by Rob Guy
“I have honored them,” she said, indicating Angel and the little girl. “I have honored you.” She paused. “But more importantly I have honored their mother and father.”
Harry Watt was a tough son-of-a-bitch when he wanted to be. He hadn’t killed anyone or anything like that, but he had been in a few near death scrapes and seen colleagues gunned down during his time with the Bureau. Yes, it was safe to say that Harry Watt, despite his occasional happy go lucky attitude to life, was a bit of a tough bastard. Yet Heidi’s words bit through his soul as surely as the most powerful and sophisticated ordinance. A dozen flak jackets would have been no defence. He looked at her. She looked at him. He looked at the tiny pair of dark eyes staring back into his. He suddenly saw Grace stood before him, same age, same deep intense eyes. Fragile, innocent. And then there it was. His heart jumped.
Despite the pain, Harry reached out and took the child in an embrace, his eyes bursting with tears.
11
Chisato
“Well?” asked Harry.
“Your spleen isn’t ruptured, you’ll be pleased to know,” Heidi replied. She took out the specimen and chucked it in the disposal, along with a pair of rubber gloves. She switched off the machine.
“Yes, I am pleased to know. Thanks.”
“But your ribs are a problem. If we are to get you on The Infinity Wing day after next we are going to have to get them fixed, tonight.”
“I don’t see how. Unless you know someone who can give me a shot, and place a gel jacket round me. I’m guessing from your smile that you do.”
“I do.”
“Doctor Noe?”
“You know him?”
“No, I don’t know Noe, but Angela told me about him.”
“It’s okay now, Harry. You can call her Angel if you prefer.”
“Thanks, Heidi.”
After being accepted into the household, Harry had proceeded to tell Heidi and Angel all that had happened, from his meeting with Headlock right up to him grabbing Angel. The stunning little redhead wanted to know more about Raquel, but Harry told her she was not in the picture. Throughout, Heidi was strangely reticent, shifting her gaze from one to the other.
All agreed that Harry could not possibly board the cruiser Infinity Wing as himself. The newscasts had his face displayed permanently in the bottom right corner, with a number to call if sighted. Somehow they had gotten hold of his old Bureau ID, the one that made him look like a career criminal. In addition, he had neglected to inform them that technically he was already en-route to Mars aboard the Flying Dart, an oversight that did not impress Heidi.
“You certainly know how to complicate your life, Harry,” she said.
“Indeed I do,” he replied, accepting another rose petal from Chisato, the little girl. She giggled before scurrying off to get more.
It turned out that she was Angel’s baby sister, and not her daughter as Harry had first thought. Heidi did reveal a little more about Angel’s past; that for six months following the deaths of their parents and brother, until the pair had met Heidi and Dolores, they had lived on the streets of Venus Station. Harry had not pried, but it didn’t need an extensive line of questions to know how hard that must have been. No wonder Angel did not wish to discuss the matter. She was only nineteen when her parents were killed, making her twenty one now, and Chisato was barely two when the tragedy occurred. Needless to say this fresh information only heightened Harry’s respect for Angel, and his inherent need to want to protect her.
Heidi went on to explain that the first thing to do was to fix his ribs, and somehow disguise his bruised jaw. A little make up would work for the jaw, but the ribs were a different matter. But Heidi reassured him that Doctor Noe could be persuaded to fit Harry with a state of the art analgesic gel pack. This marvellous invention supported the troubled area, in this case Harry’s ribcage, and was only microns thick, whilst at the same time maintaining body temperature and allowing the skin to breath.
However, there was still one thing that was troubling Harry. His gun. Somehow he had to find a way to smuggle it onboard the ship. This was the one part of the plan neither woman was happy about.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Harry explained. “It means a lot to me.”
“How can you be emotionally attached to a gun?” Angel asked.
“He’s a man, Angela, honey,” said Heidi with a wry smile. “You know how they love their weapons. I bet he even has a name for it.”
Angel waited. “Well?”
Harry made a noise, and puckered his lips “Captain Chaos,” he said, feeling silly and rightly so.
Both women laughed. So Harry went on the offensive with another concern.
“You’ve fixed my jaw, you’ve taken care of the ribs. But how do you plan to actually get me onboard?”
The girls looked at each other and giggled. Harry lost patience. “Look, this is serious. I need my gun, or certainly a gun, and I need to be on that ship. How do you plan to do it?”
“With this.” Heidi picked up a small device from the table in front of her, which all this time Harry had mistook for the multi-media remote. Heidi keyed in a code. There was a humming sound and a small section of the far wall collapsed.
Harry managed to stand up and look round. Heidi and Angel were exchanging amused looks. “Holy cow!” exclaimed Harry. “Where did you get that? What’s it doing here? Shit, who the hell are you guys?”
“Come and take a look, Harry,” Heidi said taking his arm.
They walked slowly up to the hole in the wall. Chisato came running back into the room, clutching more rose petals in her tiny fist. Angel scooped her up, but she still managed to stretch her arm out and offer them to Harry. He smiled as he took them, crossing his eyes as he did so. Chisato giggled and hid her face.
Inside the alcove was a device Harry had seen several times during his tenure with the Bureau. He knew exactly what it was, and he also knew it was highly illegal. Before him was a FaceChanger, a device that was pretty much self-explanatory. They were originally developed as an alternative to expensive plastic surgery, and for special occasions, or simply to frighten the children. However, like all good things, they were also employed by the criminal element, after which it was made illegal to privately own one.
“I love it!” Harry declared. “I’m going to Mars!”
“We all are,” Heidi said, squeezing his arm.
12
Dr Noe
It wasn’t easy, but Heidi was able to get Harry to see Doctor Noe that same evening. Harry was slowly figuring out the amount of influence the delectable blonde had on the more important members of Venus Station’s hierarchy. Noe’s Surgery was on the other side of the city, which if you lived on Earth would have been a real problem. But on Venus Station you could pretty much get to any point on foot within thirty minutes.
They took a cab so that they arrived there almost immediately. Heidi bribed the driver into faking a single fare, and the two of them hopped off at Rillington Place, a seedy looking district noted for discount operations, plastic surgery and animal welfare. Heidi directed them down a street with poor lighting and an ominous smell. Harry saw his first rats on the Station at the end of the street, and pretty much decided there and then that this guy, whoever he was, was not sticking anything in him, for love or money.
On the subject of the former, Harry could no longer deny his feelings for Angel. He knew what it felt like to lose a parent, never mind two. After hearing her story, it only strengthened his resolve to help take care of her and Chisato as best he could. But for that to happen would involve some kind of relationship with Heidi. The scoundrel he was, Harry knew the kind of relationship he would like to have with her. However, reality tended to get in the way of such fanciful imaginings. He felt sure she was not as tough or as independent as she made out, and there had been a definite attraction between them back at the apartment. But was he bold enough, or stupid enough, to act?
Yet this whole s
et up was crazy. He’d known them both a matter of hours, but already, it seemed, these two women were going to be a part of his life for the foreseeable future.
On the subject of the latter, Harry was just about out of funds. Bribes and kipper ties had seen to that. In addition, the 15k he had given Manny had pretty much cleaned him out, and Headlock had not wired any more. All of which could only mean one of two things. Either everything Harry had pieced together about the Judge was wrong, and he himself was being coerced, (not likely), or Headlock was tightening the screw, and waiting for Harry to make a mistake. (More likely). The Judge was privy to all headline making news around the System, and so would most certainly be aware of Harry’s predicament. Since no help had been forthcoming, it was pretty obvious to Harry that he was being set up. To what end, only time would tell.
Harry had thought about asking Manny to give him back the 15k. But since the shooting, any calls he might now make to him would most certainly be intercepted, and the whole Station fleet would be on top of him. But the one thing that Headlock had perhaps not anticipated was him finding allies, people who did not take on face value information given out by the authorities, people who actually thought for themselves, who questioned. People like Heidi and Angel.
It was plain that Heidi was not short of a few credits. Headlock had his fingers in a lot of pies, but so too did Angel’s aunt. Heidi, as well as her accounting skills, medical training and desirous looks, was an extremely shrewd businesswoman. She was not forthcoming about the depth of her wealth, but twice Harry overheard calls being taken in real time from Earth and Mars. She confirmed what Angel had told him earlier, that between them they had managed to save enough money to buy a plot of land in the more affluent Lowell District of Mars Central, and have their own design of house built on it. All that, as well as a suite onboard The Infinity Wing.
Harry felt sure Heidi could easily afford to fund their Martian adventure by herself, but somehow he knew that the two women had come to some agreement that Angel should pay her way, however small. He learnt too that they were going to rent out their place on the Station, keeping it as an investment for Chisato’s future. Angel’s little sister was one of those children whom you took an instant liking to. She was so adorable, so polite, but quietly stubborn. At such an early age, and with only a short time in her presence, Harry could see she knew her own mind, just like her big sister.
The apartment building housing Doctor Noe’s Surgery glowed spectrally in the dim shadows of Rillington Place. A faint amber streetlight emitted just enough light to illuminate the front of the building. Now, Harry loved the old movies, and the scene reminded him of more than one horror film he’d watched. As his over-active imagination began to work its terrors, all that was missing, as his and Heidi’s feet clattered down the street, was thick, rolling fog, eerie, unsettling violin music, and maybe some bats. And let’s not forget the killer, watching them from beneath the streetlight, shrouded in orange fog, wearing a top hat and cape. Unseen to them, the phantom turned the butcher’s knife in his hand.
As they approached the light, Harry half expected the knife wielding manic to spring forth from the darkness and come at them. He kept close to Heidi, instinctively drawing her away from the lamppost. His eyes were everywhere. Only when Heidi opened the door and he jumped in behind her to close it, did he start breathing again.
“You okay?” Heidi asked, frowning.
“I’m fine,” Harry answered, a little shakily. “Lead the way.”
They climbed the stairs to the first floor.
Doctor Noe greeted them personally as they entered the office. He was taller than Harry by a good six centimetres, but extremely thin. His lank black hair framed a face that resembled a pug dog, and Harry wondered how on Earth someone this ugly could ever get laid. To top it off he wore glasses, had spots, and a missing molar. Not a lot going for him.
“Ah! Good evening, Miss Heidi,” he said, in a broken Mandarin accent. “So nice to see you again, if a little late. And who is your friend?”
“The one I told you about earlier. You know, the broken bird?”
“Ah yes of course. Hello. How are you?”
“I’m good, thank you,” said Harry, bowing along with the doctor.
“I think not. Otherwise why you here, yes?” Noe broke out into an exaggerated laugh, one not shared by either Heidi or Harry. After a few seconds he calmed down. “So, three rib was it?”
“Yes,” said Heidi.
“With Peking sauce or barbeque?” He laughed again, and this time so did Harry. He thought the joke a good one, and nudged Heidi to join in. She did, if not a little stilted.
“You wait here please. Back soon.” He indicated two chairs, and they sat down. He disappeared into the back office.
“He’s got dirt under his fingernails,” Harry whispered.
“It’s ink,” Heidi replied, speaking into the back of her hand.
“Ink?”
“He’s also a tattoo artist.”
Harry looked at her in astonishment. “What? Are you serious?”
“He’s very good, apparently.”
Doctor Noe returned, his hands clasped together. “Okay, Mr… er….”
“No names,” said Heidi.
“Ah, of course. My apology. This way, please.” He indicated another door adjacent to the office. They got up, and Heidi took Harry’s arm. “This is where I leave you.”
“You’re not staying?” Harry said, half pleading.
“Mommy has a few errands to run, honey. You’ll be fine. I’ll be back in an hour, okay?”
Harry stifled a laugh. “Okay,” he replied, playing along. “Don’t be long.”
Heidi kissed him on the cheek, and winked as she pulled back. Harry watched her leave with a pleasing look.
Oh brother.
“This way, sir, please,” said Doctor Noe, bent slightly with both arms acting as an indicator. Harry frowned as his libido was dragged back to the present. He walked from the waiting room into the surgical room. Doctor Noe got him to sit down in what could only be described as a cross between a 20th century dentist chair and a medieval Iron Maiden.
“Please take off your jacket and shirt,” he said. “Then place your head back and arms by your side, thank you.”
Harry did as requested, though with a little difficulty. Where was Heidi or Angel when you needed them? Lying back, he waited while Noe busied himself at the small glass table. Harry felt incredibly vulnerable, lying semi-naked, and in the hands of an MD/Tattooist who was probably one operation away from a malpractice lawsuit.
Harry shivered.
“Ask him for some BrainTicker, Harry.”
Harry leapt from the chair, even though he was expecting to hear Larry’s voice.
Doctor Noe looked up. “You okay?”
“Yes, sorry about that.”
“Don’t say anything or he’ll think you’re crazier than he is,” said Larry. “Ask him for the BrainTicker. You remember. It heightens the part of the brain necessary for sustained higher function. Repeat after me. Hey Doc…”
“…I have this friend who needs some help with his studies. I’ve heard there’s something you can take that ensures optimum brain activity. I hear it goes by the name BrainTicker or something?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” replied Noe.
“Aw, come on. Sure you do.”
“You come here for broken rib. No questions asked. Are you Cop? Or Bureau?”
“Neither. I just wanna help a friend.”
“First we fix you up, then we discuss your friend. Okay?”
“Okay, sounds good.”
Noe was a few more minutes preparing the hypo, and to Harry’s intense relief he saw him actually sterilising it. Noe injected it into Harry’s left upper arm, and immediately Harry felt relief.
“Wow, that’s good stuff.”
“You feel nothing now, yes?”
“Not a thing, Doc. Thanks. Wooo.”
Harry felt
his head start to spin. But whatever Doctor Noe had given him, it had certainly taken away all the pain.
“Now we fix you up with gel pack, mister. Okay?”
“Whatever you say, Doc.”
“Harry. Harry, you need to stay awake.” Larry’s appeal went unheard.
As Harry lost consciousness, Doctor Noe watched him for a few seconds before disappearing into his office.
When Heidi returned, Harry was seated in a chair in the waiting room, beaming from ear to ear. She frowned at him, and then at Doctor Noe.
“Just the effects of the anaesthetic,” he said. “Pain all gone, gel pack fitted. He A-Okay now.”
“Well he doesn’t look it. Why’s he smiling like that?”
“He likes you! Ha ha!”
“Yes, of course.” Heidi handed over the money from her purse. “Come on, Harry, time to go home.”
“Home is where the heart is,” he said. He was grinning like a stuffed fox.
Heidi put an arm under his, and managed to get him upright. His legs bent beneath him before he steadied himself sufficiently to look at her. “Oh, I know you. God, you are so beautiful. Le voeu de mon coeur.”
“That’s nice.”
“Oh, I almost forgot,” said Noe. “This is for his friend.” He handed Heidi a small vile filled with a blue liquid.
“Friend?”
“He has a friend. Needs it for study.”
“How much?”
“On house!”
“Well, thank you, Doctor Noe. Be sure to pop by soon, and I’ll have one of the girls take care of you.”
“Thank you, Miss Heidi.” Noe bowed and proceeded to show them out.
In the cab home, Heidi could get little out of Harry that made any sense. He just kept smiling at her, and telling her how beautiful she was, both in English and French. Then he would make duck lips, and brush his finger up and down them, making burr burr noises.
Eventually, Heidi had had enough. She made him sit over the other side, and told him to be quiet. She needed to think. What she couldn’t understand was why Noe had had to administer an anaesthetic. Harry didn’t strike her as someone who had a low threshold to pain. For him to be fitted into the gel pack would have caused extreme discomfort, but that’s what the pain relief was for. She’d seen his injuries. How he had not passed out at some stage was truly remarkable. If Noe had given him the option, she knew Harry would have refused, given his circumstances. Despite hardly knowing this character, Heidi’s feminine instincts told her Harry simply wasn’t capable of the crime he was accused of. The parrot was a different matter, and she had accepted his account of what had happened.
