“No.” We both replied in unison to the shock of the Meiziki warrior.
Mendo stopped in his footsteps and scratched his head, “I… I-I thought you’d come to fight, honestly.”
“We come to surrender.” Abul looked to him.
“Surrender?” Mendo raised an eyebrow.
“Everything on this ship is yours…” I began, my exhaustion taking over, “so long as you take us.”
That was my last waking memory before I collapsed and gave in to exhaustion.
36
Water No Get Enemy
--
Janelle
--
“TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT.”
“That’s it,” said Tavon, knowing full and well that wasn’t it.
“What do you mean ‘that’s it?’ What happened after you went to the Meiziki?” Aaliyah stared up him with irritation as they laid comfortable on the couch next to a lit candle that evaporated in the scent of chamomile.
“You really don’t have to know all the details—”
“But I want to.” She interlaced her hand with his.
“I became another thug, Aaliyah…”
“Another thug, huh?”
“Yeah,” He shrugged. “I’ve always been muscle for hire, and I made a life for myself by being good at what I do.”
“A thug who guns down bad people for… money—not for ‘justice’ or…”
“Nowhere in the Citadel is anyone truly safe.” He said, feeling sobered by the thought. “The Federation set out to build a city sheltered from reality, but that doesn’t mean reality doesn’t make itself apparent from time to time—and I honestly can’t always decide for myself who the good or bad guy is, Aaliyah.” The assassin sighed. “I just want to find the best target.”
“And get your ass kicked like last time?” She chuckled.
Tavon began to laugh as well. “I promise I can get better—I’ve just been slacking, you know?”
“Right.” She smiled.
A long pause followed before she spoke again.
“So that’s it, huh?” Aaliyah threw up her hands in defeat. “No more story.”
“That’s right.”
Bullshit.
37
Untitled
“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL HER THE REST of the story?”
Tavon, burying his hands in his pockets, replied simply, “It doesn’t have a happy ending… are you sure you want to know the rest?”
38
Outro
“THIS IS THE LAST CONVERSATION I’m going to have with you about this.” Detective Aden Kaust said.
He stood authoritatively over Aaliyah while she freely dangled her legs and sat on the edge of the roof of the Dawn Bureau. His tall image blocked the Sun once beaming at her back after she’d taken the time to decompress following a long shift. Tavon was back home, but she still didn’t know where that was. He’d talked about getting ready for an interview.
Aaliyah ignored the Sergeant as she peered off in the distance, remembering something buried… something meant to be lost but entrapped forever within her mind.
--
Only a few years ago:
She’d been hiding in one of the shacks belonging to a small neighborhood in the Lower-City. The Third Quadrant, an area of the Citadel into which she could disappear regardless of her rank and status.
When she was still a beat cop, Aaliyah had brought an old case her father had left behind and unclamped the sides of it to retrieve a series of small components. Her father had trained her to be just as good as he was. He was a man who wanted to pass down a legacy of abnormally good marksmanship and who did everything to improve what started out as her poor firing skills. Before her dad had abandoned them, he’d gifted her with this:
A worn Beretta the shade of midnight.
--
“What do you want, Sergeant?” Aaliyah looked despondent, attempting to steer her mind away from that night.
“I think you need to know something…”
“Yeah?” She finally made eye contact with Kaust.
“The Bureau started in the middle of a war against those who label themselves as mercenaries—people without morals, people who killed for profit.” He spat as his tone increased in intensity. “Our organization was formed to bring reason and justice back into this world, because without people like us, Aaliyah…” He paused and shook his head. “Just know that we cannot allow anyone to tear down what this institution stands for!”
“Okay.” Aaliyah smirked. “So what are you trying to say, Sergeant? Are you worried about Noboros?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying.”
--
She’d finished assembling the weapon and proceeded to practice her breathing as she’d done in the same spot for several days prior.
Always, it was assemble, position, and practice. Aaliyah had followed this ritual in preparation for tonight, but she was never able to stop shaking. She peeked around the corner of the wood, now mostly decrepit and worn slightly from a recent infestation, and she saw him…
--
“I’m simply enjoying my time off.” Aaliyah’s tone never matched her colleague’s; she remained uninterested, her eyes continuously glossing over through the Sergeant’s ranting.
“You know who I’m talking about, Aaliyah… it’s time.”
--
Aaliyah
--
When I was younger, I went with my sister to our father’s grave not long after he’d taken his own life.
He’d been stressed and plagued by visions of combat decades after having returned from a lifestyle of constant warfare, and it swallowed him in the end. I’d watched him go to shooting ranges and begged him every time to take me until he finally did. That’s when he’d decided he’d teach me what he knew while warning me never to use a weapon outside of a practice range.
I was good.
My dad wouldn’t always admit it, but I was even better than him…
I was planning on enlisting in the Dawn Federation military; I would figure out how to become a sniper for them and surpass stories told about my father. My little sister loved the idea of me playing hero, which—I guess—made me even more motivated.
We would visit his grave on his birthday, often traveling alone once mom became frequently sick. She’d place flowers while I’d assemble and disassemble the weapon he’d passed down to me one time to show him that I still remembered.
I still practiced.
Without anyone else around, I went to shooting ranges on my own. Much like Tavon, I wanted to be the best at what I did.
After visiting with my father again, my sister and I drove to what had once been a park in the Citadel that was now overgrown and had become a forest expanding into surrounding settlements. We went here so I could show her what it was really like to fire something so deadly. It was exciting, but I didn’t have any targets that we could use for her. I warned her to aim toward the skies in the direction of the edge of the Citadel, and she knew she only had one shot to pull off before we’d have to escape because of the resulting commotion.
Tallah fired a round before accidentally shooting another while gasping in surprise. I laughed and started to feel anxious as I quickly disassembled the old Beretta before packing it away as we sprinted to move as far as we could from the area.
I looked back, and she was there. Always behind me, always wanting to be just as dangerous.
--
“I’ve got him this time.” Kaust declares. “If Tavon isn’t working for Noboros, then he’s operating as his own agent—which could be even more dangerous, granted that you’ve permitted him to do what he wants all this time!”
“You have no evidence that he’s done anything, Kaust.”
“‘Sergeant.’” He corrects me judiciously. “And it’s hard to beat thorough DNA analysis.” Aden Kaust bares his teeth in a fake smile.
--
Tallah was so envious; she wanted to b
e fearless. Like me.
And one day, while too engaged in my own life, I looked back to see how she now.
But she wasn’t there.
People stopped asking me about her following some weeks, and I’d almost accepted that she’d either run away or died. Maybe she was ready to be on her own, I thought. Maybe this was her way of getting back at me for not being as present in her life as we’d grown older.
Tallah was discovered one morning in a dumpster.
She was alive, but she’d been hurt… something horrible had been done to her.
That sick bastard took her legs, blinded her… he did whatever he pleased. And when we thought we’d found the real culprit, who was being considered a “less likely” suspect, the justice system of the Citadel failed us by prolonging the investigation. We asked that they turned their efforts toward catching the villain in front of us, but those detectives were convinced on a story of their own making.
He got away.
The man who’d disfigured my sister ran from the courts and investigators altogether, who both began pushing a different suspect on us to my mom’s agitation. I was now responsible for supporting the two of them… a dying mother and a sister who was to be hospitalized the rest of her life due to an STI that wrecked her immune system.
So, I decided to become the hero my dad was.
I would provide; I would keep going to become the one who chased people who broke the law. I wanted peace in my household and peace in the world, so that those like my sister wouldn’t become victims to twisted individuals.
--
“I don’t know if I believe you, Sergeant.”
Aden folds his arms. “You’re just as stubborn as me…” He shakes his head. “And I like that. Aaliyah,” His tone changes to one of concern. “You believe in fighting for what’s right, and you’re a good detective… that’s why I’m worried for you.”
“Nobody’s got to be worried about me.”
--
I stared down the barrel at the one who’d done so much wrong to my family. My rage didn’t boil anymore; it had subsided into a cold, calculated hatred.
Erig Deran. That was his name.
A banger turned junkie after losing custody of his kid to his wife in the Upper-City. He took advantage of Tallah, a much weaker than him, and I couldn’t forgive it.
I played it out in my mind as I stalked a figure wearing a tacky, corduroy trench coat and slouching as he smoked at a convenience store that had been shut down with the building condemned a year ago. He appeared to be talking to someone dressed in a similar fashion; a friend he’d bonded with over mutual vices…
I was focused. Waiting just behind the building. Breathing in and out while resting my index finger on the trigger. I kept feeling so angry; when I fought the urge to move too soon, tears found their way down my cheeks.
Erig shoved his hands into his pockets and kept another cigarette in his mouth as he searched in his sweatpants for a lighter.
He’d been smiling.
Joking.
Comfortable.
--
“He could bring you down, and I don’t want to see that.”
“Sergeant,” I step to him. “With all respect intended, mind your own business please.”
“This time the Bureau can’t.” Kaust replies, his expression cold and hardened.
“The Bureau?” I chuckled. “What are you on about, Kaust?”
“While other operatives will handle the battle with Noboros, I’ll be pursuing the people most responsible for doing damage to this city…”
--
I focused on breathing again.
Calm down.
Concentrate—remember the pause following an exhale.
Breathe in…
Breathe out…
Erig’s friend has left. I approach. Tonight’s the night I make him remember.
--
“I’ve decided to hunt Tavon myself.” Kaust says.
--
Breathe in…
Our eyes meet. Erig Deran: Guilty.
--
“If a Bureau operative discovers an assassin working against the interests of the Federation, I’m authorized to apprehend or gun down the suspect on sight—do you understand me, Aaliyah?” Sergeant Kaust is prepared to dominate with his words and personality; he believes he’ll convince me to join his side and finally turn in Tavon.
I pause before staring back at Kaust and responding, “I want you to understand.”
“Understand what, detective?”
I smile. “That you don’t want to be my enemy.”
--
Breathe out.
To Be Continued in Volume Two…
Angelos Odyssey Page 65
