Cypher: Chronicles of Rah

by Scott Hopkins

  The real irony of that moment was that as the door opened and I caught my first glimpse of her, time seemed to slow. Her raven black hair, strong predatory eyes, full purplish lips and athletic frame bundled up in a tight-fitting violet body suit held me frozen in time for a split second.

  Had it been anyone else – the assassin for instance – my reflexes and instincts might have kicked in with an unnerving drive for self-preservation, forcing me to pull the gun from my waistband. But something about this woman held me like a planet caught in the undeniable gravity of a failing star. It wasn’t until the hooked twist to her grin and she lunged toward me that I realized how royally fragged I was.

  My instincts and reflexes overcame my mesmerized mind just in time to move as her lunge reached me. All I really succeeded in doing, however, was to throw both of us off balance as we tumbled into the room. I bounced off the bed and she rolled over me, landing hard on the floor.

  Still somewhat upright as I caught myself on the mattress, I turned to her with a smug look of superiority at her failed attempt to capture me. My grin vanished as quickly as it appeared when her athletic legs swept my feet out from under me. I dropped hard on my back against the corner of the bed.

  Landing with a thud, the instant it took me to refocus, she was barreling into me from the side. Face down on the floor with me underneath her, I groaned,

  “This is awkward.” Then, with a push off the floor, I used the momentum to land an elbow onto the side of her head. Rolling with her, I pinned her against the frame of the bed.

  Before I knew it, she had my arm pulled up over my head, her hands were trying to lock behind my neck. Throwing my head back, I smashed it against her head, and was rewarded with a feminine yelp. Her arm went slack for a moment, giving me room to roll away.

  Attempting to scramble to my feet, a sudden stunning flash appeared before my eyes as a striking pain shot through my head. I pitched forward, having not gained my balance, I found myself once again on the floor. A second later, the weight of my assailant and the click of my GX55 registered before the stars in my eyes cleared.

  The funny thing about my current predicament was that I found her even more alluring sitting on top of me, having captured me with my own gun.

  “I would say something witty and humorous at this point, but I don’t get the feeling you’re the charmable type.”

  For a long moment, she leered down the barrel of my gun at me like a cat that had cornered its prey. Without so much as a word, she dropped the gun to the side, and pulled me up into a long lusty kiss. My mind reeled at the sudden change of events, until I realized I’d been unconsciously pumping pheromones into the room as we wrestled.

  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to balk when an attractive, skilled woman kisses me all of a sudden, but you have to understand my surprise.

  Our lustful kiss swiftly turned into a flurry of wild hands groping at various areas of each other’s body. At some point, the zipper to her body suit came undone, as did the belt and button on my slacks. The curious thing about my current drunken state, with a room full of pheromones, was how everything beyond that point turned to a blur of flesh, moans and sweat.

  When the world started making sense again, we were both lying on the floor not far from where we had begun. Still panting, we silently stared up at the ceiling.

  “I don’t suppose this was part of your plan?” I asked.

  “You could say that!” she responded fighting to catch her breath.

  “What did they tell you about me?”

  “You were some sort of thief. Corporate espionage spook.”

  “Am I supposed to be dead or alive?” I kept the conversation going, knowing my talent was affecting her judgment. I wasn’t one to take advantage of a vulnerable woman, but at this moment, I was just as vulnerable.

  “Honestly, the contract is to retrieve the cube. Fetching you is a bonus.”

  Her answer struck me as curious. It wasn’t likely the original buyers had responded this soon. On the other hand, it was obvious she wasn’t working for the assassin, or I would have been dead a long time ago. I was losing count of the people involved in this puzzle.

  “And where were you supposed to deliver yours truly and the Cypher, once we were under your spell?” I asked

  “Kellis IV. At least, that’s where they wanted the cube. The contract didn’t specify where to deliver you. I just assumed they wanted their tech returned and the guy who stole it captured.”

  I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her comment. My mind mulled the new data, and then I pulled myself up. I propped myself up on my elbow and gazed at her taught athletic body; the rise and fall of her full breasts. Having availed myself of her body for however long we’d been naked on the floor, my mind was more able to focus on the data and less on the full mounds before them. I mentally ran through the list of Drandelion corporations in or around the Kellis system. A handful came to mind, but that didn’t mean someone with influence over one of those corporations wasn’t pulling the strings.

  “Ok, I have to ask….” My curiosity was killing me, and I was sure that the change in the tone of my voice translated this well. “How did you find me?”

  The mysterious bounty hunter did something else I hadn’t expected. She giggled like a teenage girl. “You know you’re being followed by a contract killer?”

  While the news of the assassin was anything but a surprise, the simple fact that she knew about him and was using him to get to me seemed uncanny at best.

  “Uh, yes, of course. I was trying to set a trap for him so I could get answers.”

  After a long minute, she turned to face me. She sat up against the foot of the bed as I continued to prop myself up on my arm, looking up at her. “I’ve been tracking him since I lost you on Talmeria. You dropped off the grid, but he kept searching for you. I figured he’d track you down eventually.”

  Her matter-of-fact revelation made me grin as I reflected how I never would have thought of that. “So what now?” I asked as if deep down inside I wanted her to reconsider her contract.

  “I suppose it’s up to you.” She stared at me for a moment, those beautiful eyes glittering as she lost herself in thought. “On the one hand, you’re cute, and to tell you the truth, I’m tired of tracking your ass across the Republic. On the other hand, while this contract is quickly becoming more expensive than it’s worth, the bonus for you may balance out the trouble.”

  “Well…” I grinned back at her mischievously. “If you’ve been watching this assassin since Talmeria, you know him pretty well. You could help me figure this puzzle out, and with you watching my back, the payment we get for the Cypher should be worth more than whatever they’re paying you to retrieve it.”

  If there was one sure thing about the corporate espionage black market on tech, it was that it would be easier and cheaper for a company to pay someone to steal a piece of stolen techthan it would be to buy it from the person who stole it, regardless of whether the company was the one that originally owned the tech,.

  “Sounds like fun!” she said, a twinkle in her big beautiful eyes. “I can live with that, and if I get bored, I can always turn you in for the contract,” she said with a wink.

  I laughed, attempting to hide any uncertainty I had that she might actually follow through on the point.

  “Fair enough,” I said a bit surprised by her response, but willing to take advantage of it. “Call me Rah. But I’m sure you already knew my name.” I extended a hand. A shake seemed rather unnecessary, considering what we’d just done, but I thought, polite is polite.

  “Violet Black,” she responded, taking my hand with a firm grip. “And no, I didn’t already know your name. Details on your identity are sketchy at best. It’s nice to meet you, Rah.”

  ***

  Violet’s knowledge of our would-be assassin turned out to be better than I had estimated. While she knew nothing about who was doing this or why, she knew enough about how he operated to put us
in a position to act rather than simply react.

  Violet had worked out an intricate plan to offer a couple of prime opportunities to end the mission, only to block him at the last minute. Working on the premise that if we frustrated him enough and at the right times, that he'd lose focus and allow us to turn the tables on him, capturing him before he could react. While the overall premise seemed sound, I feared the time constraints we would have in pushing him to the edge before the actual Cypher drop took place.

  The buyers agreed to my location and asked for forty-eight hours, so we had less than two days to corner and question the assassin. I was just glad I didn’t need to use the drop as a way to corner him.

  She was the perfect blocker, putting random people in his path with bumps just long enough to lose sight of me, or closing a door to slow or stop his progress before he could get close enough to strike.

  “I think he’s ready!” she said with a grin.

  “I hope so. I’m tiring of this game.”

  We both watched him from an upper catwalk that looked down on one of the merchant streets. We’d been careful to weave our way into the less desirable regions of the station, intending to corner him and lock him down until we could get the information we wanted.

  “You go get in position. I’ll lead him down there.”

  I finished as I gave Violet a nod. She returned the look with a witty smile and a wink. As she walked away, I turned and looked down over the catwalk one last time before I headed for the stairs. He was ducking in and out of shops, trying to figure out which one I had disappeared into, which meant I had to time it right.

  I slipped up alongside a group of three people walking between my target and me long enough to get up to a store he hadn’t reached yet, to put a significant distance between us. Once out in the open, I had to use my skill and my surroundings to keep him close enough so I didn’t lose sight of him, but kept far enough away that I didn’t leave myself open. Without Violet running interference until we hit the last corridor, it would have been hard to lead him on without him realizing the game.

  I slipped into a deserted engineering section, which was a maze of doors that led to large rooms filled with all sorts of machinery. The heat and noise levels, plus the random clouds of steam or smoke, made this place an assassin’s wet dream.

  It was also the perfect place to use these elements against him.

  At this point, I wondered if he had sensed a trap the way I had when we first crossed paths, or if he was completely blind at this point to the implications of this chase.

  Down one more corridor – this one filled with monitoring equipment –and he’d be far enough off of the beaten path that I assumed he’d be suspicious enough to strike. His footsteps got louder, and I turned just in time to catch the violet blur that was my cohort barrel into the man from the side.

  The clamor of metal tools and equipment falling to the floor filled the corridor as they both crashed into a box of equipment. He pushed her off, throwing a nearby pipe. Violet backpedaled. As soon as he pushed her away, he lunged toward me with a matte black knife in his hand. She spun, throwing a foot into the back of his leg as he moved towards me. Her strike threw him off balance as he barreled over in my direction.

  I spun off to the side, keeping his knife hand away from my body, then pushed him in a perpendicular direction as he fell headlong past me. My push altered his balance, and he crashed into a console of monitors.

  Violet was there as he recovered. He swung the knife, she parried with her arm. He made a pointed thrust at her, but Violet’s hand caught his arm just behind his knife hand. She carried his momentum and pulled him forward as her arm slammed into his jaw.

  He swept his leg up under hers, throwing off her balance. Violet’s grip dropped from his knife hand as she fell. He staggered back from the hit as she dropped to the floor, rolling up between him and me.

  “Stop!” I yelled as I pulled the GX55 from my coat. Leveling the gun at him I hoped he was a smarter assassin than I was a shot. Don’t get me wrong, I can shoot when I need to, but I’m just as likely to shoot him in the leg as the head.

  He stopped for a moment as Violet moved to my left. Keeping a clear field of fire, she moved closer to him while staying between us. The devious grin that crossed the man’s rather plain face was unexpected and puzzling. At least until the small disk he threw down at the floor exploded at his feet. The air between us filled instantly with a heavy white smoke, random bolts of electricity shot in every direction from the blast point.

  “Marvin, watch him!” Violet yelled as she inched toward the cloud and lightning.

  “I can’t see him!” I yelled back, uncertain if she’d been talking to me.

  “Never mind,” she said, looking back as she sprinted forward through the cloud. Since there was no indication of any harm coming to her after she disappeared into the smoke, I followed.

  “Do I want to know?” I asked, catching up to her from behind as she charged headlong down the corridor. The only answer I received was a devilish grin as her eyes focused on our assailant.

  I may have mentioned earlier that this was a maze of rooms, storage spaces and engineering equipment. The assassin took to the ever-changing environment much like a rat trying to evade a cat. He ducked through doors, jumped over boxes and equipment, and threw random objects into our path in an attempt to slow us down.

  The gleam in Violet's eyes and her laser focus on the assassin as he moved in and out of our view drew a shudder along my spine. We'd spent the better part of the almost two days together since she barged into my room, but I still hadn’t been able to find out much about her. From what I'd seen, though, she was a superbly focused bounty hunter whose mind was as sharp and capable as her body.

  The assassin upended a box of parts as he ran by. The multiple metal pieces flew in every direction as Violet tracked his every move. She weaved her way through the scattered collection of parts with the grace of a cat. Grabbing a large boxy part a little bigger than her hand, she heaved it underhanded like a projectile as they ran.

  Crashing down against the floor at the man's feet, the part she threw caused him to trip, losing his balance just as he came to the edge of a corridor which led to a public street. Violet rammed into him at full speed. They both collided through people and displays. Screams of surprise and confusion, mixed with a healthy dose of flying paper and other random products, combined to form utter chaos as I followed closely behind.

  The commotion drew my attention, but not for so long that I didn’t catch the assassin running down the corridor to my left.

  "Go!" Violet yelled at me as I started toward her to offer assistance as she attempted to extricate herself from a pile of displays and debris. I turned after him, running as hard as I could to keep him in sight. We were running through a public street now, dodging people and tables and displays every so often.

  He did what he could to push people in my way, or upturn tables and displays in my way to slow me down. I had to admit that my speed wasn't equal to his, but his attempts to slow my progress worked against him, slowing him down with each movement.

  He turned down another side corridor. Not certain Violet was behind me or what had happened to her, I kept up the pace so I could keep him in my sights. I knew that if I lost track of him this time, our little game of cat and mouse that had spanned Republic space would likely be punctuated by a high velocity bullet to the skull.

  I noticed the end of the corridor was approaching quickly, opening up to one of the station’s maintenance gangways that they used to service the core of the station’s heavy equipment.

  "Stop!" I yelled, pulling the GX55 out of my coat, slowing my progress to get a better bearing on him. My breath was ragged and my pulse raced, forcing me to concentrate on his movement toward the end of the corridor. Gunfire echoed down the corridor, then he spun around violently, throwing his balance off just as a blur of something hit him from the side of the corridor.

  As I reach
ed the end of the hallway, Violet staggered back across the gangway. Before I knew it, a metal pipe smashed into my hand, knocking the gun away. Pain tore through my arm, causing me to kneel to maintain my balance. I looked up just in time to see the assassin standing over me with the metal pipe over his head, pausing only for a moment before he began a downward blow. Time slowed as my wounded arm came up in my defense.

  Halfway through his attack, something pulled him backwards, throwing him into a spin. He slammed into the metal rail, turning just in time to swing at Violet as she approached. She jumped back out of the way of the pipe.

  He stepped forward, swinging again with a side arm attack. He used his upper torso to throw his weight into the blow, but Violet ducked just in time, dropping down and holding herself off the ground with just her hand in a very feline acrobatic move. As he swung past her, she shifted her weight and kicked, driving the assassin back toward the rail.

  "No!" I yelled as I watched him roll over the rail, the metal pipe banging its way along the machinery below.

  Violet and I arrived at the rail together, to find him hanging precariously by both hands from a support beam under the main walkway.

  "Give me your hand!" I yelled down to him as he dangled just a few inches beyond my reach.

  "You've gotta be crazy!” he responded. “Either way I'm dead!"

  "Give me your hand and you have my word that we will let you go once you tell me what this is all about!"

  He grinned, and that look didn't bode well for my plans.

  "Even if I let you save me, I failed my mission!” he yelled over the sound of machinery. “There is nothing left for me!"

  "I'll vanish, and you can say you killed me. Say you completed your mission. I don't care, as long as you stop chasing me and I find out why you were sent!"

  His hands were starting to slip.

  "It doesn't work like that, Rah. You know how things work as well as I do."

  At that moment, a serene look fell across his face. A second later, his hands slipped from the rail. The serene look on his face continued as he fell, right up to the point where he smashed headlong into a large obtrusive series of station engineering systems below.