by M J Gauntlet
“Discovering their remains there at the crime scene, leads me to believe that they were brought there by the Cree who were most likely, hired to obtain certain information that their employer believed your father possessed. My guess is that they were to be used to torture your father into revealing what they thought he knew. Later, after securing the information, they were going to kill him or the both of you. I am willing to bet that Lahrs and Oaton, the two local thugs, were going to be set up as the patsy fall guys.
“What you’re saying is…” Zax started to say as he absently rubbed his fingers through his tightly curled blond locks.
“What I’m telling you kid, is that someone hired the Cree to torture your father to get him to divulge some information that they felt he possessed and that against all odds, he somehow got the drop on everyone in the room including the Cree…an impressive trick by the way… and sacrificed himself by killing them all. By doing so, he was able to save your life and probably protect whatever information they were trying to pry out of him.” Fuller’s data pad chimed softly. The screen flickered, and the image of the bloodworm was replaced by a slightly less repulsive face wearing a peeved look.
“Lieutenant Fuller, I need you to report to my office immediately.”
Fuller exhaled heavily and turned off his pad. “Well, it looks like our time is up kid so I’m gonna give you a few words of advice: When the Special Branch ops get around to questioning you, it would be best if you would let them believe that your dad was a victim of simple revenge. If they get it in their heads that there was some information that someone was willing to hire the Cree to extract, they are gonna assume that whatever it was, had been passed on to you and trust me, you definitely do not want Special Branch coming to that conclusion. They can make your life very uncomfortable trying to ferret out whatever it is. Oh, by the way, I hate to make your already bad day any worse, but it is unlikely that whomever had hired the Cree had time to retrieve any information, if there was any to retrieve. So, it is probable that they are going to figure that maybe you are their only remaining link to that information. I’d be very careful if I were you.” With that he snapped shut his data pad and keyed open the portal.
“Now let’s get the hell out of here,” he said. Zax hesitated for a moment and touched the lieutenant on the shoulder.
“Lieutenant Fuller, thank you. I appreciate what you trying to help.”
“Forget it kid. Like I said earlier, I kinda owe it to your old man for not only changing things for others, but for changing things in my life as well.” Zax raised his eyebrows at that last comment, but Fuller waived him on. “That’s a story for another time, kid.” As he started to walk away, he turned and looked Zax straight in the eyes.
“Just a word of caution kid: Be very careful who you talk to and when you do talk, say as little as you can to anyone about your father and your suspicions about how he died.”
“I would just ask one more thing of you,” said Zax. “Yeah, what’s that, kid?”
“Stop calling me kid will ya?’
“Sure son, sure,” Lieutenant Fuller replied, with a chuckle.
They walked down the hall and past the sergeant’s desk. The same woman was manning the post and she looked up in mild surprise. She gave Zax the once over, then turned to Fuller with a quizzical look on her face.
“Relax sergeant Tao,” he said quietly, “the young man was cooperative without the need of, shall we say, extra urging.”
“Well I’m glad to hear that lieutenant. I never pictured you as the type to use extreme persuasion,” she replied, with a small smile. “Oh, by the way, the captain has been searching for you. Sorry, but I had to tell him where you were. Said for me to tell you to see him as soon as you were done. Watch it lieutenant, he is in a foul mood.”
“Not to worry, I’m headed to his office now,” turning back to Zax he waived a goodbye, “see ya ki…er young man. Try to remember what I told you.” As he walked towards the door marked ‘Precinct Captain’, he suddenly snapped his fingers then hurried back to the front desk.
“Tao, I want you to cut a housing chit for this young man here. Put a forty-eight-hour usage tag on it for any medium range hotel or robohostel in the district.”
“Oh yeah? Just how do you want me to log it, eh?” “Log it in as a ‘material witness’ ticket.”
“Are you sure you want me to do that Fuller? You know how the captain has been complaining about eunit over usage in the department.I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it Gladis,” Zax kept a straight face, as he looked at the woman’s rather plain face, but she just beamed at the compliment. “By the time I’m finished talking to the chief, I wouldn’t be surprised if he validated a request for me to requisition a brand-new squad cruiser complete with min-bar.” The sergeant’s eyebrows rose in amazement at his proclamation, then she slowly shook her head at the obviously delusional man in front of her.
“Oh, and Zax,” Fuller said, as he turned to head back down the hall, “don’t forget your floater. It’s in the parking garage with a full charge.” Leaning on the desk, he stroked Gladis’ rather chubby hand. “Be a dear and cut a release for the floater and give it to the young man, ok?”
“Ok, smooth talker, I’ll cut the chit and the release but it’s gonna be your butt if the chief gets a hair up his ass over this.”
Tapping a few keys at her board, she waited a moment, then a thin transparent plastic unit disc emerged from a slot on her panel. Removing the chit, she handed it down to Zax.
“Here you go kid, this is a precinct lodging chit that is valid for the next two days at any mid-range hotel in the district. Don’t be a smartass and try to use it at any of the high-end places, it will just be rejected. It is only good for hotel lodging. Attempt to use it in any other way and it will end up in being voided.” Another sheet popped out of a slot and Tao tore it off and gave it to Zax.
“This is the release for your floater, just give it to the attendant on duty.”
“Yes Ma’am, but if I could ask a question…” The sergeant nodded impatiently.
“Does it include room service meals, and do you happen to have a list of qualifying hotels?”
“That’s two questions kid,” she said irritably, “but yes it does include two hotel served meals. As for the list…” she paused and tapped a few more keys, a thin sheet of plasticine extruded, “here, this should cover the valid places within the district. Those outlined in blue serve meals. The garage is the door to your left. Now scram, I’m busy.”
Zax turned and headed for the panel marked ‘garage’, his mind full of questions to which he had no answers.
The man was now sitting in a rented skimmer, parked around the corner from the police station. He was wearing nondescript day suit. It was the kind worn by a typical, average, Bright citizen but the man in the suit was scowling in a manner that was quite atypical for him. From time to time, he would glance down at the device resting in his lap, its pulsating holographic arrow was still pointing steadily at the police building around the corner. Proof that the tracer he had earlier placed on the floater, back in the grove of trees, had not yet been detected by the precinct’s screens. Just another indication of the sloppiness of the twice damned Imperium. He idly thought.
A patient man by nature, in fact being a successful agent depended upon patience, he was willing to wait it out and see how events unfolded. But the actions of the last twenty-six hours were causing his frustration to show. It had been hours since both the boy and the floater had entered the police station and he suddenly realized, that it could be hours more (or maybe days) before either might again exited the station house.
Absently fingering his faux goatee, he wondered for the hundredth time, how could something that was so meticulously planned had gone so terribly wrong. After being so close to achieving his final objective, it seemed that it was now further away than when he first began.
H
e had heard that members of the Imperial scouts were self-reliant and tough, but he was sure that time had eroded the man’s abilities. After researching the man thoroughly, he had thought that he had left nothing to chance. He was quite aware of the part the man had played in the Last Town riot of more than a decade ago. He had even amassed a small dossier on the man’s son, who was a juvenile at the time. The child seemed to possess some limited skill in hand to hand combat, but it was nothing to be overly concerned about. Nothing that the Cree could not have easily handled.
As for the ex-scout, the reports stated that due to his addiction to Blitzo, the man had become a shadow of his former self. Even so, the agent had taken what he considered adequate precautions. Not only by hiring two Cree assassins, he also included the participation of two local mercenaries. The man briefly smiled, as he remembered the consternation of the Cree at the inclusion of the two thugs to the group, until he told them that they were to be used as expendable pawns. That their bodies would provide a plausible cover story for the death of the scout and his son.
Things began to go south when that fat pig of a supervisor scheduled the kid for extra duty, he thought ruefully. But even then, I was confident that the Cree would be able to extract the information before the kid would return, wait for him, and then kill the four of them in a manner to indicate a drug deal gone wrong. This would have presented a plausible crime scene and scenario to present to the authorities.
Instead, there was that god-awful explosion that had woke up the entire town. The last thing he wanted, was an army of police descending on the scene with hover drones and DNA sniffers and completely cordoning off the area. To complicate matters further, the kid suddenly pops out of the foliage and ends up running straight into the arms law enforcement. What a cluster-fuck!
The agent’s reverie was interrupted as the device on his lap emitted a soft ‘ping’. Sitting up in his seat, he eased the flitter skyward and slowly rounded the street corner, just in time to see his target riding his floater down the empty street. After a full minute had passed, he turned the flitter onto the road and followed Zaxxion Grayson’s progress through the streets. There was no chance of losing him as long as the tracer was attached to his floater.
CHAPTER SIX
Until he mounted his floater, Zax hadn’t realized just how dead tired he was. The night’s long overtime shift, combined with the dramatic events of the previous night and the unexpected three hours ‘interrogation’ by Lieutenant Fuller, had finally caught up with him. After activating his floater, he glanced at the list of hotels on the sheet and simply picked the one that was closest to the police station, that also served meals. After punching its destination into the floater’s GPS, he sat down and let the floater’s auto-pilot function take over. He could barely keep his eyes open as he exited the station garage.
Five minutes later, the floater’s GPS announced in a light feminine voice: “You have arrived at your destination”. Zax looked up, surprised to see a rather pleasant looking establishment off to his left. Guiding the floater into the parking garage, he parked it in a numbered slot and inserted the charge cord into the plug provided. A sign over the stall read:
“Vehicle charging will begin at check-in and will billed to the room number. Thank you for choosing Westland accommodations.”
As he entered the hotel lobby through the sliding doors from the garage, he looked around and was pleasantly surprised. The lobby was festooned with examples of various non-lethal Brightian plant life (after all it wouldn’t do to have a tropical Whipit in striking distance of the patrons). A rather large terrarium was imbedded into the far wall, containing various Bright fauna, roaming around carefully arranged foliage. A Hog lizard, from the southern continent, basking beneath a sunlamp, eyed him curiously.
As Zax expected, the front desk was manned by a human rather than the holographic projections favored by robohostels, or androids found in the swankier establishments. The clerk was busy looking down at a holographic readout behind the counter and without looking up raised a preemptive finger. “I’ll be with you in just a moment, sir or madam.” After a moment, the clerk raised his head and gave a visible start at the man before him, dressed in grimy work coveralls and reeking of solvent and exhaust fumes. Smiling inwardly at the clerk’s obvious consternation, Zax waited patiently for the man to recover. Quickly, the clerk regained his aplomb, cleared his throat and offered his best smile, “Can I help you, sir?”
Without pause, Zax produced the police lodging chit and handed it to the clerk. “I would like suite if one is available.” Before replying, the clerk took the chit from his hand and inserted it into the chit reader, imbedded into the desk. There was a muted ‘beep’ then the chit was ejected. The clerk looked at his screen then looked up at Zax with a broader, less mechanical smile.
“Surely sir, a two-room suite is available. If you would kindly insert your identity card into the slot in front of you to complete the reservation.” Looking around Zax’s feet he politely asked: “Is there any luggage to be taken to your room?”
“No, there is no luggage, but my vehicle is currently parked in stall seventeen. Would you please credit the charge to my room?”
“Of course, sir. Is there anything else?”
“As a matter of fact, there is...” Holding his arms away from his body, Zax gave a wan smile, “As you can see, my current wardrobe is showing signs of distress. Could you be so kind as to recommend an establishment, of moderate cost, that could provide me with more suitable clothes?”
“Why yes, I can,” the clerk said, with a grin, “there happens to be such a clothier within walking distance of the hotel. I believe you will find the prices there quite reasonable. Also…” the clerk added with deference, “We provide a clothes valet service, which is available in suite for a reasonable remuneration, simply hang the garments in the cabinet adjacent to the fresher and they will be sonically cleaned. The fee will simply be added to the room charges upon checkout.”
“Thank you,” Zax said, reaching out to take the room key placard. Looking at the key, he followed the tiny floating holographic arrow to the grav-lift to his room. The suite was pleasantly furnished, with extruded plasticine furniture that gave the appearance of wood. Off to his left, was a fresher and next to that, was the sonic valet cabinet. After placing his grimy clothes in the sonic refresher, Zax half stumbled over to the bedroom and collapsed on the floating contragrav mattress, instantly falling asleep.
Zax was dreaming that some insect had drilled into his head, was emitting an incessant buzzing and it was whizzing around his brain. Squeezing his eyes tighter, he tried to shut out the maddening buzz, but it refused to cease. Groggily, he opened his eyes, only to find that the incessant sound continued even while he was awake. Slowly, leaning on one elbow, he sat up in the bed and tried to remember where he was. Looking around, he realized that he was not at home with his father, but in a hotel on the western outskirts of Centennial City on the northern continent of Bright…and that his father was…dead. A deep, sharp, lonely pain accompanied that dreadful realization.
Shaking his head to clear out the cobwebs, he raised his knuckles and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Now fully awake, he realized that the irritating noise was still there and if anything, it was getting louder. Staring around the room, Zax followed the sound, until he focused on the terminal on the desk at the opposite side of the room. He got up, dragging the blanket behind him and stood over the flashing screen that was making all the noise. A floating message scrolled across the screen, stating that he should contact the front desk as soon as possible. The time stamp on the message was 1600 pass second sunset, which meant that he had only been asleep for about four hours. Frowning, Zax pressed the screen’s ‘accept’ button and was immediately connected to the clerk at the desk. The perky face of a rather nice- looking young girl with straight black hair and almond shaped eyes, smiled back at him from the screen. Her eyes widened as she pursed her lips in a silent ‘oh’.
“I’m sorry to disturb you Messer Grayson, but there is an urgent message that just came in for you,” she said, with an apologetically, shy smile. Zax’s tightly, curled, blond hair was slightly depressed on one side of his face, and his dark, bronze skin peeked out from underneath the blanket. His eyes suddenly widened, as he realized that he was bare assed naked. Fumbling frantically, he hurriedly wrapped the blanket around him as he scrambled to find the ‘face only’ tab and then pressed it.
“Are…are you sure you have the right room, Miss?” Zax said frowning, as his face flushed with embarrassment, “I’m expecting no calls, and no one even knows I’m staying here.”
“Yes, Messer Grayson, I am sure that this message is for your room number, and it is addressed personally to you.”
Zax’s frown deepened. “Well, even so, couldn’t it have waited until the morning?”
“Yes Messer, I considered waiting to deliver the message until a more reasonable time, but it was tagged ‘extremely urgent, contact at once’. Would you rather I send it to your console now, or would you rather collect it at the front desk in the morning?”
“Alright, alright… I might as well get it over with since I’m already awake. Please send the message to this terminal.”
The clerk touched something out of sight of Zax’s pickup, then looked back up. “I’ve just transferred the message to your terminal. Just press play on the screen when you are ready. And please accept my most sincere apologies for disturbing your beautiful…er…I mean body…er…beauty rest,” she stammered, as the image of her own blushing face faded.