Superego (15 page)

I got up casually, waited for the stop, and then exited, trying not to look at the alien as I left. He didn't move, and soon the doors of the tram closed behind me and the vehicle moved off, proving my fear to be baseless. The inane chatter had followed me, though. The two women had left the tram after me and were now talking about shoes. The station was fairly empty, and I briefly wondered whether I could get away with silencing them permanently. It was an indulgent and reckless thought. It was also a failure on my part to let such a minor annoyance get to me. After all the work I had done learning to live in normal society, there was no reason idiotic chatter not directed at me should have bothered me at all.

And then a thought struck me.

I turned around and faced the two women. They looked like trendy twenty-somethings wearing the latest fashion and hairstyles. One was a brunette wearing a top designed to emphasize her cleavage, and the other wore similarly tight clothes with purple streaks in her black hair. I would have called them attractive if I didn't already hate them.

“Hi,” I said, putting on my most charming and least threatening persona. They reacted a bit apprehensively, as one might expect from two women approached by a strange male late in the evening. “I was just wondering if—”

That's when I attempted to sucker punch the brunette—and also when everything went horribly wrong.

I guess I should explain why I tried to assault the two women. Like I said, I was having trouble ignoring their inane chatter. I chalked that up to being more irritable than usual on account of my fear and anxiety. What I hadn't realized was that the chatter was the source of my fear and anxiety. I couldn't just ignore it for the same reason that one can't help but be alert to anything discordant or unusual. Now, I'm used to faking normal behavior, but I'd never done that with a partner, which was why I hadn't picked up on it right away. But I've heard enough people chatting about inane subjects, and their conversation was slightly different—like a song being sung a little off-key. I didn't consciously pick up on it, but my subconscious did.

So score one for the irrational part of my brain.

I only came to that realization when I got off the tram, and my ensuing response seemed pretty obvious. I didn't know if they planned to kill me or just follow me, so I was going to quickly disable them and get some answers.

This is where my subconscious lost the point it had just earned. I looked at two young women, who were as physically intimidating as your average college student, and my subconscious dismissed them as a threat. So instead of doing this the smart way, I had gone for the direct approach: punch one really hard in the face and then deal similarly with the other.

It was not even close to that easy. The brunette was quick enough that my blow merely glanced across her head, and she almost as quickly came back with an elbow to my ribs as she drew a gun. I managed to get a hand on the gun just as I saw the purpled-haired girl also draw out of the corner of my eye. I forced the brunette to shoot her partner, but she kept a firm grip on the gun as her free hand drew a knife that was already coming down on my arm. Somewhat panicked, I was able to turn the gun on her and shoot her through the torso just as the knife ripped into my forearm.

I'd made a stupid miscalculation that could have easily gotten me killed. Now there was a decent-sized cut in my arm; two bodies for the police to find; and I had no answers and even more questions. I'd screwed up big-time, basically because I was sexist. And this wasn't the first time I'd almost died by underestimating a woman, which made my situation that much more pathetic.

“What happened?” Dip asked. “I noticed your heart rate had a huge spike, though now it's finally back down to its normal level.”

I picked up the second gun. “I've rearmed myself. Now on to our next stop.”

Old human expression: No use crying over spilled milk.

CHAPTER 17

“Might I once again suggest fleeing?”

“But I'm so comfortable right now.” It was a very comfy chair, and the silence and darkness surrounding me were quite relaxing.

“Obviously, someone knows who you are and wants to kill you,” Dip said. “It seems dangerous to continue.”

I chuckled. “Well, I wouldn't want to do a job that was dangerous! Anyway, I can't be certain they planned to kill me. I sort of forced their hand.”

“Which brings me to your next issue. You left two dead bodies and your blood at the scene.”

There are a lot of good techniques for cleaning up crime scenes—or so I've heard. Usually, I want people to know I was the one behind a killing. “They were professionals, and I doubt they were alone.”

“And you say this as something that helps you?”

I flexed my right arm a bit. The medi-gel had stopped the bleeding and the pain, but I had lost a little mobility. “It means their friends should be perfectly capable of making the whole thing disappear. We professional criminals like to handle these things ourselves and not involve the law.”

“So you will continue on as if nothing happened?”

“I will continue with the job until more information presents itself. No use panicking and making rash decisions until we're sure what's going on. Who knows, they might have been the allies I was supposed to get in contact with and this was all just a cute misunderstanding. I could be laughing about this by tomorrow.”

“I am having trouble finding the humor in that, using my standard humor algorithms—wait, I think I get it. The statement itself was humor, as you were pretending that double homicide is comparable to an awkward social mishap.”

“It's not funny when you explain it, Dip. Just keep listening to the police, and tell me if they find the bodies.”

I sat a while longer in the dark. It was very quiet. The modern apartment had almost perfect sound dampers in the walls. That's always useful.

The lights came on and disturbed my peace. I leapt from the chair and grabbed Nakhai and broke his arm at the elbow before he could even comprehend what was going on. I slammed him into a bookshelf and then the numerous pieces of ancient-looking art he had in his living room. Beating up old men isn't something I have lots of firsthand experience with, but I thought I did a decent job of rattling him without too much risk of inadvertently killing him. After I used him to break the coffee table, I threw my full body weight into a blow to the side of his knee, shattering it and making sure he wouldn't try to get back up.

“Sorry for the rough introduction,” I said, keeping my voice quite calm, “but I wanted to make it clear that I am a very violent person who is going to kill you.”

Nakhai stared at me through tears of pain, trying to look defiant. “I am ready to die.”

“But
I
am not ready for you to die.” I stood over him, keeping my expression blank. “You will get to be a martyr, and you will get your reward from your god, but I first need some information from you.”

“I don't know anything.”

“I'm no fool. You know things, and we will not be done until you tell me these things.”

He began inching away from me on the ground in a rather pathetic manner. “Who are you?”

It was nice being alone with someone I was going to kill; I could really be myself. I knelt down to appear less imposing. “Let's say I'm a neutral party. I'm not part of the godless government you oppose. I am no friend of the Galactic Alliance, and, given time, I will cause grave harm to it myself—so much harm that your own people will cheer what I do as God's retribution. Unfortunately, your people and your terrorist attacks are in my way right now, and thus I have to end them.” I didn't actually know if I was here to do damage to the Galactic Alliance or not—it was often a tool of the syndicates as much as it was something that opposed them—but convincing Nakhai to open up to me was, of course, more of a consideration than the truth.

He stared at me for a moment, probably trying to figure me out.
Good luck with that
. “What is willed by Allah, no man can stop.”

“But perhaps I
am
the will of God.” I stood up, looming tall over him. “In fact, it's probably best to think of me not as a good man or an evil man but instead as more of a natural disaster—like an earthquake—just destroying everything around it. Sure, I'm going to kill you and some of your allies, but my destruction of your enemies will be much greater. Now, your people will be martyred and receive their reward. You will be martyred and have your reward. And I assure you that one day soon, at my hands, the evil empire of the Alliance will be gravely injured. Now, how hard do you want to fight against such a beneficial outcome?”

Nakhai's hardened expression of defiance was slowly fading. “I will not betray the faithful.”

“I know you don't want to. I'm sure you're as dedicated to your god as any mere mortal could be. But you are a man, and men always break. Always. Your devotion to your cause will determine how long you can hold out but not whether you will break. If there is a God, He surely knows this and will not hold it against you. What's the expression? ‘The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.' I forget what religion that's from, but I am sure the concept is universal.” I put my foot on his chest for emphasis. “Here is what is going to happen. I am going to hurt you. I am going to inflict pain and injury like you have never experienced before and can't even imagine. Eventually, motivated by the extreme pain, you will begin to accept my logic on these matters. You will know that you can both tell me about the Calabrai and go to your god as a martyr. What I want you to do now is take a moment to think—really think hard—and figure out exactly how much pain and suffering you have to endure to feel you've fulfilled your duties to your god.”

I was silent for a few seconds, and he just stared up at me wordlessly, his resolve fading into a pathetic look of desperation.

I took my foot off his chest. “That should have been enough time.” I smiled deeply, and I could see all hope leave him as he looked at my expression. “Let's get started.”

CHAPTER 18

I slept in my hotel room. Yes, I know—it was a bit daring since a rival syndicate might have been out to kill me. But I had learned the building and the area around it pretty well, so it was a battlefield of my choosing. Plus I don't like running or hiding. I really, really don't like that. Perhaps that's unreasonable, but it seems every man needs to have a few unquestioned principles.

I only got a couple hours' sleep and awoke hoping to not have anything in particular to do that day. “Dip, did you find Nakhai's information useful?” Nakhai hadn't made me stay up that late before telling me what I wanted to know and pointing me to his hidden files.

“Yes, there was enough data in his files for me to identify and locate members of the three additional cells. I anonymously relayed the information to the police as you requested, and they are closing in on the Calabrai as we speak.”

“So that's over, then?”

“I would think so. The files contained evidence of an additional plan to crash a cruise ship into the Nar Valdum capitol building during the conference, but they apparently encountered the same problem I have with Nar Valdum's air security.”

“Sounds like I'm done being the terrorist-fighting hero. This whole affair has been very much beneath me. Have you heard anything about the two ladies I danced with?”

“Not yet.”

I hated waiting, but waiting for my contacts to seek me out was all I had now that the terrorism nonsense was finished. And those people would certainly owe me some explanations. I began to wonder if the Nystrom executives would care if I killed one of my contacts to demonstrate how seriously I should be taken—because they had obviously not gotten that memo.

I figured that was probably a bad idea if I had to work closely with them anyway; murder makes people touchy. I just hoped they had more worthy targets of my violence than silly terrorists.

Small animals ran around the park, along with the flying things of Nar Valdum that seemed analogous to birds. I found it interesting that these city creatures were mostly unconcerned with the larger predators that surrounded them, apparently assuming all sentients meant them no harm. They certainly weren't worth my time to kill.

“It's nice here, isn't it?” Diane asked. We sat on a park bench eating our “breakfast”—some sort of fried, breaded thing we got from a vendor. Seemingly resigned to her mandatory vacation, she had dressed more casually in jeans and a t-shirt. While it was nothing revealing, it gave me a better glimpse of what a nice figure she had. Like her, I was also trying to relax. Neither of us was doing too well, but I was probably faking it better.

“It's peaceful. I like it.” It was a very large park—almost a forest, really—in the center of the city. People like to be able to escape into nature to get away from the horrors of their technological progress—though this was a rather artificial version of nature, with mowed lawns and carefully planted trees. Still, it was large enough that many areas seemed quite secluded—maybe secluded enough that one could dispatch someone there without notice. It's always calming to be some place where you could shoot someone in the face and not worry about being surrounded by sirens minutes later.

“I thought maybe you would like to do something the opposite of exciting, considering your last few days,” Diane said. “Are you…doing okay?”

“Yeah, just needed a night to sort myself out…I don't want you to get the idea that I don't enjoy your company, though.”

“No…no. I understand.” She smiled. I smiled back, and it wasn't an act. I did enjoy her company…which was certainly odd for me. Perhaps I just liked that she was a bit more challenging to deal with than most people—not so predictable as everyone else. I just wasn't sure what my intentions were with her anymore, though. I hoped the city's law enforcement was marginally competent, which would mean the terrorist annoyance was now over. I didn't know if she'd be useful to me for whatever was coming next, but I didn't figure it would hurt to keep her nearby just in case. Yes, that meant there was further risk of her finding me out, but I was supposed to be on a big job isolated from an easy escape, which made it seem nice to have a…well…friend.