Superego (16 page)

So friends care about each other and their problems. That was something I'd have to remember to fake. “You okay being off duty right now?”

“I guess everything is in capable hands.” She wasn't very convincing; she seemed antsy having to just sit there instead of act. She whispered to me, “I heard that a member of the Calabrai called the police with information on all the other cells out there.”

“Wow. So there are more cells?”

“Yes…but I guess the feds are on top of it.” Again, she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than me. “There's nothing for me to do right now except pray. And I heard that someone in the Calabrai grew a conscience and is helping us end the attacks.” She smiled. “So maybe that's working.”

I believe the ancient expression is “God works in mysterious ways,” but beating information out of an old man and then having my AI program pretend to be a Calabrai member to pass on the information to police didn't seem very mysterious from my perspective.

I'd never prayed myself, even in desperate situations. I certainly remember a moment of desperation, but while I was lying there in my own blood sans my right hand, I wasn't praying—I was screaming. Plus, if I'd prayed and God had answered my prayer to let me live, He'd have been simultaneously ignoring other prayers by people not wanting to be killed. I've put down praying men before.

“I never really got the point of praying. It just doesn't seem like there is some big, powerful entity putting everything together.”

She nodded. “It's easy to see the world as random chaos, no meaning or purpose to it. I've certainly been there. But then there's the beauty of the universe—the life forms and the simple joy of living. In the end, you get to choose how you look at the world.” She blushed. “I'm sorry. You probably aren't looking for a theological debate when you're on vacation.”

“Well, if it's between that and being in a shootout with terrorists, I'd probably choose the religious discussion.” Not really.

She smiled again. I certainly would have liked to know her carnally if I'd had the time, but I figured that whole religion thing would get in the way.

I heard a beep, and Diane pulled out a handheld device. Her casual glance at the handheld quickly turned to an intense stare. “Nakhai was found dead. Beheaded.”

I put on my shocked face—mainly just a blank expression with mouth slightly open. Don't hold it too long, or you look really stupid. “The terrorists thought he gave us information?” Incidentally, cutting off someone's head and not getting a huge mess on yourself is not easy.

“I…I suppose.” She stood up. “I think I should…”

I got up and put my hand on her shoulder. “Diane, other people are handling it. I think we've both done enough for now.”

“Sure, I guess.” She looked ready to bolt, and then I'd probably have to go with her to be supportive or risk my cover as an awesome, trustworthy cop. Easier to convince her to let it go, for both our sakes.

“Diane!” A woman Diane's age was coming toward us. She was a slightly plump brunette in clothes that didn't look quite casual enough for the park. She didn't appear to be a threat, but I had been wrong before. She quickly looked at me and smiled. “Who is your friend?” she asked.

Diane turned red and forced an awkward smile. “Hey, Hana…What a coincidence running into you here. This is Rico Vargas; he's from the planet Rikar. Rico, this is my friend Hana.”

I stood and shook her hand and was instantly ready to hate her. Her smile was way overenthusiastic, and it filled me with dread. I had a feeling that I had stumbled into a completely asinine social situation, one that was going to stretch my patience for being polite.

“Diane has told me all about you!” With the excitement in her voice, you'd have thought she was meeting her favorite rock star. “This is a great planet, isn't it? Have you ever thought of living here?”

Diane briefly glared at her. “Thanks, Hana, but I think Rico may have gotten too much of the planet already.”

It was actually a little amusing to see Diane this embarrassed. Her friend had confirmed what had become quite obvious—that she liked me. I really didn't think I could be around someone this much without slipping enough to scare her off, though, so that felt like an accomplishment. “I don't know. I could see living here,” I said. For maybe a month, tops, until boredom led to escalating violence and I ended up in a massive gunfight that would go down in the planet's history. Also, I presumed the syndicate had more violence in store for me that would give me cause to leave the planet much sooner. But for the moment, feigning a romantic interest in Diane—not just of the one-night-stand sort—would be an interesting challenge. “It'd be a nice change of pace from being in the backwater places of the universe. Just might not want to live right in the city.” I chuckled a bit. “It's a bit too hectic here.” That's funny, because I've been constantly shooting terrorists.

Is it pathetic that I pick up habits from Dip?

“There are some beautiful countrysides here,” Hana said without missing a beat, though completely missing the joke (Diane didn't brag about how often I shot people?). “Maybe Diane could show you some. I know she's been considering getting a place out there.”

“That might be neat to see.” I
was
starting to feel a little claustrophobic. Maybe my contact would want me to stay here, but by this point I was of the “Screw them!” attitude. Not professional, but so far this whole job didn't seem very professional.

“I can show you some nice areas…you know…if you're really interested,” Diane said with a forced nonchalance. She seemed quite tough for a woman, and I found that interesting, but she was adorable when vulnerable. Like a puppy. Like a puppy I didn't find annoying or want to kill. By now, I really did hope this wouldn't end with my killing her. I fantasized that maybe she would try to hunt me down, and we'd run into each other again one day, but as sworn enemies. That could be fun.

“I think you'll love it. I really think you will,” Hana said, giggling a bit. Her I did not care for. Were it socially permissible, I would have already decked her.

“Well, maybe we'll do that.” I could tell Diane was more annoyed than embarrassed. “Anyway, it sure was nice running into you here, but I assume you have lots of errands to run.”

“Not really. I just dropped the kids off at school, and now…” She took in Diane's expression. “Oh, actually, I'm going to…You two have lots to do. I'll see you later. Nice meeting you, Rico.”

“Nice meeting you, too.” I gave her my warm, friendly smile, which took a tiring amount of effort. Then she mercifully left.

All in all, I really hate people. All sentients annoy me, but it's that closer connection with my own species that allows humans to get under my skin. As a child, I fantasized about killing all humans until I was the only one left, though that really was infeasible without access to weapons that could destroy on a global scale. A daydream, really.

Diane turned to me. “Sorry about that. She's a friend. I mentioned that I was showing a visiting officer the city. I didn't think she'd just show up like that.”

I laughed a little and then stared a little too long at her eyes. I quickly turned away as if catching myself. “So…um…what do we have planned next?”

“Well, whatever you're interested in. I don't think you actually want to go house hunting in the countryside. There is a carnival in town, though. It's a bit like an old-fashioned one from Earth, with funnel cakes and rides and games.”

“You mean where you knock down bottles to win a gratuitously large stuffed animal?”

“Exactly.” She smiled. “Which is good, because I recently realized that none of my stuffed animals are quite large enough. Anyway, they also have lots of displays from other species, since there are so many visiting the city this week, so it might be interesting.”

Sounded insipid. “Sounds fun. Might be worth checking out.”

She paused and put her finger to her ear. “I have a call coming in; I need to take it.” She was quiet for a moment, and then her face went white. Then she got up and started running down the path toward the park's exit. “Hana!”

I followed, but I didn't like where this was going. We caught up with Hana, who had paused to smell some flowers, and Diane gently took her by the hand. “You need to come with me.”

“What is it?” Hana's stupid smile was finally gone.

“No one is hurt, but something is happening at Lincoln Elementary right now.”

“What's happening? Are Justin and Tammy okay?” Hana suddenly looked terrified.

“I'm sure they are, but why don't we head over there right now.”

I walked up next to Diane. “So what's going on?” I had already guessed, though.

Diane whispered to me, “We believe something is going to go down at the elementary school where Hana's kids are. It's right next to the park. Maybe we should go see if we can help.”

Damn my luck. “Let's go.” I'm a hero; that's what heroes say in times of trouble.

“Is it a terrorist attack?” Hana asked meekly.

“It's going to be all right,” I said firmly. The best way to un-panic people is to act like you're in control—even if the situation could not logically be in your control. “If anyone tries anything, it won't end well for them.” I let a bit of my real personality seep in; threatening was good here. And I was going to kill everyone in a very bad way if I could, because I was sick of dealing with this crap.

One awesome thing, though: They were threatening children. By my understanding of social norms, that meant that I could do pretty much anything to the terrorists, and it wouldn't seem too extreme.

CHAPTER 19

Chaos. Children ran out of the building, screaming and crying. It was irritating, to say the least. There were only two police vehicles there, with two officers standing outside one of them with their guns drawn. Diane quickly lost control of Hana as she rushed to try to find her children among those outside. It had been stupid to bring her; she was just another distraction to worry about. On the bright side, maybe a terrorist would shoot her.

“What's going on?” Diane demanded of the officers.

“Terrorists are in there! I don't know how many!” Human officer. Quite panicked and probably best suited to standing uselessly outside. “I think we might have officers down inside…and I think they have a bomb. We're waiting for SWAT.”

A fiery shot ripped out of the side of the building. “No time!” Diane said and headed for the school.

Since I didn't care about screaming children, there seemed to be plenty of time. Personally, I didn't want to get blown up, but if I stood outside while the detective stupidly marched inside, I wouldn't look like much to her anymore. If that mattered.

And at the time it seemed like it mattered.

I caught up with Diane. “You have a plan?”

“Don't know enough to have a plan. So what are the chances you already have a gun?”

I drew one. “I don't know how you people expect me to kill terrorists for you when you keep disarming me. Anyway, I have a plan: It's called ‘shoot bad people.'”

“Just watch out for children.”

There was the rub. In most societies, there's nothing worse than killing a child—even though they're not productive members of society and are easily replaceable. If I accidentally shot one, I couldn't just shrug and say, “Oops!”—it would be a big deal. So I thought I would just concentrate on killing only tall people—unless there turned out to be a short alien terrorist. I figured looking for a gun and shooting whoever was holding one would be a good way to handle this—unless the person was Diane (whom I had almost shot twice in the terrorists' shop) or another cop.

This is why I don't like being a hero; it complicates things to the point of ruining the simple pleasure of gunning people down in a shootout.

When we entered, the main hallway was nearly empty. People came running toward us—children—and I did not shoot them and instead firmly directed them outside. Perhaps too firmly; I really dislike children. A little further in, we saw gunshots ripping through the wall. They weren't aimed at us, though; there seemed to be a gunfight up ahead. I rushed forward, too deep in my fight mode to bother checking whether Diane was keeping up. I saw someone with a gun—a Corridian woman—officer—not someone I was supposed to shoot—pinned behind a column while two others fired on her. I walked forward and shot the two terrorists in the face before they even noticed me. They really did suck. It would take quite a spectacular miracle from their god to be even a marginal threat to someone like me.

When I got to her, the officer was sobbing and gripping her gun pretty uselessly. I recognized her as Meela from the police station. “Randall is dead…they—”

“The bomb?” No time for politeness.

“A group of them are holding a classroom of children hostage back there…” She pointed down the hallway. “…and they say they have a bomb.”

Diane caught up with me, and I said, “Help her,” even though Meela didn't really need help. I just felt things would go quicker without any “allies” in my way. So I continued on, leaving Meela and Diane behind. It would be pretty asinine to die in an explosion here, but there was no use worrying about that now. My choice was made, and my path was clear.

One man popped up his head and lost said head. He seemed pretty terroristy, but I realized afterward I should have probably taken another moment to confirm who he was. Oh well. I walked past a police officer—Randall, whom I had met earlier and didn't really care for one way or the other—lying dead on the ground. I could hear children crying in a nearby classroom. Finally children's crying was useful for something. I came to the classroom door and glanced inside, then pulled my head back as some shots flew past me.