Warnings and disclaimers in first section.
“Are they gone?”
Turning around, I offered a smile to the man that had become a friend after earning my respect. “They’re gone.” I waved in the direction of the ship I’d been watching as it moved out of sight of the Shoe. “What are you doing here, Mark? Didn’t you trust me to do my job?”
“You know better,” his hands were in his pockets as he stood beside me. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the ship finally disappeared completely. “I wanted to see them before they left. I may not get a chance to see them again. I doubt the Preventers will put us in the same prison.”
“Mark, you aren’t going to prison and neither are your friends. The agency will be fair when they look over everyone’s circumstances. If you’re afraid, you don’t have to go,” I told him quietly, wondering what his answer would be. “You could move your family here. There’s a lot of opportunity for a smart man and his family. You could keep running the Dive.”
He’d been running one of the bars that Chester was smart enough to set up in the wake of the riots. Not only was Mark an excellent manager, the position gave him the perfect chance to spot members of the former PSP that had been hiding out, thinking they were safe from justice on the Shoe. I guess it was a surprise when I caught them and stuck them in one of Chester’s ‘interrogation rooms’. I didn’t know what Chester used the rooms for and I didn’t want to know; for me, they had served the purpose I needed them to.
“I’ve thought about it, Duo, but I have to say no. I joined the PSP because I wanted to help people in space. I failed at that and now I have to pay the price for my actions. What kind of man would I be if I hid from what I’ve done? What kind of example would I be setting for my boys?”
“I understand, Mark. I don’t like it, but I understand.”
“When do we leave?”
“Two weeks from now.”
“Duo…”
“I have some things I have to finish up before we can leave.” Shaking my head before he could say anything, I jerked my chin in the direction of people constantly coming onto the Shoe, “I thought you’d want to go, but I didn’t want you to have to leave without saying goodbye.”
Mark’s only regret about leaving there was that he wouldn’t get a chance to see his family again. It was nice to hear the gasp as he saw his wife and two sons moving into view, all three looking around with wide eyes. “What are they doing here?”
“I had them brought here so you could spend some time together. Take the next two weeks for yourself, Mark. I’ll send a message about when to meet.” I had to call in a shitload of favors to have his family brought there, but it was worth it when I saw his face light up as he rushed forward and got his family’s attention, sweeping his boys off the ground when they ran toward him.
I stayed where I was as they came close, easily seeing the tears on Mark’s face, and his wife’s, and his boys’. “Marie, I want to introduce you to Duo. He’s the guy that brought you here.”
“Thank you,” she was a small woman, but she was strong enough to knock the breath from my lungs when she rushed forward and hugged me around the waist. Of course, that could be because I was still not in the best shape after being shot. My injury reared its ugly head at the worst times. “Thank you so much for letting us see him again. I’ve been so worried about him.”
“It wasn’t a problem. Mark’s done a lot for me; this was the least I could do to repay the favor.” Moving my eyes to Mark, I managed to extract her arms from my waist; the woman had a grip like an octopus. “I’ll let you know when it’s time to leave. I’ve already made arrangements for your family to return home on a different ship.”
Thank god he didn’t hug me, too, but he did clap a hand on my shoulder, “I owe you for this, Duo.”
“You don’t owe me for anything. Without your help, I’d be here another year or two. Get going; show your family around the Shoe.”
I didn’t watch them walk away. I didn’t have to because I knew he held his head high. People respected him there and he’d earned that respect in the eight months while he worked at my side to find everyone involved in Allbright and Harrison’s conspiracy to take over the colony, so they could utilize the living weapons that resided there.
Eight months.
Eight months since I had seen Trowa the last time. Eight months since I had been able to get him and Quatre off the Shoe. Eight months of feeling like I’d lost something vital inside myself.
Two months had been taken up by healing from the wound I had gotten while rescuing Quatre and the other six months had been spent keeping my promise to Chester. It could have taken years to round up the people involved, but a large number had come to me or Mark on their own, willing to face the consequences of following someone like Allbright, whether they had a choice in the matter or not. The ones that had come forward were the ones that had left earlier that day; able to enjoy their last weeks of freedom while Mark and I hunted down the rest, the ones that believed chaos was the answer for all of their problems.
I was able to get special permission to contact the Preventers once I explained my purpose, although one of the comm workers stayed in the room while I talked to Une, telling her of the plot to take over the colony. It was an uncomfortable situation to know I was being watched and measured, but the colonists that knew who I was didn’t seem to be bothered that I personally knew Preventer agents. In fact, I’ve been stopped multiple times so people could thank me for my part in Harrison’s death.
The Shoe had been changed by what happened there. There was still crime and murder, but people were asking more questions, unwilling to be placed in the middle of a war that wasn’t theirs because of their indifference. I didn’t know if it would go back to the way it was, but if it ever did, it was going to be a while.
Like the Shoe, I’d been changed, too. There wasn’t one big thing that forced the change, but a number of different things. I’d lived there for months, working beside people that were willing to die for their freedom from maniacs, I’d listened to Chester and Justin debate for hours, and I had missed the hell out of Trowa.
I knew in my head that he was gone and that chances were slim that I’d ever see him again, but I often found myself wondering what he would say or do about something I’d seen or heard. I wondered what he was doing on Earth and tormented myself with the idea that he’d forgotten about me already. Had he found someone else to help him forget me and the time we shared? Did he ever think of me at all with fondness or did he hate me for what I had done?
“Duo, everything’s ready to go.” Justin was striding toward me with a scowl on his face. “Let me come with you.”
“I don’t think so. Thanks for the offer, but this isn’t your problem.”
“You’re my friend, so it is my problem. Besides, if you get hurt, Chester’s gonna shoot me.”
Surprisingly enough, we really were friends, up to a point. I wouldn’t trust him with my sister, if I had had one, but Justin’s a good guy; he just works for an asshole. “If he does shoot you, it’ll be in the foot or something, so no worries,” I tried to tease, but it fell flat. I had lost my sense of humor in the last few months. “This is something I have to take care of on my own. You’ve done enough by getting me a ship.” I refused to take the Hellion on something like this.
“I understand pride. I understand how badly you want this guy, but he’s being escorted by the Preventers. The chances of you getting past them…”
“It’s a necessary risk. I’m not doing this out of pride. I won’t be satisfied that Quatre and the others are safe until Allbright’s out of the way. Don’t worry, I have a plan.”
“Duo…Chester’s worried about you. I’m worried about you.”
Somehow, I had known that was going to come up eventually, but I had hoped it would be avoided until after I got back. I also thought Chester would be the one to bring it up. “I’m fine, Justin.”
“You’re anything but fine. We’ve been watching you the last few months and you aren’t the same person you used to be. You should have left when he did.”
“Don’t go there.” I didn’t want him to say what I knew to be true. I couldn’t listen to it; I needed to have my head in another place, one where I didn’t want Trowa intruding. “Have the Hellion ready to go when I get back, Justin.”
“Even criminals keep their promises, Duo.”
The thought had me snorting, looking up at him with a wry smile that was a shadow of humor from before. “You aren’t a criminal. A killer? Absolutely, but you do what you do to keep Chester safe from the real criminals.” I was more like Justin than I was Chester, and I was amazingly okay with that knowledge.
“Don’t make me sound like some sort of saint, Maxwell.”
The snarled comment had me doing something I hadn’t done in months…bursting into laughter, holding my stomach because it hurt like hell. “No chances of that; you are a friend, though.”
“Get on the damn ship before I change my mind and go with you whether you want me to or not. The escort will be passing Kol in five days on their way to Holden Prison Colony. You better be there and in position before they are or you don’t stand a chance.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be there.”
“He tells me not to worry, like this is going to be a walk in the park. Don’t worry, my ass; I promised Chester I’d take care of you while you were on the Shoe and he was away on business. I seriously doubt he’s going to consider this taking care of you. You better not come back with a single scratch on you, Maxwell, or I’m going to be hung out to dry.”
It didn’t take me long to be settled on Justin’s ship, the Long Neck, named after his love for beer. It wasn’t going to take long to get done with that last task and then I could return to my life, but it wouldn’t be the same life I had before. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I couldn’t go back to living like I had been before, with only the stars to keep me company. I still had a few weeks to make my plans, so as I navigated away from the Shoe, I put my full focus on this last task, intending to keep a vow I had made to a dying man.
It was time for me to kill Jonathon Allbright.
What most people think is that killing someone is a hard thing to do. They think it’s hard to look someone in the eye and watch the light go out that signals a heart is no longer beating; that part can be hard, but the rest? That’s easy. For someone like me, killing almost comes as second nature, as much as I don’t want to admit it. I don’t like looking at someone as they die, but I will, and that’s exactly what I did when I faced Allbright.
I didn’t offer any witty one-liners, I didn’t give any sarcastic remarks; I simply looked at him. He looked back at me, no longer resembling the man that had beaten me alongside his henchmen so many months before that it felt like a lifetime had already passed.
His hair was longer, stringy and grey and hanging down past the collar of his grey prison-issue clothing. His eyes no longer held the conviction and righteousness they had before. He’d lost weight, likely caused by the strict diet in prisons. At first look, he seemed like a different man, one broken by the system he had tried to corrupt. He didn’t appear to be the same man that had coldly laughed while I was being repeatedly kicked…not at first look.
It was only after studying him for a moment that I saw the contempt, the hatred he still had for me. A conviction hadn’t broken him, it had made him stronger. He thought that he’d be able to manipulate people from his cell, convinced those that were loyal to him that he could still give what he promised them, as long as they do a few small favors for him until he could gain his freedom.
That wasn’t going to happen. I wouldn’t let him be a threat to my friends, the people I considered family.
“It couldn’t have been easy to get aboard, Maxwell. I imagine you had a difficult time getting around the guards that are patrolling the ship, unless you’ve paid them to look the other way while we have this discussion.”
“I didn’t pay anyone off. It wasn’t easy.” That was an understatement. I’d had to force myself to wait until the escort ships were just in the right areas before doing a spacewalk to his prison ship, without the aid of a tether. It was one of the most terrifying thing’s I’d ever done, and not something I was looking forward to doing again once I was finished.
He had the audacity to smile at me, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms as much as he could with the chains that shackled his wrists to his waist. “To what do I owe the visit? Did you come here to gloat? I heard you did away with Harrison, that dumbass. If he had stuck to the plan, everything would have worked out the way it was meant to. As it is, I’m going to have to wait several years before I can set things back in motion.”
Brave words from a dead man; he would have fooled me if he hadn’t flinched when I stepped toward him. His eyes were wide as I pulled my knife from its sheath, strapped to my leg. “You won’t be setting anything in motion, Allbright.”
“What do you plan to do? Hack me apart?”
In a quick move, I pinned one of his wrists to the table he was sitting at; one of the escort guards would come in less than fifteen minutes to help him relieve himself and walk around for a few minutes. My eyes were tight as I ran the blade down his arm, leaving a shallow cut behind. When I stepped away, watching the way the blood welled in the line on his skin, he chuckled, “That’s all you’re going to do? You came all this way, put all the effort into getting here, just so you could leave a shallow cut on me? Do you think that this will deter me from continuing what I started? Am I supposed to look at this stupid reminder and quake in fear at the thought of you being somewhere in space?”
Holding up the knife, I let him see the thin line of blood that almost covered the clear liquid that coated the blade. “I brought you a present, Allbright. You should be very aware of how fast it works and how little it takes to kill someone.”
Fear was beginning to seep into his eyes, “What are you talking about? What have you done to me?”
I didn’t question the need that drove me to pocket the syringe of Narcogenesis when we were preparing to leave Koleniko. I never actually thought I would use it, but this had seemed like the perfect time to utilize that resource. “You don’t recognize it? I assumed you would have used Narco enough to identify the symptoms. You should already be feeling the effects; I’ve heard it works very fast.”
He was jerking against the chains, trying to escape from me. Maybe he hoped to wash the poison off his skin before it got into his bloodstream, but it was too late. The cut I had made was shallow, but well-positioned; I had pulled the blade across a number of small veins, giving the poison direct contact into his body. As he fought, his heart rate was speeding up, making the Narco spread through his body at a faster rate.
“You’re going to die a very horrible, painful death, Allbright. Consider it justice for threatening those close to me. You were planning to make an example out of Quatre. After leaning what has happened to you, all of those people that were willing to help you before will think twice before acting on whatever orders you’ve given.”
“You won’t get away with this. There are cameras…” he was sweating, moisture rolling off his face in thick waves, mixing with tears.
“All the security on this ship has been deactivated for the time being. All the guards see is a video of you sitting at this table, your hands crossed and not moving. Maybe they think you’re considering your actions, the things you’ve done. I don’t care. No one will ever know I was the one that killed you.”
“Maxwell, you can’t leave me like this,” he pled when I turned away. “You aren’t a killer. You aren’t like others…you can’t leave me to die!”
Turning to look at him over my shoulder, I shook my head. One thing I had come to accept in the few months I had spent on the Shoe is that I was exactly what he said I wasn’t. “You’re wrong. I am a killer, but this is the last time.”
I didn’t look back as I left the ship, making sure my helmet was secure after sliding my knife back into the sheath. Once I got farther into space, I’d jettison it, along with the now empty syringe of Narco. No one would ever be able to tie me to this crime. No one would ever connect it to me. I had to be careful as I left the ship and returned to the Long Neck, not moving from my spot behind a large chunk of space metal that used to be an alliance ship until long after the convoy was out of radar range.
The return to the Shoe was as uneventful as I had believed it would be. I used the time to make my plans, unsure of how I would be received, but unable to talk myself out of doing what I planned to do. I also spent a lot of time thinking about Trowa, as always.
I wondered if he smiled anymore.