BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 44)

An EMP blast; that’s something I had always prepared for. My blasters, which had just fallen from my limp hands, had dormant backup circuitry that could be manually enabled to give them partial functionality. Also, I had an electronics free revolver in a holster on my right ankle – a simple gunpowder based firearm given to me by my father… probably the same model he just shot me with.
As I dropped to my knees staring at him, I realized exactly what he did. He set off the EMP bomb just as I spun around to catch me off guard. He destroyed the power system in most of the city just to get a clean shot on me face to face.
Experience beat youth, I guess.
The natural inclination is to fall forward, but I leaned my weight so I fell backward, propped up a little so I could keep my eyes on my father. He face more lined than I last seen him, his hair grayer, but no new scars were visible. He lowered his gun. The one bullet he put through me that currently had me leaking at both ends was enough.
“What it means,” my father said, referring to Dip’s question before the EMP cut him off, “was that Morrigan was given a tip by someone who knows you well.” He looked to the dead body beyond me. “I liked her; she had potential… among other things.” He smiled. “You were way beyond her league, though, so I thought I’d give her a little information so you didn’t gun her down too easily.”
“What?”
“I told her that when you winged her way back when you first met, it was only because you meant to wing her. I think that cut through her arrogance and kept her from underestimating you.”
“I still got her.”
He smiled again. “Of course you did, Rico. But the higher-ups were sending her to her death putting her against you… though neither them nor her knew it. I just tried to even things up a bit even though I was certain who would prevail in the end. That’s why I’m here.”
I pressed the wound in my front, but I was still bleeding out the exit wound in my back. I couldn’t tell what organs had been hit, but judging from the entry wound in my chest, it was probably organs I needed. So I was dying, which left little time to satisfy my curiosity. “Do they know you’re here?”
He stopped smiling. “No. I knew this would happen, but they wouldn’t listen to me. They’ve always been scared of you, but I knew you’d never betray us unless we forced you. Now they thought they could give you what they considered an honorable death, but you made fools of them all. I couldn’t save you anymore, so the only thing left to do was clean up their mess.”
I laughed, but it hurt. “I guess this could lead to you finally moving higher into leadership.”
“Noting personal, Rico. I don’t want to profit off the death of my son, but they pushed you to a point that someone had to take you down. Now everyone looks the fool except me.” A tear streamed down his eye. “For what it’s worth, you always made me proud… being what you are, that is. I knew you’d figure out something was wrong because you’re smart, and I thought you deserved to at least know why the people you trusted were turning against you. I also thought you deserved to die being shot in the front, and, well, that sure wasn’t an easy thing to do without getting shot back.” He smiled weakly. “If they only listened to me, we could have put you to so much better use. Most men have to go through a lot to become remorseless killers, but you were born that way. Tough kid to love, but I tried.”
“I was always fed; I didn’t know what else to expect,” I answered truthfully. I never thought about my childhood much. Spent most of it away from other kids.
“Your mother just couldn’t understand you; she loved that dog more than you, but, in her defense, it was capable of showing more affection. At least she wasn’t able to hear what you said when you saw her die.”
It took me a moment to remember. My brain didn’t seem to be reacting well to the loss of blood. “‘Who will cook now?’ That’s what I said.”
“You did love her cooking.”
“I eat mainly bland foods now.” Or should I have used the past tense?
“You never did ask why I killed her.”
“I assumed you had your reasons. If it were my business, you would have told me.”
He looked sad again. “You always trusted me… trusted the organization. Sorry they didn’t return the trust. Sorry it had to end this way.”
We were silent. I guess there wasn’t anything left to say. Still, someone spoke. There was the cocking of yet another revolver, and a voice saying, “This ending isn’t yet written.”
My father laughed. “You didn’t kill her?” he asked me.
“I tried.”
I could see a look of determination on Diane’s bruised and battered face as she held the gun on my father. As always, she had no idea what she had gotten herself into.
“Drop the gun!”
“It’s a dangerous universe,” my father answered, putting the gun away under his jacket, “I think I best keep it.”
“You’re under arrest!”
My father took out a cigarette and lit it. “For what? I just happened to be in the area and stopped a dangerous murderer. Seems I should be commended.”
“You set off an EMP blast, killing who knows how many. You’re not walking away from this.”
“She’s cute; I see why you like her, Rico.” He never did turn to look at her.
“Diane, let him go,” I told her.
“Poor Rico is dying,” my father said, “Best you spend your energies there.” He turned to leave.
“You stay right there!”
“Diane!” I shouted, and it hurt quite a bit, “You don’t understand! He’s a Corloni.”
“I gathered,” she snapped.
“No, his name is Anthony Corloni,” I said, struggling to prop myself up further, though the energy was draining from me.
“It’s true,” he laughed, “I think I might have a blood relation with those suspected criminal leaders of that crime syndicate.”
“You arrest him,” I warned her, “and they’ll slaughter everyone on this planet just to make an example out of it. I know you want to stop the criminal syndicates, but you’re aiming too high at this juncture.”
“He cares about you, girl,” my father told Diane, “So why don’t you tend to his last moments here in this universe. Now, I’m off to go work on some completely legal enterprises.” He began to walk away, Diane still pointing her gun at him. Before going fully out of my view, he turned and said to me, “See ya in hell, Rico.”
“See ya.”
Diane put her gun and ran over to me. “Okay, I have to stop the bleeding.” She said frantically.
“I’ve shot enough people to know when a man is dead,” I told her, “No hospital to take me to, what with that EMP blast. Plus no vehicle to get me there. The EMP would have disabled the car behind me. How’d you get here anyway?”
“I landed through the destroyed roof of the auditorium. I guess that vehicle won’t be working either.” I could see she was mulling over a tough decision. She then quickly took off her jacket and then pulled off her shirt, leaving her torso covered by just her bra. She then began to rip up her shirt to make bandages.
“Thanks for the treat,” I laughed. That hurt too. I could clearly see the bruises on her face. After my little speech trying to throw her beliefs back in her face, I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Apparently in the scuffle, I forgot to remove the safety, something I do automatically on a normal draw. She gave this little smile, and that was too much. I was so enraged, I slammed her in the head with the gun — I normally don’t treat my guns like that. Now that she was unconscious, I couldn’t make her despair, thus killing her lost its point.
“Just save your breath and concentrate on staying awake,” Diane said as she struggled to bandage me.
“I’m glad I didn’t kill you, ya know,” I told her. My vision was blurring, and I knew I was reaching the end. “I think I should tell you I’m attracted to you… and I’m not just saying that because you’re nearly naked right now. I mean, because of other things than just your woman features. I know women get insecure about that sort of thing, so I thought I’d tell you.” As it was getting harder for me to think, I was left to reacting off emotions, and Lord knows I don’t have many of those to work with.
“Just be quiet, Rico,” she said, her voice breaking up. It was hard to see, but I could make out tears in her eyes. “You need to fight this.”
“I’m going to hell, now, right?” I asked, “Not much doubt in that. No reason God would give extra to help to save me when so many less deserving people got killed today.”
“You still have time, Rico. Keep fighting.” It was harder to see her, but her voice was breaking up more than mine.
“I wonder if I’ll at least feel something there. If it’s punishment… well, I’ve seen that… uh… emotions can…” Breathing was getting harder. “…torture people worse than pain.”
I think she was still working on my bandages. All I could make out was her crying. So many died today, and not just criminals now that an EMP bomb had gone off. But here she was, wasting her tears on perhaps the most murderous psychopath in the universe. Of all the people to care about, this her Christian “sensibilities” were making her waste her good sense mourning the most prodigal son who was never coming home… never would have even if he had life left in him.
It was funny in a way, but, for some reason, I was crying too.
Well, that’s life.
Or, at least, it’s one of them.
THE END

Continue reading ‘A Story, Bit-by-Bit
Superego: Part 45 – An End’ »

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 43)

The transport crashing through the building had upturned dust throughout the building. All I needed was to see a silhouettes, though, as I was the only one who had no need to identify a target before firing. I killed three as soon as I emerged from the backroom. There was some firing back at me. It was panic fire, but it allowed me to identify the direction of some more targets and rack up a few more kills.
If the terrorists had followed their plans correctly, their crash should have blocked the main entrance. Dip should now have set off the building’s anti-terrorism defenses blocking off all the windows and other exits.
The Randatti thought they were going to ambush the Corloni. The Corloni thought they were ambushing the Randatti. The Cyber-Islamist thought they were ambushing unarmed citizens. Instead, they were all trapped inside here with me.
And I was easy to identify, because I was the only one with a big smile on his face.
“Dip, put my voice over the building’s speakers at as high as the volume goes… and echo it if you can.”
The dust still hadn’t settled, but I had the building plan memorized and made my way towards the main auditorium quickly. In the confusion, the gunfire had died down a bit as everyone was probably more focused on escaping rather than killing each other.
I’d change that.
“JUDGMENT DAY IS HERE! PREPARE FOR THE FIRES OF HELL BECAUSE NO ONE IS ESCAPING THIS BUILDING ALIVE!”
It takes a lot to scare professional killers, but I was up for the challenge.
I came upon another group, and made quick work of them before they could tell what was happening. I then got to the main auditorium, and there was nothing there but targets.
My smile grew even wider.
“I AM THE ANGEL OF DEATH!” The dust was settling and they were fighting each other, but most turned their attention to me as soon as I ran in shooting using my split brain to take on two targets at a time. “I AM GOD’S WRATH!” I killed a group of hitmen. “THE WICKED SHALL NOW MEET THEIR END!” The terrorists, the most panicked of the lot, fired on me without an ounce of accuracy. I swept the auditorium clean of them. “DEATH TO THE FOLLOWERS OF SATAN!” A bolt flew past my face, and I spun around and returned many more at another group of hitmen. “JUSTICE IS HERE, AND IT WILL FIND YOU ALL!”
This was too much fun. It really was luck that some random shot didn’t hit me in all the panic fire, but I’ve survived on luck before. Maybe there is a God and He likes me.
The auditorium was soon clear, and it seemed most everyone had retreated to the hallways and other rooms of the auditorium to try and hole up and make a defense. A bit more of a challenge, but they were still in my trap and no the other way around.
“YOU COWARDS MAY TRY AND FLEE, BUT ATTEMPING TO ESCAPE ME ONLY INCREASES MY TERRIBLE WRATH!”
I entered a hallway and saw a closed door. I fired a few shots into it and got a number back in response. This is where my professional skills kicked in as I used my hearing and the observation of the angle of the shots to determine how many were in the room and where so my next shots were more lethal. A few terrorists came down at me through the hallway, and I shot them with one gun while my other gun fired into the room. I then kicked open the door and killed the two inside left living.
“DAMNED BE THE ARROGANT, FOR THEIRS IS THE FIRES OF HELL!”
A group sprung out of a door and tried to ambush me, but they were two slow and were soon burning bodies on the ground.
“DAMNED BE THE WICKED, FOR THEY SHALL MEET ETERNAL AGONY!”
I entered into a kitchen area where thugs tried to fire from cover, but none of it stood up to my blasters. It smelled liked burned chicken in there when I was done. All sentient species smell like burned chicken when you blast them.
“DAMNED BE THE PERSECUTORS, FOR THEY SHALL A THOUSANDS TIMES REAP WHAT THEY SOWED!”
Now terrorists and hitmen rushed me at the same time. It was nice to know I could unite such diverse groups. They died together as well.
“DAMNED BE THE VIOLENT, FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN VIOLENCE!”
Some thugs were trying to blast their way out of a sealed window, and turned just in time to see the instrument of their death.
“DAMNED BE THE EVIL IN HEART, FOR THEY SHALL SEE ME!”
Those left seemed to be firing at any sound, even taking out some of the speakers. They only gave themselves away in their actions, and I wiped the universe clean of them.
“DAMNED BE THE WARMONGERS, FOR THEY ARE THE CHILDREN OF SATAN!”
“God is great!” was what I universal translator interpreted as the shouts of a few terrorists as they fired on me, but apparently their god wasn’t great enough to give them basic aiming skills. My blasters tore them apart.
“Die, you freak!” shouted a female voice, and I finally met a concerted enough effort to kill me that I had to duck into another hallway for cover. It was some of Morrigan’s group, and they apparently knew how to work as a team.
I laughed, and my broadcast laughter echoed throughout the building.
“DAMNED BE THE WHORES, BECAUSE I AM GOING TO @#$% THEM UP!”
There was some shouting and gunfire from behind them as apparently some of the Cyber-Islamists and run into them. This was enough of a distraction for me to jump and charge them, gunning them all down as they tried to fire upon me. It was at least a dozen, but not one landed a shot.
I was invincible.
There was only a little clean up left, and soon the only thing in the building other than me was the smell of death. Satisfied, I headed back towards the room that held Gredler’s corpse and the path to the escape vehicle. I hit a few buttons on my wrist console telling Dip to stop broadcasting my voice. “What’s the situation outside?” I asked him.
“There was some fighting outside of the building between who I assume was Randatti and Corloni hitmen, but it looks like they have left. The police seemed to have stayed away.”
I headed for the rear door in the backroom, stepping over Gredler’s corpse. It led to a hallway ending at a small landing pad. The sky was currently blocked by a metal shield. “Unlock the place, Dip. I’ll meet you on the other side of the planet and then we take a nice vacation.” I smiled. “We’ll have to go many galaxies away to find a place where they won’t be saying the name ‘Rico’ in hushed whispers after this.”
As the metal shield folded away, the sun began to shine through. I headed for the vehicle waiting there, but stopped just before walking onto the landing pad. I realized my guard was down, and now would be the perfect time to kill me if someone was smart.
I fired into the overhang to the exit onto the landing pad. The smoldering body of Morrigan then fell to the ground.
“What was that?” Dip asked.
“Morrigan – the redhead. She actually assumed I would survive and waited for me at the escape to shoot me in the back. That’s smarter than I thought she’d be. Almost had me, really.”
“Does that mean anything?”
“Mean anything? Why would it…” I stopped suddenly as I heard footsteps behind me, so loud it was like I was supposed to hear them. I instantly spun around and pulled the triggers on both my guns at the person.
Nothing happened. I was now staring down a metal gun barrel, and I noticed that all the lights in the hallway were now out. As I stood there with two useless weights in my hand, I heard the distinct sound of a double action trigger on a revolver. It seemed to happen in slow motion, but, in reality, it was too quick for me to do anything. There was the rotating of the cylinder as the hammer pulled back, the click of the cylinder locking into place, and the fall of the hammer. Last came the sound of the bullet being fired, the explosion of it an exclamation point in what had just been marked the last chapter of my life.
THE CONCLUSION

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 42)

“I think I have an anger problem, Dip.”
“Perhaps because you don’t have much experience dealing with it, Rico.”
I trekked through the busy streets towards the convention center. If everyone had their orders right, no one would try and start the festivities before I got there. Still, I kept my eyes peeled in case one fool wanted the glory of killing me.
“How are you?” Dip asked.
“A little battered, but I’ll be fine.” I laughed. “I think she was trying to save me, but her knocking my head around could end up being the death of me if it affects my combat. Now, that’s irony.”
“I have a few inquiries.”
“Since this may be the last time we talk, I will answer one question for you conclusively, Dip. So chose carefully.”
I suspected what that question would be, but I wasn’t quite right.
“Do you think you’re evil, Rico?”
“No,” I answered immediately. I then thought on it for a moment. “But I’m probably wrong.”
“I don’t think you’re evil.”
“You don’t think at all, Dip; you’re a computer program.”
“It was just an expression.”
“You ready on your end?”
“I am, Rico. Are you ready?”
“More than ready.” In fact, I was more excited than I ever remembered. I guess it was bloodlust. I’d have to keep my emotions neutral, though, if I wanted to survive this.
Do I want to survive?
Doubt. I didn’t usually have that, but now I was questioning myself. It was like having my own Diane living inside my head. I guess that’s what a conscience is. Well, I didn’t have time for it, so I kept focusing on the plan and trudged on towards my destination.
“Rico, Diane did give me a way to try and clear the civilians before the violence takes place. Would you like me to implement it when the time comes?”
“Will it interfere with my plans any?”
“Doubtful. There isn’t much to it.”
“Then do it. Let’s keep this fight between us bad people.”
The convention center was packed with sentients waiting for the great Galactic Senator to speak about the uniting of the world and species to a common cause. I didn’t know how many there were hitmen just waiting for the signal, but it would become quite obvious in a few minutes.
I headed to a back room where Gredler was waiting. He was surrounded by armed guards, Randatti thugs in Galactic Alliance garb from the look of their weapons.
“You’re late.”
“I don’t remember giving a time I would show up.” I casually looked to the door in the read of the room which was Gredler’s escape path. That might be important later. I then took a quiet inventory of the rest of the room. Eight thugs ready for battle and one Senator. “I’d like to get in a few shots myself if that’s okay. Otherwise, I’ll take my money and be off.”
“We can handle this ourselves,” the Senator answered. I could have asked why he asked for me to be here then, but I knew the answer was to kill me. It was the smart thing to do.
“Implementing crowd control,” Dip said in my ear, “I’ll indicate when the main phase is about to start.”
“DO NOT PANIC!” screamed the loudspeakers, “THERE IS A BOMB IN THE BUILDING! PLEASE EVACUATE IN AN ORDERLY MANNER!”
Despite the warnings, there were screams of panic. I could see on a monitor that most were fleeing the main auditorium.
But some stayed.
“What’s happening?” the Senator demanded.
“I’m clearing out the civilians,” I answered.
“That’s losing us our cover!”
I laughed. “It will still be plenty crowded here.” I looked to the monitors and saw there were a lot who stayed… including a number of females (guess who they were with). “The Corloni and the Randatti are waiting for your speech; are you going to give it?”
“I’m getting out of here!” the Senator announced.
“It’s time.” Dip announced to me.
I locked the doors behind me. “Not so fast, Gredler. You have your plans, but I have mine.”
“And what does that mean?” Gredler looked scared, and the thugs looked ready to kill me.
“I’ve never failed to finish a job I’ve been hired for.”
I drew my two blasters and fired on Gredler’s guards, standing my ground the whole time. Only one got off an unaimed shot. It may have been my fastest shooting ever.
Gredler looked stunned… and it was stunning. “I can pay you whatever…”
“Not this time.”
One trigger pull, and one Galactic Senator’s head was removed. I took Niko out of my pocket, and the little spider robot went to confirm the kill.
“Dip, are you getting the information?”
“Have it.”
“Broadcast on all frequencies and get my next statement on the loudspeakers.”
I could hear a commotion outside, and the door rattled as people tried to open it.
I cleared my throat.
“This is Rico. Interested members of the Corloni crime syndicate, you should now all have confirmation that Senator Gredler is dead. Though the day of the speech was changed, I have killed him on that day in what is now a very public manner. As far as I am concerned, I have fulfilled my end. Instead of the usual monetary payment, I’m now going to extract a payment of my own.
“Interested members of the Randatti crime syndicate, I’m going to kill you all, too. Nothing personal, it just seems like it will be fun.
“Once again, this is Rico. If you survive today, best you remember that name.”
Those outside were now firing on the door. I could see in the monitor that everyone in the auditorium had drawn guns and were trying to see who around were allies and who were enemies.
I closed my eyes and held my guns at my side feeling their lovely weight and the caress of their soft grips molded to my hands. I felt complete. To me, this was spiritual. My nirvana was the chaos that awaited.
There was a tremendous crash, almost like a moon had collided into the building. The place shook so much, I about lost my balance. The monitor was still working, and I could see that a giant transport had landed right in the middle of the auditorium, crashing through the ceiling. Islamic terrorists began spilling out of it shouting and firing, surprised to find that everyone left standing was armed and firing back. Dip had done it; he had decoded the information I gave him and found the terrorist plans… and then he “helped” them pull it off by passing them the information on the convention center Gredler gave me.
There was now a huge cacophony of gunfire and shouting outside, and I was already forgotten about. I couldn’t let that stand; this was my game, after all.
I blew open the doors with charged shots from my blasters.
It was time for everyone to die.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 41)

I came to my feet with a strong uppercut. Diane blocked it, but it also knocked her back a bit. I then reached for one of my guns on the nightstand. Just as I pulled it out of the holster, a heel came down on my hand and the gun clattered to the ground. A hook punch then caught me in the side of the head, knocking me down again. I rolled back to my feet, and there I stood facing her and a blaster lying between the two of us.
My face was stinging and my vision was slightly blurred. Diane didn’t have much girth, but she knew how to put it behind a punch. Someone three times her size probably couldn’t have hit me as hard. She was a dangerous girl, all right, but as soon as I got my hand back on my gun that would be it for her.
She pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “I’m not going to let this happen, Rico. The only one who believes he is powerless to stop any of this is you.”
“Then you better give me your all right now,” I snarled back, “because I am going to kill you, Diane Thompson.”
I swung at her, and she ducked and got me in the gut. There was another huge shot of pain through my body. This was where a normal person would panic and fight more frantically, but I do not panic. I stay focused. That’s why I live and others die.
I kept throwing punches at her. She kept slipping in a blow her and there, but I shirked it off and didn’t let her capitalize on it. When it came down to it, I work out everyday and have a Y chromosone. She couldn’t hold up to my strength, and started to panic herself. I finally landed a solid blow to her body, and she awkwardly tried to get in close and do a limb lock. I then got a glancing strike to her head. It stunned her long enough for me to heft her into the air and throw her with all my might against the opposite wall.
She slumped to the ground, a dent above her. I then casually picked up the blaster off the ground and pointed it at her as she moaned and tried to get back to her feet.
“This is how it ends, Diane!” I shouted at her as I walked closer, the barrel pointed at her wide eyes. “No magical Jesus is going to come fly in and save you! Your whole life ends as just another kill for a mass murderer, and it will be but a side note to the slaughter today! I tried to help you see a little reason, but you had to antagonize the psychopath! Any last words?”
She opened her mouth to say something, but I went ahead and pulled the trigger.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 40)

I snatched my gun, pointed it at the intruder, and was halfway through the trigger pull when I remembered where I was.
I put the gun back down and told the stunned silent Diane, “Sorry, I’m not used to waking up with someone else in the room.”
Diane seemed to recover her nerves. She was still fully-clothed and sitting on the blanket I gave her. “Apparently you trained for it, though.”
“Were you talking when I woke up?”
“Diane and I have been communicating all night,” Dip interjected, “She has been trying to convince me that the best way to serve you would be to betray and do what she tells me. She’s probably right, but the idea is too much in violation of my programming.”
Diane smiled weakly. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“I still don’t understand what you expect to do by fighting against me, Diane. The violence is coming, and not even I can stop that now.”
“So why be another lamb for the slaughter?”
I stood up from the bed, grabbing the holster for my two main guns. “Do I look like a lamb?”
She stood up too. “Sometimes.”
I laughed. “What is your deal, Blondie? I was hoping over the night you’d come to embrace the idea of the crime syndicates getting caught in a huge slaughter. I’ve seen your disdain for your people’s own bureaucratic rules in your detective work, and you know all of this is beyond you silly little police force.”
“It’s true, I will skirt the rules when lives are at stake, but our system is all we have to keep us from being some version of your criminal chaos.” She grabbed my arm and stared me in the eyes. “Rico, in weaker moments, I want nothing more than to stand at your side and blow away the scum of the universe, but I know that won’t accomplish anything. As many criminals as we kill, more will rise to take their place. The only way we can defeat the powerful, criminal groups out there is to make an even more powerful group of the honest people – a Galactic Alliance covering as many as possible and freed from corruption. As much as you want this coming slaughter, it is nothing more than one man’s vengeance… vengeance for things you probably can’t even put into words.”
What did she expect from me? Gee, Diane, you’re right! I’m going to work towards non-violence from now on and love Jesus and make macaroni paintings! I pushed Diane away and smiled. “Whatever the reasons for this coming massacre, it’s gonna be a hoot.”
“It can be stopped.”
I walked away from her. “Not by you.”
“Do you really want this, Rico?”
“It will be my Christmas.”
Diane was silent for a moment. “Are you going to take your pills for good luck beforehand?”
She was reaching now. I walked over to my jacket and took out the old bottle of pills. “I don’t think so.”
“What do they do?”
“Not sure; never taken one.”
“Why not?”
“Well, if I run out, I can’t get a refill since I killed who prescribed them.” I laughed. “He was so surprised when I stabbed him, and he was the one who first called me a ‘psychopath.'”
Diane just stared at me. I guess she wanted more information. Fine.
“Some with the syndicate have always been worried about my stability. They made me see a psychiatrist. He prescribed me some drugs that would supposedly make me more susceptible to normal human emotions. My thoughts were what worth was all that if it could be made by a couple of pills.”
“You were scared to take them.”
Too smart for her own good again. “Yes, Diane. If I gave you a pill and said that taking it would change who you are, wouldn’t you be scared? If you destroy your current self, that’s like suicide. And I am not desperate enough for suicide.” I smiled. “I prefer homicide. Anyway, it became apparent that the good doctor was going to force me to get ‘better,’ so I killed him and a few others and got out of there.”
“Weren’t there some repercussion from the Corlonis for that?”
“No, they wisely realized that was their mistake that time. There going to realize they’re handling of me this time was a mistake, too, but I’m going to have to spell it out for them.”
“So why do you keep the pills with you?”
I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. I tossed her the bottle. “There, now they’re yours. Be careful, they may cause nausea… and they’re probably expired. I don’t know if we’ll ever see each other again after this, so consider it a souvenir. Now, I have to get ready for today’s festivities.”
“Does that mean you’ll finally stop prancing around this hotel room naked?”
“I’m wearing boxers.” I then chuckled. “Oh yeah, I forgot you’re a prude.” I flexed my muscles. “So, was I what you expected?”
“I honestly thought you’d have more scars.”
“Well, I’m a quicker learn than most. I’m going to take a shower now; if you want one, you’ll have to take it with me so you can be supervised to make sure you don’t try anything.”
She just scowled at me.
I smiled. “Can’t blame a guy for trying. Diane, you sit back in the corner. Dip, you tell me if she moves so I can come out and kill her.”
“Certainly, Rico.”
I took a quick shower, my guns hanging next to me. A human being can smell quite foul if not cleaned everyday; it probably was some natural defense way back when. Humans might have actually made an interesting subject for a nature show before technology defined their existence.
After the shower, I found Diane was playing twenty-questions with Dip. Apparently, she had calmed down. I set my guns down on the nightstand and began to put my pants on. There was then a sudden movement towards me ending it a strong blow to the side of my head, knocking me to the ground.
“She moved,” Dip said in my ear.
Attacking a man with his pants half on – that was low. I tried to roll out of the way as I fully pulled up my pants, but I caught another blow to my side.
It was now clear I should have killed Diane last night; she was not going to see reason. Well, now it was decided for certain: it was time for us to end our relationship.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 39)

The downtown still had many sentient diversity events going on, most of which were displays of the heavily abridged, whitewashed cultures of different alien species. I was sort of curious what was put out to represent humans, but the ways of sentients always seemed less interesting to me than that of lower creatures. Every time I learned about a new animal there was something surprising and interesting to find out about how it adapted to and survived in its environment. With sentients, the stories were all just variations of the same theme. It’s like with each planet, there is tons of variety… until an intelligent species emerges. Then nature is stuck in a rut, and the species goes through about the same technological and social developments as all the other sentients. Yes, there could be some interesting parts to their development, but these displays left out all the wars and the genocide. Instead, they focused on the cultural quirks they figured other sentients would find cutesy.
“Isn’t this great!” exclaimed a female something or other as she turned to look from the displays to talk to me for some reason. “So many different beings from so many different planets, but here we all come together for a united purpose. It really gives me hope we can set aside are differences to stop the criminal regimes out there. I hear the Galactic Senator is going to speak on that very topic. Did you hear how he moved his speech to tomorrow morning?”
“Yep.”
“The good people out there may feel overwhelmed sometimes,” Diane said with a slight smile to the alien, “but, with all species, I have faith there are more good than evil in each population. We will come together and fight back those who do nothing but spread misery.”
“And you also believe your savior is going to eventually come back and send most everyone to hell, right, Diane?” I chuckled.
Diane frowned at me. The alien looked confused, probably thinking her translator messed up. “Though we all bleed different colors,” I told the alien with faked gravitas, “we all splatter about the same. That’s knowledge I take strength from.”
She looked confused again, but Diane just grabbed me and pulled me along. “I would think someone with no feelings would not take pleasure out of cruelty,” she told me.
“I guess I’m full of surprises. Now, it’s getting late, and, as you may know, there are important festivities tomorrow. Thus, I need some place to sleep.”
“Don’t want to massacre when you’re sleepy?” Diane asked disdainfully.
“Preferably not.”
Diane led me to a hotel not too far from the convention center. Luckily, they had a vacancy, and I got a room for one night for the “Smiths.”
“Rico, so what are the sleeping plans?” I could see a little worry on her face.
“You can sleep on the floor,” I said as I found our room and entered it.
She set down her bag of weapons. “Usually, the gentleman offers the lady the bed.”
“I’m fully aware of the customs to follow if I want to pretend to be a gentleman,” I said as I undressed, “Right now, I need some good sleep. Your time is probably better spent figuring how to best evacuate civilians from the area. I prefer them not in the way, but I don’t have time to worry about that right now.”
“To be clear, am I a hostage?” Diane inquired with annoyance.
I set a little camera device on a table and pointed it at Diane. “Dip, watch Diane for me. Wake me up if she tries anything so I can kill her.”
“Rico, we need to talk,” Diane told me firmly.
I tossed a blanket to her. “No, we don’t. Lot’s of bad people are going to die tomorrow. If you help me, we can keep it just to the bad people. Consider it God’s wrath.”
“Except it’s not God’s wrath,” she shot back, “It’s Rico’s tantrum.”
“I don’t have time for a silly lecture now,” I said as I lay on the bed and pulled out a computer. Dip had the battle plans for me to scan before I sent them on to Gredler, “You are interesting at times, Diane, but, in the end, I have nothing but contempt for your ideals. You have your idiot religion that tries to preach both love and hellfire, and you don’t even follow it. Would Jesus have smacked up those Muslims like you did?”
“I’ve always had trouble matching some things I have to do in my job with my moral beliefs,” Diane said quite seriously, “I’ve even thought of quitting over it. But, the job has to be done, and it would be cowardice to run from it to ease my own mind. I certainly don’t need you lecturing me on right and wrong.”
I laughed. “We all have our justification for our actions to let us sleep at night… except for me, of course. I always sleep like a baby no matter what I do.” I finalized the plans and sent them to Gredler.
“Rico, you think you have no choice to but to travel down the path you have laid out, but nothing binds you to it,” she pleaded with me, “I know there is something more to this you aren’t telling me, but nothing justifies this slaughter. Nothing means you have to throw your life away in this action. Together we can…”
I picked up my gun and pointed it at her. “Yes, there is something I am not telling you… because it’s my business. You were also right when you said before that I don’t seem to be the type to bluff. With that in mind, I really need to get some sleep now. As I get ready in the morning, I can have a pointless philosophical discussion with you. But, if you bother me again before the sun rises, I will kill you.”
She stared back at me, and I kept my finger tense over the trigger.
Come on, say something, Diane. Let’s simplify things now.
She lay down on the floor and turned away from me. I still held the gun on her. I had this feeling I was going to have to eventually kill her anyway, and I might as well save the headache and do it now.
I lay down on the bed. Something to decide in the morning.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 38)

“I don’t trust you, Rico.”
“And I don’t trust you, Gredler, but I just want a little revenge, a little money, and then we won’t ever see each other again. Anyway, I have some important information for you: Corloni aren’t waiting; they’re coming for you tomorrow.”
“Are you certain of this?”
“Yes. We were just assaulted by the Corloni girl scout troop, but are okay. Corloni should be right now moving enough people that you should be able to detect it.”
“So, Rico, what do you recommend?”
“Move your speech to tomorrow morning; you have enough pull to do it. Just say something came up so you can’t stay the extra day.”
“Why would I do that?”
“So we can choose the battlefield. It’s better in the city so we can hide more Randatti who I assume have already come as backup. Just send my associate Dip all the information you have on the convention center and I’ll have the battle plan back for you soon. I know exactly how they’ll come at you and how to fight back in kind. You’ll have plenty of time to review my plan before the fight begins.”
“I am seeing less and less reason to be here at all.”
“Running is going to make the Randatti look weak, and they aren’t going to like that. You do what I tell you, and we will hit the Corloni hard and you’ll get a lot of the credit. As for yourself, have an escape plan, but know that I’m going to be standing between you and them… and you know how dangerous I am.”
There was some silence. “All right, Rico. I’ll send you the information you need and announce the change of time of my speech. Let’s see if you can deliver.”
“I never fail.” The day I fail is the day I die.
He hung up and I confirmed that Dip was getting the information on the convention center. “By the way,” Dip told me, “I’ve noticed some glitches in defenses at the capital city. As you mentioned to Gredler, I suspect this has to do with movement of the syndicates’ people – both Corloni and Randatti. This change in city defenses could mean a better chance of direct extraction.”
“Keep an eye on it… and let me review the battle plans before you send them to Gredler.” I looked to Diane. She appeared angry about something (well, she had plenty to be angry about, but so far seemed to take most of it in stride).
“If you kept the attack at the villa, it would be away from civilians,” she told me.
“My plans revolve around the convention center; civilians are your concern, not mine.”
“And how am I a supposed to get everyone out of the city before you turn it into a war zone tomorrow morning?”
“You’re smart; you’ll figure it out.” She just scowled. I was wondering if I had to worry about a mutiny. “Do you know why you’re helping me right now, Diane?”
“Please tell me, Rico,” she answered with annoyance.
“Because deep down you know your one world police force is no match for what’s coming, and at least sticking with me you feel you might have some control over the events. What I wonder is if you have it in your pretty little head that you might somehow stop this slaughter entirely. If you can’t give up that fantasy by tomorrow morning, you’re not going to be able to save any lives…” It was time for my well-rehearsed threatening face. “Not even your own.”
She just kept scowling, but turned her attention to driving the car. Soon I could see where she was taking me: right into downtown near where the sentient diversity conference was being held. The area was pretty at night with all the lights. I decided to enjoy the view, as it was the last night it would be there.
NEXT

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.
NEXT

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.”
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 35)

“The syndicate has never given me much guidelines on civilian deaths,” I explained to Diane. She seemed to be concentrating on driving, but I could tell she was listening. “As I explained, gauging one thing as a horrible slaughter versus just a slaughter is not my strong point. As I’ve understood things, they just assigned me to jobs where they want people scared, and some collateral damage helps with that.
“I was assigned to kill some two-bit thug pretending to be crime boss on Antero – well, he was big enough to pretty much run that planet, but that’s still small potatoes to the syndicate. The guy was smart enough to know he was gaining our ire, so he had his defenses. I guess he figured if he made himself a hard enough target, the syndicate would decide he would take too many resources to squash and ignore him. What the guy didn’t know is the syndicate had me, and I had taken on much tougher assignments by myself before.
“I only spent about a day scoping out the area. The hit is often the easy part; it’s the getting away alive that can be trouble. I find well placed explosive can help as they are both good for killing and creating fear and confusion in my adversaries. I had many explosives planted and a number of different escape roots planned before I heard about some local festival that would be taking place in the area the next day. I figured that would only give me more cover as I could disappear into the crowd.
“The hit was simple; no one ever seems prepared for one man running in shooting. My mark lying dead in his office, I shot my way back out of the building and ran into the now panicked crowd of people in the streets. I figured the bodyguards wouldn’t spend too much time pursuing me; I mean, their guy was already dead. Still, they went after me, firing into the crowd as I fired back. Sentients were dropping left and right in the crossfire, and then the police for that planet – corrupt thugs themselves – started firing on me.
“I was pinned, and, since those shooting at many didn’t care about the civilians, I didn’t see why I should. So I set off all the explosives. About the whole area blew up. A little dizzy, I headed in what I thought to be the general direction of an escape point while firing at anything I saw move through the smoke – I didn’t have time to figure out who were threats. Dip picked me up in my ship, and, a shower later, I was back to normal.
“I don’t know how many died on Antero; the number held no interest to me. It did seem like an especially large number of civilians – mostly families, too – but I figured if it was a problem, the syndicate would tell me. They didn’t say anything; just paid me for the job. It was not too long after that my handler got switched to the current idiot I get assignments through; maybe I should have suspected something then.”
There was another surge of anger, but I pushed it back. “They just needed to explain things to me, that’s all. Like I said, I just don’t understand when I cross the line. I mean, I killed lots of people that day – most of whom didn’t deserve it by the standards usually given. But, I hardly killed anyone at all if you compare it to how many people died that day in the entire universe from whatever cause might find him or her. Most people just don’t have that large of a perspective.” I looked to Diane and smiled. She appeared to have her full concentration on driving, but I could see her shudder slightly. “Except maybe God.”
Diane still didn’t look to me. “So, you slaughtered families and that doesn’t affect you in the least.”
I chuckled. “Guilt is just a word to me.”
She smiled. “As I said, you’re bad at the truth, but you are a very good liar, obviously. I wonder how many of your own lies have you fallen for.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re smart; you figure it out,” she replied as she began to land the vehicle. With all that was going on, I really didn’t need someone trying to make me doubt myself. Well, the dumping her in a ditch option was always on the table — as long as I didn’t let her get me in a wrist lock again.
It was starting to get dark when we entered her apartment building. She had a ground floor apartment; my guess is she sought one out specifically. Ease of access, plus gives you a safe direction to point a gun when handling (for me, a safe direction is any direction not towards me).
“You mentioned God before,” Diane said as we entered her apartment, “Do you believe in Him?”
Her apartment was sparsely decorated. There was a picture of a man and woman on one wall – her parents, I assume – and, a few less prominent pictures – other relatives, as I recognized some from Bible study. There was also one of those wooden t’s on one wall. That always seemed an odd way to kill someone, and I never quite understood the celebration of the execution device of your Savior. I mean, I know it’s supposed to represent His sacrifice, but why isn’t it considered more gruesome?
“Rico?”
Oh yeah, her question. “No, I don’t believe in God. Can’t believe in something I can’t observe; I just don’t understand the human condition of faith – of just blindly accepting some assertions as truth.”
She stared at me a moment before finally uttering, “Bull.” She then opened a panel on the wall where she took out some weaponry.
“Would you like to expand upon that?”
“Everyone worships a god,” Diane said as she checked a pistol, “whether he or she thinks she does or not. You, Rico, must have some belief system… some faith… that motivates you to do what you do. You say you want to kill as many Randatti and Corloni as possible. Why?”
“Well, Corloni betrayed me… and… uh… I’ve just always killed the Randatti.”
“You could run.”
“And do what? I’m a killer; that’s what I am good at. It’s what I do.”
“Says who?”
I laughed. “You want me to run, Diane?”
“No.” She zipped up her bag of guns and handed it to me. “You have sins to atone for. I think you know that.”
“I can’t be saved, Diane; I’m unrepentant,” I told her quite seriously, “I don’t feel guilt. I would think a rational person would like the idea I’m at least intent on wiping out bad people as perhaps my last action in this universe.”
“Who says I’m rational.” She pointed to the cross. “You feel wronged, so you want justice, Rico. Your idea of mass slaughter is hollow, though.”
I laughed again. “You have a better idea? These people could destroy this planet if they wanted. You want me to throw Bibles at them and hope they’ll see the light?”
She looked me in the eyes. “What’s your plan for after this?”
“I’ll be dead… or I won’t. If I’m not dead, the Corloni and the Randatti will hunt me… or I could hunt them. Inevitably, I’ll be dead at some point, and I guess that wraps things up.”
“Do you fear death?”
“I guess I should if you’re right about what awaits me, but, no. I don’t. Faced it too many times, already.”
She kept her gaze on me. “Do you want to die?”
“Uh… living seems to suit me just fine.” I smiled. “Why fix what ain’t broke. Now, don’t you have some packing to do?”
She finally turned away. “I need to grab some clothes.”
“You can pick out the outfits, and I’ll pick out your underwear.” She stared at me with shock. “I’m just joking,” I explained to her, “Sometime sentients use humor to defuse tense situations.”
She laughed as she turned and headed for her bedroom. “So what was up with those pills I saw you drop once?” She asked as she disappeared into her room.
My pills – I still had them in a pocket. I was thinking of what to tell her about those, but she came out of her bedroom right away, ushered forward by someone who had an arm around Diane’s neck and a gun to her head.
Well, sucks to be her.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 34)

“I’m serious!” I shouted at her, letting some indignation seep into my voice.
She calmed her laughing a bit. “I know you are, Rico. I’ve seen bad liars before, but you’re the first bad truth-teller I’ve met… it’s almost an effort for you.” She then just laughed some more, and I tried to give her a look of impatience. When she saw it, she laughed even harder. “So about all your interactions with me since we’ve met have been part of an act of pretending to be human… like that expression you just made.” She continued laughing.
“Yes.” I didn’t have to force the impatience anymore. “I’m perhaps the best killer in the known universe.”
She laughed even harder. I felt like stabbing her. “And yet, you’ve come to lowly Detective Thompson for help,” she said between guffaws, “This is just the sort of thing that would happen to me.”
“What makes you think I want your help?!”
“Well, you’re spilling your guts to me and, even though you’re an admitted psychotic killer, you’ve yet to make a very concerted effort to kill me.” She smiled smugly.
I decided it was time to wipe the smile off her face. I started to throw a right hook, but she grabbed my other hand and put it into a wrist lock, the pain keeping from moving my right hand at her. I started to reach for my gun, but she put more pressure on my wrist as she drew her own gun and pressed it against my temple.
Like that, I was deadmeat. She goaded me into making an emotional attack, making me go for hand-to-hand where I’m weaker. “You’re smarter than I thought.”
“But dumber than I thought to get myself in this very compromising position you’ve led me into, Rico.” She pushed her gun harder against my head while continuing to twist my wrist. “Something always seemed wrong with you, but I had no idea when I saw you for who you really are, you’re just a confused little kid.”
“I think you’re underestimating me now,” I growled.
“Actually, most little kids still know right from wrong.” She chuckled. “Hitting a woman is wrong, by the way.”
“Considers the woman.”
She laughed again. I stared at her neck wanting to get my hands around it, but realized I needed to crush those emotions before I made this worse. “I guess you laugh as part of controlling your fear.”
That really set her off. She was in tears, twisting my wrist harder the more she laughed. “Now I’m being psychoanalyzed by the psychopath. You’re probably right, though. Anyway, I’ll help you, Rico; I guess it’s my Christian duty. What’s your plan with me, anyway?”
“I’m going to make a huge confrontation between the Corloni and Randatti and get as many killed as possible. I wanted you to help me set things up in exchange for giving you enough information to keep civilians and police from getting caught in the mix.”
“Sorta sounds like a police matter to me.”
“There will be too many here for you people to handle; you’ll all just get slaughtered. It’s much bigger than you’re little governments now.”
She seemed to consider this seriously for a while. “So, how long have you been a hitman for the Corloni?”
“Uh… since about when I was old enough to hold a gun. It’s what I’m good at.”
“How many people have you killed?”
“Sentients? Uh… thousands, I guess.”
“Thousands,” she repeated, no emotion on her face. “If you’re such a great killer, why do they want you dead?”
“Not sure. The message Dip is holding for me may answer that.”
“And why so many hitman are going to come just to kill Gredler?”
“I want the Randatti to think it’s for Gredler; they’ll be coming for me. Like I said, I’m the best killer in the known universe, and Corloni knows how dangerous I am far better than Randatti.”
Yes, that statement was a bit ironic when a blond woman had me at her mercy, a single finger twitch between me and death.
Diane seemed to be thinking a lot right now. I was going to stop pretending I knew what was going on in her head. “I need to think about this; you keep up whatever your plan was when Gredler gets back to you. First, we’re going to my apartment where you’re going to help me get some stuff. I don’t think it will be safe for me there since you’ve involved me in all this.” She let go of my wrist and put her gun away, her expression stoic. “Why don’t you talk to Dip and get your message.”
She took control of the vehicle while I rubbed my wrist and hailed Dip. “What’s the message?”
“Is Diane still alive?”
“I killed her and dumped her in a ditch as originally planned,” I said irately, “What’s the message?”
“It was sent as an e-mail from a so far untraceable source.”
“And it says…”
“The subject is ‘Why.'”
“And…”
“The content is ‘Antero.'”
It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Still, it hit me hard to know what had caused my little world to collapse. They just had to give me more guidance, and this never would have happened.
“Any idea who sent the message?”
I ignored Dip. Diane was now looking at me, and I think there was concern on her face. “You might as well tell me,” she said.
She’d probably wish she pulled the trigger when she had the chance if I did.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 33)

For situations like this, I kinda wished I smoked so I could light a cigarette to look extra casual when a gun is on me. I don’t smoke, though; even with the regulations that make cigarettes full of nutrients and causes to them to clean and strengthen your lungs, I just never bought on to the idea of setting something on fire and putting it in my mouth.
I looked past the gun pointed at me to see a tear running down Diane’s face. I really hoped this wasn’t going to be some dumb emotional woman thing; still, maybe there was a chance she’d pull the trigger. If she did, it was me or her – and guess who I’d choose.
“You almost got me killed,” Diane spat at me, “you made me kill people, you got me aiding a massacre, and now I am a member of the crime family that killed my parents, but what upsets me most is I actually started to trust you. I’m not a naive person, I guess I just…” She seemed to have gotten stuck on how to finish that sentence.
“This may not be the best place to discuss this,” I suggested.
“I want answers now!” she shouted, her gun keeping a solid lock on my face.
“Well, for starters, about everything I told the Senator was true. Also…”
“I have received a message for you,” Dip said in my ear.
“Can it wait?” I answered back, “Diane is demanding my attention now.”
“Does she have a gun on you?” He had predicted that would happen.
“Dip, I’ll talk to you later.” I looked to Diane, trying to meet her eyes past the gun she had on me. “Anyway, I would expect Morrigan to be gone when we get back to HQ. The way I set things up, it will look like she disappeared because of embarrassment. Now the plan is…”
“I’m not taking you back to police headquarters.”
“Fine. Why don’t we get a bite to eat and continue this discussion?”
“I’m not hungry.”
I looked down trying to think and noticed the burnt mark on my side. It looked like the bolt that grazed me only damaged my jacket. “You could help me shop for a new jacket.”
“Are you trying to be funny, Rico?” Her face was stern again. No more tears.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m not actually very good with people,” I said with a weak smile, “I don’t think you want to kill me, though, and you probably figured I don’t want to kill you or I would have done so already.”
Diane put away her gun. “Get in the car, Rico.”
I got in the passenger side and she took it into the air. She put it onto autopilot and I figured we were probably just flying a circle over the city. We were both quiet for a while; I wasn’t sure where to start explaining things, and she probably wasn’t sure what questions to ask first.
“Maybe I should start by explaining a fundamental fact about me,” I suggested.
“I’m not sure if I’ll care, but go ahead.”
She was angry. Frightened, but much more angry. I wasn’t sure how to deal with that; like most things now, it was far beyond me. “Like I said, I’m not so good with people. That’s because of a handicap I have.”
“A handicap?” Diane said incredulously.
“Well… uh… have you ever heard of Sigmund Freud… a psychologist from way way back on our homeworld?”
“No.”
“Anyway, he had a lot of theories on human behavior – some of them kinda ignored now – but I liked the way he characterized the human psyche which I think applies well to other sentients. He divided it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego.
“The id is someone’s base desires – like hunger, anger, the sex drive, etc. When you start out as a baby, all you have is your id. If you’re hungry and see someone with a sandwich, the id would be a desire to just grab the sandwich and eat it.
“The ego is basically the human consciousness and how you interact with the world. It restrains the id by understanding how the world works and develops quickly as a human grows and learns. The ego would say you couldn’t just take a sandwich and eat it because it’s someone else’s and he would get angry.
“The superego is your morality and the last part of the psyche to develop. It would tell you not to take someone’s sandwich because that is wrong… or, if you did steal someone sandwich, it’s what would make you feel guilty afterwards.
“So, what my deal is that I have a very diminished id, but I completely lack a superego. What allows me to interact somewhat with normal society is I’m quite intelligent and have developed a very advanced ego to compensate for my lack of understanding of moral codes that come natural to others.”
I was silent a moment to let that all sink in. She looked at me with no discernable emotion on her face. I probably showed no emotion either. I had no idea which one was appropriate for this occasion anyway.
She then started laughing hysterically.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 32)

“Though I am expecting a raise over Corloni, I think you’ll see my rates are quite reasonable.” I heard more guns firing outside. No woman screaming in pain at least. “Now, could you tell everyone to stop shooting so we can have a civilized discussion?”
Gredler took a radio off one of his dead bodyguards. “Everyone, stop shooting and put away your weapons!”
There was quiet. I opened the door a crack and yelled, “Tommy, holster your gun and get over here!”
The Senator had regained enough of his composure to stand up straight. “If you wanted us to hire you, you didn’t need to shoot your way in!”
“I was going to hand my resume at the door, but your idiots fired first. Anyway, I think it made a good demonstration that your security isn’t nearly up to par.” Diane now came in the room, gun still drawn, Zippy floating by her side, and a face full of confusion (the one emotion that seemed to have won out over all the others probably raging inside her). “Tommy, put the gun away; the shooting is over. Right, Senator?”
“I would say so.”
Diane holstered her gun and went to a neutral expression. I could tell she was ready to lash out in some fashion but was smart enough to just play it cool for now. It looked liked she might live through this yet.
“By the way, this is my associate Tommy.”
“I thought you worked alone,” Gredler replied.
“Well, there is alone and then there’s alone.”
He nodded knowingly to that meaningless statement.
A couple suited Randatti thugs cautiously made their way in the room, looking both confused and angry. I kept my arms crossed and didn’t look to them. Diane seemed to be trying to act casual.
“Could you get the bodies out of here?” Gredler demanded angrily, “I’m negotiating some competent protection!”
“These people killed our associates and…” one guard shouted, but as he put a hand on Diane, Zippy shot him and he fell unconscious to the ground.
“Yes, we shot our way in here past all you nitwits,” Diane replied sharply to those still standing, “So show us a little respect!”
She was a lovely woman, no doubt about it. I was glad I decided to take our relationship to the next level.
The bodyguards – dead, unconscious, and alive – were soon out of the room. Senator Gredler then took a seat at his desk, and I took one in front of it and Diane beside me. The Senator insisted on talking to us alone, probably to show he didn’t fear us (though he reeked of fear).
“I know what you’re thinking,” I started (I didn’t know what Diane was thinking, though), “‘How can I trust this guy if he’s so ready to betray the Corloni?’ Well, they betrayed me first. I was hired to kill you – as you probably suspected – but then there was the leak. I’m no fool; the Corloni leaked the hit themselves to make sure they could start a war… and also make sure I didn’t come out of this alive.”
“They want you dead as well?”
“I’m very loyal, but I guess some of my methods are questionable. Rather than confront me on it, they lined me up for a suicide mission thinking I was too stupid to see it coming. If the Randatti treat me better, I can ensure them my loyalty and a chance to smash the Corloni once and for all.”
“That’s a bold claim; I can certainly get you asylum for information on the Corloni’s plans.”
“Asylum doesn’t suit us.”
“Not much for hiding,” Diane added. Guess she felt like she should say something. She must be exploding inside seeing Senator Gredler nearly admitting his ties to organized crime in front of her.
“Anyway, you should know that there are other Corloni killers here already. They’re led by a woman going by the name Morrigan Dawson and posing as a fed working on finding the assassin after you. Her job is twofold: to make sure I die anyway if I somehow succeeded in the hit on you, and to make sure you die if I didn’t get far enough in the hit to off you. Her people are all female, so the backup would most likely be some new female relation you’ve made – I assume a Corridian.”
I could tell from his expression someone came to mind.
“I’m sure word of my changing sides will get out quick, so she’s likely to disappear soon – though, if you’re quick, you can disappear her yourself if you’re the vengeful type. Anyway, the Corloni will now be coming at you with a lot more than a couple girls.”
“This stupid diversity speech is becoming way more trouble than it’s worth!” Gredler shouted.
“The Randatti know their survival is tied to having a strong presence in the Galactic Alliance, and that means a strong Senator on their side,” “Tommy” said, “The stronger the Corloni come at you, the stronger you’ll be politically when you survive.”
Good ‘ole adaptable Diane. “And now we can set a trap to really weaken Corloni in this.”
“Sounds good, Rico…”
“Just Rico.”
“Well, Rico, I will relay this to my associates… and handle some other things. You’re making a strong play here.” Heh. He was assuring me of my survival.
“I’ll give you how to contact me; we have some planning ourselves to handle,” I answered, “What I need from you is all the information you have on the convention center where you are speaking. Send it to my other associate, Dip, and I’ll have a slaughter set up for you. You shake hands with me, and you have a powerful ally.”
“That I see,” Gredler said. He then held out his hand, and we shook.
I stood up, and Diane followed my lead. “Sorry for the extravagant entrance. I’ll let you clean up now. I’d offer to stay and give you some personal protection for the time being, but we have some loose ends to handle.”
“I can offer you lodging here.”
“Thanks, but not my style. Let’s keep in touch.”
Diane and I headed out of the villa, the remaining guards keeping a close eye on us. When we were outside, I told Diane, “Put Zippy away.”
She complied.
“You handled yourself expertly in there, by the way.”
She grunted in response.
“Out of curiosity, how many kills?”
She said nothing.
When we were further away still, I told her, “You said you wanted a chance to take down both criminal syndicates, now I’m going to give it to you. Hopefully the Randatti take the bait.”
“Super duper,” she replied dryly, not looking at me.
We made it back to her car, and I tossed her radio to her. “Didn’t want you calling for backup and ruining everything.”
She took it, put it away, and then the inevitable happened. She took a quick step away from me while drawing her gun and pointing it at my head.
It was time for us to talk.
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 31)

I gave it 10 to 1 odds that the Randatti both knew about me from previous hits and figured I was a good candidate for the lone killer hired to take out Gredler. Thus, they would make sure their people knew what I looked like. Dip had some different odds, but I prefer my own analyzation for such things.
There were plans if I wasn’t recognized, but they were moot now.
Neither of the two thugs had finished fully drawing their guns before I drew both of mine and put a large hole in each of them.
“WHAT ARE YOU…”
“Three things,” I interrupted Diane, speaking quickly but calmly as I charged my blasters. “First, take note that they started to draw first. Second, if you have Zippy with you, I’d have him watch the door when we enter. Finally, there should be a lot of Randatti thugs shooting at us, and I suggest shooting back.”
What Diane did next was the wildcard. She could remain confused and get her pretty little head blown off, but my guess was she’d adapt. Dip didn’t have enough information to put odds on that one.
Hopefully she wouldn’t spend too much time trying to find her radio to call for backup since I already swiped it.
The charged blasts destroyed the front doors, and I ran in shooting, firing my guns before I even identified targets. There were at least a dozen low rent thugs in expensive suits waiting in the main room, and now they were scattering for cover while firing in panic. I took a lot down quickly but ducked by some cover as I moved for the stairway. A couple more shots and there was a moment of calm.
“Watch my back! I’m going upstairs to have a chat with the Senator!” I called to Diane. Her little robot was flying near the door to catch any exterior guards trying to run inside. She had her blaster out and seemed to be in battle mode, scanning the room ready to fire on any who came at us.
Good girl; save questions for later. I smiled as I headed up the stairs and heard Diane following behind me. If she survived this, it would really increase the fun factor of the next part.
More guards appeared ahead of me and fell dead before they could comprehend what they saw. I heard Diane’s blaster (different sound from the others) and the thuds of two bodies in the distance. That’s my killer.
If my guess was right about where the Senator would be hiding now, it was going to be a deadly run down a hallway. “Stay here and watch that no one comes up behind me. I’ll call you when I need you.”
“Rico! What…” she started to say, but stopped to fire at another thug across the room. I charged into hallway ahead of me, firing like a madman. I ripped up a lot of the walls and a few bodyguards in the effort. As I passed a few doorways, I switched to walking down the hall sideways, one gun pointed forward and one rearward, giving my peripheral a good workout as I tried to watch both directions. This slowed me down, but it wasn’t my nature to let someone else watch my back (namely Diane who I would guess was ready to have some huge emotional outburst soon as her life wasn’t being immediately threatened). A few more kills, a few more bodies to hop over, and I was to Senator Gredler’s room.
A swift kick sent the door flying open, and I fired upon the five bodyguards inside. I was as quick as possible, but they were waiting for me. They fell, but there was also smoke coming from my side. I think my jacket was just singed, but I wasn’t about to pause and check. I kicked the door closed and found Gredler huddled under a desk.
Corridians, like most alien species, look about all the same to me, but he had that arrogant air of a politician about him, even as he cowered below me. He knew there were more bodyguards outside about to rush me, but he also knew he was just one trigger pull away from dead.
“You’re making a mistake!” he yelled, “I’ll pay you dou… triple what the Corloni were paying you! You can name your price!”
I smiled, holstered my guns, and then attached a transmitter to the computer on Gredler’s desk. “Dip, send him my rates.”
NEXT

BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 30)

“That’s a lovely scent you’re wearing, Diane,” I said as I peered through my binoculars at the guards in front of the villa Senator Gredler was staying at.
She was looking at the same with her binoculars. “Same as all the other times you’ve been around me.”
“No, there’s something different. I smell…” I paused to sniff a bit. “Gun oil… gun powder.”
“Was at the range this morning and I have a gun powder based gun as backup. Cleaned it before I came to pick you up.”
“Revolver?”
“Yes.”
“Good choice.” The jacket was hanging off one of the guards such that I could see the handle of the weapon he was carrying. “See that. See the gun on that one guard?”
“I see just a little of it. What about it, Rico?”
“You can tell from the marking that it’s a FR-76 Blaster. Quality firearms made on Sindel 7… a planet pretty much owned by the Randatti. Almost no one other than Randatti thugs can get their hands on such weaponry.”
She set down her binoculars. “When you’d become the expert on the criminal syndicates?”
I put away my binoculars and smiled at her. “Been doing some reading. Those are Randatti thugs; no doubt about it.”
“I said Gredler was dirty… but how does this help us catch the assassin?”
“It’s just all parts of the puzzle.” I looked around at the little forest area we were hiding in. The sun peeked through the green leaves. “It’s really a nice day, isn’t it?”
“Rico, do you know how much trouble I could get in if Morrigan tells the Chief what I’m up to? And I have this crazy feeling she might be a bit vengeful right now. I’m not supposed to get anywhere near Senator Gredler… and this might constitute illegal surveillance.”
“Cold feet?”
“No. I’m saying I need a better reason for doing this. I’m not going to be able to arrest the Senator because you think you saw a suspicious gun. As for the killer, do you really expect we’ll just run into him out here?”
“Possibly, but I don’t feel like waiting.” I stood up. “Let’s go talk to those guards.”
I started heading back down to the road to walk towards the entrance to the villa, Diane grudgingly following. “And what’s the point of this?”
I chuckled. “I think it’s what the killer would do.”
“They’re not going to want to talk to us… and I’m not going to risk my badge right now to force it.”
“I think they’ll want to talk to us.”
The guards eyed us very threateningly as we approached. One was human, the other was some enormous alien with a face like a bulldog.
“I’m Detective Thompson,” Diane said as she showed her badge, “and…”
The guards ignored her and stared at me. “YOU!” the large one shouted, beginning to reach for his gun.
I smiled, baring all my teeth. “Me.”
NEXT