Fiction Home - More by Cleo "Red" Shurtz - More in Action and Aventure - More Second Fanfic Challenge entries

The downtown section of Tashir's capital city was not noted for its loveliness, nor was it noted for its cleanliness. It really wasn't noted for anything other than a place to go to get lost. Here you could find a new identity, or steal someone else's. You could even create a new face to go with that identity, if you had enough credits. Today Red didn't want to find anything, or buy anything nor did she want to try any of the interesting chemical packets that were thrust at her. This was her fifth trip through the bazaar, and she had lost interest in the sights and smells the first time she ventured through the market. She did not have time to gawk like a common tourist. She had to look the part of a native, and that did not include long startled glances at the odd native vegetables and other items sold at the market. The entertainment, well that was another story. Everyone gawked at the entertainment. But a native would not be impressed by the variety of colors and smells that accosted their senses. And that is how she had to act. Fit in, blend, meld. She was even wearing the local fashions, not the height of fashion, but something trendy enough to look like every other girl on the street.

Red stopped at a local tavern, letting her eyes become accustomed to the dark as she entered. Would he be here or would she wait for him? Her contact had a prickly little habit of running to his own time schedule. It could make for some awkward moments. Nodding to the barkeeper she strolled assuredly across the room to a tiny table by the far wall. It had excellent qualities. It was dark, damp, and moldy but the view was perfect, she could see both the front door and the back hallway. She ordered an Elba Water from the waitress and watched for her contact. He was late as usual. Striding into the tavern he saw Cleo as she stood to wave him over.

"Dad," she greeted him and gave him a familial hug, "How are Mom and the kids?"

"Your brother has a cold," he replied, "wants to see you, won't play with anyone else."

Cleo sighed, it was just as she had feared. "He's almost full grown, you would think he could learn to play with others."

"Well, time will tell with that one." Her contact took a long swallow of Cleo's Elba Water and grimaced. "Why are you drinking this? Don't you know this stuff'll kill you?"

Red covered a grin and rose to leave. "I'll just go and peek in on little Valen, maybe I'll read him a book. Oh, and would you mind taking the bill? Thanks Dad, I owe you one." Chuckling she left the tavern.

Now to find Valen and give him a piece of her mind.

Another long and convoluted walk through crowded dusty streets brought here to the arched entrance of a masonry apartment building. The building was centuries old and had started out its life as an travelers inn. On the lower levels many of the apartments still had stall doors and the duracrete had been warn thin to a dangerous craggy rock and concrete mix by years of hoofed abuse.

Red chose the center aisle and walked up the corridor, slowing to step inside the deep doorway of a small flat. She stood and listened intently for a time before continuing on up the hallway and to the third floor where she knocked rapidly upon the door. "Mom, it's me let me in." She counted the time it took for a response to be heard from behind the door. Finally she heard the scratching noise that was her signal, she knocked two more times, "Mom," then gave a quick odd rasp to the door with her knuckles. "Let me in." From a bystanders point of view this looked pretty common, and that was how she had designed it to look. The door opened and a wizened craggy face smiled at her, "Hi Mom." Mom left as quickly as she had come and her friendly face was replaced by a soft pinched face which looked at her from the crack.

"About time, get in here."

"Love you too, Mom." Cleo intoned as she crossed the threshold. The room was a mess, there were boxes of takeout lying four deep, stacked beside boxes of takeout lying five deep, clothing was strewn about the room and the one good light in the ceiling was now bare of its shade.

"I thought I told you to clean this place up. You don't have anyone carrying and fetching for you anymore, and I certainly wont do it." She said this as she instinctively moved to grab a trash can and gingerly prod the pile into it.

She rolled her eyes and looked at him sideways. "Well, I'm here. What did you want to talk about?"

"These conditions are intolerable. Do you know who I am? I require a staff and personal freedom."

"These conditions are temporary, and you are not the great and powerful so and so anymore. You gave all that up to gain your freedom. And freedom is what you will get. Once there have been certain alterations made."

Red was getting tired of explaining to him just how dangerous his situation was. Didn't he understand just how valuable he was to them alive? And conversely, to the opposition dead? She had always seemed to assure him before, and as chief interrogator it was her responsibility to not only get his information, but to see to his personal safety and comfort.

"No, servants. And your escort is not going to pick up after you. They have orders not to and they never disobey orders. As for your freedom, we can't afford to let you be seen right now. No trips to the country. Do you hear me? No going outside these rooms at all." She tired of lecturing him; now, how about some cajoling. "You know it will only be a short time, you can wait that long. You could probably outlast me in any contest of will. You have that strength about you. So please, don't try to go out again. Please for me." She smiled at him in a sincere and innocent, and totally trained way. "You don't want me to lose my job do you. Because I can't walk home you know."

There she had him again. And it made her feel like a creep, playing on his sympathies. Oh, well. If it kept him alive for another few days it was worth it.

Maybe they could actually get some more information out of him today. Yeah, right. She thought with a laugh. For a man who had sold himself to the NR in exchange for a new life he was surprisingly slow in revealing the information that would pay for this aggravating experience.

* * * * *

Tudyk looked up from his desk and laughed as Red flopped into the chair opposite him. He was a good natured happy looking man in his mid thirties. Curling blond hair circled his face, making him look more angel than soldier.

"Been talking to the 'King' again have you? You know, that guy is going to make some woman a really good wife someday." Tudyk said in serious deadpan. "And he seems to be taking a liking to you."

Red picked up the nearest data pad and threw it at him. He caught it deftly and presented it back to her with a flourish.

"This guy is going to be the death of me. I mean is he serious? Does he think he can just sell Imp secrets and get away with it? Sure, he can sell to the highest bidder to cover his gambling debts. But now that his life is on the line, we are the highest bidder! Maybe we can't or wont offer him the kind of money he wants, but we can offer him life."

Red continued to fume as she picked up the transcripts from his latest session with the NR interrogators. "Useless drivel, he's stalling... Snatches of information only... this is just a glimpse of what he knows. The problem is he knows it, and he's playing us."

"You don't have to lecture me, I've seen his kind before."

Red looked at Tudyk in sympathy. "I don't know how you do it. Is this your third life timer security assignment?"

"Yep, you get used to the long boring hours and monotony after a while. But it does give you a chance to practice the finer arts."

"Fine arts? You don't look to be the musical sort."

"I practice the ancient art of Geonosian archery."

Red was intrigued, "Geonosian archery, I don't think I have ever heard of it."

"It's an ancient form of meditation using a primitive weapon, a bow and bolt, developed to train only the most devout warriors. An art that requires great patience and endurance. Breathing, posture, pain, you must overcome all of these things. All while holding your bow at the draw position, only firing when you feel you have reached the point that you are at one with your target. My sung-seng was Master Omori Sogen, a top monk of his order and well honored."

"Amazing, you are so much deeper than you look." He started to look offended, and Red wondered just how much men knew about conversational games. She felt the past creeping up on her. "No, I'm being serious! I would never have known you were so Zen like... 'eer I guess you would call that Jedi like."

"No, not Jedi. There are no mystical powers involved, just you against your own body. In the end it is our minds that must overcome our bodies."

"Yeah, like I said, Deep! I could use some of that training right now. I'm about to overcome someone's mind with my fist."

* * * * *

It had been a long and exasperating day, Red mused over her nightly meal at a corner caf. The interrogation was going nowhere, and Valen was just as insolent and unthankful as ever. Red wondered just how bad she would feel to get removed from this case. And how hard she would laugh as she turned over her almost bare transcripts. The thought was rather pleasant, she relished the feeling for a moment, then shook her head. "No," she thought, "I am much to devoted to my job, and to how Admiral Burn views me to give up this easily." She would just have to keep trying.

Tipping the waitress and leaving the caf she started her long walk back to her apartment. Her own apartments were far from Valen's secure quarters. Keeping the NR population to a minimum around the fugitive so as to not attract attention from pesky neighbors and landlords, was her own idea. You could only rent so many apartments at one time, and house so many people sporting military style haircuts, she had reasoned. And it gave her the opportunity to unwind after a long day of playing 'babysitter' as Tudyk liked to call it.

The early evening air was brisk and humid. Here in the heart of the city the population felt free to walk and laugh in the twilight, far from the surrounding jungle's darkness. The streets were lively, couples strolled along the walkways examining store windows arm in arm, and others laughed in groups as they came and went from night spots. Red found her mood was lifting. And it was pleasant to relax for a moment, put the overworked senses on hold for a short time, feel a part of the giddy mood all around her and breath again. She found herself people watching, not with the critical practiced eye of the NRI, but with a softer friendlier acceptance. Heck if she were her good friend Corry, she might even be humming along to the Jizz that a street musician was playing.

Red stood with a crowd and waited for the signal to cross a busy street. Cabs and personal family transports whizzed by, kicking up noxious fumes and filling the air with dust and noise. Coughing she crossed the street with the press, glancing to the left to check the distance between herself and an impatient cab, she could swear the passenger in the cab was Valen. She blinked and did a double take. Valen? It was him! That little ingrate was on the run again. Before she could hail the cab it was gone again, racing up the street to the next intersection. Had Valen seen her? Grabbing her commlink she called Tudyk. As head of security he could organize a unit as she took chase and sent coordinates back to them.

Tudyk answered with a curse, "That man will be the death of me!"

"I've already said that, get out here before he becomes the death of us all. Follow my comm."

Now, where to find a... Ha! A line of swoops stood before a seedy looking bar. "Emergency situation, really," Red mumbled to herself, as she pulled a set of craftily created keys from an enclosed pocket. "Too bad they come in one color only. I choose... Black." On and away before the other street patrons knew she didn't own the bike.

"Now where did that little weasel go?" The evening traffic was heavy and filled with similar looking cabs to Valen's escape vehicle, but she thought she knew where he was going and made for the edge of town. Traffic was even lighter leaving the safety of the walled city and she could see the lights of a cab far ahead dodging through the treed side streets and into heavier forest. Trimming her own headlight so it would not show to the cab Red followed at a much slower pace. Picking her way through the ever increasingly dense jungle, and moving into a parallel path.

The cab slowed to a stop and Valen got out and started walking towards the woods. A light appeared in front of him and he made his way to it picking slowly through the darkened forest.

I'll have to leave my swoop, he'll hear me. Red drew her death hammer and started off through the thickening gloom of the woods. Just who was Valen meeting anyway? He can't be that stupid could he? One look ahead of her told her the answer. Yes, he could be that stupid. Red crept up closer to watch as Valen stopped ten meters short of another transport and a burly human walked out to meet him. I can't hear a thing. She thought as she gripped her blaster closer and moved carefully forward. They looked to be conversing, and then the Burly man hefted a pouch and handed it to Valen. Valen reached in his pocket and gave something in return.

Yellow blaster bolts arched through the air, the Burly man fell and his transport exploded. "I knew it! That little idiot! Run Valen!" She said softly through gritted teeth. Valen didn't need her prompting to run, he was already slipping and tripping his way through the gloom; but not towards his transport. He quickly disappeared into the jungle at his back.

Red drew her comm link and thought about it for a moment before placing it on a stump. She needed Tudyk and his security team, but whoever the shooter was could also be following her signal. And now she had to find them, and protect Valen. Easiest way to find them would be to follow Valen. "Ooie, lovely day this is turning out to be." She cut into a half circle following the route the blaster bolts had come from, a tangent that should put her in line with the shooter as he moved towards Valen.

"Ahh," there he was up ahead. Standing over the Burly man, a grayed shadow bent to pick something up, straightened, then walked further into the trees following Valen.

Red followed at as quick a pace as she could without giving away her position. Into the increasing darkness she went. It was getting imposable to see without aid of some night vision equipment. She had to rely upon her other senses to pick and feel her way through the gloom. Ahead she heard a whine as if a blaster were discharging and the sound of a shout. She quickened her pace to follow. If she could only get close enough to get a shot at whomever was following Valen, they might stand a chance.

Working her way around a large tree trunk she heard the blaster whine again, only this time much closer and right behind her ear. Red dropped and rolled to the ground as a bolt seared the tree trunk above her. Coming up for a shot of her own she fired into the dark where the bolt had originated. Nothing. She crept further along staying close to the ground and behind a rotted log for protection. Where did he go? "Uhff," a booted foot slammed her in the back and into the log. Holding her there as a gloved hand extracted her weapon from her.

"You should have kept the comm-link Commander. Then I wouldn't have had to waste my ammunition shooting at you."

The voice was familiar but muffled by the mask he wore. Red fought against the boot and turned to see the marksman.

His head was covered, and he was fully dressed in camouflage and wearing night vision goggles.

"You had the advantage, why didn't you kill me?"

"Thought about it. But where is the fun in gloating to a corpse."

"Lovely, remind me not to return the favor." Replied Red as she moved to get a better position against the log.

"Don't move! I have killed before, and I have absolutely no compunction in doing so again." The muffled voice laughed in the darkness.

Where have I heard that line before? Someone used it as joke... who was it? Red wracked her brain for the answer, someone lately had said the same thing. Who was it... realization dawned and she looked up into the cold dead eyes of the goggled face. "Tudyk?"

"Hahahah," metallic laughter cracked through the mask, before he plucked it off with a flourish. "You guessed right Commander."

Red was shocked, Tudyk had always appeared so... good natured, friendly, maybe even more than that. He had flown right under her radar, and it hurt to say it, but she had read him entirely wrong. She covered her bitterness with "Where is Valen?"

"Not gonna need a babysitter anymore. I've done you a favor."

"I didn't ask for a favor, Tudyk." Red's voice was low and controlled. She didn't know whether Tudyk had completely lost his sanity, or just his morals. "Why did you do it?"

"He was giving us the run around, you said it yourself. He was secretly setting up deals to sell his information and make a bigger profit than we were going to pay. He was a bad'un and needed to be stopped." Bad'un? Tudyk sounded like he was walking on the shaky edge of his sanity.

"You don't seriously think you can get away with this do you?" Boy, that line sounded familiar... why did it always seem to come up. Red made a secret vow never to use it again. She hoped.

"Get away with it? What did I do? I merely followed your comm to this spot and found you both dead at the hands of an Imp death squad." He brandished his sniper rifle. "I picked this up rather recently from the fellows just up the hill. They won't be needing it."

"How did you know? How did you have time to get here...?" Oh, I am an idiot aren't I? He would have known before anyone else that Valen was planning something. "You were here all along weren't you. And you tipped off the death squad also."

He smiled evilly and chuckled. "I do love my job! And now I never have to do it again. I got Valen's information, and his payoff. A nice tidy sum and more to come."

Red could not believe she had been so blind. "I trusted you! We all did."

Tudyk laughed in response and Red winced at the sound. Yes, he most certainly seems to have lost it. Now how can I use this for my benefit.

"Did you lie to me about the Geonosian archery as well?"

The recall of his former studies caught him off guard. He shook his head, a silent no, and became deadly serious. "I am the best you will ever meet. I could hold this position for hours, and never flinch. When I shoot, I hit my target."

"But you missed me. And I was right in your sights."

He growled his return response. "I won't miss again."

"So you would shoot me here? Unarmed, defenseless? Not three feet away from you?"

He seemed to consider the implications. "Yes, I would." Red let out the breath she had been holding in quiet anticipation of his rejection, Dang.

"You have no ethics then. Your training means nothing."

"You seem to think the Geonosians have ethics and morals. Well they don't. Theirs is a hive mentality, the strongest survive and the weak die. I am strong, you are weak. I've already proven this, I don't need to prove it again."

Was anything going to get her out of this situation? Red drew a quick mental checklist, and then checked the last square. Nope, she was toast.

"If that is the way it is going to be, then do it!" It was a totally off balance approach to the situation, and he responded in kind. Shying from her angry yells and taunts. "Do it! Your not man enough are you." He struggled backwards away from her, his face displaying a range of emotions. He looked incredulous, then frightened, finally he looked angry. But this was enough of an advantage for her. He had moved another step or two away from her, giving Red enough room to push up on her arms and kick forward and sideways at knee. He fell sideways as his knee gave out and Red was off, over the rotten log and across the meadow. It was fully dark now and the ground was pitted with grass hillocks and straggly orphaned trees. They offered no shelter, only slaps in the face as she slalomed through the meadow.

She hoped Tudyk would be slow to regain his feet. At least until I reach the far tree line. A yellow blast lanced through the air above her head, followed shortly by a second whining bolt, lower and to her left. She ran on, in a random zigzag hoping Tudyk's night vision goggles and scope would hinder his tracking ability, and his anger harried his shot.

Tudyk cursed and leveled a shot, this time dead center of her movement, it raced toward her back. A shadow, darker than the grass loomed in front of her, tripping she fell face forward over Valen, his form still in the darkness. The blaster bolt clipping her shoulder and sending hazy waves of nausea through her body. Red breathed deeply to clear her head, that had been close, too close. She lay silently in the tufted grass just yards away from the safety of the tree line. "Thanks Valen," she whispered. She doubted Valen had a weapon, but she searched him anyway. Nothing on his body, she searched his outstretched arms and the surrounding grass. Nothing. Her luck had to change and quickly!

"I can't run any further, he is waiting for me to get up." Red slowly inched an arm forward to pull herself along the grass. The movement was followed by two quick blaster bolts lancing to either side of her. "He's playing with me!" She thought savagely as another blaster bolt landed beside her and caused her to jump. "Sadistic little creep." She pulled herself further in the grass, not lifting a hair higher than was necessary and another laser bolt sliced through the atmosphere, sizzling as it struck the ground beside her. "Great, he's going to kill me with anticipation." She pulled her arm back beside her and felt a metallic sensation. "Oh Valen, Thank You!"

* * * * *

There had been no movement in the past twenty minutes. But he had been trained to hold his shot for longer. Tudyk stood stalk still, his eyes never leaving his target, of the dark shadow behind the lighter one.

* * * * *

"Come on already. Come out and kill me. I'll show you who is ready to die." Red said quietly through clenched teeth. She dared not move, dared not blink, dared not breath. "Come to me!"

It was the dead of the night. Tudyk had stood for well over three hours now. Still no movement from the target. Training told him his job was finished now. The opponent destroyed. And yet.

Moving in a crouched position he kept the bodies covered as he ran. Valen was dead where he had fallen hours before, Tudyk kicked his leg to be absolutely sure. He swiveled his gaze to Red, so he had struck her. A black scorch mark ran from mid back to shoulder. Not a killing blow surely, he thought. She lay with one arm cradled beneath her, the other flung out ahead. With the tip of his boot he prodded her. No response. Levering a boot underneath her he flipped her to her back. Her eyes met his, full and very much alive. Blaster fire erupted simultaneously.

* * * * *

"There they are," a metallic voice cried over the head set and the old man squinted in the bright sunlight to see where the small troop transports pilot was pointing. "Down, all down." The voice cried out again, this time without the excitement. The old man shook his head and waited for the transport to land in the clearing.

He approached the scene slowly both hands on his own blaster, watching the tree line for movement, looking for an answer to what had happened here. Stooping to the check the first body, he found the man was dead, as was the second. He resolved himself to look to the last body, not wanting the answer he was sure to find. She lay silently on the cold ground, blaster scoring covering her chest. Yet, she looked more asleep than dead. "It's not fair that the young are taken, and not the old," he thought, bending to feel for a pulse. At his touch her eyes flickered open, they searched to meet his, and she smiled. "Dad, how are Mom and the kids?"

Dad returned the code with a sad smile. "The kids are coming home."