by Unknown
“I swear to you, with my blood.”
As Mikka saw his blood, she felt fingers of her left hand being slowly overrun with her own blood coming from her cut, dripping to the floor.
“Before we go, we have someone we need to pick up first.” Mikka said as she opened the transporter door.
Chapter 18 The Hearing
The hearing which was to decide the fate of ECI Val was to be held on the same day that Timor showed up in the Capital. It was to be held on the 1024th floor of the Emperor’s East Court Estate.
The commissioner waited for Timor as he exited the freight import terminal.
For the first time he faced his anger.
“What do you mean he knocked you out? You mean, he also knocked your electronic id out of your brain?” He yelled at him as Timor started to explain exactly what happened.
“And then you boarded the freighter? Are you shitting me, boy? Are you purposely trying to ruin yourself?” the foam started to appear on commissioner’s mouth.
“What do you mean it was the only ship in the station at the time?”
“You can check the schedules sir, due to the accident with the transporter almost no new shops are now flying over there anymore. I was lucky I even got a seat on that freighter. Or maybe I should have waited a few months for transporters to finally start arriving?”
Timor decided to spend awake a whole two days on a freighter before getting to the Capital, making sure to perfect exactly what to say and what not to. He offered to give as little information out as he could. He feared that they would find the way to use any information against him.
Just keep your mouth shut, he kept on saying to himself
“I do not know...ECI Valricus used some kind of electrical, biological toxin on me as I tried to apprehend him just like you instructed…I do not know. Maybe if I go to the hospital…”
“I never instructed you to apprehend anybody…” the commissioner tried to defend himself.
“I don’t know… my memory is not very good ever since then…I know I cannot put my head together for the last 12 days. I think I need to go to the hospital. I may even need a new body. I think this one has been broken.”
“What hospital? You are not going to a hospital! You are going straight to the hearing, to answer some serious questions. And if you think that the department will pay for your new body, you have another thing coming!”
“Anyway, do you know how much a new body costs???!”
“But I got injured in the line of work, it’s only faaaair…” Timor started to stretch his wording, shaking his head almost like he is losing it.
“Pull yourself together, boy! Listen…If you answer everything on the hearing the way you are supposed to, well, maybe, maybe then we will see about getting you a new body. But you better get your thoughts straight now!”
That ‘maybe’ will probably come out to ‘maybe not’, thought Timor as he started to enjoy the game.
“Well, okay…if you insist. If you think it is for the best, Commissioner. You know I will do anything you want.”
“Good! I will take you to the Court myself, and he is the file that I want you to acquaint yourself with. This file has exact facts what actually happened. And you better get acquainted with it. Not ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’, or anything else! Just do it!”
“Of course Commissioner. If you say so.” Unpleasantly Timor remembered the first time he came to Capitan’s office, how impressive he was with everything around including his superior. As he arrived to the Capital for the second time, he almost felt angry at how naïve and innocent he initially was.
“I…I…” he muttered after taking a peak at the file his captain game him, “I think this is exactly how it happened.” He said to the face of a man who obviously enjoyed such an answer.
Two hours later, they stood in front of the huge iron door where the security took all their electronic devices they carried with them. Since Timor’s tracker was burned, the Capitan had to vouch for him. As the giant door opened, they entered a long room, full of light. Huge windows let enough direct sunlight in which almost blinded Timor. Twenty yards in front of them, and ten feet from the ground was a screened cathedra with three judges in their full black ropes sitting and waiting for them. All three looked the same to Timor.
Seeing that they were brought in front of the full court, the Capitan suddenly lost his joy.
-“I thought that this was going to be a very low key process…? Everything is pretty much open and closed case…we do not only have all the evidence, but also a certifiable witness.”
“Commissioner Zkil, if you thought that revoking a license of one Emperor’s Chief Investigator with over 100 years of experience was a light case, you are really fully not aware how our judicial system works.”
“Mr. Timor, are you feeling fine, are you of a sound mind now?”
“Yes, yes I am…” Timor answered while his head continuously started to wobble from one side to another, shaking on occasions up and down.
“My, my commissioner said I was all right….that I didn’t need a hospital right away. So, so, I must be right.”
“I am to read this allegations to you, and then you are to testify if those statements are true. Do you understand that Mr. Timor?”
“Are you ready to put your signature to these allegations against ECI Val?” Asked hastily the third judge who obviously wanted to speed things up as much as possible.
But before Timor could utter even a single word, the foam started to come out of his mouth and in a trembling convulsion he collapsed to the floor.
“This man is sick!” Screamed one of the judges as he got up from the chair. “Help him out! Call for a medical assistance!” he ordered.
The captain for a second stood dumbfounded, and then run toward the door to call for a medic. That run is what saved his life. The bullet that went through the glass window scattered it completely. It hit Timor right above his left ear and caused a massive explosion, engulfed everything in a ten feet radius to a ball of inferno. Even a table in front were broken to its most basic atomic elements, turning it all into a pile of scattered grey dust.
Mikka didn’t wait to see the end result. She knew her target was eliminated. She took off before the dust even stopped from going up. By the time police jetters swept in, she was already on the other part of the town.
Chapter 19 Back In the City
Hours later, Mikka found herself in a bar called TinTIN in the Sooko District. It was a small place with a fake wood floors, a long round bar and a few customers too many. She visited it a few times before but it never seemed to have been so packed that she couldn't even find a single empty seat.
It was strange for her to be back in the Capital and not having a home to go to. It was very lousy feeling, she admitted, the one that stayed with her ever since she came to the Capital that morning.
She made just one call since she came back.
“I want you to take some hardware out of me.”
“You’re wearing hardware?”
“Yes…But not by my choice.”
“Who put it in you?”
“Some soon to be dead ECI.”
The man on the other side giggled.
“Don’t come to my place then…You know you can be traced. Meet me at the back of TinTIN at 5 pm today.”
“Can it be done earlier?”
“No, no it can’t. I am very busy right now. 40,000 credits.”
“What?”
“Look, if it’s ECi’s spike, I need special tools, plus, you know it’s always very risky with them. Don’t need one of them to come breathing my neck in a year or ten.”
“Okay, okay…I can do that.” She said. So she’ll wait, and so what if they track her movements during the day? So what if they find out what she did that day? She will take the chip out, and they will be too late anyway to stop her. And then she will be gone forever.
She just stood by the bar, and ordered a liter keg of their h
omebrewed ale.
If it was as good as the last time, she planned not to be her last. She scratched her back. Fifteen minutes ago, in the back ally of the bar, Nilki got the ECI tracker out . Her incision was all pasted up now, drying slowly. She felt no pain, only the itching wouldn’t stop.
She thought about Silence and Irkoniss., about leaving them at the place where their ship landed that morning. She doubted they would be there when she returns. Maybe Silence would be there. Where else could she go? For the guy, she highly doubted . She had nothing to give it to him. A day ago she finally managed to get connected to her bank accounts and found them all with the zero balance. The feeling was heart sinking. All what she done so far, and earned, all she had accumulated, it all had been stripped from her.
She knew that if the police impounded her accounts, then she would not even have a possible excess to it. Even more strangely, she saw that her balances were all transferred to one account, belonging to certain Silrkitix Riklo from the planet of Zarifis.
She knew of no Silrkitix Riklo, doubted that there was such a person, but she knew, swore to all the darkness of the space, that she will get to the bottom of it. She could only think of Val as the only person with enough knowledge and access to do something like that.
In a way it was good that she took K. with her. If she didn’t, she would not know how should would have paid for the transportation and hardware cost. It was really him that organized it all making it good on his promise.
What is she going to do with a little girl? Her whole life, all she knew was on the prison planet of Pluk. How could she take care of her?
The doctor, the one that she was supposed to kill was by now gone in hiding in the smallest of holes in the whole universe. She doubted she could find him and make it right on her contract. Maybe he will stay in that hole forever, and maybe her contractor would never find out. That sounded just right for her.
She tried not to think of Timor. All of this certainly seemed to be the least of his fault. You should have begged him harder, you should have demanded that he releases me, you should have…She tried not to think about him.
By now, Val probably already knew what happened to Timor.
Let him sweat, let him know that I am coming for him. Let him feel fear before I erase him.
“Hi there, you look very nice...”the man brushed her shoulder and got into her face. He was in his mid 20s with face features considered good looking, unnaturally good looking.
“You look very pretty indeed...” he continued saying unfazed by the stern look Mikka was sending him, “I'd love to spend time with you. You look so young and beautiful. Your red hair just suites you so fine, and...” he kept on talking and talking, and Mikka looked away.
She, for a moment thought what it would be like to let this man take her to his apartment, what would it be like to be held in his arms, teased by his mouth, then…then maybe even slice his pretty little head off, let him bleed his life out by the bed, and take everything he’s got, all his positions, all his life.
“Here, here is my card. “ The man said unable to figure out the look in her eyes. “Check me out, and you will know I’m legit...” he tried to be sure of himself but doubt was already in his voice, “you'll find me very impressive,” he kept on saying as he started to pull away deciding that his chances are very slim to none.
She tossed the card to the flour wondering if it would be nicer just to put a bullet in his head. How impressive would that make him. Then she thought of Timor again.
The second keg couldn't have come sooner enough. She felt her mind starting to slow down, to sink under the liquid she had poured in.
You stupid Aluxian foul, you and your big ears, why did you get involve into something you couldn’t handle? She realized only then that she liked the kid. But obviously it was too late.
Why do I always kind of like the guy after I waste him? Maybe I would like that guy too if I waste him?
However, the second man that brushed her shoulder and faced her eyes that night was not scared away by Mikka's stern looks.
“Hi cookie.” He was a head shorter than her with the three scars on his face making him look rather ugly.
“I'll be damned,” said Mikka completely surprised. “If it is not Kikari himself. A few days after I turn down a job by your handler, you come to find me yourself. What a surprise? Are you going to kill me here now? Ha?” she asked somehow indifferent to what his answer might be.
“Why are you doing this?”
“What's it to you? And how did you find me anyway?”
“You know you have obligations to the clan, and you know the clan has ears and eyes everywhere, don't you think we can find you anywhere you go? And if it was not me, you know it would have been somebody else.”
“Look, Kikari, I am really not up for this now. So just say your words and do whatever is on your mind.”
“Really? And you just want to drink...” he said and then took her keg from in front of her, not putting it down until he emptied it all. “Good brew, no wonder you like to sink your head in it.”
“See.”
“Well, you did so good with the last contract. I mean nobody could get that guy, and you did it in a matter of few days. You never failed us so far. So what's up now?”
“Nothing, I am just quitting.”
“You know you can't. You like it too much.”
“So you did come here to kill me?”
“It was you today, right? At the court house?” KIkari asked.
“So what if it was?”
“Are you doing something on the side? We can always match any job offers anybody throws at you..You know that, the boss doesn’t really want to lose you. He is afraid someone is pulling you away.”
“What the boss should be afraid of is me pulling him away, his body away from his head.”
Kikari smiled. “Wouldn’t that be a sight.”
“No, no...That was personal.” Mikka continued, “And, besides, there is one more person I have to take care of first before anything else.”
“Who? Not me is it?”
Now Mikka smiled. “No, foul, it is not you. It’s some stupid ECI...”
Mikka's words made Kikari whistle.
“As soon as I track him down, and get some answers, he is going to be a sack of dead meat”
“Yeah, tracking him down, how is that coming along?”
“The son of a bitch disappeared, doesn’t have a tracker anymore, and I can’t find him anywhere. He was supposed to be back in his office by now. But he is not reporting for his duty, not going to his scheduled appointments. So, I’ll just have to wait. He will eventually show up someplace.“
“Maybe you’ll have to wait a long time for that…Maybe you could use a job in the meantime…”
“No, not right now.”
-We could help…?
“What do you have in mind?” Mikka knew there was a point behind this.
“What if we find him for you? Would you consider getting back in the game for a few more jobs?”
‘They will never let you out’ ringed in her ear the voice of Val.
“Actually you know, maybe…maybe I would.”
ECI Val, killing Val , that will be her last job., she decided.
Chapter 20
A few hours after the assassination at the court house, Val was sitting in a study of his vacation home in the Valkis Mountains. Through his windows, he could watch the snow covered peaks of mountains he climbed for the past 500 years.
His communicator brightened, and as he answered it, faces of three people popped in the air above him.
“Chief Commissioner Viliko, Minister FK’li, Your Majesty Emperor’s Mother… “ he greeted them all.
“ECI Valricus Dan, what are we to think of you…? It has been almost 30 days that we have heard nothing from you. What are we to make of that?” Emperor’s mother started the proceeding.
“And why have you not come here and faced us like was re
quested?” The minister jumped in with his own complain. Val knew they would be upset, expected nothing less.
“I was afraid that my life would be terminated before I got to talk to you, and as you could see with what happened to Junior Investigator Timor, I was very much right about that.
“First of all, before we even start talking about what happened in the Capital today, we want to know, ECI Val, did you find what destroyed that cruiser?”
“Yes, actually I did. And I can guarantee you that with 100 percent certainty, it was not as original reports suggested some kind of maintenance flop. So any disciplinary measure against the maintenance crew should be ceased, and their full rank should be reestablished.”
“We will take that under consideration. So what is it that destroyed the transporter?”
“Well, first of all, I have to report that one Sikviruc Vixtuc has broken Code 24152 about cultivating forbidden species.”
“I am glad to say that he has been apprehended. I judged him to life imprisonment to be served at ZuS Orbital Maximum Security Jail.
“What forbidden species? And why not execute him right away? You know how much that orbital jail is costing the empire?”
“Lixuses…Here, I am sending you now their specifications. And I didn’t execute him because he still needs to answer some more questions, questions which he decided not to help me with at the time.…I am assuming that Orbital Jail will serve well to loosen his tongue by next time I go and pay him a visit.”
“So what does these creatures which were outlawed thousands of years ago have to do with the transporter being destroyed?”
“Well, for one, they were illegally being smuggled onboard the cruiser, transported under the ‘live feedstock’ label. I believe that the captain of the ship as well as some of his crew were bribed for taking this contraband onboard. But since the captain cannot be located, I cannot confirm that. But anyway, the creatures were on board the ship. Somehow they got released from their enclosure. They are extremely intelligent creatures so that might have happen without any help on side. I cannot confirm any conspiracy in their release, but…”
