by Merita King
“Well done Sam,” he sniggered. “You’re good. You’re very good.”
I thought about what little I knew of Nembier. He’s an Agrillian scientist who, by his own admission, gets his rocks off by studying ancient languages and hasn’t been laid in years. He may not be the life and soul of the party but he’s bound to be pretty well connected, amongst the scientific community anyway. He could be well travelled and for all I knew, he could have friends and contacts from many worlds. How was I to know who he was talking about? I hadn’t the faintest idea but I knew I had to find out. Even though it’s not strictly my job to find out information about the crimes my cargo may be accused of, this had got to me and for my own peace of mind, I had to know. I didn’t know where to begin to answer these cryptic questions though and it showed.
“So where do you go from here now you have this news huh?” he asked with a grin. I shrugged and ran a hand through my hair. “Well answer me this Sam. How much do you know about Agrillian law and social history?”
“Practically nothing,” I admitted as he dressed, “but I’m going to find out. Now come on, I’m taking you to the canteen so you can be more comfortable. We found some inmates alive by the way, so I’m gonna be putting a team on watching you twenty four seven. That way you don’t have to sit in here on your own and you can have something to eat and drink but I meant what I said earlier though, if I have to chase you all over this place once more, I’ll put you outside and leave you to the creatures okay?”
“I’ll not try to escape Sam,” he said and extended his wrists towards me. “It wasn’t my idea last time remember.” He locked eyes with me as I cuffed him and unlocked the door.
Back in the canteen I led him over to the nutri vend and helped him get some food and a drink and sat him down at a corner table. Everyone was eating and talking after the terrifying afternoon we’d had and I felt bad interrupting but it was necessary.
“Hey guys,” I called and waited for the chatter to die down. “Sorry to interrupt again. Now, for the benefit of our new friends here, this guy here is Professor Kluvak Nembier. He’s under restraint because he’s wanted in connection with a crime. It’s not my job, nor anyone else’s here to decide on his guilt or innocence so I don’t want to find anyone bullying him okay? Yes I know I lost my rag with him earlier and I’ve apologised to him for that and I intend to add that fact to my official report so everything is above board. I do have a code and when I’m wrong I’m big enough to admit it. Now I’ve told him that he can stay with us in here so he has access to food and drink; he’s a person not an animal and I like to do things right. I’m asking for volunteers to sit with him on his table. Say, teams of four in two hour rotations? It’s gonna have to be twenty four seven I’m afraid but all you have to do is make sure he doesn’t run off, get him food and drinks and escort him to the bathroom and back. Okay so who wants to be on the first watch?”
Once Nembier had his first team with him, I got myself something to eat and sat down. By the time we all decided it was time to get some sleep, I’d got to know several of the inmates and found them to be nice guys. One of them, a middle aged man with a quiet way about him named Baz, turned out to be from Agrillia 3, so I took the opportunity to try to learn about the place. Nembier hadn’t given me much of a clue except to ask me what I knew about the social history and laws, so I took a stab in the dark.
“What’s life like on Agrillia Baz? Y’know, day to day.”
“What’s it like?” he asked. “Well umm, in what context? What’s life like anywhere?”
“Well umm,” I faltered as I tried desperately to think of what to say. “Is life easy for instance, or are there so many laws that you have to look over your shoulder all the time?”
“Well it’s okay I guess,” he said as he scratched his chin. “The authorities are pretty easy going most of the time. They let us get on with our lives without too much interference. It’s more relaxed now than it was during the outbreak.”
“The outbreak?” I asked. “What’s that all about?”
“Well Sam, a couple of hundred years ago there was tragedy. A fusion reactor blew up and caused the atmosphere to become contaminated with a gas that made people sterile, so over time the population began to decrease rapidly as the elderly died off without there being a similar number of babies being born to keep the numbers steady. The scientists began to panic that we’d die out, so they sanctioned cloning as a way to get the numbers back up. Everything was fine until the clones reached puberty and then many of them went crazy.”
“Crazy? In what way crazy?”
“I don’t know the finer details. I’m no scientist but it seems that once they hit puberty, the hormones somehow fucked with the wiring in their brains or something, because a large number of them turned into crazed killers.”
“No shit?”
“No shit Sam,” he nodded. “I remember hearing how thirty five percent of the first clone generation were guilty of murder. There was a whole wave of executions as the killings began. You see, once they sanctioned the cloning process, lots of couples went for it which resulted in many births happening around the same time and those babies all reached puberty around the same time. The killings all started around the same time too and in some cases, whole families were wiped out. I remember my grandfather telling me about a neighbour of his who came home and sliced up his wife and all four of his kids, then calmly made himself dinner and sat down and ate it without batting an eyelid. It was only when he hadn’t reported for work for three days that someone went around to check, and they found him sitting in his garden as bold as brass while the bodies of his family stunk up the entire house.”
“Damn, that’s some weird shit,” I replied, still trying to connect all the dots and understand how this affected Nembier and his case. “So what happened?”
“The authorities quickly passed laws outlawing any more cloning and they also passed a law preventing any clones from breeding, even the ones who hadn’t gone crazy. All the ones who had killed were rounded up and executed and any children of clones were also rounded up and euthanased. The clones that remained and seemed healthy were sterilised and branded with a mark on the back of the neck but otherwise they were allowed to live reasonably normal lives, although they quickly found their neighbours weren’t quite as friendly as they had been before.”
“What an awful situation,” I replied and he nodded.
“Yeah it was. It’s referred to these days as the Agrillian outbreak. I’m surprised you didn’t know about it.”
“Well I’ve been around some, but I’ve never heard about it. Thanks for telling me though Baz, I’m extremely grateful to you. This information is very important.”
“It is? How?” he asked.
“My prisoner is from Agrillia 3 and he is accused of nine murders. Murders he swears he didn’t do. We had a teenage girl with us when we arrived here and she ended up with her throat cut not long after we arrived, at the same time as Nembier escaped from the restraints. I know she wasn’t killed by the creatures and I feel sure that we’re all meant to believe Nembier killed her, but something about it doesn’t add up and I feel pretty sure he didn’t do it.”
“So what does that have to do with the outbreak?” he asked.
“Nembier hinted to me that someone let him out of his restraints. Someone he said he’s seen before.” I looked at Baz as he digested this information.
“But he didn’t say who?” he asked.
“No,” I admitted. “He’s being cryptic and I can’t blame him really. When you’re handcuffed and powerless to control your own destiny, I guess it’s natural to want to play a power game with your captors.”
This job had quickly become far more complicated than I was comfortable with. My job may be complicated at times but it is also quite simple, at least in theory. All I have to do is find my target, catch him and deliver him to the relevant authorities; quick, clean and simple and that’s the way I like it. Bang, bang, bang a
nd on to the next. This Nembier business had got right under my skin and try as I might, I just couldn’t shake this feeling that I had to find out what was going on, even though it’s not strictly my job. Maybe it was Jena Marks’ death that caused it; maybe I felt she needed justice. Whatever, I was hooked and I couldn’t let it go. As we drank I thought about what Nembier told me and turned it over in my mind, trying to make some sense of it but the more I focussed on it, the fuzzier everything became. Someone had picked the locking mechanism of his restraints and let him out; someone he’d seen before. Those were the alleged facts but where the fuck was I to find the answers? What I needed to know was who had freed him and why? Nembier wasn’t telling so I was on my own and as I ran a hand through my hair, I sighed with frustration.
“What’s up Sam?” Baz’s question brought me out of my musings.
“How the fuck am I going to find out who freed him and why?” I replied but he shrugged.
“Well what do we know?” he asked. “He said he’s seen the person before.” I nodded. “So we can assume that this encounter happened on Agrillia can’t we?”
“Can we?” I replied with a shrug. “The guy is a scientist. He may have travelled all over the galaxy doing his thing.”
“Exactly what is his thing?”
“Umm ancient Agrillian languages I think.”
“But that’s not something that’s going to be of interest to many folks outside of Agrillia,” he said. “Is it?” A light went on inside my mind at this comment and I had one of those moments of sudden illumination when things fall into place and form the beginnings of a pattern that I can recognise.
“You’re right Baz. Ancient Agrillian languages might be very interesting to modern day Agrillians, but who else would be that interested huh? There may be other scientists from other worlds who would be interested in that sort of thing, but they’d travel to Agrillia to study it.”
“Right,” Baz grinned. “I’ll bet you a clean fifty, the guy we’re after is Agrillian, or at least that’s where Nembier knows him from.”
“The guy we’re after?” I asked.
“Well, I’m happy to help,” he blushed. “You’ve got me interested now Sam; you can’t leave me out of it. I wanna play too.”
It was fully dark as Baz and I traded ideas and since we all now knew the building was pretty secure, we felt it wasn’t really necessary to have armed guards on watch while we slept. After arranging a change of teams to make sure Nembier was watched throughout the night I decided to get some sleep. Dex, Luggs, Baz and I decided to share one of the ground floor offices for the night and after a quick rearranging of desks to partition the room into sections, we tried to get comfortable. It was as I was trying to go to sleep that something occurred to me.
“Dex, Luggs are you awake guys?” I whispered.
“What’s up Sam?” Dex replied.
“Can you remember how many passengers boarded the Sally B when you stopped at Agrillia?”
“Umm, I know quite a number disembarked there. I’d got talking to a couple of guys on the trip and they both got off there. One of them left the vidicom game he’d lent me, so I caught up with him at the disembarkation gate to give it back and there was a good hundred or so waiting to get off. I’ve no idea who got on there though, sorry buddy.”
“Okay no worries.”
“Sorry, I don’t know either, “Luggs hissed, “but Morry might do. That’s the sort of shit he deals with all the time. Ask him in the morning.”
“Morry?” I frowned.
“Yeah, Morry Laymon. Our esteemed leader,” he sniggered.
“Oh you mean Flark,” I said without thinking.
“Flark?” Luggs asked. “Why do you call him that?”
“Oh he just looks like a Flark to me I guess.”
“What’s a Flark?” Baz asked.
“Back home on Sigma Prime, those who are wealthy enough can employ an android servant to help them around the home. They keep the house, cook and clean and stuff like that and they’re all programmed to have this real simpering manner. It’s all yes sir, no madam, have a wonderful day and would you like me to kiss your ass? Anyway, they’re called Flarks and he reminded me of them when I first came aboard the Sally B.” All three guys laughed till tears streamed down their faces and I knew that within twenty four hours of being back aboard the liner, the guy would be Flark to the whole crew. I hoped it didn’t get back to him, at least not until I left on my next job.
It seemed as though I’d just got to sleep when I was woken up by someone shaking my shoulder and shouting my name. Dawn was just breaking as I opened my eyes to see Dex, stripped to the waist and eyes wide with shock shaking me awake.
“Sam, wake up buddy for fucks’ sake wake up.”
“What the fuck?” I groaned as I tried to come to my senses. The naked, leggy blonde faded into the mists as reality overtook me. “What’s the problem?”
“One of the prisoners is dead.”
“What?” I was awake at once and sat up and stared at him. “Who, how, what happened?”
“One of the prisoners from cell wing four we let out yesterday. He’s dead, throat cut just like Jena Marks. He’s in the bathroom.”
“Oh shit,” I cursed and got to my feet and dressed hurriedly.
“That’s not all Sam,” Dex said as I fumbled with the buttons on my shirt.
“Oh fuck, what else?”
“It was Nembier who found his body. The guys watching him took him to the bathroom to take a piss. They waited outside for him and he went in alone. They heard him yelling and went in to find the body, with Nembier standing over him.”
It seemed that whenever I thought this crazy situation couldn’t get any worse, it suddenly did and I found myself considering the wisdom of doing the job I do. Luckily I don’t get this type of situation that often; most of the time it’s a straight forward chase, catch and deliver but every so often a job comes up that makes me feel old and tired and this was one of those. It was one of those jobs when I wondered whether the money was really worth the hassle. I know I’m law enforcement and everyone thinks of us as low life’s, Mercs, but some of us do have some kind of code we operate by and although I like a certain standard of living, I’m not a gold digger without principles. I do this job because it’s what I know how to do and I do it well. I like the freedom it gives me and anyway, I’m too old to retrain but there are one or two of my jobs I would turn down flat if I could know in advance what was to transpire. This was already just such a job.
Dex led the way to the bathroom and I went in. A pair of feet stuck out from the stall at the far end. The body lay on its front with the head over the toilet, making it look like he was interrupted while taking a quiet puke after a heavy night of booze. I jotted down the number written on the collar of the prisoner’s overalls he wore, before turning him over and lying him down. He had obviously been killed while taking a piss as his dick was still hanging out of his overalls. It’s not my job to protect a victim’s modesty but hey, I’m a guy too and I’d hate to think my corpse was laid out, dick exposed for all to see so I shoved it back inside and zipped him up. His throat had been sliced clean through to the spine and his head canted back far too far as I laid him down. Over the years I’ve been doing this job I’ve learned to have a strong stomach and I swallowed hard as I looked at the gaping slash and the mess it had made in the stall. Examining the wound, I could see his spine clearly, which told me both his carotid artery and jugular vein had been sliced through. Jeez no wonder there was so much mess in here!
I stood and looked at the wall above the toilet. His carotid artery had spurted blood with such a force that it hit the end wall and splashed in all directions. The walls and ceiling were covered and the floor was awash. Five or six spurts, a pint at a time hitting the end wall and splashing back in all directions would have ensured the killer was drenched in blood himself. A quick look around discovered no helpfully discarded weapon, so I went outside to ask questions.
Nembier had found him, according to what Dex told me, so he was my obvious first port of call. He was in the canteen, still watched over by the same team who had escorted him to the bathroom. His face was grey and I noticed his hand shook as he lifted his drink to his lips. Sighing, I sat down and looked at him.
“So who wants to start?” I asked and looked at each face in turn. As the guys in his watch team went over what happened, I realised pretty quickly that Nembier couldn’t have done it. They’d taken him to the bathroom and waited outside for him. They all agreed that it was less than thirty seconds before they heard him yell and went in to see what the fuss was about, to find him standing over the body with his hand over his mouth. He’d run into the adjoining stall to vomit and they all reckoned he didn’t have the time to do it and I agreed; it would take longer than thirty seconds to slit someone’s throat, wash and dry yourself and put clean overalls on, before screaming your lungs out and vomiting on cue. He couldn’t have done it and I now had two options. Either the killer wanted to frame Nembier and was shit at it, or it was just pure coincidence that he was the next to want a piss after the guy met his end. Whoever did it would have been covered in blood and would need to wash and change his clothes and as I could see no one around who was in such a mess, I realised that somewhere in the building was a pair of bloody overalls. If I could find them I might get a DNA sample from them and maybe catch another killer and get a bonus on my pay check.
Nembier was worried that everyone would think he did it and worried for his safety and I have to admit that the same thought occurred to me too. My job was to deliver him, alive preferably and although I have the authority to use deadly force if absolutely necessary, my payout goes down if I deliver a dead cargo when my job was for a live one. I felt it pertinent to make an announcement; not just to protect Nembier and my pay check, but to prevent anyone else from committing a crime they’d have to pay for.
“Hey guys,” I called and the room felt silent. “I just want you all to be aware that my prisoner here did not commit this crime. It was just coincidence that he found the body and maybe whoever did it wants us to believe he’s guilty but I can assure you that he’s innocent, of this crime at least. I hope everyone is clear about that okay?” I gave everyone as serious a glare as I could muster and heard a few sighs and saw a couple of nods in response. “Now, do we know who the victim is?”
