Excerpt: Final Liberties

[from Chapter 5: My Name Is Terra]

"Doctor," the base commander called. "Agent Cole. In here, please...."

"What, another problem for me?" Asked the man. "Better not have anything to do with that --"

"Just get in here, both of you," commander Arvis nodded. "We can discuss epithets later."

"Yea yeah, 'Returner scum' and all that," the man answered as he walked in with the medic.

The girl, Terra, watched from her seat on the bed as the medical room filled with three men.

"So, how's the situation changed?" The man inquired, partially ignoring Terra.

"I just got off the line with the Ambassador. They're going to send a squad from the Embassy down at basecamp."

"Don't tell me they're still after that Esper, after all that...?"

"You sound as if you had a hand in it...?" Arvis implied.

"No, not the Esper...," he answered with a wry smile. He must have been referring to something else.

"They're looking for survivors," Arvis explained, with one eye on Terra.

"And...?" He asked.

"Just like I keep telling you," the medic reprimanded. Apparently their dispute wasn't over yet. "That girl's been under Imperial control for years. The first thing they'll do once she's back in their posession is stick another Slave crown on her, and none of this will have ever happened. It's unconscionable...."

"Yes, it is," Arvis added. "We could not condone that."

"...But," the man interrupted. "...You can't just stop them either, or they'll rip up your treaty of neutrality, and quite possibly declare war again. Am I right?"

Arvis nodded.

"...and you can't tell me what you want to do about it, because you have to keep a log of conversations so the Imperials can ask what you've been up to?"

Another nod.

"...And, therefore, I've got to be the one figuring out what to do, is that it?"

Three for three.

The man sighed, glancing at Terra for his first time. "Great..."

"She's going to be in trouble one way or the other," Arvis mentioned. "And we can't afford our mountains, much less our city, becoming an Imperial battlefield."

"...Because," the man continued, "if they suspect you're hiding this lady they'll strip your city to its foundations looking for her, and you can't risk Narsche becoming another Doma. So, there's really only one option you want me to take."

He walked over to Terra, as she sat silently, looking innocently at this ruffian, wondering what he was thinking.

"So I've got to get this lady somewhere safe, and -- most importantly -- This Conversation Never Happened, right?"

"You wouldn't be a top Returner agent any other way," Arvis said with a smile.

"Well, I'm sorry doing business with you too," he sighed, giving Terra a quick handshake in greeting. "How long until they arrive?"

"Possibly an hour. Maybe two," Arvis obliged.

"More than enough." The man looked at Terra again.

"Call me Locke," the man introduced himself with a soft smile. "Agent Locke Cole, Returners.

"Miss Terra, I hope you'll forgive me for this...."

"Forgive you...?" Terra asked. "For what? You haven't even done any --"

In the blink of an eye Locke turned around, withdrew a pistol, and fired two shots at the other men before pulling Terra to her feet by one arm.

"-- thing?"

Two bodies hit the floor and red security alarms sounded around the room.

She thought they were real bullets.

"No time to explain, just play along!" Locke unclipped two small devices from his jacket, expertly snapped them together into a single unit, tapped one button a few times and withdrew its safety pin. He set the grenade down on a desk as it began beeping. He rushed to the door, gun in hand and Terra led by the other, and was out into the hallway moments before the device burst apart in an explosion of energy.

"FREEZE!" Shouted a threesome of security guards from one end of the hall.

"Hold your fire!" Locke ordered as he wrapped Terra in front of him. "I've got a hostage!"

"What -- !?" Terra asked of him as Locke held his own pistol out with his free arm.

"Don't worry, it's going to be all right," Locke whispered to Terra. "I've got everything under control...."

A second squad of security guards appeared at the other end of the hall.

"Well...," Locke glanced behind him. "Almost everything...."