by J. N. Chaney
Evelyn was on the stage now, wrapped in a shimmering reflecting shield—one of the artifacts she had managed to activate, I guessed. Very impressive. The barrier gave her an unearned golden aura. She’d dressed for the occasion in a black dress and red stiletto heels. Her hair was pinned back, giving her a stark, imposing quality. Her blue eyes locked on me, her domineering smile a reflection of her self-assured victory.
She waved her hands for attention. “Now, now. Before anyone gets any ideas, know that these two are not fellow buyers, as you might think. They are, in fact, snakes in our midst, sent here to bring the Union’s justice to our doorstep and ruin us all.”
The crowd grew silent. Security let Arturo go, and he sat down, fixing Dorian with a worrying scowl. Dawn gave a more compassionate look, a hint of a smile that she hid behind her hands before she turned her attention back to Evelyn.
Evelyn continued her grandstanding presentation. “To make up, in some small part, for their deception, they have volunteered to be the final demonstration. A demonstration that will begin after you place your starting bids on the consoles in front of you.”
She delivered her final line as Marcella appeared on the stage. She was wearing a new white coat and appeared very much like she did when I first met her. The same combination of coat, boots, necklace, and eyes that Evelyn had been wearing when I first met her. Even her hair was the same color red. I let a look of shock and horror spread across my face.
Evelyn’s smile widened as she watched me. “Oh, you get it now, huh, clever boy? If only you had seen through the play when she first appeared, maybe this wouldn’t be happening to you. Honestly, I thought I taught you better.” She turned to Marcella, breaking her gaze with me for the first time since the curtain had been pulled. “Bring it in, dear.”
Marcella walked behind the stage and came back alongside a shackled Lacroan. He pushed the diffusion pod into the room as Marcella manipulated the neutronium storage container I had last seen on Meridian a year ago.
Lacroan did not so much as glance at me or Dorian. He put up a containment shield and started moving the neutronium into the pod.
As he worked, Evelyn explained her offering to the assembled crowd. “It has long been believed that nothing could bring life to the ancient artifacts we find throughout the galaxy. Union scientists hoard them but have failed time and again to find a method to bring even the slightest power to these devices. Today, for a price, you can buy a fragment of the truth.”
Lacroan finished loading the neutronium into the pod. He secured the hatch and then pressed several etchings along the surface of the device. They glowed with a brilliant light that looked impressive but was wholly different from the warm, inviting glow of the devices I had seen inside the vault.
Evelyn pointed to a door and the eight men I knew to be loyal to her marched in. Each held an inert artifact. They didn’t look like much. One appeared to be the size of a datapad and the other a sphere that would easily fit into a child’s hands.
Evelyn looked at a readout from a console placed to her left and shot me a twisted smile that was anything but friendly, then gave her attention to the group once more. “From the numbers I’m seeing in these bids, you seem unimpressed. Let’s fix that, shall we?”
The men marched up to the stage and placed one device each in front of me and Dorian, then nodded at their leader.
She held up her hand, preparing to give the order.
Behind her, Lacroan pressed another etching and the energy from the pod shifted up a notch. A hum became audible throughout the chamber.
“Now,” she said. “One more round of bids. Come now, don’t make me take this offer to more deserving clients.”
Again, the buyers typed on the consoles in the table and Evelyn watched the numbers on her own display. She shook her head and frowned. “Clearly, you lot have no faith. I can’t really say I’m surprised. If it were me, I wouldn’t want to pay for a promise not delivered upon. If it is proof you will pay for, then proof you shall have.”
She pointed to the shooter next to the engineers. “When you’re ready.”
Lacroan touched something on the pod and a glow ignited on the weapon in front of me. It hummed with the same pitch and tone as the pod itself. The shooter held the gun at arm’s length, a mixture of excitement and fear crossing his face as the light cast strange shadows upon him.
Finally, the moment of truth came. Evelyn paced along the edge of the stage, safely behind her energy shield. She took a final look at the bidding display. “You have made some strong bids here today. One of you would be very happy to take this marvelous device home.” She gestured to the diffusion pod. “Looking at these bids, though, I wonder if it is worth it, to me, to let it go for one of these numbers when I could keep it and all the credits.”
This got a rise out of the crowd. They started booing Evelyn and shuffling in their seats. It was clear they would have attacked her if they could.
Evelyn gave a shrill laugh. “Don’t try anything. I would hate for one of my men to kill so much money. Don’t think your lives are worth it? Perhaps you will be persuaded by the lives of others? Each of you has a loved one, someone you traveled to the planet with that has been missing for a few days. Did they send you some message about being at a resort or interested in an excursion? You’ve been obsessed with finishing the buy and haven’t cared? Well, know that if you don’t complete these transactions you will never see them alive again.”
The crowd was furious.
Evelyn took a step back toward the pod. “I’m not a cruel woman. I’ll give you each a moment to figure out how much life is worth. I’m not even asking you to bid more. Not that ‘bid’ is the right word now. Just pay up what you’ve offered, and everybody goes home.”
She spread her arms wide and then pointed toward me and Dorian. “Everyone but those two, in case you think maybe your body armor will protect you or you can survive a firefight.” She gave a dramatic pause, savoring the moment before she ordered my execution. “I had hoped you would learn that we could be so much better together, Alphonse. But you simply lack foresight.” She dropped her hand. “Do it, Lacroan.”
The older Constable nodded and input a series of commands.
Nothing happened.
Evelyn turned to him, confusion on her face.
Lacroan smiled. “It’s over, Evelyn.”
She walked, furious, to the older man and tried to slap him.
The frail, cowed pawn he’d been pretending to be dropped away and he snagged her wrist before the blow could land. The Constable had returned.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked.
He smiled genially down at her. “I’m ecstatic to tell you that it is, in fact, you who lacks foresight.”
Velio, content to have watched the proceedings from behind a window above, switched on a light. “Men. Do what needs to be done.”
The other guards attempted to fire before the loyalists could, but they were met only with clicks and inaction. Their firing pins had been removed previously, and now they were powerless to fight back. The loyalists mowed them down in seconds.
When it was over, Velio spoke again. “Buyers, your associates are fine. My people saw them all safely released. You will find them in the hallway outside.”
Evelyn watched the proceedings unfolding with an unbridled rage. She fought for words, but the only thing that came out was a wail.
I took that as my cue and stepped down from the target, slipping from the “bonds” that had held me. Dorian removed the unnecessary bandages from his face, stretched his shoulder, and pulled his gun. “About time I got to do this.”
I took a step forward. “It’s over, Evelyn. You have no allies here. With the stunt you just pulled, no criminal in the galaxy will trust you to start another scheme.”
Evelyn twisted away from Lacroan and managed to break his grip, then pulled a small pistol from the inside of her coat. “I have more than you think,” she sneered.
&n
bsp; She waved the gun at Marcella, who stood nearby still taking everything in. “Take the containment chamber, move. We’re leaving.”
21
Dorian and I charged through the corridor with as much speed as we could risk. The spectacle in the ballroom had deprived Evelyn of many of the loyalists she had among Velio’s men, but not all. She undoubtedly had more mercs from other systems that traveled with her on Thorn’s Poesy.
“Speak of the devils.”
A merc blocked the hallway in front of me and opened fire as we turned the corner.
I dived through a door across the hallway while Dorian took another. Velio had provided a full layout of the Black Orchid when we put the plan together. I knew Evelyn’s evacuation route and all the alternatives.
I motioned to Dorian what I planned to do, then passed through a maintenance room into a crawlspace that ran along several adjacent rooms. Three rooms down, I pushed through an access panel into a janitorial closet. I exited in time to see Dorian striding past the downed loyalist. He smirked. “About time you showed up.”
We continued down the hallway and to a lift. Dorian pulled a small device from his coat and attached it to the lift doors. It sent a shock of energy through the box, sealing the doorway.
With that, we entered a nearby flight of stairs.
Dorian took point as we snaked our way around the stairs landing by landing. “How many do you think she wasted on the lift?”
I did some calculations. “She only has six men at her disposal. Seven, counting the pilot. One in the hallway and two on the ship. I doubt she left anyone in the lift. She would have simply dropped it the moment the doors cycled closed.”
Dorian pressed himself against the far wall as a hail of gunfire came from above. “That leaves as many as four in this deathtrap?”
I nodded. “More, if she hired extras for the day.”
My partner sent a few covering shots into the stairs above. “Odds on that?”
I shook my head. “No. She thought she had everything under control.”
He smiled. “I’m going to miss working with you after this, Malloy. You make my job easy.”
Another burst of fire hit our position, sending ricochets flying. When there was a brief pause, we made a break for the next landing.
“I should have grabbed a gun,” I complained, feeling useless.
Dorian fired from his new position. “It’s more of a crutch than anything. Stick with what got you here.”
A body fell from the heights above, interrupting him and bouncing down the stairs, then it landed at our feet.
“Not that a crutch is always a bad thing,” Dorian said with a smirk.
He broke cover and ran forward again. I followed, keeping myself against the wall as best I could.
Three bodies later and we emerged onto the Black Orchid’s enclosed roof hangar. Velio’s supplied blueprints and schematics showed it to be a dome split open at the top to allow entry and exit. Thorn’s Poesy was the only ship there and the hangar was closed. I didn’t even see any of the maintenance staff that should have been working.
Evelyn stood on the hatch of the Thorn, barking orders to her two remaining mercs while the ship’s weapons powered up. She didn’t appear to have noticed our arrival, which worked to our advantage.
We split up. Dorian charged to the far side of the room, while I made my way silently along the near wall. The mercs took up firing positions behind crates at the rear of the ship. Evelyn headed inside, pulling Marcella and the containment unit along with her.
Dorian made a break from one set of crates to the next.
I watched carefully, trying to identify markings on any of the crates and cargo containers that littered the hangar space. “Careful out there, old man,” I said. “No telling what’s in any of those crates. Don’t need you using explosives for cover.”
He poked his head around to spot the enemy and quickly retreated as gunfire ripped through the space where his head had just been. “Do you think they know to take that advice?”
I looked toward where the shots had come from. “I doubt that Evelyn has much concern for her men.”
“Good point, Al. Mind getting me some breathing room?”
I ran from cover, intentionally knocking over a canister. It worked and got the mercenaries’ attention. With their fire trailing me, I dove behind cover just ahead of a spray of munitions.
Dorian had his window. A few well-placed shots ruptured the hydrogen tanks near where the mercenaries had taken cover.
There wasn’t so much an explosion as a sudden fireball that engulfed the area and scorched the hangar floor, the force of which hit the men like a truck.
Evelyn, who had been watching from the open cargo bay hatch, screamed in frustration, before stomping up the ramp and disappearing into the ship. The ramp began to lift, and I started running.
“I’m not letting her get away this time!” I barked over my shoulder.
Dorian was next to me a second later and we reached the ship at the same time. We leapt and caught the edge of the closing hatch, then dragged ourselves up and over. Dorian and I caught eyes in unspoken affirmation, and we exited the airlock into the ship’s cargo hold.
An almost manic laugh came from a few meters away.
Evelyn was standing with Marcella in front of her as a human shield. She held her gun to the back of Marcella’s head. In between us was the mobile containment unit for the neutronium.
“It’s over, Evelyn,” I said calmly. “It’s time to pay for what you’ve done. The people you’ve hurt demand justice.”
“I only do what I have to,” she sneered.
“Maybe we should ask Remi. Or Winston. The brother you let die after sending him to kill me.”
That earned me a scathing look. “I didn’t kill either of them. The Union did. The whole universe has always been stacked against me. I’m just trying to live, same as anyone.”
“What about all this?” I continued, spreading my arms to indicate the artifacts and neutronium. “You took hostages to serve your own greed.”
“Like you can talk. I came from nothing and had to claw my way to where I am. Nobody ever gave me anything. But you,” she hissed, “you had everything. Credits, fancy education, and a godsgiven talent that would have made you rich in any life you chose. And what did you do with it? You came to me, looking for a thrill. Who’s really the criminal here, Alphonse?”
Dorian leveled his gun at Evelyn. “Alright, that’s enough talk. Let the girl go and drop the weapon. You have a long prison stay to look forward to. Don’t give me a reason to cut your sentence short.”
Evelyn scoffed. “I’ll call your bluff, Tribal. You won’t risk the girl. She means too much to your partner here.”
Dorian shook his head and smiled. “That’s where you’re wrong, Evelyn. We’re Constables, which means duty above everything. Unfortunate as her death may be, her life isn’t worth the damage you’ll create if we let you go.”
I lowered my hands. “Put the gun down, Dorian.”
He didn’t take his eyes off the pair, letting my words linger before answering, letting the pause hang between us. “You’re sure about that?”
“If we sacrifice Marcella to stop Evelyn, how have we done anything to serve justice? We’ve just proven we will do what we want to get what we want, and Marcella will have been another victim. There has to be a principle, a line somewhere. You can fail me for the mission. I’ll understand. But I didn’t accept Shaw’s offer just so I could get out of prison. I accepted it to make a change. To make a difference.”
Dorian lowered his weapon and smirked. “Well now, you’re full of surprises, my young friend. Very well. It’s your operation, Alphonse. Do what you think is right.”
I looked at Marcella. “Evelyn isn’t going anywhere. She’s burned all her bridges to make this deal and it went nowhere. She’ll answer for all the lives she’s destroyed. All the people she’s used and tossed aside.”
Evelyn poi
nted the gun at me. “Oh, Alphonse. If only you could hear how stupid you sound. Marcella understood what you never could. That winning is about knowing that the uncompromising always lose.”
Marcella stepped to the left of Evelyn and gave me a somber look. Her eyes fell to the floor. “I’m sorry, Alphonse. I was sent to mislead you, to get you to Lacroan so we could get into the vault and retrieve the artifact.”
I shook my head. “Constable Lacroan was never working for you. He used your greed to bring us in. He didn’t need the artifact to make the pod work. The pod never worked. He just needed an excuse to set you up.”
“I had constant surveillance on him,” Evelyn snapped. “He never did anything but experiment with the weapons and study the artifacts I collected.”
“No, all he did was add high-energy diffusion chambers to the devices. If you knew anything about engineering, you could have seen through it. You only know how to use people. I know how to see people for who they are. That’s the difference between us.”
I looked at Marcella. “And I think the people who have worked with you long enough know that difference is important.”
Marcella looked at me for a long moment, then nodded almost imperceptibly before making a grab for her boss’s gun. Evelyn reflexively fired, sending a bullet ricocheting through the cargo hold. Then a second and a third. Marcella continued to fight wildly and slammed Evelyn’s arm against the bulkhead until the gun flew from her hand and hit the deck.
Dorian retrieved his firearm, diving to the far right to get a shot at Evelyn. Evelyn threw Marcella to her left and fell back into a containment chamber.
I rushed forward, but Evelyn had already sealed herself inside.
“You’re just delaying the inevitable, Evelyn,” I said through the intercom. “We’ll fly you to a port and pry you out.”
Dorian flanked me, looking through the small porthole at the trapped and furious woman.
She pressed the intercom and held up a device. “Wrong. I’ll fly myself wherever I need to go once you die.” She pressed a button on the device.
