The Blue-Haired Bombshell

by John Zakour

  ‘‘Just relax your mind,’’ Carol said inside my mind.

  ‘‘Don’t be a baby,’’ HARV said inside my mind.

  ‘‘Relax,’’ another voice said—yes, inside my mind. I thought it was Elena’s.

  I opened my eyes and peeked over at Elena sitting across the aisle from Carol. She was sitting on her seat in the lotus position like psis like to do. She seemed calm, like she didn’t have a worry in the world. That worried me.

  After a few minutes, which seemed a lot longer, the jittering stopped. The ride became smooth. It was as if we were gliding on virgin ice. I looked out the window. I could see the Earth growing smaller and smaller. It made me feel small, but in a good way, like I was part of something bigger than I was. (Space travel must bring out my poetic side.)

  The pilot informed us that we were now in space and we would be traveling at an average speed of sixty thousand kilometers an hour, which meant we’d be at the Moon in less than six hours. Jules Verne would have been so jealous.

  ‘‘We have reached cruising speed,’’ the pilot informed us. ‘‘The servingbots will be around shortly to serve drinks and a delicious breakfast.’’

  I sat back in my chair, at least as back as I was able, considering we were in the last row and my chair didn’t recline all that much. I decided to relax and enjoy the flight. Not much I could do here on the shuttle.

  ‘‘Zach, close your eyes now,’’ HARV ordered inside my head.

  ‘‘Why?’’

  ‘‘Just do it, Zach!’’

  Against my better judgment I took HARV’s advice. I closed my eyes.

  ‘‘Droop your head, like you are sleeping,’’ HARV said.

  I did.

  ‘‘Now drool a little,’’ HARV coached.

  ‘‘I don’t drool!’’ I shot back in my brain.

  ‘‘Should I play video proof in your mind?’’ HARV asked.

  ‘‘I can pretend sleep without pretend drooling,’’ I said.

  ‘‘A true method actor would drool,’’ HARV said.

  I thought about drooling for a nano and decided against it—tough guys don’t drool. I curled back in my seat. ‘‘Why am I feigning sleep?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘Because Elena is sending out messages to everybody else on the shuttle to sleep.’’

  ‘‘Why is she doing that?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘Who knows? She’s the mindreader not me,’’ HARV said. ‘‘But by fake sleeping we’ll be able to discover why. Even with your eyes closed I can still watch her through your wrist com and the shuttle’s computer system, then I can relay the images to your brain.’’

  The images of everybody else on the plane scrolled through my brain. Sure enough, they were all sound asleep, except for Elena.

  ‘‘Why aren’t I napping like the rest of them?’’ I asked HARV.

  ‘‘Elena is broadcasting on a very wide, but unique, mental frequency. So I am able to block her out for now. You have to be careful though. If she focused her concentration on you you’d be out colder than a flounder on ice.’’

  ‘‘How was Elena able to catch the other psis off guard?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘My guess is that psis find space relaxing, therefore none of them feel threatened up here and they all relaxed their defenses.’’

  ‘‘HARV, you’re a computer—you’re supposed to know, not guess.’’

  HARV made a raspberry sound in my brain. My guess was space does weird things to intelligent cognitive systems also.

  I watched in my mind as Elena stood up. The blouse she was wearing had a long sleeve on one side and no sleeve on the other. Reaching up the long sleeve, she pulled out a sharp metal object.

  I made my move. I had surprise on my side. Leaping up, I lunged across Carol, grabbing Elena’s knife hand with my right hand. Moving my body forward, I pulled her arm back toward me, catching her totally off guard. I drove her to the ground keeping my weight on top of her all the while and locking her right arm behind her back. Popping my Colt 2062 into my left hand I forced the barrel behind her head.

  ‘‘I don’t want to kill you but move and you’re dead,’’ I growled.

  Elena wasn’t the type of girl who was used to being on the bottom and out of control. She started to squirm. I pressed down harder on her.

  ‘‘I’ll repeat it just once more. I don’t want to hurt you,’’ I warned.

  ‘‘That’s not going to be a problem,’’ was the reply in my head.

  I went flying off of Elena, crashing into the back wall of the shuttle. I crumbled to the ground.

  ‘‘What did I tell you about not letting her focus on you?’’ HARV scolded from my brain.

  I needed to react fast. I started pushing myself up off the ground. I felt a spiked boot on my back, forcing me back to the ground. I fought it. I lost. I collapsed back to the ground under the weight of that boot; it felt like a metric ton holding me in place.

  ‘‘She’s not just using the boot, she’s also using her telekinetic powers,’’ HARV told me.

  ‘‘Thanks, Captain Obvious,’’ I said.

  ‘‘No need to get snotty just because some psi is about to wipe the floor and ceiling with you,’’ HARV said.

  ‘‘The computer in your brain is correct and will no longer be able to help you,’’ Elena said inside my head.

  I tried to look up. I couldn’t.

  ‘‘You may look at me,’’ she said.

  I moved my head up. Elena was towering over me, holding my Colt 2062 in her hand. That was my chance. ‘‘GUS, shock her good!’’ I shouted in my mind.

  Nothing happened.

  ‘‘Elena is blocking your mental link with GUS,’’ HARV said.

  No big deal, that was easy to remedy. ‘‘GUS, shock her!’’ I shouted.

  ‘‘Gotcha! And with pleasure!’’ GUS responded from Elena’s hand.

  This tipped Elena off. She quickly opened her hand, letting GUS drop to the ground. DOS! I knew the talking gun thing would come back to bite me in the ass. But all wasn’t lost yet. Moving forward just enough to catch the falling Colt/GUS, I grabbed it and aimed. I had Elena locked in my sights. I didn’t fire. I couldn’t blow her away. I wasn’t sure she was the real bad guy here.

  Recalling my football days from high school, I flung myself off the ground toward Elena. I hit her low, right below the knees, forcing her to the ground again. The tackle was so smooth it would have made my old coach regret never starting me in a game. Of course, I had to admit Elena was more pleasant to grapple with than 120-kilo running backs.

  ‘‘I’ve noticed that you like to wrestle more with beautiful woman than you do big, ugly, guy thugs,’’ HARV said.

  Ignoring HARV, I slid up Elena’s body using my extra mass to keep her under control. Curling my fingers into a fist, I prepared to clobber her. Spinning her toward me I raised my fist. We locked eyes. I hesitated; not because she had beautiful, emerald green eyes that went on and on like a rolling field on a late spring day—which she did. It wasn’t their beauty that stunned me, but their innocence.

  ‘‘Oh, that was a such a mistake,’’ HARV said.

  I didn’t care. A pleasant, warming sensation swept over my body. I smiled. My fist relaxed. I let myself slide slowly off of her, relishing the contact I had with her, while at the same time being careful not to harm her. I couldn’t harm her now if I wanted to. I rolled off, lying contently at her feet. I knew it wasn’t right but I didn’t care.

  Rising to a knee, Elena leaned toward me and patted me on the head. ‘‘You could have hurt me but you didn’t,’’ she said. ‘‘For that, I’m letting you live.’’

  She began rubbing my shoulders. ‘‘Join the others in sleep while I finish my business here,’’ she ordered.

  I yawned. My eyes were so heavy now. I didn’t want to stay awake. I didn’t want to be in her way. ‘‘HARV, it’s up to you,’’ I said, with my last ounce of strength.

  ‘‘Was there every any doubt?’’ HARV said, appearing from my
eyes lens. HARV flickered as I closed my eyes. The last thing I noticed was him shaking his head.

  I woke up. I was in my seat. The servingbots were rolling down the aisles with trays of food. I noticed Elena was now sitting next to me. Carol was in Elena’s seat sound asleep, snoring away. Everybody else on the shuttle was wide awake and blissfully unaware of what had transpired. I looked at Elena. She touched my hand lightly.

  ‘‘Your computer convinced me to talk to you,’’ she said without moving her lips.

  ‘‘You can thank me later,’’ HARV said.

  ‘‘So why do you want to off Sputnik?’’ I asked.

  Elena stared at me blankly with those bright green eyes.

  ‘‘Why do you want him dead?’’ I asked. DOS, someday I was going to find somebody who understood P.I. talk. ‘‘Desma said you hate him because he betrayed your motherland.’’

  Elena gave me a cynical smile. ‘‘He may have, but I hate him because he betrayed my mother and father.’’

  ‘‘How so?’’

  ‘‘I believe he killed my father to get to my mother to get to me,’’ she said. Her thoughts sent a chill up my spine.

  HARV flashed the video report of Elena’s dad being killed in a hover crash across my eyes. The headline read: LEADING SCIENTIST DIES IN TRAGIC HOVER ACCIDENT.

  ‘‘The headlines say,’’ I started.

  ‘‘I know what they say,’’ she interrupted, ‘‘but he did it.’’

  ‘‘To get to you,’’ I said.

  She nodded. ‘‘He still hasn’t given up hope on me yet. He wants to turn me to his side. He’s even talked about adopting me. Being Head Administrator on the Moon, it’s within his right. He can do whatever he pleases.’’

  ‘‘What happened to your mother?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘She’s dead,’’ was all Elena would say.

  ‘‘I have no proof of Elena’s mother’s death; in fact I have no record of her,’’ HARV said. ‘‘But I do have video of Elena in action.’’

  HARV rolled the video in my mind, this one of a younger looking Elena sitting in an open field on the Moon, sniffing a flower. The words Elena Power Test scrolled across my eyes. The younger Elena seemed indifferent to the fact that three heavy tanks were rumbling toward her. The ground was trembling but she remained calm. The younger Elena looked up from her flower. The ground stopped shaking. The three tanks had been reduced to three piles of putty.

  ‘‘Wow,’’ I said.

  Elena smiled ever so slightly. ‘‘That was my sixteenth birthday. I’ve grown more powerful since then.’’

  I didn’t blame Sputnik for wanting to control Elena. She had the potential to be a one-woman army.

  ‘‘Now, why are you here, Zachary?’’ she asked, though it was really an order.

  ‘‘I don’t trust Sputnik either,’’ I said. ‘‘I am trying to figure out if he had anything to do with the murders at the World Council building.’’

  Elena frowned. ‘‘I wouldn’t put it past him.’’ She stood up and touched me on the shoulder. ‘‘I will do both our worlds a favor by killing him.’’

  Taking her hand, I yanked her back down into her seat. She glared at me. ‘‘You are so lucky I haven’t reduced you to a pile of dust yet.’’

  ‘‘Yeah, well, here’s the poop: I’m not a hundred percent sure he’s guilty,’’ I said.

  ‘‘I am,’’ she said. ‘‘I can feel it in my heart.’’ She touched her chest, just in case I wasn’t sure where her heart was.

  ‘‘That doesn’t hold up in a court of law,’’ I said, sounding a lot more like HARV than I was frankly comfortable with.

  ‘‘It can if I will it to,’’ Elena said.

  ‘‘So you can do whatever you please?’’

  ‘‘Yes,’’ she said.

  ‘‘Then how does that make you better than him?’’ I asked.

  She sank back in her seat, her entire body almost blending in with the cushions. ‘‘It doesn’t . . .’’

  ‘‘Then give me time to figure out what’s going on,’’ I said. (Though it was more of a plea.) I put my hand on my heart. ‘‘Once I have proof Boris Sputnik is behind these attacks, I will personally bring him down.’’

  ‘‘Well, I am sure he’s behind my parents’ deaths,’’ she said.

  ‘‘Are you really?’’ I asked.

  She looked at me, her eyes widened. A tear started down her cheek. ‘‘I have no actual proof. He controls everything on the Moon and Melda and Lea are almost as powerful as I am.’’

  Wiping her tear away, I said, ‘‘I’ll look for proof of that, too. If he’s diabolical enough to do one, he’d certainly be capable of the other. Something big is going down and I need to find out what it is. But I need more time.’’

  Elena held her head. ‘‘For the greater good . . .’’

  I put a finger under her chin and gently lifted her head up. ‘‘Yes, for the greater good.’’

  ‘‘Fine,’’ she agreed, arms crossed across her chest. ‘‘I won’t kill him yet.’’

  I smiled. ‘‘That’s all I ask.’’

  The rest of the time passed fairly smoothly. Elena woke Carol up. After Elena explained her cause, Carol offered to give her a foot rub if she wanted. (My guess was Carol was still feeling the effects of Elena’s mental whammy.) Elena told Carol she’d keep the idea in mind, but for now, it probably wouldn’t be such a hot idea to remove her boots as she had worked up a bit of sweat tussling with me.

  Carol laughed it off, noting how her feet weren’t always pleasant-smelling either. Elena insisted that was okay and encouraged Carol just to sit back in her seat and relax and enjoy the flight. Carol did so. Elena then admitted to me that she may have zapped Carol a bit too hard.

  For the rest of the flight, Elena gave me her version of life on the Moon. She made it clear that she loved the Moon. It was a wonderful home to the arts and sciences and a safe haven where psis could practice openly. People on the Moon weren’t scared of psis like Earth folks. In fact, they relished them. They thought of the psis as their link to greatness.

  Elena went on and on about the wonderful, almost utopian, atmosphere on the Moon. To Elena, the only thing holding the Moon back was Sputnik. HARV chimed in with something I had been thinking about in the back of my mind.

  ‘‘You know, Zach,’’ HARV said. ‘‘I realize you like this girl, but surely you must realize she’s still a prime suspect in the World Council killings? She has the power to pull it off. She might even try to set up Sputnik to kill two birds with one thought. Take out the people she sees as standing in the way of the Moon’s independence and get the guy you blame for killing your parents caught. The Moon gets to go free and thrives.’’

  HARV had a point and I knew it. I had to consider Elena a person of interest. I was hoping she wasn’t behind the murders at the World Council. For one, I liked her. For another, I didn’t want to have to mess with her. The thing was I knew she was perfectly willing to execute Boris, which meant she was capable of killing (at least if she believed in her cause).

  I wasn’t sure what the best course of action was so I picked the most direct one. DickCo dicks may have time to beat around the bush and mug for the camera to draw an episode out, but I didn’t. I didn’t have a bunch of sponsors I had to please. I looked at Elena, into those big green eyes of hers. ‘‘Did you kill those World Council members?’’ I asked.

  ‘‘Oh, great, Zach, way to not tip your cards,’’ HARV said. ‘‘If she doesn’t kill you, let’s start playing poker for money.’’

  ‘‘Do you think I’m some sort of lunatic?’’ Elena asked.

  ‘‘I prefer not to answer that on the grounds I’m afraid you’ll wilt me,’’ I said.

  ‘‘I should wilt you just for that accusation,’’ Elena thought at me. ‘‘Why would I kill council members I had never met and therefore had nothing against?’’

  ‘‘They were going to vote against the Moon’s independence,’’ I told her. ‘‘Maybe you
thought you could tip the vote by knocking out three nays.’’

  Elena’s eyes popped open. This wasn’t a look of anger, but one of confusion. ‘‘I was under the impression Sexy might vote correctly this time. Weathers had always been a friend of the Moon in the past,’’ she said.

  ‘‘Times change. People change,’’ I said.

  Elena stood up. I felt the air around me get warmer. She placed a purple, painted fingernail in my face. ‘‘I would never kill anybody who didn’t wrong me,’’ she said softly but firmly. ‘‘You are very lucky I think of us as kindred spirits or you’d be a smoldering pile of ashes right now.’’

  ‘‘Wow, your kindred spirit kept her from using you as kindling,’’ HARV kidded.

  ‘‘Shut up, HARV,’’ I said. ‘‘If anyone is going to make dumb puns in the face of death and danger, I prefer it to be me.’’

  Elena moved over and sat next to Carol. She propped her legs up on Carol. ‘‘I’ll take that foot massage now,’’ she said.

  ‘‘Gladly,’’ Carol said, peeling off Elena’s purple boots.

  ‘‘Make sure you aim my feet at your uncle,’’ Elena said.

  ‘‘Sure,’’ Carol said, a bit meekly.

  I slept through the rest of the flight.

  Chapter 20

  I was awakened by the robo-pilot’s voice. ‘‘We are making our approach to the Moon now. Please return your seats to their upright positions and fasten your seat belts. We expect a smooth docking, because, well, um, there is no atmosphere to clash with, but our legal department insists we put that in.’’

  Looking out the window, I saw the Moon coming fully into view. From this distance, I was able to see both the domed, colonized part and the native area. The former was lush and green; the latter was barren and brown. New and improved versus the way nature had intended. It was quite the contrast.

  Carol returned to her seat next to me. She looked a little dazed but no worse for the wear.

  ‘‘Nice to have you back,’’ I said. ‘‘You are back?’’

  Carol nodded. ‘‘Yeah. Elena says you’re going to need me now.’’

  I rolled my eyes. (Apparently more HARV was rubbing off on me than I liked to believe.) ‘‘That’s nice of her,’’ I said without feeling.