The sun burned down from a white sky onto a land of ash and bone. A stark landscape marked with black shadows grounding huge boulders that looked as though they’d fallen from heaven or been shoved up from hell. Why anyone would live in such a place she could not fathom. To each his own.
“So, what was your childhood like?”
“Typical to the point of stereotype. I’ve got a big family. Siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, the works. Mom was a teacher and Dad was a cop.”
“Was? Did they pass away? Killed in a tragic accident when you were young and impressionable?”
She shot him a look. “Was as in retired. I talk to them at least once a week.”
“Both, they’re both still alive?”
“Yeah, alive and ticking.”
“And together?”
“Uh, yeah. Hey, where are you going wi-. Oh, I get it. You’re trying to figure me out. What’s a nice girl like me doing in a job like this. Beaten by father, fiddled by uncle, abused by mother, blah, blah, blah. Nope.
Truth is, I sort of fell into it by accident. But I stay because I like it.” Shrugging she continued, “The money doesn’t hurt. Though you’d be surprised at how cheap a human life can be.” She shoots him twice in the chest then in the head. “Or, maybe you wouldn’t.”
Looks at the time. “Oh bugger fuck, I’m late.”
***
“You were supposed to wait until I got there.”
“You were supposed to be there at twenty eight hundred local time.”
“I was fifteen minutes late!”
“Which means I am now fifteen minutes late.”
“The client won’t be happy. There were questions that needed to be asked. This wasn’t just an elimination.”
“What am I? An amateur? I downloaded the contents of his brain. The client will have to do a search but the information is there.”
“You’ll bring it in.”
“Yeah. After.”
“After what?”
She shut down the link and punched in coordinates.
***
“By the Gods, Alie. You’re HUGE!”
“Sephie, you are not supposed to say that to pregnant women!”
Sephie laughed and hugged her older sister. “Sorry I’m late. My meeting ran over.”
“And what planet was this meeting on?”
“One fifteen minutes farther away than I planned on. Let’s get you and the quadruplets-,”
“Twins!”
“Inside and celebrate properly. Don’t worry, I’ll drink champagne on your behalf.”
Alie slung an arm over her sister’s shoulders, “I think you are the 20th person to make that offer.” Laughing they walked across the front porch and into the house.
***
Several hours and a couple of alcohol neutralizers later she landed at the rendezvous point, a house in a once prosperous neighborhood in one of the inner colonies. Rendezvous points were valid from between several hours to several weeks. Usually, though, they last a few days. Constant monitoring meant that she should be warned if the site were compromised but the business wasn’t survivable without back ups.
Parking several blocks away she jogged lightly through alleys to the back of the house. She extended her senses and checked her scanner. No one, alive or dead, was there. The rendezvous point would still be active until the next morning. Sephie tossed up a few monitoring units. As she watched them float through the air she checked the communicator implanted under the skin beneath her ear. Good to go. Sitting in her seat she cast camouflage settled in to wait.
***
She awoke to blackness. A dense, heavy blackness devoid of any light. There were no shades of grey, no soft edges here. She was still in her shuttle but the vibration told her she was on the move. There was no sound she could discern beyond the humming of her transport but a deep breath revealed air that was damp and salty. Which told her little. The reason this world was originally colonized was the sheer amount of water present. There were no continents so much as a few strings of large islands. It did tell her she was probably still on planet.
The transport came to a stop and harsh light slashed the black dazzling her eyes. “We know you are awake. The drug only lasts a standard hour in a humanoid of your weight.” The voice sounded familiar. “Please step out of the vehicle.” In the seat of her shuttle Sephie debated. They’d probably taken the whole thing because the security on it wouldn’t allow them to access her. It should have also filtered out whatever they used to knock her out. She’d have to look into that, when she got out of her current situation . “Or we can simply crush the entire shuttle with you inside.”
“If you wanted me dead I’d never have been allowed to wake up.”
“Your being alive is preferable, but not entirely necessary. Do come out. There is something we’d like you to see.” They knew she was in the business. If they tried to kill her and download her brain they’d have to avoid triggering the self destruct.
The familiar voice belonged to a familiar face. One she put two bullets in not more than twenty-four hours ago. Twins. Identical twins.
That wasn’t in the file and it sure as hell should have been. The psychic bond between twins meant certain precautions. Safeguards that weren’t taken since she hadn’t known they were fucking twins.
“I see from your expression that I don’t have to explain. You could make this easy for everyone and simply hand over my brother.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Yes. After all you are a professional. Why would you care about my family? But, I thought maybe, you might care about yours. Dad’s a cop, mom’s a teacher, right?”
He flicked his wrist. A holo projection of the lake house popped up before them. Two men walked out with her mother between them.
“Give me my brother and your mother lives.”
“And me?”
Silence.
“That doesn’t sound like such a great deal.”
“Your mother might disagree.”
“Mom always said the worst thing a mother could endure is the death of her child. This video, it was taken a while ago. After the party?”
“Does it matter. She’ll be here, soon. I wonder if you will be so blase when your mother is before you, begging for her life.”
“Why not just torture me?” Sephi asked.
“We’re looking for honesty.”
“And you think torturing my mother will make me honest.”
“We’ve had success in the past.”
“Then why do you look so nervous?” Sephie smiled. “Mom should have been here by now.”
Everything goes black.
***
Sephie and her mom walk away from the building. A little bruised, a little battered. Laughing.
“You told him I was a teacher.”
“I never said what subject.”
“I taught you not to talk to them.”
Sephie hung her head and kicked a pebble. “I know.”
“You realize we have to kill them all now.”
“Well, yeah. You think Alie will want in?”
“We are not telling Alie. I can’t believe you told him I was a teacher.”
“Hey, at least I didn’t tell him how you and Dad met.”