Murder

I have a chapter that I would like to share that is based on the theme. It came to my mind one day while welding some metal and I could not get rid of it until I wrote it. It was fun to write and I hope it will be fun to read. A little warning, it is a bit long so you might need to set aside some time to read it.

Since this is a chapter from a larger story, I'll clarify some characters so that there is reference point and their significance can be understood.

Commander Lint: The person in charge of Asgard and third most powerful man in the Federation
Asgard: Military branch tasked with research and development of advanced technology
Federation: intergalactic empire comprised of 173 planets and systems
Captain Kiro: subordinate to Lint and in charge of personnel at Asgard
Loci: the main protagonist of this chapter. He got caught doing something illegal and to keep him out of jail, Kiro recruited him for Asgard. Also known as Loki to Earthlings
Vedran, Flisten:planets of Federation
Mary: High class escort girl

That should be enough to get the story fully.

Kiro entered Lint’s office and after a brief greeting from the Commander, sat down in the opposite chair. “Please, read this report from the department head of the Infiltration and Espionage section.” He handed his datapad over to Kiro so that he could read it. Before reading the report, Kiro asked, “Is this an official business?” “No, if it would, I’d have told you beforehand. Now read the report.

Kiro took the report and started reading. After about five seconds, Lint snatched the datapad out of Kiro’s hands and said, “You are taking too long. Let me briefly tell you about it. As you already suspect, this has something to do with one of your boys.” There was suppressed laughter in his voice.

“As I said, it is from the Chief of the section. Ordinarily, you would have gotten a copy of the report since it concerns personnel. However, due to the personal nature of the situation, Jonathan wanted to keep it quiet. No doubt, you have heard of the trick he plays on the class on his first day?” He asked Kiro. “Actually, I have not heard of it. What is the trick?”

“On the first day, he shows up wearing a dark black robe with the hood up, covering his face. Then he issues a challenge to all of the students to do two things. First is to uncover his identity and the second is to create a situation that implicates the Spymaster into a crime.” Kiro, suspecting where this was heading groaned. Lint, hearing the groan, started to laugh. After the laughter subsided, he explained, “The trick supposedly teaches all of the newcomers about how ignorant and inexperienced they are. But, you have not heard the best part. In his report, Jonathan is requesting immediate dismissal of Loci. He is threatening criminal charges if we do not dismiss him immediately.” By this point, Kiro’s face had lost all its color. In a shaky voice, he asked, “What did Loci do?”

****

“This is it. My first day in class. The dumbest idea that I ever had. I probably should have chosen jail, rather than spend the Creator knows how long reading books and learning things. And look at this archaic setup. Must be about a billion years old. I’ve been here for five minutes and I’m already bored out of my mind.” Loci thought while sitting in the middle row in the auditorium. The auditorium was recessed in the floor and surrounded by tiers of seats arranged in a half-circle. In the middle of the floor stood a podium, presumably, that was where the professor would be standing while giving lectures. Right next to the podium was an ancient blackboard with a white sheet covering it so that no student could see what was written on it. The only nod towards the present day was that the blackboard was floating in the air and was a projection screen. Otherwise, the setting was all dark ages as far as Loci was concerned.

The side door opened and a black-robed figure stepped over to the podium. His face was covered by a hood so none could tell who the speaker was. The, presumably, a professor stepped to the podium and looked up at the students. He let the silence extend to make sure that he had everyone's attention.

After a profound silence fell in the lecture hall, the professor began, “Greetings. I am your professor. In this class, I will teach you two things and only two. These two things are infiltration and espionage.” He said. The professor had a deep resonant voice, perfectly suited for addressing crowds. “The Verran accent must be fake.” Loci thought, detecting it in the professor's speech.

“Before I start teaching you these two noble and secretive subjects, you need to realize how little you know. I will give you two objectives and fourteen days to complete them. Behold!” He exclaimed and pulled off the sheet covering the blackboard. On the board were written two objectives. First, uncover the identity of your professor. Second, arrange your professor to be implicated in a crime.

“Easy. What is that supposed to teach us?” Loci incredulously asked. He realized too late that the two drones, like black ravens, circling the auditorium were directly patched to the professor’s hearing. The black hood swiveled towards Loci and he was treated with a prolonged stare.

“Ah, the ex Fleet prodigy.” The professor said.“You of course know everything there is to know. During my thirty years as a professor, not a single student has been able to accomplish both of these tasks. And here you are, already think that you are better than everybody and that something that thirty years of the brightest minds have not achieved, is easy for you.” The tone of disgust in his voice was unmistakable.

The professor turned back to the class, ignoring the seething Loci. “The implication cannot be traceable. If you are caught doing it, you lose. Depending on how you did up to the point of being caught, I will keep teaching you or dismiss you. These tasks will determine how much you need to learn. Or like in the case of our spymaster,” he pointed at Loci, “you may show me that you have nothing to learn and take my place.” The class laughed at this last comment.

“Challenge accepted, you old bastard.” Loci thought. “Remember, you have two weeks. Dismissed.” Professor said and left the class in a hubbub of voices.

Loci stood up and left the auditorium through one of the upper doors. To say that he was angry would have been a terrible understatement. Loci stalked out the training center, got into the elevator going up to the surface, and proceeded to the nearest park without noticing a single person or a guard in his way.

He went over to the nearest bench and sat down. While looking at the green scenery and random people walking their exotic pets, his thoughts were churning. “What to do? How do I get the old bastard? What to do? Should I implicate him in a murder? How about adultery? No. Theft! No..” Were some of them. He leaned back in the seat and looked up at the blue Capitols sky. The usual advertising billboards were floating between him and the endless blue. After seeing one advertising lawyer services and another about garbage disposal he was struck with an idea, “ That’s it! I’ll simply kill him!”

As usually happens to Loci, once he had a plan, a way out, his anger immediately dissipated and he got into furious action. The first thing he did after returning to base, was to take a shower in the gym. After the shower, instead of dressing, he wrapped a towel around himself and went to see the quartermaster who was near, only a couple of doors down the hall.

“Hey, Burck!” Loci greeted the quartermaster. “Loci! What can I do for you? And, am, why are you in a towel?” He asked. “Some bastard stole my exercise gear while I was showering.” Angrily, Loci retorted. “Some kind of stupid prank, no doubt. The worst time possible. I have a guard duty in about thirty minutes. There is no way I can get back home, besides all I have is this towel and my wallet. Can you help me out? I need to borrow a guard’s uniform.” Seeing Burck’s face, he added, “Only for today. I promise. In exchange, I’ll give you this shiny credit note. Call it a bail if you like.” He handed the note to Burck. Burck laughed and went to get a set of guards uniform in Loci’s size. He then handed it to Loci. Loci thanked him and went back to the gym's shower to put on his old trainee’s uniform and stored the new guard's outfit in his locker.

From his earlier experiences, he knew that every standard-issue uniform had a built-in body camera that was recording only while the uniform was being worn. The one he got from the quartermaster did not have such a device. Impeccably dressed, he went to meet the appointment with Kiro who was unaware of such an appointment.

Loci knew that Kiro was heading out for lunch. Kiro’s schedule ran like clockwork, every meal was predictable and Kiro left his office exactly at the same time every day. Loci knew this as he liked to keep track of important people and their habits.

Timing his arrival perfectly, he stumbled into Kiro as he was leaving his office. “Sorry, sir. I did not see you come out.” Loci apologized as he was helping Kiro up from the ground. “That’s alright. What was on your mind?” Kiro responded. “I had a rough morning. The professor gave quite a difficult first task. He made it impossible to cheat and I have spent the last hour or so trying to find a way around it.” Loci explained. “I quite understand. Be more careful next time when walking through the hallways. Good day.” Kiro said and headed off to lunch.

After the encounter, Loci headed out of the building. This time he stopped by the guard station and explained that he is heading out for lunch and that he would not be back for the rest of the day. “You know the drill. Leave your access card in the tray and I’ll see you tomorrow.” Loci did just that. He walked over to the drop trays, left his Asgard identification token, and got into the elevator that brought him up to the surface.

Up, on the surface, he flashed for a taxi. The taxi landed next to him on the sidewalk and the door of the automated taxi opened. Loci got in and punched in the address and paid by pressing his thumb to the reader where the back of the driver’s seat would usually be. He pulled up the onboard computer as the taxi lifted off the ground and made a reservation for dinner for two at Frinxe’s. He closed his eyes and took a well-deserved nap for the rest of the one hours trip to his destination.

He woke up as the taxi made a ding sound, indicating that it had arrived. He pressed the open door button and got out. The taxi immediately took off, no doubt to another customer.

Loci looked up at the many stories, gray downtown building. “I hope she is in. Luck, you gotta hold.” He thought to himself and walked to the main entrance.

The doors were opened by a tough-looking but richly dressed doorman. As he walked into the lobby, stepping on the thick carpet that covered the floor, always making him feel like walking on clouds. From one of the couches lining the lobby came a sultry and sensual female voice saying, “Aahh, Loci.” he turned in the direction of the voice and saw the matron of the business coming towards him with her hips swaying and her tall legs flashing through the strategically placed cuts in her red dress.

She raised her hand to her breasts as if in surprise, but really to direct Loci’s attention to their lovely shape and said, “Welcome back to Irene’s house. It has been a few weeks since I last saw you. Have you been ill? Anything to cheer you up?” She made it sound like the most sincere and best offer than a person could get. The sound of her voice, every time Loci heard it, made him feel like a cat. A cat that was got a full palm stroke from the top of the head to the tip of its tail.

Loci took her hand and kissed the back of it. He looked her in the eyes and said, “Madam, you are as lovely as ever. Like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.” “Oooh, you flatterer.” She blushed prettily and Loci went on. “I have been trying to come and visit for days but work held me up. I finally got some free time and was wondering if Mary is in today?” Irene made a deep-throated laugh and said, “Of course she is in. She has been asking daily to see if you have come by. You know the way.” She pulled out a datapad seemingly from nowhere and presented it to Loci for his thumbprint. Loci cheerfully pressed his thumb on the scanner and with a kiss on Irene’s cheek headed to the elevator and to the forty-fourth floor.

The doors dinged open and he went to Mary’s room. He pressed the buzzer and stood back from the door so that the person inside could see through the view-port, who the guest was. The door slid open and Loci stepped inside. He was immediately given a fierce hug and peppered with kisses.

Mary was a petite woman with red hair and a freckled face. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and reached her hips down her back. She was wearing a very light summer blue dress that reached down to mid-thigh and somehow managed not to clash with her red hair.

“Oooh Loci, I missed you so! Where have you been?” She asked with a sparkle in her big green eyes. Loci slid his hands under the hem of the dress and grasping her bare thighs, easily lifted her on his hips. After giving her one passionate, long kiss, in a breathless voice he whispered, “Love, I missed you too.” And with that, he brought her to the big four-poster bed and gently laid her down. All thoughts about his reservation for two forgotten.

Some undetermined time later, they were laying in the bed naked. Loci was on his back and Mary was gently stroking his chest. “I’ve had a ton of work and could not get out sooner. The new training is a bitch. By the end of the day, I’m so exhausted that I do not even leave the barracks anymore. I know I should have called you but all the phones are tapped and I wanted to keep you as a secret.” Loci explained. “I know, love. It’s just that I felt so lonely without you for a company. Is there anything I can help you with?” She asked with a genuine interest in her voice.

Loci pretended to think for a moment and then said, “There actually is a thing, two if I think about it.” “Well, what are they? I’ll do anything to see you more often.” She replied. “First, do you mind if I use your console and uplink? And second, do you still have that realistic holographic room set up for when you get the special callers?” “Of course you may. The glasses are on the stand there.” She said while pointing at the small table by the bed. “I have not used the holo since you started to visit but it’s still set up and I’m sure it works. What do you need a holo for?” “I just realized that I could set up sick leave. However, Asgard will not let me go without checking with the hospital first for confirmation. I’ll need you to pretend to be a receptionist at a hospital." He gave a moment's pause and said, " Let’s call it Mary’s of Angels. If you would answer a call when it comes through and give a confirmation that I’m in a hospital and in a critical condition, I could get off for up to a month.” Loci explained. “Of course I’d do that. Can you imagine spending so much time together.” She said in a husky voice that made Loci feel some stirring in his area of the body that he thought was tired. “Now, now, love.” He said in a gentle voice, “You have to be very convincing and able to answer questions that only trained medic would know.” “That is not a problem, I happen to know quite a lot about medicine and what I don’t know, I can fake.” She answered. “Sounds like a plan. Now I need to find out under what code name they have me in the system and then I can have it set up. Now let me log in and search the records.”

He reached past Mary over to the table and put on the spectacles. Then he grabbed his black uniform pants off of the floor and pulled out Kiro’s identity token that he stole from Kiro earlier that day when he ‘accidentally’ ran into Kiro. He needed the Captain’s token specifically. Only the Captain had access to personnel records of the Asgard. Loci pressed the token to the scanner that was attached to the side of the spectacles and just like that, he was logged into the Asgards personnel database.

He triggered the search for the spymaster and found that his name was Jonathan Anderson. He was fifty-two years old, single with no children. The database gave all of his information including his address, his income, and account details. There were two points that spiked Loci’s interest. The first was that Jonathan had written a book about undercover operatives and that this book was freely accessible to anyone. The second point was that Jonathan tried to join the Fleet when he was twelve, a normal age for enlisting into the Fleet but that he did not make it through the boot camp and was dismissed as unfit. Over the years, he partook in various rallies to dismiss the Fleet or at least limit its military might. This data at least explained his vehemence towards the Fleet.

Once again, Loci reached for his pants and pulled out his data storage and copied the relevant information to his storage and logged out of the database deleting any signs of ever being logged in.

“Love, it appears that I’m in the database under an assumed identity of Jonathan Anderson. In the next couple of days, you will get a call on this communicator.” He placed a round disk on the bedside table. “When it rings, can you answer it and explain that Jonathan is in very bad shape and most likely will not make a recovery? Then when I show up at work at the end of the month, I’ll be able to show remarkable signs of recovery. It will be a miracle of modern medicine.” He said with a laugh. “I already said that I would do it, didn’t I?” She started to run her hand between his thighs and whispered, “Can we do it one more time?” Loci answered that with another long kiss that turned into a pleasant evening and eventually, a very taxing but exciting night.

In the morning, Loci left Irene’s House and headed to an old fashioned book store. He got out of the taxi and went inside. He was greeted with the smell of books and paper dust. He walked over the counter and looked up at the tall shelves, stacked full of physical books of all sizes and shapes. The store owner was an older gentleman wearing a black apron over a snow-white shirt. His bald head was ringed with sparse gray hair. His name tag proclaimed his name to be Hanson.

“How can I help you, young sir?” Hanson asked. “I’m looking for a hardcover book by Jonathan Anderson.” “One moment,” Hanson said and pulled up the shop's inventory. After scanning through the list of authors, he said “I see it here. It’s Lies and Illusions. It was written thirteen years ago and had mild success. Unfortunately, I do not have a hard copy book in stock.” Seeing Loci’s disappointed look, he added, “But, I could get it printed and bound for you in about two hours. If you care to wait.” “Two hours does not sound too bad. Should I wait here or do you prefer if I come back?” Loci asked. “I would recommend you to have a cup of coffee and a brunch so you do not have to idle the morning away,” Hanson said with a smile. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll be back in two hours then.”

Two hours later Loci returned to the store and paid for the square shiny book. Loci called up a taxi and on his way to the base browsed through the book. Loci was shocked by how stupid some of the ideas in the book where. For example, Jonathan recommends an undercover agent to maintain calm at all times and display no emotion. To Loci, this was pure nonsense. You have to show appropriate emotion, required in the situations agents finds himself in. Another recommendation from Jonathan was to study up the customs and situation so that the agent can pass for a native. This was only partially true. In Loci’s experience, it was better to always pretend to be from somewhere else so that any mistakes or eccentricities can be written off as a foreign and as expected by the audience.

Still leafing through the book, Loci arrived at Asgard. He took a long shower at the gym as his first action. After the shower, he went to his locker and changed into his borrowed guard's uniform. With Lies and Illusions under his arm, Loci went to find Jonathan.

Jonathan was just leaving the staff dining room when he was stopped at the door by a guard. “Excuse me, sir. Are you Jonathan Anderson?” The guard asked. “Yes, I am.” The spymaster replied. “I apologize for being so forward and bothering you at your meal, sir. I have a very unusual request.” Jonathan, noticing the book under the guard’s arm, smiled and replied. “No worries. I just finished with lunch so you are not interrupting anything. How can I be of assistance?” He asked. “You see, sir. My younger brother is a big fan of your work. My father, ten years ago, bought this book as a birthday present for my brother." He rised the book so that Jonathan could clearly see it, " Since that day, he has had a copy of the book in his bag at all times. He is fifteen and this weekend turns sixteen. He then plans to apply for secret service training. I would like to give him a surprise and if you don’t mind, could you sign an actual hardcover book? It would mean very much to my brother.” The guard explained. Jonathan was smiling from ear to ear at hearing the compliment. “ Not at all, not at all.” He replied and took the book out of the guard’s hands. He opened the front cover of the book and signed it. He handed the book back to the guard. “Have I seen you around?” He asked the guard. “Thank you, sir. I have been on the base only for three weeks. I got transferred from Flisten, where I was overseeing the deliveries. Imagine my surprise when I saw your face two days ago. My brother has a picture of you in his room, so of course, I recognized you right away. You have no idea of how much this means to me, sir.” “You are, of course, welcome.” The guard looked at his watch and said, “Sir, I have to run, I’m on duty right after lunch and I’m trying to be promoted and would not want a black mark on my record. Thank you again.” And he rushed away. “Flisten, that explains the accent. I did not know my book made it that far. I better get my second book finished soon.” Jonathan was thinking as he left the dining room.

Loci returned to the gym and changed into his proper uniform. He packaged up the borrowed guards uniform and with the parcel in one hand and the book in the other, he went to his assigned workspace. He did stop by the quartermaster to return the uniform. It was a good practice to stay in quartermaster's good books.

In his workspace, Loci grabbed his toolbox and some sheets of heavy official-looking paper. With these in hand, he headed out of his office and taking the long way around, headed for the exit. On his way out he happened to bump into Kiro. After sorting out the confusion of papers and scattering of tools as well as slipping Kiro’s identification token back into Kiro’s pocket, he left the headquarters and headed to Irene’s.

Once there, exhausted and naked, he pulled out his tools and the fine legal-sized paper. After some time spent writing a whole lot of legalese and many explanations to Mary, about proper medical forms and submissions, he painstakingly copied Jonathan’s signature at the bottom of the sheet. He rolled the sheets up into a tight roll and slipped them into a tube.

“Love, I have one more favor to ask of you. Could you rent me a brown business suit for tomorrow? I'll see a lawyer to file the documents.” “How, very, very complicated.” She said and reached for the communicator. “I wonder, how much trouble would you need to go through to file one’s death. And do you need to do it personally?” She asked with a sarcastic note in her voice. In return, Loci smiled and said, “I guess, I’ll have to find out.”

The following day found Loci sitting in the waiting room of the Bloodhounds. Bloodhounds was a very respected firm that dealt with all manner of legal tangles and situations. It was a very quiet establishment with natural wood and glass furniture. The large lobby was illuminated by a massive gold chandelier. The entire lobby was open all the way to the roof of the building, where slanted windows let in natural daylight. The second story had a railing surrounding the open lobby area and small offices with wooden doors lined the walls.

Loci was sitting on the thinly padded wooden bench with the document tube in his lap. He was wearing a very expensive and well-cut brown business suit. His hair was dyed grayish and he had added age lines to his face. This made him look closer to his late forties than his actual early twenties. A young clerk approached him and asked him to follow.

Loci was led to a dark wooden door with Hound written in black letters on the frosted glass backing. The clerk opened the door and ushered Loci inside. A well dressed middle-aged man with gray and neatly cut hair and drooping mustache warmly greeted Loci. He had a firm and honest handshake.

“Mister Hound, thank you for receiving me on such short notice.” Loci said. “We pride our company on being able to resolve even the most… twisty… situations. On the comm, you said that this one is particularly strange and unusual. You piqued my interest so I wanted to meet you personally. So, what are we looking at?”

Loci pulled out the documents from the tube and handed them to Hound. “It’s all laid down in the papers, but in short, one Jonathan Anderson is extremely ill and on death bed. He does not have long to live as his condition is critical. I have been his attorney for the last decade or so and handled his legal affairs. He is an author as well as a professor at a respectable school and employed by the government in his teaching capacity. This adds up to a tidy sum in his accounts. Jonathan does not have any living relatives and is single without any current mistresses. The strange part is that Jonathan is a bit of an eccentric. He is an avid animal rights activist and believes that we should preserve the clams in the ocean bed.” Loci explained.

“I understand all of that. Following your call, I looked into his background and despite how strange this may seem to you, this is nothing unusual. I could see that he partook activities and protests but it did not say in what regard. Now I know that it was animal activism. I don’t quite see why you would need my assistance.” Hound answered. “You see, Jonathan has a penchant for the ancient. He collects ancient and material things. He is known, on occasion, to give his lectures a setting like an ancient theater with masks and robes and such. As soon as he found out that he was ill, he wrote his will, in my presence to be notarized, on paper. On actual paper and this does not appear in any official records on the government database. I tried to talk him into filing it properly with a computer but his argument was that if for hundreds of years it was acceptable to use paper, it should be acceptable now. I tried to find any precedent on this for the last few weeks and could not. Now Jonathan is incapable of doing anything and I’m stuck with his will that I cannot execute. While racking my brains on what to do, I remembered a lecture from my study days giving examples of your firm handling very difficult cases. I decided to ask for your assistance.” Loci explained in a calm even and dry attorney voice, from one professional to another.

Mister Hound took out the papers and carefully read them. “The papers, excepting the fact that they are on paper, seem to be in order and well written.” Hound said. Of course, they were in order, Loci spent the better part of half the night in Mary’s apartment carefully studying legal terms and with the patience of a sculptor, wrote the papers himself.

“There is a signature on the bottom. The good news is that I can scan this and verify that it is Jonathan Anderson who signed it. The last thing necessary would be to call the hospital and record the call to ensure that Jonathan is indeed on the deathbed and incapable of testifying. If that checks out, regardless of the media used for the will, it is a binding document. Now, the subject of fees...” He gave Loci a long appraising look and then said. “Ordinarily, I would charge forty percent of the inheritance to handle the last will of a dying man.” He raised his hand to forestall any objections Loci might have and went on to say, “I know, I’m not the one handling it, but that only would mean that there are consulting fees involved. However, in the entire history of Bloodhounds, I have not had the opportunity to deal with such eccentric cases where the client is using an actual paper. I have a proposal for you. I will handle this entire business and deal with all the necessary filing and inquiries. In exchange, I have your permission to make the case public and use it as an advertisement that no case is too difficult for the Bloodhounds. How does that sound to you?”

Working hard to conceal a pleased smile Loci said, “You leave me no choice. I am not qualified to handle the case on my own and cannot leave a word of my failure to become public. You have a deal Mister Hound.” Loci moved his hand over the table to shake Hound’s hand. “Do you mind if I watch while you work it over?” He asked. “Not at all.” Hound replied.

The old lawyer pulled out a scanner pen from his breast pocket, blew off any stray lint from the tip, and using the bright light at the end of the tip, scanned Jonathan’s signature on the document. “Hmm, this seems to be in perfect order.” He said a moment later. “ The last thing remains. Let me make a call to the hospital. What is the number and location?” He asked Loci. “Mary, it’s your time to shine.” Loci thought and said, “It’s Mary of Angels.” and he gave the dial number.

Hound connected with the number and a petite and very attractive woman answered the phone. She had a neat hospital nurses uniform and her beautiful red hair was partially concealed under the nurse’s cap. Behind her were scrolling screens showing patient names and their locations. Some sound of the usual hospital noises were heard in the background. Hound cleared his throat and introduced himself as the head lawyer of Bloodhounds and explained, “I’m calling to find out if you have a man by the name of Jonathan Anderson in your care.” “One moment please.” She replied and appeared to pull up the hospital records. After a minute of scrolling, she replied. “Ohh, Yes. We do. I remember well. He is extremely ill and I’m sorry to say it, the doctor said that he would not survive more than three days. We are doing all we can to make his suffering easier but it seems to be beyond our powers.” She looked sad and following careful instructions from Loci asked, “Would you like me to clear it with the Chief and have the statement sent to you?” “Please do. I require it as part of a quite delicate case.” “No problem.” And she sent over a document carefully prepared by Loci the same night he forged the will. “Thank you very much.” Hound said after scanning the statement. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” She asked. “That is everything I need.” Hound replied and after polite goodbye disconnected the call.

Hound gathered all the papers together and put them into a big plastic envelope. He then spent the next minute or two in silence, writing instructions to his filing department. When this was done, he looked up at Loci and said, “All done. This is being filed with the government. Since his situation is dire and there is no chance of recovery, I’m including a death certificate as well, since it takes two weeks to get it properly logged into the government files, the statement will be true.” “Mister Hound, Thank you very much. You just saved me a lot of trouble. I will employ your house in the future if anything similar arises.” Hound gave him a warm and companionable smile that he kept in-store only for his best customers and said, “Pleased to do business with you.” Then followed the usual goodbyes and Loci left the Hounds.

While waiting for the taxi he thought. “Brilliant girl! Her performance was perfect. One last thing and then almost two weeks of her pleasant company.”
The last thing that Loci needed to do was to report to Asgard that he will be out for the next two weeks, working on the Spymasters assignment. This was necessary for two reasons, first so that he could be excused from being on the base for the time and second, more importantly, it gave an alert to the Spymaster that from this point onward Loci will be working to implicate him, which of course was already done and will not cause him to look further back.

With that done, Loci returned to Mary and then spent a very pleasant two weeks that involved the various night clubs, theaters, music halls, and the obvious warm embrace of the woman that he, strangely, loved, despite her profession.

At the appointed time, two weeks later, Loci was back in the lecture hall. He was seated exactly in the same place he was before. The professor strolled into the hall and up to the podium. He was wearing his black robe and a mask covering his face, just like before. This time, however, he removed the mask and lowered the hood of his robe, revealing his features. “Right.” he said, “I can safely assure that none of you managed to accomplish both of the assigned tasks. A very few of you uncovered my identity but none managed to implicate me into anything. I would like to make a special mention of our star Fleet student.” He gestured towards Loci who was relaxed and leaning back into his chair. “While all of you actually worked on the assignment, Loci in a typical Fleet manner, was completely useless and did not even attempt to do anything.” He put on a false smile and with dripping sarcasm asked, “Do you need more time, say, a year or two?”

“Asshole.” Loci muttered under his breath. He stood up and in the professor’s native language addressed the Spymaster, “Sir, I invite you to look at the screen on your right.” Loci pressed a button on the remote he was holding. The lights in the auditorium dimmed and the blackboard turned into a screen. The screen was rolling a local news program and the news anchor was saying something about a taxi crashing over in sector six.

“What is this?” The professor asked in Vadren. The rest of the students were moving in their seats, not understanding what was happening in front of their eyes. “While we wait for the proper news article, let me explain where you stand.” Loci said with a pleased smile on his face. “Legally, you are dead. You do not have any rights as a citizen and therefore every action that you do, is against the law, moreover, your entire account and funds….”….


****

“You, see. He somehow arranged all of Jonathan's funds and property transferred to the clam protection society.” Lint said with a loud laugh at the end of the sentence. When he finally managed to get his breath back, he continued in one breath so as to get the next sentence out before another bout of laughter interrupts, “Jonathan is so stuck that he cannot leave the base as he has nowhere to go, he cannot even pay for a cup of ..” The sentence was cut off by Lint’s deep laughter. Tears streaming down his cheeks, rocking side to side in his chair, Lint was holding his stomach. Kiro had a forced smile on his bloodless face. “This is it. Loci finally did it, he leaves us no choice.” Kiro thought.

After a few minutes, the laughter died down. Lint wiped down his cheeks and straightened his jacket, holding in the occasional giggle. After this difficult task was done, he got up and brought over one of his special brandies and poured two glasses. He dumped his glass down his throat in one shot and slammed the glass down on the table. “Damn, that felt good.” He said. “Kiro, here’s the thing. Not one student, ever, has done what Loci just did. There is absolutely no record in his file or anywhere of how he managed to pull it off. It was perfect.” Kiro frowned at this but did not say anything. He reached over and took his shot glass and took a careful sip of the smooth dark liquid.

“I am going to place Loci in charge of security of the new ship.” “What!” Kiro exclaimed. “You heard me. There is no man better suited to keep something secret than Loci. After seeing what he did to the most well known secret agent, right under his nose and so thoroughly, I have no doubt that Loci will keep the project secret and secure.” Kiro hearing this took a long sip from his cup and due to the release of his pent up worry, choked on it. He coughed violently. Lint let this pass and then continued. “I will handle matters with Jonathan. I’ll have him reinstated with full pay etc. Your job is to get Loci to understand his duty and to take it seriously.” “I understand, Sir. I’ll handle it.” “See to it then.”

Kiro left the office of the Commander. He stood outside the door and while wiping sweat from his forehead, heard a burst of loud laughter coming from the other side of the door.