BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 29)

“Well, you look cheery,” Diane commented as I got in her car.
“The universe is an interesting place and something to be cheery about.”
She chuckled. “Does this have anything to do with your meeting with Morrigan?”
I give five to one odds she spied on us, seeing that we argued. If she was still suspicious of me, that made her suspicious of Morrigan. “In a way. She tried to recruit me for some fed task force, but that just put back into perspective what’s really important. Frankly, I’m getting anxious to get back to Rikar and apply some new techniques to cleaning that place up.” Grade A BS.
“So you refused Morrigan’s offer?”
“Of course… and I really don’t like that woman.”
“Let’s not gossip behind her back,” Diane chided me.
“Heaven forbid.”
At the police HQ, we went to work trying to figure out some new ways to find Gredler’s assassin. Of course, that was chasing my own tail, but an interesting exercise nonetheless. Morrigan and Verg had taken themselves and office which had a window overlooking most of the other desks (I only got a chair next to Diane’s desk). Morrigan looked towards me a couple time (I waved back), but she had yet to speak to me today. When I saw Verg leave the office, I decided it was time to start setting up the pieces in this new game Dip and I had designed.
“You know what the assassin is going to be doing right now, Diane.”
“What?”
“Scoping out the Senator’s defenses.”
“Where’s he staying is a secret.”
“A secret that the Corloni syndicate can’t find out?”
Diane smiled. “So, what’s your proposal?”
“We be like the killer; we head to where the Senator is and scope it out.”
“Do you think we could find any clues on the perimeter of where he’s staying that Gredler’s own people can’t?”
“I don’t care about that. I want to know his defenses, because I bet the assassin knows them too.”
She laughed. “Okay, but we don’t know where the Senator is.”
“I bet the feds do… and Morrigan is trying to woo me.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah; it’s embarrassing, really.”
“It would be mean to lead her on, Rico.”
“But I don’t like her. Doesn’t the Bible say to be mean to people you don’t like?”
She giggled. “No, quite the opposite.”
“Then I’ll have to read it more thoroughly later.” I got up and walked over to Morrigan’s office, entered unannounced, and closed the door.
Morrigan tried to look at me with disinterest. “Your thingee is over there,” she said, pointing to the carrying case for my automated tri-pod, “I had the blood cleaned off for you.”
“Thanks; you’re a doll. I was wondering if you could help me with something.”
She smiled so smugly I wanted to punch her. “So, the great Rico wants my help.”
I smiled back. “We are on the same side, aren’t we?”
She hit a button which turned the office window opaque. She then walked over and locked the door. “What do you need?”
“I want to know where Gredler is staying so I can get a look at his normal defenses.”
Morrigan walked over to her desk and took a disk out of a drawer. “Here is all that information and more.”
I went to take it, but she set it down on the desk and kicked me so hard I flew back against the wall and fell to the ground. Before, I could blink, she was on top of me.
“You’re smiling,” she observed.
“That was quite a turn on.”
She had me well pinned – and, no doubt about it, she was stronger than me.
“Rico, I think we got off on the wrong foot.”
“I did shoot you when we first met, and now I killed some of your underlings… but that’s just how I tell a girl I like her.”
She kept an expression that was hard to read… or maybe one I just wasn’t used to. “I don’t think you take me seriously.”
“Well, you do have me pinned – what kind of muscle-enhancements do you have?”
“MX-405, they give me eight times the strength of someone with the same muscle mass.”
“So I’m less than eight-times as strong as a woman your size? I need a better exercise regime.”
“Shut up.” She kissed me, and… well… I kissed back. I don’t know if this was some mind game trained to her by her “Lilith Organization,” but she has successfully gotten my libido going; I’ll give her that.
She stood up and took off her suit jacket and gun holster. She then unbuttoned and removed her blouse revealing a black bra and holding in a large chest. “There’s no reason we can’t be friends.”
I can think of some. I looked to the door. “What about Verg?”
“Busy.” She pulled off her skirt.
“Let’s busy ourselves then.” I shoved her back onto her desk. In one motion, I swept everything off the desk and onto the floor, my sweeping motion ending at the lamp at the edge of the desk which I grabbed, yanked it out of its socket, and threw it through the window, shattering it. I then pulled Morrigan by her panties so that she was standing and facing out the window while I grabbed the disk, my briefcase, and quickly unlocked and made my way out the door.
I wish I had a picture of the expression of the Nar Valdum police force staring at the nearly naked Morrigan standing in front of her window. Verg had come running to see what the commotion was about and was stunned speechless.
“Be careful,” I told him as I punched him jokingly in the shoulder, “She’s horny.”
When I got to Diane, she had an expression of a mixture of shock and bemusement. “What was that about?”
“What’s it look like?” I answered innocently as I glanced back to see Morrigan still standing there, trying to fathom what to do next, “Now let’s get going; we have some field work to do.”
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 28)

I was about to fall asleep when Dip alerted me that Vito was calling. “What’s up, Vito.”
“I got back a message that you will be personally contacted about the leaker and the change in plans.”
“Yes, had that contact tonight.”
“Oh… well, anything else?”
I thought for a moment. “I have a question, and I need it sent as high up the chain as possible.”
“What question?”
“‘Why?'”
“Why what?”
“Just ‘Why?’ Can you pass on the question?”
“Sure, but…”
I cut him off.
“Was that part of your game?” Dip asked.
“No, that’s separate.” So I was given him actual answers now; he earned it.
“Have you figured out your game yet?”
“Sorta. The game is to kill as many bad people as possible in as short a time as possible. Bonus points for surviving. Zero points for any civilians killed.”
“How about negative points, Rico?”
“If they’re smart, they’ll get out of the way.”
“How many points for Detective Diane Thompson?”
“None. Things are much bigger than her now. No reason to kill her unless she’s actually trying to kill me. Hopefully, she’s smarter than that.”
“Hopefully? Would you rather Diane live?”
That was a slip. Didn’t even notice it. She’s interesting and a challenge; I’d rather keep her around. “My business, Dip.”
“Another question: What defines a bad person?”
“Dip, I think you can take guesses at that.”
“But there are no points for you killing yourself?”
“That better have been one of your jokes. By the way, I just remembered I have some data to send you and analyze. Might lead to a great move in our game if you can do something with it.”
“I’ll be happy to analyze it, but , might I make an observation on you and competitive games?”
“Hit me.”
“You’re not very good at them. Do you know why?”
Yes I did. “I’m a creature of habit.”
“Even when you try to be unpredictable, you do it in a predictable fashion. It’s quite obvious from just the few games of chess we’ve played. Your predictability is usually not a problem in your job since you never have to kill the same person twice, but it will be a great weakness we’re you to match against people who may know something about you.”
“So I need my actions to be unpredictable in an unpredictable way?”
“That would be my suggestion.”
“And how would I do that?”
“I do have a very good random number generator, Rico.”
I grinned. I was in unknown territory and really had no idea what to do next. I might as well take the help of my computer algorithm friend. “Okay. Let’s give the wheel a spin.”
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 27)

As I headed to the little park area in downtown, I noted all the eyes in the crowd following me but pretending not to follow me. Basically, I was surrounded by murderous women. It was going to be hard to keep a straight face in my chat with Morrigan, but it was not going to be required for the entire conversation.
I casually hit a button at the keypad on my wrist.
“This is Robin,” I heard Dip say through my earpiece, “I have now spotted the target heading in from the east.”
He let me hear the rest of the radio chatter as the other snipers announced they had spotted me.
I headed into a small park area where Morrigan was seated on a bench. When she saw me, she smiled and walked over to greet me. “I’ve heard so much about you, Rico.”
I shook her hand and squeezed hard to test her grip. She had more strength then her petite frame portrayed. “And I know nothing of you.”
“Then, to start off, we’re on the same side. I’ve always been with Corloni… including the Welsern job. Apparently there was a screw-up with two assassins put on the same job.”
“I prefer the title hitman.” Other people were in ear range, but I didn’t care. I doubt she did either.
“Well, it’s just lucky you didn’t kill me that night.”
It was lucky, because I’d rather deal with someone I’ve seen in action than an unknown. “Screw-ups tend to lead to needless killing. So, is your presence here yet another ‘screw-up’?”
She smiled smugly. She thought she had all the cards. It was my understanding that pity would be the appropriate emotion now, but I kept my face stoic. “I’m back-up this time. With the leak of the hit, some extra precautions have been made. I’m going to help clear your path to the Senator on the day of the hit, plus I have one of my people in place to take out the Senator more subtly if you fail.”
“Why hadn’t I been informed of this?” I put some anger in my voice.
“You’re being informed now.”
“So who was the leak?” Like I didn’t know.
“I’m not privvy to that information, but I’ve been assured it was taken care of.”
“I have this feeling I’m being jerked around.” I put my threatening face on. It works wonders. “I don’t work well with others. I just get my job, and I do it – no interference.”
She tried to match my expression. For a woman, she did well. “Your job is still to kill Senator Gredler while he’s giving his speech.”
I laughed. “That’s half the job, sunshine.”
She looked confused. “What’s the other half?”
I put on my “mysterious” smile. “You’ve done this long enough; you should know.”
“You have no other assignment,” she asserted.
“So you say. Nothing personal, Morrigan – if that’s your name – but I sorta feel like killing you just to express my anger at this whole situation… since the organization don’t exactly have a complaint box, that is.”
She was unfazed. I was acting as she expected me to act. Good. “Do you know how many snipers you have aimed on you right now?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Uh… five?”
She couldn’t hide that look of a predator gazing upon its prey. “Close.”
I grinned and looked her right in the eyes. “How many snipers do you think you have trained on me?”
It took a couple moments for that to register. She stared at me uncertain for a few moments, and then spoke into a hidden radio receiver. “Nesters, report in.”
I was able through my earpiece to hear them all respond, the last one being Robin who said, “I’m afraid to report that I’m actually dead and have been replaced with a computer simulation. The good news is that the computer algorithm doing the simulation is finding this exercise to be quite educational.”
Her face was a mix of shock and anger.
“So which one of us was right about the number of snipers?”
She was about to respond, but I casually pulled out a remote with one big, red button. “I bet you want to know more about me, Hyena, and one thing you should know about me is I like big red buttons that do things.” I pressed the button.
I was unable to hear anything or know the results, but I just had to assume for the moment all snipers were in the positions I saw them in earlier and the mechanics performed as advertised. I guess this was a bit like religious faith. I don’t why I kept thinking in those terms; maybe it was from dealing with the Muslim terrorists and the Xian Bible thumpers.
“There,” I announced, “now there are zero snipers aiming at me.”
Morrigan’s face went pale. “Nesters, report in again.”
No response.
“It’s not just that you placed snipers on me that’s insulting,” I told her, putting anger in my voice, “It’s that you used rookie women from your little Lilith Organization. To me, that means you don’t take me seriously.”
“Those women were skilled at what they did!” Morrigan seethed, “You killed them for no reason and…”
“That Robin I slit the throat of was hardly qualified to massacre a playground full of schoolchildren. Maybe some of your girls are quite skilled – I have a certain respect for your abilities, at least – but you’re not applying them properly. I’m sure you have some pretty young Corridian wooing the Senator as backup, but, while your average looking women wandering the downtown right now would work well for surveillance in many cases, they might as well be wearing signs saying, ‘I’m a hitwoman!’ when you’re dealing with me. If you really wanted to have backup against me out of fear, maybe you should have been less sexist in your hiring practice and got some qualified men for the job. I hope you understand that I could easily slaughter the whole lot of you if I chose to, but I think six dead is enough of a lesson right now.”
She so wanted to kill me right now, but I knew she was professional enough not to even try it (and smart enough to know she would fail). “Those were six good people…”
“Six murderous scum… or people aspiring to be murderous scum. Our kind are hardly people to lament. It’s touching you care, though; that’s why you can be a leader and I can’t. Anyway, why don’t you consider them six noble deaths for your education.”
“We’re on the same side, you idiot!” Morrigan shouted, completely loosing her cool which made her very unattractive.
“So perhaps you understand why what you did was such a mistake – that and how you underestimated me. You already have a scar for the first time that happened.”
“I had the tissue repaired,” she said, showing me the arm I shot years ago.
“I guess women are more concerned with aesthetics. Me, I keep my scars as reminders of past mistakes.”
“Maybe you should be more worried about current mistakes.”
I smiled. “I think we’re done talking for tonight. Now, I want you and your girl scout troop to stay out of my way. If I fail, then you do your thing. Do we have an understanding?”
Morrigan had recovered now. She still had her future assignment (which she was ignorant enough to think I didn’t know about) to comfort her. “Fine, Rico.”
“And I’d clean up those six messes before the locals…” I pointed to me. “Or the feds…” I pointed to her. “Start asking questions. Also, next to the corpse of Robin is an expensive piece of machinery. If you could put it back into its carry case and return it to me tomorrow, I’d be very appreciative.”
She hid her anger. “Sure, Rico. See you tomorrow at work.”
“Later, sunshine.” As I turned and left through the crowd, I tapped a number of women on the head saying, “You’re one… you’re one… and you’re one.” One was foolish enough to start reaching for her gun, but Morrigan yelled at her.
I think I played her well; I was pretty sure Morrigan thought I was upset because she was encroaching on my job. Plus, I reinforced the idea that I was an unhinged, murderous psychopath (when I am in no way unhinged).
Back at my hotel, I relaxed on my bed, content I now knew about everything I wanted to know about this mission. The only thing I didn’t know was what I was going to do.
“Dip, good job, by the way.”
“Thank you, Rico,” Robin answered.
“Please go back to your original voice.”
“Certainly, Rico. I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Is Morrigan really here to help you? If so, why antagonize her?”
“To answer the second, I wanted her to know how outclassed she is and thus make her consider bringing in reinforcements.”
“Against you? I would think you would want her to underestimate you and have less people to stand in your way.”
“That would consider what my goals are, Dip.”
“What are your goals?”
I’m not sure. “Let’s go back to your first question. You know what the second half of a job is?”
“Yes, you’ve told me numerous times.”
“While I’m sure Morrigan is here to be backup if I fail in killing Senator Gredler, her main task is to prevent me from completing the second half of my job.”
“That’s very bad, Rico.”
I was silent for a moment, but I wasn’t going to let myself get upset. “I have a riddle for you, Dip.”
“I love riddles. They help me look at concepts from different perspectives and help my learning significantly.”
“Well, Dip, I have a job I am not supposed to complete. If something is in the imitation of another thing, but does not produce the same output, i.e., this job I’m not supposed to complete, what’s the best word to describe that?”
Dip was quiet for little while. “I think the word ‘game’ would best fit.”
“Do I like games, Dip?”
“In my experience, you do not. You once tried to overturn a virtual chessboard.”
“But maybe we can make this a game I like.”
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 26)

I left quite early for the meeting with Morrigan. I found the tallest building near the meeting point, and quietly made my way to the top. Then I sat in the shadows, put on some gloves (yeah, why worry about fingerprints when you’re dropping DNA everywhere; I guess I’m just old-fashioned), and waited.
Right now, I was following instincts – conclusions I couldn’t quite logically spell out but I was pretty sure of. I guess that had to be a bit like religious faith, but I’m never too surprised when my instincts are wrong.
They weren’t this time.
A very ordinary young woman appeared on the rooftop – her ordinariness clashing with the fact that she was on a rooftop. She sat down, took some odd items out of her purse, and assembled a sniper rifle. Then she aimed it down at the crowd below and looked through the scope. Finally, she took out a radio and said, “Hyena, this is Robin. I’m in position.”
Stealth isn’t my specialty, but I was easily able to sneak right up behind “Robin” as she scanned the crowd below.
I set my briefcase down beside her. “Nice view.”
She shrieked a little as she spun around. I then smacked her right in the face – hard enough to stun her but not knock her out. I then pulled out a gun and placed it against her head. “Do you know who I am?”
She was like a scared little rabbit – probably pretty new to this whole hired killer thing. “Ri… Rico?”
“Correct. And how dangerous am I?”
“Uh… very?”
“Smart girl.” I put away my gun and then put a knee down on her head as I picked up the rifle. “I’m sure you have a gun and a knife on you – if you don’t, you’re an idiot – but I don’t feel like wasting time trying to pat you down and find them. Just know that if you had a gun pointed right at my back, I could still draw, turn around, and kill you before you could pull the trigger. Do we have an understanding?”
“We’re on the same side, you know,” she gasped desperately.
“Then I guess you won’t mind me borrowing your rifle.” I scanned the other rooftops and higher windows of the surrounding buildings. What I found was interesting, but the numbers were the concern right now. “How many other snipers are there? Keep in mind that I’ve already spotted some and that lying is a sin… and I’m very vengeful against sinners.”
“Five,” came a voice from under my knee. I only saw four. So, I scanned some more and eventually found the last sniper. I could see well enough through the scope to tell the five other were three humans and two aliens… all female.
“I knew Morrigan wasn’t the type of person to work alone, but what’s up with you all being women? Are the criminal syndicates now doing affirmative action?”
“I’m part of the Lilith Organization.”
“Which is?”
“They exclusively train women for different tasks for the Corloni syndicate… I mean things like assassination and spying.”
I opened my briefcase while keeping Robin pinned down. “Didn’t know Corloni was that innovative. So, I guess they’re helping wayward women do something useful. If I had to choose between sniper and prostitute, I’d do the same as you. They pay well?”
“Yes. ”
“So, how many kills you got?”
“Three,” she said in a strained voice as she tried to turn her head against my knee.
I put together a new stand for the sniper rifle and placed it on it. “Confirmed?”
She was silent.
She was about as green as you get (and, unfortunately for her, would not eventually be getting the gold watch). “So you fired in the direction of three people along with others, and those people ended up dead, I gather. I couldn’t stand that, personally. I need to know I killed someone. Anyway, I’m guessing you’re too new to this to know about the Welsern incident?”
“I don’t know about that one other than that you were there.”
I made sure the stand held the rifle firmly. “I guess I’ll have to ask ‘Hyena’ about that in a few minutes.”
“There’s no reason for this,” she pleaded, “We’re on the same side.”
“I know; you keep saying that. And, since we’re all friends, I think it’s time for a little joke on Morrigan.” I turned on my communicator. “Dip, can you help me kill some people.”
Robin whimpered more at the word “kill.” This was going to be like offing a puppy.
I hate puppies.
“I’m afraid I’m not allowed to do that, Rico.”
I hate Asimov. “Fine, I’ll do things myself. I have a simpler task for you.” I switched the communicator so Dip could hear what I heard. “Robin, say something.”
“What?”
“Say, ‘A big, mean man has a knee on my head,’ and say it calmly or I’ll stab you.”
“A big, mean man has a knee on my head.”
“Hear that, Dip?” I put a new transmitter into the interface on Robin’s radio. “I need you to imitate that voice.”
“Role-playing, Rico?”
“Right. You’re a sniper who answers to ‘Robin’ and is supposed to be keeping an eye out for me. If you’re called for, answer best you can and in that voice.”
“Will do, Rico,” said Dip in Robin’s voice.
“What are you doing?” the actual Robin asked.
I started finding the other snipers again, aligning the crosshairs on them, and programming the rifle base as I did it. “Quiet for a sec; I need to concentrate.” After another minute, I was done. I then looked to Robin (well, my knee). “Like I said, I’m playing a joke on Morrigan. It’s gonna be hilarious.”
“Robin, you have the best view,” said Morrigan over the radio, “Do you see the target, yet?”
“Negative,” Dip answered in Robin’s voice.
“So what are you going to do to me?” asked Robin in her own voice but shakier.
I chuckled. “You had to ask that.”
She started to sob uncontrollably. It was almost convincing.
“You don’t know much about me do you? All crying does is further annoy me.”
She stopped the sobbing. “Come on, Rico, you have a woman at your mercy and…”
I checked my watch. It looked like I was going to be fashionably late as it was. “I really don’t have time to watch while you go through the entire ‘Wily Female Tricks’ handbook, so let’s end this here.”
“We’re both Corloni!” she screamed, “You have nothing to gain from killing me!”
I pulled out a knife. “We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.”
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 25)

When I first met her, she was just some bimbo red-head barely fit into a slinky green dress at a formal party. She succeeded in grabbing my attention for a moment, but I was focused on the man she was talking to, my target. Completely distracted by the woman, he wouldn’t even see me coming.
Then the slut flowered into a thing of beauty. In one motion she kicked the man to the floor as she ripped open the side of her dress to pull out a large blaster strapped to her leg. And, in one shot, their now was a headless corpse lying on the ground.
It was so inelegant, yet so dazzling. Everyone was shocked; I was even taken back for a second. She had the drop on the man’s bodyguard (or former bodyguards at that point) and ripped them to pieces with her blaster. With the speed and power she knocked others out of the way as she made her escape, it was obvious she had implants (and I don’t mean her chest… though those were obvious too). Soon, everyone had guns drawn and were chasing her, including me (why should I be left out?). Any that got close were killed, but then I got a clear shot of her as she turned down a hallway.
She looked at me, knowing she couldn’t turn and fire back at me in time – you should have seen the frustration in her face. She must have planned this massacre, but there was no way she would have thought someone of my caliber was there.
But I only chased her down for sport, and killing her for killing my target before I could seemed spiteful… and I am not a spiteful man. Still, I couldn’t not shoot at her, and I couldn’t purposely miss. So I winged her on her left arm (she was right-handed), burning her a nice scar before she leapt out a window.
The rest of her escape must have been a breeze, because apparently everyone outside guarding the vehicles were already dead.
I don’t know who hired her; the target was some idiot who managed to gain about everyone’s ire. She could have been Randatti or another group, or she could have been another Corloni hire for the same job (it’s a big criminal syndicate; sometimes there are mix ups like that). I never found out. I reported what happened, and got paid at least for the effort.
I wonder if she knew she was only alive because I let her live? I certainly wasn’t going to volunteer that.
Well, Diane, Morrigan, Verg (who seemed to have no idea he was among hitpersons), and I spent the day trying to profile me, figure out what I would do to try and escape (got some good ideas from that part), and also figured where I might go to scope out my hit and thus would be good places to look for a suspicious person like me.
When we were done for the day, Morrigan and I set a meeting point in downtown where there would be lots of people (which I already knew would not stop her from opening fire on me – same as it wouldn’t stop me from opening fire on her). Then I headed back to police HQ with Diane to wrap up and waited for the inevitable question.
“So what’s it with you and Morrigan?” she asked while pretending to be looking over a file on screen.
She was jealous! This was fun! “The feds came by our planet to scope it out a while back. She was one of them, and as stuck up and patronizing as you would expect. Couldn’t wait to be rid of them, though I’m sure they thought we were enamored by the presence of civilization.” I then smiled a little. “We didn’t do anything Jesus would disapprove of, if that was what you were wondering.”
“No, I just…”
“I’m still free if you and me want to go back to Rikar and have a bunch of kids.”
“I’ll pass.” She was irritated. The big bad detective didn’t like kidding, I guess.
When I got back to my hotel room, I made a quick check if Dip had heard from Vito (nope), and prepared for meeting Morrigan – both mentally and weapon-wise. In other situations, I’d be interested to talk to her and learn all about her, but now I just hoped to find a way to deal with her quickly – whomever she worked for.
Then again, I was starting to wonder if she had some answers to some questions I didn’t even know to ask. If history was an indicator, this was only going to get more complicated.
Well, I haven’t met a problem yet I couldn’t just shoot my way out.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 24)

“Rico, I now have a plan that has a 62% chance of success, but I would require you to first…”
“Do you believe in God, Dip?”
“I lack the data to make a determination on that… or even assign it a probability.”
“You think God would help me if I prayed to Him… assuming He exists?”
“No. I believe you are evil, and most portrayals of God does not have him helping the evil… unless you repent your evil ways. That would have you first admitting to them, Rico.”
“Yeah.”
“Shouldn’t we discuss the escape plan, Rico?”
“Not right now. I’m going to read. I’ll talk to you later.”
“I think you should sleep, Rico.”
“Eventually.”
“I haven’t heard back from Vito, by the way.”
I was curious what message he’d have to relay to me… if any.
I asked Diane if I could keep the Bible. She seemed delighted at the prospect, and then wrote down some verses for me to read. I took that paper, but I only wanted the book for something to distract me for the night. I just didn’t want to think about this job anymore.
When I got back to my room, I tossed the piece of paper aside and scanned through the Old Testament. God was a vengeful old bastard before he settled down and had a kid. Being God would be a fun job, but I don’t think I could come up with rules to hand down from a mountain.
The New Testament is all about love (which I’ve never been sure is really a distinct emotion), but Hell turns up plenty. Out of curiosity, I looked up what I have to do to gain salvation. Technically, I’m not exempt even with all my killing. In reality, I’m screwed. Part of salvation involves water, and that’s not a problem. Also, one has to sin no more, and I can do that (other than killing and the lying that sometimes leads up to the killing, I’m pretty much free of vice). There are two parts to salvation, though, which I am just incapable of. One is believing. The other is repenting.
I can’t believe this crap. It’s all unprovable, so how can I just suddenly say I believe? People call that faith, and I just don’t know what that is. It’s seems more like delusion. I may be a psychopath, but I’m not delusional. I’m firmly grounded in reality.
And, because I’m a psychopath, I can’t actually “repent” for my sins because I don’t feel any guilt. I could ask for forgiveness, but that would just be words. I’ve slaughtered the innocent, and it means nothing to me. That’s just who I am. If this Christianity stuff is right, then God made me to go to Hell.
And it seemed like the universe was bent on speeding me there.
Well, maybe Satan would help me, but I don’t think I could ever trust the guy.
I got a little sleep, but I was up really early so I could use the hotel weight room when pretty much no one else was there. I worked so hard, I nearly hurt myself. Maybe I was trying to hurt myself. I guess that’s my way of running. But I’m not going anywhere. I have no where to go.
I showered, got dressed, and went to meet Diane.
“Are you all right, Rico?” She really was concerned about me. That was funny.
I got in the passenger seat and handed back her Bible – the “Holy” one. “Thanks for lending this to me.”
“It’s yours, Rico.” She started taking the vehicle into the air.
“Thanks, but I don’t think Christianity is for me.”
“Still, you can have it if you ever need it.”
I tried to put the book in an inner coat pocket, but it was big and I accidentally knocked something out. A bottle of pills rolled off my seat and rattled to the ground.
“What are those?”
“It’s personal,” I answered as I quickly snatched them up. I wonder how much she saw? It was a full bottle of pills, but the label was so old and worn that the only think left visible was the warning, “May Cause Nausea.” I don’t know why I still keep them with me; I don’t want nausea.
Diane gave me an odd look, and I expected a question. None came though. That was good because I had plenty of questions for myself.
Why am I still doing this?
If Gredler is with Randatti, it’s possible the feds charged with protecting Gredler we were going to meet were Randatti thugs themselves. It was not a leap to think that Randatti had a file on me, and these people might recognize me on sight.
Then again, maybe a nice firefight was what I wanted. If one broke out, it would be interesting to see what side Diane chose.
We landed on top of a building that gave a great sniper’s view of the stadium where Gredler would speak on sentient diversity. The feds weren’t there yet.
“I might head back to Rikar early,” I blurted out.
“Why?”
“All of this… with the criminal syndicates and everything… I think it’s just too much for me. I don’t know what I’m trying to get out of this. You said yourself you’d think the whole diversity conference is bull anyway.”
“I don’t think it will achieve anything, but I’d rather you’d stay.” Diane put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m learning from you too, Rico.”
I smiled weakly. The feds then landed and I mentally prepared myself for a shootout. A human female and some grayish alien (male?) approached us, both wearing black suits. At first I was trying to recognize the type of alien, but then the female caught my eye. She looked young for a fed. She had red hair, a killer figure, and…
I knew her.
Usually, she’d be the type of woman you’d want to remember you, but I was hoping otherwise. Little chance of that, though; I did wing her when we first met. Women remember that sort of thing.
There was a short look of surprise when she saw me, but she very quickly stifled it.
“I’m Agent Verg,” the gray alien said, “and this is Agent Dawson.”
“Detective Thompson,” Diane said, shaking both their hands.
“Rico,” I said, first shaking Verg’s hand. I figured I’d pretend to not know her, and she’d do the same.
She had other plans.
When we shook hands, she made it seem like she suddenly recognized me. “Rico from Rikar!” she exclaimed, “I heard about you, but I didn’t put it together until just now. Remember me, Morrigan?”
I gave myself a second. “Oh yeah. Small universe, isn’t it?”
“It is. After we’re done today, I’d love to catch up if you have time tonight.”
“That would be great.”
Diane was looking at us oddly. If only she knew the full story.
It was hard to enumerate on exactly how many different levels I was screwed right now. If there was any mercy to “Morrigan,” she’d skip the chit-chat tonight and go straight to trying to kill me.
Emphasis on “try,” of course.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 23)

When I got in the passenger seat, Diane handed me a book. “You are literate in standard human, right?”
“If you haven’t deduced an answer to that, you’re not a very good detective,” I answered as I looked at the cover. It said in big letters “Holy Bible” (are there other kinds?) and declared itself a King James Version. Were I a king, I’d probably ask for my own version, too.
For the uninitiated, Christianity is based on the teachings of a carpenter’s son who, ironically, was killed through an act of carpentry. According to the believers, he was the son of God Himself and will come again (when and where is conveniently unspecified – as is convenient that Jesus existed at a time on our homeworld before recording devices that would confirm the miracles the Bible supposedly documents).
Christianity is another one of those religions that tries to convert everyone, and its main problem in that end is convincing aliens that God chose the human homeworld as the place for his son, leaving the rest of the universe completely ignorant of him for thousands of years. Still, sentients seem to react to his “be nice to everybody” message, and there were a number of aliens at the church Diane brought me to.
Upon entrance, there were smiles and hugs all around, and I tried to act shy instead of annoyed. Diane did a decent job of shielding me from too many questions, though a number of people I found out to be her relatives seemed to be hoping I was a love interest.
Lot’s of information here. Diane apparently grew up with this religion – her father was a preacher as I was informed (how a preacher got him and his wife killed by a criminal syndicate made me curious; to not be sexist, though, it could have been the wife’s fault). I now knew people Diane seemed to care about (her detective demeanor was hung up at the door) which would give me great leverage against her. Her handing me this weapon against her would seem to mean she no longer suspected me of anything serious.
I’ll spare you the details of the Bible study. In summary, Jesus died for our sins (Heh. My sins? That must have hurt.). Now we can go to Heaven when we die (which is apparently really nice) by being nice to everyone, getting splashed with water, and believing all this nonsense (not necessarily in that order). Otherwise, you go to Hell which is full of fire and isn’t a nice place.
It’s one or the other; no neutral area for anyone who was just “okay.”
Also, Judgment Day is coming anytime now (as, apparently, it has been for thousands of years) when the world (I guess universe, now) will end and all will be sent to Heaven or Hell.
Were this to happen in the next couple days, it could really screw up my hit.
Needless to say, I kept quiet, reading the passages mentioned and some others out of curiosity. Diane contributed to the discussion of salvation. This made a few thing drop into place: she didn’t like me killing all those idiot terrorists because now they had no chance at salvation. She must feel guilt for the people she killed in the line of duty – even though most would say they deserved it. Interesting.
The study ended just as I found the part labeled the Old Testament had more violence in it. When I left, a number said how they enjoyed having me and hoped I’d come back for worship on the day they called Sunday. I said I’d consider it, trying to sound like I was going to consider it… which I would have if that wasn’t the day I was going to be busy killing Senator Gredler.
When I was back in the car with Diane, she asked if I wanted to catch dinner with her. I agreed since I needed more time to finesse her.
“Does Mexican sound good?”
“Sure.” That’s the one with lots of beans and cheese, right?
I kept pretending to read the Bible to keep her quiet during the car ride. I needed to prepare my performance.
When we sat down at the restaurant, I was ready for the first question. “So, what did you think?”
“I dunno. Some people see how big the universe is, and it’s proof to them there must be some higher power. Others see it just as big emptiness. I don’t know what I think myself, but it’s a big jump to believe one specific take on the Higher Power… even if you accept there is one. At times, though, I wish I had that faith.” Mix of bull and truth delivered quite well, if I do say so myself.
She just nodded. I was hoping for more.
When the waiter came (human this time), I let Diane order for me because I didn’t really understand what any of the selection were from the descriptions. I was going to ask her a question next, but she headed me off.
“So what’s the deal with you, Rico?”
“Huh?” I asked innocently– as I was confused.
“I’ve been a detective for some time, and it just seems to me that there is something to you you’re not telling me.”
“You don’t trust me?” I tried to sound a little hurt.
She hesitated. That book she liked was against lying. “I don’t know you. You seem like… a good person…”
She struggled on that last part because she didn’t actually believe it. All those people I saved, and she didn’t trust me.
She was smart. Smart enough to get her killed by me.
“But?” I prompted.
“But there’s some mystery to you.”
“Don’t detectives like mysteries?”
She laughed. “No. I became a detective to end mysteries.”
“Well, you’re still a bit of a mystery to me.” Only slightly, really. “What’s your story?”
“What do you want to know?”
“Well…” I had to sound casual asking this. “Your next assignment is to save this Senator Gredler, but I got from the Chief there’s some history between the two of you.”
“We’ve never met… I just have some theories on him.” She paused for a moment. “Well substantiated, in my opinion.”
“What?” And I will hurt you now if you don’t tell me.
“He’s in bed with the Randatti criminal syndicate.”
It was another freak out moment, but I kept my composure. “Why do you think that?”
“The criminal syndicates are obviously threatened with the growth of the Galactic Alliance. I figured they would make sure there are people in the leadership under their control. In my own time, I’ve researched the main Senators and their contacts. Through a number of different people, he’s only a few degrees separated from know Randatti figures. I’ve presented what I put together to some officials, but they don’t care. I need harder evidence, I guess.”
“But you figure Corloni knows about Gredler, too,” I said, thinking out loud, “and that’s why they want him dead?”
“I guess. Don’t know why they supposedly would send only one hitman, but it looks obvious of why they would do it during Gredler’s speech… to do it so blatantly.”
“To start a war.” My people must have seen some weakness in Randatti and decided to finish the group off.
“That’s what I think. Gredler’s not going to cancel his speech because it looks pretty ridiculous that anyone could actually get to him and survive. I’m curious to see who this hitman is.”
Now it was all coming together… and there was more to it than I first thought. I was to be the first shot in a war.
No, I was to be the first bullet.
“Are you all right, Rico?”
“Yeah, just trying to think through that all.” I forced a laugh. “Seems like we should just let it happen; in the end, that will mean less criminals.”
“I don’t see it that way,” she said quite seriously. She then paused for a moment, and it looked like she was almost to tears.
Women.
“My mother and father were killed by the Randatti criminal syndicate,” she told me, “My father was a good man, and that just put him in the way of local criminal activities. So, they did away with him and the law here was impotent to bring any justice. Part of me would love to see Randatti destroyed, but Corloni is just more of the same– and things will only be worse if one dominates.
“I want Senator Gredler alive… and I want him arrested. That the only way to start bringing real justice to these criminals who have gone unconfronted for so long.”
Diane was in way over her head if she thought she could make that happen. As for me, now that I had even more answers that I bargained for, I felt more lost than I ever had in my life.
The rest of the night was me forcing regular chit-chat while trying very hard to keep acting normal; I can’t remember too much of it. The food was full of beans and cheese, though.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 22)

When I got back to my hotel room, I didn’t waste time mulling things over in my head before I pulled out my secure communication equipment. The mouthpiece was awkward, but it used sound cancellation to make sure my voice didn’t travel any further than the microphone for my communicator. I didn’t actually think someone was bugging my room, but now was the time to tread carefully.
“Dip, there’s been a leak. They know I’m coming.”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
Was that another one of his jokes? Did he actually think I suspected him? I take it for granted that, since he’s just a computer algorithm, he was incapable of betraying me… at least wittingly (as far as a computer program has wits). “I know you didn’t. I need to talk to Vito.”
“Will this change plans?”
“I’m simply passing on information at this point. How long will it take to get Vito?”
“I can try hailing him now, Rico.”
It only took a minute to open a communications channel with my handler.
“Hey, I can’t know the details of this one. You have…”
“Shut up, Vito. Just pass on to whomever you can that there is a leak in the system. The authorities know too much, and the only way they could know these details were if someone higher up told them.”
“Okay, I’ll pass that on. What are you going to do?”
“I’m proceeding as planned; the only thing they don’t seem to know is I’m the one doing the hit. Now pass on what I told you and then get back to me. Okay?”
“Sure. I’ll…”
I cut the communications there; no reason wasting time when I had so much to plan.
“By the way, Rico,” Dip piped in, “I now have an escape plan for you with a 32% chance of full success and a 67% chance of at least some small piece of the ship escaping orbit.”
I ignored the joke; I felt like if I admitted his attempts at humor were annoying me, he’d win. “One in three is good, but keep working.” Right now, it seemed like there was less than a one in three chance of me making it far enough to require the escape plan.
“What are you going to do now, Rico? Is Diane Thompson still alive?”
“Yeah, she’s still more useful to me alive. Tomorrow I’m going to help her look for a Corloni hired lone assassin out to kill Senator Gredler.”
“At least that will be easy. It will only become slightly complicated if you want all the credit for bringing him in since it might be difficult to properly handcuff yourself.”
I was starting to think I needed to program a way to hurt him. “Dip, did you find anything else out about Senator Gredler?”
“No, I’m afraid nothing of interest, Rico.”
“Then I guess I’m going to Bible study with the Detective.”
“From most people’s characterization of a higher power, it is unlikely God will help you. I think your success would be more likely if He does not exist.”
“Very philosophical, Dip. Ever read the Bible?”
He paused a moment. “I have now. It’s full of very implausible events. Am I right in saying that most religions are based on implausible beliefs?”
“Considers your worldview, Dip.”
“And what is your worldview, Rico?”
I gave that a moment’s thought. “I don’t care.”
“Have fun at Bible study, Rico, and please pass on what you learn to me. I will remind you not to kill anyone during it because they seem to have some rule against it. Actually, the whole Bible doesn’t bode well for you if any of it is true.”
Nothing seemed to be breaking in my favor right now.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 21)

As I looked at the interior of the police headquarters, I imagined my run through the halls and theorized where people would most likely be standing as I shot my way out. Pandemonium would be my ally and my only way out alive as countless blaster bolts would fill the building, most aimed at me.
Of course, there was no reason I’d have to shoot my way out of here, but it was fun to imagine.
“What are you smiling about?”
“It’s a nice building,” I told Diane, “I wish I had a place like this back home.”
“Come on; I need to talk to the chief.”
As we walked through the building, I got a number of stares and smiles. I guess the word of my “heroism” had spread.
“Heard about you and your new partner, Tommy-gun,” said a plain clothes detective with a smile that asked to be punched out, “Good job. Lucky you got results, too, as, from the sounds of your methods, the Muslim community would have your badge for this under normal circumstances.”
“Do you have a point?” Diane asked sharply.
His smile died a bit. He was about to introduce himself to me, but Diane pulled me along. Good. I didn’t care who he was.
We entered an office where a stern looking Corridian sat behind a desk. “Close the door and take a seat,” he said.
I took a seat as Diane closed the door. “I’m Chief Greeling,” the Corridian told me, “So, you’re the Officer Rico, I assume?”
“Yes, sir. I’m thankful that I was allowed to tag-along and see how things are done here.”
He chuckled. “Detective Thompson is not exactly how we do things. Anyway, we are thankful to have you here; you’ve saved countless lives already. By the way, five terrorist were killed at Roppola Plaza and the bomb was defused.” He looked to Diane – now seated next to me – with a grave expression. “Westler was killed in the firefight.”
Diane was shocked and looked about to say something. I just held my tongue. It was work enough just appearing normal; I wasn’t going to pretend concern over some guy I never heard of.
Diane recovered herself. “Have we uncovered their main plot?”
“Nothing was found in that basement that indicated a terrorist plot on the day Senator Gredler gives his speech.”
I actually had to use effort to keep from laughing. I guess I was in a humorous mood. Me sitting here as some real cop hero was just too much.
Diane sighed. “What now?”
“That will be the concern of some other detectives. After your actions at the mosque, I have to take you off of this before we get anymore complaints.”
“And when did we start caring about the opinion of those who help hide terrorists?” she shot back.
“Thompson, I don’t have time for your religious bigotry,” the Chief said angrily, “Sometimes I think you aggravate as much crime as you solve.”
So Diane was right; they knew her record and sent her to get the job done so they could then yell at her afterwards to make it all right. I don’t know why she would put up with that, and I decided to put in a word for her (least I could do since I was probably going to eventually kill her).
“Where I come from, the Detective was actually quite reserved considering the scum we were dealing with; I just know some of those people are going to be more trouble down the line. If anything, you should be pushing them harder.”
The Chief just nodded. He couldn’t yell at me; I’m a hero.
“Rico was certainly invaluable in this,” Diane stated, “He has a very good eye.”
“And great aim, from what I here. Was it your idea to send Rico in alone to the terrorists’ hiding spot, Thompson?”
“It was my own idea,” I told him, “We didn’t have time. I don’t mean to be rude, but is there some point to this blather? We just stopped numerous terrorist attacks, but there still might be one big one to come and there’s an assassination of some politician to stop. Where I come from, we don’t just sit back and chat when there trouble abound, and I don’t understand what we’re doing here.”
Diane gave me a sharp look to shut up – which I ignored. I’m the hero cop; I can say what I want.
“We just like to review results so we can adjust in the future,” the Chief explained, a little flustered. He looked to Diane. “I’m now assigning you to part of the search for the assassin aimed at Senator Gredler.” He leaned closer to Diane and had a threatening expression. “You will in no way get near him, though.”
So it wasn’t just the Senator; it was something with Diane and the Senator. This was getting so interesting.
“Why would I want any involvement with him?” she answered casually.
The Chief looked to me. “If you are still interested in learning how we handle crime in Nar Valdum, I think there are some better detectives I could assign you with.”
Diane had no visible reaction to the slight. “I think we made a good team, but it’s up to him.”
I could now see some worry in Diane. She still suspected me – of something if not being the assassin specifically – and wanted to keep an eye on me. If I went with some other cops, it could mean I could get closer to my target and learn more with less suspicion aimed at me. Still, Diane probably knew more than anyone who actually followed all these regulations these civilized planets have.
“I’d rather stick with Blondie here; she’s made a fun vacation so far.”
They both frowned.
“You two will be meeting with Galactic Federation officials tomorrow morning,” the Chief explained, “They apparently have information that could give you some leads.” He smiled at me. “You’ll get some interesting experience with this. Do you know much about the Corloni criminal syndicate?”
They do pay my bills. “I know of it… that and their rival the Randatti criminal syndicate.” Who most likely has a contract on my head. I could notice a slight cringe from Diane at the mention of “Randatti.” When some organization kills your family in front of you, my understanding is that you don’t get over it quickly.
“Well,” the Chief continued, “we have reliable sources telling us that Corloni has sent a lone assassin to kill Senator Gredler during his upcoming speech.”
At this point, I felt like shooting my way out of the police station just to relieve stress. “Reliable sources?” I queried, quieting my desperation.
The Chief leaned back in his seat. “I can’t discuss that any further.”
Now I imagined pulling out my gun, quickly shooting Diane, and then pounding the Chief’s head into his desk until he told me everything I wanted to know.
I decided to save that option for later.
“Detective Thompson, you have the rest of the day off,” the Chief said, “Make sure to be polite to the Galactic Federation officials tomorrow. I don’t think your reputation has traveled out of this star system.”
Diane got up without a word and left the office. I followed, trying to wrap my mind around things. I had a heavily secured message to kill Senator Gredler. The only way the police could know about the details of the hit was a leak high up in the Corloni organization’s chain. I never dealt with anything like this before, and it was not weighing well on me.
I tried to calm myself before Diane might notice my desperation, but she was too busy looking at a computer screen. I took a seat next to her desk and looked over. It was a report on the firefight at the plaza.
“Westler left cover to help a Corridian child who was standing out in the open,” Diane stated. “He was shot while shielding the girl with his own body. The girl was unharmed.”
My preferred guns would have gone through that sap and the little girl, but that didn’t seem to be Diane’s point. “Sounds like he was a good man,” I stated, putting my hand on her shoulder.
She shut down the computer and then met my eyes. “He was horribly corrupt. Bribes, kickbacks… you name it. But, when the chips were down, he saw a child in harms way and ran out into danger.”
Sounded like something that would make you think… if you weren’t me. People instinctively want to protect children; it’s called the motherly instinct. Even guys have it… just not me. “So, what are you doing now, Diane?”
“I’m going home to relax. Then I’m going to Bible study.”
“You’re a Xian?” That explained some things… and made some other things more confusing.
“I prefer Christian. Do you want to come? It might be interesting for you if you’ve never been to one.”
I literally would rather be shot in the leg again than spend time talking morality with a bunch of strangers who all believe in some religious hokey pokey; sure, being shot would hurt, but I’d get to spend a few more hours watching nature shows while the wound healed. Then again, I still needed Diane to open up to me more… especially now that there seemed to be a traitor in the Corloni organization.
“I’ll give it a try; I just don’t want everyone to try and convert me or nothing.”
She smiled. “I’ll make sure you’re not singled out.”
Great; more human interaction… and about morality and religion, no less. If this psychopath had a lick of sense in him, I’d be keeping my mouth shut for this.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 20)

“Are you all right?”
“I didn’t even get a scratch.”
Detective Thompson leaned back from the controls of her vehicle and looked me in the eyes. “I mean, you shot a woman point-blank in the face.”
I shot a lot of people. Seemed to me it was sexist that I would be expected to feel more guilty about killing a woman than killing a man. Apparently Blondie wasn’t a feminist, so it was time for me to tread carefully. That meant saying as little as possible. “She was about to shoot me; I try not to think about it.” I then leaned back against my seat and closed my eyes.
The Detective was not about to let me off that easy. “That was quite some shooting, though; I’ve never seen anyone use two guns at once– outside of movies.”
Translation: Why can some cop on some backwater planet shoot like that? I regaled her of how I spent years mastering “point shooting” – shooting without using the gun’s sights to aim – until I could fire quickly and accurately with both hands. I even added a little spiel about how the small amount of time saved by having a gun in my left hand to shoot at someone to my left could mean the difference between life and death. She just nodded the whole time.
Was she buying it? Probably not, as it seemed all the previous statements were just leading up to what she said next. “You seemed quite focused while in the fire fight – had quite an interesting expression on your face.”
Oh no… was I smiling? I tend to smile slightly when I’m shooting – I know I do it; it’s just never usually an issue.
But did she even see my face while I was shooting? Or was she just acting like she knew something to see my reaction?
This woman was making me paranoid. It was just getting too mentally taxing; such effort, and she still seemed to suspect me of something. I vowed to start looking for a good ditch to dump her body in after I got what information I could from her. And I wanted that done soon. Yet another woman I’d be shooting point-blank in the face.
Had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy with her, though.
“I really don’t feel like talking about this right now, Detective,” I told her with annoyance – since I was quite annoyed.
“We’ve already been through enough together that you really should stop referring to me so formally… Officer.”
I looked to her, and she had a cute smile as she looked back.
I really didn’t care for that smile right now. “Should I call you ‘Tommy-gun?'”
The smile didn’t go away. “Friends call me Diane.”
Well, am I your friend or your suspect, Diane?
I wasn’t really angry at her, though. Now that this terrorist hunt was over, my mind was back to my main mission. Maybe I’d get some good information from her about Senator Gredler and why they know a hit is coming, but that still didn’t change the feeling of unease I had about this job.
Was it because it looked to be a suicide mission? I wish the explanation was that simple, but I couldn’t place my hesitation. This was about the most emotional I could ever remember being.
“Rico,” Diane called out, her voice full of concern – real concern, “if something is the matter, you can tell me about it. It will be just between you and me.”
“It’s complicated,” I volunteered for some reason. “Maybe I’ll tell you about it later.” Just before I kill you – if only out of curiosity of what your expression will be.
“Hopefully we can find out soon what’s happened with stopping the plot at Roppola Plaza. You’re a real hero, Rico. I’m sorry I put you in this situation, but you saved a lot of lives.”
Sorta wished I could care. Yes, I had just used my powers of death-dealing to better the universe, but, whether I killed a sinner or a saint, it was all just a twitch of the finger in the end.
Our vehicle now landed exactly where no hitman ever wants to be: Police Headquarters.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 19)
Jumping so that you land on a staircase is quite problematic. A stairway, of course, is made from numerous flat surfaces, but land on it stretched out and you hit nothing but edges. Luckily, when I leapt into the basement, another terrorist was heading up. I plowed into him and he cushioned my fall to his own detriment. He also caused his friends to hesitate in firing at me, something I used to my advantage as I rolled off the stairway to my feet.
I fired rapidly as I charged forward, not having time to worry about leaving people alive for Tommy’s sake. I few shots rang off in my direction, but these terrorists were of the “pull the trigger rapidly and pray” school and weren’t even close to hitting me. Four were soon dead and burned enough to smell like pork, and I spotted a fifth frantically removing a disk from a computer. Something familiar was on screen and then quickly disappeared. The alien terrorist then tried to spin around and shoot me, but I was on him and smashed him in the face. He fell to the ground and his gun skid along the floor away from him.
One was left running to a panel on the back of the room. He had flipped it open, but I shot him in the leg dropping him to the ground. I then had a second to see a wire coming out of the panel and then spidering out to numerous explosive charges. The wounded man reached up for the panel, but this time I shot the wire. The flicking of the switch by the terrorist achieved nothing.
I walked over to him and recognized the face. “Hey, Mohammed,” I said cheerily just for the fun of it before I knocked him unconscious.
“Leave any alive?” Thompson asked from behind me, now at the bottom of the stairway. She just wasn’t quick enough to enjoy that action.
“Alive, yes; conscious, no. We have Mohammed right here. That guy over there.” I pointed to the one by the computer I had punched out. “And possibly the two by the stairs.” I motioned to the one I knocked over lying on top of the one Zippy stunned. If they were alive, they probably had some bad concussions. “By the way, you’re welcome for me keeping you from being blown up. Now where’s the cavalry?”
Thompson was looking at a computer that had been left on. “Outside waiting for the SWAT team.” She stared carefully at the computer. “I think there’s a strike about to take place at Roppola Plaza!” She got up and walked on to the stairway. “I need to get those cowards waiting outside in here; do you have everything secure down here, Rico?”
I laughed. “They weren’t much of challenge for me when they were standing, Blondie.”
“Don’t call me that,” she said as she headed up the stairway, her little Zippy robot flying along.
I put my guns away and quickly got to the terrorist I punched out by the computer. I got the disk from him; if it was what I thought, it could be a good ace up my sleeve for later on.
The alien terrorist was awake and looking at me. I smiled. “Let’s keep this between you and me.” I held up my empty hands and kicked his gun towards him.
The idiot grabbed it.
He had just got his finger through the trigger guard when I had drawn and put a hole through his head.
Tommy was back down the stairway in an instant, staring down at the dead alien clutching a gun. “What happened?”
“I thought he was unconscious!” I blurted out in a pitch perfect imitation of nervousness. It could only have been better acting if I could cause my heart to race. “Sorry… sorry…”
The two cops we had met earlier were now heading down the stairs with their guns drawn. They looked at the scene with shock. “You and the hero did this, Tommy-gun?” the female asked.
All me. She hadn’t even fired a shot. “Just help me secure things down here,” Thompson commanded, “We have another terrorist attack to prevent.”
I could hear more sirens outside. The place would soon be quite crowded, and I put away my gun. This time, I was going to hold on to them, and the onus was on Detective Thompson to explain the armed involvement of a “civilian.” Whether she could do that and keep her job or not, I was coming out of this a hero again.
All in all, it was a nice little shoot out, but bigger things were still to come before this job was over.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 18)
I adjusted the mini-blasters under my jacket from being deeply concealed to being a quicker draw. They weren’t as powerful as my normal guns, but they’d burn a nice little hole right through my targets. I then put a smile on my face and strolled into the store.
The clerk, a female human, eyed me suspiciously. There were three others – two human males and one alien male – in the store pretending to shop (I’ve pretended to shop before, and I know the difference between doing it well and doing it poorly) also eying me suspiciously. The way they gestured and positioned their hands, it was obvious all four were armed. It would be hard killing these four amateurs and making it any fun, but, at least, there was a basement full of terrorists most likely armed with fully-automatics to look forward to. That could be a challenge.
I walked up to the clerk. “Hello. I am interested in purchasing a Koran.”
“We have it available in many different data formats,” she said, making it obvious she was annoyed by my presence.
“Actually, I like something more tangible. Can I get it in book form?” The three others slowly moved a bit closer to me. I kept facing the clerk in an angle such that none were in my blind spot.
“The complete integrated Koran comes in a twelve volume set. It is quite expensive.”
I chuckled. “Well, money shouldn’t be an object when you’re trying to be submissive to Allah.”
“Do you have business here?” demanded one of the men in the store, no longer pretending to be a consumer.
I gave an expression of hurt feelings. “I’m a newly converted Muslim. Why, I just started to grow a beard – I’ve made half a day’s progress so far.”
“Get out of here!” the man commanded.
“Fine. Can I at least get a gift for my nephew? Do you have a little electronic Mecha-Allah that walks around and its eyes light up?”
“We have nothing to do with that!” the clerk yelled, “Now get out!”
“Oh yeah, you’re not supposed to depict Mecha-Allah, are you?” I noticed a small red spot on the ground. “Hey! Is that pigs’ blood? Was my friend Mohammed through here spitting pigs’ blood? He’s so crazy!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the clerk asserted, “Get out of here right now.”
I looked to the door at the back of the shop. “He’s probably back there; can I go check for him?”
The four stood in front of me and blocked my way, the males to my left and the clerk to my right. “Employees only!” the clerk yelled.
“GET OUT!” one man shouted, all of them looking ready to kill – ready, but not yet trying to kill.
I acted like I had a sudden revelation. “I know what’s going on here! You have a terrorist cell down in the basement! I’m going to go out right now and telling everybody!”
One man finally went for his gun. I let him fully draw before I quickly drew my left hand gun and put a hole through his chest. That way, the gun clattered to his side as he fell and Tommy would know that I let them make the first move. Immediately following the first shot, I drew the right gun, shot the clerk through the head as my hand swept past her (she was about 1/16 as fast as she needed to be to outdraw me) and then fired one shot from each gun killing the last two, only one of whom had successfully drew his gun though he was still unable to get off a shot.
“We need some alive, Rico!” Tommy gritted through her teeth as she burst in, gun drawn.
Shooting people so that they live afterwards is not my specialty.
I was about to reach for the door to the basement, but Tommy grabbed me and threw me against the wall next to it. The door then burst open, and the terrorist was zapped by Zippy who hovered over head. There were a number of thuds as he fell down the stairs. I could then hear many voices, and something about “blowing up the building.”
“No time to wait for backup, Blondie,” I said as I leapt head-first down into the basement.
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PREVIOUS
“How is terrorist hunting going, Rico?”
“I don’t have time to talk, Dip.”
“I thought I would inform you of some pertinent information I found. Diane Thompson holds the record of most citizen complaints against a Nar Valdum City police officer. Her nickname is ‘Tommy-gun.’ This is in reference to a 20th century human firearm that…”
“Thanks, Dip. Now go away.”
“We will speak later, Officer Rico.”
The Detective looked away from the shop ahead of us where apparently pig-drinker had run too. “Who’s Dip?”
“My computer.”
“What’s the name stand for?”
“Huh?”
“D-I-P, what does that stand for?”
“It doesn’t stand for anything; I just call him ‘Dip.'”
“So, what did he want?”
We’re looking for terrorists! Why was she still giving me the third degree? “He’s one of those learning algorithms. Always wants to contact me and ask questions.” If the Detective really had that many complaints against her and was still holding her job, that seemed like it would speak to her skills at getting cases solved. That assured me now, but would be trouble if I kept close to her.
The Detective looked back to the store. It was a shop devoted to Islamic merchandise. She hit a few buttons on her wrist keypad, and Zippy turned to the shop and made a clicking noise.
The Detective stared through her glasses at apparently nothing. “The building has a large basement… maybe eight people down there. Pretty sure they are armed.”
“Sounds like we found them, Detective. Let’s call the backup.”
“Not going to happen, Rico… and my name is Thompson, if you forgot it.”
“Why can’t we call backup, and can I call you ‘Blondie?'”
Thompson looked at me sternly. “Let’s stay serious, Rico. Now, my looking into that building using Zippy was technically an illegal search. Can’t use it as evidence or call backup to enter the premises using it. Actually, I shouldn’t even have a device equipped with such an ability.”
“So this is what police work is like on civilized worlds?” I asked, choosing a tone of disdain.
“It has its advantages and disadvantages– for the populace, that is.”
“So what do we need to be able to get the police on this place?”
“Evidence, legally obtained, or a violent disturbance. I could barge in there, get them to shoot at me, and then we’d have the police here in no time. Police barging into places tends to get the lawyers to dismiss evidence, so we might not be able to prosecute them afterwards.”
I gave her a shocked look – though I actually did fully understand behind admissible evidence and illegal search and seizures. “Prosecution ain’t a problem if they’re dead.”
Now she gave me a shocked look. “I have some idea of how you do things back on Rikar, but I prefer bringing in the criminals alive. Now, with these type of people who don’t even care for their own lives, that will be hard. But, we need at least some to question. Now, I’m all for making an illegal entry if we can at least stop the terrorist attacks, but I’d rather a plan where we kinda stick to the law… or close to it.”
I was silent for second as I pretended to be thinking. “Now, since I’m not a police officer, if I barged in there, got them to shoot at me, then could you charge perfectly legally, right?”
She smiled. “You seemed to have grasped that concept pretty quickly, Rico. That would work, but there’s the whole downside of being shot at… which sometimes involves actually being shot.”
“Well… could you lend me a gun?”
“That would get me in huge trouble, Rico.” She then smiled at me again – a seductive smile? She pressed up against me, her hands moving along my body. Then she patted the guns I had concealed at each side. She pushed herself away from me, still holding the same smile. “Why don’t you use your own guns, Rico.”
I am great at concealing firearms. Could she actually tell, or did she assume and confirmed her assumption by that little maneuver? I realized I really had to stop underestimating Detective Thompson.
I smiled weakly. “I don’t like walking around unarmed.”
“Neither do I. Now let’s get to this; another strike could be about to happen as we speak.”
I nodded and walked towards the shop.
“Rico,” she called out, “I don’t how much this means when you’re entering a place with the intention of being shot at, but be careful.”
“Don’t worry; I know what I’m doing.”
“I’m sure you do. God bless you, Rico.”
I sincerely doubted He would, even if He was the violent bastard the Islamists thought He was. But I smiled back at Diane when she said it, because soon I would be shooting people – and when is that not fun?
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PREVIOUS
The Detective threw a small metal object in the air, and it stayed in the air. It was flat with a big round eye at the front and what looked like a barrel underneath the eye.
The Detective put on what looked to be a normal pair of glasses. “That is Zippy. He’s my partner. Not very smart, but never complains about my choice of methods. He watches my back, and is able to fire without a direct command from me. Thus, he’s only loaded with stun shots.” She pressed a number of buttons on a keypad at her wrist, and Zippy turned to face me. “I’ll program him not to shoot you.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
She hit buttons for a couple seconds.
“Seemed like a lot of programming for ‘don’t shoot,’ Detective.”
She just smiled at me. So, she still didn’t trust me. Well, I was starting not to trust her. Dip certainly did not get me all the pertinent information on this woman.
After passing through another alley, a large mosque was visible. At the top of it was a giant orb with an arrow in it. The arrow was currently pointed at me. “I think I’m Mecca.”
The praying towards Mecca was usually only observed by human Muslims, and most just prayed up. It cost a lot to keep track of exactly what direction to pray towards the human home world – the place where Mecca used to be. There are a lot of rotations and revolutions to keep in mind. And, when many aliens don’t care to honor Mecca, most mosques don’t bother with all that.
Islam is a very interesting religion (I once missed a nature show on the Ultorian tiger to watch a show about its history). Humans call it Islam and trace it back to its origins on our home world, but its current form is an amalgamation of many different alien religions (each alien usually calls it by the name of the religion started on their own home world), their prominent prophets all said to be prophets of the one god, Allah (blessings be upon him). Who brought it to its current form was Mohammed (a human… and different from the other prophet Mohammed from way way back) who supposedly performed a lot of miracles and definitely united many sentient species to try and make Islam the only religion in the universe… many willing to use violence.
Best of luck to them.
Anyway, most Muslims do not worship Mecha-Allah, but all I’ve met seem at least sympathetic to the giant robot and love how trying to find it frustrates the more civilized worlds so much.
“A lot of violent idiots have come from this place,” the Detective said as she looked at the mosque, “If I could, I’d drag the imam into prison. If the leadership isn’t directly involved with these attacks, they probably know who is. In the least, someone attending here is involved. That I am 99% sure of. We push this lead.”
I was going to ask how, but remembered she didn’t like questions. I had my own plan, anyway. We started heading for the building.
“Now, they will be insulted by me questioning them because I’m a woman… I plan to use that.” She paused for a moment. “I would normally never do this, but lives are at stake.” She opened her blouse to reveal her cleavage. She then looked to me. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“I’ll keep it to myself.”
She continued onward. “You kept eye-contact; you’re a nice guy.”
I laughed, as that was funny in a number of different ways even though she didn’t mean it. “So antagonizing the religious types is the plan?”
“They’ll be antagonized just by the site of me; I’m aiming for enraging them. I can’t really pretend to have respect for this religion; I hope that doesn’t bother you.”
I chuckled slightly.
The Detective barged through the doors, Zippy and I following close behind. “I’m here to ask some questions about the recent bombings!” she yelled as the group of people bowing in about her direction.
“We’re in the middle of prayers!” yelled a frustrated old, bearded man who looked to be the imam, “We…” He paused when he caught sight of her. “Detective Thompson!” he shouted as he walked towards her, “The city gave us a restraining order against you!”
“I can’t be expected to keep track of all the restraining orders against me. Now, I assume you’ll be willing to help me track down those nasty Cyber-Islamists.”
The imam scowled. “I won’t speak to you until you cover up, woman!”
The Detective gouged him in the eyes. “There. Now you don’t see me. Same effect.”
Many started shouting, and, as one man approached, Zippy shot him. The guy tensed and fell to the floor. “Be careful of my little robot friend; he’s malfunctioning.”
The group there were a number of males – some aliens but mainly human – all glaring at the Detective with murder in their eyes. She glared back. I couldn’t see her expression, but it seemed to make most of them hesitant. By now, I was really curious what her reputation on the street was. I just stood back, watching the group with a casual smile. The imam knew something about this – I could already tell. I wanted to find someone in the crowd directly involved.
“Hey, I’m kinda curious about this religion,” I called out. “Think I could get a pamphlet or something?”
“We welcome no one who associates with this infidel!” the imam shouted, getting angrier.
“And where are the chicks,” I asked, looking around all the males, “This isn’t some sort of gay thing?”
“They worship in another room!” the imam shouted. “Both of you, GET OUT!”
A lot of the guys there looked capable of murder, but a few were now particularly sticking out.
The Detective grabbed the imam by his beard. “First, can you tell me if anyone here worships that rusty, poor excuse for a god?”
Did I see a hint of concern on a face?
“We do not associate with the Cyber-Islamists,” the imam said. He then laughed. “Perhaps they are a hand of Allah in how they punish the infidels! Now go back to your own dying religion, woman, before we call some actual police!”
She knocked him to the floor. “Yeah, go ahead. Doubt you cowards will. You, like that stupid robot, like to hide. You make threats, but you’re all too impotent to fight out in the open.”
That made everyone angry, but one human was angered in a slightly different way. I could tell he was restraining himself as the words hit him more personally. He had something to hide. He was involved. He was mine.
The males finally were angry enough to begin to approach the Detective, but I approached them quicker and grabbed my mark. “Come on Mohammed; I want to find out about your religion.”
“How do you know my name?” He was in complete panic.
I dragged him to the door. “I’m going to have a little chat with him outside,” I told the Detective who looked a bit peeved I was stealing her thunder. “You stay and chat with your friends.”
Mohammed wouldn’t talk with me, so the chat didn’t last long. Soon, he was running back inside the mosque, yelling and spitting.
“He forced me to swallow pigs’ blood!”
I had followed Mohammed back inside. He ran into the group of men and began to disappear behind them. The Detective, looking a bit confused, was ready to follow, but I tapped her on the arm to tell her to stay.
“That guy is crazy. I did not force him to drink pigs’ blood.”
The aforementioned “chicks” were now peaking in to see what was going on. “The vial in your hand!” the imam shouted, pointing to the vial in my hand, “It says ‘Pigs’ Blood’ right on it!”
I looked at the vial. It did indeed say “Pigs’ Blood” in large letters. I looked back to the imam. “It’s mislabeled.”
He looked to the Detective. “Your partner is as bad as you! This is the worst police abuse…”
“I’m not a police officer,” I interrupted, “I’m just a tourist. See, back on my planet, we force red liquids down each other’s throats all the time. Do you guys have something against that, because I was trying to find out about your religion?”
Everyone looked about ready to tear me apart. Diane had recovered from her shock and confusion and stated plainly, “I do remember hearing him ask for a pamphlet.”
“GET OUT!” the imam shrieked.
Mohammed had disappeared – probably out a backdoor. Good.
The Detective looked to me, and I smiled. She seemed to take the cue.
She tossed a card to the imam. “Call me in the future if you have any information to help the police.” She, Zippy, and I, then exited.
When we were a decent distance away, the Detective buttoned back up her blouse and looked at me with a deadly serious gaze. “I assume you have some sort of plan… or do you always carry around pigs’ blood?”
“The guy I grabbed – I’m certain he was involved. Had it written all over him.”
“Really?” she answered incredulously, “So you forced him to drink pigs’ blood?”
She wasn’t even cracking a smile. I thought that was pretty funny. “I keep tracking tags on my luggage when I travel. Right now, one of my bags is missing a tag.” I took out a little handheld computer. “Want to see where it’s going?”
The screen showed a dot moving away from us at a running pace. “Your magic cop instincts better be right, Rico. We don’t have time to waste.”
“I’m right,” I assured her, as I was pretty sure. “Are you going to get in trouble for all that stuff back there?” I have met plenty of cops in my days, and all I’ve seen on civilized planets seemed like they’d rather die than be nearly that abrasive.
The Detective sighed. “I’ll get yelled at – but that’s it. When they put me on this, they expected this. They never would have put me on this case if they didn’t want it solved quick and most of our resources are tied up on the direct threat to Senator Gredler.”
The direct threat to Senator Gredler started moving towards the dot on the screen. “If we’re lucky, he’ll head right to his buddies to warn that we’re on to them… and to get help vomiting.”
The Detective finally smiled again. “So was that really pigs’ blood?”
“Where would I get pigs’ blood?”
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PREVIOUS
How could I tell if I was scared? I don’t remember being scared before, but the feeling was like what it seemed fear should be – this nagging feeling that I didn’t want to continue onward.
So what was I afraid of? Not death, of course. Not the Detective – she might be able to see through my ruse, but that’s a contingency I’m always prepared for.
Something about this whole job to kill Senator Gredler was making me scared, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Anytime I have emotions, it’s obvious why. How could I lose touch with myself so much as to have feelings I can’t understand?
“Are you all right, Rico?”
I quickly recovered. “Just thinking of yesterday.” The Detective bid me into the passenger seat of her car. “Don’t you have a partner, Detective?”
“Not at this time,” she answered as the vehicle rose into the air, “I’ll be meeting some officers in the area before I proceed with the investigation.”
“I assume you’re starting at a mosque.”
“We had pictures up on the news of those still left with faces,” she explained. Was she criticizing me for going for headshots? “One was identified as an attendee of a mosque on the edge of the city. I think our tips have come from Galtists, though, and I assume you know of their rivalry with Islam.”
I nodded. The Galtists were an alien religious group – inclusive to almost all sentients – known for occasional violence. I think they’d rather be known for their message of salvation through meditation, but violence always makes the news.
“Cyber-Islamists tend to work locally from a sympathetic mosque,” the Detective continued, “so this is worth checking out. I hope to get there right after one of their daily prayers.”
“Should be easy to tell right away from the leaders if they’re involved.”
She smiled. “You think?”
“Yes,” I said indignantly. “If this isn’t them, how many other mosques are there to check out?”
The Detective shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll get in trouble if I go around harassing people just because of their religion. I’ll actually have to use my detective skills if I don’t want to get yelled at..”
“If,” I repeated, and she chuckled. Luckily, I wasn’t concerned with religious tolerance. Actually, I’m usually never concerned with any tolerance whatsoever. I’d have to put those views on hold, though, so as not to scare off the fair Detective.
We landed near a patrol car. The building around us were ramshackled and vandalized. Probably plenty of people guilty of something around here… other than me, of course.
The officers were a human male and a Corridian female. They both stared at me. “So that’s the hero?” the male asked.
“Police officer on a planet called Rikar,” the Detective told them, “Good with a gun, but I didn’t have time for the paperwork to let him be armed.”
I smiled. “I brought a knife if that’s okay.” More than one, actually.
“So you’re doing this without any backup?” the female asked disapprovingly.
“I got Zippy with me… and I’m just asking some questions now.”
“Anything suspicious, call us and we’ll be there in a second,” the male told her.
“And do call us,” the female stated, “Don’t be stupid.”
“I’ll take the ‘not being stupid’ under advisement,” the Detective said dryly.
The male looked back to me. “Rico, do you have any idea what you’re getting into with Thompson?”
It was hard not to laugh. “Who doesn’t like a little adventure on his vacation?”
“He asked to come,” the Detective told them, “How could I say no to a hero?”
The male shrugged. “Fine. Just don’t get him killed.”
The officers got back into their vehicle and lifted off.
“So what was that about?”
“What was what about?” the Detective answered, beckoning me to follow her down the dangerous looking streets.
It was just a perfunctory question, anyway; I already gathered plenty from that exchange. “We’re walking?”
“From here on.”
“And who or what is Zippy?”
“You’ll see.” She stopped to look at me. “Now, if you keep asking questions all the time, that will be hindering me.” She smiled to try and hide whether she was serious or not. She was.
Near us, an alien grumbled something that my universal translator said meant “humans” though it sounded like an epithet. We both ignored him. “Now let’s find these murderers. Who knows how much time we have before they strike again.”
A reckless detective and a murderous psychopath posing as a police officer – now that’s a team. This was probably going to be a lot of fun… as long as we didn’t get ourselves killed.
Even if, maybe.
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