Vatican Assassin

by Mike Luoma

BC wakes up in the passenger/co-pilot seat of a small two-seater transport ship cruising through space. He's strapped in. The pilot is about foot away, humming to himself as he runs through a maintenance check on the main screen in front of him.

  "Who the... where are we? Who the hell are you? Where are we going? What the fuck is going on here!" BC explodes as he wakes up.

  "So many questions... and such a mouth, Padre." The pilot is on the heavy side, crew-cut hair, looks old military. He smiles at BC. "They said you weren't your normal priest. Horny. Heard you made quite a tape."

  BC just stares at him.

  I'd kill him but I don't know if I can fly this thing.

  He keeps smiling at BC. "I work for Mr. Wentworth. He asked me to give you a ride home. That's who I am and where we're going. Couple of your questions, anyways."

  "Why did he drug me and Fiza? Where is she?"

  "From what they tell me, no one drugged you. You complained of a headache and dropped. Passed out right there at Mr. Wentworth's table! Not too polite, Padre," he chuckles. "Miss Fiza, she was sedated so she could get some rest before starting her new job for Mr. Wentworth. That's what I'm told, anyways."

  "I want to talk to Wentworth!" BC demands.

  "Sure, I'll call him. He said you'd probably want to talk to him when you woke up, said he'd take your call. You're lucky, Padre, he doesn't do that for most people. Doesn't always do it for me, anyways. Hold on, I'll call him." The pilot gets Wentworth on the com.

  Wentworth appears on the video screen in front of BC.

  "Father. Good to see you again. Glad you've recovered from your migraine. When you had your spell, I thought you'd want to return home as soon as possible. Drex was kind enough to do the honors." Wentworth smiles at BC over the com.

  The pilot speaks up, "My pleasure, Mr. Wentworth."

  BC interjects. "Was it a ‘spell' or did you drug me?"

  "You passed out, Father. I had nothing to do with it."

  "Like Fiza did? You going to try to tell me she just 'passed out' too?"

  "No. She I had drugged. Guaranteed her cooperation. You I have no interest in whatsoever."

  "Why did you drug Fiza? What has she done to you?" BC protests.

  "Quite a lot, actually. Most of which I certainly wouldn't discuss with a priest. Unless I was on my deathbed, perhaps. If you even are a priest. Still a question in my mind. Especially after seeing that tape. Never trust a Purser, Father! Hey Drex, when you were Purser on the Wentworth commercial liner, you ever secretly record people in their rooms having sex?"

  The pilot laughs, "All the time, Mr. Wentworth, all the time. People make the funniest faces! Everybody records passengers, it's common practice. At least around the crews I've been on, anyways."

  "Did you ever record me, then, Drex?"

  "Oh, no sir, I know that would have gotten me killed, I bet. Or fired, anyways," he says, laughing.

  Wentworth laughs, "Something to keep in mind in the future, eh, Father? So. Are you really a priest?"

  "I'm really a priest. I work for the Vatican. You can ask the Pope himself."

  "You think I can't? I can call your bluff right now, 'Father'. I've known Peter for years."

  "So have I. I work for him personally." BC gives the last word more weight.

  "You're one of his men? You? You mean OPO?"

  "Don't know what you're talking about, sir," BC says with emphasis.

  Not on an open com channel!

  "I see."

  "What about Fiza?"

  "Why? Is she of interest to the O... to your people?" Wentworth corrects himself.

  "She's not, no. It's more, um, personal."

  "I'm sorry, then, Father. She'll be staying here, working for me. It would be best if you forgot all about her.

  "She isn't a good person, Father. She screws over a lot of people, sometimes the wrong people. And she owes a lot of the wrong people a lot of money. She owes me a lot of money. I'm giving her the chance to work it off, all the while keeping anyone else from coming after her. She'll work for me to stay alive."

  "What kind of work?" BC asks.

  Wentworth lets out a low chuckle, "There really only one thing Fiza's any good at, as you well know, Father. We'll put those skills to work full time."

  "She won't..."

  "She will! Because she does it or she dies, it's very simple, Father. She'll be pumped full of drugs to keep her happy. Best she can hope for."

  What a fucking slimeball.

  "You're an evil man, Wentworth."

  "Evil? I've been called worse. And 'evil' is such an outdated term, an outmoded notion, a quaint superstition from the past. Is self interest evil? Is pleasure evil? We all serve ourselves first, even you, Father.

  "Evil is entirely relative. It all depends on your perspective. The OPO perspective no doubt allows you to do things with a clear conscience that others would label evil. In fact, you have no basis for calling me evil given what I know you do!"

  "Look, no talk of the O word. O-kay?!"

  "Listen, you fool, this is a secure channel. I'm not stupid! I know a lot of you in the OPO are killers. I know. I've given the orders. I know Peter, but I don't know you. Let me tell you, Campion, this is not getting off on the right foot for you, see? Because I'm now going to find out who you are. That will make things worse for you, if you continue to annoy me." A cruel edge has entered Wentworth's voice.

  "Now look here, I..." BC tries to protest. Wentworth continues, cutting BC off sharply.

  "You are going back to the moon. I'll find out who you are soon enough. After I do, you'll be no trouble to me. No trouble to me at all, understand. Anyone I know, I can keep tabs on. And I will.

  "Don't worry about Fiza, Father. And don't cross me over her. She isn't worth it! She's a user, she uses people. She used me, she used you. Now I'll use her, and let several others in my employ use her as well. Why don't you just forget about her, Father? It'll be for the best. That's the last time I ask. This conversation is over. Good-bye, Father. Drex, switch to secure mode."

  "Yes, sir." The pilot puts a headset on and switches off the main audio. BC's screen goes dark. BC listens as the pilot receives instructions. All he hears on this end are a lot of "uh huh"s and "yup"s.

  Wonder if they're telling him to kill me. Pleasant thought.

  "Right. Transport out." The pilot takes off the headset and turns main audio back on. "We have a slight problem, Padre," he says to BC.

  Here it comes...

  "The UIN is on the move, some kind of major ship movement. They have a handful of ships on this flight path, so I'm going to detour out and around them. It's going to take us longer to get there, but we'll get there alive, anyways."

  "What about your orders to kill me and dump the body?" BC jokes.

  "What? Oh, you're joking. But that's not funny. You'd be dead already. And I wouldn't be talking to you, not like this, like we are now. If I have to kill you I don't want to know you," Drex says, shaking his head.

  "I know what you mean." BC says.

  And I do. You are so right...

  "Yeah, right. Sure you do. Thanks for your sympathy, Padre, anyways."

  You'd be surprised, big guy.

  The pilot keeps talking. "You don't trust Mr. Wentworth, and that's okay. I don't always trust him myself, but he pays me very well, so I do as he says, anyways. He says take you back to the Moon. So that's where we're going. Go back to sleep if you want. This is going to take a while." The pilot turns to his control panel and gets to work adjusting their course. BC stares out the window at the impossibly dense field of stars.

  So many far away suns. Space isn't really black, it's all stars.

  BC falls asleep, only to be jarred awake as if he's fallen.

  "Good Morning , Padre! We're under attack! UIN scout ships. I'm trying to fly us out of this," the pilot says. "You awake?"

  "What?" BC tries to wake up fast.

  "UIN scout ships, short range, firing at us. Probably means there's a crui
ser nearby. At least one. I'm trying to go where they can't."

  "Is this ship armed?" BC asks.

  "Not really. It's supposed to be way too fast to need armament. There are defensive shields, countermeasures, that sort of thing. But no missiles, no lasers. Woops, here they come again, hold on!"

  The pilot hits something and the ship jumps up and out of the line of fire. BC is pressed down hard into his seat by the g force as they continue to leave the scout ships in the dust. The pilot hits the same control. Fast as it started, the transport decelerates, and BC can catch his breath again.

  "Woah," BC manages.

  "Yeah, wild ride, huh? Got us out of there, though. No sign of UIN cruisers either. Guess I picked the right direction."

  "Good guess."

  "Not good enough! Shit, here they come again. Hold on!"

  The ship is pushed sideways hard.

  Feels like some giant just backhanded the ship across the galaxy.

  "They hit us," Drex says. He calls up specs and assesses damage on the screen in front of him. He also calls up navigational charts, switching back and forth as he figures out a course of action.

  BC scans the stars outside. He can just barely make out the glint of metal among the stars where he knows the UIN ships are. Other flashes are laser fire, maybe missiles launching. Drex runs the calculations he needs for another speed burst.

  "Hold on, here we go," the pilot says, and he punches the control switch. The small transport leaps away from the fighting, safe for the moment until the slower ships can catch up.

  "We can't keep this up, Father. We can't take more hits or missile fire, either. We need to find someplace to hide. I've been looking at the charts, and there's an old abandoned station nearby where we might get some cover. I'm already heading for it."

  Could it...

  "What's the station's name?"

  "I don't know. It's on the charts. Freedom or something."

  "Fortune?"

  No way.

  "Nah, I don't think it's... no, wait a sec, here it is. Yeah, Fortune. You know it?"

  "Yeah, pretty well. I spent some time there earlier this year. I know those people."

  "People? What people? I thought it was abandoned?"

  "It was. But a religious cult moved in and took it over a few years back."

  "Oh. Then this is gonna be fun... Hey, that's strange." The pilot is drawn to his control screen.

  "What?"

  "I'm picking up UTZ ships, lots of them, all around Fortune station."

  "UTZ ships?"

  "Looks like they've seen us and the UIN scouts. I'm sending friend all the way, hope they... Yup, they've seen us and acknowledged friend. We're okay. They're sending a couple attack ships out to chase off the UIN scouts."

  Two streaks flash by them.

  "There they go."

  The pilot relaxes, smiles over at BC.

  "Looks like we're going to be okay, Padre. We did get hit, though. The ship needs some repairs, so let's dock and do what we have to to get going again, quick. I promised to get you to the moon. I keep my promises," he says, smiling at BC, "Or at least I try to, anyways."

  "Sure," BC says, distracted. All he can do is stare. UTZ ships surround fortune Station. Ten UTZ battle cruisers, several Transpace transports. And the station is completely lit up.

  Not a good sign. Funny, I told them I'd come back, and here I am. Couldn't stay away. But what the fuck is the UTZ doing here in force?

  Chapter Twenty-Eight