So, there I was, showing Aria her first M-Day Departure and getting a relatively simple assignment done so that I could make a few spare credits to spend on celebrations after she was asleep. Killing two birds and whatnot… I couldn’t tell her that, of course.
I placed my hand on her shoulder and knelt to look her in her big, beautiful green eyes. “Doesn’t look too bad, does it?” I said. “But I told you, it’s too dangerous. You wouldn’t want to lose me in that mob, now, would you?”
She shook her head vehemently.
“Exactly! Don’t worry, we’ll make a collector out of you yet. Then you can go wherever you want, whenever you want.”
“With you, right?”
“Of course.” I patted her before holding out the pistol for her to take. “Now let’s see what you’ve got.”
She reached out to grab it, but as she did, the crowd below erupted. A distant buffered sound quickly rose over the din. I peered through the lingering smog to see the outline of the Barsamin Ark Ship cruising high over New London. Aria dropped the gun when she noticed it. Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head.
The Departure had begun. I’d already seen plenty of them by that point in my life, so it didn’t take me much by surprise. Still, they were always a sight to behold. The tremendous Ark was designed by a company that was soon after absorbed by Pervenio. It was bulbous like a lozenge and had two bright engines, which from that angle looked like a pair of eyes wreathed in flame.
“Is that it?” she mouthed. She couldn’t stop staring. “It’s… so big.”
“It has to be to fit one thousand lucky Earthers. The last one Venta Co built was even bigger, if you can imagine that.”
“Where are they all going?”
“Who the hell knows? Probably one of the stars you saw on the way over from Mars. All I know is I’ll be long gone before they get there.” Aria broke from her trance for a moment and shot me an anxious look. “Not for many, many years,” I reassured her.
She exhaled before looking back toward the Ark ship. I went to stand by her side, but as soon as I got there, my hand-terminal beeped. I’d tapped into some of the street-level surveillance feeds earlier on in the day to make my job easier, and as I glanced down at it, I saw that facial recognition had caught a glimpse of the man I was after.
“Aria,” I said. “I have to take care of something. Do your dad a favor and wait up here until I get back.”
“You’re not going to watch?”
“I’ll be back before it’s over. Just going to pick us up something to eat and maybe a souvenir. You don’t move from here, okay?”
She nodded, unable to avert her gaze from the ship.
“Good girl,” I said. I rustled my hand through her soft auburn hair. “Remember, stay put. This is the best view.”
I shoved my pistol in my holster and made my way over to the roof’s emergency access hatch so I could quickly descend through the building. There was work to be done.
My eyelids sprang open. My ears rang from the hovercar exploding, but as I came to my senses, I felt something squirming against my chest. I peeled my aching body away and found the little girl I’d seen standing in front of the Molten Crater staring up at me. She breathed as heavily as I was, but at least she was alive. Maybe for a younger version of myself, it wouldn’t have been so close.
Her lips trembled too much for her to speak, but she didn’t have to. All I had to do was gaze into her bulging eyes as we lay there to know she was grateful. Apparently, her parents either didn’t share the sentiment or didn’t see what had happened because when they arrived, they ripped me off her. I handed her over without a fuss, but we didn’t break eye contact until they ran her around a corner.
She really did look just like Aria had at her age.
I didn’t think about that day on the rooftop much, but it was one of the first on the lengthy list of mistakes that drove her away from me. I’d left Aria alone there for hours until it was dark. She’d listened and stayed put, but her cheeks were wet with tears when I returned after a job well done and a few rounds at the nearest watering hole.
Luckily, I’d remembered my promise at the last second and purchased the same Barsamin Ark figurine I now carried with me from a street vendor downstairs right before returning to her. The moment she caught glimpse of the toy and all its minuscule details, her sadness washed away. She wore it on a necklace everywhere. Back then, she was easy.
I shook my head and buried the memory in the depths of my mind, then snatched the figurine off the ground before anyone trampled it.
I turned my attention to the spires of black smoke swirling up from the New London maglev rail station. There was nothing like the potential for work to keep me focused on the present. Whatever happened had the city in an uproar. Red lights flashed from countless security hover-cars and drones weaving between buildings. Sirens wailed so loudly they drowned out the screams of the terrified populace.
“So much for vacation,” I said, sighing. I picked my pistol up and headed in that direction.
FOUR
When I reached the site of the explosion, a large ring of crackling flame still bordered the blast’s origin point. Fire repellent poured from security hover-cars, but a lot of work remained to be done.
The blast itself tore the place to hell. A portion of the platform was nothing but cinder. Luckily, the radius was small. Probably an improvised device. Someone didn't know what they were doing. Or maybe they did.
The corpses unfortunate enough to be in the center of the fiery circle were charred black, their clothing still smoking. More citizens right outside grasped at severed limbs and terrible wounds, screaming for help. That was the worst of the physical damage from the bomb, but it’d also caused the frightened populace of New London to descend into chaos.
As I closed in on the scene, I scanned the sullen faces of the USF soldiers attempting to establish order. They’d formed tight lines around the perimeter, and used shields and shock-batons to hold back swells of drunks and hobos. They struggled mightily, though that wasn’t a surprise. The USF military rarely strayed from the larger cities on Earth, leaving the policing throughout Sol to private security forces. Nowhere on the planet was supposed to be more secure than New London.
“You can’t be here!” a USF security commander shouted at me as I approached. I flashed my Pervenio badge, and the man instantly fell into a salute. “Sorry, sir,” he said sheepishly.
“What happened?” I asked. It wasn’t my job to help with security, but collectors from influential corporations like mine pretty much had free rein when it came to ordering around USF security teams. For good reason too. By the looks of it, most of them had never seen a dead body, let alone managed a minor riot. I even noticed one vomiting into an exhaust vent in an alley after trying to help someone with a missing arm.
I, on the other hand, was used to carnage. Thirty years as a collector. Thirty damn years being dispatched to solve problems everywhere imaginable. From the slum regions of Earth, where it wasn’t uncommon to find bodies out on the streets half buried beneath snow, to the farthest colonies sprouting up in Sol. Those always had a healthy amount of violence. To me, cleaning up messes had become as easy as hauling cargo. It’s not like I found joy in doing it, but I didn’t get the sick feeling in my stomach the average person should get either. Sometimes I wondered if a part of my human programming was faulty, allowing me to have grown so numb to bloodshed. Good thing for me, I was never away from the job for long enough to dwell on it.
“Not sure,” the commander answered. “I’ve never seen anything like this in New London.” He was as nervous as his men. While he talked, he couldn’t keep his gaze from wandering toward the rapidly swelling mob.
“I’ve seen much worse,” I said. The affairs on Undina came to mind. I decided to change the subject before the thought wound up upsetting me. “We’re lucky; barely a soul uses the rail station during M-Day. Thirty meters right or left, and the
bomb, no matter how small, could’ve killed thousands.” At first glance, I didn’t count more than a few dozen who were unquestionably deceased.
“Maybe so, but with all these civilians hollering, we’ll have a mess here for days.” The commander turned toward a line of men and yelled, “Keep them back!”
Just then, a frantic citizen busted through the line, throwing one of the security officers to the ground and ripping the shock-baton from his hand. He screamed, “That’s my wife!” over and over as he crossed the crime scene. Another officer attempted to restrain him but only got himself smashed across the face by the baton.
I groaned. These men were way out of their element. Slipping my pistol out of its holster, I took aim and shot the citizen right through the forearm. It was a clean shot. Shouldn’t have caused any lasting damage. Even if it did, he’d get himself some nice meds and likely want to thank me for it later.
The weapon flew out of his hand as the man crumpled to the ground.
“Sir!” the startled commander yelled to me.
Ignoring him, I raised my gun and fired into the air as I approached the mob. Now I had their full attention. Even the security officers gawked at me.
“Next one that breaks the line will find themselves rotting in a cell on Pervenio station!” I barked.
The commander grabbed my arm and yanked me around. “Sir, you can’t do that!” he protested, more fearful than stern. “This isn’t your jurisdiction.”
I lowered my weapon and leaned in so close to him our noses almost touched. “Take control of your city, Commander, or we’ll have to. Remember that it was Mr. Pervenio’s Departure that’s been spoiled by all this.” Truthfully, I couldn’t have cared less about the Departure, but I knew a bomber loose in New London meant potential work. I’d planned to take advantage of any opportunity to avoid my appointed vacation.
“Yes… yes, sir,” he stammered.
I patted him on the shoulder and forced a grin. Then I swept my gaze across the gruesome scene once more to get a clearer picture. There really were few better places for the attack to have happened as far as avoiding casualties went. The New London Pervenio Hospital was directly across the street with lower-level access, even if it was through a sea of unruly New Londoners.
“Focus all your trucks and hover-cars on clearing a path to the hospital,” I ordered. “Attend the injured. It isn’t your job to figure out who’s behind this; leave that to me.”
The commander saluted again, then got to work. My stunt kept the mob at bay for the moment, but it wouldn’t last long if he and his men didn’t show some mettle. I could only hope I’d inspired them enough to know how far a little muscle could go in such situations.
Alone again, I pulled out my hand-terminal. The screen flickered. Damn explosion residue must have been interfering. The device seemed to be having a hard time locating a signal. I distanced myself and leaned against the side of a ground transport vehicle once I found a signal. USF medics struggled to lift a woman with a bloody stump left for a leg into it. She writhed and shrieked in agony. The terminal service dropped again, and the woman was a pain to watch, so I gave them a hand. After she was loaded up, I walked a little farther from the blast until the screen of the device returned to normal.
I scrolled through my contacts and selected Director Sodervall. My call was relayed to a satellite orbiting Earth and then started bouncing amongst the many laser communication relays spread throughout the solar system that made up the network otherwise known as Solnet. I won’t pretend to understand how it all works, something about data encoded on light, but since he was all the way in the Ring, it took a few frustrating minutes to get through. The grainy image of his creased face popped up on the screen.
“Sir, can you hear me?” I asked. The response was incomprehensible, his voice saturated with static. I held it up to my ear and continued moving away from the blast until I was right on the edge of the mob, which was growing raucous again. “Sir?” I repeated.
“Graves, you’re coming in clear now,” Director Sodervall replied. It wasn’t the best-quality connection I’d ever experienced, and there was a frustrating delay between each of our responses. Solnet was fast, and as a Pervenio Collector, I had access to the best relays, but he was posted on Pervenio Station orbiting Saturn, after all. It was a miracle we could even talk.
“Good,” I replied. “The blast must be messing with reception.”
“You’re there already?” He sounded shocked. Like I said, it wasn’t usually a collector’s job to keep the peace.
“I was in the area. I’ve been getting tired of vacation anyway.”
“Malcolm, you…” the director began before exhaling. I’m guessing he was hoping that after Undina, any collector besides me would’ve wound up right where he needed them. “How is it down there?”
“It could’ve been much worse, but these federation men clearly haven’t seen anything like this before.”
“They’ll have to make do,” he groused, a hint of bitterness bleeding into his tone. “We can’t be expected to clean up all of their messes.”
“Fine by me,” I said, having to speak louder than I’d expected just to hear myself. The mob grew as boisterous as when I’d first arrived. I reached out and grabbed the first security officer I could find, pointed to his holstered pulse-rifle, and motioned for him to fire up into the air. He took my advice and things quieted back down.
“So do you have any leads on who’s behind this, or are you planning to leave me off it?” I asked the director.
“I was thinking about it,” he replied, wearing a smug grin. Of all the directors I’d ever dealt with, Sodervall and I actually got along best. It was why he’d become my usual handler. He had the dry, cynical humor that appealed to me. “Lucky for you, you’re the most experienced operative we have stationed on Earth. M-Day is a big day for crimes offworld.”
“Lucky me.”
“Indeed. Unfortunately, we have no leads yet, but every major corporation with collectors near New London is already looking into this. They’re desperate to prove our ineptitude, so you’ll understand when I say that we need you to work quickly.”
“I’ll keep them far behind me.” A medic rushed by, nearly knocking into me. He knelt by a citizen with skin so charred he barely looked human any longer.
“I hope you’re rested, then.” Director Sodervall paused for a brief moment and stared away from the screen. “Job’s yours,” he finally conceded. “Only you won’t be doing it alone.”
“Sir?”
“Mr. Pervenio has requested that whoever is assigned to this take on one of our promising young recruits straight out of the Cogent Initiative. I’m guessing you’re familiar with the program?”
I’d heard a little. It was a program personally backed by Luxarn dedicated to providing Pervenio Corp with the most skilled and efficient agents in Sol. I won’t say I wasn’t flattered to be working with one of their prized, experimental trainees, but I’d always preferred working alone. Dragging Aria along with me everywhere I went before she ran off was the closest thing I ever had to having a real partner. A failed attempt at training her to be a collector had left a sour taste in my mouth, and me hesitant to ever consider taking on a new one.
“Sir, you know I work better alone,” I said coolly.
“Sorry, Graves, but the orders come from above me. I haven’t met your new partner—”
“Partner? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, huh?”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Sodervall said, reclaiming control, “he has the highest scores in the initiative.”
It didn’t. I tried to keep calm, but nothing irritated me more than when company politics got in the way of my assignments. “Well, you tell Mr. Pervenio that this isn’t the time for on-the-job training. Just let me do what I do best, and I’ll take care of this.”
“Like you did on Undina?” the director snapped. “Or did you forget that half the sector went dark because you were too s
low.”
I bit back my first response, still sore about what happened there, and now I couldn’t help but think about it. I blamed Pervenio Corp for bad intel, but in my heart, I couldn’t ignore the idea that maybe I was slipping. I’d made do with plenty less information over the years and gotten the job done cleanly. I couldn’t let the director know any of that, however. My livelihood depended on it.
“But I got him, didn’t I, sir?” I said through clenched teeth.
“I don’t have time to argue right now, Graves.” the director said. “If you’re not willing to play nice, then I’ll have to find someone who will, and you can continue enjoying your time off until I get you an assignment arresting some lowly thief somewhere cold. We old men need the rest, after all.”
I pulled the hand-terminal away from my ear and cursed under my breath. After such a long time working together, he knew how to get to me. Neither of us wanted him to go searching for a freelance collector. Acting quickly was paramount. Only the collector who found the one responsible for the bombing would get paid. I intended for that to be me. Enduring a forced vacation until my credit account bled was a fate I couldn’t stomach.
“Fine, dammit,” I grumbled. “But if he gets in my way, I swear I’ll leave him behind. We old men need the credits too. So what’ll it be?”
Director Sodervall let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad that’s settled, then. Mr. Pervenio would prefer to have whoever ruined his Departure alive. One hundred thousand credits for you if he’s breathing; half that if he’s not.”
“Split between me and this partner, you mean?”
“No. The Cogent’s compensation is none of your concern.”
“Tell Mr. Pervenio he’ll have him alive,” I promised without hesitation. The price had my pulse accelerating. It was the most I’d been offered for a target in more years than I could remember. Enough to curl up in a bottle for the next few years if I wanted to.
Titanborn: (Children of Titan Book 1) Page 4
