Koko Takes a Holiday Read Free Page B

Bureau security personnel are fanned out in an inverted U pattern in the bar’s main dance area. Three men and three women. All are heavily side-armed and grim-faced to beat the proverbial band.
    “Speaking.”
    A tall blonde woman, apparently the group’s senior officer, breaks off from the formation and assesses her with humorless gray eyes.
    “SI Security. Can we have a moment with you, please?”
    Koko sighs, turns, and takes the stairs, making her way down the steps two at a time. When Koko reaches the bottom, she draws back her hair and cinches it off with a rubber band pulled from her front pocket.
    “What can I do for you this morning, officer?” Koko asks.
    The tall blonde officer takes a few steps and speaks as though from a memorized script. “Koko P. Martstellar, you are hereby charged with the following violations of Vendor Operator Decree Measures of the Custom Pleasure Bureau: Article One, Chapter One; Article Six, Chapter Two; and Article Twenty-One, Chapter Three. Are you familiar with revised VDOMs for The Sixty Islands?”
    Koko scratches her chin. Besides not getting enough sleep she’s a touch hung over, and it takes her a few foggy seconds to process the woman’s officious-sounding drivel.
    “The VDOMs?” Koko brews her best pondering look. “Hmm, let’s see. Gee, to be honest, not really.”
    The blonde officer glares disapprovingly.
    “As a pleasure vendor on The Sixty Islands, you should be familiar with any and all CPB updates. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, you should have a complete list of VDOMs displayed for public view.” The blonde officer looks around the room as she clucks her tongue. “Where are yours, may I ask?”
    Koko folds her arms. Koko is a pretty good judge of character and has gone toe to toe with plenty of uppity, by-the-letter authority figures in her past, but rather than push back on the blonde officer’s posturing she tries for an air of nonchalance and moves behind the bar. Picking out a key hidden beneath the register, she unlocks the cage on the good liquor bottles arranged on a tiered shelf behind the bar and grabs a bottle of good twelve-year-old beauty. Koko flips a clean glass from the stacks and pours herself a generous eye-opener.
    “I guess I must’ve misplaced them,” Koko says. “But hey, I’m sure they’re around here someplace.”
    “Are you being facetious with me this morning, Martstellar?”
    “Facetious? Oh, no, not at all. I wouldn’t dream of it.”
    “Because this is not a laughing matter, I assure you.”
    “This time of morning, I’m sure it’s not.”
    “Good,” the officer replies. “Very well, let’s get right to the specifics of the matter, shall we? It is our understanding that you cut down, by last count, two SI patrons several hours ago in a direct violation of CPB policy, is this correct?”
    Koko nods. “That’s affirmative.”
    “So, you’re not denying killing these tourists?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    “Fine. I appreciate your being so forthright with me. Now, then, if you did in fact shoot and kill these two patrons, where have you stored their bodies?”
    Koko picks up her glass and a bit of the twelve-year-old beauty slops over onto her thumb. She licks the back of her hand and then motions outside.
    “Well, after the Komodos had their fill, I just sort of went ahead and torched what was left out by the waste bins.”
    The blonde officer’s head jerks back as though stung.
    “You
burned
their bodies?”
    “Yeah.”
    “But why? Why would you even think of doing something like that?”
    Koko bunches her shoulders. “Seemed sanitary.”
    “But that’s not SI crisis protocol.”
    Koko shakes her head and downs the rest of her drink. “No offense, officer,” she says, “but SI crisis protocol can kiss my ass. I greased those two troublemakers fair and square and in self-defense. Anyway, re-civ Kongercat truce agreements or not, CPB and SI HQ should have their heads examined, letting trash like that