Vatican Assassin Read Free

highly suspicious. Extreme force is authorized, even automated extreme force, as provided under the War Codes . A General State of Emergency has been declared by the Lunar Free Colony. Any nonstandard behavior, including unauthorized access to these maintenance tunnels, is to be reported, investigated and resolved to the satisfaction of Lunar Security. Unauthorized access...”
    The robot’s getting closer. I can see the white strobe flashing, the red laser sweeping a webbed pattern around its perimeter. Man, I can hear the sludge bubbling and sizzling. It’s definitely getting hotter. Still can’t find the damn hatch!
    “...highly suspicious. Extreme force is authorized, even automated extreme force, as provided under the War Codes. A General State of Emergency...”
    Finally! There’s the rim of the hatch. It’s about chin-high.
    Let’s see what the sign on the hatch says... “Access 14/Lunar Reclamation System Tunnel 28-C.” Ahoy, me maties, thar she blows! In the nick of time, too, damn goo is getting too hot, damn... where’s the control panel? There!
    Clicks. Good sound! Whirring gears inside the hatch. And another click. The hatch swings in. BC pulls himself up through the hatch as lasers from the security bot start to reach him. A red beam slices into the bottom of his right boot before he pulls it through the hatch. Damn!
    Red and white light flashes and splays chaotically across the hatch as he shoves it closed behind him.
    He’s in a small space, a meter and a half square around with no visible ceiling. It’s another tunnel carved right out of the lunar rock, this time leading up. There’s a ladder carved into the wall in front of him.
    He climbs up easily in the light lunar gravity.
    There’s another hatch in the wall at the top, just above the last rung of the ladder. Locked!
    He takes out a small silver cylinder. His handlaser. It glows red on the end as he fires it up. He focuses a short, intense beam and runs it along the seam of the hatch. The seam smokes as his laser cuts through it. He works his way around the hatch door.
    He braces himself, his back against the tunnel wall opposite the hatch, and kicks the hatch in. It falls with a soft thud.
    That’s wrong. Clang, yes. Soft thud, no...
    He looks through the hatchway. The hatch has landed on something.
    On someone, actually.
    It’s hard to see. Dim emergency lighting in here. It’s a maintenance closet. A storage area, toxicological suits in lockers, broken old cleaners piled off to one side... And a woman lying on the floor under the fallen hatch door.
    Is she all right? Is she unconscious? Why is anyone in here anyway?
    He climbs through the hatch, drops to the floor next to the woman. She’s wearing a uniform. Wonderful! A Lunar Security Cop! All right, God... How about a little help here? Could you work out a helpful coincidence for a change? I’m not looking for a miracle, just a little help here. C’mon.
    I wonder if that security ‘bot sent out an alert. Shit! Why else would she be here?
    He checks her pulse.
    She’s still alive, just knocked out. Should be fine. Looks like she took a good whomp on the head from this thing, though.
    That’s good. I do try to limit my killings to just one a day. Any more than that and I’d begin to think it was becoming a bad habit... hmm, bit morbid... She’s pretty... like a sleeping Latino angel... hope she stays sleeping for a while. Damn, though, this is not in the plan. I’m leaving too big a footprint here, now. She’s bound to report this, even if she never sees me. And this is taking time I don’t have. Gotta move.
    He picks up the hatch and props it back up in its original position.. He puts the handlaser on a slightly lower setting and runs it back along the seam around the hatch, fusing it back into place. The Lunar Security Cop on the floor begins to stir as he finishes. He slides past her across the room in his damaged shoes and soaked pants. She begins to move her head. BC