Martian Plague

by Brandon Ellis

  “I don’t know,” responded another agent. “It’s glowing. It looks active.”

  A third hovercar arrived, and two more MMP agents stepped out of their vehicles.

  “My luck just keeps getting better and better,” Ozzy whined under his breath.

  Ozzy felt a muzzle pressed to the back of his head. “Do. Not. Move.”

  Jozi?

  “Do exactly what I say,” she whispered, keeping her lips tight.

  She gripped the back of his hair and shoved him to the ground, her knee coming down on top of him, pressing his gut into Indigo.

  Ozzy grunted loudly and cringed. “Take it easy.”

  “Can’t.” She held up her badge. “I’m a High Judge Mars Ministry Police agent. This man is under my custody. Leave him be, or you’ll have the High Council to answer to.”

  An agent put his palms up and raised his eyebrows. “Whoa, just doing our job lady.” He twirled his finger and arm in the air, telling the boys to round up. “Let’s move it. We have more fish to fry.”

  Jozi’s knee dug deeper into Ozzy’s back.

  “Careful,” he quietly bellowed. “Indigo needs to be in one piece.”

  Jozi ignored him, pressing down even more. “Hold it, fellas. I need to commandeer one of your vehicles.”

  An agent swept his arms outward and walked away from a hovervehicle, heading to another. “You got it, Agent.”

  “No,” Ozzy said under his breath. “Those won’t get us far. I’ll get a ship that works. I have the funds.”

  Jozi looked down at Ozzy. “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, positive. Now, get your ass off of me.”

  Jozi stood. “Never mind.” She pulled Ozzy to his feet and collected his things, placing Indigo in the big duffle bag. She threw it over her shoulder, along with his photon rifle. She pulled him along and down the road.

  The police vehicles revved up and sped off, heading away from Jozi and Ozzy.

  “Where to?” she asked.

  Ozzy nodded his head to the right, doing his best to gather his bearings and ignore the pain in his ribs, thanks to her.

  “Craft dealer.” He patted the bag that Jozi was now carrying. “I have plenty of credits to get us to Gale Crater City.”

  Jozi gave Ozzy a double take. “To where?”

  20

  Briault, Mars

  Jozi pressed her gun firmly against Ozzy’s throat, steering him into a wall. “Nope. We’re going to Dawes.”

  Ozzy shook his head, his eyes toward the sky, his heart pounding with the pain he felt for his dying daughter. “We won’t be able to save her in time.”

  “Yes, we will. We have four to seven days to get there before the Martian Plague runs its course with her.”

  Ozzy’s lower lip trembled. “I can’t. She won’t make it. Trust me, please. This is my last chance to see her before she passes from this world.”

  “No. Trust me, Ozzy.”

  Ozzy shook his head. “I want to be with her. I don’t want her to be alone when she—”

  A man and a woman walked by. If this wasn’t Briault, they may have stopped or even called the authorities. But again, this was Briault, the crime capital of the world. So seeing a gun against another person’s neck was a typical day for them.

  “Please, Ozzy. Please?”

  Ozzy squeezed his eyes shut, relaxing, then opened them as Jozi lowered her gun.

  Her beautiful eyes looked into his. He didn’t realize how much they looked like his daughter’s. They were the same shade of blue.

  She touched his chest. “You can save your daughter. I know it.”

  Ozzy eased his breathing. He nodded. “Alright. If she doesn’t make it, and I’m not there when she dies, then…” he lowered his head. “Then Robert Baldwin will get a few photon blasts in his stomach, so he can die slowly and in as much pain as possible.”

  He didn’t know how he’d get to Robert, but swore on his mother’s and father’s graves that he would get him someday.

  But right now what they truly needed was a miracle.

  His Lily-bug needed a miracle.

  He put his hand in his pocket, touching his auric wallet. He nodded and swallowed hard. “Let’s get us a ship.”

  “What do you mean my auric wallet doesn’t work?” Ozzy breathed out hot, angry air. “Check it again.”

  Jozi folded her arms, saying under her breath, “We should have taken that police vehicle.”

  Ozzy shot her a look. “Not now. You convinced me to go along with your plan, so don’t make me regret this and change my mind.”

  The salesman rubbed the back of his neck. “This is the third time, sir. We can’t keep checking for the sake of checking. It says you have zero credits.”

  Ozzy’s nostrils flared. “Show me.”

  They were in one of Briault’s luxurious craft dealerships, most likely owned by one of the underground black market families who ran everything in this town.

  The salesman walked into his office.

  Ozzy folded his arms over his chest and took another peek at the Class-97 V16 Panther. It was a beast, fully decked out in double-ionic thrusters, its wings’ boomerang-style were like his old Relic, and the bow of the ship was in the shape of a panther’s face. The eyes were tinted windows where the cockpit sat.

  It was sleek. It was fast. It was almost as perfect as the Eagle. But in truth, nothing compared to the Class-14 Quadruple Engine Electrohydrodynamic Ionic Thruster 113 SX Eagle, which stood on the far side of the building with a hefty price tag. Had he not given away his auric money to numb-nut thugsters, he would have been able to afford that thing.

  The man walked out of his office and shook his head, puffing out his lips. “I’m sorry, sir.” He plopped the hexagonal auric wallet on the counter and tapped it. “Type in your code.”

  Ozzy did, and a hologram shot out through the top of the device. Underneath Ozzy’s name and account information blinked zero credits.

  He was flat broke.

  He clenched his fists and slammed them against the sides of his legs. “Those bastards stole all of my money.” And here he thought there was some compassion in the one man.

  “Who?” questioned Jozi.

  “Don’t worry about it. The guy is dead anyway.”

  She leaned up against the counter, looking the salesman in the eye. She held up her badge. “High Ministry Agent Jozi Ryan. Give us a ship, or I’ll make sure and call the High Judge about this place.”

  The salesman laughed. “Good luck getting a hold of the High Judge. He’s in Gale Crater City, right?”

  She gave Ozzy an austere look. “What does that mean?”

  Ozzy ignored her. “You have anything we can purchase on the cheap?” He rested his hand on Jozi’s shoulder. “She’s good for it.”

  “I don’t have that kind of auric,” she complained.

  Ozzy leaned forward on the counter, eyeing the salesman. “How much for your cheapest clunk of shit?”

  A champagne bottle smashed against a craft, and a cheer engulfed a small crowd near the middle of the dealership. A large, overly dressed man in business attire held up a glass. “To my new ride.”

  Ozzy peered at Jozi. “How much money do you have?”

  She shrugged and pulled out her auric credit wallet. “Maybe five thousand credits at most?”

  “What will that get us?” inquired Ozzy.

  The man rolled his eyes. “Step this way.”

  21

  Briault, Mars

  Ozzy hooked Indigo up to the engine and pressed down on the hood, which emitted a loud thump. “This was our only option,” said Ozzy.

  Jozi thumbed over her shoulder. “Bullshit. We had plenty of options. Let’s go to the MMP station and get a police vehicle.”

  “We don’t have time, and I’m not going to the police for a damn thing.” He closed his door and then started the engine. A hiss told them the vehicle was sealed tight and fresh oxygen rushed through the vents.

  We
ll, fresh was an overstatement.

  The 91 Kaddie hovercar lifted into the air, floating from the ionic jets. Ozzy pressed on the driving pedal. He pulled out of the dealership and onto a busy road.

  “Where is the closest exit out of Dawes?” asked Jozi.

  Ozzy pointed forward. “Dead ahead in three minutes.”

  He drove around a hovercar, thinking about his Lily. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake by going after the cure, rather than seeing his dying daughter.

  The cure wasn’t a sure thing but seeing his Lily was. This could be the biggest mistake of his life or the biggest miracle.

  They passed small skyscrapers and domed buildings, lined by sidewalks, shrubs, and trees.

  This place wasn’t like Gale Crater City or Tagus Valles. The terraform lamps weren’t abundant, so the plants looked weak and stubby, almost to the edge of their death.

  Jozi brought up the com link holodisplay. She dialed the High Judge.

  “You don’t have a chance.” Ozzy drove into the departure station. “They won’t answer.”

  The com channel rang. “They will.”

  “All of the people in that city are dead or dying.”

  She hesitated, her hand hovering over the “end call” button. “How would you know?”

  “The people in the hospital informed me that Gale Crater City was more or less a dead zone.”

  Ozzy stopped at a yellow dotted line and gave a fake smile to a guard in the booth.

  She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. “What? The people? My friends? Your daughter? That’s why you wanted to go to Gale Crater City instead of Dawes. I—”

  “Welcome,” said the guard. His face was grim. He wore a blue uniform with MMP stitched on the shoulder and Carl on his shirt’s left breast. His beard nearly covered his entire neck, along with his cheeks and chin. “I’m sorry, buddy. You can’t leave the city. We are in shut-down mode. No one in. No one out.”

  “What for?” asked Ozzy, playing dumb.

  “You know why. The Martian Plague. Plus the Dunrakee are back to their old tricks. Who knows when or what city they’ll hit next.” His voice was full of doom. Ozzy could tell this guy had no hope.

  “Look, I have to get out of here.” Ozzy cocked his head toward Jozi. “She’s a High Judge MMP agent.”

  She dug into her pocket, pulled out her badge, and held it out to him.

  “Let me see that.” Carl leaned forward and snagged it from her. He glanced at it for a moment, then tossed it back into the hovercar. “Nope. Sorry. Please turn your vehicle around.”

  “Are you allowed to carry a weapon?” Ozzy questioned the guard. He put his hands up when he saw the man’s expression. “No, I’m not threatening, just wondering, because I have a proposal for you.”

  “No, you don’t,” responded Jozi.

  In Briault, Mars Ministry Police were known to take bribes here and there.

  “Hand him your photon pistol,” Ozzy ordered Jozi.

  Jozi crossed her arms. “Not on my life.”

  “This is on your life, Missy,” Ozzy blurted out. “Now do it.”

  She exhaled loudly and unholstered her weapon, handing it to Ozzy.

  “As you can see, Carl, this is a Mars Ministry Police issued P-116 photon pistol. The best they have.” He raised one eyebrow, eyeing the guy. “You got one of these?”

  Carl looked around and motioned with his fingers to hand the weapon to him. Ozzy did.

  Carl inspected it. “Where are you headed?”

  “Huygens City,” he answered.

  The large departure door vibrated, then began to lift, displaying the oxygen outlet room—the two-minute waiting area where the oxygen was sucked out of the room before the final departure door opened—where the Mars atmosphere entered.

  “Seal your windows, and have a good drive,” mumbled Carl. “See ya’ when I see ya’.”

  Ozzy rolled up his window and pulled forward into the departure room. The door closed behind him, clacking on the ground when it shut.

  Jozi cleared her throat, getting Ozzy’s attention. “Why are we going to Huygens City, Ozzy?”

  A vacuum turned on and jostled the hovercar back and forth.

  “I have one more thing I need to do.” He knew she wouldn’t like it, but he had to visit crime lord, Mort Wildly. There, he could borrow a ship to get to the cure in half the time it would take with this 91 Kaddie hovercar he was driving. The guy didn’t owe him a favor, but maybe they could make a deal.

  “You’re not doing another dig, are you? What about your daughter?”

  “This is for her. You think this thing we have here would take us to the Moonshinka Rock near Dawes? If it could, it’d take days. We don’t have days, Jozi, we only have hours.”

  “No, and that’s why I tried to commandeer the—”

  “Had I known I didn’t have any money, I’d have let you commandeer the MMP hovercar.”

  Jozi grumbled and folded her arms over her chest.

  The vacuum turned off, and the exit door opened. The bright butterscotch-colored sky highlighted the exit room and the red terrain in front of them. A long, black road was before them as well, heading to several connecting cities. “I have to convince Mort Wildly to lend me a craft. It’s our only way to Dawes.”

  Jozi shot him a look. “Are you nuts? Mort Wildly? If the guy finds out you brought an MMP agent to his home, we’ll both be dead before we can even blink.”

  Ozzy stepped on the pedal. “At the moment, I don’t have any other choice.”

  22

  Unknown, Mars

  Ozzy glanced at the speedometer. He was going fast. If MMP’s cared about speed and death in Mars’ outdoors, he’d be cuffed, thrown in jail, and trying to weasel out on bail by now.

  Outside the city limits, the Ministry didn’t care about anyone, unless you were taking money from them somehow, such as the case with forbidden archaeology.

  Up ahead, Ozzy saw a 2767 Dop Seven Lanser. Even though it was broken down on the side of the road, old and dilapidated, he would recognize that style hovercar from anywhere. It was long and wide, known as a politician’s car with a V-shaped front and back, and as ugly as hell.

  Ozzy silently chuckled to himself remembering his father and how the Lanser was his dad’s favorite model. Ozzy slowly drove by the car, staring inside. Luckily, it was empty, abandoned.

  However, the last time he had seen a car like this one, his parents had been inside, and they weren’t so lucky.

  It was a terrible memory, one he’d never forget. And one that had changed his life and set him on a path where he had to leave his daughter forever or she’d turn up dead like his parents.

  His father, Jackson Mack, had been Gale Crater City’s mayor for nearly fifteen years. He would have been the perfect person to expose the High Judge.

  Unfortunately, neither his father nor his mother, Laura, believed Ozzy when he tried telling them about Robert Baldwin.

  Ozzy had held up a small, rectangular vid chip. “Why the hell would I do these digs if I wasn’t forced to do them?” His faced reddened, and spit flew out of his mouth. “For once, listen to me.” He waved the chip in the air. “On here is evidence that I was set up, that the High Judge threatened my daughter if I expose any of this evidence. You’ll see that he took all the money for himself. He threatened that he would remove me from the university. You're the only one who can help me.”

  Jack looked at Laura. His mom raised her brow and sighed. It was clear they both thought he was lying and that the High Judge wasn’t.

  His dad had tossed the rest of the scotch he was drinking in the sink and set the glass on a nearby table. “This time, you have to help yourself. I can't be cleaning up your mistakes for the rest of my life. You’ve been doing stupid things since you were a child, and you still haven’t changed.”

  Ozzy had bit back a retort, feeling the rage bubbling up in his gut. He had walked hastily to his father and slapped the vid chip on the table. “Watch th
is tonight, both of you. You’ll see everything, and then I’ll expect an apology in the morning.”

  That was the last time he had seen his parents. The next time was on the news, where he watched as a car was on fire, and hoverbots were circling overhead, shooting water on it. Flames were licking upward, dancing around, practically laughing at Ozzy, but he could tell that the car was a Dop Seven Lanser.

  The next day he had been fired from the university via a com message. The note also contained an ominous warning with no signature, but he knew it was from the High Judge:

  We will find you, Ozzy. Any interactions with your other family members and any attempts in exposing me may result in their deaths as well. Enjoy your life. Hopefully, it will be as quiet and uneventful as I hope.

  Ozzy left the planet and was nestled safely on an asteroid in the belt. There was no telling what else Robert would do, so staying far from his daughter was the safest option. And from that point forward, he did his best to stay away. He did his best to hide. He did his best to make a living and get off this red rock.

  Ozzy continued to feel shame and regret, knowing that he caused this to happen. He had given the only person in the world he thought could help him the evidence that would destroy Robert, and it, instead, destroyed his parents.

  He drove past the abandoned hovercar, shaking his head trying to rid it of the terrible memory.

  Nonetheless, he couldn’t dwell on the past right now. He had to get his ass to Mort Wildly and fast. Wildly was an underground crime boss and paid well.

  Crime lords ran the black market, pulled in billions of auric credits from other illegal activity, and most importantly, were the best defense against the Dunrakee swine. The crime syndicates were akin to the mafia back on Earth in the twentieth and twenty-first-century heyday, but with more firepower.

  Wildly was the most eccentric of the bunch. He liked luxury and flaunted it. And the thing was, Wildly wanted to take over every crime syndicate on Mars so he could actually run the planet.