by Purple Hazel
“STOP RIGHT THERE.” announced the voice, through a loudspeaker. “DROP YOUR WEAPON. PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEADS, ALL OF YOU.” It sounded as though the voice was coming from every direction at once. Zero froze in her tracks. Young-Min kept walking a few more paces, looking around wondering who was addressing them. Not Shamiso though. She began looking around smiling. Up to now, she’d been dreading her fate.
Zero startled. But only for a few seconds. She concentrated for a moment, and began deducing the source of the sound. Clearly, it was coming from over by the limousine and those four or five white cars parked around it. They looked like official vehicles. Not marked with emblems or anything. Just very plain. At the time, they were all five walking in a single file line across an open area of parking lot. Zero knew she only had one viable option and that was to take hostages.
“DOWN! ALL OF YOU! KNEEL ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEADS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!” she screamed. Ozzie was already complying. His first assumption was that if it was the tribal police (or could it be the military?) he should get as low as possible. He directed the rest of his friends and Tooth Fairy to do the same. They instinctively clumped together. Zero wisely stood behind them, using Ozzie as a sort of barricade due to his height. And as she did so, the female voice fired commands at her in English—with a noticeable German accent.
“ZERO? THIS IS MONIKA STECKEL FROM SPACE PROGRAMME. THESE PEOPLE ARE NO LONGER YOUR CONCERN. LET THEM GO AND SURRENDER PEACEFULLY. THIS IS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY.” Shamiso grinned with relief. “Good ‘ole Monika,” she mused to herself. “Figures out we’re in trouble and flies out to bloody South Dakota lookin’ for us.”
“FUCK YOU BITCH!” screamed Zero defiantly. She wasn’t about to yield without a fight. And though she’d never fired a weapon to kill another human being, she was certainly capable of it. No way she’d betray the boss’s trust. If it meant a firefight with the cops...or whatever they were...so be it. She’d kill them all—and as many police or soldiers as she could before they took her out.
“I’ll shoot them all right now, starting with this big mòxîgç! I mean it!” she then exclaimed, gesturing toward Ozzie. By then she’d managed to work her way in behind the hostages, all kneeling before her, almost in a semi-circle.
“NO, ZERO.” broadcast Monika through her loudspeaker. She was sitting in one of the official vehicles speaking into a transmitter. Zero could barely make out a woman’s face through the car’s windshield, about fifty meters away. The sternness in her voice was like that of a high school gym teacher...or perhaps a German grandmother.
“I SAID THAT WON’T BE NECESSARY. YOU MAY PUT THE WEAPON DOWN NOW. MIN-PHARMA CORPORATION IS NO MORE. ALL ITS ASSETS HAVE BEEN SEIZED. KWANG-MIN JO IS IN CUSTODY BACK IN TORONTO. HEL’LL BE ARRAIGNED TOMORROW AND CHARGED WITH MULTIPLE COUNTS OF FRAUD.”
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME ZERO? IT’S ALL OVER. YOUR GUARDS ARE IN OUR CUSTODY. THEY SURRENDERED WITHOUT A FIGHT. THIS IS USELESS. DROP YOUR WEAPON AND LET THE HOSTAGES GO, PLEASE.”
Ozzie murmured sarcastically over his shoulder, “Well, you heard her, Chinkerbell...she said please.”
Zero slapped him in the back of the head with a gigantic SMACK. “Shut up Brown-ass,” she snarled in frustration. It surprised him how hard she could hit!
But after a few tense moments of this Mexican Standoff in the middle of a parking lot, Monika finally changed tactics. She had a few aces left to play. What’s more, she had the guts to try something risky—if it meant saving her three space twins from harm.
“ALRIGHT THEN ZERO. YOU LEAVE ME NO OTHER CHOICE. I’M COMING OVER TO SPEAK WITH YOU.” Monika then calmly exited the patrol car, holding an electronic notepad, and for some reason, two digital communication devices in her hands.
What was she thinking? Zero could have shot her down, the moment she stepped out into the open! But Monika was completely sure of herself. She’d been monitoring the twins’ journey across Iowa and South Dakota, using a tracking device hidden within that top-secret electronic file which Shamiso had kept with her in the car. That being said, the information in Shamiso’s file wasn’t all that Monika knew about Xi Ju Xiu, aka “Zero”.
“You’re crazy, bitch!” yelled Zero, as Monika approached, walking slowly, hands up, holding a flat electronic reading device and those two DICE’s.
“You better keep those hands up, lady!” Zero then said, and that was the first time Ozzie began thinking this might just work out okay. Monika was so fearless!
“What are you holding? What’s in your hands?” asked Zero nervously. Monika was as cool as a cucumber. “Information you need to know, dear,” replied Monika. “It pertains to you personally, and I don’t wish to share it with the entire car park.” She was referencing specifically the nearly two hundred bystanders who’d begun gathering around the outskirts of the parking lot, watching the spectacle unfold.
“Alright then...hand it over to me. But you stay back, lady,” commanded Zero, then she directed Tooth Fairy to reach out and grab it from her. Monika meanwhile stood back, about five meters away, with her hands still raised, one of which held two communicators. Zero looked down at the screen as the document opened, realizing what it was...her personnel file from Min-Pharma Corp. It was not a facsimile either. It was the real thing.
“Go back to the beginning of your file, dear,” Monika now said calmly. “There’s something you need to know about your now former employer.”
Zero looked at her for a long moment, then pulled out her EIC and aimed it at Ozzie’s head while she read through the file. It was about the size of an old steno pad, so she could easily swipe pages side-to-side with her thumb.
It was all there. How she’d been recruited from the dregs of Toronto’s inner city sex industry. Plenty she already knew about her past, yet it was quite intriguing reading about it from the perspective of the H.R. Manager at Min-Pharma.
But then as she kept reading, she discovered the terrible secret that had been hidden from her all these years. It seemed the sole reason for her being in Bangkok, all those years ago, on that terrible night with that perverted sex fiend, was to aid in framing the man...for murder.
And Kwang-Min Jo’s presence? Right down the hall from where she was being brutally tortured? Not a coincidence. They fully expected that awful man to kill her! It flat-out said so in the file! Her entire function for Min-Pharma that day had been to spy on the man and report back whom he’d met with. Other than that, she was completely expendable. If the evil fellow—or more specifically when he murdered her, it was going to be Kwang-Min Jo himself who notified authorities and had the man arrested. Instead, Zero had escaped. They later had the double-dealing official murdered in retaliation for his deceit. Yes, it was all there, in sober detail.
When Zero looked away for a moment, eyes welling up with tears, Monika spoke to her gently. “I’m very sorry, dear. Truly I am. Please forgive me for prying. But I assure you, being as I’m a personnel supervisor myself, I shared this with no one else. I just wanted you to understand what monsters they were...these people that you worked for. By the way, that’s the only copy of your personnel file remaining. I’ve purged the rest from Min-Pharma’s system. No one else will ever know.”
Zero was crushed. How could this have happened? She was only being used. Her life was to have been thrown away that night, tortured to death by that drunken sadist. Her stomach turned at the memories of what he’d done to her. She almost wanted to vomit recalling the images...and the suffering...and the terror. Nevertheless, her pride wasn’t quite ready to let her yield. She stepped back, resting her arm and dropping the EIC to her side, still not surrendering.
“You people…” she began, in an angry, resentful growl. “You’ll never understand. You couldn’t understand. Never. What it’s really like.” She was visibly weeping now, and her voice was breaking occasionally as she spoke. “You...you go to your jobs. You go to college. You live in your nice homes. You could never,”—sob—“what we had to...wha
t I,”—sob—“had to go through...just to,”—sob—“live.”
Then, as her voice rose, she backed further away, lifting the EIC up about waist-high. Monika—for that matter the space twins as well—began fearing for the worst.
“You have no idea what I lived through! You couldn’t!” Tears were now streaming down her face. Everyone wondered what she might do next.
“So they used me! So what? Everyone ALWAYS used me! You think I didn’t know what they were doing?! And what did it matter if they did? I used people, too. And I lived! Goddamit I lived through it all. I’m security chief now!”
Monika sighed, then commented calmly, “You were, dear. There is no more Min-Pharma Corporation. Your boss is in jail. The compound was seized shortly after 01:00 this morning.” At this bit of reality, Zero began to tremble and shake her head, refusing to face facts.
“Can I please show you one more thing, dear?” Monika then asked. She took a few steps forward, then offered one of the communicators to Tooth Fairy who nervously reached out and took it from her. He carefully handed it back to Zero, who hesitated for a moment before grabbing it.
“It’s okay,” Monika added. “You probably recognize it. If not, then let me promise you...that DICE you’re holding right now belongs to one of your own bodyguards. Go ahead. Read the last few messages of text. Please, darling. I already ordered my men to stand down. No one’s going to shoot you.”
Zero scrolled through and read the last four or five messages. It had clearly been an exchange between one of her bodyguards and Kwang-Min Jo himself, shortly after midnight. She read through them several times, not believing her eyes. The words tore at her very soul. She dropped her weapon to her side—almost began to toss it away, she was so crestfallen and embittered. This message had absolutely not been sent to her. Nor had she been copied. Nor did she have any idea what was secretly being discussed the night before.
“Now...Xi Ju Xiu,” continued Monika, using Zero’s real name this time, “if I may show you the other DICE. This one...I’m sure you’ll recognize. It belonged to Kwang-Min Jo. We seized it last night in the raid. You may read and verify his messages with the other communicator if you wish. Go ahead, dear.”
Zero dropped her EIC into her purse, and held the two devices side by side. Read through the two message strings once more, just to see they were clearly sent and replied to each other. She stopped crying now. In fact, her emotions were something she’d not experienced in years. It was like nothing else mattered anymore. All she’d ever believed in about herself—and her identity—and the man she thought she loved—was one big lie...
WHAT ARE WE TO DO WHEN WE CATCH THEM? inquired the second of five texts. It was sent from Zero’s bodyguard directly to Kwang-Min Jo.
KILL THEM, answered Kwang-Min’s next message, sent only seconds later. TAKE THEM OUT IN THE WOODS FIRST. BE SURE AND BURN THE BODIES. ESPECIALLY MY BROTHER’S. NO FINGERPRINTS.
COPY THAT BOSS. WHAT DO WE TELL ZERO? asked the next message, sent three minutes later. Apparently, the guards had to process the previous order for a few moments, just to make sure the boss was really telling them to kill his own brother.
But then, according to both devices, Kwang-Min Jo had responded...within thirty seconds at best...with the devastatingly sinister words that shattered her heart…
Chapter 19
Isla Perez
Arriving in Merida, then taking a bus to the nearby port city of Progreso, the three space twins Young-Min, Shamiso, and Ozzie, along with a new sidekick, checked into a hotel in town: the “Hotel Peten Basto”, located just a few short blocks from the marina. It would be three to four hours before B.J. and Steinhart would arrive in their big yacht to pick them up.
“Wow, this is really...exotic,” commented Shamiso, looking around the place, attempting to conceal her sarcasm, and not doing a very good job of it. Rustic would have been a better choice of words, though by local standards it offered rather decent accommodations. The four just needed somewhere to get out of the heat for a few hours…
Of course, Shamiso had never visited Mexico before. The Rudo Love Tour hadn’t been further south than New Los Angeles, and she’d not even been onstage for that final performance. Her sister did the whole L.A. gig by herself.
Rudo had been glad to finish the tour going completely solo. Besides, she’d been itching to get out in front of the band for months. Furthermore, it was an amazing performance she gave that night in southern California. She stood like a sentinel most of the time. Sat on a bar stool for one or two songs as well. The catwalk she rarely used. Backup dancers did all the cavorting about. She meanwhile sang her heart out.
Neville helped out by circulating a rumor in the media that she’d injured an ankle during rehearsal and needed to remain stationary. Fans were only mildly disappointed. Her incredible voice was plenty enough for them to believe they’d gotten their money’s worth. What’s more, the contract had been fulfilled. Rudo Kachote could now—finally—retire.
And as for Ozzie’s brother Práxedis? He was similarly quite understanding of his brother’s decision to walk away from Megaball. Ozzie knew he could never go back now—not after what he’d been through. Subsequently he saved the Wranglers the trouble of having to cut him. He also left it up to “Ranger” to handle the delicate task of resigning (and re-retiring). Práxedis didn’t mind one bit. It was the least he could do for his brother…
“I thought you’d like it,” Ozzie smirked, as the hotel manager booked their rooms for them and called over a bellman. By now Monika had arranged for them to get back all their personal belongings and these had been delivered to them in Merida. It had now been a week since the excitement up in South Dakota.
The choice of hotel had been his personally. Practical as always, he’d forsaken comfort in favor of convenience, because from this locale, they could easily walk to the marina. That said, their little rooms smelled somewhat like a wet beach towel—one which had been wadded up in a plastic bag for a few hours on a hot summer’s afternoon. Young-Min Jo wasn’t complaining. He and Zero had a lot of catching up to do…
Yes, Zero!
Tooth Fairy had been given his car back when they were in South Dakota. The three space twins had all chipped in to give him a couple hundred Euros for the trip back to Ann Arbor, and as far as anyone could assume, his troubles with Min-Pharma and “the organization” were over. Hard to say if he’d face investigation by the G.U. Drug Enforcement Ministry back in Michigan—that was still a possibility—however there was little danger of him facing retaliation from former associates of Kwang-Min Jo. Most anyone of any rank or position of power within that convoluted network of black market drug distributors was either in jail by now or had fled.
And as for those two big bodyguards, who’d been assigned with killing the three twins and Zero as well? They had been transported back to Toronto to face charges of conspiracy to commit murder. Yet despite brandishing a weapon and threatening to kill her four hostages, Monika had amazingly enough cut a deal for Zero to post bond and be freed on bail. Seemed the Lakota tribal authority were more than happy to be rid of her. Frankly, her jailers—not to mention the other prisoners—were rather intimidated by her!
Even better, Monika refused to press charges, once she and Zero had a chance to speak privately at the police station. She then made a few calls—and got the tribal judge to exonerate her of all charges! Thus, Zero had been allowed to leave with Young-Min and his two friends. It certainly made for some rich conversations onboard that airship traveling down to Mexico!
She’d apologized sincerely for her transgressions that was for sure (to all of them—repeatedly)! And despite the ugliness of the scene that day up on Crazy Horse, everyone forgave her with little hesitation. Even Shamiso. Their heated exchange, right before Ozzie had walked up to them on that park bench, had been quite tense.
But Shamiso wasn’t about to hold a grudge. Not when she’d added it up. To her it was more than anything due to Zero’s feel
ings of betrayal—of being jilted by Young-Min Jo when he’d fled Toronto. It had insulted her. Conjured feelings of desperate longing she’d never experienced before. Shamiso more than anyone could understand that. She, too, was a strong woman who expected absolute devotion from her man—and got it.
Of course, reality was that prior to him running off with Ozzie and Shamiso back at Min-Pharma headquarters, she’d considered him nothing more than a surrogate for the man she truly loved and admired, Kwang-Min Jo. However, once he’d escaped, and she suddenly realized what he meant to her, she began to notice how she in fact had deep feelings for him. Being a woman in love, Shamiso could certainly understand such powerful emotions.
“I’m sorry I threatened you,” Zero had said to Shamiso, the morning she was released from jail. “I was doing what I thought I had to do—at the time I mean. And you were only protecting your friend—I realize that,” she said, ashamed. “Can you ever forgive me?”
Shamiso could only blush. In all honesty, she had certainly provoked Zero too! Before Ozzie had walked up, she’d been spouting invective the likes of which Zero had never heard before—not even in old British gangster movies. Plus, with Shamiso’s salty expressions for what she repeatedly promised Ozzie was going to do to Zero when he arrived on the scene—only a few of which Zero understood—it only made the argument more regrettable in retrospect.
And Ozzie was quite willing to let bygones be bygones. Frankly, he’d fully believed the rather athletic Zero was more than capable of shooting him dead at most any time during that tense standoff. He’d tried distracting her, and for that matter pulled every clever stunt imaginable to try and give himself some sort of opening to attack and overpower her. Yet he’d be the first to admit how futile it would have been, looking back. The altitude had gotten to him on the long climb. He’d exerted himself fully. Head-to-head perhaps he could have bested her in a grapple...then again, he wasn’t too terribly sure of that either!
