by Joe Canzano
“I’m okay, Mom. I can take care of myself.”
Her mother was crying now. “I know, I know,” she said. “You were always good at that. But it’s so awful what happened. I don’t care about what you did. I just wish I could see you again.”
“You don’t care? I thought you hated me.”
“No! I don’t hate you at all. Leonardo was a monster… I wish you hadn’t done it, though—because now you’ll always be so far away.”
Suzy was suddenly having a hard time speaking. She forced her tongue to form more words.
“I’ll be back, Mom. I promise.”
“No, you won’t. You can never come home again.”
“I’ll be back.”
But her mom wasn’t listening. “I was so stupid,” she said. “I should have seen. I should have helped.”
“We were all blind.”
“I’ll never forgive myself.”
“No one needs to forgive you!” Suzy blurted. “It wasn’t your fault… It wasn’t.” Suzy stopped and took a breath. Then she said, “It’s over.”
“It’ll never be over for me, Suzy.”
“I know. I understand. But we move on.”
“I’m glad you’re okay. I’m so happy you called.”
“I’m happy, too… How’s Grandma?”
Of course, Suzy already knew the situation; she’d been spying on posts her mom made to the family. But she asked anyway.
“Your grandmother is sick,” her mother said. “She needs a new heart, but she’s hanging in there. Some people came here to talk to us. We didn’t tell those assholes a thing.”
Once again, Suzy was shocked by her mother’s raging attitude of solidarity.
“They can’t hurt you, Mom,” Suzy said. “You don’t know anything, and it’s probably good to keep it that way.”
Then there was a crackling sound, and her grandmother was on the line.
“Suzy? What are you doing? How’s my ship? Don’t come here—they’ll catch you, or at least they’ll try. Of course they’ll have to kill me first.”
Suzy laughed. Her grandmother sounded the same. She decided not to tell Jenny that her ship had been scrapped. This just wasn’t the time.
“How do you feel, Grandma?”
“I could be better but I’m doing all right.”
“I’m going to get you that new heart.”
“Suzy, don’t do anything crazy—again.”
“There’s nothing crazy about wanting to help you. Besides, all I need is the money. Now that I’m an outlaw, I have a better chance of getting it.”
“Don’t get yourself killed, Suzy. You should have let me take care of Leonardo. I’m at the end anyway.”
“No! I wanted to do it—and you’re not at the end.”
There was a lot more crackling. The call was getting weak.
“Just be careful, Suzy, okay? And be careful who you trust.”
“I know that, Grandma. We’re losing this call.”
“I love you, Suzy!” her mother said.
Suzy didn’t speak. Then she heard herself say, “I love you, too.”
There was more noise and the call was over.
Suzy sat for a minute, breathing heavily but not moving. Then she staggered back to the bed and dropped down like a stone.
She felt drained, like she’d just climbed a mountain. Her head was spinning—but she also felt wonderful.
It’s been so long, she thought. And for so long, she’d hated her mother for not doing enough to help Trish. And now the hate was gone. How ridiculous—and how liberating.
She felt light as a feather. Her thoughts were calm like drifting snow.
Her grandmother’s voice echoed in her head—be careful who you trust. In her mind, she saw an image of Ricardo’s smiling face.
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about it now. She just wanted to spend a little more time enjoying the memory of her call to Earth.
Chapter 11
Blurr felt his body tingling as he walked toward the interrogation room.
He reached the door and paused. He was about to witness some wailing and screaming, and the thought of it made him edgy. Was it a sense of guilt? No, not really. Empathy? No, that wasn’t it, either. Maybe it was just the noise.
The room was dark like a crypt, with the angry eye of a single spotlight glaring down. The light was splashed across Carlos, who was mostly naked and tied to a metal table that had been swung into an upright position. He was standing with his wrists, ankles, and neck lashed to the frame. There was also a black band around his forehead that was synched to a nearby control console.
Standing next to Carlos was Captain Banks, looking uneasy.
Blurr smiled. That was the thing about Banks. He was capable but he was too damned nice. It was a tough world and being nice just didn’t pay off. But maybe his weaknesses could be fixed. That promotion was like an invitation to join the good guys—or at least the better guys. Good help was hard to find, and these people from Los Pocos were perfect training tools. Familiar, too.
“Come on, Banks, cheer up,” Blurr said. “I’m sure you’ve interrogated shit bags before.” He bent down to examine Carlos’s missing teeth. “And what is it about the average shit bag that makes his dental situation so severe? Don’t they have toothbrushes in Shit City?” He looked into Carlos’s bleary eyes.
“Hey, there, shitty face. What’s happening?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Carlos said. “From what I see I’m going to be late for dinner.”
Blurr laughed. “You’re probably going to miss breakfast, too—and since you’ve been asleep for two days I’m guessing you’re a little hungry. I’ll tell you what, give me some useful information and I’ll shove a piping hot burrito up your ass. No need to floss afterwards.”
“Fuck you!” Carlos said. “I don’t know anything.”
“Yeah, that’s what Captain Banks told me,” Blurr said. “He says you’re a real idiot, which isn’t surprising. The average street thug isn’t usually working on a PhD dissertation.”
“Fuck you!” Carlos said again. Then he glowered extra hard.
Banks stepped toward Carlos. “We don’t want to hurt you,” Banks said. “We just need to know a few things.”
“Right,” Blurr said. “Except that we do want to hurt you—a lot.”
“No, we don’t,” Banks said. Then he glanced at Blurr. “Okay, maybe he does. But why don’t you make it easy on yourself and tell us what you know.”
Blurr grinned and loomed over the prisoner. “You’re a scumbag who preys on weaklings—but today you’re the weakling, and how does it feel? Do you sell dope for a living? Are you a pimp who beats up drug-addicted girls? What’s your game, scumbag?”
Carlos gave him a blank stare. “I’m a mechanic.”
Blurr laughed. “Oh, yeah? So why were you carrying a rifle instead of a wrench? I’ve seen your kind before—and I remember. Do you think I want a piece of trash like you on the street where my daughter lives? Or my wife?”
Then he reached out and flipped a switch on the console.
In a flash, Carlos’s look of anger disappeared. His eyes lit up like fireworks, and he unleashed a visceral scream—writhing in his bonds and jerking like a puppet.
Blurr nodded with approval and twisted a dial.
Now Carlos screamed so loudly it seemed that his lungs would explode. His eyes bulged out of his head. His face was a purple mask of agony.
“Noooooo!” he said. “I don’t know! I don’t! Ahhhhhh!”
Blurr glanced at Banks and saw his normally blank face twitching with agitation—but all in all, he was holding steady. Well, that promotion meant more money, and more money usually keeps people steady.
Blurr flipped the switch again and Carlos stopped screaming. He hung in his restraints, gasping for breath.
Blurr poured himself some ice water from a nearby pitcher. He leaned against the concrete wall and sipped it. “Pain comes from the b
rain,” he said. “That headband connects to the part of your brain that registers pain and stimulates it. No wasted energy, see? We get right to the heart of things, and here’s the real beauty of it all—it won’t kill you! I mean you might die from heart failure if I turn it on and leave the room for a few hours”—and here he paused again to watch the look of fear that flashed across Carlos’s face—“but I might not do that today. It depends on your answers. So give me the names of the two people with Suzy and tell me where they’re going.”
Banks gave Carlos a sober look. “I’d start talking if I were you.”
Blurr put his hand back on the switch.
“His name is Esteban Ortega!” Carlos blurted. “And his sister, Marina. They’re going to Mars.”
Blurr sighed. “When you lie to me, it hurts my feelings. And so I feel compelled to retaliate. ”
He flipped the switch and shrill shouts filled the air; Carlos convulsed like he’d been shot by a thousand flaming nails. But this firing squad offered no fatal relief. Instead, they kept shooting him again and again. Carlos’s eyes rolled up into his head. Tears and snot streamed down his face as he screamed and sobbed.
Blurr leaned close to the prisoner’s ear and spoke above the noise. “I’m going outside for a bit. I want to do a little bird watching. I’ll be back when I see a bluebird... Then again, you don’t see many bald eagles around here. Maybe I’ll wait for one of those. Come on, Banks—let’s go.”
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! They’re going to the moon!”
Blurr paused and cocked his head. “What do you think, Banks?”
“I think he’s had enough!” Banks said. Then he added, “The moon was their obvious destination until we asked Tycho City to send out those interceptors.”
Blurr cocked his head and considered the answer. “Yeah, that’s true,” he said. He also considered how Banks was doing well so far—better than the prisoner. Maybe he was ready for the next step.
Blurr grinned and shouted into the prisoner’s contorted face. “What about money? Is there any money hidden in that safe house?”
“No money! Nothing!”
“I don’t believe you. I tend to think there’s a spot in there where you hide the cash. I guess I’ll go take that walk after all.”
“There’s no money there! We just paid off the local cops and there was none there that night!”
“How much did you give them?”
“Twenty thousand earthos.”
Blurr raised his eyebrows, obviously impressed. He looked over at Banks and saw the captain seemingly perplexed by this line of questioning. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready after all. Maybe it was best to just stick with violent justice.
Blurr flashed a grim smile. “Banks, my next question is for you. Do you want this lowlife on the streets where your kids play?”
“What?”
Blurr pointed at the writhing man strapped to the table.
“Do you want this piece of shit on the streets where your kids play?”
Banks narrowed his eyes. “No. But I don’t live on his street, and I don’t have any kids—not yet, anyway.”
“But somebody does. And what does Los Pocos do? Narcotics, murder, theft, and all the other crap that goes along with it. They’re a disease—am I right? And what does the system do about it? ”
Blurr paused and gave Banks a hard stare.
“We do what we can.”
“Yeah, but is it enough?”
Banks shifted his weight a bit. When he spoke, his voice was low. “Most days I feel like I’m trying to beat back the ocean with a broom.”
“Right. But not today. Today we’re part of the solution.”
Blurr reached toward the console again—just as Carlos gasped and looked at him.
“I have a wife,” Carlos said. “And a son!”
Blurr paused for an instant. “They can do better,” he said. Then he pushed a red button.
He punched it hard. There was a sound like a loud spark igniting, and Carlos wailed one last time before going limp.
Now it was quiet.
Banks spun his head away. Finally, he turned back around and stared at Blurr. “You killed him! You didn’t need to do that. You don’t know what he did. And we didn’t even get the names.”
Blurr gave a snort. “We already know their names. Their face prints were identified through the surveillance shots at the spaceport. We’ve also confirmed that Aiko took a flight here under a phony identity—the flight was from Choccoban, which is where he landed his stolen ship after stealing the AI. So I’m pretty sure that’s where he stashed it. Let’s alert any friends who might be heading along that trajectory—and let’s start plotting our own course and get out of here.”
“Are you saying we didn’t even need to question this guy?”
Blurr and Banks locked eyes for a second, and Blurr felt a rush of dark, squealing memories, like an ocean of rats overrunning his mind.
“Probably not,” he said. “But I feel fine.”
He puffed out his chest and left the room.
Chapter 12
Once again, Suzy opened her eyes after a few hours of sleep. This time she heard the sound of an alarm. How long had she been out?
Not long enough, but she did feel better. The ache in her body was still there, twisting around her ribs like a piece of snarling barbed wire. But it was fading fast. Meanwhile, the brain-smashing headache had lightened up. It was down to the level of a small hangover after a short fistfight.
She also felt hungry. Maybe the big alarm had something to do with breakfast. Maybe it meant the avocados were all gone. Damn.
She fumbled around and found her black leather skirt, a gray T-shirt, and her crinkled leather flight jacket. Then she left the cabin. She knew what she had to do.
Yeah, she was hungry, and yeah, there was a loud alarm destroying the inside of her skull—but first things first. Where the hell was her gun?
She recalled Maria had taken it. Well, she wanted it back. After all, trust was a two-way street. If Ricardo wanted some trust from her, he would have to give some in return. And a girl and her gun belonged together.
It was a short walk from the cabin to the crew lounge, followed by a couple of steps to the cockpit. On her way the alarm stopped wailing. In the lounge, she encountered Maria, who was sitting in one of the cushy red chairs and staring at a nearby bulkhead as if it were ten light years away.
Maria looked up. “Hello, Suzy. Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah. You only shot me once.”
“I didn’t want to shoot you at all.”
“I know. And I did want to shoot you, so I guess I got what I deserved. I hate when that happens.”
“I guess we’ve all got our issues to deal with.”
Suzy laughed. “I deal with my issues by pouring them shots of whiskey. We usually have a great time.”
Maria turned her eyes back to the blank wall. “You’re a funny girl, Suzy. But I’m sure you have some serious issues in your head. Did you sleep?”
Suzy hesitated. What the hell was Maria talking about? There’s nothing in my head, you crazy bitch—ha. “No,” Suzy said. “One of my issues is that I don’t usually sleep.”
“I understand.”
“So you have a hard time sleeping?”
“I have a hard time staying asleep.”
Right. Suzy knew what it was like to wake up with a tornado of thoughts whirling through her brain—thoughts that were tame enough in the daylight, yet seemed so determined to blow her away in the early morning hours. She wondered what was keeping Maria from sleeping.
“So who’s this ‘Pablo’ guy?” Suzy said.
Maria seemed to squirm a bit. “He’s a boss and a criminal. He’s a real schemer—and a good one.”
“Do you know him personally? Do you like him?”
“I’ve known him my whole life, and I like him sometimes—the bastard.”
“I see.” Suzy recalled a wisecrack Ricardo had ma
de about Pablo at the spaceport, and Maria’s vinegary reaction to it. Okay, so maybe I know one of the things that keeps Maria up at night.
Suzy decided to change the subject. “Where’s your brother?”
“He’s in the cockpit, hoping you’ll wake up and visit him.”
“You don’t approve?”
Maria smiled. “I love my brother, Suzy. Underneath all his silly shenanigans he’s a good guy, and I’d do anything for him. I would kill for him, do you understand?”
Suzy nodded. She understood perfectly.
“I think you do,” Maria said. “But he acts like a clown, and he doesn’t always take important things seriously.”
“A little fun never hurt anyone.”
“A little fun has killed lots of people. I guess you think I’m depressing.”
“Not really. I’m thinking you’ve probably had to deal with some tough times, but you handled them.”
“I could’ve handled them better. But I’m trying hard, just like Ricardo is trying. And I worry that he’s trying the wrong way. He has big dreams that tend to get him into trouble. Big dreams and silly women.”
Suzy felt herself stiffen. “Do I look silly to you, Maria?”
Maria studied Suzy with her keen-edged eyes. Suzy found herself bracing for Maria’s response.
“No,” Maria said. “You don’t. Go see what he’s doing… I’m going to sleep. Maybe.”
Maria got up and walked out of the lounge. Suzy shook her head and watched her go. Then she laughed to herself.
Okay, Maria was protective of Ricardo—but hadn’t Ricardo met Suzy in a bar and then tried to pick her up under false pretenses involving sex when he really just wanted a brain? Not her brain, of course—but someone’s. So who really needed protecting here? And now Maria seemed to be giving Suzy a green light to go and bang Ricardo through the floor. Well, Suzy wasn’t even thinking about it. Well, maybe a little, but she didn’t need Maria’s blessing to get naked and nuclear with anyone.
Ricardo was behind the controls when she got there. She couldn’t deny he looked sexy, in a steamy and untrustworthy kind of way, and his face lit up as she entered the cockpit.
