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==== Harlan: Thief ====

Harlan had been sitting on the edge of the roof for the past hour, 
waiting for Mellie. She always walked this way after she got off work 
and he could keep an eye on her. The streets and especially the alleys 
were dangerous away from APD headquarters. This was about as close as 
he dared come to the headquarters complex. Too many cameras, too many 
infrared imagers seeking live sources.

Those few blocks to the complex were safe, particularly for 
detectives. Mellie was one of the best. She could take down four or 
five attackers. But sometimes there were more, hiding in the crevasses 
of the alleys, crouching behind trash disposals, hanging from second 
floor windows. That's why Harlan waited. He would not allow anyone to 
harm her.

Dark brown eyes thoughtful, he sucked on a dopestick, peppermint 
flavored, while he waited. The mild euphoria helped the time pass. His 
sneaker clad feet hung over the edge, three stories up. He glanced up 
at the sky where a myriad of stars twinkled in the night. There wasn't 
much light pollution since electricity was a precious commodity on 
this planet. Neither of the two tiny moons were in the sky tonight.

Rapid footsteps, soft, but firm, came down the alley. Mellie passed 
underneath his position as he slid back onto the roof. Her head turned 
right to left as her eyes scanned the area on both sides and in front. 
She spun suddenly, walking backward, so that she could scrutinize the 
section behind her. Harlan hugged the shadows, holding his breath. Her 
eyes flicked over him and went on.

Facing forward again, she continued her walk. An Agalderan rodent, a 
puvu, which looked a lot more reptilian than mammalian, scurried 
across the alley in front of her. She ignored it. The animal turned to 
face the human, its shape a little odd. Harlan moved before he 
thought, swinging down from the roof to a balcony and from there to 
the ground in front of Mellie. He kicked the puvu up through the air, 
pivoted, and threw Mellie to the ground, his body covering hers. The 
puvu exploded with a loud bang and a hail of nails and staples. Harlan 
grunted.

Mellie pushed him off and examined his back. There were several holes 
in his tunic, all becoming bloodier by the second. He tried to get up 
but didn't make it.

"You complete idiot!" she snapped. "Now what am I going to do with 
you?"

"Marry me?" he asked.

She got him to his feet and with an arm draped over her shoulder, they 
started down the alley again.

Her condo was on the 36th floor. They could take the elevator to the 
35th floor but had to walk up to the 36th. Elevators only stopped 
every 5 floors. Harlan was thankful that it was only one floor.

She had a great view from one of the windows. The other windows looked 
out on the walls of the adjacent apartment complexes with their myriad 
windows. Sometimes a person would appear in one of the windows, but 
most of the time, the windows were closed and shaded.

She made Harlan lie down on the sofa and got his shirt off. He had six 
holes in the skin of his back. She could see the metal shards sticking 
out from three of them. Taking out the shrapnel was punctuated by 
swearing and groans from Harlan. She cleaned the wounds and wrapped 
his chest. Then she made him a drink.

As she sat beside him, her bright blue eyes evaluated him. She said "I 
suppose I should thank you for saving my life. But I'm just so mad at 
you for risking your own life and my cover that I can hardly speak." 
She took a gulp of her own drink.

He rolled on his side and looked at her. She was staring out over the 
lights of the city, avoiding his gaze.

"You have risked everything we've worked for. If I had been killed, it 
wouldn't have interfered with the plan. But if someone was watching, 
if someone saw your incredible theatrics, they will be adding two and 
two and getting 144." Her voice was rising in volume. "You're an 
idiot!"

Harlan looked up at her and sighed. "I love you." Gently pushing her 
off the sofa, he managed to sit up with a lot of groaning. "There is 
no way I could stay on that roof and watch you be blown apart." He 
started to pull his bloody shirt back on. "So deal with it."

She took the shirt from him and opened a closet. Pulling out a bag, 
she handed it to him. "I bought this for you a while ago. It should 
fit you."

He put on the shirt. Looking in a mirror, he nodded. "I have to go. 
Thanks for patching me up." He walked to the door. "Oh. You never 
answered my question. Will you marry me?"

She threw a pillow at him.

Heading back to the same alley where the explosion took place, he came 
to a stop a block away. There were cops all over the place. He took to 
the roofs, approaching silently. Lt. Marks, Mellie's boss was standing 
by the burn scars on the building. He was speaking softly, but 
Harlan's hearing was excellent.

"...know she was here." He waved a hand at the alley. "She came down 
from there. She must have been no more than twenty feet from the 
explosion. We should be looking at her body. But we aren't." He looked 
at his sergeant. "I want to know what happened here and I want to know 
tonight. Understand?"

The sergeant nodded with a weary expression on his face and turned 
away. "Yessir."

Harlan moved away, heading back to the streets and Emerald Hall. 
Santori, the head of the Resistance, needed to know about this. They 
might want to pull Mellie back to the Hall. Her cover might be broken. 
Mellie was right. The plans of the Resistance for reunification of the 
planet were more important than any one life. Except Mellie's.

==== Mellie: Detective ====

Melandra Kaminsky was the lowest of the low on the totem pole of 
detectives. At least in Homicide Division. She probably ranked a 
little higher than a few in Robbery or Vice. But she was new and young 
and had been naive at times. Harlan had helped her claw her way up the 
ladder in the department. He was the best man she had ever known. 
That's why she had taken Harlan back to her condo. That's why she was 
in love with him.

She cursed herself frequently. Why had she picked a damn thief to fall 
for? Why not one of the detectives? Because the detectives were a 
bunch of crooked, arrogant losers and she hated them, one and all. For 
crying out loud, Harlan was the most ethical, moral man she had ever 
met. Except for the stealing, of course. He was also the bravest, 
smartest, and most impossible human being she knew.

She had run across him when she was part of Robbery Division. He was 
supposed to be the best cat burglar in town. He had even robbed the 
Mayor! So when she showed up for the weekly, sometimes irregular, 
Resistance meeting, she was shocked to see Harlan drinking a mug of 
coffee and talking to Santori, the Head of the Resistance, usually 
called "Boss". Although she knew there were thieves, even servants and 
homeless in the group, she had thought Harlan would think himself 
above the petty politics of Agalder.

She cornered him after the meeting and told him that his position in 
the Resistance made no difference. She was going to put him away. He 
just grinned at her and told her she was free to try. Boss came up to 
them at that point and told her that she was to lay off Harlan. He was 
too important to the Resistance. Harlan and Mellie both began 
complaining that she had to do her job or raise suspicions.

Santori raised his eyebrow and asked "You want her to chase you?"

Harlan grinned "She couldn't catch a hen in a chicken coop."

Mellie had begun yelling at the thief when the "Boss" silently folded 
his tents and slipped away. Harlan seemed to enjoy the tirade. When 
she slowed down, he commented "You have a hell of a vocabulary." and 
walked away. And all she could do was sputter.

She continued to try to trap the thief, but every plan she developed 
fell through. She'd see him grinning at her from across the air shafts 
between tenements or from the other side of the river.

Then she caught him. Actually he caught her. He was sitting in a 
chair, waiting for her when she burst into the apartment. She heard a 
click as the door locked behind her. He ignored her gun and poured her 
a glass of wine. When she got over being furious, they talked, really 
talked, for hours. He let her go after kissing her thoroughly. She 
found that she couldn't think of anything else than Harlan, much to 
her annoyance.

She dropped her obsession with the thief and started piling up 
arrests. Her case clearance rate climbed until it beat everyone 
else's. The Mayor gave her a commendation (and groped a feel at the 
same time). She appeared to be the darling of the department. And now 
somebody wanted her dead.

When her partner, John Behan, a fiftyish balding man with a paunchy 
stomach, and two other detectives showed up at her apartment, she 
admitted to having been at the site of the explosion. She had come up 
with a story that fit the facts although it was a bit farfetched. 
Noting the raised eyebrows, she simply told them she'd see them at 
headquarters and shoved them out of her apartment. They couldn't 
exactly arrest her for not being murdered, so they left.

The next morning, she got to headquarters very early, took the first 
case to come in, and got out before day shift showed up. When she 
brought in her catch of the day, a wife killer, the other shift had 
gone home. She kept this up for several days until her colleagues gave 
up trying to pin something on her for not being killed.

Mellie ignored her partner and his buddies. She wasn't part of the 
'old boys' network' and never would be. She did her work and did it 
well. The Captain seemed to happy with her. And as she walked the 
grimy streets of Crater City, she felt a presence at her back and knew 
it was Harlan. She also felt the ghosts of the hundreds of thousands 
of people who had died on this planet. It was for those uneasy spirits 
that she had joined the Resistance. It was for them that she sought 
justice.

==== Captain Tavis: Chief, Agalder Police Department (APD) ====

Sam Tavis was an honest cop and had been amazed when he had progressed 
up the ranks so rapidly. He had expected his stubborn ethics would 
cause trouble and hold him back at some point. But his immediate 
superior had been a brilliant man and recognized the importance of 
having a totally trustworthy subordinate who could be duped into 
thinking that the Crater City Police Department was free of 
corruption. That had worked well until the time came when Tavis was 
faced with an untenable situation: support his boss or let a dozen 
innocent people die. He had saved the potential victims and his boss 
had died. The police force was turned inside out to find corrupt cops. 
Now he had a good group. He was pretty sure most of them were honest.

He was almost totally certain about Mellie Kaminsky. She was as 
straight an arrow as he had ever seen. But there was something she 
hadn't told him. Now she was dodging any questions about what happened 
in the alley three nights ago. It wasn't like her and he was worried.

He walked the same route she had that night through the safe zone 
around the headquarters, then into the dark alleys of Hollowtown, the 
area to the west of APD headquarters. He knew he was crazy to wander 
these alleys alone, but he had to see for himself. Garbage was piled 
high along the sides of the buildings. Some people just threw their 
refuse at the disposal openings and walked away, even if the noisome 
waste splattered against the side of the building. The openings to the 
trash disposals weren't all covered. He shuddered as he thought what 
could happen if a child climbed in there.

Movement to his right caught his attention and he turned, drawing his 
laser gun. A shadow appeared farther down the alley. He had started in 
that direction, moving slowly and carefully when the knife entered his 
back silently and sliced through his spinal cord. He dropped like a 
discarded puppet, regretting that he wouldn't have time to finish his 
work. He looked at the shoes next to him as a hand reached over him 
and twisted the knife. Then his eyes only saw eternity.

==== Harlan: Thief ====

Harlan was the one who found him. He was heading to his rooftop 
guarding position the following morning when he saw the body. Thieves 
had made off with his gun, identification, badge, and wallet, but 
Harlan knew Sam Tavis. He sat on the ground, legs splayed out, back 
against the wall and didn't move for a long time.

Mellie found him in the same position forty minutes later as she 
walked to work. At first she thought they both were dead. Then she saw 
the tears on Harlan's face. He didn't respond at first when she knelt 
beside him. Finally his eyes flicked to hers. He leaned forward and 
stood up.

Looking down at her, he said "Put in the call. Don't mention me. 
They'll know I was here, but say I was gone when you got here." He 
didn't touch her, just turned and fled into the warren of alleys. She 
watched him go with eyes that were also brimming with tears.

==== Lt. Marks - Chief of Detectives ====

Looking down at the body of Sam Tavis, Jason Marks felt a deep sorrow. 
His naturally dark eyes were even darker than usual. His thinning hair 
was blowing in the cold wind that prowled this place. He'd been 
expecting this for years. Tavis had been an honest cop. And a stubborn 
one. The man had stood up to mafia bosses and leaders of cartels, to 
politicians and other cops. He'd never bent. Marks had known this 
would happen eventually. There were too many bad guys in the world.

He knelt beside his friend and carefully removed the pendant around 
Tavis' neck. The chain was gold as was the rim around the stone, a 
dark brown, clear quartz from the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland on 
Earth. He was surprised the thieves who had taken everything else, 
including his shoes and tie, hadn't stolen this. But he was glad to 
see it. Tavis and he had talked about death and the talisman that he 
now held no more than a couple of months ago. Sam had told him to give 
it to Mellie in case of his death and to tell her to pass it on to the 
one she loved. It belonged to her lover, the captain had said. Her 
lover would be next in line, but he refused to say who the man was or 
what he was in line for. He did say to pass it on with his blessing 
and his love, which confused Marks even more.

Mellie was standing by a carryall, a self-operating vehicle that could 
carry either people or cargo. It would carry Sam Tavis to the morgue.

He walked over to her and in a few brief sentences, told her what 
Tavis had charged him to do. He gave her the pendant and turned away 
to a group of detectives, examining a spot next to the body. The men 
were bent over, talking very softly with each other, looking at 
recorders that they held in their hands.

"What have you found?" he asked. They looked up and spread out, making 
room for him. He realized that Mellie had followed him and noticed 
that they did not make enough room for her. He reached back and drew 
her into the circle, the others stepping back grudgingly.

John Behan glanced at Mellie, then addressed Marks. "Someone was 
sitting here for quite a while. Close to an hour. Didn't move. Just 
sat there."

Marks raised an eyebrow. "Do we have an identification?"

"No, sir." another detective said. "But we should be able to come up 
with a name within the next couple of hours."

Marks looked at Millie. "Was there anyone here when you arrived?"

She shook her head. "I thought I heard footsteps running off, but by 
the time I checked for a pulse, I had no idea which alley to check."

They all looked at the alleys. Five met in a conjunction, making a 
space larger than a couple of condos put together. Each of the alleys 
led off into darkness, three curving away, two leading straight out.

Alex Biggers slammed his fist into a tossed away piece of sheetrock. 
"Why in hell was he down here by himself?"

Marks looked down at his dead friend, then glanced at Mellie. "I want 
a name on my desk in the morning." he said as he stomped off down the 
alley.

==== John Behan: Detective ====

John Behan used to be the rising star of the Homicide Division. He had 
been young, buff, and ambitious. Before Agalder and especially Crater 
City had been forcibly returned to the Paleozoic Era, he had been 
optimistic about his future. He married a wonderful woman and they had 
talked of having children. But then this world, his world, fell apart. 
Alys was killed. An accident they said. But she was gone. Nothing left 
of her but pictures and memories.

One of those memories crossed his mind and he smiled for just a 
moment. Biggers dropped a file in front of him and Alys disappeared 
into the recesses at the back of his mind.

Biggers was only in his thirties, while Behan was forty-five now.

"Don't strain yourself with this one, John." he said as he swaggered 
off.

The younger guys considered Behan the 'Old Man'. Cocky bastard. he 
thought as he opened the file on his computer. The white screen went 
black for at least twenty seconds before it stabilized. He grimaced, 
mumbling "Piece of crap."

A vid appeared on the screen. A young man with dark hair and dark eyes 
looked back over his shoulder as he raced up a fire escape that was 
missing several rungs. He practically flew up to the roof. Dressed in 
black tunic and jeans, he blended well with the dark building. But 
Behan knew that face. Harlan. The thief Mellie had been so obsessed 
with - until she wasn't. He wondered what had changed her mind.

On the screen, a drone followed Harlan as he ran across roofs, jumped 
between buildings, slid down pipes, and scaled ladders. The drone was 
the only cop to keep up with him. Behan wondered why they hadn't 
turned loose the robots. Those hounds could have caught him. Of 
course, they were likely to tear him apart when they caught him. Maybe 
the bosses wanted him alive and undamaged.

The drone dived and tried to hit Harlan on the back of the head. 
Harlan, however, wasn't cooperative. He ducked at the last moment and 
swung something black. The drone went offline.

Behan leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. That man was just 
too smart and too fast. He knew the city well and rarely ventured into 
the suburbs. Except that time that he had robbed the Mayor. The thief 
had stolen a statuette, reported to have been brought from Earth, a 
fat little guy with his belly button showing, sitting cross-legged 
with a silly smile on his face. The statue was supposed to be made of 
gold with jewels in the little guy's clothes and a big, fat diamond in 
his hands. Behan's lips curled upwards. The Mayor had been hopping 
mad. But the Mayor was an asshole. Most of the force had thought the 
episode funny, especially since Harlan had been so careful not to hurt 
anyone.

The Mayor had tripled the security at his mansion. You'd think that 
when Harlan returned the statue without tripping any alarms, the Mayor 
would be grateful. No. The asshole went berserk. He'd come screaming 
into Sam Travis' office and thrown his hat at the Chief. Behan had 
been close by and he'd opened the Chief's door, causing the apoplectic 
Mayor to turn and stare at him. Behan had ignored the Mayor, asking 
the Chief. "Problem, Captain?"

Tavis had grinned. "No. But thanks, John."

Even now, with Tavis gone, that memory brought a feeling of pride.

Biggers came back, a big grin on his face. "I knew it!" he crowed, 
waving a fax sheet. "The sitter, the person who spent nearly an hour 
sitting next to the Chief's body, was Harlan." He tossed the sheet on 
Behan's desk. "I had a feeling that thief was the one. He musta killed 
the chief. You think?"

Behan ignored the question. The vibration report definitely identified 
Harlan as the individual who had sat, unmoving, next to Sam Tavis. He 
spoke without realizing it. "Like he was keeping vigil."

"What?" asked Biggers. "What's a vigil?"

"A time spent in prayer or grief, watching over something or someone." 
answered Behan. He stood up.

Biggers backed off. "But why would that punk Harlan keep this vigil 
thing over the Chief?"

Behan ignored him as he headed for the door.

He found Melanie at her condo. He could see that she had been crying 
when she let him in.

He took off his coat and put it on the couch, then sat beside it. 
"Mellie. We've got to talk. It's this Harlan guy, isn't it? You're in 
love with him. Are you helping him?"

Mellie's head whipped around and she stared at her partner, face pale, 
eyes wide.

Behan watched her. "You know, babe. I've got a lot more experience 
catching out liars than you have. You're not particularly good at 
this. You lied when you said no one was there when you found Captain 
Tavis. Harlan was there."

He stood up, towering over her. "Wasn't he?!" he yelled in her face.

Mellie backed up, looking frightened. Her hand came up to her mouth, 
and for a horrible moment, Behan thought she had a suicide pill. But 
she was just frightened and he took a deep breath.

His voice dropped to a gentle whisper. "You love him, don't you?"

Her eyes were full of tears as she nodded.

"Why did he sit by the Chief's body for nearly an hour this morning? 
And where is he now?" Behan asked.

"I don't know. All I know is that he was sitting by the Chief, holding 
his hand, crying. They had some sort of relationship and Harlan 
clearly loved him. He saw me and stood up, told me to call for help, 
and left. I don't know where he is or where he lives." She walked to 
the window, looking out at the city. "I know almost nothing about him 
except his beliefs. We've talked about morality and ethics." She 
turned back to him. "He's a good man, John. And, yes. I love him."

Behan nodded. "Give him a message for me. Tell him that we need to 
talk. Soon. And set it up." He reached out, patted her on the 
shoulder, and left.

==== Harlan: Thief ====

He ran the roofs blindly. The world blurred past as the tears kept 
coming. He had never felt pain like this and he couldn't outrun it. 
His chest was tight and his breath came in short gasps, intermixed 
with sobs. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. They hadn't had enough 
time together, not nearly enough, not since they had started playing 
their parts in this goddamn drama. His father the Chief of Police, he 
a common thief. Well, not common. His lips quirked.

It had been nearly nine years since they had been father and son, 
except for stolen minutes now and again. Harlan sometimes surprised 
his father in the middle of the night, waking him from sleep for a ten 
minute chat. Usually scared the hell out of his dad, especially since 
the Chief lived on the eighteenth floor. But there was a balcony and 
that made it easy for Harlan, although his father never understood.

He reached his home, an abandoned house on the north side of the city. 
He had managed to find a bed and a chair and a table. Home was always 
a temporary abode. He moved his residence frequently and kept it 
simple. Now he sat at the table and stared at a wall, not thinking, 
mind totally blank.

It was hours later when he woke up. He had laid his head on the table 
and fallen asleep. The pain came crashing back down and he grunted. 
But it was time to find out what happened. In a little while he would 
sudz, depilate, and change clothes. There were people to visit.

==== Alfie Gallagher: Thief and general all around thug ====

Alfie Gallagher didn't have a lot of friends. Not necessarily because 
of his job, his work for the Syndicate. It was mainly because Alfie 
was a miserable excuse for a human being. He was a not too bright 
psychopath, a man who would have slit his mother's throat for a ten 
spot. In fact, he had done exactly that. In addition, he didn't wash 
very often.

Sitting alone in the Rusty Blade, a rundown bar not very far from 
Harlan's temporary lair, Alfie was surprised when Diego Farley sat 
down across from him. Diego was a runner for the Syndicate.

"Cassidy wants to see you." said the slim young man. The violaceous 
scar that ruined his right face twitched. "He's got a job for you."

Farley started to rise from his chair, but Alfie grabbed his arm. 
"What kind of job?"

Farley yanked his arm away, wiping it on his jacket as if something 
dirty had gotten on it. "How should I know? The big ones don't exactly 
consult me, now do they?" and he turned away.

Alfie sat for another twenty minutes, then he dropped a coin on the 
table and left.

The job was not to his liking. Cassidy was second-in-command to the 
Syndicate's Number One, Chas Hawkins. He had given Alfie his 
assignment and started back toward the big house when Alfie sputtered 
"But how am I gonna kill this guy if nobody knows where he is, where 
he lives. Nobody knows nothin'. I need some help."

Cassidy looked back at the unshaven man with hair hanging in his eyes 
and the same clothes he'd been wearing for four days. "If you want to 
obtain information, take a sudz, clean up, shave, cut your disgusting 
hair, and then ask. No one wants to talk to a streetie." and he 
disappeared into the crowd.

Alfie cleaned up. He rented a hole at the spaceport where passengers 
could sudz and sleep. He had stolen some clothes from the mission 
store. When he looked in the mirror after he shaved, he could barely 
recognize himself. He even brushed his teeth.

He returned to the big house that served as Hawkins' headquarters here 
in the city. He found Cassidy in a large room overlooking what used to 
be a rose garden. The blackened plants were being removed by a couple 
of men in dark green one piece uniforms. Cassidy glanced at the two 
men sitting with him and they stood and left. Alfie sat down across a 
small table from the Second. "Okay. Now I'm clean and pretty. Tell 
me."

Cassidy's lips quirked. "You can find him two houses down from the 
Blind Rat Tavern toward the dock. I think he is holed up in the 
attic." He waved dismissal at Alfie, who stood and started toward the 
door.

"And, Alfie." Cassidy's voice stopped him. "If you want to be part of 
this organization, you will stay clean and pretty."

==== Harlan: Thief ====

The very soft sound of glass breaking far below woke him. He stood up 
from the table where he had fallen asleep again. A loose board below 
the shuttered window allowed him a small view of the street. His 
eyebrows rose. There were at least a dozen black clothed figures 
starting to enter the house. They must really want him this time.

He reached over the table and pulled on a cord. A loud crashing 
followed by screams and loud cursing came from the first floor as a 
large part of the ceiling collapsed. Harlan smiled. He pushed a button 
next to the door. More yelling and cursing. A kitchen timer sat on the 
table. Harlan set it for three minutes, replaced it, and slipped out a 
trap door that led to the roof. He disappeared into the dusk as the 
third trap was sprung.

==== Lt. Marks: Chief of Detectives ====

Exasperated wasn't nearly a strong enough word, Jason Marks thought. 
Perhaps infuriated would cover it. He stood looking at the filthy, 
dust covered, bruised and scraped squad he had sent to pick up Harlan. 
They'd gotten his location and put the op together in a hurry. There 
was no way the thief could have known they were coming. Yet he had 
thwarted them and was gone.

No one was seriously hurt. Harlan was like that, careful. He 
apparently didn't want to cause harm to anyone. But he was probably 
laughing on his way out the window.

==== Alfie Gallagher: Thief, Apprentice Assassin ====

Alfie got to the house in time to see a squad of the APD Elites going 
in the door. He watched for a while and heard the ceiling collapse in 
the hallway and the stairs crumple as they started to climb. He had to 
grin even as he thought that he might have been the one buried under 
the dust and dirt and what passed for spiders and bugs on this world. 
A cloud of dust spewed forth from the door and Alfie slid into the 
darkness.

==== Mellie: Detective ====

When Mellie opened the door and found Harlan leaning against the wall 
outside, eyes swollen and red, she said nothing. She simply took his 
arm and brought him inside. After steering him to the couch, she 
programmed drinks for both of them and then sat beside him.

"He was your father, wasn't he?" she said softly.

Harlan turned to her, eyes widening. "How did you find out?"

Mellie smiled. "Just a good guess. You look alike in some ways. And 
you share his world view."

He looked down into his drink, swirling the liquid around in the 
glass. "He was the best man I ever knew. We argued a lot, but he 
always kept it friendly, even humorous." His voice broke. "God, I 
loved him."

She put her hand on his arm and leaned into him. "I loved him, too. He 
helped me so many times."

Harlan turned and gathered her into his arms and they sat that way for 
a long time, sharing their grief.

Harlan left early in the morning before dawn. He had to find Santorini 
and report. Mellie watched him go, the tears still on her cheeks.

==== Santorini: "Boss" of the Resistance ====

Santorini was still asleep when Harlan bypassed his security detail 
and shook him awake.

"What the fuck?!" yelled the Boss. Three guards exploded through the 
door, guns raised. They grabbed Harlan and started to hustle him out 
of the room when Santorini stopped them.

"But, Boss. He's an intruder. We have to..."

"You have to figure out how he got in here. But leave him alone. He 
was just showing off."

The Boss and Harlan watched the disgruntled guards leave before they 
spoke.

"How the flaming Hell did you get in here?" Santorini hissed.

Ignoring the question, Harlan continued staring at the door. Silently 
he stepped closer and yanked the door open. One of the guards stood, 
hunched over, an eavesdropper attached to the wood, extending to his 
ears. Harlan tore the device out of the man's ears, eliciting a yell 
of pain, ripped it off the wood, and slammed the door in the guard's 
face.

He turned to the Boss. "I would change my guard detail if I were you." 
he said.

But Santorini was already throwing the door open. The guards were 
backing off, blood running from the ears of one.

"Jackson!" he bellowed. In seconds another guard appeared in a 
sleepfit, with a dart gun in his hand, two others behind him.

"Take these three into custody. I will question them later." the Boss 
snarled and closed the door.

"How?" he asked, looking at Harlan.

"One guard asleep. Another alert but looking in the wrong direction 
for a couple seconds too long. And I'm just skinny enough to fit 
through the air vents." Harlan shrugged. "It was easy."

Santorini ran his hand through his thinning hair. "You will drive me 
crazy eventually."

He stood and walked to the window. He stood looking out for a full 
minute. When he spoke, his voice was soft. "I'm so sorry about your 
father, Harlan. He wasn't just one of the best men I've ever met, he 
was my friend."

He turned and Harlan saw that his eyes were shining with unshed tears. 
"Do you have any ideas why he was killed?"

Harlan shook his head. "He certainly had enemies enough. The Syndicate 
is probably celebrating tonight because of his death. The Hideout 12 
group are another possibility. We may have found their lair, but we 
still don't know much about them. We need to take members of that 
group alive to gather information. I have heard rumors of the thieves 
organizing as well." He frowned and rubbed his hands over his face. 
"Something big is going on and I haven't heard anything that lets me 
get a handle on it."

He looked at the Boss. "The APD Elites paid me a visit tonight. I got 
out only because I had set up the traps."

Santorini smiled. "I heard about that. Apparently Marks came close to 
having a stroke when the squad came stumbling back in, bruised and 
covered in dust. The Elites are going to have to work a lot in order 
to recover their shining reputation."

The two men shared an amused grin.

Harlan sat down on the edge of the bed. There were no chairs in the 
room. It was too small. Santorini refused to accept the ostentatious 
display of the previous 'Boss'.

"Tell me about the raid on Hideout 12." said Harlan. "Do we know whose 
stronghold it was?"

Santorini shook his shaggy head. "There are so many of the survivor 
gangs out in the wilds, it could be any one of them. We got lucky. 
This group was pretty sophisticated. They carved that place out of the 
obsidian formed during the Iron Wars. It means the tunnels wander up 
and down and the rooms are odd shapes, but the camouflage is great."

Harlan leaned forward. "Why can't we turn that place into a trap for 
the Syndicate? We could drop a few hints about our new fortress where 
we keep our arsenal. I bet we could pick up a few Syndicate rats 
pretty easily."

The Boss looked down at his hands. "Maybe. The idea has some merit. 
Let me think about it."

==== Alfie: Thief, Would-be Assassin ====

Everyone knew the approximate location of the Emerald Palace, the 
headquarters for the Resistance. So Alfie just wandered down the 
nearest street and set himself up when he had a good view of the 
undulating roof.

Three hours later a figure appeared on the roof. Using his monoc, 
Alfie could see that it was Harlan. He lined up the shot as the best 
of the thieves looked around and then pulled his collar up. Gently, 
gently Alfie squeezed the trigger. The ancient sharpshooter rifle 
bucked into Alfie's shoulder and spat forth a bullet. The sound was 
deafening. Harlan dropped like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

==== Alfie: Thief, Assassin ====

Alfie broke down the rifle and packed it in a bag of groceries. He put 
the wig and scarf back on and within three minutes, as the Resistance 
fighters poured out onto the street, an overweight grandmother passed 
by, staring at them with open curiosity.

When he reached the little trail into the park, he disappeared along a 
faint trail that led to a clearing. By the time Alfie reached the 
clearing, he had discarded his female disguise, turning the raincoat 
inside out and ripping off the lower half to form a leather jacket. 
His wig turned inside out to become a leather cap and the scarf went 
around his neck. The grocery bag and every other scrap of material 
went into sacks on either side of an air runner with lots of chrome. 
He looked like every other air rider. Totally forgettable. He walked 
the machine out to the street, waited until the road was clear both 
ways and slipped out of the woods and down the lane unseen.

==== Santorini: Boss of the Resistance ====

Jackson burst into Santorini's office about fifteen minutes after 
Harlan left. "Harlan's been shot!" he yelled.

Santorini knocked over the lamp as he rushed from the room. "Where is 
he?"

"They're bringing him down from the roof now." was the answer.

The Boss skidded to a stop and turned around, facing Jackson. "Is he 
alive?" he asked in a softer voice.

Jackson shook his head, his face somber, saying "I don't know."

Santorini caught up with the medics as they reached the ground floor 
and started running down the corridors. The Boss raced alongside. 
Harlan had a breathing tube in his pharynx and a machine was assisting 
his respirations. His face was almost as pale as the white sheets and 
sweat dripped off him. His eyes were closed.

The Boss called out to the head medic. "Mason. Did he say anything?"

Mason didn't slow his pace or turn around. He called out over his 
shoulder. "He was unconscious when we got there, Boss. He wasn't even 
breathing. Sorry."

Santorini dropped out and watched the group careen around the corner 
into the corridor that opened out into the clinic. He stood catching 
his breath for a minute and then turned back to his office. Getting 
his assistant on his wrist phone, he called for all the surveillance 
recordings in the area as well as overhead satellite and traffic cams. 
He also ordered teams of investigators, including robot cops, to start 
canvassing the neighborhood.

An hour later they found footage of what happened on the roof. But all 
they saw was the muzzle flash. They triangulated it and found the spot 
the shooter had chosen for the ambush. Vibration evidence was sketchy 
since the spot was in a little garden and the plants interfered with 
the detectors. However, a preliminary id was consistent with the 
readings from a known thief named Alfie Gallagher. The word went out 
that the Boss wanted to 'speak' to this Alfie Gallagher.

==== Alfie: Thief ====

Alfie reported to Cassidy after shooting Harlan, but the man wanted 
proof of death. Alfie's description of the exceptional thief's demise 
wasn't sufficient. Alfie was seething. He stomped out of the big house 
and returned to his condo where he threw the wig/cap across the room. 
He was furious but not stupid. He wanted to get drunk but knew it 
would be counterproductive.

The place to start would be the place he used for the shot, but when 
he got close, the area was crawling with Resistance techs. He backed 
off quietly and hurried down the hill. The fact that the Resistance 
had a forensic team scouring the area where he had been was evidence 
in itself that Harlan was dead. He was fairly sure that Cassidy 
wouldn't accept that conclusion, but he sent a coded message to the 
Second-in-Command.

He worked his way back around the Emerald Palace to a house where he 
could watch the activity from a rooftop. Like some other houses still 
in use, this one had a makeshift chimney, added when the Iron Wars 
destroyed the energy net that had surrounded the planet, Alfie climbed 
a lattice slowly and quietly to the roof. He cursed under his breath 
as he climbed, muttering. "You'd think they'd make roses thornless 
after all these centuries." Then as he pulled up onto the roof, a 
slightly louder "Ouch!"

Settling behind the chimney, he put on his monoc and prepared to wait. 
The wait was short. In fifteen minutes, a small woman in a forensics 
smock walked up to the house and activated the bell. Alfie could hear 
voices from below but couldn't make out the words. But the result was 
that a man came out of the house with an expanding ladder and leaned 
it against the edge of the roof. The ladder flowed upward, gripping 
the roof tightly, Alfie heard the woman thank the householder, who 
replied that he would be inside if she needed anything. Then there was 
silence as the woman climbed up to the roof.

She stood up when she reached the top and began scanning the area with 
a high tech binoc. The appliance limited her near vision. Alfie 
slipped out of hiding and applied a drug spray gun to her exposed 
neck, then eased her down as she lost consciousness.

To Alfie, it seemed that she weighed almost nothing. He threw her over 
his shoulder, collected his gear, and carefully walked to the opposite 
side of the roof. The roof of the neighboring home was only two meters 
away. He threw his gear bag across the gap, then tossed the woman 
over. She landed with a heavy 'thunk'. Alarmed, he waited several 
minutes before crossing over himself. From that roof, he was able to 
drop down three feet to a small garden behind the house. Using alleys 
and back gardens, he made his way to the edge of the wilderness. Then, 
having sent a second message to Cassidy, he sat and waited. Cassidy 
would want to talk to the forensics woman.

==== Cassidy: Second-in-Command of the Syndicate ====

The woman was awake when Cassidy got there, shivering and sobbing. 
Alfie sat a little away from her, smoking a happy joint. Cassidy got 
the information from the woman. Harlan was alive although might die 
overnight. He glared at Alfie as he slit the girl's throat.

"Yer not doin' so good, Alfie. Two tries and you miss both times."

Alfie got to his feet. "I didn't miss him. I shot him." He motioned at 
the bloody corpse. "You heard what she said. He's expected to die 
tonight."

"Yeah. I heard what she said." said Cassidy. "He's alive." He leaned 
forward and grabbed Alfie's lapels. "I want you to rectify that 
condition."

He turned and started back toward the city, talking over his shoulder. 
"You hear me, Alfie? Last chance. Make him dead by midnight."

==== Mellie: Detective ====

The door announced another visitor. Mellie checked the viewer. 
Santorini! He never came here. She pulled the door open and yanked him 
inside.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded. Then she noticed how pale his 
face was and the sadness in his eyes. "What happened?"

"It's Harlan. He's been shot."

"Is he alive?"

"For the moment." The Boss looked around the condo, not really seeing 
it, just trying to avoid Mellie's gaze. "The surgeons don't expect him 
to live through the night." He dropped his eyes then to look at her as 
she backed away, hand over her mouth. "Get your coat. You'll want to 
be with him."

She grabbed a jacket and attached her bag to the sticker on her skirt, 
picked up her gun, and ran out the door, locking it with a word.

Santorini had brought a skimmer, a small air-borne vehicle that could 
skim over the roofs. They arrived at the Emerald Palace in five 
minutes, leaving Mellie a bit nauseous and white-knuckled. They got to 
Harlan's room only to find that he had been taken back to surgery.. 
The bleeding had started again.

They waited. Mellie's tired mind wandered, conjuring scenes from the 
time she was chasing Harlan to love scenes. She slipped into a doze, 
then woke when the Boss shook her.

The surgeon was coming down the hall. His face was serious, she felt, 
but not stony hard.

The surgeon looked at her and then with raised eyebrows he turned his 
gaze to the Boss.

"She's one of us." Said Santorini.

The surgeon nodded. "He's still alive and somewhat stable now. 
Survival is going to be up to him. It all depends on how tough he is 
and how much he wants to live. Right now he's hanging by a thread."

Hours passed as she sat by his bedside. Santorini had disappeared when 
an aide came to whisper in his ear. She held Harlan's hand and talked 
to him, telling him things she had never told anyone. Her mind was 
still wandering and she talked about playing with colored glass beads 
when she was a little girl and how she loved the way the sunlight made 
the colors zing. She jumped to a party at college where she had 
literally had to fight to get away from a couple of guys who wanted to 
'play' with her.

Crying, she revealed her deepest feelings when her mother had died and 
her anger at her father who retreated into a fog of drugs to bury his 
pain. She had been eleven. Then he died and she had been alone except 
for a scruffy old cat who bit her. She spoke of hiding the fact that 
her parents were dead from the school. Getting up every morning, she'd 
feed the cat and go to school. At night she did her homework and 
studied. Sometimes she watched the vid-tube, but mostly she read.

Eventually the school found out when she wasn't able to pay the bills. 
She'd been hustled off to a foster home. There were lots of those 
these days with all the orphans from the war. She told Harlan about 
the kids she'd lived with then and how she couldn't stop crying 
because she had lost the old cat.

Her voice became hoarse, but she felt that her words were keeping him 
alive. So she talked and recited poetry, told him stories, and sang to 
him softly. Fatigue finally won out against determination and she 
slept with her head on the bed, next to his hand.

==== Harlan: Thief ====

He drifted up and down. Sometimes he felt pain, but most of the time 
he just rode on a sea in the darkness and listened to the voice. Each 
time he started getting too far away, the voice would draw him back. 
He heard the words but didn't understand much of what it said. Then 
came songs and that was wonderful, too. Eventually the voice stopped. 
He lay on his back, waiting for the voice, but it didn't come back. He 
decided to go find it.

The first sensation he had was the feel of breathing on his left hand. 
He moved the hand toward the breaths and felt soft hair and a head. 
Opening his eyes, he saw Mellie, asleep. Gently, he stroked her hair. 
She smiled and opened her eyes.

Then she jerked up in the chair and yelled "Surgeon!! He's awake!"

There was a lot of activity then. They pushed Mellie out of the way 
and worked over him, taking blood and scans and checking vital signs. 
He just lay quietly. The pain was back and he really wanted to go back 
to sleep, but they were all talking at him. Finally, a tall woman 
shooed the others back and stood beside him.

"Are you in pain?" she asked.

"Yes" he mumbled, eyes closed.

A nurse stepped forward with a syringe, but the tall woman raised her 
hand and stopped him. "Do you want something for pain? Or would you 
rather stay awake for a while and talk to Mellie?"

His eyes opened. "Mellie." he said, voice stronger.

Then she was there and holding his hand. His eyes closed, but he lay 
listening to her voice as she told him what had happened and drifted 
again on the sea, but this time there was light all around.

==== Alfie: Thief, Assassin ====

Alfie looked out from the window of a house across the street from the 
Emerald Palace. There was a small door in the wall of the Palace, put 
there primarily for the convenience of the cleaning crew. He saw men 
and women come out occasionally with robocleaners to utilize a plug-in 
on the electrical box on the street. The box was for the neighborhood. 
The plug-in was illegal. He smiled. Even the Resistance were thieves.

Late in the night, there was no more activity. He slipped out of the 
house, leaving three bodies behind him. Crossing to the little door, 
he found it locked. Having the most up-to-date equipment, he simply 
inserted his uni-key and the door opened. Alfie stepped into the 
Emerald Palace with a knife in his hand.