The articles stated that the body of Yuki Zhian hadn't been found yet, but she was officially missing, so surely some other cop might come looking for her. And die in the attempt. Or maybe succeed. Charlie didn't care. He was becoming sloppy – maybe on purpose. He'd get himself killed. But it didn't matter anymore.
And then Iulia contacted him again. She sent him a message to meet her at the temple where they'd married now almost eight years before. She was nervous, but the temple was empty and hopefully nobody would see them together.
He sat next to her on the bench staring straight ahead. He hadn't shaved, nor washed his hair in days. He had circles under his eyes and looked as if he'd aged ten years in ten months. He didn't smell good either and his clothes looked shabby. But she didn't flinch or move away. He could feel her eyes staring at him.
"What do you want?" he asked bluntly.
"Are you the Mercenary?" she asked in a strangled voice.
"Yes."
There, he'd said it. There was no denying it anymore. The sweet father of her children was a merciless murderer who did it for the money. Iulia closed her eyes.
"Do you want my death certificate so you can live off my money?" he continued flatly.
"No! I don't want you dead, Charlie!" she protested.
"I won't be dead, your husband will."
"What are you doing, Charlie?" she asked, worried. "Will you kill until you find someone faster or smarter than you?"
She had realized that meant the Mercenary would keep killing cops with unusual ferocity. She'd smartened up during the months they'd been apart, Charlie thought. He wondered who had helped her. She didn't seem to have another man in her life yet.
"I'm a professional hitman, I kill in cold blood."
"You're also a tender husband and father," she whispered, holding a sigh. "If you stop killing and change your way of life, you can come home. Nobody knows you're the Mercenary, except that Xi-kongian cop who has vanished..."
"She's with me," he snapped. "She's alive. So she can enjoy what she's done. I was going to retire when she ruined everything."
"Let her go, Charlie. Come home. We can try again..."
She must have figured she couldn't raise four children on her own, not even with his money. Maybe she even missed him, but he didn't feel anything at the thought. All his love for her and his children had vanished in a well of... what? He hated himself for what he'd become.
He stared at her with a suddenly icy stare. He saw her stiffen and gulp, but her eyes were still pleading. She seemed to think her sweet husband was still behind the mask of the Mercenary, and that Charlie was a gentle and sensible man. He felt everything but that.
"No," he said at last, averting his eyes. "I'm sorry, Iulia. It's over. Enjoy widowhood."
He rose from the bench and left without turning back.
***
The Mercenary was back in his lair, but he was brooding. Yuki watched him spend his days lost in thought – or maybe memories of whatever he had lost. He'd forged a death certificate for Charleston Rose and had sent it with a testament to Iulia Rose. The salesman was dead for the galaxy, but the hitman was still alive.
Charlie had given back her phone without looking her in the eyes. Tonto wasn't blocking her way anymore, so she could leave at any time. The Deceiver was parked next to one of the many cemeteries of Alahairo, where the race of galactic traders was buried – as if Charlie already considered himself dead. Or he'd gone back to the home planet to die, like an elder of his people would do.
Yuki could arrest him and lock him in a prison forever, but she hesitated. Charlie was a dead man walking and maybe that was what he wanted. She knew he wasn't an accidental killer like Yash had been, but she still felt attracted to him. She thought there was more to him than the icy hitman.
Since she was free to surf the meganet, she noticed the Mercenary had vanished. After his killing spree, the assassin was now nowhere to be found. She intercepted a message from Iulia, telling him she wasn't going to tell anyone he was dead yet, and that he should go home, so Yuki guessed they had met. Maybe his wife had said something that had made him stop what he was doing.
But now he was simply waiting for death. Or for Yuki to arrest him. Or who knew what. He never spoke and ignored her questions. He didn't even look at her, a brooding beau who never got off his landed starship. He had started writing a diary-testament to his daughter and nothing else seemed to matter.
Yuki wanted to know him better, to see the person behind the hitman – the man Iulia now missed and wanted back. But his hatred kept her at bay, probably because she was a cop. Touching him didn't give her much more insight than what she already had. She couldn't read his thoughts, only "feel" him, and he seemed to be empty. That fire he had when she'd first met him was extinguished.
She tried to go home, but seeing Kiril and Birgit together only made her miss Charlie.
"Have you figured out who he is, where he hides?" Kiril asked worried. "You had vanished and he killed so many of us in that killing spree..."
"I caused it, Kiril," Yuki replied. "He had me in his clutches and wanted me to watch, unable to do anything... But he hasn't killed anyone after that crazy spree, I think he's given up his job."
"And how can you tell? He kept you prisoner for months!"
"And then he let me go. I touched him, Kiril. His fire has burned out."
"We're still supposed to bring him in. I understand you established some kind of bond with him, so if you want me to do it..."
"No! I will not tell you anything about him, Kiril. I think he might do like Yash if we try to bring him in."
That made Kiril stop arguing immediately. He still felt guilty for that case. He looked concerned for her, but he was the only one. Her superiors would blame her for the slaughter and her inability to nail the criminal responsible for so many pointless deaths.
She didn't have a story for them – they wouldn't be as understanding as Kiril. Luckily the only Sire officer who could have read her mind – haughty Jako-wan Silverio – had been one of the Mercenary's victims, so they had no way of forcing her to tell the truth. So she resigned. She sent her letter without going back to her office, since she didn't want to talk to any of them.
She said good-bye to her cousin and went back to Alahairo, determined. She felt relieved that the Deceiver was still where she'd left it. Charlie hadn't moved, he still sat with his computer in his lap when she joined him in the cockpit.
"You're not the Mercenary anymore," she told him. "And I'm not Commander Zhian – discharged with dishonor. The galaxy is huge, let's get away from it all." She hoped that telling him she'd been kicked out of the Galaxy Police would make him relent and give her a chance. Besides, it wasn't too far from the truth – if she'd told her superiors what had happened, they would have done it that way. Not that she cared about honor or the Galaxy Police anymore.
"Do you really think I want to spend my life with you after what you've done?" he replied, hostile.
"Then why didn't you go back to your family?" she said.
He didn't answer and frowned even more.
"We could go to Friport, get ourselves new IDs," she insisted. "We can be a team – I mean, we both have fighting training, I'm sure we can find something. You can't spend the rest of your life in this starship."
He scoffed but didn't look at her. He seemed determined to do just that.
"You might as well drive it to the edge of the galaxy and beyond, then!" she said with a snort of exasperation. "That would mean certain death, for both of us. Or maybe not, who knows. The two people who did it haven't come back. It's been a year, they must have run out of fuel or met with some other space disaster... If you're so willing to die, why don't you just do it?"
"Maybe I will," he snapped. "Take you to hell with me."
Yuki sighed and went to sit on the bunk, wondering what else she could say to take him out of his gloomy mood. Time was on her side – she'd given up her career and her life to stay
by Charlie's side – he'd relent eventually...
***
Charlie hated the fact that Yuki was right. Iulia was dead to him, and he'd forget his kids faster if he started a new life. He could lose himself in the outlaws' world – with a former cop no less. He could start from scratch. With the woman who had ruined everything.
He was still fond of Xi-kongians. His first girlfriend had been Xi-kongian. Yuki reminded him of that long lost girlfriend. In spite of the harsh training, the years on Xi-kong had been the best of his life. He'd learned to control his teenage angst, to channel his energies, to find his balance...
Something he'd lost when he'd met pretty, dumb Iulia, who had given him seven years of happiness, but then... Yuki had entered his life. Yuki, who had resigned from the Galaxy Police and seemed determined to stay by his side. Yuki, who was much better company than poor Tonto.
Losing his family was a numbing pain now. Killing didn't seem appealing anymore. Not because he had suddenly developed a code of honor of some kind, but because he felt exhausted, empty. All the youthful anger was gone, but also the more mature family man.
He still wasn't sure he liked what he'd become, but he surely had changed since he'd met Yuki.
"You," he said at last. "Come here."
She obeyed and he sat her in his lap. "You hurt me, you know that?"
"I have all my life to make myself forgiven, don't you think?" she answered gravely, putting her arms around his neck. Besides, he'd raped her more than once, so they were even. Maybe they should stop hurting each other.
She kissed him and he held her tighter, feeling lighter.
He could leave. Go far away. Start again. It was the only way to solve his problems, including the love-hate he'd felt for Yuki from the very beginning...
Mirabilis
Part 1 – Smeralda the Beautiful
"Haje, wait, you can't go!"
Haje kept walking without turning back. His sister's call couldn't stop him. That place wasn't for him. The Lower Town, the slums, they weren't worthy of him. He'd go to the New Town, even if it cost him his life. He had managed to get a fake ID and nothing could stop him now.
The city of Mirabilis on the namesake terraformed planet was divided in three main areas. The Old Town, closer to the interstellar spaceport; the New Town, where its youthful and perfect inhabitants paraded their glorious bodies half-naked in the gardens and palaces hidden by a white wall; and the Lower Town, or the slums.
Only the Humanoids with flawless looks had access to the temple of perfection enclosed within its walls, and whoever wanted to be admitted among them was allowed a passport valid for two hours. The Lower Town was inhabited by all the rejected people. If any of them dared disturb the perfection of the New Town with his or her presence, they'd be killed.
Haje had enough of staring at the very high wall dividing the New Town from the Lower Town. He went towards the Old Town and the spaceport, so that he'd look like someone coming from another planet. Or with his fake ID he hoped to join a group of Perfects coming home and enter the forbidden white city.
Haje was a handsome young man who had been rejected by the Perfects' town years earlier, during childhood, because his beauty was disfigured by a horrible purple patch on his left shoulder, as big as a hand, that could easily be hidden under the clothes. In the Lower Town nobody had seen his imperfection since his vanity made him hide it, and most of his friends had forgotten about it.
Whoever didn't know him and saw him for the first time was puzzled, though. Haje was handsome, intelligent, nice, smart, what was missing that didn't allow him to join the crowd of Perfects in the New Town?
Haje followed a group of gorgeous youths that had just come back from an interstellar cruise and put his ID on the automated scanner with his heart in his throat. The gate opened and he stepped past, feeling relieved.
Soon he was in the wide streets of the New Town, bordered with flower beds and neatly trimmed trees, surrounded by luxurious palaces with large windows interspersed by gardens. Used to the alleys and crumbling buildings of the Lower Town, Haje had to do his best to hide his awe, trying not to gape.
Between the Lower Town and the New Town there was an abyss. This is where I belong, Haje thought, exhilarated. A place where everyone was beautiful, robots did the menial tasks and Humanoids were free to bask in the sun or converse about philosophy in their rich abodes. Not a dump for humanity and spare parts like it was beyond the wall. He noticed the wall wasn't visible, while from the Lower Town it was taller than any other building.
God, she's beautiful! he thought, watching a golden chariot pulled by two white horses where a gorgeous young blonde sat. Her was face a perfect oval with blue eyes and luscious coral lips, her hourglass body with pale skin was barely covered by a silken, sleeveless tunic.
Everybody bowed as the golden chariot and its marvelous creature passed by and Haje did the same without hesitating.
"She's really the queen of the Perfects," he muttered under his breath.
"She is, isn't she?" a blond young man standing nearby said. "Yes, there were no doubts when we elected Smeralda Queen of Perfection! Time leaves no trace on her, she's been queen for three years already and she's as beautiful as the first day!"
"I wish I could be her king," Haje said with a sigh.
"Don't tell me!" The other looked at him. "But neither of us can compete with Chrystal, unfortunately! My name is Vestus, yours?"
"Haje," he answered, still dreamy, as the chariot vanished into the biggest palace of all.
Vestus smiled and asked him where he slept. He answered he hadn't found a place yet, he'd been chosen only a few days earlier and was still trying to figure out where everything was, so Vestus invited him to his place.
"We'll be able to talk about Smeralda," he said, winking.
Haje smiled. His new friend was so handsome, that for a moment he felt inferior. But it was just a moment. Haje couldn't forget his beauty marred only by that ugly patch on his shoulder – now well hidden under his shirt. He had always worked out and kept fit and could have been chosen, if the exam didn't imply getting naked in front of the judges who would have definitely noticed the imperfection.
"We could go to court this afternoon," Vestus continued as they strolled towards an open air restaurant. "If you're new, maybe she hasn't noticed you yet, you might be able to seduce her. I gave up, she already told me that I'm not enough for her."
And if he is not enough, what am I? Haje wondered, his heart thundering in his chest. I'm a man, he said to himself proudly. I'm handsome, young and healthy, if I can't have her, I'll find another perfect woman and have perfect babies!
He smiled, thinking that Vestus was seeing him as his peer. I'm a Perfect, he said to himself. A quick thought for his purple patch and his disfigured sister, then a new determination. Nobody must know.
***
Haje was never able to figure out how he entered into the good graces of Smeralda the Beautiful. Every day he visited her and they talked. She spellbound him with her glorious beauty and he wanted her every day a little more, but held back, showing patience and perseverance, certain he'd eventually seduce her. And when she'd become his, his imperfection would matter no more – she was the Queen of the Perfects, she'd protect him.
For her he'd forgotten the Lower City, his friends crooked or dumb who thought him dead by now, his dirty, dark house and everything that had been his life in the past twenty years. He always had excellent excuses not to show off his torso and lived in a dream, especially when he sat next to his gorgeous queen. He'd stopped envying the King of Perfection, Chrystal, who was officially Smeralda's partner, but in fact they both had other lovers.
So Haje started courting Smeralda who actually encouraged him. But he quickly understood she only wanted sex, so when she invited him to her room one night, he declined. Until he was certain of her feelings, he couldn't uncover his shoulder. And since he'd noticed how haughty and perfidious she could be, he wasn't so sure
of what he was doing anymore.
He didn't have any friends in the New Town – Vestus had quickly forgotten him, besides, Haje couldn't show him his secret – and he couldn't hide forever. Whether he liked it or not, he wasn't perfect and should go back to the Lower Town before they discovered him.
It was a hard decision to make, but he didn't have much choice. So he went to see Smeralda and told her he must leave.
"Leave?" She widened her blue eyes in surprise. "Mirabilis is not perfect enough for you?"
"Oh, Mirabilis is beyond perfection," he replied. "Not even the Sire and the former Imperial planet can compare to it. But I..."
"Maybe I'm not perfect enough for you, since you don't come when I summon you," she retorted.
"No, my lady, you're the perfect among perfects, but..."
"Then you're the one not perfect enough for Mirabilis and Smeralda," Chrystal's voice came from behind, startling him. The young king came forward and passed by him, ripping off the sleeve of his shirt and exposing his disfigured shoulder.
"The horror," Smeralda whispered, averting her eyes and wrinkling her nose. She didn't look surprised, though.
"Have you known for long?" Haje asked, keeping calm.
"Since you arrived," Smeralda answered with contempt. "We are the judges of perfection, and neither I nor Chrystal remembered letting you in."
"So we checked the archives and discovered the forgery," Chrystal continued, sitting next to her on the plush couch. "You were discarded at two after various attempts to get rid of that ugly patch on your skin." He smirked. "But we decided to wait and see what you actually wanted. Except it's not clear at all. Why did you come? And why do you want to leave now, without having tasted any of the Perfects?"
They know even this! Haje thought, incredulous. Or is Smeralda so sure of her charm that when she seduces someone she knows he can't think of anyone else? I'd have loved to screw the Perfect among Perfects and live to tell the story...
Star Minds Interregnum Page 10
