The Raven-Haired Rogue: A Novella

by John Zakour

  “HARV, find me something, anything to connect him to this,” I say.

  “On it,” HARV says.

  The question is, what am I going to do right now? Do I let Storm walk away without letting on that I am on to him? Or do I risk tipping my hand by confronting him?

  13

  I need to go face-to-face with Sam Storm to catch him in the act. Well, not in the act, exactly, but watching the act he believes will lead to the death of one of the leaders of Mars. But first I need to get some sort of hint of evidence to confront him with.

  “HARV, you gotta get me something to tie Sam Storm into SRIP’s programming,” I semiplead.

  “I’m trying, Zach, but right now it might be easier to get me to talk Mars and the moon into becoming allies,” HARV says.

  “Hey, that’s unfair!” Tezza protests. “We do some things with the moon. We can’t help it if the mooners are arrogant snots.”

  “Wait, the moon did help with the SRIP interface. Right?” I say.

  HARV nods. “Yes, that is one of the few times the moon and Mars have gotten along.”

  “They charged us a mint for that interface,” Merinda says. “But it was worth it—kind of.”

  It hit me. SRIP had been planning to crash into the moon all along. The Earth First politician, Sam Storm, had wanted to start an incident between the moon and Mars all along. Of course, to do that he would have needed help—moon help.

  “HARV, find me something—anything—to link Storm to somebody on the moon who helped program the SRIP interface. Storm was on the moon. Surely he had some contact with somebody from that team!”

  HARV’s eyes flash red. “Zach, I talked to Elena, and she gave me access to all the moon’s security cameras. I got something! During his last trip there, Storm stayed in the same hotel as Sid Finch.”

  “So?”

  “Finch is a low-level psi, but a high-level computer-interface engineer who was second-in-command in the SRIP project.”

  “That can’t be a coincidence,” Carol says.

  “Well, it could be, but it most likely isn’t,” HARV notes. “Especially since he has reservations to come to Earth tomorrow.”

  “HARV, contact Elena. Have her find Sid and get a confession out of him. My guess is he’s trying to move up his exit from the moon to today.”

  Yep, that’s all I need. Not only was Finch on the moon when Storm was there, but he had also been planning to come to Earth just before SRIP had been originally planning to crash into the moon. I move to the door and say, “Time to go greet the good councilman.”

  “Do you want us to come with you?” Carol asks.

  “I’d love to give that guy a piece of my mind!” Tezza says.

  “I’ll give him a piece of my fist,” Maxxx says.

  “I’ll put him in a deep sleep!” Merinda says.

  “Woof!” Saturn barks.

  Heading out, I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to spook him—at least not yet.”

  I walk up behind Storm, who is casually standing on a walkway, gazing up at SRIP.

  “Fine ship, isn’t it?” I say.

  Storm nods. “It’s an interesting ship. Of course, I prefer ones made on Earth.”

  “Yeah, but you can’t get most Earth ships to fly into the moon, killing a member of the Mars Royal Council and starting an interplanetary incident,” I say calmly.

  Storm turns to me quickly. At first his eyes are wide open. He is surprised by what I said. His eyes narrow. He smiles. “Zachary Nixon Johnson,” he says.

  I nod. “In person. I’m surprised you recognize me.”

  “Actually,” the council member says, “I’m surprised you recognized me.”

  “My computer pointed you out,” I tell him.

  “Ah, the legendary HARV,” Storm says, catching me off guard. He knows more than I thought he would. “I assure you, Mr. Johnson, I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  “You know, normally when a politician says that, I believe it. But in this case, I think you know exactly what I meant. Maybe I should let the world know about your fondness for rockets and death?”

  “Is that a threat, Mr. Johnson?” Storm asks.

  “Yeah, pretty much.” I shrug.

  Storm casually grabs me by the shirt and easily lifts me off the ground with one hand. “I don’t respond well to threats.”

  “Apparently, he is bionic,” HARV says in my head.

  “Yeah, I kind of figured that out,” I respond to him mentally.

  “So what’s it like to be bionic?” I casually ask Storm while I weigh my options. “By the way, I hope you weren’t bionic during your playing days, ’cause that would, one, be cheating, and two, it would be kind of sad, ’cause you weren’t that good.”

  Storm laughs and shakes his head (and me a bit in the process). “To answer your questions in reverse order, the bionics are a result of my playing career, and I really do enjoy being bionic.” He pauses for a moment to reflect. “At first I thought I’d miss my original arms, but I’ll tell you something, Zach. Mind if I call you Zach?”

  I shrug. “I’m cool with that.”

  “Well, Zach, I was special before the bionics, but the bionics made me more special. They took a near-perfect human specimen and made it better,” the not-so-good councilman rambles.

  “I’m happy for you,” I tell him. “I truly am. But what is this all leading to?”

  “Please, Mr. Johnson.” He smiles. “I was building up to my point, but if you insist in rushing the process…”

  Storm tosses me a good six meters through the air. I hit the ground with a hard thump.

  “Well, you have confirmed he is bionic,” HARV tells me.

  I get up and spit some dirt out of my mouth.

  “HARV, how’s Elena coming along with tracking down that programmer?”

  “Do you mean Sid Finch?”

  “Yes, of course I do!”

  “She says she found him at the moon port,” HARV informs me, as Storm storms toward me.

  “Good,” I tell him. “Not sure how long I can keep this up without shooting him, and shooting a councilman without proof would not be a good career move.”

  “Zach, do you want my help?” Carol asks mentally.

  “Not yet. This is between the councilman and me. I am going to try to get him to brag about his motive. I’ve got a better chance if he thinks he’s about to kill me.”

  Storm punches a clenched fist into his palm. “This is going to feel so good, beating you!” He laughs.

  Taking a fighting stance, I taunt, “Better politicians than you have tried.”

  Storm takes a big, lumbering swing at me. I see it coming from a kilometer away and duck under it. I pounce up and clock him with an uppercut to the jaw. He rocks back like one of those old Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots. I do so love when that happens. I could hit him with a combination to put him down, but I don’t because I need him to talk. I want him angry but thinking he has the upper hand.

  “Zach, I just learned something interesting about the not-so-good councilman,” HARV tells me as I watch Storm stagger back.

  “You gonna tell me, HARV?”

  “He has been in top-secret talks with Worlds News Right Now. It looks like he’s planning on becoming a news reporter.”

  Storm recovers his balance and then staggers forward, throwing a bionic right cross at me, which I easily block. That’s one of the advantages of having underarmor and a computer wired to my brain. I can take more damage than the average Joe. From the look on Storm’s face, I can tell he’s surprised I stopped his blow so easily. As Storm’s punch fails, something clicks in my brain. I know what Storm is up to. He doesn’t just want to start a war between the moon and Mars. He wants to start a war and then cover it for the news. So this would be a win-win for him. Of course, there is no way I am going to let him get away with this. I wasn’t about to let the fact that I still only had very circumstantial evidence on Storm slow me down.

  Storm
lunges at me, putting me in a bear hug. “I’ll crush the air out of your lungs!” he tells me. “I will tell the world you threatened me with blackmail!”

  Now that Storm thought he had the upper hand on me, in his arrogance I could probably get him to admit his wrongdoing. After all, politicians and criminals both love to brag, and Storm is both.

  “Zach, Elena has Finch under control. She will be teleporting down any minute!” HARV informs me.

  “Zach, I can’t stand by any longer. I’m going to come out there now and put a mental beating on that arrogant Storm!” Merinda thinks at me.

  OK, now this could complicate matters. While having either Elena or Merinda on my side could be quite the asset, I was afraid if they both tried to help, they might end up at each other’s throats.

  Storm tightens his bear hug on me, making it harder to breathe. “I’ll crush the air out of your lungs!” he repeats. “You will die a criminal for attacking a councilman! You are a mere ant for thinking you could get in my way!”

  “That doesn’t make a lot of sense,” I tell him. “But I guess asking for sense from a politician is just asking for too much.”

  “Zach, Merinda and Elena really want to help!” HARV tells me in my brain.

  “Let me get a bit more of a confession out of Storm. Now that he thinks he has the upper hand, I am sure he’ll brag some—”

  Looking Storm in the eyes, I say, “So you got those cleaning bots and those security drones to attack me.”

  Storm glares at me as he tightens his grip. “Of course it was me, you fool! My old company made those bots. It was easy to reprogram them. I couldn’t take the chance of you interfering with my plans!”

  OK, now that I had gotten him to talk, it was time to let my psi friends go at him. I had drawn him out, and now I should let them have the pleasure of finishing him off. After all, with Merinda being from Mars and Elena being from the moon, they had the most at stake here.

  “Bring ’em in, HARV!” I say out loud.

  I accent my words by clamping my fists hard into Storm’s ears. The intensity of my blow forces Storm to release his bear hug on me. Stumbling to the ground but remaining on my feet, I make a fist and show it to Storm.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Merinda storming at us from one side. She has Carol and the rest of her posse close behind. I also see Elena teleporting in behind us. She has a skinny man with a beard following her. He is on all fours and panting like a dog. Yeah, you don’t want to make Elena mad.

  “How dare you hurt a councilman!” Storm roars at me. “You’ll spend the rest of your little life in prison for that.”

  I point to Elena and Merinda closing in on us. “Ah, don’t think so. Not when my psi friends are here to make you sing the truth.”

  Storm laughs. “I’ll just tell people they mind-washed me into talking! I’m loved. My popularity rating in nearly 13%! People will never believe I started a war between Mars and the moon!”

  “Dude, one, the evidence will prove you did start the war. And two, I’ve just recorded you saying that, including you admitting to wanting to kill me. And that was before Elena and Merinda were here.”

  “And I feel obligated to point out that 13% is not very high,” HARV adds.

  Storm stood there taking in our words. Acting like the politician he was, he decides to make a run for it. I wasn’t going to let that happen, though, especially since he’s dense enough to try to run past me. I simply stick out my leg and let him trip over it. He makes a very clumsy headfirst dive in the mud.

  “You ass!” he mumbles, his face still in the dirt. He starts pushing himself up from the ground.

  Elena ports herself (and what appears to be her pet man) right next to the fallen councilman. She puts a purple boot on his back. “Stay down!” she orders. “I am taking you to the moon for prosecution!”

  The councilman stops pushing upward and drops to the ground. “You have no proof!” he groans.

  Elena turns to the man she has on a leash. “Speak!” she orders.

  “Woof!” he barks obediently.

  “Speak words!” Elena orders the man.

  “Storm paid me to reprogram the SRIP computer system to crash into the moon,” the man says.

  “Very good,” Elena tells him with a pat on the head. “Now, go back to being a dog!”

  The man obediently rolls over.

  Elena points dramatically at Storm. “Like I said, I’m taking you to the moon!”

  By this time, Merinda and the others have reached us. At first I’m surprised nobody else seems to be paying attention to the commotion. Then I realize everybody around us who’s not us is sleeping.

  “No, Elena. I insist we take him to Mars for punishment!” Merinda says, walking up next to Elena.

  “So why’d you do it, Storm?” I ask; I am quite sure I know the answer, but I want him to say it.

  “I’ll never tell you!” Storm growls.

  “Tell him!” Elena, Merinda, and Carol order.

  “Well, as you know, I’ve been a fan of Earth First. I thought putting Mars and the moon at each other’s throats by either having the moon kill one of the Mars leaders or by crashing the ship into the moon, which would have been great for Earth! Not only that, but since I am retiring from politics and going into new media, this would be an amazing story to cover!”

  So there we have it. The typical greedy politician wants everything his way.

  Elena and Merinda lock eyes with each other. “He’s mine!” they both say.

  “Ladies, I think I might have a solution. Since Storm is guilty but nobody innocent got hurt—”

  “Well, our SRIP got reprogrammed!” Tezza points out.

  “Well, yeah, but it can be un-reprogrammed,” I say.

  They all nod. “Which brings me back to the not-so-good councilman. I agree if you leave him on Earth, he may not get the punishment he deserves. But if either of you takes him, it could start an incident.”

  They all look at me with tilted heads and open eyes, so I go on. “I think you should let him retire, but reprogram him to do something useful with his life, like help feed the poor or walk nonrobotic dogs.”

  They all smile.

  “That’s an outrage!” Storm barks. He stops barking. He smiles from the ground.

  EPILOGUE

  After saying our good-byes, Elena actually gave Merinda and her crew a teleport back to the moon. (Elena and Saturn hit it off right away. Elena always did have a soft spot for dogs and turnips.) From there they would discuss a new moon-Mars treaty and then catch a shuttle back to Mars. The now-good councilman announced his immediate retirement from politics to go live in the South Pole and begin work to save sick penguins. As for Sid Finch, I understand his new position would be Elena’s permanent foot massager.

  Driving home, Carol leans over toward me from the passenger seat. “So you’re cool letting the councilman go?” she asks.

  I nod. “Yeah, he could have done grave damage, but we stopped him, thanks to a mind-reading dog. Now, he’s a changed person—a better person. The world may not be better for it but it’s no worse. Sometimes you break even and call it a win. And well, justice was served.”

  HARV appears in my dash. “Actually, Zach, for you, this case was fairly low stakes. You just saved the moon and Mars from a messy possible war. Normally you save the Earth from being destroyed!”

  “No reason why I can’t have an easy case once in a while,” I tell him. I smile, knowing that my next case probably will be direr. But for now I’m just going to enjoy the ride home.

 

 

 
r: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share