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Keeping the Secret 2000 short story by Jonathan Hicks Six years after Episode IV - A New Hope The
skyhopper slued round as it came in for its landing, blowing debris and paper
in all directions. Its vectored manoeuvring jets tilted to allow it to settle
gently onto the roof speeder park plascrete It screamed its power as it began
the descent sequence. The
man in the black suit stood next to a black landspeeder as the vehicle came
down. He screwed up his eyes as all the collected filth on the roof of the multi
storey was violently disturbed, turning his head slightly as the heat from
the skyhopper`s engines spread across the landing platform. As
the undercarriage of the hopper connected with the roof, the side door swung
upwards. The interior of the vehicle was dimly lit, and the man in black had
to squint to discern any interior. Another man in a similar suit stepped, a
Blaster rifle of high quality resting easily in the nook of his arm, his
finger stretched over the trigger guard. He gazed around the roof for a few
seconds, and, satisfied that the skyhopper and the landspeeder were the only
two vehicles on the roof, nodded to another two forms inside. The
other door swung upwards. Another man, starkingly similar to his counterpart,
climbed out of the hopper with a similar weapon in his hand, his other hand
helping out an injured alien dressed in a light grey suit. His reptilian
features were scarred by cuts and bruises, with blue hair cascading from his
brows and down to his waistline. He hobbled around to the front of the
vehicle, obviously hindered by injury. Around
the scene Amagad City sprawled like a malignant tuma, growing and spreading,
corrupting every new inch of ground that was built upon. Towerblock upon
towerblock spread for as far as the eye could see, lit up by huge strobing
searchlights or holographic advertisements. Hoppers and other air transports
buzzed between the buildings like bees around beehives, their fanciful
illuminations spreading their own light. Sirens blared and engines screamed from
above as well as below. High above the city, the two moons tried to push
their faded light through an almost constant cloud of smog. The
reptile took out a mask and fitted it over his nose and mouth, taking a deep
breath of fresh air. The man in black took three steps forward from the
landspeeder, his hands in the pockets of jacket, his long white hair tied
back in a braid. "Noomtil," he said in greeting
to the alien. His voice was deep and devoid if any discernible emotion. A
drop of rain fell from the heavens and landed on the lapel of his coat. The
reptile took the mask away from his face and handed it to his aid. "Melm. Your looking well for a dead
man." The other aid had lit up a NixStik, throwing a used lighter over
the side of the fifteen storey building. He drew in deeply and held his
breath for a few seconds before exhaling. The man in black watched him,
trying to guess at the narcotic. "The game was getting dangerous. It
was about time I disappeared and laid low for a while. No-one comes looking
for a dead man." The
reptile laughed, the sound turning into a gurgling cough. The aid handed him
the mask, and after a few deep breaths, he spoke. "Very clever, that trick with the
body in the burnt out skyhopper. Who was the body, anyway?" The
man in black leant back against his landspeeder, smiling to himself as he
looked down at his feet and then back at the reptile. "I don`t reveal my contacts. And as
for the body, it was someone trying to collect the bounty on me. He won`t be
missed. Not officially, anyway." The
atmosphere suddenly went strained. An air transport screamed overhead, its
jets disturbing the scene and its lights revealing the shadows. After a while
it had turned down another street and disappeared. "So, I guess you`ve come to kill me
now then?" the reptile asked casually. His aid gripped the gun tighter,
but otherwise did not react to his boss`s blasé comment. The
man in black shook his head, looking out over the city, chewing his lower
lip. "No, I`m not here to kill you. The
war never actually took place, did it? Dressel has got his territory secured,
Pocock and Spyte are reasonably happy with what they got out of it all, and
all those little gangs are all satisfied with the outcome. No, I`m not here
to kill you." The
reptile smiled and nodded, and turned back to the hopper. "The reason why I set up this meeting
was so that you could drop me a few thousand credits so that I can get out of
this city, out of this sector for a few days. Its the least you could do for
the man you set up." The
aids looked at each other nervously, and the reptile stopped. Straightening
his back as much as he could, he turned to face the man in black. "So you figured it out then," he
said. "Oh yes, I figured it all out. You
ask me to cap off a couple of guys who you say are muscling in on your
territory, I do the job, they turn out to be another gangleader’s sons and you falsify documents saying I was
hired by Dressel to kill them. While they very nearly kicked seven shades of
pudu out of each other, you get ready to move in to pick up the pieces. Very
clever, Noomtil. I liked the plan all the way up to the point where several
gangs wanted my heart ripped out because you frecked me about." The
reptile smiled and then laughed softly so not to bring on another fit of
coughing. He looked up at the man on the landspeeder. "Melm, Melm," he said, "I
always knew you were smarter than that. I knew you wouldn`t let them catch
you. You`re really good, thats why I hired you... " Melm
was suddenly wary. Noomtil was stalling for some reason, and his eyes flashed
over the two aids as the reptile rattled on about his professionalism. He
noticed that the one aid by the hopper kept turning his head to look out over
Amagad, and when he did his lips moved almost imperceptibly in the dim light.
He`s talking into a comlink in his
lapel, Melm thought. Someone else
is here. I arranged a private meeting with Noomtil for him to pay me off so
that I can get out of this damn city, and he set me up. He`s not going to
help me. He`s going to kill me. Well, I couldn`t have expected
anything less. He
tensed as Noomtil came to the end of his short speech. If anything was going
to happen it would be within the next few seconds. No bombs. Noomtil wouldn`t kill me
that way because it would attract too much attention. Sniper? Possible. There`re several
buildings surrounding this rooftop, with some good vantage points for a clear
view over the entire roof. It`s probably a sniper the aid by the hopper is in
communication with. Maybe he has other people on the
next level below. Not likely, there`re a few people leaving their places of
work around this area of the city, and he wouldn`t want witnesses. The
roof area of the multi-storeys were usually empty because the owners of
vehicles didn`t want them stained by any corrosive rain which might happen
overhead. As a result, they were used as refuse dumps for the surrounding
buildings who couldn`t be bothered to travel to a local trash compactor. Maybe the two aids will open fire. They`re
armed and ready, but would they take the risk at such close quarters? Melm
quickly scanned for available cover, and judged the large pile of refuse bags
to his left as a useful barrier against any incoming fire. Noomtil
was waiting as if expecting an answer, and Melm realised he hadn`t been
listening for the last few seconds. Now the reptile would realise that he was
ready for a double-cross and go into action. He
saw the aid by the hopper move slightly, and watched as he sucked in his
breath to shout something. In the second that he had seen the intake of
breath and heard the bellow of "Take
him!", Melm had dived from the landspeeder towards the pile of bags,
his hand going inside his coat to close around the butt of his Blaster. The
pistol slid from its already unbuckled holster as he hit the floor and
rolled. The
rapid roaring of two weapons filled the already noisy night air as the two
men by the hopper opened up, their bolts raking the floor around Melm and
then tearing apart the bin bags. Melm immediately regretted his choice of
cover as a few shots tore through the plastic containers and spewed organic
rubbish over him. He cried out in faked pain, a tactic that Goah Galletti had
told him almost always worked, and
started to move back for the landspeeder. One
of the men had stopped firing and was moving forward, hoping to take
advantage of the man he thought to be injured and was rewarded for his
efforts with two explosive energy bolts in his chest as Melm dived back for
the vehicle. His back exploded in a technicolour splash white sparks. He fell
back, landing on the plascrete. The
other aid was helping the reptile back to the hopper, where the pilot was
starting up the motors. The energy from his gun shattered the front windscreen
and holed the bonnet of the landspeeder as he covered their escape. Melm
swung around the other side of the vehicle, and his gun reported twice. The
first shot hit the aid in the chest, throwing him back to fall upon the
reptile who cried out in dismay. The second shot hit the pilot in the head.
Other than the humming of the skyhopper’s motors, the scene was much quieter
than it had been eleven seconds ago. Melm
was breathing hard. Suddenly, he caught a flash out of the corner of his eye
and was moving as another bolt shot towards him. It caught him in the left
upper arm and he gritted his teeth against the agiony. There
was a sniper on the opposite building. He
forced himself to relax, listening to the reptile`s wimpering as he lay
pinned under the bulk of the aid. The wound was still numb, and Melm hoped it
would stay that way until he could get it seen to. What he needed right now
was to get rid of that sniper. He
took off his coat and balled it up, moving to the front of the landspeeder.
He held his gun ready, and threw the coat towards the back of the vehicle,
above the roof. A
shot rang out, and the coat was immediately holed. As the coat fell
smouldering to the floor, Melm swung round from the front of the landspeeder,
his eyes quickly probing the roof of another multi storey opposite. He saw
the sniper swinging his weapon around to reacquire a target. His
thumb flicked a switch and the weapon emptied its energy pack in the
direction of the sniper. One long strobing flame accompanied by a high speed
release issued from the muzzle. The sniper was thrown back by the multiple
impacts of several bolts as the rest tore apart the vehicle he was using as
cover. Melm did not like using that much energy on a single target,
especially with the risk of the weapon overheating and exploding, but at that
range he had to be sure he scored at least one hit. As the magazine ran out
it automatically disengaged from the weapon, leaving a trail of smoke as it
fell down. Melm
realised he had been holding his breath, and he let it out sharply, getting
up and moving quickly to the hopper. The lawdroids would be arriving soon,
the shots would not have gone unnoticed. He gave himself a few minutes
leeway. The law in Amagad City was not exactly renowned for its promptness,
for the use of firearms was an almost socially acceptable thing. More murders
took place every night than they could cope with. The
reptile was dead. He had suffocated under the body of his aid, not able to
reach the mask which supplied him with his much needed fresh air. Melm cursed
and looked over at the landspeeder. It was doubtful whether he would find
enough credits on the reptile or in the hopper to help him get out of the
city safely. It
was time to cover his tracks. His clothes were a synthetic fibre so they
would not leave strands lying around. His coat was useless with the hole in
it, and the landspeeder was stolen anyway, ruined now that it was full of
holes. He threw his coat into the landspeeder. He dragged the body of the
reptile into the back of the landspeeder, too. Then he peeled off the
synthetic skin from his hands which had falsified his prints and tucked it
into the body's pocket. The only thing he was concerned about was his own
blood still on the roof, but he decided that there was very little he could
do about that, and he had no time for a full after-hit cleanup. He went back
to the hopper and re-loaded his Blaster. He
took from his holster what looked like an elongated bullet and cocked the
pistol, sliding the small missile into the barrel. Then he took aim at the
landspeeder and fired, the sharp bang startling night creatures which had
settled around the bodies. The landspeeder erupted as the explosive connected
with the hood, flipping the bonnet into the air like a coin off a finger. The
energy source turned the whole vehicle into a huge fireball, which in turn
set fire to the refuse bags Melm had used as cover. He looked deep into the
fire as he re-holstered his weapon. Sleep tight, you double-crossing
blue-haired bastard. He
powered up the hopper, and somewhat gingerley took off from the roof, leaving
the fire and the bodies to be found by the authorities. He had to find some
other way out of the city, and he knew his options were more than limited. Two
law speeders and a fire transport blared past him as he turned into the main
street, and he smiled weakly.
The city spread out before him as he flew the hopper
between the colossal buildings, dipping under walkways and overhead roads,
keeping the speed low so that he would not attract any attention. Each huge
construct was a twisted creation from an architects nightmare as each and
every new block tried to outdo the one before it by changing the style of
design. Some buildings were constructed as pyramids, some as straightforward
towers. Others were built like steps, whereas the more obscene were spiralled
or arch-shaped. Landing pads covered the buildings, steam from air
purification systems from most. The city was a landscape of gravestones and
tombs, covered in an almost perpetual shadow, and covered in the most
horrendous smog cloud imaginable. The populace swarmed around the metropolis,
trying to live their lives as if this mockery of sentient imagination was not
twisting their minds. Violence was commonplace. To survive a week in Amagad
City was every citizens goal. The corrupt authorities had the power of the
law on their side. The people had the power of self defence on theirs. If you were in between, you made
sure your life insurance was paid up. Melm flew on. "This
is Amagad Broadcast with the hottest news from around the city, bringing you
updates and fast breaking stories as they unfold... sponsored by Antiheat
armour products, the bodyarmour company who won`t put a hole in you or your
account.
"The latest from the Setnin Sector gang wars is that they never
officially took place. Govenor Glann Cipple was quoted today as saying that
the `the threat is over... once again the people of Amagad can breath easily
as these reputable gangs settle their differences in a peaceful manner.`
These apparent peaceful settlements are still to be verified as another
twelve people were killed last night in four gang related shootouts,
including the death of one Noomtil O`dorsh, leader of the infamous
`Backhanders`, a new gang dating back only a few months. His body was found
burnt beyond identification in a landspeeder on the roof of a multi storey,
along with two of his aids and another man who could not be identified.
"Lawdroids are this evening trying to put together the clues left
behind by this weeks seventh killer nicknamed the `Razorman’. After finally
getting a positive ID on the sixth victim in a nightly reign of terror...
" The
screen of the holovid flickered and died as Hapgit switched it off. He slowly
put his bowl of overly sugared food on the chav table and leaned back in the
chair, the mock bantha leather creaking under his weight. He rubbed his eyes,
pulling his tail free from being trapped behind his back. He
continued to stare at the screen, too bewildered to even continue chewing. Noomtil
O`dorsh was dead. He was dead. The leader of the Backhanders was dead. Dead.
Never to be alive again. Dead. He
started to chew again as he thought about who the other unidentified man on
the roof might have been. If things had not gone according to plan, which
obviously they hadn`t, then the fourth body was most likely Melm. He
swallowed slowly. There
was a tap on the window. He jumped, turning in his seat to look over at the
viewport which was securely covered in the new Antiheat security anti
concussion blast screen. It was always a good idea to protect your apartment
from all angles, even if you did live on the seventy seventh floor. That's right, Hapgit thought, I`m on the seventy seventh floor. Who’s tapping on my window? He
held his breath and just stared at the window. He could feel the sweat
beginning to build up under his dark skin, but then he thought, maybe it wasn`t a tap at the window. Maybe
it was one of the neighbours. Yeah, thats it. I`m just getting jumpy... There
came three hard, deliberate bangs from the window. Hapgit
reached under the table and slid free the sawn-off Blaster rifle. He rose
unsteadily to his feet and moved slowly and cautiously to the window, his
hand reaching out for the operation controls to lower and raise the armoured
shutters. He levelled the weapon at the window and pressed the up button. The
expected gang of mountaineering cutthroats was not outside, and neither was
the murderer with a repulsorpack on. What greeted him was a man in a black
suit with white hair hanging out of a skyhopper, hovering three feet from the
window. The roar from the engines at full hover thrust was muted by the
thickness of the plastiglass, and Hapgit had to wind up the shield before he
could communicate with the man. "Melm!" he shouted over the
noise, "What the hell do you think your doing?" Melm
leant further across and put a connecting clamp on Hapgit`s windowsill,
securing the vehicle to the building. It was quite legal in the city to park
a vehicle outside an apartment window, just as long as it had substantial
fuel in it and was not in any danger of falling from the sky and crushing
innocent bypassers below. "Hapgit," Melm shouted back to
him, "I need another favour!" Hapgit
motioned for him to come inside, grimacing as he tried not to imagine what
trouble Melm was causing him. As
he entered Hapgit noticed the scorched cloth on his arm and shook his head.
“Bad meeting?” he asked. Melm
huffed a response and dropped into the chair, gingerly excercising his
wounded arm. “You could say that.” “So what happened?” Hapgit
was forthright and very inquisitive but he kept anything he learned to
himself which was why Melm used him as a confidant. “Noomtl came out of the Ki-Ki Sector and
started muscling in, without knowing what kind of operation he was upsetting.
Both Goah and Feese have tried to warn him, but he just kept on coming. I
considered him a threat but Glann didn't so I decided to infiltrate his
organisation.” “Did Glann sanction the operation?” “Of course not. He thought Noomtil was an
idiot. Goah and Feese showed him how dangerous the Setnin Sector could be and
he tightened up, started doing things more underhand. I couldn’t get close to
him so the only way was to do a job for him and gain some trust. He hired me
to kill two people who he said were threatening his op but it turned out they
were the sons of some small time gangleader.” “But everyone says that it was Dressel who
had them killed.” “No, it was Noomtil and he falsified
documents saying that it was Dressel who hired me to do it. Glann goes mad
and it takes me an age to convince him that it wasn’t true.” “Why didn’t you just tell him the truth?” “What, and admit that I almost
precipotated a gang war? Get real.” “I heard that Noomtil was almost killed by
someone taking a pot-shot at him with a plasooka. I’m suprised he turned up.
What happened to that speeder I stole for you?” “It got totalled. And talking of favours,
I need a place to lie low for a while. Glann will calm down, and I don’t want
to go back wounded or he’ll start asking questions.” Hapgit
smiled. “The leader of the Shadow Warriors hiding
in my apartment. Cool.” Melm
couldn’t help but smile. He
took a long breath of the stale air and looked around him at what passed for
organisation. A
firefighting transport hovered over the charred remains of the landspeeder
whilst the mortuary officials took what remained of Noomtil O`dorsh from the
wreckage. Law enforcement officers stood around in groups, talking about the
crime scene and other things not connected, and some were already leaving.
The Amagad Broadcast reporters had given up hope of any more information and
had quit the area, leaving only a few hopefuls lingering behind. The other
bodies had been bagged, tagged and flown out. All that remained was for the
City Engineers to arrive and clean up the mess. The
atmosphere had become much more relaxed and a lot less chaotic, and this was
how Arroth Quenn, Amagad’s leading law official, preferred to work. "Mister Quenn? May I ask how you are
going to proceed? I mean, the law has already gone over the area and forensic
‘droids will be here in the morning, so I doubt there is much you can do
now." The speaker was a short, wiry haired man, and as he spoke he pushed
his electrospectacles back up the bridge of his nose and looked over a
datapad. When he received no answer, he looked up at the man as he took
another deep breath. "The scene is still fresh and
forensic ‘droids are useless. Tonights rain will wash away anything that`ll
tell us what happened here," he pulled on some tight gloves, "Get
your tapboard out and start taking notes." The
wiry man flipped over the dataapd and revealed a small computer with a flat
screen and keyboard. He pressed a switch, the screen beeped, and he looked at
Arroth expectantly. "Right," Arroth began,
"Three bodies on the roof, one in the car. A lot of ground around here
has been disturbed by the lawspeeders so we can`t discern whether there was
another vehicle up here. Entry and exit wounds on the two suited bodies
suggest they were shot from the direction of the landspeeder, and there is
nothing to suggest the bodies were moved from where they were lying, no blood
smears, no crumpled suits. The body of Noomtil O`dorsh was taken from the
landspeeder, and the others are his employees, but I doubt if he shot them.
Besides, the murder weapon was some high energy Blaster with explosive bolts,
judging by the holes in the flesh. O`dorsh was too frail to lift a weapon
like that, too much recoil. There were no other bodies around other than the
one in the pilot’s suit with the head wound. If a bolt from that weapon had
taken his head off, surely there would be some carbon spray over the roof, or
at least more where the body had fallen. There is no evidence of this, and
still no more evidence that the body had been dumped on the roof, so that
leads me to believe there was another vehicle up here, he was killed in it,
and then pushed out, his carbon spray being left inside the vehicle, which was
most likely a skyhopper judging by his clothing which would easily pass as a
licensed hopper pilot. “Now that we know the landspeeder was
stolen, the killer probably capped off the aids and the pilot, popped the
body of O`dorsh in the landspeeder, blew it up and took off in the hopper. "Now, this is the bonnet of the
landspeeder, blown off in the explosion. As you can see, the very front of it
is damaged severely, the metal has been torn up like paper and badly burnt.
There is no kind of power plant at the front of the vehicle where this part
of the bonnet is situated, so any combustible area of the engine exploding
would not have caused such damage, or ripped the bonnet off with such force,
as you can see by the twisted hinges. So the killer detonated the car with
some form of missile, small and accurate. Going by the extent of the damage
done to the bodies by the weapon, this leads me to conclude the gun used was
a Tolleck Assault Pistol, because that is the only one which can take
explosive bolts and miniature barrel-launched missiles. Also on the bonnet is
a long burn mark which fades out towards the end, as if someone had put a
lighter to it. The angle of the burn and the smell of scoring suggests someone let off a very
long burst from the Tolleck whilst using the left hand side of the speeder as
cover. Seeing as though the Tolleck is the only hand held weapon capable of
full automatic fire, this strengthens the identification of the gun used. The
burn points at a right angle from the bodies found, so the target must have
been over there somewhere... " Arroth`s
finger swung outwards until he had it pointed directly at the multi-storey
opposite, and all he could see was a lone speeder parked on the roof. He took
a small macrobinoc from his inside pocket and held it to his eye. "Hmm. I can see many fist-sized holes
in the side of the vehicle on the top of that building, surrounded by burn
marks, probably caused by the Tolleck. I think we`ll find another body on the
roof of that building. Commandeer a speeder for me, will you?" As
the wiry man ran off to talk to a cluster of lawmen, Arroth surveyed the
roof. His eyes fell on a small box-sized object and he walked over to it and
picked it up. It
was an energy pack from a Blaster pistol. He recognised the design
immediately. Tolleck. Tolleck
pistols, he knew, were powerful and very rare. He had only ever seen one and
that belonged to the last person he would have imagined to be here. But
when his finger caught on something stuck to the pack he shook his head in
disbelief. It
was a hair. A long, white hair that had somehow come loose from it’s owner
and caught on the empty pack as it disengaged automatically, another feature
of the Tolleck. “Melm,” Arroth whispered, and considered
whether he should keep this information to himself or not. Keeping the Secret 2000 short story by Jonathan Hicks Six years after Episode IV - A New Hope Histories - Following on from the story Hiring a Hero, this shows Arroth
Quenn at work and operating as the inside man for Glann Cipple in the Amagad
security services. This Jonathan Hicks story also shows Melm, Cipple's prime Shadow Warrior, using his disgression and infiltrating the operations of
Noomtil o'dorsh, the Ki Ki Sector ganglord who tried to
gain a foothold in the Setnin Sector.
Cast of
Characters Melm Noomtil
o'dorsh Hapgit Arroth
Quenn |