by James McEwan
The bartender was a petite girl who could not have been more than eighteen years old, with a slim figure that made her look more like a boy than a girl. However, her face and voice confirmed she was very much a girl. Her short spiky hair was dyed a bright pink and she had more than a few visible body piercings. The small blue jewel in her nose was nice, Thad thought. However, he didn’t care for the rest of them.
She placed one of her slender fingers on the card and pushed it across the bar. “Sorry honey, we don’t accept Republic credits here.”
Vergil laughed. “I guess the drinks are on me.” then hopped up onto a barstool. “Two pints of beer please, and put them on my tab.”
“Sure thing, little bear.” she smiled and made a growling sound.
Surprised at the girl’s reaction, Thad raised an eyebrow. “Little bear?”
Vergil blushed red. “Shut up!”
Thad laughed. “Oh come on, you have to tell.”
“Fine, we kind of have something going on and she likes to call me her little teddy bear. Okay, satisfied?” Vergil said as the beers slid across the bar to them.
“There you go gents, let me know if I can do anything else for you.” the pink headed bartender said.
“Thank you, sweetie.” Vergil said, as he smiled ear-to-ear at her.
Thad patted Vergil on the back. “Why to look at you, I would never have guessed.”
“What, that a dwarf could get a regular girl in bed?” Vergil said with a hurt tone in his voice.
Thad patted him again. “Not at all my little friend. I was referring to the age difference. You are closing in on forty, and she can’t be more than what, eighteen?”
That seemed to calm him down. “Nineteen. Anyway she happens to have a taste for older, more refined gentlemen.”
Thad took a long slug of the beer, then he couldn’t help himself. “Again, so why is she with you?”
Vergil paused and looked Thad right in his steel gray eyes. “Really, I have no fucking idea!”
They both laughed hard for a few minutes then Vergil said. “You know, it has been a very long time since I had a good laugh. Thank you.”
“Not a problem, I’m here to serve.” Thad said, then took another long drink.
“I am sorry but you will not feel that way soon. We are about to embark on the impossible mission.” Vergil said, as he motioned for two more beers.
“Oh, why is that?” Thad asked as he switched his empty glass for a full one.
Vergil took the full beer and placed it to his lips. He downed the whole thing, leaving a foam beard on his little face. He slammed the mug down then wiped the foam from his face with his small sleeve. “Look, there are things you should know about my brother and what he wants us to do.”
“Do tell.” Thad said.
“Not here, over there in the back.” Vergil said as he pointed to a private booth in the back of the bar. Thad nodded okay. “Hey, sweetie would be so kind and bring us a pitcher and make sure we are not interrupted.”
Thad followed him to the private booth and waited. The pitcher of beer arrived and Vergil refilled his glass. “Okay, by now you have figured out that my brother is a bit of an asshole.”
“No big challenge there.”
Vergil set his half-empty glass down and held it with both hands. “It’s sad really, you see he didn’t use to be…” He seemed to trail off into his own memories.
“So what happened to change him?” Thad asked.
“It was the mutation, even though it has been twenty years since he had his fling with the Nekton. The mutation only manifested in the last ten years. It was then that he started changing, and I don’t mean just getting fat. My brother used to be a kind and fair man. That is why he was made commander, not because his father was the last one. You see we vote on our commanders, but the problem is, it is for life, so no matter how much of a dick he is, he is the commander until he dies.” Vergil explained.
“So if you don’t mind me asking why doesn’t someone…” Thad started to ask.
Vergil cut him off. “Kill him? Well, a few tried, but they failed and ended up being tossed off the convoy.”
“Well that doesn’t sound so bad, why didn’t they come back and try again?” Thad asked.
Vergil shook his head. “you don’t understand what I mean by being tossed off the convoy. I mean literally being tossed off. You are taken to the front of The Lightning and tossed over the side in front of the tires, so if the fall doesn’t kill you the millions of tons rolling over the top of you will. There is nothing more than a red stain on the tires left when someone is tossed off the convoy.”
Thad made a disgusted face. “sounds unpleasant.”
Vergil finished off the rest of his glass then poured himself another one. “It is, nevertheless, now the rest of the crew are too scared to try anything, and he gets worse every day.”
“Okay, so I get it, your brother is a royal ass and fascist dictator, but what does this have to do with the job at hand?” Thad asked as he sipped at his beer, remembering the last time he drank heavily with the Untors.
“I’m getting to that. You see, his daughter hates him, and has fallen in love with the son of the other convoy leader.” Vergil stopped to belch. “Sorry about that, but beer has that effect on me.”
Starting to form a mental picture in his mind Thad said. “Okay, so I’m starting to see what is going on here, she runs off with the boyfriend. They run to the protection of boyfriend’s daddy and your brother thinks they have taken her.”
Vergil belched again. “Ah, nothing as simple as that, you see Julianne hates her father not because he has forbidden her to be with this boy, but because, you see, he tossed her mother off the convoy.”
“Oh.” Thad took a longer sip of beer.
“Yeah, this gets better. You see my brother’s wife became disgusted with his mutation and when she found out that it was caused by him having relations with a Nekton, she refused to have anything to do with him. She would have gotten a divorce, but the people of the convoys marry for life and there is no such thing as divorce around here.” Vergil stopped his story long enough to fill his glass again. “As if her refusal of him was not bad enough, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he found her in bed with another man, the first officer. Well, you can imagine what happened next.” Vergil made a whistling sound and a dropping motion with his hand. “Splat.” he smacked the table.
He hit the table harder than he intended to and spilled his beer. “Ah, damn it! What a waste of good beer.”
Ignoring the spilled beer, Thad pressed Vergil for more. “So he murders mom, what other things do I need to know about this nightmare?”
Vergil let loose a long belch this time. “Wait, it gets better! My brother is only half the problem. You see the commander of the other convoy is the brother of…”
This time,Thad cut him off in mid-sentence. “Of your now deceased sister-in-law. Oh, this is getting better by the minute! What else can you tell me.”
Vergil downed another half a glass of beer. “Well I can tell you that he hates my fat-assed brother for what he did. Not to mention that he has vowed revenge against him. Oh, and he also has forbidden the relationship between his son, Roman, and Julianne. You see, he knows that Roman and Julianne are cousins, but they don’t. Neither man wants to admit that they are related. It is kind of a taboo to marry someone from another convoy. There is another problem. Trying to find them is going to be impossible, and if by some miracle we do find them, getting her to come back here is going to be like, like ...” he stumbled for the words to express himself.
“Like trying to change the color of the sun.” Thad said.
“Yeah, exactly, so now you can you see why I have no desire to be a part of this.” Vergil said, as he drained the last of the beer.
“I do, but what I don’t understand is why you are so afraid of the other convoy commander. It is not like you tossed his sister off the convoy, or did you?” Thad rais
ed an eyebrow as he asked.
“No nothing like that, it is just that I kind of helped Roman and Julianne escape.” Vergil said, as he held up the empty pitcher. “Another pitcher please, this one seems to have run out.”
The bartender brought another pitcher to the table as Thad said. “What do you mean helped them escape? Care to explain?”
“I helped them escape this convoy, and last I heard they were hiding somewhere in New Houston. So you see, most of this mess is my fault.” Vergil said, as a tear started to form in his eye.
“What do you mean this is your fault, how could any of this be your fault?” Thad asked, wondering why the little man blamed himself for this.
“Well, you see, it is my fault because I was the one that came up with the idea to trick my brother into sleeping with the Nekton. It was just supposed to be a good laugh. I had no idea that it would lead to all of this.” Tears were now rolling down his little red cheeks.
Thad felt for the little guy. Even though he had never done anything like that to anyone, he understood better than most what the weight of unintended consequences can do to a person. “Look, you can’t go around beating yourself up for the rest of your life for a mistake you made twenty years ago. Okay, so you screwed up, and it came back to bite you in and others in the ass. However, you know what? Shit happens! To you, to me, to everyone, the fact is that you can’t do anything about the past. You can only live in the now and deal with the future. So enough of the self-pity party and let’s come up with a plan to get us through this mess alive and in one piece.”
Vergil stopped crying and puffed himself up as much as he could. “You know, you’re right, I need to quit worrying about the mess I made. I need to start worrying about how to fix it. After all, that’s what I do. Fix things! I’m the God damn engineer and a mighty fine one at that.”
“Good, now one more question. Why would you help two cousins be together, isn’t that a little weird?” Thad asked.
“Oh, that, it is not that uncommon among our people. Everyone here is related in one way or another. Brother and sister are never allowed, but cousins…” his voice trailed off and he raised his hands and shoulders.
“So, it’s a taboo that no one really cares about then?” Thad said more as a statement than a question.
“You could say that. Like I said, we all are related in some way or another. The reason I helped them is that I wanted my niece to be happy and if he makes her happy, then what the hell, right?”
“Right, well look we have a lot of work do so why don’t you order us up some food to soak up some of that beer you have been trying to drown yourself in?” Thad said.
“Good Idea, sober planning is always better.” Vergil said, as he waved his hand in the air trying to get his pink haired girlfriend’s attention.
“The first thing we need to do is find them.” Thad said, pondering his options.
“The only person that would know where they are is Roman’s little sister and she is still on the other convoy.” Vergil looked even sadder now.
“Then we have to get on that convoy and find his sister.”
“Yeah, great.” Vergil drank another long draft off of his beer.
Chapter 14
The Rathbone home was near the edge of the city and was not very big. However, it was a nice place to raise a family. Normally a quiet place. However, today the home was overrun with mourners. There were a large number of police officers in their dress uniforms with a black stripe across their badges. There were also wives in black dresses and hats. The noise in the house came mostly from the children that ran around playing with each other, not really understanding the purpose of the gathering. To most of them, it was just another reason to eat lots of food and play with their friends.
Jimmy’s wife was out in the back yard talking with her sister when the doorbell rang. “I got it.” yelled her brother, also a New Dallas police officer. He opened the door to a friendly postal bot.
“Priority delivery for Victoria Rathbone.” It handed him a priority envelope. “Please place your hand on the scanner. The officer placed his hand on a scanner the bot produced. It logged his handprint and the delivery date and time. “Thank you, have a nice day” it said as it floated away.
Victoria’s brother closed the door, and then he made his way through the crowd towards the back yard. He found his two sisters sitting on a bench watching the children. She looked up at him. “Who was it?” she asked.
He handed her the envelope. “Postal bot with a delivery for you.”
“Who’s it from?” She asked as she broke the seal on the envelope.
“What do I look like, an x-ray machine?” he said.
“Danny.” his other sister chided him.
Victoria pulled out a hand-written letter wrapped around a photograph. The photograph was stained with blood. She saw that it was the photograph of her and their children. She knew that it was the one that Jimmy kept in his patrol car. She also knew that the blood was Jimmy’s. Tears welled in her eyes and poured like waterfalls from her face. She dropped the letter without even looking at it. She pulled the picture to her chest as if she was hugging Jimmy himself.
Her sister bent down and picked the letter up from the ground. She unfolded it and read it out loud. “My dearest Victoria, I can’t even begin to understand what you are going through at this time. The pain of losing Jimmy must be like a dagger straight to your heart, I know because that is how it feels for me. However, you must be suffering worse than I could ever with what you have been told. The thought of having to live without him is bad enough, but to be told that he was murdered by his best friend must feel like the ultimate betrayal.
Victoria, you have to know that he died a hero. He died saving my life. He was murdered, but not by me. He was murdered because of me. I was looking into something that the government was doing and what I found has taken me down a dark path and ultimately taken Jimmy from us all. I Wish that I could change things. I wish Jimmy was there to hold you in his arms, but he is gone and that has left me with a hole in my heart that will never be filled. I tell you this because I need you know that I will not let his sacrifice be in vain, I promise you I will find the people responsible for his death and bring them to justice. I will never rest until they pay for their sins. Please heed my words and trust no one and for your own safety burn this letter once you have read it. Also, it is best that you ask no questions. Questioning their lies is what led to Jimmy’s murder. Please don’t let it happen to you. These people kill without question and with complete impunity.
I wanted to return this photo to you, it was the last thing that he looked at before he died, and he died thinking of you.
With all my love,
Dominic St. Claire.” She stopped reading.
Danny was the first to speak. “I never believed that Dom could, or would, do such a thing.” He sat down next to his sister and put his arm around her. “There are a lot of us on the force that believes that Dom is being made the patsy for some reason. Don’t you worry a bit, we will do everything we can to help him.”
Victoria stopped crying. “Don’t you dare! Didn’t youhear what Dom wrote?!? They killed Jimmy and they have ruined Dom’s life, do you really think that they wouldn’t come after you, the kids, orme? No, Danny, you will do as you are told and let Dom sort this out.”
He smiled as his sister. “Don’t worry sis, we have already helped him escape. You see, after the call went out everyone that knows Dom ...” he paused and looked around to make sure no one was listening. “Well, let’s put it this way. No one looked really hard, and a buddy of mine swears that he let a woman who looked like Dom in drag walk out of the search area. So, you see, if we keep looking the other way Dom can do what he needs to do to get to the bottom of this nightmare.”
Victoria hugged and kissed her brother on the cheek. “thank you Danny, but really, please don’t do anything that will put you in harm’s way.”
He smiled again. “Don’
t worry little sister; I’m smarter than I look.”
They were both startled by their sister who was still reading the letter. “Oh my God.” she barked out.
Victoria jumped. “What?”
“While you and Danny were talking, I noticed a footnote at the bottom. It says that he doesn’t expect to live through this and wanted you and the children to have his life savings. There are account numbers down at the bottom. Apparently, he thought that he would die on the job long before retirement so he placed the accounts under yours and Jimmy’s names years ago.”
Victoria began to cry again. “That silly bastard.”
“That is not all, while you were talking I also checked the account numbers. They are for real and they add up to just over a million credits.” her sister said.
“I wonder how he was able to save that much money on a cop’s wages.” Danny said.
“Well, it doesn’t matter how he did it, he did it, and it says here that the money ... all of it is for you and the kids and that he insists you take it and use it.” she said to her dumbfound sister.
Chapter 15
“Okay, so we have a plan, which makes me feel like I might have a finite chance of surviving this after all.” Vergil stated as best he could through his rather full mouth. For a little man, he could stuff enough food into it to feed a small nation.
“Glad to see your mood improving.” Thad laughed.
“If you can get us through this with our heads still attached, or better yet not ending up as a stain on one of the tires, then you will see my mood increase.”
Thad smiled. “don’t you worry my little friend, you just get the things on the list, and do your part and I think we all will be okay. Now you go do what you need to do, while I need to go visit my friend.” Vergil took another bite of some kind of cheese muffin or at least that is what Thad thought it was, he wasn’t completely sure of any of the food here, it didn’t look much like food. With a mouth full of cheesy something he drew Thad a map to the infirmary on the back of a dirty napkin.