him with a smile on her face and love in her eyes.
She said "Good morning, darling. Welcome to the rest of our lives."
-She stood, leaning over him, and very gently kissed him.
\ No newline at end of file
+She stood, leaning over him, and very gently kissed him.
+
+==== Mellie: Detective, Resistance Operative ====
+
+Mellie had called in sick for a couple of days, getting Behan to cover
+for her. When she showed up, she looked like she'd been sick. Her eyes
+were deeply shadowed, black circles under them. She was obviously
+exhausted. She was told to go back home and come back the next day
+rested. She was perfectly willing to do that. She slept all day.
+
+She came in fresh and cheerful the next day. Behan and she caught a
+triple homicide in the North End. There were two suspects. Both had
+run off through the run-down neighborhood immediately after the
+killings. The cordon had been called down quickly though. They might
+still be trapped in the area.
+
+The house was made of gray stone like most of the others in the poorer
+sections of town. Dirty and covered with the red dust of the desert
+nearby, the houses looked like dark coffins dripping with blood.
+Mellie shuddered at the thought.
+
+They were out of the modified AirLorry before it touched down and
+running toward the house. Two uniformed officers stood guard, back to
+back, in the front space, eyes darting back and forth. Their shoulders
+eased back a little when the reinforcements landed.
+
+Mellie and Behan ran quietly past the two officers, using matter
+penetrating equipment to scan the house. Nothing seemed to be moving.
+Behan placed his hand on the door opener and overrode the lock. The
+door opened and they slipped inside. Mellie went right, Behar left.
+Still nothing moved.
+
+They found the bodies in a back room. The men had been lined up
+against a wall and shot. Like a firing squad. Millie thought.
+
+Two of the faces looked vaguely familiar. Behar drew in a sharp
+breath.
+
+She looked at him.
+
+"They're undercover Resistance operatives." he said. "Mason" he
+indicated the middle body "was a friend of mine. His wife is dead, but
+he has two sons and four grandchildren." He sighed. "I'm godfather to
+his sons."
+
+He looked at his friend a moment longer. When he turned back to her,
+his face was blank. "Let's check the basement."
+
+A hallway led outside with a door leading to the basement next to
+that. No light came from below.
+
+They pulled lights from their belts and started down the stairs. There
+were windows high on the walls, but the glass had been sprayed black.
+No light came through. And their lights seemed to be swallowed by the
+stygian darkness.
+
+They had almost reached the bottom of the stair when brilliant light
+exploded from a corner of the room, blinding them. Mellie dived to her
+right, followed by Behan, who landed on top of her.
+
+She said something like "Ummmpphh!"
+
+Behan rolled off and fired at the lights. Mellie was able to drag
+herself up beside her partner but was still having trouble breathing.
+Having a ninety kilo man land on top of you takes your breath away,
+she thought.
+
+The lights went out, although there was a dim glow where they had
+been.
+
+Mellie could hear whispers coming from that direction. She could see
+Behan's face and waved at the corner.
+
+He nodded. She went right. He went left. No lights. Nudging their feet
+along, trying to find objects silently. She thought she could see him
+as a darker shadow in the blackness. When he turned his face toward
+her, she knew she was right. They were less than twenty feet from the
+corner. The glow emanating from the area was a putrid yellow. The
+odors in the area were just as foul.
+
+Behan held up his fist, pumping it twice. Then he slashed it forward
+and they moved together. Leaping over boxes and cans. They landed in a
+pool of slime, which was glowing yellow. Movement to their right
+brought them scrambling to reach two figures moving toward the stairs.
+
+Moving faster than Behan, Mellie tackled the closest one. An inhuman
+screech shattered the silence and Mellie grabbed onto what felt like a
+crab leg.
+
+"Shit! Brol." she grunted. Wrenching the leg encased in chitin
+backwards, she felt it pull loose. The creature shrieked again.
+Multiple appendages grasped her , lifting her up and throwing her at
+the wall. She hit the duracrete wall and all the air rushed out of her
+- again. Sliding to the floor, she watched as Behan attacked the other
+Brol with a pipe he had picked up. He broke a couple of legs before
+the thing stuffed him under the stairs.
+
+They heard the two Brol skitter up the steps, then the yells and a
+couple of screams as they made their get-away.
+
+Mellie groaned and picked herself up from the floor, hobbling over to
+the stairs. Behan was just backing out from the small space
+underneath.
+
+He stood up, groaning even louder than Mellie. "You all right?" he
+asked.
+
+She smiled. "Probably about the same as you are."
+
+"In that case, call emergency." But he laughed.
+
+Officers came pounding down the stairs, looking concerned.
+
+Lt Marks appeared. "Well, you're both alive at least."
+
+One of the patrol officers joined them with a Brol leg in hand. It was
+about five feet long, made of hard chitin, an exoskeleton. Inside lay
+muscles and tendons and ligaments that attached to chitin instead of
+bone.
+
+A crime scene tech came by, looked at the leg, and said "We should be
+able to identify that guy by the morning."
+
+Mellie was surprised. "How can you identify one Brol out of the
+thousands on this planet?"
+
+The tech grinned. "They are all required to register when they arrive.
+We have their DNA. Each and every one of them." He got back to work.
+
+Behan nodded. "There's a law on almost every human planet. Alien
+sentients are required to register on arrival and record their DNA."
+He rubbed his back. "Brol are the most plentiful aliens on Agalder,
+but they are by no means the only ones."
+
+Lt. Marks walked over to them. "Get back to HQ. Get the computer work
+done." He hesitated a moment, looking at Mellie, then shrugged. "And,
+for God's sake, take a fresher. You both stink."
+
+The emergency personnel checked Mellie and Behan over and released
+them and they made their way back to Headquarters. There was a
+mountain of computer work to be done. Not only have they been fired
+upon and responded by firing their own weapons, but there was an alien
+species involved. But they washed up and put on clean clothes before
+getting to work. All personnel kept a spare set or two of clean
+clothes at HQ. Just in case.
+
+Something was bothering Mellie. Finally she recognized the concern her
+brain was niggling at. She turned to Behan. "Why didn't they kill us?
+That had to be deliberate."
+
+Behan looked up and nodded. "Good point." he said. "They never meant
+to kill us."
+
+Mellie frowned. "But they were shooting at us when we came down the
+stairs."
+
+Behan asked her "Did either one of us get hit?"
+
+"No, but..."
+
+"Brol never miss. They are close to the best shots in the universe.
+They want us alive. And they probably want to talk to us."
+
+==== Mellie: Detective, Resistance Operative ====
+
+"Well, we certainly want to talk to them." said Mellie.
+
+"I want to talk to them. I want you safely protected in here. You're
+not going anywhere near the Brol."
+
+"Do you think I'm afraid to meet them?"
+
+He snorted. "No. And that's the problem."
+
+Mellie looked at him, eyebrows raised.
+
+He sighed. "You are so determined to prove that you're just as tough
+as the guys that you put yourself in danger. The Brol are a
+patriarchal society. To be male is to be king of the hill. To be
+female is to live in misery.
+
+"The Brol warriors say that the females are all retarded and must be
+beaten regularly so they understand their duties. I passed a few words
+with a female Brol once. She seemed intelligent enough to me.
+Intelligent enough to learn a little Terran.
+
+"At any rate, with their attitude about women, the Brol would not take
+too well to a female officer. They have short tempers and they tend to
+lash out."
+
+Mellie stared at her partner for a full minute. Then she said "I'm
+going." She stood up, leaning her fists on her desk, towering over
+Behan. "You have to show them that humans value females as much as
+they value males. That we're equal. And screw their cultural
+sensitivities. We've got those, too."
+
+She leaned in a little closer. Behan was beginning to cross his eyes.
+"And as for that 'lashing out' business, we're pretty good at lashing
+out, too."
+
+With that, she straightened up and left the squad room. Every
+detective in the room followed her with their eyes. And Behan watched
+the watchers.
+
+The Brol contacted them the next day. Marks had pushed the BOLO to
+include any Brol anywhere or any being that even vaguely resembled a
+Brol. Several Brusqal and a Grinkek had been harassed. The Grinkek in
+particular was very angry. Grinkek do not get angry. Ever. Resembling
+terran mushrooms, they look nothing like Brols.
+
+Lt. Marks set up the meeting. He tried to insist on a dozen officers
+to accompany Behan and Kaminsky to the meeting but was turned down.
+
+They did agree that he could come and bring one other. Marks chose
+Alex Biggers. Mellie and Behan stared at him.
+
+"What?!" he asked.
+
+==== John Behan: Detective, Resistance Operative ====
+
+The Brol lived in an abandoned cosmetics factory, close to the
+crater's edge. They had dug nests and tunnels throughout the complex
+and no one had disputed their squatting rights. Picking a fight with a
+seven foot spider was not considered a good idea.
+
+The place was dark and creepy at night. Mellie whispered "Why didn't
+they just import cosmetics? They're not that expensive for the lower
+grades."
+
+Marks said "They were very expensive after the Iron Wars when taxes
+were placed on them. Manufacturing our own seemed like a good idea
+until the pirates showed up."
+
+They stopped on a low hill in front of the main building and waited.
+The Brol had wanted them to go inside - at night - with no lights in
+the building. Marks had expressed his opinion of that idea.
+
+So they stood and waited, their lights on, their hands on their guns.
+Biggers was whistling between his teeth until Behan threatened to
+shove those teeth down his throat.
+
+In the silence that followed, they could hear the same whispering that
+Behan and Mellie had heard in that basement. A minute later, they saw
+movement near the factory. It looked like a dark rug flowing toward
+them. The forward movement wasn't fast, but definitely threatening.
+Marks stepped forward and spoke.
+
+"That's far enough. Any farther and we will leave."
+
+A sinister chuckle ran through the spiders. Behan was very glad he had
+emptied his bladder before coming.
+
+Marks took another step and his attitude had changed. His shoulders
+were braced, his jaw set, and his eyes as hard as rock. He radiated
+belligerence. The other three walked forward with him. The spiders
+backed up, some being shoved against the building by their fellows.
+
+Marks stopped three meters from the Brol. "Now that we've got that out
+of the way," he asked "why did you want to talk to us?"
+
+One spider, larger than the rest, skittered forward a meter. Its
+whispery, raspy voice sent shivers down Behan's spine, while the hairs
+on the back of his neck stood up.
+
+"We talk to Behan. You weren't there."
+
+Mellie stepped forward. "I was there. You talk to me, too."
+
+The Brol actually recoiled. It hissed. "Take female away."
+
+Behan moved up beside Mellie. "She is my partner. She fought one of
+your people in that basement. She was there. She stays."
+
+A murmur ran through the crowd. "If she stays, we will leave." said
+the leader.
+
+Behan chuckled. "Then go." He turned to leave.
+
+The murmur grew louder. "Wait."
+
+Behan kept on walking. The others turned to follow.
+
+"Very well. She stays."
+
+They stopped and retraced their steps until they were crowding the
+leader. It waved a leg at them. "Move back. You're too close."
+
+They stepped back.
+
+Behan asked "What did you want to tell us?"
+
+Two of its three eyes glanced at Mellie. "Others of your kind came two
+days ago. They promised to pay us well if we killed the humans in that
+house. We went there last night and killed them. We were looking for
+anything that might be valuable to us when you trapped us."
+
+The leg wave again, this time to include the mass of spiders behind
+it. "We were not responsible for the deaths of those humans. They were
+killed by their own kind."
+
+Behan's jaw was clenched so tight that he thought his teeth might
+crack.
+
+Mellie yelled. "Bull shit!" She moved another step until she was right
+in the leader's face. "You killed them. For money. That makes you
+responsible."
+
+The Brol raised its two forelegs and gave a very obvious shrug. "We
+were only the instruments."
+
+Mellie put a hand on Behan's arm. He was trembling with the need to
+attack this blithe murderer. He glanced at her and took a few deep
+breaths. The trembling subsided.
+
+"No." he said. "You made a choice. You chose to murder three good
+people. I don't know much about the Brol, but from what I have seen
+tonight, I doubt there are three good people among you."
+
+The lead Brol raised his two front legs as if to step forward. A
+jabbering came from the back of the crowd. The spokesman put his feet
+back down. Behan realized that he was just a spokesman. The real
+leader, at least of this group, was at the back.
+
+"Why did you want to talk to us?" Behan asked.
+
+There was movement in the crowd and the largest Brol Behan had ever
+seen came forward. It pushed the spokesman aside and spoke. "We know
+who ordered the kill. If you want to know, you will pay us 60,000
+credits by tomorrow night. No negotiation."
+
+The monster turned and reached out with its front legs, grabbing the
+spokesman. Casually it bit off the creature's head. Then it threw the
+wildly twitching body to the side and sauntered off, chewing noisily.
+
+==== Harlan: Thief, Resistance Operative ====
+
+The four humans stood absolutely still for nearly a minute. Then they
+turned and walked away. Biggers got just far enough away to put an
+outbuilding between them and the mob of spiders before he threw up. He
+managed to do it very quietly.
+
+The other three stood by. Mellie handed Biggers a tissue after he was
+able to continue walking. She said "Don't feel bad, Alex. We were all
+struggling to keep our dinners down." She patted him on the shoulder,
+earning her a weak smile from the detective.
+
+The department had plenty of money. The bribe was paid. They were
+actually expecting a much larger number.
+
+They got the name the next day. Chas Hawkins. The chief of the
+Syndicate. Behan passed the word on to Santorini at the Resistance.
+And Santorini passed it on to Jake Rogers, one of the best assassins
+on the planet.
+
+Two nights later, the Big House suddenly turned into a stirred up
+sting dauber's nest. People were running in and out of the doors, even
+through the windows. Lights stabbed at every inch of the lawn and
+shrubs. People could be seen inside, gesticulating, shouting.
+Eventually the people and their intrusive lights returned to the
+house. Quiet returned, but it was a menacing quiet.
+
+Had anyone been watching, he might have caught a glimpse of a group of
+five shadows within the night's darkness. This darker dark moved
+across the lawn to a group of houses on a tree lined street with few
+lights. Very few watchers could have followed the progress of the
+shades from tree to tree, staying in the blackest part of the murky
+gloom.
+
+Harlan was one of those very few watchers. He saw their progress down
+the street. He followed them as they slipped through the night, unseen
+by people only a few feet away.
+
+Harlan realized that the group was splitting up. Three continued on
+toward the Green Palace, but the other two went in opposite
+directions.
+
+Harlan watched the two head out. One was going for John Behan. And the
+other was after Mellie. Harlan took to the roofs, running as fast as
+he could. He pulled out his communicator and called Behan.
+
+"Yeah?" came a gruff voice.
+
+"John, you're going to have a visitor in about five minutes."
+
+"Are you behind him?"
+
+"No. Another one is going for Mellie. And three are headed to the
+Green Palace."
+
+"No problem. I'll take care of this one and call the Palace. You take
+care of Mellie."
+
+"Right." Harlan disconnected and jumped from one roof to the next.
+He'd never jumped that particularly wide gap before. Now he barely
+noticed.
+
+It was late, past end of day. Harlan opened Mellie's bedroom window
+without thinking of how she might view the intrusion. The flash of a
+phaser brought him to a halt. A burn spot appeared 2 millimeters from
+his left ear.
+
+"Mellie! It's me!"
+
+Mellie appeared out of the shadows in her room and smacked him in the
+jaw. "You friggin' idiot! I could have killed you. All I could see was
+a dark figure wrenching my window open."
+
+Harlan rubbed his jaw. "You hit like a girl." he said. She drew her
+fist back for another demonstration and he caught it in his hand.
+"Okay. That hurt. The Syndicate is sending you a visitor and I don't
+think he's friendly."
+
+She nodded and reached into her cupboard for her phaser's power pack.
+"How do you think he'll come in?" she asked as she checked her weapon.
+
+"Through the kitchen." Harlan said. "But we need to cover both the
+bedroom and the kitchen."
+
+Mellie nodded. "What about the other entrance points? The front door?
+The rec room?"
+
+Harlan glanced at the windows with the stunning view of the city. "No
+one's coming through that window. If I can't do it, no one can. And as
+for the front door? No way. Too expected."
+
+So, of course, the intruder came in through the front door.
+
+Harlan was moving between rooms and he heard the slightest squeak of
+the hinges. Mellie was flat against the wall just inside the kitchen.
+Harlan could see her looking at him. He indicated the front room. She
+opened her eyes wide, raised her eyebrows, and grinned at him. He
+rolled his eyes. He wasn't going to live that gaffe down.
+
+The two of them moved to positions on either side of the entrance to
+the rec room and waited. And waited. Nothing happened.
+
+Fifteen minutes. Twenty. Nothing. Twenty-five minutes. Then a sock
+flew through the air and landed on the floor inside the rec room.
+Neither Harlan nor Mellie moved.
+
+Another five minutes before a shoe followed the sock, landing with a
+thunk.
+
+The intruder waited another ten minutes before he poked his head into
+the rec room and found himself facing the wrong ends of two phasers.
+He didn't move anything except his mouth. "If I moved fast enough, you
+two would shoot each other."
+
+Mellie looked at him with a nasty smile. "Go ahead. Try it."
+
+He smiled back. "No. I think I'll just put my weapon down and let you
+tie me up. Which is what Cassidy told me to do anyway."
+
+"Cassidy told you to give yourself up to us?" Harlan was incredulous.
+"I don't think so. Not after you killed three of our best people."
+
+"I didn't kill them. Nobody knew about that hit except Hawkins and
+four of his goons. His 'Special Squad', he called them. Well, he's
+gone now and Cassidy's in charge and he doesn't want anybody else
+killed. On either side."
+
+Mellie was nodding. "That makes sense, Harlan. Cassidy's known for his
+pragmatism."
+
+The intruder was nodding.
+
+"What's your name?" asked Harlan.
+
+"Ned Moreno. My father was Timmy Moreno. You might remember him,
+Harlan."
+
+Harlan remembered. Timmy Moreno. His father's friend. A man of honor
+and strength. Harlan had looked up to him. And he had played with
+Timmy's son. Ned.
+
+"Ned." he said. "I thought you died with your dad."
\ No newline at end of file
projects / universe.git / blobdiff