Chapter 2

“And just who do you think you are?” Cassire burst out when the men entered.

“Quiet, bitch. We’re not here for you,” one of them snarled.

“Bitch?” she screeched, which drew her a leer and a hard punch to her stomach, making her fall back into my arms. Hiqua then slammed her palm down on an alarm button on the counter which almost deafened me and clearly startled the armed men.

“Smile, you’re on tri-dee,” Hiqua yelled over the noise before diving to one side as a gun was turned towards her ... I say gun, but I had no real idea at this time what hand weapons criminals carried in the Empire, it could have been a stunner for all I knew ... assuming they had stunners.

Yet clearly they were all out of position and so I made my move. First I moved Cassire behind me, then grabbed the medical wand Cassire used and slammed it point first directly under the chin of her attacker and straight into his brain. I had also reached out to grab his gun in doing so and aimed at the one trying to aim at Hiqua, pulling the trigger. A pale blue beam shot out and literally sliced him in two as the other guy looked stunned, only to find me fast approaching to lay him out with a series of nerve punches I had learned back in my Earth days when I was an unarmed combat instructor for 1 Para in the British army.

“Don’t suppose you could turn that down?” I yelled at a petrified looking Hiqua.

She didn’t move, but Cassire did to press a small switch under the desk and dulled the noise to something manageable. She then turned to look at me with horror in her eyes while the blood of her assailant dripped off her medical uniform.

“You or them.” I stated calmly to the pair of them. “That was the choice in front of me and honour would not allow me to choose them.”

“You ... you killed them!” Cassire stated, aghast as we heard a distant siren of a fast approaching air-car.

“Hello? They had guns and were clearly not here for treatment,” I replied sarcastically.

At this point several armed and armoured ... cops, entered the medical centre, all of them pointing their weapons at me as I realised I still had a weapon in my hand. Slowly, putting my arms out to one side, I dropped to my knees and placed the weapon carefully onto the ground and then raised my hands to behind my head.

“Smart move,” one of the cops commented and I realised he was actually a she.

“Didn’t want to be a victim of friendly fire,” I replied, getting a nod from her.

The cops ... who later informed me that they were actually called Guardians, slipped a set of cuffs onto me, though I suspected they were far more than handcuffs and hauled me up to sit on a chair opposite Cassire and Hiqua. They then examined the initial scene with instrumentation of some kind before a new set of people entered, clearly some sort of detectives or investigators.

“Take them down to the Armoury. We’ll question them there. Keep them separated, you know the drill,” one of the investigators ordered the Guardians.

“Yessir,” the female replied and slammed a fist to her chest.

She then helped me to my feet and held onto my arm as she guided me outside to a waiting aircar, the others guiding Cassire and Hiqua somewhat more politely. I have to admit I was fascinated. I’d seen the aircars cruising above the city several times, but not up close as the lift system worked fine for me (usually). However, the Guardian informed me that a jammer had blocked off all lift movement in the area to prevent an escape and the device was currently being examined to find out where it was from.

I had to admit I was surprised at just how calm they were compared to the cops I remembered seeing on film on my Earth. They more reminded me of the Special Forces I’d had to deal with occasionally, who observed everything and only acted upon threats. Clearly they did not regard me holding a gun as a threat, which seemed odd, but no doubt they had their reasons. (I found out later that if their equipment detected a weapon, the AIs could disable it, hence they weren’t worried about the gun at all.)

The journey wasn’t long; they took me down to a room and simply scanned my collar and wrist band before locking me in. I could summon up a chair or a toilet from the floor, but that was it. I had no way to contact anyone, though suspected their scanning of my collar would set off some form of alarm at Imperial Security.

It was an hour later that the guy I’d been informed was an Investigator entered the room along with a young-looking woman.

“You can uncuff him,” he stated as a table formed from the ground and the chair I was on moved towards it of its own volition.

“Yessir,” came the reply and I recognised the voice as the female Guardian who had arrested me, who then simply raised what looked like an alarm fob which caused the cuffs to fall off my wrists and fly into her open palm.

“You are quite the enigma, Subject 1341,” he stated.

“It’s David.”

“Pardon?”

“I have a name, it’s David,” I repeated. “I don’t answer to Subject 1341,” I finished.

He frowned slightly, but then nodded. “Very well, you’re quite an enigma, David.”

“In a sense yes, though I will answer questions on the incident, just nothing else, not without an Imperial Monitor here. Sorry, that’s a rule I can’t break,” I answered, recalling one of the rules I had to adhere to in order to move about on the lower levels whilst wearing a collar.

“Yes. Healer Cassire confirmed that earlier,” he nodded. “She really doesn’t like you at all, does she?”

“To be honest, the only person I think she does like is Hiqua,” I shrugged.

“Well, she did confirm that three armed men entered the medical centre and that one of them assaulted her. After that things are a bit confused, as both she and receptionist Hiqua are at odds in their statements as to just what it was you did.”

“I simply dealt with a threat to my work colleagues.”

“How? You took on three armed men, killing two and disabling the third in such a manner as to possibly leave him crippled for life as he won’t qualify for medical aid,” the Guardian questioned.

“I can’t discuss my past; you simply don’t have the clearance to know. But, I do have military training.”

“But you’re barely eight in looks (about 22 Earth years).”

“I’m older than I look,” I chuckled, seeing a slow nod from the Investigator as he understood my comment as well as understanding the implications that I possibly wasn’t really a slave at all.

“I suggest you drop that line of enquiry, Guardian Kirim,” he stated to her in kindly tones. “Not unless you want a mind-wipe from ImpSec.”

“Ah...”

“Could you describe what you did, before we release you on your own recognisance?” he asked.

I went through my actions accurately, getting nods of understanding from both before the door in the room opened and a tall saturnine man wearing red gloves entered.

“You will release Subject 1341 to my custody,” he stated, producing a holographic badge of the ImpSec Medical Resource from his armband.

“Of course,” the Investigator replied. “We had concluded the interview and can only commend him for his quick action which saved the lives of two women. We will hand over a copy of the interview to you and erase the copy we have,” he replied as the two slammed their fists to their chests at the sight of the badge.

“Good,” he nodded. “Come along, David. This was the easy part.”

“If you insist, Herrick.”

“I do.”

“Goodbye, Guardian Kirim. It was a pleasure to meet you and thank you for not shooting me,” I said to the woman and gave a nod to the Investigator.

She just gave a grin as I was escorted from the room.

“Not in any trouble are they, Herrick?” I asked the Monitor.

“No, they did everything by the book and stayed away from awkward questions once the Investigator knew your status as an untouchable,” he replied.

“That’s good, I rather like her.”

“She is a cut above your normal customers in the lower levels,” he nodded. “You could do a lot worse in your choices.”

“Tricky, when the Empire has a mind for you to live forever,” I morosely chuckled.

“True, but there are ways around that,” he replied enigmatically, before opening a lift and guiding me inside.

I then spent the next three days being wrung out to dry by ImpSec’s questioning. They even created a holographic image of the scene and had me emulate my actions until finally they released me back to Oily and his unctuous care.

“I am minded to revoke your contract to go down into the lower levels,” he stated sniffily.

“I’ve no doubt if you could you already would have, so please don’t irritate me with empty threats. Only the Empress can override a contract of that type and she likely wouldn’t bother as I’m but a flyspeck in her existence.”

“You’re a ‘Cure’. Of course she knows who you are. Though you’re right, she did refuse to revoke the contract. Seems she and ImpSec want to know who authorised the attack and why.”

I stared at Oily; clearly he was someone far higher up the food chain than I thought if he knew the Empress’ thoughts on any matter.

“Who or what are you?” I asked, my question laden with suspicion.

“None of your business. Now, carry on as normal as we investigate in the background,” he dismissed me out of hand.

A quick sonic shower later a lift deposited me outside the medical centre again.

“David! You came back!” Hiqua greeted me amidst the signs of repairs being done to the counter where the beam from the weapon I had used had grazed it.

“And not see my favourite receptionist again?” I chuckled.

“Aw, you’re so nice,” she beamed.

“Is grumpy pants about?”

“Don’t be rude, David. She’s dealing with some minor ailments out back.”

“Hey, she accused me of murdering a guy who had just assaulted her,” I chuckled. “I reckon calling her that lets her off lightly.”

“She was just shocked. She’s from the upper levels and not used to violence,” Hiqua chided me.

“Guess so,” I shrugged as Cassire came through to see what Hiqua was squealing about.

“Oh, you came back,” she stated, looking slightly shocked.

“Well, yes. I wanted to save you the bother of finding someone else to be offended by,” I chuckled, seeing Hiqua hide a smile too.

“I just thought your minders would hold onto you as those ... men, were clearly after you.”

“Yes, and I’m sorry for the danger it put you in,” I replied sincerely.

“No matter, you surprised me greatly; I did not know you were ex-military ... of some type.”

“You know I can’t talk about that, Cass,” I replied, using the nickname I knew irritated her.

“Yes, I know, nor do I wish to be mind-wiped either, as no doubt does young Hiqua.”

“Well, it’s easy enough. You certainly wipe the memories of my ... cure, from all who come into contact with me as they leave this place,” I nodded.

“I have to. ImpSec were most insistent. Were you not some sort of miracle I’d not want anything to do with you,” she replied, utterly deadpan.

“You love me really, Cass,” I chuckled.

“Dream on, commoner,” she replied with a slight smile.

“Do we have anything for me?” I asked, changing the subject, as I suspected Cassire had just revealed something about herself that she probably didn’t want me to know.

“We have a number of food poisoning subjects, but nothing really serious, so just make yourself useful and I’ll call you if I need you,” she replied, producing a brand new diagnostic wand.

“New wand?” I asked.

“Yes. The Guardians kept the other as evidence and gave me this in compensation.”

“Better?”

“Newer model, not necessarily better,” she shrugged before going back through the door.

“She likes you really,” Hiqua spoke up.

“Figured that, but she’s a Nobleborn, isn’t she?” I asked Hiqua directly.

“No comment.”

“Thought as much. You’re a retainer too, hence bonded to her house, which is why you defend her, come what may.”

“David, behave, please.”

“My lips are sealed,” I chuckled as she looked relieved due to the fact that Nobles were kidnap targets to some of the crime syndicates and hence tried to remain anonymous, though the local gang had an agreement with us that the medical centre was ‘off limits’ to the local syndicate, who did not care to mess with the gang.