by F P Adriani
His soft hand was on mine below my wrist bandage, and now he squeezed my hand. “We have the same blood-type. You lost too much blood; I gave you some of mine.”
“Oh Tan,” I said, and I closed my eyes as he pressed the side of his face to mine.
I could feel him crying against me. “Don’t ever do this again. Don’t ever almost die.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said. And now I felt him laugh a little. “How long have I been sleeping?”
“Over a day,” he said. He fell silent for a moment, and then he pulled back and out-of-the-blue asked, “Who was that woman?”
My questioning eyes moved to his. And he said, “Tall, black hair, very long fingers. She shot the nut like she did it every day for breakfast.”
“That’s Molotov,” I said. So she had actually been in the room….
“She was here at the hospital yesterday. She left you this.” He handed me an envelope, and for an alarmed instant I remembered those other envelopes; then I wondered if I’d developed a paranoid fear of envelopes the way I had of whether planets would hold together….
I opened the envelope and inside I found Molotov’s handwritten message on a small piece of paper:
I’ve paid my personal debt to you: one life for one life. Don’t be a stranger for years again.
I put the message back into the envelope and laid it on the table beside the bed. My eyes traveled up to Tan. “How were they here? What happened?”
His eyes briefly closed and his head shook just as briefly. He seemed to not want to remember. But I needed to know….
“The fucking locator wouldn’t work,” he finally said. “It was working all the time—then just when I need it, the goddamn signal goes out!”
“The storm…” I began.
His dark head nodded fast now. “Yeah. Everything was pretty much down for a while, but battery power should have taken over. Only it didn’t in some places. What a fiasco. People went a little crazy in the restaurant, but the emergency lights finally came on and I ran into the bathroom and found just your jacket; then I ran around the main street looking for you—and found nothing. Then I contacted RG. I expected him to be on Earth, but my communication was rerouted, and of course he was here. He wound up getting on a flight right after you told him about that death.” Tan’s steady eyes were on me. “With the pandemonium inside and outside on the street, I don’t know how the hell he got you away from the café.”
A memory came to me then, seeing the inside top of a moon-car, then smelling the terrible bitter odor…. “A car, a car. I woke up at one point—I think we were on a narrow backstreet at the dome’s edge; then he knocked me out again with some chemical…. How long did he have me?”
“Eight hours….” Tan’s face seemed to sink in on itself. He was on the verge of more tears. As quick as I could, I grabbed his hand.
And then his wet dark eyes shot up to me. “Two of them I spent like a crazy person running around staring at a readout that wouldn’t show me shit. RG was over at 7; then he took a private shuttle here first thing. We figured the guy couldn’t take you to another colony so fast because of the storm—the locator flashed a general location for an instant—then the readout was gone again! RG had someone with him who played with the damn thing. Then we finally got the general signal again—then more of a pinpoint. The storm’s effects began dying down a lot. Don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been wearing the locator.”
But, going on his crying eyes now, he knew what would have happened. And so, for that matter, did I know.
And I was as glad as a person could be that it hadn’t happened.
*
The doctors told me I had to stay in the hospital at least another day, so I slept through most of that next day.
Tan came to see me for a few hours late in that day, partly to tell me Nell had tried to contact James that morning at the Headquarters. He’d told Tan about it and Tan had called her back, left a send-via-phone message saying that everything was okay.
Knowing Nell, I doubted that would be enough for her to hear. But, when I was basically stuck in the hospital, there wasn’t much I could do about assuaging any worries she might have.
A nurse brought me my dinner, and after Tan helped me eat it, he then helped me wash up in the bathroom; I had to do that more carefully than normal because I didn’t want to wet the fake-skin bandages and make healing take longer. My right wrist had been damaged the worst, had required more stitches: that one had been farther from the chair….
I finally slipped into fresh hospital pajamas and got back beneath the bed’s white sheet—and that was when Tan told me he’d spent the day hanging around with James, helping him “dissect” the other crap. They’d also conferenced in a secure Communications room, where they viewed and later made a copy of the film Tan had taken at the bar.
Worry filled my mind and I sat up higher in the bed. “Don’t do so much without me!”
“Relax, relax,” Tan said, gently coaxing me back down onto the mattress. “I told him I’d only do the minimum till you were better. He said we’ll all conference on the ship on the way back tomorrow. He arranged the flight. He came by last night but you were asleep. And he’s taken a motel room right beside mine too, for safety.” His dark eyes rolled; then they fell toward the door to the hall. “How’s he working out?”
“He” apparently was a thick-necked member of the posse James had assigned to guard outside my room. Earlier The Thick Neck had poked his head around the door and, perplexed by his presence, I’d asked him who the hell he was. And he responded that the “other thing” hadn’t been solved, so he was there to keep an eye on my well-being. “Once we’re all on the ship, you won’t have me hovering around you anymore,” he’d said, grinning big, which made his neck seem not so big….
He must have heard we were talking about him now: I saw his head poke around the frame, saw his grin again. Then his head popped away again.
And for the first time since this whole fiasco began, I one-hundred-percent wanted to be back on Diamond, where I could take care of myself without any outside interference, where I had more control of my own life.
But first we had to go back to Earth, which we did the next night.
And Tan and I weren’t in our room on the ship for even an hour when James knocked on the door and told us we needed to do some work.
There were no UPG approved security areas on the ship or anything, so James had commandeered the ship’s Communications room.
He made one of his people do a sweep around for bugs; then he told the ship’s Communications technician to disconnect all the power to the console panel. Once that guy had done that and left, James locked the door and sat down on the console chair with his back to the big panel, crossing one of his beige-panted legs over the other as he leaned back.
I sat opposite him, but Tan remained standing. Pressing his shoulder to the wall on my right, he slowly leaned back, looking very relaxed. Actually, both men looked very relaxed, but I didn’t feel at all relaxed.
While I was happy to leave Earth-Moon, so many questions had so far remained unanswered. I hoped James—and Tan—had some answers now. Yet I had a feeling that wasn’t exactly how this meeting would go….
“Well, Pia,” James began, “you scared the shit out of us, but I, for one, am glad you’re all right.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you are when if I wasn’t, it would be no skin off your ass. Give me a break.”
He lowered his head, but I saw his eyes move in an exasperated way and his lips curl into a small smile. And then he said, “I’m glad to see your sharp mouth is back to normal.”
To my surprise, I heard Tan laugh. But I just sort of scowled at the room.
James glanced at Tan. “We couldn’t go over most everything before, so I need to debrief both of you now, and then send some of the info back to my people on the Moon.” He looked at me. “I need you to tell me exactly what went on with Jericho.”
&nb
sp; I did what he’d asked—well, I didn’t tell him everything to do with me personally. I couldn’t, especially in front of Tan. I totally left out about that night with Jericho and his brother….
Beneath my white shirt, I broke out into a sweat. Nothing about the whole situation was easy for me to discuss, especially because I really wasn’t free to discuss everything. I had to pick and choose which things would be more important to discuss, and which of those would hurt me the least to discuss and harm me the least over time.
The whole horrible incident with Jericho seemed to have happened so fast, even though it had really been going on for weeks and had been brewing for years on the nut’s end.
However, ever since the day he’d captured me, my memory had been coming back more. And now I remembered how I’d thought I hit the jackpot that night with the two brothers. Normally, that would have been true with fucking two men at once. But, when both of the men were psychopaths, the word “jackpot” wasn’t anywhere in the equation.
When James had first presented me with the ring-job, I’d looked down at the file and immediately recognized “Martin,” whose real name was thought to be Mark. James hadn’t intended that I would be the killer. But then he’d seen my face, the recognition there, and then I realized I’d be the best one to get Martin—could probably get the closest to him out of anyone James had access to using.
Just like Jericho had remembered me well, so had Martin. So the actual job on the Moon had wound up being easy.
However, just like my selective editing during today’s conference, back then with the ring, I’d left out the information about my having been with the second man—I hadn’t thought it relevant to anything, and, really, it hadn’t been. I didn’t need to give the UPG knowledge of the one man in order to kill the other man. But, I probably should have wondered that the two men had so easily shared one woman; it was if they’d done it before, so they were probably close to each other somehow….
Sitting in the room with both James and Tan, I left everything at this: I explained that Jericho just wanted revenge for his brother’s murder. That would have to be enough revelation, for both James and Tan.
When I was done with my accounting of the events, James asked Tan for his opinion on what he’d seen, which hadn’t been much and was mostly from that night in the bar with Dylan.
“That woman near you in the video,” James suddenly said, referring to the tits-out woman, “I knew she looked familiar. Just found out before that she’s the daughter of someone important.”
Both my eyes and Tan’s shot to his. “Who?” I asked fast.
James nodded just as fast. “Nothing relevant to this case. She’s not involved. She’s just rebelling against her identity. That might have been why she was so, um, over-the-top at the place.” He laughed; apparently, he couldn’t help laughing. Neither could I, for that matter. Tan just shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Then the mood in the room sobered up, and James turned to me. “Do you think Jericho killed Dylan?”
I considered that a moment…then, shaking my head, I sighed. “No. Half his head was blown off, and that wasn’t Jericho’s style. Now his brother was another story….”
“We never knew Martin/Mark had a brother, or that he or Jericho came from Keron. Well, what did we ever know about Jericho especially? Just bits and pieces of his existence.”
“It’s like you’ve said about the lack of info from Keron. But, maybe you need to consider changing that and keeping an eye on the place, considering that I’m not impressed with anyone I’ve met from there so far.”
James snorted a little. “Pia, I want to confirm that Jericho did admit to being in the ring business, correct?”
I nodded. “Not in so many words did he say that, but, yeah, he indicated he was in it.”
“Well, unfortunately, the question still remains: who is the ring-leader of the re-emergence? I just haven’t determined that. Yet. But, I’m confident that your efforts will help us solve this.”
I flushed. At least one really good thing might come out of the fiasco….
James continued, “I’ve got people working on gauging the exact structure of that, as well as figuring out Dylan’s case, which we’ve had to literally steal from the Moon police.” His mouth twisted in an unpleasant way and he flashed us a look. “He’s on this ship.”
Now I understood the discomfort in his face. “James,” I said slowly, “do you think he was playing both sides somewhere, like on the titanium?”
“Another thing I’ve yet to determine.”
“But,” Tan said on a frown, “I’m really confused here at both your reactions. Jericho was watching Pia before he took her. So why couldn’t it be him who killed Dylan?”
“Too sloppy, too stupid, probably too stoned,” I said.
“I don’t know,” Tan replied. “He almost succeeded over you. I hate to say that, but it’s the goddamn truth, Pia.”
I felt my face redden, but before I could say anything, Tan continued as he looked at James, “Dylan did find out about the ring, so that’s a loose connection between him and Jericho.” Now Tan turned back to me. “And just because Jericho took a hit of drugs in the room with you doesn’t mean he was always stoned. He might have been more a seller than a user. Some people can do hard drugs occasionally and still function for the most part. They can also be in control of something then.”
“Tan,” James said now, “I don’t think he was in charge because I think his part was just a side-one to the ring. His kind do the same thing repeatedly. They’ve got one note to play, and his was drugs. He was responsible for the party-side to the first ring. He probably supplied them with drug-junk whenever they had the ring going.”
“Then that would mean the others involved are stoned sometimes too,” said Tan. He seemed to not want to leave the topic…but now I thought he had a point: sometimes even the dumbest and mentally unhealthiest crooks just keep getting away with something simply because they keep getting lucky….
I suddenly realized I’d said this out loud when I hadn’t intended that.
“Well,” said James on a sigh, “if two out of three of us think there might be something to this, then I’ll do further checking. It’s certainly possible Jericho was the ring-leader this time—like brother, like brother. And if that’s the case, Pia will have solved a lot more than she realized.” He gave me a sort-of smile. Then the sort-of smile quickly faded. “But,” he continued, “if it’s not him, maybe it’s someone like him. That’s an angle I need to look into—like maybe drugs are inherently tied in with all this.”
“Hang on a minute…” I said now, lifting my eyes to the ceiling for an I’m-thinking instant. “I just realized what was bothering me in the ring-file—there was something in an autopsy on one of the kids. I mean, I’ve wondered how they kept the kids going under such horrible physical circumstances. But maybe they got them hooked on something…. God, can this get anymore horrible….” I shut my eyes tight, my left hand gently curling around my right wrist as if supporting it that way would make everything that led to my injury disappear.
“I’m sorry, Pia,” I heard James say. “Maybe we shouldn’t have done this yet. You’re still recovering. And it’s out of your hands now anyway, unless you both want to change your minds about continuing working for us….”
His face moved to mine first, then to Tan’s, but, in unison, we just gave him a stony look back.
“All right. I can see how strongly you both feel about this.” James’s mouth twisted a bit. “I’ll get in touch again before you go if there’s anything new I can tell you as a wrap-up, but I can only tell you more before I de-instate you. Or I can remove you from the roster now. Your choice.”
“Do it now,” said Tan.
“For me too,” I added. “Like you said: it’s out of my hands now, and that’s the way I prefer it.”
“Okay then, as soon as I get back into my office, I’ll put you both on inactive. I’ve got someone else
in mind to work the ring case more anyway.”
“Who?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” James said. “Or at least it shouldn’t matter to you.”
*
The rest of the trip back to Earth seemed a superquick one, probably because I slept almost the whole the time. I didn’t see James or his crowd again, and I was so damn glad to leave not only them behind, but also the Earth-Moon.
When we reached New York Port, Tan also seemed so damn glad—to have an opportunity to come back to the Earth again apparently.
I watched as his eyes quickly spotted Lanie then. And my heart melted more than a little as he bent over and pulled the dog’s excitedly shaking white body into a big hug.
*
We had to remain on Earth for a few days till the next flight out for Diamond—well, there was an earlier flight, but it was one of those basic ones on a not-luxury ship, and luxury was something I really needed right now. I also needed to build up a bit more strength before going on a long interplanetary flight.
And I wanted to delay our flying back for a third reason: so Tan and I could see The Diamond Sphere together. He had once said how much he wanted to see it, and this time would be our chance.
Shortly after we got to our new hotel room in that same Earth hotel, the front desk gave me a message that Nell had just contacted the place and wanted to talk with me.
It seemed like months since I’d last spoken to her; I went straight to the Communications room to call her back.
I waited for a while to see if she would return the call…she did. And seeing her round smiling face put a smile on my own face.
She was sitting in a Citadel Communications room, and she came closer to the screen now. “Pia! I’m so happy to see you!”
“Me too!”
“Tan left me a message that you’d be there—” She abruptly stopped talking, and her face instantly fell; I watched her press a quick hand to her stomach. “Pia—what on Diamond has happened—your jaw is bruised!”
