“So has he said anything about his plans?” Troy asked.
“No, Aunt Lisa won’t let anyone talk about the evacuation at her table,” Lamile replied, “and after dinner we just don’t talk about it.”
“Does the Chief say anything?” another of the boys asked.
“Mom doesn’t say much either,” Lamile replied. The kids knew her mother as Chief Atomi of the Trenaport Mounted Patrol. “When she share things with me, it’s things that she wants me not to do. Like the other day when all those kids raved South Mall and shop lifted all those stores. She wanted to make sure I wasn’t part of that rave!”
“So did my dad,” Troy remarked, “Damn near accused me of being one of them because Ted Olsen, one of the guys I run with was arrested. I can’t believe they did that!”
“Me either,” Lamile commented, “Mom says if those kids were in school they wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. That’s one of the reasons when I’m not in school why I’m either at the palace, or I am babysitting. Mom is making sure I can’t get in trouble.”
“That’s right,” Troy said, “You have been hanging out at the palace. What’s Queen
Agatha like?”
“I don’t think of her as the Queen,” Lamile answered, “You remember Miss
Car’this?”
A couple of them nodded or said yes. Miss Car’this was a thonian student teacher who didn’t act like a teacher. She was a history teacher who was very informal. She was so informal that there was no barrier between student and teacher. Lamile learned more about history that semester than ever before.
“Well Aggie reminds me of her,” Lamile continued, “When Aggie is with us she’s very informal.”
“Wow,” One of the girls commented, “The circles you run in!”
The bus stopped near South Mall. Several people got on the bus. She saw someone she knew. The dark haired girl who got on the bus with a gamma biowoman she thought she knew. The girl was a couple years older, but she would know Lead Rigger Mitchum anywhere. She had spent her first summer on Trena aboard an old fashion sailing ship called The Adventure of Learning, while her mother was still recovering from her father’s murder. The Thonian Embassy had paid her passage on the boat. Mitch had been her rigging leader. She was part of a team that climbed up to the top sail where they helped to set sail by unfurling the top most sail so they could put on speed or furl the sails when they dropped anchor. She had been terribly afraid of heights. Mitch helped her over her fear! By the end of summer she was running the rigging like a t’amo, the thonian equivalent of a Terran chimpanzee. She smiled when she remembered how she flew up the climbing net the school had draped from the gym’s ceiling. Then grabbing on to one of the climbing ropes hanging from the platform under the ceiling, that she dropped onto after her climb, she seemed to fall down the rope and landed unscathed on her feet. She had enjoyed that. If it hadn’t been for Mitch she would have never thought of trying to climb net, let alone flying down the rope. She wondered what Mitch was doing on the bus.
“So you’re friends with Marshal Wilson, and on first name basis with Queen Agatha.” Troy asked, “Whose next Princess Carroll from Earth.”
“Well I have had dinner with her,” Lamile quipped. She looked at Troy seeing his mouth open she reached out and gently closed his mouth, “you shouldn’t let your mouth fall open. Something might fly in!”
As Valerie Mitchum took a seat next to Lottie, she thought she recognized the thonian teenager. Though it had been years since she had seen her, the summer she had made rigging leader. Maybe four years ago. If it was the same girl, the girl a year or so younger than herself, and was taller than Mitch herself. The thonian girl was no longer all knees and arms.
As she sat down beside Lottie, she marveled at her good luck. After she had fled the shelter, she slept on the streets for a few nights until she had stumbled upon Lottie. She met Lottie, the owner, of Lottie’s Kettle, a small restaurant. Lottie sensing she was homeless had given her a free meal and allowed her to hang out during the day. Eventually she began waiting tables and helping out. Lottie had been watching her over the last week or so, and had finally hired her last week. Mitch was thrilled. It was the very first job she had ever had. Between what Lottie was paying her and the tips she was making she barely had enough to pay for a room in an apartment on the top floor of South Mall. It wasn’t much; but it did beat sleeping on the streets like she had been doing since she had left the shelter. So far Lottie had been pleased with her. She was easy to work for and didn’t mind showing her things. Today before they opened for their lunch trade, Lottie had asked her to accompany her to the market.
Lottie turned to the girl as they got of the buss earlier and asked, “Did you ever shop here before the announcement?”
“No,” Mitch answered walking with the gamma biowoman into the mall.
“The market before the evacuation notice,” Lottie continued, “had been a flea market open only on the weekends. The mall’s owners let it occupy the South Mall’s main promenade. When Mall’s owners had built the Mall, they had designed the promenade to be a gathering place. Things like charitable auctions. What started out as a way for charities to have their rummage and white elephant sales, soon became a once a week event. Before the Notice, the merchants grudgingly tolerated the flea market on the weekends, even when the booth holders started to sell the stuff they sold in their stores. They tolerated it as the flea market funneled shoppers into their shops.
They walked to the edge of the balcony that overlooked the promenade. Spread below then was all kinds of booths and tables some still closed, or with tarps and blankets covering them. What she could see was mind numbing. There was all type of things. She saw things she had never seen before. Luggage, tool belts, emergency rations. Tools, survival equipment, even car parts. As they started down the escalator, Lottie continued, “Once the announcement had been made, much to the chagrin of the merchants, it opened every day. Before the market had sold mostly garage sale stuff, typical family bric-a-brac that was cluttering the family garage or attic. Stuff that mom or dad wanted gone because they were tired of tripping over it! It had always sold new stuff, usually off season goods, or knock offs. Now it is selling stuff that aren’t knock offs, and new this season. Goods that an evacuee might want to take with them.
As they got off the escalator Lottie said, “Normally I don’t come here when we’re open; but I saw something the other day that I think will make good table decorations.” “One of the guys is selling keep sakes and mementos of Trena.” Lottie continued as they walked past several tables. “He is selling little holographic displays of the Ice Caves, or the Princess Falls, or other scenic mementos of Trena herself. Stuff the regular merchants sell at much inflated prices.”
Mitch had been curious as to why they had come to the mall. She was curious what her boss was going to buy. She didn’t have long to wait. Lottie went over to one of the venders. On the table were small table top holographic projectors. They were all the same model of projector, but each one projected a different three dimensional model of one of Trena’s spectacular tourist attractions. One showed the Princess Falls. The projection was so life like that when Mitch reached out to feel the water, her hand just interrupted the imagery. Not just the Princess Falls were displayed. Included in the available images were the Ice Caves, the harbor with all the antique sailing ships and passenger liners. There were scenes of Trena as seen from McKay, jewel like images of various space stations and off world facilities. Mitch thought they were awesome. Lottie bought nearly 100 of the projectors.
As they boarded the bus Lottie commented, “I normally wouldn’t buy this many; but they’re cheap enough, I thought I could sell a couple as people left or entered the shop.
I thought I would let them cycle through their display.”
Mitch knew she would buy one from the woman who was quickly becoming a friend. Months later she would be honored when she was added to montage.
r />
They had gotten back to the restaurant barely in time to set up for lunch. They quickly put the boxes in the store room but not before Lottie opened one of the boxes and took out enough projectors for each of the tables. As they set the tables they put one of the projectors on each table. Each of the ten tables had a projector and a different scene displayed from the projector. Gaylord, Lottie’s husband, growled over having to wait tables while she was gone. But it was mostly the late morning counter crowd. Who mostly drank coffee, and discussed as they said, how to save the world. He didn’t add how he enjoyed talking with the crowd as Lottie either ran errands, or set the dining room up for lunch.
“So you left me here to go to that flea market,” Gaylord needled Lottie playfully,
“And you brought that junk back!” “Yes dear,” Lottie replied.
“How much did that junk cost us,” Gaylord asked.
“Not much,” Lottie playfully answered, “a quarter crown a unit!”
“That much,” Gaylord exclaimed! “I thought I said no more than 10 penny for each one. But you had to spend more!”
Mitch was mortified thinking she needed to be somewhere else as the couple fought. She had witnessed several fights between her father and mothers. A couple with Vickie had almost come to blows! As she put the last of the eating utensils on one of the tables she saw the smirk on Lottie’s face as she said, “You didn’t say I couldn’t spend more!”
“And I did tell you to go buy them!” Gaylord laughed.
“You guys!” Mitch broke out laughing when she realized that the couple wasn’t fighting.
Lottie suddenly stopped laughing there was a look abject fear on the biowoman’s face. Before she could turn to see what had frightened her friend there was crash behind her. Turning to see what was going on behind her, she saw a hulk of a woman pushing tables out of her way. She watched in horror as the woman grabbed Lottie by her hair.
L’eam and F’rena, members of the 83rd Thonian Military Police Battalion, known as the Companions, were stopping by Lottie’s. A thonian in the Mounted Patrol had recommended the restaurant when he found out the Thonian couple were to patrol the South Mall district. When it was time for their lunch break they had made a point of stopping by the other day. The food was good. The owners had made them feel welcomed, especially a young girl on the verge of womanhood who had been their server. When the lifemated pair found out that they cooked Thonian foods they had to come back. They had been surprised to see the thonians in the small eatery. They skeptically order a prta’tch stew. A dish that was very difficult for non thonians to prepare. It was a widely held belief that only Thonians could cook Thonian foods correctly. It was done so well that they had come back to see what other thonian foods the eatery had to offer.
They were just stepping into the small restaurant when they noticed that a hulk of a woman had grabbed Lottie, the owner, by the hair and was pulling her out into the middle of the restaurant.
“You dirty filthy half-witted piece of garbage!” the woman was yelling, “The company has come to collect you. You are going back to the vat!” She lifted the biowoman up and threw her against the floor. As the two MP pulled their side arms, the woman took a knife out of her cloak. She grabbed the biowoman again by the hair and slashed the woman across her face a couple of times.
Not understanding why, Mitch jumped onto the back of the woman who was assaulting Lottie, trying to rescue her friend. But the hulk threw Mitch off her with back with her free hand. It seemed like the woman was waving an irritating fly away when she threw Mitch off her back and into a wall. It knocked the wind out of Mitch. As she struggled to get her breath back and stand up to try again, she saw the thonians.
“That will be enough!” The male of the two MPs said in near perfect Terrish. He held his service weapon in both hands squarely at the Lottie’s attacker.
“Screw you!” the woman said. She was one of a squad of closers led by Captain Martha Hozenbur. They had been dispatched by the Security Coordinator at EBio’s Headquarters on Earth to finish some unfinished business on Trena. This bio had been on the escape list for more than a decade. They had suspected that she was on Trena, but this was the first indication that the bio was on Trena. She had stumbled upon the biowoman by accident. She had been taking a walk through the flea market, just walking not working at all when she saw her. The bioperson was accompanied by a teenager as they bought some nick knacks from a vendor. She was certain that this was the biowoman that had escaped from the company ten years before, setting a fire in a security barracks. The closer thought about killing the biowoman right then and there. She thought better of it. In the Empire she could kill the halfwit and no one would charge her with nothing more serious than disturbing the peace. On Trena, she would be charged with murder. Captain Hozenbur had made sure each and every one of her closers knew what the risks were coming to Trena. They were all committed to closing the clone CD 1984 AOS’s file, otherwise known as Lady Wilson. She was a special project they had been brought in for; but they were supposed to close as many files of any biopeople they found. They wanted to make sure that every escaped bioperson on Trena knew that they still belonged to the EBio.
“You piece of filthy scum.” She shifted her hold on the biowoman so she could slit Lottie’s throat. “I am going to close your file!”
“I said that will be quite enough,” The companion repeated, “Do that again and I will take you down.”
“Your file is closed halfwit!” the hulking woman yelled as she slit the biowoman’s throat. The MP fired one time into the closer’s heart, killing her instantly. He put the weapon on the counter as his lifemate called it in. The Thonian bent down checked for a pulse on both women. He shook his head. Both women were dead.
Valerie Mitchum watched in horror; as the Thonian put a table cloth over Lottie.
She did not want to believe that Lottie had been killed right in front of her. Lottie was the gentlest woman she had ever known. She had befriended the teenager for the last couple of weeks. She was becoming a good friend. Now she was dead.
“Are you okay Miss,” The tall thonian woman knelt down in front of her.
“No,” felling suddenly sick Mitch got to her feet and ran to the restroom. When she was through getting sick into the sink she went out into the restaurant and saw the arrival of an ambulance.
When the Trena Mounted Patrol Homicide Unit arrived, the lead detective looked first at the biowoman and then at the dead closer then turned to the MP, “You couldn’t have just wounded the closer?”
“No sir,” The MP said, “A wounded closer is much more dangerous than a dead one. She had killed one person and I wasn’t sure she was not going to kill another.”
“Okay.” The Mounted Patrol officer replied, he had worked with Thonian MPs before and knew they wouldn’t fire unless they had too. The cop searched the woman and found her company ID and saw that she was part of an EBio Containment and Alignment team. It amazed him how the company worked. If he had been on a world that made it a habit of making life difficult for EBio Containment and Alignment teams he sure wouldn’t have carried an ID tying him to EBio. The Mounted officer looked at the Thonian MP and said, “She was a closer all right. She would have done you next if she could.”
“I thought you guys stopped closers at the port.” L’eam the male thonian asked.
“We register them, read them the riot act and let them go. We can’t legally touch them until they break our laws. We have some closers on world who have retired, or defected. We have to give them the benefit of the doubt or we become just as bad as them.
Good shot.” he said “Who are the witnesses?”
“That young lady,” the Thonian said pointing to Valerie Mitchum.
The cop walked to where Valerie was standing. He knew her immediately. He had arrested her for shop lifting a couple of weeks ago; he had been at a grocery when she tried to shop lift some food. To his knowledge
the kid hadn’t been in trouble since, “Mitch, how you been doing?”
“I don’t know,” the teenager answered. She had seen people die before. She had seen a rigger fall from the Adventure’s top sail; but she had never seen anyone kill someone right before. Her stomach was still queasy. She still couldn’t believe she had jumped on that woman’s back.
“Why are you here,” the detective asked.
“I am working here for Lottie or was.” She pointed to the covered body of her friend.
“What did you see,” the cop asked. He turned on his pad and recorded the girl’s statement. It backs up what the companions said. Where are you staying?”
“I’ve a room in an apartment at the mall,” Mitch replied. “But not for long. If
Lottie’s husband closes this place I’ll be out of a job.”
“Here,” the cop gave her a ten crown note that he was going to use for lunch the next couple of days. He shouldn’t do it. She was a witness in the murder he was investigating. If someone saw what he did they might question Valerie’s statement. He had a soft spot for the young girl.
“Thank you,” Mitch took the note. She answered a few more questions and was told to stick around for a while. She was standing outside a few minutes later when a large car with the royal crest on it pulled up. She recognized one of the people who got out of the car as Marshal Wilson. She wasn’t certain who the thonian woman was, who accompanied him enter Lottie’s. The Marshal looked around a bit and left the restaurant to stand next to the car that brought them. Mitch was still sitting on a bench waiting to be allowed to leave when she overheard Officer Caruthers making his report to the Marshal.
“It’s a righteous shooting. The MP did it by the numbers, and was backed up by the others in the restaurant. Victim number one is Lottie the owner of the restaurant. She was DOA when Trenaport Fire and Rescue arrived. She was killed by victim number two. Victim number two was killed by Warrior L’eam Re’Ta of the 83rd MP Battalion when the woman killed victim number one and wouldn’t stand down. Victim number Two or the killer, we’re tentatively identifying at Roberta Foster. This is based on the EBio identification she was carrying identifies her as Roberta Foster. Ironically it puts her as an EBio Containment and Alignment officer. What the company calls a closer. She didn’t come through the space port. So she must have been smuggled in. We may be able to track her movements. Forensics will run everything there is to find on her. We may get lucky.”