.” He spun around again, crowds intermingling around him.
He finally spotted her as she waved to him from the entrance of a small shop. When she knew he saw her she disappeared inside. Piles of empty crates and other random goods were piled on either side of the doorway. The sign that hung above the entrance read, “Sheila’s Consignment Shop” in bright pink illuminated letters.
Varius carefully entered the shop. It wasn’t very wide but was long. Racks of clothes ran on either side of the store with piles of shoes, belts, or other apparel in various spots between racks. While it was organized in a sense, it was overwhelming chaos at the same time.
What a dump…
Eva was up ahead to the left looking through women’s clothing. A short and elderly woman hobbled passed the Inquisitor. Varius squinted to get a better look, but he could have sworn her eyes were completely shut. Yet, if they were, she navigated the store easily. She pressed the door pad and flipped a switch to lock the door when it slid shut.
“Sheila here is a friend from way back. You may want to hurry and pick something out for yourself” Eva said as she held up a beige top to her neck and looked in a nearby mirror. “You do know how to pick out normal clothes right?”
Varius glared at her as he made his way to a rack of men’s clothes.
Eva shrugged as she chuckled to herself. “What? Maybe I’ve never seen an inquisitor in ordinary clothes before. Who knows, maybe that flashy uniform can’t even come off.”
The Inquisitor browsed through the clothing until he found a padded jacket and tactical cargo pants.
“Are you kidding me?” Eva asked as she walked over to him. She held a pair of pants and a top over her arm. “We are trying to blend in, not be obvious!”
The small shop keeper hobbled passed the pair and mumbled, “Men…”
Varius was about to bark at the woman when Eva pressed an orange long sleeve shirt into his chest. “Yeah, orange will look good on you.”
“You caught me on a slow night dearie. Normally I would have at least twenty customers in here” Sheila called out from behind her checkout counter.
“Well, thank the Creator that wasn’t the case. Here, try these pants on too” Eva said as she handed him more clothes.
The Inquisitor fumbled with the clothing but managed to keep it from falling to the ground. “Where are the changing rooms?”
“She doesn’t really have changing rooms. Uses the floor space for more inventory. Follow me.”
Varius followed behind Eva as she went to the back of the store and turned a corner to give them some sense of privacy. She set her clothes down on a stool and looked around the space. “Like I said, there isn’t really anywhere to change privately, so this is what we have to work with.”
She turned her back to Varius and began to undress. The Inquisitor’s cheeks turned red as he looked away.
“I’ll a…change back around the corner.”
He tried to find a space to set his belongings, but everything was covered in more clothing. He finally decided to set his stuff on top of a pile mound of clothes on a covered countertop.
Varius unholstered his firearm, made it safe, and set it down, followed by his belt and contents of his pockets. He unclamped his left gauntlet and set it beside his other belongings. Afterward he began to undress.
After several minutes of getting changed, Eva put her hair into a relaxed style with a hairtie and rounded the corner to see Varius pulling his pants up.
“Oh, I’m sorry” she said as she twisted back around the corner.
“It’s fine” he muttered as he clasped the front of his pants together. He rolled his left sleeve up and then put the gauntlet back on.
Eva poked her head back around the corner and saw him start to put his inquisitor belt on. “Um, you can’t wear that.”
“Why not?” he asked with a puzzled look.
“It looks like a government belt setup.”
Begrudgingly, he removed the belt and set it back down.
He bent down to grab his boots, but Eva held a finger up to protest. This time he wasn’t going to let her stop him. “I like these boots. I’m wearing them.”
Eva held up both her hands in surrender. Her expression changed when she happened to notice the heart charm bracelet on his wrist. “Where did you get the bracelet?”
Varius hadn’t realized it was loose and rolled his left sleeve back down over the gauntlet and tucked it under his sleeve. “That doesn’t concern you.”
“Okaaaaay…” she said as she walked around him and over to Sheila.
The Inquisitor finished clamping his boots together and stood up. He connected his retractable assassin blade assembly under his right sleeve and removed his holobadge from his belt and tucked it into his pocket. He removed a few other smaller items from his belt and hid them also in his front pockets.
Before he was finished, he took the knife and its sheath from his chest plate and tucked it into his right boot. He gathered his belongings and met up with his captive.
“Thanks again Sheila for your help” Eva said with a smile.
“It’s my pleasure hun. Your parents took good care of me when I was in need, and I am happy to return the favor.”
Varius just stood there holding his uniform as he checked to see if the shop keeper’s eyes were open or shut. Eva looked at him strangely and swatted him in the chest. “Hand her your stuff.”
He looked at his captive sternly.
“You can’t walk through Lucifer carrying around an inquisitor uniform in your arms.”
Angrily, Varius conceded. He handed the small woman his belongings. “Take care of my pistol. That is my favorite gun.”
“Don’t worry lawman, most of your stuff won’t end up for sale” Sheila said as she began to cackle loudly.
Varius stood up straight and pointed his finger at the small woman. Eva reached over and took his hand. “Thanks again Sheila!” she called out as she guided the Inquisitor towards the door.
After he spotted a dark gray hoody hanging from one of the men’s rack Varius nabbed it and slid it on.
“Hey now, don’t take anything else!” the shop keeper shouted.
Varius didn’t respond. Eva reached the door before him and flipped the locking switch down. The door automatically slid open and the two walked back outside.
The night sky lit up briefly from a flash of lightning as it began to drizzle. Varius flipped up his hoody and followed Eva into the crowd.
“Alright, we have clothes, now take me to the evidence.”
“You just don’t know how to blend
in do you?” Eva whispered back. “We have no idea who around us is undercover. I will take you to a backup hideout I have. I’m sure my home will have KoP agents posted on watch.”
Varius didn’t ask any more questions. He remained quiet, but continuously checked around them for someone following them. Inquisitors were trained in many forms of interrogation, combat, and other detective skills, but going undercover was not a primary focus. By being backed by the government and extremely entrusted to maintain law and order, inquisitors were always seen as a symbol of the law. They rarely had to worry about being discreet.
After twenty-five minutes of walking through the crowds Eva led them to a railway station. A monorail pulled up and its doors slid open. The pair stepped onboard along with many others and grabbed hold of the bar that ran the length of the railcar from the ceiling. A bell sound chimed before the doors slid shut and the monorail took off.
Out of the corner of Varius’ eye he spotted a scruffy man looking in their direction. When Varius looked up to make eye contact the man immediately looked down to look at his communicator. The Inquisitor happened to look straight ahead of himself to see a holoscreen that was mounted onto the railcar wall. On it were facial displays of both Varius and Eva with “Call If Spotted. Reward 50,000 Cuso Each If Caught” illuminated beneath it.
Varius looked back to the man who now had his communicator up to his ear. “We need to get off at the next stop” the Inquisitor whispered to his captive.
Eva nodded when she spotted her own face displayed on the wall.
As the monorail pulled into its next station and stopped, Varius stepped off immediately and saw an armored KoP agent stopping people and checking their faces. Eva tugged on his sleeve and went right, headed for an elevator.
He started to follow behind her when the older man stepped off the monorail and shouted for the agent’s attention. “That’s them there!” he called out.
“Eva, run!” the pair made a dash for the elevator and fought through the people stepping off.
Eva rapidly pressed the door close button. “Come on, come on, come on…”
Varius nodded to the remaining occupants of the elevator. They couldn’t see the guard attempting to push his way through the exiting crowd. The doors slid shut just before the guard could get through. Eva tried to play it cool to the occupants of the elevator.
“They found us making out” she laughed while Varius’ blushed a little. A man behind the Inquisitor bumped his shoulder and chuckled.
The elevator ride was quiet except for one man in the back coughing. A synthetic voice said, “Level Three, Garage.”
“Let’s get off here my love” Eva said with a fake smile to Varius. He followed her off the elevator while Eva headed for a tunnel that connected the divide in the level three garage from the next section and went down a nearby stairwell. Varius followed several steps behind until they reached the ground level. People walked in both directions as some were entering the garage while others were exiting.
Eva turned left out of the stairwell entrance with Varius close behind.
A large white gloved hand reached out and grabbed Eva by the shoulder. “I need to see some I.D.”
Varius hopped back behind the doorway before he was seen.
“Oh, no problem officer” Eva said as she kept her face relatively hidden and reached her right hand into her green vest. She chopped with her hand just under the agent’s helmet into his windpipe. He stepped back gripping his throat and gasped for air.
She stepped forward and took his stun baton from his belt and turned it on. “Night, night” Eva said as she jammed him in his armpit. He convulsed violently and collapsed to the floor. She carelessly tossed it to the ground.
Several onlookers kept on walking while others didn’t even look up from their communicators to even care.
Varius poked his head out from behind the wall, eyebrow raised.
Eva looked over at him and rolled her shoulder where the KoP agent had grabbed her. “What? A girl can’t learn a few tricks for when a guy grabs her?”
The Inquisitor shrugged unsure of what to say. Eva walked off and once again he followed.
Chapter 13
Cycle: 412 Month: 7 Rotation: 12
Prefecture: Siimon
Planet: Eden
Location: Downtown Lucifer
Since they had come close to being spotted on the district level, Eva had decided it was best to keep to the lower streets and take their time to get to her hideout. Varius felt uneasy as the pair passed multiple patrols of KoP agents along the way. Being on the outside of the law was not somewhere he had been since he had joined the inquisitors order cycles ago. But, he had to complete his mission.
After several hours of walking and after they had stopped once for Eva to get a sandwich from a sidewalk food station, the pair had finally made it to her backup hideout. On the 15th floor of the 32-floor apartment complex, Varius and Eva stepped off the pristine silver colored elevator. The Inquisitor looked around the foyer of the floor and whistled. Expensive red shora rugs covered the marble floors, glistening gold colored wallpaper lined the walls, while he also caught the smell of something lovely floating through the air.
“Now, this isn’t anything special, and I haven’t been here in a long time so excuse the mess” Eva said as she walked down the hallway.
“Mess? This place is incredible.”
She pressed her thumb up against a scanner panel next to the door. The numbers “1507” were formed out of gold and placed above eye level on the door.
A small ding chirped before the door pulled back then slid into the wall. While the hallway and foyer smelled like a lovely combination of sweet flowers, the inside was much more stagnant.
As soon as Eva was inside she waved her hand passed a light switch and began picking up several items that had been tossed around. Varius checked the hallway to see if anyone was watching before he stepped inside. While the door closed behind him, the Inquisitor looked around the apartment.
To his right was a kitchen and dining room area, while ahead of him was a very spacious living space. Despite furniture being covered in dust, he could tell that everything looked very expensive.
“Like I said, sorry for the mess. Last time I was here I left in a bit of a hurry” Eva said as she placed two armfuls of items on a nearby countertop. She ran a hand through her hair while she put her other hand on her hip.
“Who’s place is this?” Varius asked as he walked deeper into the unit and scanned the room.
“Well, um…it’s technically mine.”
“Technically?”
Eva strolled nervously over to a lounge chair and sat down. A small puff of dust blossomed up around her. She coughed and waved her hand to clear the air. “Yeah, I uh…lived here for a while.”
Varius noticed a physical picture in a gold colored frame with Eva, a man and a young boy. They all looked very happy together.
“Why is this your backup hideout?” the Inquisitor asked as he enter the living room.
“Because…um…no one that knows me knows about this place anymore” Eva couldn’t help but get lost in some memory deep in her mind.
“From what I read in your file, you did not sound wealthy nor did it indicate you had any family. Being an inventory organizer isn’t exactly high paying on most worlds. I imagine then that Eva Primus is not your real name?”
Eva avoided the Inquisitor’s gaze and looked away. She rubbed her arm with her opposite hand. While Varius looked around the room, a flash of lightning from outside lit up the hallway that he couldn’t see from the front door. There was a pile of something in the hallway that sat outside a room with an open door on the right. It seemed…off. As if it had fallen there. He started to walk down the hall when Eva shook herself from her mental wandering.
“Inquisitor, please don’t go down there!” she said as she shot up and followed him.
Varius stopped himself outside the room when he saw multiple old bl
ood spatters. There was some scattered on the walls, while there was a large dried pool on the carpeted floor. The air still had a tinge of death and mustiness to it even though whatever happened clearly was a long time ago.
Eva stopped short of the doorway, frozen. “Pl…please Inquisitor, please don’t go in there.”
The Inquisitor looked to her with eyebrow raised. That was when he saw a tear fall to her cheek. “What happened here?” he asked with a nudge from his head toward the room.
“I…I uh…used to live here with my husband and…my son” she said as she brought her hand up to her mouth. She spun around in a hurry and walked away.
Varius inspected the room again before he returned to the living room to find Eva on the couch with her head slumped toward her legs.
“My name is Eva Ar…Archimedes…” Eva started. She sniffed deeply and wiped her left eye. “One night we um…my husband and I were sleeping in our bedroom further down the hall. My husband, Jorse, got up and went to check things out. He told me to stay in bed, but I knew it should have been me…it should have been me to go.”
Varius spotted a well-crafted wooden stool nearby the bar counter and brought it over. He sat down in front of his captive.
“I heard Jorse start to yell at someone and something broke, so I sprang up and grabbed my pistol I kept by the bed. I came down the hall gun ready, and that’s when I saw this… man…dressed in black standing there with Jorse on his knees. He had a knife to his throat and had his hair held in his other hand. Before I could react, he sliced the knife and Jorse looked at me gurgling on his own blood.”
The Inquisitor lowered his head.
“The um…attacker spun around and saw me. He threw the knife at me which cut my right arm here.” She slid back her right sleeve to expose a scar that had long since healed. “He charged me and I discharged my firearm three times. I hit him once in the leg and once in the torso, but it didn’t stop him from reaching me. He slammed into me with all of his weight which bashed my head into the wall. I was way out of practice, but I still should have been able to stop him” Eva said as she looked back down to the floor.