King Killer

by Michael-Scott Earle

  It was definitely my sister, and a million questions exploded in my brain like fireworks.

  “Should I keep going?” Juliette asked after a few moments, and I nodded at her.

  “I may be late, but your brother isn’t here. Why not?” my sister asked as she slid into the seat across from Warren. His eye focused on her cleavage for a moment, and then he looked up at her face before concentrating on her breasts again.

  “He couldn’t make it. Other business. I can speak for him.”

  “I asked for both of you. I’m offering a large chunk of money.” My sister’s mouth scrunched to the left side of her face to show she was annoyed. I’d seen her do that thousands of times, and the movement further convinced me it was her.

  “I said I can speak for him. You aren’t our only client. We have work for months.” Warren’s voice was a growl.

  “Of course,” my sister said, and then she motioned to one of the men standing beside the table. The bodyguard pulled a hand-sized computer out of his inside jacket pocket, set it on the table, and then pressed the button to pop out the folding screen. A moment later an image of my face appeared, but it cropped around my head so that I couldn’t tell when or where the picture had been taken.

  “This man goes by the name of Adam. He’s ex-special forces, speaks English, Japanese, and some Chinese.”

  “And you want him dead?” Warren asked. “Ex-lover?”

  “No,” my sister said. “Alive, along with this woman.” The screen flashed to show Eve. This shot was zoomed out a bit from mine and I could see the collar of the outfit she was wearing. It was the red and gold lingerie she wore when we kidnapped Uwuwto Alwin back on Trappist - 1e and forced him to give us access to Elaka Nota’s shipyard.

  “She’s hot. What’s her name?” Warren asked.

  “Eve, you should consider her more dangerous than Adam,” my sister replied.

  “Adam and Eve? Whatever. So this is a kidnapping? We normally don’t do this kind of work. We are a military outfit with over four thousand soldiers. We fight wars for corps and governments. You aren’t going to be able to afford--”

  “I will pay thirty-thousand kilos upfront, and then another thirty-thousand once they are delivered alive,” my sister interrupted, and I could actually hear Warren struggle to hold back a gasp. “They also have a military vessel named Persephone.” The screen flashed to show a view of the manta ray shaped vessel launching from the shipyard on Trappist - 1e.

  “You want the ship also?” Warren asked.

  “I’ll pay you thirty for that also,” my sister said.

  “For a military vessel? She’ll be worth much more on the open market,” Warren snickered.

  “The ship has a dark history. You’ll be better off giving it to me, but my main priority is the man and woman.” My sister crossed her arms and then turned to one of her bodyguards. A waiter had approached, but the large man gestured for her to leave with a wave of his massive hand.

  “So back to this Adam,” Warren said. “What kind of special forces are we talking about here?”

  “Jupiter Marine,” she replied quickly. “But he was part of an experimental genetics program.”

  “Genetics program?” Warren asked. “You mean super soldier shit?”

  “Close enough.”

  “What about the woman? Why are her eyes red?” Warren asked.

  “She was also part of a genetics program,” my sister answered.

  “And you said she is more dangerous than the man? I’m finding that hard to believe.”

  “How many of your troops can you assign to the task?” my sister didn’t answer his question, and I knew her face well enough to know she was getting bored.

  The situation made my head spin. My sister was a sweetheart, shy, and spent most of her childhood ill and in our small apartment. Thirty-thousand kilos of rhodium was more money than our family could ever dream of, and she wasn’t batting a long eyelash at the amount, or the mercenary that she was ordering around.

  Warren’s eye shifted down to his glass, and then back to her breasts before he spoke, “it’s just two of them. I’ll take ten of my warriors and bring them back to you.”

  “You do not understand my instructions,” my sister hissed as she shook her head. “You claimed to be a military outfit. I am looking for results based on the money I am paying you.”

  “And it’s just two of them,” Warren said. “Ten of mine will be fine. I’ll even lead the mission. Where can I find them?”

  “They will kill your ten men without blinking and then kill you.”

  “Lady, you don’t know who you are talking to. We’ve toppled governments and taken over planets. We won’t have a problem with two idiots who call themselves Adam and Eve.”

  “I will phrase this another way,” my sister said as she tapped two of her nails on the table. “If I were paying you this amount of rhodium to topple a government, or take over a planet, how many of your soldiers would you bring?”

  “I don’t like where this is going,” Warren huffed. “I know how to do my job, and I don’t need some skirt questioning my methods.”

  “Then I suppose we are done here.” She nodded to one of her guards, and he moved to take the computer from the table.

  “Wait, wait, wait,” Warren said. “Alright. Hold on. Tell me a little more about where I can find them.”

  “They were last seen on a station named Queen’s Hat. It is in System 879. Have you heard of it?” My sister gestured the big guard, and he took his hands off the computer. The authoritative movement was a bit alien to me since she’d never been one to order someone else around.

  “I’ve been there. Big place, and it’s a week away.”

  “They will be coming back there to visit a Captain Juliette Larns. She is in charge of the security team in their District B.”

  “You know when they are coming back?” Warren asked.

  “I do not.”

  “How about the crew on their ship? Do you know how many people they have around them?”

  “Reports say a blonde woman accompanies them.”

  “And you don’t care about her?” Warren asked.

  “Just bring me Adam, Eve, and their ship,” my sister said, and her voice was surprisingly cold. “Now tell me how many troops you’ll take.”

  “Hmmm,” Warren said as he leaned back in his chair. “I can probably take over most of the station with a bit less than a thousand troops. Will take us a few months, but I’ll start with District B. We’ve done this before with other stations.”

  “I know,” my sister replied. “That is why I am hiring you.”

  “Alright,” the mercenary said after a few seconds. “Your thirty thousand will buy six months at the station. If your Adam and Eve don’t come back there, it’s on you, and we’ll move onto another mission.”

  “They will return within six months,” my sister said. “They have a friendship with this Larns woman.”

  “What else can you tell me about them?” Warren asked as he pointed to the computer.

  “There is more information on there. I recommend you do not underestimate them.” My sister pushed the computer across the table, and Warren rested his hand on it.

  “Lady, we are the Black Hearts. We don’t fail our missions. I’ll bring you these two and their ship. I need the rhodium now.”

  “I’ll have it delivered to your ship,” my sister said.

  “In the next hour,” Warren said. “We’ll have to leave soon so we can access Queen Hat’s security.”

  “It will be delivered in an hour,” my sister said as she slid out from the booth. Warren’s eyes rested on her ass when she stood, but he looked up at her breasts when she turned to face him. “You have my contact information if you need to reach me in the next hour.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll look through your computer and let you know if we need anything else.”

  “Good luck,” my sister said, and then she turned from Warren and walked o
ut of the restaurant.

  “The rest of it is him going back to his ship and talking to his brother,” Zea said.

  “How many months of data was on this?” Juliette asked as she looked from my face to the hacker.

  “It had half a year of shit on it. Most of it was pretty distasteful.”

  “How did you--”

  “Kasta helped,” Zea interrupted Juliette and pointed to the android. “She was able to play it all with super fast speed and sound.”

  “I’m pretty amazing,” the android winked at Juliette while Paula shook her head at her sister.

  “Sooooo…” Juliette turned back to me, and I felt the eyes of the four other women follow. “That was your sister?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I wiped my face with my gloved fingers. “It doesn’t make any sense. It looked like her, sounded like her, but why is she hiring mercenaries to capture Eve and me?”

  “And how did she get the money?” Eve asked.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Who the fuck is she working for? Thirty-thousand upfront? That’s insanity.”

  “Warren said Queen’s Hat was a week away from where they met,” Juliette said as she puffed on her cigarette.

  “That could be anywhere,” Zea said.

  “But we have their ships,” the redhead said with a wink. “We can see how fast their drives are.”

  “And don’t you have a record of when they docked?” Paula asked. “We can run a navigation simulation and narrow down the possible planets or stations.”

  “I can watch the video again and look for more clues,” Kasta said. “I wasn’t focusing on it the last time. We should be able to narrow down our options to one of a few locations, maybe even one.”

  “I’ll ask my people to pull the info from the Black Heart ships,” Juliette pressed a button on her phone and repeated the order to Smith while Paula and Kasta leaned their heads together and whispered their plans.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said after Juliette finished yelling at Smith.

  “What do you mean?” Zea turned to me with confusion in her blue eyes.

  “We have a lot of other shit to do,” I said as I took a deep breath.

  “Uhhh, but it’s your sister, and she’s looking for you.” Zea raised a blonde eyebrow.

  “Or she isn’t,” I said. “She could be working for someone else.”

  “Then she’s in trouble, and you need to help her.” Zea frowned.

  “Instead of the millions of people on Uraniel?” I asked. “Every day that passes gets closer to these SAVO fuckers arriving in orbit.”

  “Wait, what are SAVO again?” Juliette asked.

  “Superpowered Asshole Vampire Overlords,” Zea answered.

  “Madalena’s people call them Draugr,” I clarified. “My point is that we’ve got a lot of shit on our plate right now. Madalena wants me to complete this rite of passage, which will take me months we don’t have and end with me hanging from this tree for nine days. We don’t know if killing her father is going to help, but even if it does, how many months will it take to track him down?”

  “You are going to do the rite if you can’t get out of it by killing her dad?” Paula asked with surprise.

  “No,” I said. “But I’m not sure where that would leave Madalena and me. If she is the queen of her people but is submitted to me, does it mean I can order her to help me fight these SAVO-Draugr fuckers when they come to Uraniel?”

  My friends looked at me, and I felt emotion drift up to me from the ground.

  “She is awake and coming up,” I said as I pointed to the ground. “Looks like we’ll get some answers soon.”

  “Uhhh, I’ll get her a chair,” Paula said as she rose from her seat at the back of the room and looked at Juliette.

  “You’re gonna get her a chair?” Kasta scoffed.

  “Did you forget what we saw on the train platform?” Paula smirked at her sister. “I’m getting her a chair.”

  “Next office over,” Juliette said as she pointed to her right. Paula went into the hallway, and the redhead turned back to me. “Your wife doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor.”

  “She’s not really his wife,” Zea said.

  “She thinks she is, Blondie, but does Adam?”

  “I haven’t had much time to think about it,” I said.

  “That’s a pretty bullshit answer,” Juliette laughed as Paula dragged another chair into the now very cramped office.

  “Did you send the seeds and food to Uraniel?” I asked to change the subject.

  “Of course,” Juliette set down her datapad and then ran her fingers over her terminal control buttons. As soon as she finished, she gestured to her screen, and we could see the shipping manifest.

  “That looks good,” I said after I studied it.

  “Good?” she said sarcastically.

  “Okay, my bad. It’s great. This will really help them. Thank you.” I shot the redhead a smile. She’d shipped them three times the metric tonnage of stock that I thought we’d been able to afford.

  “I had a few favors I cashed in,” Juliette said as her mouth formed a smirk. “You can thank me later, maybe over dinner? My eye might be all swollen, but my mouth works fine.”

  “Oh my--”

  “I’m talking about dinner, Blondie,” Juliette interrupted Zea. “And maybe dessert afterward.” She smirked at me, and Kasta laughed.

  “Why do you think that’s funn--” Zea turned to ask Kasta, but there was a firm knock on the door, and the hacker’s words were stuck in her throat.

  “It’s Madalena,” I said, and Paula opened the door for the warrior woman.

  “Hey, Madalena,” my friends and I chorused as the brunette stepped into the room.

  “Hello, Husband,” she said as her eyes focused on me.

  It was painfully obvious that she was ignoring the other women in the cramped office.

  “We are discussing our future plans,” Eve said as she gestured to the empty chair at the back of the office. “Will you sit with us?”

  Madalena looked at the chair and at the women sitting closer to me, and then her eye settled on my face. They were emotionless, as usual, but I could feel her anger.

  “There is no slight intended, Madalena,” Eve said. “You were last to come in, so that is your chair.”

  “I will stand then,” the Prime Valkyrie said to Eve.

  “Ohhhhkaaaayyyy,” Juliette said as she puffed on her smoke again.

  “Adam, will we be returning to Nordar - 13?” Madalena turned to me and crossed her arms over her chest. She had put on her uniform, and her pulse rifle hung behind her back. None of the other women on my crew carried their weapons, but I assumed the Prime Valkyrie wasn’t comfortable being unarmed in a station that had just been attacked.

  “I have some questions,” I said. “Sit down.”

  “I would prefer to stand,” she replied calmly.

  “I’m telling you to sit, are you submitted to me, or not?” I stared at her, and she quickly followed my order and put her ass on the chair. I could feel her burning anger though, but it seemed to be directed more at Eve than me.

  “Madalena, you did a great job yesterday,” I said.

  “Day before,” Zea corrected me.

  “Day before yesterday,” I said with a chuckle. “We wouldn’t have survived without you taking out the mercenaries on the train and bringing us the drone controls. Then you cleared most of the station out.” I could feel her pride swell at my words, but she didn’t smile.

  “I serve you, my lord.”

  “Eve could sense where the mercenaries were in the station, and she used her powers to help me get through them.” I gestured to Eve, and the vampire smiled at me.

  “Zea used her computer skills to shut down Queen Hat’s systems. Then she gave us eyes in the police station. Paula and Kasta helped us with surveillance, and they piloted the drones.” The three blonde women nodded.

  “I understand that we worked as a team,” Madalena
said. “I am familiar with battle strategies, Adam. I have commanded star fleets and numerous ground battles.”

  “I know you know, but you are upset you are sitting in the back. You were the one who decided to submit to me. I’m sick of you being angry at my friends. We work together, or we don’t work. They all respect your abilities and want to get along with you.” Perhaps this was a conversation I should have privately with the Prime Valkyrie, but the woman was tough, and I had seen her kill one of her crew for disobeying her. I was more than sure she could deal with my comments.

  “I understand, my lord. I have angered you. I am sorry.” She bowed her head slightly, and her brown hair fell over her shoulders.

  “Let’s move onto another topic,” I said. “Tell us more about your father.”

  “What do you wish to know?” she asked as she fixed her cold eyes on me.

  “Before I first met him, I recalled you saying something about engaging him in solo combat. What would happen if someone killed him in that manner?”

  “He feared I would challenge him,” she said. “When I found out he attempted to thwart your rite, and Odin’s will, I fought against him.”

  “Then he escaped?” I asked, and my friends turned to face her.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  She let him go. She could not bring herself to kill him even though she knew she should have.

  I thought through Eve’s words as I looked at Madalena. I didn’t need to press the Prime Valkyrie about her choice not to kill her father. It must have been a hard decision for her to make, and if anything, it made her more human.

  “What happens if I kill him?” I asked.

  “You will need to,” she replied. “After your rite, it will tie up the loose end and then allow more legitimacy to your claim as King of all the Nordar.”

  “If I kill him, that will mean I am king?” I asked.

  “If someone beats him in combat, yes,” Madalena said with a slow nod. “It is more complicated, since I am queen now. If someone from another clan kills him, it will not matter because I am already Queen of the Vaish.”

  “I’m talking about me, though,” I said. “What if I kill him before the rite? Will that be enough to satisfy you?”