Vatican Assassin (26 page)

"Aw, c'mon, don't... look, you've worked scams with me in the past. Granted, that was a long time ago, but this is the same thing, Fiza! Work with me here!" Still pouting, she asks, "What do you want me to do?"

"Just lay low for now, okay? And don't talk to any church people!"

"Okay, okay, I can do that, just calm down, all right?" She goes from a pout to a glare in a split second.

"I am calm!"

"Yeah, right. And I'm a nun.” She glares at BC, shakes her head. “Okay. Tell you what. You can go out on your own and get something to eat by yourself, okay? I don't like you much right now, so I'm gonna go my own way for now, okay. I'm outta here." She gathers herself together to get ready to leave. BC doesn't try to stop her. "All right. Be that way. Do you want to do dinner later?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know right now. Bye," she says, and heads out the door.
If the door swung shut instead of sliding, she'd have slammed it. But it wouldn't kill me if
she disappeared again for good
.
How did I get tangled up with her again so quickly? I guess you
forget all the bad shit over time. Maybe I've got that forgive and forget thing going for me.
Probably get me screwed, usually does, right?

Fiza doesn't show up for dinner. She doesn't return at all that night. BC has mixed emotions when he wakes up alone the next morning.

I can't be sure if I'm happy or sad. Funny. Wonder where she is?

BC gets up and into his day without a sign of Fiza. He gets out of another excruciatingly painful three hours with the Reverend Swan and heads back to his rooms to find his com unit waiting with a message from Edwards. He calls him back.

Maybe he wants to do a late lunch. Almost one-thirty
...

"Hey, BC! Thanks for calling me back," Edwards answers.

"Hi Marc. What's up?"

"That friend of yours, Fiza?"

Uh oh.

"Yeah?"

"She's in some big trouble, BC. How good a friend is she?"

"Huh. I ask myself that same question a lot, Marc. Anytime she shows up. What's she done now? I haven't seen her since this time yesterday."

"Probably because she's been in LSC custody."

"Oh."

"She didn't do anything here on Lunar Prime. But the UTZ has a boatload of old warrants out against her. Some of them on really serious charges. We're talking extortion, grand larceny and even murder, here, BC."

"Really? She's not a murderer. The other stuff, maybe. Even probably. But Fiza's no murderer. And since when does the LSC do UTZ security work?"

"She was shopping around the atrium. Her ID must have set off some alarms somewhere in the UTZ and so they asked us to intervene on their behalf. We have some mutual cooperation and extradition treaties with the UTZ, BC, always have. We enforce nonpolitical laws... like larceny and murder."

"So what happens to her now?"

Edwards rubs his forehead.

"That's what I've gotta figure out. That's why I called you. I've kept her off the UTZ radar since we picked her up. They think we're still looking for her. I can't keep up the stall tactics too long, though. We’ve either got to turn her in or get her out of here. She dropped your name when the LSC picked her up, so I found out and intervened, but it could get messy, know what I mean?"
With her it’s always messy

"What was that?"

Did I say that out loud?

"Nothing. Just thinking out loud. She's really good at making messes." Edwards chuckles, "Good friend, huh? Or do you just sleep together?"

"That obvious?"

"Sure. You were both glowing when I saw you yesterday. I'm not stupid. Hey, I was happy for ya, figured it'd been a while."

"Oh, thanks," BC says sarcastically.

She was right. But this shit. It starts all over again, never fails.

"Hey, she's cute, I'll give you that. Hard to resist, I'd guess," Edwards offers his sympathy. They both laugh.

Edwards get serious again. "I can release her into your custody, BC, but you've got to get her off the Moon. Understand?"

"I get it. I'll make arrangements."

"Good. I'll have her brought to my office. You can meet her here and then spirit her away. Can you be ready to go in, say, three hours?"

"Yeah, I'll use my magic powers," BC cracks. "No, really, that should be enough time. I’ll be there. And Marc?"

"What?"

"Thanks for looking out for her. She's not a bad woman. No matter what they say, I can’t believe she’s a murderer. She’s just... misguided. But, thanks, all the same."

"Sure, BC, no problem. See you here soon." Edwards clicks off.
She kept a low profile, all right...

Well, at least I know now why she was hiding. Extortion, larceny AND murder!? Good job,
Fiza. Even I might hide on Mars if I had to get away from all that shit.
BC sighs.

At least I have some friends in high places, as well as low...

When he enters the governor's offices three hours later, BC sees Fiza curled up on the corner of the couch in Edward's reception area. She looks small, legs folded up against her, her arms encircling them around her ankles, holding herself together in a tight little ball.
She sometimes looks so vulnerable…

She looks up when BC walks in.

"Hello Fiza."

"Don't say anything, okay, BC?" she says in her quiet voice.

"I only said hello
.
Hey, Marc."

"Hey
,
BC. Well, here she is. I told her what I told you. She can't stay here. I can say we never found her. If they find out we did, I'll insist she was released in a case of mistaken identity… but either way UTZ investigators will be in my face about it before too long. You've got to get her off the Moon," Edwards says. He turns to Fiza, "I'm sorry you can't stay here. Is there anyplace else you can go?"

"Not back to Mars, that's for sure," she says. Edwards is clearly surprised. But she keeps going,

"I just barely escaped with my life from there this last time.” She doesn’t bother to explain, although she sees the confusion on Edwards’s face. “There might be one possibility," she offers.

"What's that," both BC and Edwards ask almost simultaneously.

"I can go to one of the old orbiting stations. It used to be in my family, ages ago. A UTZ CEO

owns it now, but my family has an ancestral claim and right of sanctuary there. It's not ideal, but it's something."

She is so full of shit! We'll talk about this.

Edwards is relieved. "Good!”

BC shakes his head, “I don’t know. You know, I haven’t been able to arrange for a private ship yet. Nothing’s available right now.”

Edwards has an idea. “Since it's an orbiting station, I might be able to line up a small commercial transport for you myself, no questions asked… BC, why don't you take her there?”

“Me?” BC asks.

“It’ll make it easier to cover our tracks in all this. We'll keep you under the UTZ radar... but I got to tell you, going to the station of a UTZ CEO sounds like you’re walking right into the arms of the enemy. You'd better hope he honors your familial claims."

"It's all I've got,” Fiza says, shrugging.

"All right, then. BC, she's yours. Your custody. Why don’t you go back to your place for now, BC. I'll have someone get in touch with you shortly about a ship. Which station?" he asks Fiza.

"Huh?" she says.

"Which station are you going to?"

"Oh. Wentworth Station."

Edwards is again surprised. "Richard Wentworth's Station? You sure?" Fiza nods, "Yeah."

"Okay, then. We’ll get that taken care of in a few minutes. I'll see you later, BC. Good-bye, Miss Fiza."

BC thanks his friend, "Thanks again, Marc. For everything." Fiza chimes in, "Yeah, thank you, Marc, you're okay."

Edwards nods. "Thanks."

BC and Fiza head back to BC's rooms. Neither says a thing. Once they're back inside the rooms, BC turns on her.

"Okay. Time for some truth. Talk to me. Why does the UTZ want you for murder? Extortion, larceny, those I can see, but murder?"

"I didn't kill anyone, BC, honest! They're all trumped up charges! I was running in some pretty high-powered circles in the UTZ a couple of years ago. I was a mistress to several different UTZ

CEOs… Until one decided he wanted me all to himself. I went and lived with him on his station for over a year. We were happy, although his friends and family frowned on our whole affair. He didn't have a wife anymore, so we weren't doing anything wrong. They just didn't like me. Said he was slumming, that I was trash."

"Nice people, huh?"

"Yeah. But he was good to me, BC. He was warm, and even funny in his own way. He was into kinky sex, but you know me, I'm flexible. I made him happy. We had a lot of fun. Until one time, in the middle of... of everything, he has a heart attack and dies, right there in bed. Well, as you can probably imagine, his family rushed me out of there and off the station before he was even cold. All my credit, everything he gave me, they wiped away as soon as he was dead. They sent me away on the first ship they could."

"I see."

"No, you don't. Not yet. Because, BC, he had promised to take care of me! He had it all drawn up legally, he showed me. He said he knew I'd outlive him, and he knew his family would try to keep me from his fortunes, so he had his lawyers draft documents that protected a small share for me. I saw it! I didn't want a lot, just enough to survive on. They tried to shut me out completely! Keep me from leaving with anything of his. I managed to grab a few things of sentimental value to me as they were giving me the bum's rush out of there. When his family found out about it, they filed the charges. They claimed I bilked him out of his money and then killed him. They started the UTZ's hunt for me. I never had a chance to defend myself. That's the whole truth of it, BC. I never killed anyone, you've got to believe me, and I didn't take anything that wasn't already coming to me!"

"I see."

I don't believe you, Fiza, but I'll play along. It's just easier. I hope you really do have an

"in", a way to get
on board this UTZ station
,
because it sounds to me like the last place you
should be going.

"You 'see', huh? Does that mean you believe me?"

"It means I see."

"Cryptic."

"Fine."

Edwards finds them a ship that gets them off the Moon and off towards Wentworth Station later that night.

BC has to promise the Cardinal he'll be back in a week, for Christmas.
The Cardinal even made a joke about it... "just be back in time. Christmas is one of those
times in the church year when those who don't usually come to church actually attend. You should
feel right at home!"
A sense of humor. Who knew?

The small commercial freighter carries several passengers. BC and Fiza have a compact stateroom to themselves, a tiny space barely able to fit both of them lying down. Sitting up offers a little more room.

This has to be the smallest stateroom I've ever been in. Economy of space is one thing, but
this is ridiculous.

"Three days, huh? No Transpace point?" Fiza asks, as she fidgets in her folded up bed, now a chair.

"Nope," BC answers, "too close to Earth. Are you sure you want to go to this place?"

"I've got no choice. This is my last ditch effort."

"I might know one other place. Fortune Station. Ever hear of it?"

"No. Should I have?"

"Not necessarily. It's old, supposed to be abandoned, but there's this religious cult that lives there, and I'm their, um, leader."

"What the fuck? Get out! You are just full of surprises! Why didn't you tell me before!"

"I don't know. I didn't think of it. Not exactly your kind of people."
And I'm not sure I should inflict you on them...

"How so?"

"They're really religious. They believe in what they're preaching, what they're living. You wouldn't like it. Probably too rigid."

Fiza doesn't say anything. After she thinks for a minute or two, she says, "I can fit in in a lot of places you might not think I could. Like Mars, huh?"

"True. I still don't believe you were there."

She punches him in the arm. "You fuck! What do I have to do! I was there! It sucked! What more do you want?"

"You want me to believe? Tell me more about it," BC prods. She somehow glares and pouts at the same time.

Nearly irresistible...

"Come on, Fiza," he pleads.

She plays coy for another moment or so, then tells BC, "Not that you believe a word I say..." she pauses and glares at BC just a little harder, "but people live miserably there. I told you before about the sand, it gets in everything, fucks up all the airlocks and all the other seals. They're always short on water, too, and most of what water is there goes into the terraforming project.

"They're trying to get the place to be more like Earth… but I don't think it's working. Most people
there
don't think it's working. The equipment is old, cobbled together from what's left of the old UTZ terraform factories and the busted up Japanese installations. And the terraform factories are hellholes, but most everyone has to work there at some time or another. The Ayatollah
demands
it! You see,” she says the last in a mocking tone.

"Everything on Mars is old. Surplus and leftovers from the old Jap base and the ripped up UTZ outpost. They have recycling, water reclamation, that stuff, but none of it seems to work too well.” She scrunches up her nose, as if she smells something foul. “It never seems to get entirely clean, either, it always seems kind of grungy, no matter where you are.

"And the people are depressing. They're all brainwashed into hating the UTZ, your church, and anyone else they feel has beat on them. All they talk about is coming back to Earth, back to their stolen Mecca, and how their hardships now will be rewarded by Allah in the end. Boring. But it keeps them in their place, keeps fueling the hate that drives the war. You can feel it," Fiza says, and shudders. "I could feel it." She pulls up into her fetal position, arms wrapped around her drawn up knees. "So, do you believe me, yet?"