Fiction Friday! Escape pod here. To be honest I've just linked Rixx's blog. He made me the awesome new banner at the top so he gets the linkage today.
As you read this I should be in the UK. I hope so anyway. Fanfest is soon(tm)!
Harsh Justice
"So you have no material witnesses that my Client was outside the resident as you claim?"
"I am a legitimate businessman your honor, who, for some unknown reason, the Police continue to harass!"
"So Counsel. You are saying your primary witness has vanished from the back of the police transport en route here?"
"This court finds the defendant 'not guilty'. You are free to go. Case dismissed!"
Xavier just sat there in the public gallery as people around stood and slowly moved towards the exits. He didn't move as the courtroom emptied. Soon he was by himself, the silence was deafening. He knew this would happen. However he had still placed his faith in the system. It had failed him.
Xavier was a professor in advanced chemistry at the City of Saleux University on Deltole VI. A year ago his life was perfect. He was married to a loving wife, had an amazing daughter who was about to go to university and did a job he loved. Then there was that night. The night that had been replayed in this courtroom for the two days.
He answered the door late to be greeted by a fist. Three men had charged in whilst he was stunned and wrestled him to the floor. His wife had run to see what the commotion was and was grabbed by one of the intruders as was his daughter who ran down the stairs moments later. They had tied them up and gagged them with tape. They then had dragged them to his home laboratory. They gave him a list of chemicals that they needed. He explain he didn't have them at home as the ones they wanted were too restricted and he had only some basic chemicals for preparing lessons. They hadn't believed him, two appeared high on some substance and were getting twitchy. He had tried to calm them down but it hadn't worked. They had just got angrier.
"Tell us where you are hiding the good stuff or shit will get crazy around here. I'm going to count to ten." the leader had hissed in Xavier's ear.
He begged them not to hurt his family. That he didn't have the chemicals in the house but he could get them from the university. They refused to wait, convinced he had them at home. Once the leader finished counting to ten, they made good on their promise. The sounds of the screams, the horrific gurgling sound, the scrape of grinding glass, the bang of the gun. They all came flooding back to him.
Xavier put his hands in his hands and wept in the now empty courtroom.
-o0o-
One Year Later...
The bar was busy. It was midnight and the drink was flowing and the music was booming from the hi-tech speakers. The latest Gallente Electro music was fading out and the faster beats of the Matari trance was taking over. The DJ was taking the music up a gear.
The blonde was sat at the bar with a bright green cocktail in front of her. She looked entirely bored. Two Matari men were stood just off to one side of her in black suits. Everyone could see they were bodyguards. The blonde sighed as she took another sip of her drink twiddling the clear stirrer in the drink. She glanced at her watch, she was indeed bored. Dating the local crime boss sounded fun to most girls and to be honest the benefits outweighed the negatives. He was a high ranking and very rich member of the Serpentis crime syndicate. However, for all the danger and excitement she found herself bored most of the time. Vinetti was monumentally jealous and the two Minmatar bodyguards followed her everywhere. Any guy who spoke to her was warned off. Any guy who ignored the warning took a savage beating for their interest. Still, she'd rather be a gangsters girl than an accountants. The money, gifts and lifestyle had certainly made up for it. Yes she had to do bad things occasionally. Turn a blind eye to something or lie to the cops or a judge once in a while. But hell, the lifestyle was great.
Yasmine returned from the washroom and jumped up onto the barstool next to her.
"Still no action?" she asked.
"What, with Stiff One and Stiff Two stood there giving the evils to any man to glance our way. I mean I wouldn't ever cheat on Vinny but be nice to chat to some new people." she moaned.
"I know what you mean. About both things! Is it true Vinny's last girl cheated on him and he got some back-street doc to remove, well everything!"
Lana looked at her aghast. "No!"
"Oh really? The word is she is still alive. Just a bare head on a bare torso in a hospital bed. She cannot see, smell, taste, hear. You know after the Doc removed everything that he could without killing her! Arms, legs. eyes, ears and eardrums, tongue, vocal chords....."
Lana waved a hand at Yasmine in a "As if" motion. The truth was she could believe that to be true.
"Next time we'll go to a lessy bar" Yasmine suggested "At least we could get chatted up there!". Both girls fell about laughing.
"Here take this, if we cannot have men, lets have some medicinal fun" Yasmine discreetly passed Lana a pill.
"What is it?" she whispered so the guards didn't hear.
"Its a light form of Party Crystal. A guy was selling near the bathrooms, gave me a freebie to try."
The girls giggled, popped the pills and smiled at each other.
Two minutes later the side door to the club burst open as the bodyguards carried the two hysterical women to the car as they foamed at the mouth.
-o0o-
Vinnetti put the communicator down and shook his head, leaning back in his favourite chair in his study. His girlfriend had been rushed to his private hospital after taking some dodgy drugs at a club.
Some idiot dealer had apparently cut the Crystal with household chemicals. However when in the mouth the combination of chemicals had reacted with saliva to create an organic acid that attacked calcium. The stupid bitch had lost all her teeth in a matter of minutes. His doctor had told him that his girl would be fine and they were growing her a new set of teeth to implant in the morning. He chuckled slightly thinking he should have asked the doctor not to bother. A toothless girlfriend would have some benefits.
There was a knock at the door and one of his enforcers entered.
"You wanted to see me boss?" he enquired.
"Yeah Stamper. Some idiot was selling dodgy Crystal down at the Raven Club last night. Find out who it was and remove all their teeth. Oh and give them a broken jaw as well for their trouble. Then find Yasmine. She gave my girl the bad pill. Grab her and put her to work in the cathouse down in the industrial area. She'll probably resist so make sure they drug her to the eyeballs so she doesn't even know her own name. After she's done a hundred guys cut her loose."
The thug nodded with a smile and left Vinetti's study.
-o0o-
Doctor Tiago entered the lab and saw the blue glow from the bio-reconstruction chamber. A technician in a white lab coat was leaning over the controls.
"How are those..... who are you? Where is Kias?" Doctor Tiago realised he didn't know the technician working in the bio-reconstruction laboratory.
"I'm Luca. I'm usually down in the pharmacy. Kias had a family emergency and asked if I could finish the run here."
Doctor Tiago nodded. He didn't really know anyone from the pharmacy down in the basement and generally he didn't want to know. The rumour was the pharmaceutical labs in the basement of the hospital cooked up both medicinal drugs for use in the hospital but also more recreational ones for sale planet-wide. Hence he stayed away. The private hospital was a front and mainly catered for the battered enforcers of the local Serpentis Syndicate. Medically they tended to patch up gunshot and knife wounds without any official records being submitted. Plastic surgery was also common procedure either for Vinnetti's men who needed a new identity after being identified by the cops or cosmetic enhancements to his often replaced girlfriends. In fact the one that he had in room 4 upstairs was well overdue for replacement. Two years was a new record for the crimeboss' girlfriends!
"It'll be another few hours Doc. You want to to bring them over to you when they are done?"
Doctor Tiago nodded. He glanced into the case where bright blue lasers were slowly constructing a new set of bright white teeth. As all seemed to be in order he left the bio-reconstruction lab as he left.
-o0o-
"So where is my money?" Vinnetti asked casually.
The sobbing man tried to compose himself. He was tied to a chair and his face was black and blue.
"I... I... spent it." Vinnetti's ex-book keeper sobbed.
"That is too bad for you then. Girta!"
Vinnetti turned towards the door and a woman emerged from the shadows. She was Gallente with long jet black hair and wore a black leather catsuit. She help a scalpel in her hand.
"This is Girta. You have never met her but you may have heard of the Mistress of a Thousand Cuts" Vinnetti grinned to the the man in the chair before turning to the woman "Slowly please darling. Very, very slowly."
Vinetti left the room and close the door behind him as the ear-piecing screams began. He walked up a flight of stairs and opened another door. His girl was laying on the bed watching a TV show. Vinnetti smiled, it was time to ensure that the doctor had done a proper job fixing her mouth. He closed the door and approached her unfastening his trousers.
Back downstairs Girta was sat in the bound man's lap slowly cutting at the screaming man's flesh with the scalpel as two enforcers looked on. They looked slightly green and uneasy given the scene unfolding in front of them. They were all too aware that the former employee of Vinetti's was not suffering an unusual fate for someone who had disappointed him. In contrast the woman seemed to thoroughly enjoy her job as she slowly sliced the bookkeepers flesh whilst she grinded herself into his lap. A muffled boom shook the room and a small section of plaster fell from the roof. The enforcers, glad for the distraction, look at each other and ran towards the staircase.
-o0o-
"What in divinities edge!" the Chief of Police exclaimed as he entered the bedroom.
Detective Isaac was crouched down looking at one of the bodies. He saw the Chief of Police enter and he stood.
"Sir. What are you doing here?"
"Someone told me Vinnetti got taken out. Given we've been trying to get him for five years I wanted to see first hand. But I never expected this!"
The Chief swept his hand across the scene in front of him. A headless female corpse lay on the floor. In front of her was Vinnetti on his back, a bloodied and ragged hole was where his groin used to be. One of his legs was just hanging on with a few threads of muscle. The walls, ceiling and floor were splattered with gore which was still dripping down.
"Sniper?" the police Chief asked looking down at the headless female.
"We thought so too first. However it appears to be much more complicated than that. Forensics said the broad's head exploded from the inside, taking Vinnetti's, erm, life with it."
"From the inside?" the Chief asked incredulously.
"The techs have yet to confirmed it. But given the shards they've been pulling out of the wall, a bio-explosive was likely hidden in her teeth. When Vinnetti and his girl got fruity... boom! The lab says they have no idea who could have done this, its high tech. Not likely to be any of the other gangs in the area."
The Police Chief just slowly shook his head, surveying the carnage.
-o0o-
Detective Isaac exited the interrogation room to find his partner standing opposite the door leaning on the wall.
"So, did he do it?" his partner asked.
"I don't think so." Isaac replied.
He'd been questioning Doctor Tiago for two hours. He claimed he knew nothing about the Serpentis Syndicate links to the hospital he work at and claimed innocence. His lawyer was also a real pain in the ass. Whilst Isaac was pretty sure the doctor knew what went on at that hospital, he was also sure he didn't have any knowledge that the teeth he was implanting into the woman were booby-trapped. However, he now had extra leads. A man called Luca made the teeth. So if it wasn't the doctor who hid the explosives it must have been this Luca.
A few minutes checking through the hospital staff database with Doctor Tiago confirmed there were no staff members by that name and none of the faces matched what Doctor Tiago remembered of the man.
-o0o-
Detective Isaac was at his desk reading a datapad when his partner entered.
"So where are we boss?"
Isaac lent back in his seat and sighed. "We have someone who spiked Vinnetti's girls drugs with a chemical that dissolved her teeth, this was obviously on purpose. Then that perp, or someone else working with him, infiltrated the Serp's private hospital, sneaked a bio-explosive into her replacement teeth so that her head became a bomb. The surveillance logs at the hospital are useless as the drives had an acid poured over them. Same MO at the Raven Club. We have no idea what this man or team look like or who they are."
"Yeah, this is some real Black Ops shit. We sure some state intelligence agency isn't involved in this?" his partner asked.
"Or a teacher?" Isaac mused. His partner looked at him like he didn't know what he was on about.
"You weren't here for the that were you? Three thugs broke into the residence of the head of chemistry at the University two years ago. They were after some specific nasty chemicals. They can be used in narcotics production and therefore tightly controlled so they were looking to steal rather than buy. As the professor had a lab at his home the idiots thought he'd have the good stuff stashed there. He didn't obviously. Anyway these bozo's were so high they weren't thinking straight. One decided to try to persuade the good professor to tell them where he was hiding the good stuff by pouring a bottle of concentrated hydrochloric acid into his wife's face. Worse stiff I've ever seen in my life. Her face just melted right off. That image of the blonde hair around the bleached skull face haunted my nightmares for weeks. When that didn't work they took all the glassware in the lab and smashed it into a large two metre by one metre soak-tank. They then threatened to put his daughter in there. He begged them not to, but as he had no chemicals to offer, they lowered his daughter in there face down with her hog-tied. They then slowly splashed some drops of acid over her back. Not enough to kill her, but enough to make her thrash about on top of the broken glass. When he still didn't give up the chemicals that weren't there, they then shot him four times and left. The daughter was dead by the time we showed up, bled out in the tank. Man, she was shredded. The professor was barely alive. He pulled through in the end, they managed to miss every major organ and artery. The professor ID'd two of the perps from our facial database. They were low-level thugs of Vinnetti's, Serps. We have never found them, we assume they got new faces at one of his specialist hospitals or Vinnetti just bio-massed them for making such a mess. Here's the file, I've been rereading it."
Detective Isaac slid over a datapad and his partner picked it up. He scrolled through a few times and slid the datapad back.
"Shit man. Why did you have to show me that. I got a wife and daughter too, no need to be showing a man shit like that!".
Isaac glanced down and saw the thumbnails of the professors faceless wife and the daughter with the front of her body completely shredded where they had made her thrash about on top of the broken glass. He shuddered.
"We got some intel that they went there specifically on Vinnetti's orders and he was even outside in a vehicle waiting for these chemicals he needed. We had our source in his organisation and he confirmed the rumours. So we pulled him out and we went for a prosecution. Trial lasted two days. The prison transport carrying our snitch turned up at the courthouse but when they opened the back, it was empty. No guards, no source. Vanished in transit. Vinnetti's girl had already taken the stand and swore he was with her that night, all night. No evidence, no witness, no chance. Judge found him not guilty as we had zero evidence and that was that."
"What happened to the professor?"
"Committed suicide, apparently, a few months ago. Left a note at his home saying he had to end it and hired a shuttle. That shuttle was found in the asteroid belt at P4 totally decompressed. Looked like he'd jerry-rigged the door to open and had flushed himself into outer-space. Gotta say explosive decompression wouldn't be the way I'd have chosen if I was him!"
His partner looked thoughtful.
"And no body was ever found I take it?"
"No." replied Isaac nodding at the significance.
-o0o-
"That is fine Mr, er, Iccuras. Is that a Gallente name? Its very unusual." the girl at the desk asked handing back the ID card. She had no way of telling it was fake, it was too good.
"No, its actually ancient Matari." the man lied "My great-grandfather was Minmatar."
"Oh right. Anyway here is a copy of the rental agreement, the activation codes for the shuttle and a leaflet on the sights of the solar system from Eve Travel. Is there anything else you need? Do you need a baggage drone?"
The man looked at her with sad eyes.
"No, thats fine thank you, there is no baggage."
"OK. The shuttle is ready for you in docking bay 94... Sir, Is everything OK?" the girl asked with genuine concern.
"Everything will be good in an hour thank you."
With that the man left towards the docking bay.
Three hours later a capsuleer miner reported a shuttle adrift in the asteroid belt near planet 4.
Apparently it appeared to be powered down and decompressed.
No comments:
Post a Comment