Authors: Joseph Lallo
“
Okay, let’s see. I was a half a month behind in my rent when I left. How long ago was that?” he muttered to himself, reflecting on what seemed like several lifetimes of events, “At least a month. So I’m a month and a half behind. That’s two decent paychecks, probably. So I’m going to be homeless for at least two weeks.”
He tapped the intercom.
“
Mrs. Dunne,” he said, continuing as it negotiated a connection, “Hopefully I can convince her to let me get some of my clothes. Maybe I can get her to take my flatscreen in lieu of rent.”
The screen timed out with an error.
“
What the hell,” he said with a shrug. In an act of blind optimism, decided to give his slidepad a try. He waved it across the door. It opened.
“
What the hell?” he remarked, now in surprise, as he stepped inside.
He made his way to his apartment, and sure enough, his slidepad opened its door as well.
“
What the HELL?!” he repeated upon seeing his home for the first time since this mess had begun.
It was clean. Not cleaned out, as in robbed, but cleaned up. Takeout boxes were removed, floors were mopped. His tiny little home was downright presentable. As he was admiring it, the clicking footsteps of high heels startled him. He looked up to see a statuesque, dark skinned goddess in a perfectly tailored business dress walk out of his bathroom.
“
Welcome home, Mr. Alexander. You are late,” said Miss Misra, “I hope you don’t mind that I had the place straightened up.”
“
Wha- What are you doing here?”
“
I received your message,” she said, withdrawing a very lucky printout from its hiding place in her blouse pocket, “Let’s see now. ‘To: Miss Misra. From: That sunburned ass. Re: A word of warning. Dear Miss Misra, The password is where you had to touch up my skin cream.’” She grinned at him, tapping her left ear, “The contents of the attachment simply read, ‘Don’t let them activate it. Everyone will die.’”
“
I can’t believe you believed me,” he said, “I sent one to some random guy at that asteroid, but I don’t think he figured out the riddle I used for the password. Or he just thought I was a weirdo.”
“
A short delay seemed like a reasonable precaution. Mr. Patel was extremely grateful. He ruminated for a time on how best to illustrate his appreciation. Let me begin by saying that any disrespect you may have shown him through your past words or actions has been thoroughly forgiven.”
“
Well, that’s nice.”
“
Nice, perhaps, but in his eyes and mine, insufficient. We reasoned that your actions may have put you in a rather precarious position with VectorCorp, as well as being the source of considerable publicity that would make your life... difficult. Suppressing unwanted media attention and smoothing corporate and legal tensions are something of an essential skill in our field, so we set about wiping your slate, as it were.”
“
So that’s why I’m not running for my life anymore and staring at my face on every news report.”
“
Yes and no. It turned out there was little for us to do. Something to do with the Security Chief acting alone, and playing his cards quite close to his chest. We tugged a few strings to see to it that you were left alone by some of the stragglers, but it still seemed an inadequate showing of our gratitude, so we looked into your life, and found that you had been evicted.”
“
Yeah...” he said, the direction of the conversation making him nervous.
“
Well, Uncle had been toying with the idea of expanding his real estate holdings for some time now, so he purchased your building. Mrs. Dunne, it seems, was happy to be rid of it. I came here to oversee the transition. Things were only finalized yesterday.”
“
Diamond Nick Patel is my landlord now?”
“
He thought it would be an excellent way to keep in touch with you, on those occasions when he is in need of the services of a reliable and skilled pilot. The apartment is yours to live in, rent free, for as long as you like. One less thing to worry about. Won’t that be nice?”
“
Oh, yeah, this will be a huge load off of my mind,” he said flatly. He shook his head, sincerity returning to his voice. “Thank you, though. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.”
“
You are welcome, Mr. Alexander. You earned it and more.”
There was a buzz from the intercom. He tapped the “peep” button. The face looking back at him managed to make his heart skip a beat. After all of these years, after all of this time, it still managed to do that. He quickly answered.
“
Michella!” he said, a bit more excitement making to his voice than he’d intended.
“
Trev. Can I come in?” she asked, a smile that was almost nervous and shy warming her expression.
Lex turned to his guest/superintendent, touching the mute button.
“
By all means. I must be going. I only remained so that I could explain the situation personally, and give you my gratitude.”
“
Yeah. Yeah, come on up,” he replied, releasing the mute and tapping the entry buzzer.
He turned back to Miss Misra.
“
I do hope you’ll consider working with my Uncle, if he requests it,” she said, stepping toward the door, “We have plenty of legitimate pursuits that could benefit from your skills. And a handful that are less legitimate, if you are feeling adventurous.”
“
Right now I think it might be a good idea to lie low for a while.”
“
A wise decision. And Lex?” she said.
“
Yes?”
She removed her glasses, leaning forward to plant a slow, tender kiss on his lips. When they parted, she looked him in the eyes.
“
Thank you,” she said.
“
Uh...” he replied. It was the best he could manage.
The smirk came to her lips again as she replaced her glasses. She opened the door and stepped into the hall, encountering Michella on the way out.
“
Miss Modane, congratulations on all of your success, and my compliments to your exceptional investigative work. I have great respect for what you’ve done.”
“
Oh, uh, well thank you,” Michella replied, offering her hand.
Miss Misra shook it gracefully, and continued on her way. Lex, in an act nearly as difficult as the rest of his adventure combined, managed to keep from watching her go.
“
Who was that?” Michella asked, as Lex closed the door behind her.
“
Mmm? Her? Oh, no one. She’s my new landlord’s assistant,” he replied quickly.
“
She seems nice. But that dress was a bit much,” she said, turning back to the door.
Lex took the opportunity to glance at his reflection in the flat screen to make sure that there wasn’t any lingering evidence of Miss Misra’s gratitude. On his face, at least.
“
How did you know I’d be here? I only just got back.”
“
I asked Marv to give me a call if you showed up. He said you’d be walking home, so I waited a few hours.”
“
That was thorough.”
“
Investigative reporter, remember?”
“
Heh, Yeah. … So, Michella. It’s been a while,” he said, dumbly.
“
It has,” she said, looking away.
She definitely seemed nervous. There was a tension in the air, the kind of feeling you get when you go on a first date with an old friend who you hope can be something more. A fear of losing something good in the pursuit of making it better.
“
Congratulations on all of the coverage.”
“
Thank you. And thank you for your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“
I... I’ve only really glanced at the news. A lot on my mind lately. What ended up happening?”
“
Plenty. It turns out Trent tried to cover his tracks after you escaped. He erased everything. The Gemini information that you’d given me a copy of, video footage from that day, recordings, conversations. Every piece of surveillance for the last three months was wiped clean, and there are missing records dating back over three years. It turns out VectorCorp as a whole was legitimately unaware of his plans. It was entirely financed by their black budget, security funds. We can’t turn up anything to suggest there had been authorization, or even consultation, by VectorCorp proper. Their stock price took a hit, but VC is coming out of this looking like the victim. This was Trent’s baby, and had it not been for you, all of those people would have died. And if it hadn’t been for the information you gave me, Trent might still have walked for lack of evidence.”
She clutched her hands awkwardly in front of her.
“
Do you want to sit down?” Lex asked.
She nodded. Out of habit, he leaned down to clear a spot, having already forgotten it had been cleaned. She sat on the futon. He joined her.
“
This the first time I’ve been to your new apartment. This place is barely the size of our old dorm room,” she remarked, looking around.
“
Yeah, I’ve been having some cash flow problems.”
Both sat quietly for a moment. When they spoke, it was simultaneously.
“
Trevor, I-” she began.
“
Michella, you-” he said, continuing, “No, you first.”
“
It’s just. I... When we were together, I was happy, you know? We were a good couple. But even then, I felt like you were just a little boy. Not mature. Not living in the real world. I was wrong about you. I thought that you were selfish, that the only person that mattered to you was you. That mess with the Tremor Grand Prix... You wanted what you wanted, and you didn’t care what you had to do to get it. You were willing to destroy yourself if it meant you could have what you thought life was all about. I just... I didn’t have it in me to watch you do that to yourself. Over the last two years you seemed to be straightening out, and then that business with Nick Patel... I was wrong. You saved those people. You risked your life, and you didn’t even want credit. I was wrong about you, and I don’t know what I can say...”
“
No...” Lex said, taking her hand in his, “Listen, Michella. You weren’t wrong. You knew me better than I did, and it wasn’t until this past month that I realized it. A lot has happened in the past month. Things I haven’t told you. Things you wouldn’t believe if I did. Things even I have a hard time believing. I learned a lot about myself.”
They hugged for a long time.
“
So... where do we go from here? Do you want to tell me the rest of what happened?”
“
I do, but... later. For right now, let’s just have right now.”
She smiled and nodded, pulling his arm around her and leaning her head on his shoulder. It was a perfect moment, one that he wished would last forever. One that, inevitably, was interrupted by his chirping slidepad. With a groan, he glanced at it. It was a message from Karter.
“
Lex. Got the feedback. Good data. I have a job for you. New ship I want you to try. Get back to me,” it read.
“
Who was it?” Michella asked, eyes closed and snuggling closer.
“
No one. I’ll tell you later,” he said.
Lex looked at the heavenly creature nestled under his arm. He had a new ship, he had his little apartment, and for this moment, he had his girl. He had everything he needed. His finger hovered over the delete button. With a smirk, he tapped save instead.
Well,
almost
everything...
###
Thank you for reading this, the first of what I hope to be many Science Fiction novels. Though I genuinely enjoyed writing this, my first love is fantasy. If you like my writing, please take a moment to sample some of my other works. The first book of my Book of Deacon trilogy is available for free at many retailers. If you have anything to say, good or bad, I would love to hear it, in the form of a review, or if you prefer, an email.
Contact Information
Website:
http://www.bookofdeacon.com
.
Twitter: @jrlallo
Email: [email protected]