Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion (9 page)

This wasn’t just another vagrant. They had passed dozens on the way through the city already, their presence almost invisible by now, but this man was different. This one was looking directly them, not to try to attract pity and sympathy, but with something darker... The desperation was no less or no more with this man than the others, but there was one key difference. He was willing to do them harm.

She stopped walking right as the man reached into a deep pocket, withdrawing a silver revolver and, holding it at his hip, levelled it at Liao.

“Your wallets and phones.
Now
.”

There was a tense moment as the three of them stared at the man, surprised and uncertain. His voice was quiet but charged with sincerity. Liao felt her pulse quicken, the same reaction she had when she was in combat. Except this time, she didn’t have 200,000 tonnes of warship surrounding her and a battery of missiles and guns.

“
Now!
You first, nigger!”

He looked like a drug addict, Liao mused, although he didn’t have the typical bloodshot eyes that addicts usually possessed. A drug addict with eye drops, apparently.

Liao held out her hands, palms upwards. “Look, you’re making a terrible mistake. I’m—”

“I don’t care who you fucking gooks are.” The man levelled his pistol at her and Liao took a step backward.

“It’s okay.” James threw Liao a side glance, nodding approvingly and slowly reached into his pocket. He withdrew his wallet, passing it over.

The man took it eagerly, shoving it into his back pocket. “Phone?”

“Don’t have one.”

The man looked like he was going to argue, but instead he pointed his weapon to Tai.

“Fine, whatever. Now you, tough guy. Don’t try anything or I’ll blow your fucking face off.”

Tai nodded acceptingly, his hand already in his pocket. “Fine, here you go. Just don’t do anything rash, and let me get my ID chip out. That’s of no value to you. How about I just hand you the cash instead?”

The man nodded in nervous agreement, glancing over his shoulder momentarily. For a second, Liao worried Tai was going to do something stupid, but his hand returned with his ID and the wallet was handed over. “I don’t have a phone either.”

“Fine, whatever. Now you, lady.”

“Okay,” said Liao. “Let me get my ID out first, too, okay?”

“Fine, fine, just fucking hurry it up.”

Fumbling, Liao reached into her pocket, reaching for her small purse. The man extended his empty hand.

“Keep quiet and give it to me real easy, no tricks,” he said, the hand holding the firearm trembling slightly. “Hurry up!”

It was gone. Liao tried all her pockets. “Damnit,” she said, “I must have left it at Anthony’s when I went back to pay for the pizza.”

The man’s agitation suddenly grew. “You’re fucking shitting me. Bullshit. Bullshit!”

Liao held up her hands. “I’m not. I’m not. I just left it—”

“I’ll fucking
end
you, you lying bitch!”

Tai stepped forward, moving in front of her. “Everybody just calm down! We already gave you what we have. Now—”

“Who are you, a fucking cop? You’re a fucking cop! That’s why you didn’t want me to see your ID, because you’re a cop!”

“What? No! No. Nobody here’s a cop, okay? Nobody.”

“Look,” said Liao, “here. Here’s my phone. Take it and go.” She reached into her breast pocket, withdrawing the small black brick and holding it out. The strange man, relief crossing his face, snatched the device and jammed it into a pocket.

Then his eyes lit up, wide and panicked, looking at something behind her. On instinct, Liao turned. She could see someone entering the gap between the two buildings. She recognised the rotund form of Anthony, his hand holding her purse.

“Hey, Melissa, ya’ forgot yer’—”

Their assailant, now behind her, shouted something incomprehensible and fired, the loud gunshot echoing against the walls of the building. Liao saw Anthony jerk, startled Then he turned and ran. James’s strong hands pushed her out of the way, and she saw that Tai’s hand now held a small, compact handgun. Tai aimed it quickly, depressing the trigger. Another loud roar and the handgun almost drowned out the cry of their attacker, the round catching the surprised man in his upper arm.

Wounded, he howled, waving his pistol around like a lunatic. Tai fired again, the round knocking a chunk out of the brick wall. The mugger regained some semblance of wit. His pistol barked twice, a loud
crack
like a firework exploding near Liao’s head, and she felt James’s hands around her shoulders, pulling her down to the ground. Two more shots were fired, Liao recognising the loud retort of the man’s revolver as she raised her head in time to see the man, wounded and panicked, as he turned and ran down the alley, stumbling occasionally, his footsteps beating a rapid retreat away from where James and Liao lay sprawled.

“You okay?” asked James.

Liao closed her eyes a moment, hands trembling slightly before she stilled them. “I’m fine,” she said, inhaling and opening her eyes, her ears ringing from the loud gunshots. She had fought alien warships. She had repelled Toralii boarders. She was a decorated war hero. But despite the year she’d spent in space staring down death at every turn, a normal man with a gun had managed to rattle her. It was the striking normality of it all, something aside from aliens and space battles, something real and common. “Thanks for that.”

James gave a laugh, leaning in and kissing her cheek from behind. “Don’t worry; I’ve got your back. You okay, Tai?”

There was no answer. Liao twisted her body, looking over her shoulder. “Tai?”

Tai lay on his back, his skin ghostly white, his body as limp as a doll. Two blooming red flowers crept over his chest, blood seeping onto the concrete below.

It took her a second to process what had happened, but the moment the reality of the situation hit her, she was moving. She broke away from James’s grasp, crawling over to Tai’s prone form. She fumbled inside Tai’s pocket, pulling out his phone with one hand and tossing it to James. “Call an ambulance!”

Liao lifted Tai’s head, cradling it as the Chinese man’s blood poured into her lap. She watched as James, ashen faced, flipped open Tai’s phone, tapped in 911, then held the device to his ear. Liao looked back down at her bodyguard and friend.

“Kang, Kang, can you hear me?”

He didn’t move. She propped up his head, pulling it into her lap, while her other hand searched for his injuries. “Don’t worry, okay? James is getting help. We’re getting help.” She gave a quiet, nervous laugh as she adjusted Tai’s head, eliciting a soft groan from the barely conscious man. “What kind of a bodyguard dies from a couple of little boo-boos like that, hey? Suck it up, you’ll be fine. You’re going to be fine.” She brushed a clump of Tai’s hair away from his face with a bloodied hand, her gaze turning up to James. “How long...?”

James asked the operator, then nodded to Liao. “Four minutes. They’re coming as fast as they can.” He spoke into the phone. “Yes, I’ll cover the cost.”

“Fuck!” Liao pressed her hands to Tai’s ghastly wounds, pushing her fingers to his blood-soaked shirt, trying to stem the blood loss. “Kang, you hear that, yeah? Four minutes. You’ve gotta take care of my apartment when I’m out, you know, so you’ve got a lot more work to do. And after that… after that, I’m going to get my ship back and I’m going to need... I’m going to need people I can trust. You can work with Cheung. We’ll get you a nice cushy position on that boat, okay?”

Tai’s blood continued to spill unabated onto the ground. Liao’s hands were soaked up to her elbows, but she kept her hands pressed against the entry wounds.

“But you listen to me, Kang,” she continued. “If you die, I swear to God I’ll have you thrown off my boat. You hear me? If you die, you’re getting the boot, and don’t you dare think I won’t... Don’t you
dare
even think that for a second... because I will. I will. I
will
.”

She kept her hands there, failing to hold Tai’s lifeblood within his body, pressing on his wounds even after the ambulance arrived. She rode with them, keeping the pressure on her friend’s injuries all the way through the journey to the Shock Trauma ward, releasing only after the doctors had pronounced Tai’s time of death.

6:56pm Thursday, August the 18th, 2039.

*****

New York

8:30pm

James and Liao took a driverless cab back to her apartment, the ride taken mostly in silence aside from asking each other if they were fine over and over like a broken record. She’d had time, at least, to wash her hands before making her statement to the police, two tired looking officers who dutifully took down her details but reminded her that the likelihood of finding the person who had killed Tai, and making a conviction stick, was low. There were so many crimes of this nature every day that the local law enforcement, its funding slashed to almost nothing, had little hope of catching someone who wasn’t arrested at the scene.

She felt strangely empty, though, just as she had after Velsharn was destroyed by her ship’s missiles. Sadness, self-pity, resentment: none of these things would bring back Kang Tai, his body occupying a tiny block in the district hospital’s morgue.

There was anger there, too. Yes, Tai was her bodyguard, but why did he do that? The man who accosted them was only looking for money, and he’d escaped with most of it anyway. Yes, he had fired at Anthony, but perhaps he could have still been reasoned with. Maybe there would have been a way to end this without bloodshed. But he’d chosen to act and now her friend was dead. He was a good man, a useful person. To intervene was a stupid, risky decision, and Tai should have known better.

Or so she told herself, silently, over and over.

The autonomous vehicle pulled up outside Liao’s apartment, and a robotic voice read out the cost. James swiped his card over the pay receiver and, with an electronic chime, the doors unlocked.

“Thank you for riding Flexicar New York, your safe, prompt service.”

Safe. Liao did not feel particularly safe in this city, and it was with cautious eyes that she scanned the area before stepping out of the vehicle. James held the door open so the car wouldn’t leave.

“Don’t worry about packing; we don’t have time. Just grab the baby and some essentials.” He paused a moment. “Are you okay?” James asked, reaching out with his other hand and gently touching her hip. It was almost exactly where her scar was.

Liao nodded, inhaling gently. “I will be. It’s okay.” She looked up at the towering, concrete pillar. “Jennifer will be freaking out if she’s still here.”

James shook his head. “She would have gone home by now; it’s late.”

The idea of her child being alone in the apartment for hours suddenly invigorated her. Without saying anything, she stepped purposefully towards the heavy steel door of the apartment complex, swiping her key and pulling it open. Her immediate destination was the elevator; a swift jab of her finger at the button summoned it to her, the wait intolerable.

After what seemed like the longest ride in the history of the universe, Liao stepped out onto their floor. She broke into a run, swiping her card over the door’s sensor and pushing it open. Immediately, the sound of a wailing baby reached her ears and her heart stopped.

“Hello?!”

It was her. Jennifer stepped out from the kitchen, cradling the screaming infant, a distraught look on her face. “Miss Liao! Oh, thank God. What happened? Where did you go?”

Liao leaned her shoulder up against a wall, realising suddenly that she had been holding her breath. “We were mugged,” she said simply. “Tai was shot.”

The young woman’s eyes went wide. “Is he okay?”

Liao reached up and ran her hand through her hair. “Sorry, I would have called earlier, but he took my phone and we left Tai’s phone in the ambulance. We didn’t have your number.”

Jennifer bounced the baby gently, trying to get her to calm down. “Ambulance?”

“He’s dead. Sorry. We did everything we could, but…”

Jennifer stopped, freezing completely in place. “I… oh my God!”

“I know. I’m sorry. He just lost too much blood.”

“What? What happened?”

“We got to Anthony’s place and got the food, but I forgot yours. I went back to get it, and on the way back, this guy just walked out of nowhere and pulled a pistol on us. I guess the guy saw us the first time and had enough time to see we had cash. Anthony chased after us to return my wallet, and it startled the mugger. There was a firefight. The man was wounded, but he got Tai. Then he ran off.”

“I… oh God. Sorry, sorry. I tried calling your phone over and over… I guess that’s why you didn’t pick up.” She hesitated. “I… ran out of credit, so I used your landline to call my dad, Miss Liao, just to let him know where I was. He was seriously freaked out. I’m sorry. I’ll pay you for the cost, somehow—”

Liao had totally forgotten about the landline. She momentarily cursed herself for her stupidity. “No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Look Jennifer, something else has happened, too. I’m being recalled.”

Jennifer’s face fell, her expression one of shock and devastation. “Wh-what?”