Fighting Lory

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“I think they’ve caught Keela and Amber,” Charly gasped. “They’re not behind us anymore.”

“That’s bad luck but we must keep going or they’ll catch us, too. Come along here,” Lory replied, turning into a narrow alleyway between two houses.

She hoped that they were vaguely going in the direction of the spaceport. She had lost her bearings a little and was not a hundred per cent certain. She actually had no idea what to do next, but the most important thing right now was that they escaped from their prison guards. Then they somehow had to figure out how things worked on this damn alien planet. She had seen that the entrance to the huge spaceport area was closely guarded. People had to identify themselves with either a handprint or a type of permit. Inside there were then what appeared to be different classification sections.

“Please! I need a rest,” Charly panted behind her, and she stood still.

“A little bit further,” she said. “But we don’t need to run anymore. I think we’ve lost them.”

They continued at a normal pace and Lory steered them into a quiet alley filled with junk. They sat down among a few crates where they could take a rest, shielded by the rest of the crates and pieces of furniture, so that no one could see directly to them.

“What are we going to do now?” Charly asked. “Do you have a plan?”

Lory shrugged.

“We’ll see what happens and improvise. The most important thing right now is that we’re free. The next step will be to find out how we get into the spaceport and where we can spend the night.”

“Do you think these men have given up the search? I mean, they might put out a kind of APB on us or something. We don’t know how things are done here,” Charly objected.

“I have no idea, but it would be good if we could fake our ID somehow. We may need to change something in our appearance or something. We should keep going now. I don’t know what the time is or how quickly it gets dark here.”

“I think we’re very close to the spaceport,” said Charly after a while. “You see that tall building there? I think that’s one of the hotels in the up-market area of the spaceport. I remember the strange shape of the windows.” She was pointing at a tall building that was several stories higher than the rows of houses in front of them. The windows were shaped like an upturned heart with a slightly bent point.

“Yes, you’re right. I remember that building, too. We have to be especially careful near the spaceport. You’re right; they may have set up a sort of APB because of us. I wish we had some sort of weapon.”

“No! What do you want from me?” A woman’s voice could suddenly be heard nearby.

“Your credits and the girl,” a man’s voice replied.

Lory and Charly looked at one another, then they both nodded and crept quietly into the corner, carefully looking into the narrow alley from where the voices were coming. They could see an elegantly dressed woman and a young one in simple clothing. The young girl had hidden herself in fear behind the slightly older woman. Two sinister figures, humanoid in form, but with orangey-red skin and blue hair, had planted themselves in front of the two women.

“You can have my credits, but please leave the girl alone,” the older of the two women begged.

Just as Lory had decided to get involved, she saw one of the figures draw a long dagger and stick it onto the woman’s abdomen. He slit her stomach from the bottom to the top and blood sprayed everywhere. The woman uttered a stifled cry of pain and the girl behind her screamed. Whilst the older woman slowly sank to the ground, Lory rushed over to attack the two bastards. She had the element of surprise on her side, so she was able to grab the man’s blood-covered dagger. She stuck the blade into his throat and performed a karate chop on the other man’s neck, as he was about to attack her. As he fell to the ground she grabbed his blue hair and pulled his head back. In one move she had cut his throat. The girl had stopped crying. Lory turned to her. Their eyes met. After a little hesitation the girl ran away.

“Don’t run away! Stay here!” Lory called after her, but the girl just kept on running.

“Uargh!” She heard Charly next to her. “That’s horrible.”

Lory’s eyes fell upon the dead woman whose innards were pouring out of the gaping wound.

“Yes, that kind of thing is always an ugly sight,” she agreed. “But when you work for the FBI, as I do, you get used to that sort of thing. And worse.”

“Worse?” Charly asked in disgust. “What can be worse than this?”

“You don’t want to know. Believe me,” replied Lory, with an image in her mind that she would never get rid of. It had been last year when they had been pursuing a serial killer. At the last scene of the crime it had disturbed even Lory so much that she had had to go sick for two weeks. The b****y pig had brutally beaten a young woman then tied her three-year-old daughter to her dead mother. The girl was also dead when they found them both. She had died of dehydration after spending days on her mother’s dead body, a gag preventing her from screaming for help. One could only imagine the horrific t*****e that this poor child had endured and it had completely enraged Lory. She had caught the pig and he had even done her the favor of putting up such a fight that the shots that she dealt him were justified. His death had been satisfying but not enough to erase those horrific images from her mind.

“Are you OK?” Charly pulled her from her thoughts.

“Yes. Yes, I’m OK,” replied Lory, kneeling down beside the dead woman. She began searching through the woman’s pockets.

“Whatever are you doing?” Charly asked in disgust.

“Those men wanted her credits, so she must have money or some sort of credit card on her. It may be of use to us,“ replied Lory.

In a belt purse she finally found what she had been looking for. The card was gold-colored and printed in a font that she didn’t recognize. Along with the card she found something that looked like an ID card and a note in some foil.

“Look! We’ve got it. We just need to find out what’s written on the damn card and this note.”

Charly looked around, concerned.

“Don’t you think we should see to it that we get away from here?”

“Yes, you’re right. Let’s go. We’ll look for a restaurant and try out this credit card. Come on!”

“But what if they realize that the card’s stolen? They’ll lock us up, for sure.”

“No risk, no fun,” said Lory, laughing. “Come on, scaredy-cat. We’ll c***k this. I just have a feeling that we’ve found our ticket home. Come on!”

***

They were in fact able to pay with the card with no problem. They had had something to eat and drink and Lory felt her spirits rise.

“May I just ask you something,” she addressed the waitress when she came to clear away the empty plates.

“Yes, of course.”

“But I have to be sure that you’re discreet. I’ll give you a thousand credits if you can give me the information and you’re discreet. No one can find out what I’m about to ask you.” Lory hoped that she had not taken too high a risk and that the card had enough credits on it.

“OK,” the green-haired waitress with four arms agreed. “Ask away. I am discreet.”

Lory held out the ID card and the note to the young woman.

“I need to know what it says on here.”

The waitress looked at the ID card first.

“This card belongs to a certain Kirilyla Man’krishar. She comes from Verliyx3 and she’s thirty years old.”

Is it possible to change the photograph?” Lory asked quietly.

“Yes. I know someone who’ll do that for you for two thousand credits.”

“I don’t know exactly how much I have on the card,” Lory admitted.

“This is a golden Tik-card. There’s no limit,” the waitress replied. “I can take you to Morass. He’s the man who can do this sort of thing. I finish in an hour, then I can go to him with you.”

“Good. And what about this note here?”

The waitress read the letter through carefully.

“It’s a certificate of ownership for a slave called Nanuk. There are just details about the girl’s background and the purchase of the certificate.

“Perfect!” said Lory, happy, and she grinned at Charly who was looking a bit skeptical.

“Just wait here until I’m done,” said the waitress. “I need to get to work again.”

“OK, thank you!” said Lory.

“Are you insane?” Charly hissed quietly once the waitress had gone. “What if she tells on us?”

“She wants the money, and this ID and the certificate are perhaps our only chance of getting away from here. We can’t miss this opportunity just because you’re wetting yourself with fear. This little card …,” Lory held the credit card up to Charly, ”… will buy us our ticket home, and without the ID and the certificate we’ll never get past the guards at the spaceport. From now on I’m Kirikyla and you’re my slave, Nanuk. I just need to sort out different clothing. I think these rags are a bit too cheap for a woman with unlimited credit.”

“Why do I have to play the b****y slave and you get to act the high-ranking lady?” Charly grumbled sullenly.

“Because it was my idea and because I sorted out the cards and the certificate. I knocked out the two jerk-offs. Any further questions?”

“Yes! Have you always been such a cold-hearted b***h?”

Lory stared at Charly, bewildered. Those words had thrown her. She knew that she was mean, but that was an important part of the armor that she had put around herself. If she constantly sprayed venom, then no one had time to catch her and hurt her. It also helped her to be one of the best FBI agents. Nice girls did not catch killers.

“Once I’ve got us home you can hate me as much as you wish, but until then you should do as I say. Or maybe you’d rather stay here and spread your legs for a damn alien!” She replied quietly but firmly.

“You can be sure that we’ll part as soon as my foot touches earth,” responded Charly.

“No problem.”

The waitress had taken them to the aforementioned man who, within minutes, had put her picture onto the ID. After that Zola, as the waitress was called, had helped them to replace their clothing. Lory bought herself a ridiculously expensive dress made of a shimmering dark blue material, as well as another one in sunshine yellow. Charly was given simple white clothing that the better slaves tended to wear. Zola also dragged them into a beauty parlour where three reptilian women gave Lory a hairstyle befitting her station and applied make-up subtly. Lory, who was not keen on make-up, had protested as they were about to paint her lips blue, and after a lengthy discussion the three women had just painted her lips with a sort of silvery shimmering lip-gloss.

“Thank you for your help,” said Lory, giving Zola her promised reward of a thousand credits. Zola had shown her how to use the card to withdraw a sort of check from the mobile cash robots. The cash robots were small boxes about the size of a shoebox that flew propeller-driven through the streets and came in to land at the wave of a card. As with a cashpoint machine one simply had to put the card into a slit and enter the sum, then a check was printed. Lory was glad that no secret code was needed for these cards, which would have been disastrous. The system here on this alien planet was not particularly secure, but that was to their advantage now, so she was not going to complain about it.

“No problem. If you need help again, you know where to find me,” said Zola, taking the check.

“Come on,” Lory said to Charly, once Zola had gone. The sooner we’re in the spaceport the better. I don’t think they’re likely to search for us there. It’ll never occur to them that we’ve managed to get into such a high-security area.”

The two guards, members of the Black Guard that controlled all galactic spaceports, were heavily armed. That had assumed an inscrutable deadpan expression, but Lory could see desire flash in their eyes as she approached in the low-cut dress. She had assumed an arrogant and yet seductive smile and that did not go unnoticed. The larger of the two guards moved his eyes slowly up and down her body and she hoped that she had not laid it on too thickly. She didn’t want the man to think he could get it on with her here somewhere.

She quickly pulled her false ID and the papers for her supposed slave out of the leather purse attached to her belt. The guard took the documents and checked them thoroughly. Lory grew a little anxious. What if he noticed that the photo had been substituted? Moross had assured her that no one would be able to tell, but who knew how much one could trust an alien forger? She knew such people on earth all too well and one often couldn’t trust them an inch.

After what felt like ages the guard returned the documents, giving her a sensuous smile.

“Have a pleasant stay, Lady Kirikyla. You have free access to the whole port. I recommend, however, that you go directly to the blue section. The main streets are well guarded but if you should venture into the side streets something could happen to you,” he said in a deep voice and she nodded in what she hoped was an arrogant way, as befitted her role.

“Thank you for the advice. I have no intention of wandering around in any dirty alleys, anyway.”

Without glancing at her supposed slave she stepped past the guards. She knew that Charly would follow her, as agreed. In order to keep up appearances Charly had to act like her slave and that also meant that she had to walk one step behind Lory.

Once another checkpoint lay behind them, so that they could enter the blue sector that was reserved for the wealthy travellers, Lory stopped in a quiet side street and turned to Charly.

“First we need to find lodgings then we need someone who can take us home. As no one here will know our planet, that could take some time. Somehow we need to find out where our earth is from this perspective. They must have star charts. If we could find our solar system then we’ve won. At least we know how far away we are time-wise. We needed a month to get here. A captain must be able to work something out with this information.”

“I hope so,” Charly replied. “I’ll be happy once I’m back in New York. I would never have thought that I would miss the stench of the big city so much.”

“We’re agreed on that. I feel the same. I’ll be glad to finally leave this filthy desert planet behind. Come on! Let’s get on and find ourselves a hotel.”

They walked along the street, past expensive shops, until they came to a park with trees that created shade. Lory was already hot and sticky and so decided that it was right to have a brief rest here.

“Come on, let’s have a short rest,” she said, turning to Charly, and they entered the park. She sat down on the grass under a tree with wide-spreading branches. Charly dropped onto the ground, too.

“This b****y dress is much too hot,” she moaned. “I could deal with a neckline like your dress has. No air is getting to my skin. I’m sweating like a b****y animal.”

“It’s no better for me, believe me. Everything’s sticking to me already.”

Charly looked around.

“At the other end of the park there it looks as if there are several hotels. We should try there,” she said, and Lory followed her gaze.

“Yes, let’s do that,” Lory agreed. “We can walk along the alley there. There we’ll be in shade almost the whole way.”