I stood up and stretched. “We need to get out there and inspire confidence in the integrity of the election and blah blah blah.”
Diane gave me a look. Dip chimed in my ear, “People who live on this planet probably wouldn’t appreciate the cavalier attitude.”
I made my face serious and looked Jere in the eye. “We’re going to win this. But I will need help.” I saw Eldan over with his family. “Eldan!”
He hurried over right away. “What do you need?”
“I gather you know a number of people of a more informal resistance?” I asked.
“I do. Many want to do something.”
“And they have weapons?”
Eldan nodded. “Some.”
“Hopefully enough,” I said. “Now is the time to use them.”
“Are you going to start a war on election day?” Sylvia asked.
I shook my head. “It’s only a war if they have an opportunity to return fire. Otherwise, it’s just called shooting people.”
✽ ✽ ✽
I wasn’t registered to vote. I wasn’t sure I could vote if I wanted to. I could run for office, because basically Calipa law let anyone be elected to office, but I assumed that having just landed on the planet yesterday, I wasn’t actually eligible to vote for myself. If I was, that was stupid. But I found voting to be idiotic in general. It just let people pretend they were in control of the tyrannical governments they lived under by giving them very limited and often dumb choices. Just look at the people who were voting that day: Their only real choices were a puppet of unknown mass murderers and a deadly psychopath who had landed on the planet yesterday. How is that in control of things? It’s a really dumb system.
Not that I know of a better one.
“Everyone be orderly; we’re watching,” snarled a fearsome-looking Dallian with a white streak of fur across his face who stood watching the line into the polling place. The polling location was another one of the Calipa buildings meant to blend into the landscape — it looked like we were all lined up to climb a tree. Less dumb were the seven Baixas thugs who stood by, monitoring all of us.
“I have this,” I told Diane, who was in line ahead of me. Only Diane and I were here; Wade and Sylvia were elsewhere. We needed to spread ourselves out as much as we safely could for this.
“I’ll be there if you need me,” Diane answered.
I kept my voice low. “How are you doing in all this? I can see you’re not quite comfortable engaging in violence.”
“It’s not ... don’t worry about me, Rico. You can count on me, okay?”
“I know.” I’d return the sentiment, but it would be a lie.
“No talking,” said White Streak in our direction.
“Who says we can’t talk?” demanded a frustrated Dallian ahead of us in line.
White Streak walked over and seized the one who had objected, punched him in the face, and slammed him to the ground.
“Should you do something?” Dip asked.
He’s not going to kill him. I need to wait. I checked my watch. It was almost time but not quite.
“Now go to the back of the line,” White Streak yelled at his victim. The Dallian slowly got back to his feet and headed away. White Streak looked at everyone else. “Don’t forget who is in charge here. Your main objective right now is to not make us angry, or there will be consequences.”
My watch beeped.
I stepped out of line. There were seven of them, including White Streak, and I just needed the right angle. White Streak had that look of invincibility you only get from beating someone up in front of a crowd. His awareness was down, and he didn’t even notice me until I was a couple yards away from him.
“Hey! Back in line, or —”
Usually, I pick weapons based on their ability to make a really large hole and nearly always guarantee a kill with one shot. Now that I was trying to care about collateral damage, I had to use weaker guns that would just burn holes through my targets and not the next three buildings behind them, which I couldn’t count on for one-shot kills. Still, one shot each was what the six syndicate goons behind White Streak got, as I had to work fast here — three quick shots from each of my two blasters, one shot into each one’s center mass. The six fell before White Streak even understood what was going on. Then he just stood there, frozen, staring at me and my two guns.
One of the Dallians on the ground twitched. He got a second shot.
I holstered my guns and turned my back on White Streak so I could face the crowd. That’s a power move. I was specifically looking at Diane, who had her eyes on White Streak, but I was pretty sure he did not have the courage to try to shoot me in the back. I’ve done this plenty of times, and it’s mostly been successful.
I smiled for the numerous devices people had pulled out to record me. “Hi, I’m Rico, and you probably heard I’m running to be Calipa’s representative to the Codix Federation. I stopped by to check on the integrity of the election, but then I saw some violent criminals just standing around threatening people, so I did the sensible thing and killed them. Anyone working with the Fathom does not deserve to live, so do not let them. If you see a member of the Baixas or any other group working with the Fathom, kill them immediately. Friends of mine are doing so at other polling locations, but we need everyone’s help here. There are more of you than there are of them, so it’s just ridiculous that they’re standing around out in the open, alive. Let’s rectify that.” I turned and looked at White Streak. “Hey, there’s one now.” I pulled out my gun and shot him in the face just as he finally began to respond. As his body fell to the ground, I turned back to the crowd. “See? Simple. Thank you for listening, and please vote for me so I can bring this philosophy to Vesa, where I will serve as your representative.”
I walked away from the polling place, taking Diane with me. I needed to move quickly while not looking like I was moving quickly. These thugs I faced were no challenge for me, but a challenge was coming.
CHAPTER 20
“Dammit, they got me on camera.”
On a screen at the safehouse was a picture of Sylvia firing a gun. A scarf concealed the lower half of her face. She had an air of danger and mystery about her.
“That’s a good picture,” I said. “Is it getting spread around?”
“Yes, she’s the most popular subject after you,” Jere told me. “The Rebel Girl.”
I laughed. “That’s what we need — some sex appeal. Show our side has attractive women too, and they’re not as creepy as the Messengers.”
Wade patted Sylvia on the back. “It is a good picture.”
Sylvia smiled as if it were a joke, but getting “famous” seemed to bother her.
“You have some experience in this you could share,” Dip suggested.
I walked over to her. “I’ve learned not to worry too much about being filmed. It’s a big universe. And even with all my exposure lately, I barely ever get recognized — and only by other humans.”
Sylvia sighed. “Yeah, it’s a good picture.”
Eldan came toward me, smiling. “This was great. It was nice to see the Fathom’s minions scared for a change. We hit them hard at seven different polling places, and I hear it’s spreading.”
“I have reports that police are turning against them — joining with the people,” Jere said. “The Baixas are all in hiding now.”
Diane put her hand on my shoulder and smiled at me. “It’s working. As people are voting, they see the supposedly scary Fathom with all their minions in hiding. There goes their main weapon of fear. You’re turning out to be quite the leader, Rico.”
Her smile was meant to be assuring, but those last words shook me. I was telling everyone what to do because it furthered my goals; I didn’t want people to look to me for guidance. I looked at Eldan, who stared at me with a hopeful smile. And there was Jere, who I thought was in charge here, also looking at me for what I realized were instructions on what to do next.
“The Fathom had bea
ten hope out of most people, and you are giving it back,” Dip said. “I think that’s a big part of being a hero.”
But I knew me. That wasn’t likely to end well.
“What happens when you win the vote?” Eldan asked.
“We need to get to Vesa as quickly as possible,” I said. “I’ll be an elected official, so they’ll have to give me entry. We can’t get into more than that, but it’s important.”
Now a little worry crept into Eldan’s face. He glanced back at his kids, who were playing a video game, and then looked at me. “What will we do then?”
I saved him from the Fathom’s thugs. How much more does he expect from me? I thought it was all simple: Help people, move on. I can’t be responsible for the rest of their lives.
“You’ll continue the fight to get back your planet,” Diane told him. “And while that’s happening, we’ll be giving the Fathom plenty else to worry about.”
Diane was someone who could be a leader. She cared about people without a herculean, conscious effort. I was just someone you gave an objective to who got things done. My mind wasn’t built for the more scattered thinking of constantly worrying about everyone’s well-being.
“When we have some control, we need access to the data from the Oron-Damari corporation,” Wade told Jere. “We suspect there may be something there to help us identify the Fathom.”
Wade also made a better leader. Calm and collected but seemed to care about people. A bit like Diane.
“If that’s true,” Jere said, “they’ll do anything to keep us from getting that information.”
“And that’s part of why we’re breaking down their control here,” Sylvia said. “We’re coming after them, and there is nothing they can do about it.”
Even young Sylvia was a better candidate for a leader. I wouldn’t trust her with much because of her youth and inexperience, but she cared about and understood people — or at least was really good at faking it.
I, on the other hand, was a just a tool for killing things. If people wanted to make me an inspiring symbol of vengeance against evil, that was fine. And if they wanted me to help organize others in the service of killing my targets, that I could do, as long as I wasn’t questioned. But I wasn’t going to be a leader beyond that; that was too far out of my wheelhouse.
“Here’s their new Messenger,” Sylvia said as she put up video of a young, female Dallian on the screen.
“The forces of chaos are taking hold of Calipa,” the Messenger said. “We are very worried not just for Calipa but for what this could mean for the entire Galactic Alliance and the billions of lives that sit in the balance.”
I could hear sounds in the background as she made the statement. “Is that gunfire?”
Sylvia looked at another screen. “The Messenger is at a government building called the Monolith. There’s apparently an attack in progress. Here’s a news report.”
On a big screen appeared images of the Monolith, which looked like a large number of stone pillars squished together. Armed people surrounded it — regular citizens by the look of things — some throwing Molotov cocktails at it. The exterior of the Monolith was dotted with fire. In front of the camera ran a young human woman — maybe a teenager — who had a bandana over her face and was carrying a gun.
“Look, Sylvia, you’re inspiring little girls,” I said.
There were flashes from the Monolith, gunfire hit the attackers, and we could see a number of them fall.
Sylvia went white. “They’re all going to get killed.”
“That place has to be fortified,” Wade said. “The Fathom’s best people are holding it. The revolutionaries out there are going to get ripped apart.” He turned to me. “Maybe we can get a statement out to them to hold off and wait for the election results. They’ll listen to you.”
I shook my head. “It would look weak. I said the Fathom and their allies don’t deserve to live, and they are following through.” I looked at Jere. “What we need are any resources that could help this assault succeed.”
“We don’t have much,” Jere told me. “The Fathom have successfully barricaded a lot of the planet and have cut us off from accessing advanced weapons.”
“Get me a list of what we have, and let’s make a plan,” I said.
Eldan was smiling. “Let me help again. In any way I can.”
His wife stood by him. I didn’t think it was much of a leap to say she had the Dallian expression for worried on her face. “This looks really dangerous.”
Eldan turned to her. “I have to help. I have to make sure our kids have a future.”
Diane walked over to Rayina. “We’ll keep him safe.”
That’s a lie. We can’t guarantee any of us will be safe.
“That’s just human decency,” Dip told me.
Next time tell me when it’s moral to lie. I’ll jump all over that.
✽ ✽ ✽
“We could just wait for the election results,” Wade said. “We don’t have to be part of a violent revolution.”
We were in a hidden warehouse Jere had access to. There were a few vehicles — transports, mainly — and numerous crates. “There is always something more productive to do than sitting around.” I opened a crate and found some emergency gear for a fighter ship, including specialized flight suits. I looked at Jere. “Do we have an attack craft that goes with these?”
“Unfortunately, no,” he answered. “But we have this.” He led me to another crate, inside which was a large, handheld anti-aircraft gun.
“That might be useful.” I stared at it for awhile as my brain circled through a number of plans.
“You want to clue us in on what you’re thinking here?” Sylvia interrupted.
I looked at her. Wade and Diane were also looking expectantly at me. But in addition to them, in the warehouse were several associates of Jere whom I didn’t know. “No.”
“Whatever you are planning, I want to help,” Eldan declared. I had forgotten about him; I didn’t even know if the guy knew how to use a gun. “I’m sure you’re going to win the election. So are you really off to Vesa as soon as that happens?”
“Like we said, we’ll be able to do a lot more from there,” Diane assured him.
“Vesa seems like a dangerous place to go, though,” Eldan said. “I worked some on the security for that city, and you’ll be boxed in there.”
This got my attention. “You know the security there?”
Eldan nodded. “Yes, I worked on some of the systems. You wouldn’t want to mess with it.”
“Maybe we should bring you along, then,” I said, “to show us what not to mess with.”
“So are we going to help the people attacking the Monolith?” Jere interrupted. “We’d better move soon if you think we can do it.”
I looked again at the crates and vehicles and the people in the warehouse. And then I looked at Diane, Wade, and Sylvia, upon whom I would be relying most of all. “Get word out for people to wait for us. We’re coming.”
✽ ✽ ✽
As part of being a leader, I had divided things up appropriately. I had even paired Diane with Wade. Despite the strange pang I got from seeing them together, I knew they were a good pairing. The first part of the operation was to load up the vehicles we had with weapons and then get them to the resistance fighters. Then I would coordinate everyone into a more planned attack on the Monolith. The building seemed well fortified, but it already looked like the Fathom had few friends left outside it. The Baixas thugs were nowhere to be found, and the police even seemed to be on our side now.
Supplying the resistance with weapons had to be done in some secrecy, but I wanted to make a public entrance. I always like the enemy to see me coming. It’s the anticipation; that’s one of my weapons. So I was arriving by public transport. I moved to the nearest station — luckily empty — and got onto one of the trams. I took a seat and set the bag I’d brought with me on the floor. Then I took a deep breath, relishing being alone for a few
minutes as the tram took off.
“You really think this is the best way to go about things?” Dip asked.
This is the time we go over and over the plan to make sure we have it memorized. It is not the time we doubt it.
The tram began descending. That was odd, because we weren’t near the Monolith yet, and this was supposed to be a direct tram to it so that I would enter the fray in view of everyone. But instead it was coming down at some other remote station. It landed, and the doors opened and three people entered — two Dallians and a human. They gave no indication of recognizing me and sat in the seats across from me.
The doors closed, and the tram took to the air again. The human was looking at me, and there was something odd about his face. He looked just like the average middle-aged man — almost aggressively nondescript — but there was something about him the more primitive parts of my brain didn’t like.
“Congratulations,” said the man.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“The results just came in. You’re the newly elected representative for Calipa.”
I chuckled. “A good day for me, I guess.”
The man smiled. “We’ll see about that.”
I noticed we had stopped moving. I looked out the window, and we were thousands of feet above the lush green of Calipa. I looked back at the man across from me, and his face began to fade until all that was left was a white mask, behind which I could see two red eyes.
CHAPTER 21
“So now you’re a politician and sparking a revolution?” Drav asked. The two others behind him lost their Dallian faces and were just white masks as well. Their clothing was bulky; they wore body armor on under their street clothes.
I shrugged. “I’m trying new things. Looks like you’re up to the same-old, same-old, though.”
Superego-Fathom Page 17
