Corruption, p.21
Corruption, page 21
part #1 of Deus Vult Series
Joan was the owner of the Blue Rose; he was sweet and kind and opened his shop without question when Tamika and I arrived. He did the same right now by welcoming me and Raziel inside and gave me a big hug.
“It’s good to see you, darling!” He closed the door and ushered us deep inside. “Where’s Tamika?”
“Dead.” I hung my head low. “She’s dead.”
He signed the cross on her chest. “She fought and died for the cause.” He said somberly. “So, who is this sexy bastard?” He gestured to Raziel. “Hope he isn’t a boyfriend.”
“He’s not.” I laughed nervously. “We need a place to lie low and then I’ll tell you,” I said wanting to avoid the prying ears of his employees.
“Okay, follow me.” He whispered taking us to the backroom behind the bar and in the far back of this storeroom, he lifted the floor and escorted us down the stairs.
“Joan, this man is the project.”
That revelation took aback him and he looked from him to me while regaining his composure. I told him all about the mission omitting my desire to take the project from Theon. I explained what happened and the shitshow that followed. He assured us that everything will be okay and turned on the TV for us and promised to bring down some food once he finished cooking.
Raziel sat down on the couch but I was still restless because I didn’t know what Joan was gonna do, I was positive that stealing the project and keeping him for ourselves was the end goal but now he…it…was awake, a person and Rico’s words played in my head.
Later that night after Raziel fell asleep I emerged from that room. Patrons packed the bar watching the drag queen strut the stage while singing an upbeat tune.
I found Joan in his back office mixing up some of his herbs. “Joan?”
“Good, you’re up so I don’t have to come and get you.”
“What’s going on?”
“You should know already.” She placed the powder in a teabag. “It won’t kill him but it will put him out like a light. The Vipers work in small teams so we don’t have a lot of manpower to get it out of here without being seen, so I called your people to come and pick it up.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“Right now, there’s no rush except those customers outside needing a drink. Can you help out for tonight?”
“Sure.”
It wasn’t too long before Joan was in drag and on stage, his long blonde hair was held back with a headband, he wore a jean jacket and a long-striped skirt. His drag was a 1980s girl next door. He didn’t get a chance to sing because some piece of shit grabbed him by the arm and pulled him onto his lap.
“Hey get off her!” I yelled grabbing him and tossing him from his seat.
“Get away from him, bitch!” One of his drunken friends swung at me. I didn’t notice the rest of the bar had fallen silent; their gazes transfixed on a single figure who now stood on the stage. It was Raziel, he was awake, and he looked around the room before gripping the mic.
Joan escorted me away from the customer and we both watched Raziel unsure if we should intervene or not.
“Some of you are here out of pure fascination and wonder, others wish to be a part of something greater than themselves, and then there are those who are trapped here, left with no other choice but to continue on. Whatever it is you couldn’t find on Earth; may you find it here where everything blooms wild, chaotic, and new. You are the few and the brave, never forget the history you’re making here.” He said then slyly he turned the knob of the karaoke machine until a sad jazzy tune played: White Cliffs of Dover by The Blue Jays, the Vera Lynn cover.
There'll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see…
He finished the tune and to the applause of the audience and if as if struck by lightning he ran out the bar.
“Raziel!” I followed behind until we stopped at the governor’s office where a large rowdy crowd had formed which the police had to keep in check. “What’s going on?” I asked him but he seemed fixated on getting to the front of the crowd. It was Theon being carried out on a stretcher, the EMT lifted his arm and leg only for it to flop back lifelessly. Raziel tried to reach for him but I pulled him away, taking him back to the club.
“Hurry and get back inside.” Joan ushered us in and announced that the place was closed. He pulled me to the back while Raziel had gone underground and handed me a cup of tea. “Hurry and give it to him.” He said. He noticed the hesitation and frowned. “Yes, he’s a pretty boy with a lovely voice but don’t forget what he is, and what he has done.” He said referring to Tamika.
“Yeah.” I nodded still shaken by what I had seen, was this also a part of the plan? I saw the hole in his chest that didn’t look fake to me and judging by Raziel’s reaction something was wrong…I don’t know.
Raziel paced the room clearly upset. “I watched over him since the day he was born. I put together his curriculum and found the best martial teachers to train him in combat. All of those years cultivated and now gone, like this, at the hands of a pirate. Unacceptable.” His growled and stopped his muttering and pacing once he noticed me there. “Having someone else’s memories inside of you is similar to watching a movie of someone’s life where you sympathize with the lead to an extreme degree. He watched Theon grow from a distance only interfering when needed. He cultivated him like taking care of a bonsai tree.”
I sat the cup on the table and in front of him once he sat down.
“You caught me earlier,” I said getting that uncomfortable churn of the stomach like that feeling when you’re on a rollercoaster. “I lied about the whole transplant thing for my little brother. My mother took sick working at a factory assigned by the government. She needed a printed lung, but the government denied responsibility, even when other workers had the same issues. All the officials cared about was getting pay raises for themselves and pretending they gave a damn. You had to wait in line for everything, including when they decided when they needed to use you to make themselves look good. They put my mother and her coworkers in the old section of a hospital, they allowed no doctors inside to care for them, the government wasn’t gonna pay them if they did.” I wiped my tears. “The only times when someone entered that place was a family member, a volunteer, or a coroner. I couldn’t take it anymore. So, I came up with a plan. My brother had blonde hair and blue eyes, a rarity in New Cali, I knew someone would pay a lot of money for him so I sold him to save my mother and even after the surgery…I don’t know how she found out what I had done, but she did and she killed herself. Now I’m trying to get my brother back. I found him but they want double what they gave me. That’s why I need the money.”
“I’m sorry.” He said taking the cup in his hands.
“Yeah, I am too.” I turned away as he collapsed on the floor.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: NANA
Earth’s gravity was a bitch and that acclamation chamber was no fun but we were here, back on Earth, my mission truly completed. I couldn’t help but look to the sky and think of Theon, is that really how it ends? This world was unforgiving, you can have the mightiest or noblest ambitions and it could all end before you know it. I never had time to say sorry.
Duke, was the leader of the Phantoms, a faction within the URM. He was tall and lean with short brown hair and eyes and his skin was a light tan, typical of those of us born in New Cali. He was a great leader, strong and compassionate but also ruthless with his enemies. With me, he was always gentle.
“I missed you.” He whispered to me. I felt warm in his embrace and I missed his dusty scent.
“I missed you too.”
He gestured for the large trunk we kept Raziel locked in to be taken to the back room. The place we stayed in was an old bunker which still stood strong even after the big quake, and even after being submerged underwater, there were two neat little tricks to getting inside: One involved leaping from the crane above which took you to a side opening of the bunker, it was how Duke tested new recruits. And the other was the main entrance hidden in a cave of torn buildings, this was where members entered and exited the bunker.
“You did good. Too bad we lost one of our own.” Duke patted my back and lead me to the couch.
“Yeah,” I said thinking of Tamika. “I’m sorry I couldn’t bring everything I wanted.”
“It’s okay, we’ll find another way to get that ship.” He leaned back and guzzled his beer. “News from Kratos says our benefactor is dead.”
“About that. I think he was supposed to fake his death, but the project was acting strange like he knew something had gone wrong.”
“The project…”
“What the hell were you doing with the project unshackled like this.” Marina, that bitch entered the room in that skin-tight garbage she loved wearing.
“Don’t be so hard on her,” Duke replied. “We don’t know what happened up there.”
“That’s right, you don’t. I almost died more times than I could count up there so don’t fucking lecture me. Besides, I wasn’t the one who released him, some crazy woman did.”
“I assume you have some data on him?” Duke looked at me expectantly.
“No, I have nothing.” I don’t know why I lied, but it just felt right to do so.
“Hm, I thought you of all people would know to get the data too.”
“That’s what happens when you send someone who can’t work under pressure.” Marina just kept on running her mouth.
“What’s done is done Marina,” Duke said getting up for another drink. “I know you want to shower and get some rest Nana; you’ve been through an ordeal up there but it’s all over. I have another job for you, you don’t have to do it now, we’ll give you a day to get used to Earth’s gravity.”
“What sort of mission?”
“There’s some activity happening within the walled city.”
“The politicians are scurrying from under their rocks.” Marina just had to add something to the conversation. Stupid bitch.
Duke continued. “Some heiress to a massive fortune on Mars is here. They’ll open up their little senate floor for the first time in god knows how long. She’s supposed to give a speech there and make a proposal. Someone hired us to make sure she doesn’t give that speech.”
“What is she going to say?” I asked curious as to why someone would want her dead because of that.
Duke shrugged.
“They’re offering a ton of credits to make it happen,” Marina added.
“Then it’s probably a Corpo.” I scoffed. “Which means that whatever speech she’s supposed to give may help us more than them.”
“You think we hadn’t thought of that?” Duke sighed. “But we can’t operate without money.”
“So, you take the money of your enemy?” I spat disgusted.
“What the hell do you expect me to do?!” Duke yelled. “We can’t feed ourselves on fucking principals. How do you think we paid for your implants? Or arranged for the project to be brought here safely? I thought you were smarter than this, Nana.”
“Even revolutions cost money.” Marina shrugged.
“The girl is staying in the Trinity Hotel with all the delegates. You won’t be sent in there alone. Kaidan’s target will be there too.”
“That piece of shit heir of Nettle.”
God are they finishing each other’s sentences now?
“And Kaidan’s target.” Duke continued. “Word has it, his wife will be there as well, and he’s pregnant with the next heir of the company. This is a rare opportunity that we’ve been waiting for so you’ll work with him on this. He’ll kill the CEO, his wife, and that baby while you take care of the heiress before she gives that speech.”
After my shower, I wanted to sleep for a million years if I could if there was a way to freeze me until all of this was over, I think I would take it in a heartbeat right about now. I couldn’t even sleep here; I missed the hum of the engines on the Doku. I just…don’t feel like I belong here.
“Sleep?” Duke entered my room and sat on the bed.
“No.”
He leaned in for a kiss until he was in the covers with me.
“What happened?” He noted the gauze on my boob.
“Just an accident on the ship.”
“Ah, does it hurt still?”
“Just don’t touch it,” I warned.
“Okay.” His hands trailed my body cupping my ass and pulling me in.
“Wait… I’m exhausted.” I said pushing him away.
“Are you?” He looked at me strangely. “Or do you have another man’s stink on you? Maybe it’s our corpo benefactor?”
“What?!”
“I’m just kidding.” He laughed. “I still missed you, let me hold you for tonight.”
“Okay.”
Kaidan and sat back and allowed the automated car to take us to the entrance of the wall. Marina assured us that our IDs would check out and the care was fancy enough to not make them question it too much. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for those within the walls to slum it with those of us outside of it, they knew their credits held more value than our dollar. They could buy anything or anyone and I didn’t even think of the things they wanted to do to them.
“I don’t know what these protocols are for teaming up with someone when you’re gonna assassinate some people. But can I ask why you want this Nettle guy dead? I mean it’s obvious, ya know, Nettle chocolate, but wouldn’t they just appoint another CEO?”
“They will, that CEO will be me.” He straightened his navy-blue pin-striped suit. His curly brown hair was clean and brushed. He looked good like he was a rich scumbag which was perfect I suppose.
“I’m not following.”
“I’m that bastard’s biological son. That old fuck raped my mother when she was only fifteen and I was born. My mother tried to get him to acknowledge me but he wouldn’t. Now he gotta deal with her angry bastard son.”
“But they could just say you’re not his kid.”
“Got that covered too. We’re not alone here. Other members of Phantom are doing their thing within the walls and they’ll help us out. They got my genetic results that prove he’s my father and at the right time they’ll broadcast it when I need it. They must relinquish control of the company to me. I will get what belongs to me.”
I couldn’t help but think of Theon when he said that.
“What will you do when you get the company?” I asked.
“Shut down those factories and focus on building an irrigation system so we can get some clean water outside the walls. I’m sick of watching kids bring buckets of filthy water home.
“That would be a good day.” I smiled. “No more Nettle’s chocolate.”
“Hell yeah, it’ll be a damn good day.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: NANA
Grass still grows here and the trees are still green, the fountains actually work, and the water isn’t a pissy yellow. This is the second time I’ve ever seen the inside of the walled city. The first was a tour given by Duke to the new recruits, showing us how to sneak in and out without being seen. Phantom had small bases everywhere and that included inside the wall. If we couldn’t operate without being seen then we were worthless. If a recruit got caught during the tour, we left them to their fate.
The car dropped us off at a corner, we would walk to the hidden base from here. A little yappy dog barked at us on our way and I couldn’t stop staring at it, it looked like a little cotton ball.
The base was a flower shop, Kaidan hooked his arm in mine, for all intents and purposes we were a couple strolling down the street in search of flowers.
“I’m looking for the black bat flower,” Kaidan said to the clerk.
“Right this way, we just had some shipped in.” A tall, frail looking man opened the door to the back room and let us inside.
“Good, you guys made it.” Another chubby man with rosy cheeks waited inside. He finished tapping on the keys and looked us over. “You look like a cute couple. Beautiful people can get away with a lot more than ugly people.” He gestured us over. “Kaidan, your fa—I mean the CEO will be in a meeting in the conference room A4 watching the speech. He and his wife are also staying at the Trinity Hotel, which is next door to the Senate Hall. Penthouse room two. I’ll get you set up and send you off first. As for you Nana, Zanni’s speech is at three this afternoon so you got about two hours to complete your mission. You can either get her in Penthouse suite four or just before she reaches conference but not inside the conference room nor in front of cameras.”
After he set me up with a commlink and an attendant outfit to change into I left for the hotel. I hated the tight skirt that felt like it was showing off the cusp of my ass but it was just to get me inside, through the lobby and to the toilets to change. I heard a few of the fat cat politicians murmuring about something, maybe if I take a listen, they might reveal something interesting. Nope, just something about pie recipes and ass chaffing. The only alarming news was that the Japanese were now classified as an endangered race.
Once I reached the toilets, I quickly slipped on the light grey pants and a top that was the uniform of the attendants at the hotel. And let me tell ya, it felt so much better to be wearing pants and boots. Taped to the back of the toilet was the gun one of the operatives within Phantom left for me.
“Shit, Nana. Did he send Kaidan first?” Marina scoffed over my comms.
“Yeah, why what’s wrong?”
“Shit! You were supposed to go first not second. Stupid fat asshole.”
“Well, what should I do, turn back?”
“How far are you?”
“I’m here at the hotel.”
“Shit!”
“I don’t see the big deal unless there is something I don’t know.”
