BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 37)

“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“Always.” Only a white lie.
I had to remember they were more scared of me than I was on them (actually, I had to stifle laughter when I first saw the crowd), so I walked out slowly with my hands up so they wouldn’t immediately start shooting. I then headed for the lobby from where I heard Morrigan.
It was a ridiculous scene. I don’t want to sound sexist as I understand the use of female assassins and spies, but actually seeing about fifty women (mainly humans) standing around in outfits ranging from fancy dresses to street clothes to combat fatigues all pointing guns at me was a sight hard to take seriously. Morrigan was dressed in what looked like some sort of special forces outfit and was holding a rifle. Her expression was anger. The other expressions went the whole gambit from anticipation to disdain to fear. Definitely a wide range of experience here, and certainly more than enough to gun me down.
“I’m afraid Diane accidentally killed two of your girls,” I told Morrigan, “You shouldn’t surprise us like this.”
“Shut up!” Morrigan shouted, “You betrayed me – you betrayed Corloni.”
“Just strategy; I knew you wouldn’t get hurt,” I slowly lowered my hands, “Aren’t we on the same side here?”
“You joined with Gredler!”
“I merely gained his confidence; I would have killed him then, but the contract was specific when I killed him. As usual, I wasn’t given much more instructions so I’m doing this my own way.”
“I gave you instructions!”
I smiled slightly. “But come on, it would be irresponsible for me to blindly trust you. So, what are you doing here?” I looked around at the group. “Are you thinking of doing me harm are you?”
Morrigan looked past me to Diane. “Are you aligning yourself with this psychopath, Detective?”
“Apparently, I have to choose a psychopath,” Diane answered dryly, “and I’ve known him longer.” She looked at a woman near her. “I’m new to this whole hire killer thing, but shouldn’t you be more subtle than this?”
“What are you doing here, Morrigan?” I asked, “Things aren’t supposed to go down for more than a day from now. Does Corloni know you’ve come to kill me?”
“You’ve made yourself a liability, Rico.”
My hands were at my sides, waiting to draw my concealed blaster that they all knew I had. “So you’re going to kill me now? How is that going to affect the hit on Gredler?”
“He’ll be dead tomorrow morning,” Morrigan spat at me, “Him and all the Randatti on this planet. I’m not sure you’ll last that long.”
I laughed. “I know Corloni didn’t send you to kill me tonight, Morrigan. They want me to die in the shootout… which I guess has been moved up a day and some more Corloni thugs are being sent to crowd you out of the glory. You might think I’m some unhinged crazy person, but I know how things work. And I bet you didn’t tell your girls you’re here against orders.”
A few looked at her suspiciously. “What do you know, you psycho?” she yelled.
“I know they obviously haven’t told you everything. Yes, you’re here to make sure Gredler dies. Yes, you’re here to make sure I die. Yes, this is to all start a war. Yes, Corloni wants me dead because they think I’m a liability. But what you don’t know is why they want me to die in a huge shootout like the hit on Gredler and not have thug like you just shoot me in the back of the head, and that’s the important part. That’s why you’ll be in trouble for this.”
“I know you’re just talking so we don’t gun you down.” I could see she was thinking, trying to figure out if there was anything to what I was saying.
“True, and I know your group could burn me to nothing before I get off…” I paused to pretend to think. “…maybe two or three shots.”
A lot of the killerinas were looking confused, but one was looking particularly vengeful (maybe Diane or I had killed a friend of hers) and she shouted, “Let’s just do this!”
“If anyone fires without my order, I will personally kill her!” Morrigan shouted so quickly she wasn’t able to hide her fear.
“We’re going to go now,” I told them, “If you get front seats for the event tomorrow, maybe I’ll see you then.” I smiled keeping eye contact with Morrigan as I backed out the front door of the complex with Diane. Morrigan had her pride, but she also knew her limitations.
That could make her dangerous… but not right now.
Once outside, I drew my guns, and we made a run for her car. “What was that about?” Diane asked as she started the car as I jumped in the passenger seat.
“Morrigan wasn’t sure they’d be able to kill me before I could get off a shot… and she knew where that first shot was going.”
The car took off with a jolt. “That wasn’t what I was asking about. What doesn’t she know?”
“That was a bluff.”
“You don’t seem like the bluffing type.”
You think you’re so smart, don’t you? “Do you know someplace to hide out?”
“I can think of something.”
“You have a call from Gredler’s office,” said Dip in my ear.
“Let’s talk.” Looked like there was only a little time for talking left anyway.
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BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 36)

It was one of Morrigan’s thugs. She had clothing that at first glance looked casual but was actually chosen for mobility and probably had some body armor under it – not enough for my blaster, though. Her eyes were that of a stone-cold killer. Good; I’m getting tired of dealing with amateurs. Grabbing Diane seemed like an odd miscalculation, though.
“You know my blaster could easily shoot through the two of you,” I told her, still holding Diane’s bag of weaponry in my hands. “You have basically two options here: you turn that gun on me, and then Diane will use the opportunity to take you out, or you first blow her brains out, which gives me plenty of time to draw and kill you. I’m very quick with a blaster– if you weren’t informed.”
Another woman stepped out of the room, gun pointed at me.
“Oh.”
The thug (thugette?) holding Diane suddenly fell forward, her gun firing into the head of the other woman as she did. There was a loud snap, and then there were two bodies lying on the ground in front of the still standing Detective.
“That was beautiful!”
She ran to the bathroom, and I could hear her throwing up.
“That’s less so.”
“You can buy me some more clothes,” she said as she came out, wiping her mouth with a towel which she tossed to the ground, “Let’s get out of here.”
I tossed her gun bag to her and drew my blasters. “Follow me; this ain’t a ladies first situation.”
“You’re surrounded, Rico!” a voice shouted from outside the apartment. It was Morrigan. I could hear lots of footsteps and guns being readied outside. “You’re not shooting your way out of this one! Put your guns away and step out.”
I growled in annoyance. “It was supposed to be more than a day before the fighting started. Morrigan is not playing by the rules.” I put my guns away.
“Won’t you be needing those?” Diane asked, her bag slung over her shoulder and a gun in her hand.
“No, and put yours away if you want to live.”
“Are we surrendering?” she asked angrily.
Surrender? Heh. That’s why she’s the detective and I’m the hitman. “We’re just going to walk out of here.” I reached for the knob to the apartment door, but stopped and looked to Diane. “Stay close.”
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