Ghost Black

by Matthew S. Cox

  He raised a hand. “Only a weak man harms a child.”

  Relief came on with a slight slouch.

  “Old men, on the other hand.” He shook his head.

  She leapt to her feet, tears gathering in her eyes. “Why? You’re all working for the same bosses. This is completely insane.”

  Shiro moved his hands nearer his pistols, spinning to face her. “Garrison is going to run out of usefulness eventually. Sooner if he cannot follow orders. Once Maris has been removed, it will be on him.”

  Risa advanced two steps, pointing at him. “Orders to blow up our own citizens aren’t legitimate. Your bosses are as bad as the Corporates. What the fuck are you doing? Fighting for greed? What happened to defending our nation? Command knows you deviated from your mission parameters on a personal project.” She moved closer. “You wanted me broken. You thought you could glue the pieces back together and have me.”

  His arm blurred, pointing a gun at her heart. “My mission parameters were to assess your intentions, and if necessary, remove you as a threat. I didn’t want to kill you. I didn’t want to fall in love with you either, but I did.”

  Cold metal pressed against the skin between her breasts as she walked into the tip of the pistol; she leaned up on her toes, pressing herself against the weapon. “I’m no threat to you, or your bottom-feeding masters back on Earth. Your mission is over. Go home, Shiro… or whatever your real name is.”

  His deep chocolate-brown eyes seemed to vibrate in his skull. The venom in her last few words reduced his determined glare to a defeated expression. He pushed her back a half step with the gun, and lowered it. She settled flat on her feet, still leaning at him. A red mark remained on her skin, molded in the shape of the barrel.

  Risa trembled, more from adrenaline than fear, and raised her arms out and wide. “This is me. Naked in front of you in every sense of the word. I know the MLF is a load of dustblow set up by C-Branch for plausible deniability. I’m tired of the killing. I love Pavo. There’s a child that thinks I’m her own personal superhero. I wanted to set the people of Mars free from a corrupt government that murders its own people. Not one of the people gave a shit. The NewsNet made them see us as the enemy. We were doomed from the start, weren’t we? As soon as they didn’t need us any more, all the protection we got from the law would go away. Another feel-good moment to fool the masses. Once the ACC fell, we’d be ‘caught,’ sit through a mockery of a trial, and probably executed as traitors live on pay-per-view video. That girl’s the only person who’s ever made me feel like I made a difference. I can’t be part of this crazy world of backstabbing and shadows and bombs and lies anymore.”

  Shiro slipped his sidearm back into the gap in the coat. “You think you can have a normal life? Kids, nice apartment, maybe an office job… the whole nine?”

  “If things had been different. If I’d never met Pavo…”

  “You two could be over each other in a year.” He showed a little hope with a half-smile.

  “Doubtful.” Risa relaxed, backing up until she bumped into the bed. She fumbled behind her for the plastic, and tore open the package containing her top.

  “It’s a nice dream, but you’ll never enjoy it.”

  She held her breath, risking the loss of eye contact long enough to pull the garment on. The attached skirt covered about a third of her thighs. It wasn’t armor, but it felt like it. “I think I will.”

  He trudged to the hallway leading to the door, and paused. “Every time you take that little girl out somewhere, you’ll always be looking over your shoulder, wondering who might be following you, wondering if she’s going to watch you eat a bullet. Every time Pavo goes to work, you’ll wonder if today’s the day he doesn’t come home.” Shiro tilted his head. “Well, I suppose that would be true for any MDF officer.”

  “Is that a threat?” She straightened her fingers, claws a synapse-spark away from erupting.

  He lifted his head, a look of sorrow on his face. “No. It’s the skeleton The Life leaves sitting in your closet that you can never be rid of. The ACC, Benton Mining Corporation, extremist ‘patriot groups’ who view the MLF as terrorists… you’ve made a lot of enemies. How many of them do you think will let you traipse off into the sunset?”

  Shiro stared down at his boots for a long few seconds, and walked out.

  The squeak of the automatic door closing seemed as loud as a thunderstorm. Could Shiro be right? Should she grab Kree and Pavo and run off to some far-away place on Mars no one could ever find them? She lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bed, staring at her porcelain-white feet against the dark-blue carpet. After a few minutes, she rolled to her left and crawled onto the bed in a fetal position. Adrenaline faded, leaving her shaking and struggling to swallow bile.

  Once she gathered her composure, she shoved herself upright and pulled on her leggings. What if he couldn’t do it? His team might be coming. I have to get out of here! She threw the NetMini into her purse, grabbed her boots, and ran barefoot to the elevator, putting them on only after she started the descent to the main floor.

  The elevator chimed, doors opened to a calm lobby with a handful of Earth tourists―and no sign of Shiro. He’s playing with my head. She strode across the cavernous room of maroon tiles and marble-inlay columns, into the simulated summer warmth of Arcadia City’s outdoors. Tall buildings surrounded her; six or seven blocks to the right, a spread of green trees broke up the silver and glass with a sizable park. Any of ten thousand possible hiding places for snipers.

  Risa pressed a hand to her face, chilled by the horrible thought he’d been right.

  9

  Quality Time

  A squeak emanated from the door as Risa pushed it aside, revealing her soon-to-be-former room on Death Row. She expected Maris or Lieutenant Kendrick would’ve given her lip about not clearing it out yet, but it’s not as if the MLF had people lined up for a spot on demolition detail. Perhaps news of her change of status hadn’t been made open knowledge yet. Her vacating the room would invariably trigger questions Maris might not want to answer.

  She stepped in, finding Kree sprawled on the floor, scissoring her legs while drawing on a large white ‘paper’ projected on the floor by a device sitting on the edge of the desk. The girl’s hardened glare evaporated with a gasp. She sprang to her feet, tears streaming from her eyes, and ran into a hug. Risa knelt, her arms wrapped around the trembling child. Every time I go ‘outside,’ she worries I won’t come back. Risa swallowed hard.

  “Hey, kiddo. Sorry for taking so long. What are you drawing?”

  “Speeware,” mumbled Kree. She led her by the hand to the middle of the room and flopped back on her stomach by the drawing.

  The child traced a silver stylus around a crude human figure she no doubt meant to be Risa: boxy legs and body filled in with zigzags of black, a circle for a head with long hair in wavy squiggles and two purple spots for eyes. Massive blue lines streamed from the figure’s circle-hands, Nano claws taller than the stick figure wielding them.

  Bodies, cut clear in half, littered the area. The child drew in a smaller version of Risa, also with claws, standing behind her.

  Kree glanced back and up at her, and pointed at the drawing. “That’s you.”

  Risa eased the door closed behind her, dimming the light from the corridor outside. Her ballistic suit rattled on a hanger as she brushed past it to sit behind the girl. Kree held the stylus up and said “colors,” which caused a palette to scroll open in midair. She poked the tip into a square of deep red, and resumed drawing―adding blood to the dismembered figures, coloring with such energy her body shook from the side-to-side motion of her arm. Flecks of black glitter in the girl’s gauzy skirt glinted in the light from the projector.

  Lines around the scene, meaningless before, changed in Risa’s perception into the basic suggestion of a subterranean corridor. A phallic shape sticking out of the ground near the left edge became a PubTran podium. Is this what she thinks would’ve happened if
those thugs attacked me instead of her mother? Risa put a hand on Kree’s head. What am I supposed to say to this?

  “You’re pretty good at drawing. What’s happening?” She tried to sound cheerful and interested.

  Kree’s arm moved faster, grinding the red into the picture as her lips curled in an angry sneer. “The bad people tried to hurt you.”

  Risa lowered herself onto her stomach, lying next to her. “You’ve got claws too. Did you help?”

  Her rage faltered. Kree sat still for a little while in silence, then shrugged. “No. I wanted to be scary so they didn’t try an’ hurt me.”

  Risa leaned on her elbows, watching as Kree switched to a dull grey-blue, and filled in the walls, outlining what appeared to be the entryway of a store. She switched to black again, adding crude figures in the window. It happened near a clothing store. Maybe it got caught on cameras. Pavo might― Oh, what am I doing? I’m not going to hunt down random gang thugs. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  “I know,” said Kree.

  Risa stared at the childish rendition of such a gory scene, unsure if she should try to distract the child from that memory or talk about it more. She’s opening up in her own way. “I have bad dreams too.”

  Kree looked up, mouth open as if to speak. For ten seconds, she stared, gaping, and emitted a startled shriek. “Your eyes!”

  When the crying started, Risa pulled her close, rocking and whispering reassuring things until the wailing subsided. “What’s wrong?”

  “You broke it,” whined Kree. “You broke your speeware.”

  “I’ve still got my speeware.” Risa grinned, activated her neural wiring and tickled her all over.

  Kree quieted. After a few stuttering post-cry breaths, she giggled and squirmed. “Why did you get green?”

  “These are the eyes I was born with. Raziel had them.” She pushed herself up to sit on the floor. “They’re real, not electronic.”

  Kree crawled into her lap, staring close. “Can you still see in the dark?”

  “If I have a headset on, yes.”

  “I guess they’re okay. The purple was prettier.”

  Risa laughed, and ruffled her hair. “I have to ask you something important.”

  “I wanna stay with you.” Kree pouted. “The boys all think you’re creepy and weird, but I don’t. Garson said you’re scared you won’t be good as a mom, but… but…” She broke into sniffles.

  The projector’s light cast harsh shadows on the little face staring up at her; Kree seemed to be fighting hard not to lapse into uncontrolled bawling.

  “He’s right, but my real fear is that I’d go out there one day and get hurt… and I didn’t want you to go through that again.”

  “But you can’t get hurt!” Kree leapt into a hug. “You’re a speeware.” She sniveled. “I mean, you got speeware.”

  Risa patted her on the back. I’m not the only one. C-Branch operator with ten years of combat experience + speedware = Risa in a box. “I’m not gonna do that anymore, okay? I would rather look after you.”

  Kree smiled for a moment, before crying more.

  Risa rocked her. “I don’t want you to stay down here. These people are like my family, but it’s too dangerous here for a little girl.”

  “I don’t wanna go outside.” Kree’s eyes glazed over. She curled fetal and stuck her thumb in her mouth, trembling. “Don’ wanna.”

  Shit. Uhh, now what? “Okay… okay… not yet.” Dammit, I can’t keep caving in. “Shh. You’re safe, kiddo. No one is going to hurt you.”

  “I don’ wanna go outside. The bad people are outside.” She cuddled tighter against Risa’s chest. “Please don’t make me.”

  How much would it cost to fly Chaia back here to make her forget? Risa leaned forward, touching heads. Don’t be silly. Be a parent.

  Kree whined.

  Okay, it won’t hurt to wait another day or two. Maybe Gen has an idea how to deal with this. “Okay. Wanna play Space Rabbitz?”

  “No.” Kree sat up, frowning. Aside from the tears still running down her cheeks, she looked irritated rather than scared. “Colony Commando. Space Rabbitz is too cute.”

  “But the rabbits have giant missile launchers and grenades and swords.”

  Kree folded her arms. “They’re cartoons. It’s a stupid game ’cause you can’t die. It’s made for little-little kids.”

  “Colony Commando it is.”

  Risa shut off the art projector and pulled her Yume Koujou game console out from under the floordrobe. Kree put on her visor helmet while Risa used the screen of a fifty-inch holo-bar. She would’ve plugged in direct, but didn’t want to abandon her awareness of the world. Even here, she couldn’t let her guard down.

  Soon, two overbearing caricatures of the ‘grizzled space commando’ descended on an alien-infested colony world and set to the task of committing gratuitous animated violence on bug-like enemies.

  She scooted over to use the bed as a seat back, and Kree tucked in against her right side. Despite the game’s complexity (power and ammo management, as well as each soldier having to constantly adjust command settings for a support bot), Kree held her own. This kid’s going to be a techie from hell. She blinked. Shit. I never even thought about school.

  A beep in her head preceded the words ‘Inbound Call’ rendering in midair. Without the pixilation of cybereyes, the feed directed into her visual cortex made the letters appear as if they’d been carved from solid amber.

  The system didn’t give her the chance to decline; after one beep, the face of General Everett appeared. Super high resolution made him eerie, as if his real floating head and shoulders had appeared in the room with her.

  「General…」 Risa spoke to him with a thought, but kept her attention focused on the screen so her space commando didn’t die.

  「Apologies for the sudden break in. I know this is an unlisted head.」 He grinned. 「I wanted to give you an update.」

  “Grenades!” yelled Kree. “Got a bad guy behind that rover.”

  「Go ahead, General.」

  Risa had never been big on video games, and using a handheld controller made her reaction time even slower. She managed to get a grenade over the top of a flipped six-wheeler, but took three hits doing it. Kree guided her soldier over and administered ‘first aid,’ which added quite a bit of green back to her life bar.

  “You’re not very good at this,” said Kree. “Gotta keep behind cover.”

  General Everett cleared his throat. 「I’ve been working from the back end to stall the DMI. That’s the Director of Military Intelligence, General Deirdre Murray.」

  「Damn Earther.」 Risa scowled. “Cover me, kid.” Her commando sprinted from cover and jumped over a cluster of broken tires. Energy ‘bullets’ from the alien soldiers too stupid to duck Kree’s suppressive fire whistled by. Controlling a character who didn’t have speedware sucked. The kid killed three of four before her ammo ran out.

  「Yes, yes. General Murray is originally from Earth. There’s too much paranoia about Martian Independence to let anyone born there rise high up the ranks yet. Anyway, I’ve managed to get some good news at least. General Murray is not the cause of our problems, it’s a Senator.」

  Risa cringed. 「You said good news. That sounds like a shitstorm of interplanetary proportions.」

  「Well, it is good in a way.」 Everett smiled. 「I don’t have to ask you to assassinate a standing military officer.」

  「Oh, and sending me off to kill a Senator is better? I already told you. I am not an assassin.」

  Everett chuckled. The amount of grey in his short afro seemed to have tripled since their last meeting. 「I’m not going to split the semantics with you. Silenced weapon at close range or a bomb from a safe distance. Six of one… Anyway, in the meantime, I am suppressing requests from filtering down channel to your unit for strikes.」

  “My turn!” yelled Kree. “Cover me. Imma run to the trench and blow up the glowy thing.”

 
Risa hit the button to make her soldier stand, and fired her plasma rifle in the general direction of enemy troops. The AI was good enough to duck behind nearby objects, making suppressive fire a useful tactic. Kree’s blue-armored space commando vaulted a portable barricade and landed in a metal-walled trench. As soon as Kree’s avatar was safe, Risa followed.

  「I told Garrison I’m not interested in planting bombs for the Front anymore. I want off the roster. Civilian. Even if the strings are pulled from Earth, the UCF isn’t so bad… plus, human settlement on Mars isn’t developed enough to survive total war.」 Another six-wheeled rover came speeding around the corner of a distant building, coming to bear on them with a pair of lasers that fired long-duration beams. Risa swapped weapons to a rocket launcher as big as her character, wishing this ‘inventory’ thing worked in the real world. Her missile went short, but detonated in the ground close enough to flip the vehicle up so its nose pointed skyward. She fired a second missile into the undercarriage, destroying it in one shot.

  “Cool!” yelled Kree. “You know the secret. Takes four missiles to kill ’em if you don’t do that.”

  “Good thing I got lucky.” She winked, though Kree couldn’t see her with the visor on.

  Everett’s lips turned downward in a grim frown. 「I’d like to be able to assure you that will be possible. Technically, you and your people aren’t on the roster as active duty, with the exception of General Maris and Colonel Tanais.」

  「Garrison’s still active duty?」

  「Yes,」 said Everett, chuckling. 「I understand where you’re coming from, but you have to accept that you―as well as everyone else associated with the Front―are in a precarious position, both legally and politically. If the wrong side wins the argument behind closed doors, you’re terrorists. All that protection you’ve enjoyed goes away.」

  Risa’s grip on the controller tightened. Navigating a narrow metal trench where turret guns popped out of the walls at random intervals didn’t help her nerves. She yelped in surprise when a second gun sprang out and nailed her. Out of health points, her commando crumpled to the ground. Kree blasted the turret, walked over, and crouched. Her avatar waved a white rectangle with a green plus on it back and forth over Risa’s ‘dead’ character.