V. Larson - Velocity

The most foul living conditions in the city were found at ground level or near it. In the ancient, squalid streets it was always wet, hot and dark. The sun never reached down into the black pits of shade between the buildings. It was always night there, with garish neon lights and wispy hologram advertisements smiling and selling over every intersection. Thieves, murderers and vendors of all sorts abounded, working their respective arts on the crowds that thronged the avenues.

Mulciber crouched five stories above the glare-lit streets on an old ledge of eroded concrete. Ten feet below him and off to his left a sky-street ran out of the building. The people on it did not see him. To their eyes, he was only another formless projection of the shadowy building. He had been as motionless as the concrete itself for three hours. Water ran down his hairless pate to form acidic drops at the tip of his nose. He maintained his vigil over the sky-street, ignoring the rain as he ignored all else but the faces of those who slid past his perch. It had been several hours since he had informed Suzy that he was quitting. He expected she would find a temporary replacement, and give him a chance to ‘come to his senses’ — before informing her superiors. There was a quiver of motion on Mulciber’s normally impassive face at this thought, a glimmer of a smile. The superiors would instruct their inferiors, and then they would start to come for him. There was time yet for leaving the city, but he had no desire to run from his enemies. At least they would not be children.

But now he had another errand. A laughing couple appeared on the sky-street. It was Suzy with a man that Mulciber did not know. Suzy swung her hips and bubbled with light conversation. Her arms locked on the stranger’s elbow and her cheek pressed his shoulder. Wispy suggestions of clothing trailed after her like veils of spun gossamer. The man she was with looked slick. His maroon suit was the finest and he had a water-shedding field on it, which indicated a lot of money. The field was powerful enough to keep Suzy dry too-as long as she kept close. The man wore a hat of soft white felt with a violet plume that erupted out of the band. Mulciber knew his type. He was strictly a high-class act, the kind that never got closer to ground-level than the thickness of a speeding elevator’s walls.

Suzy had found herself a new killer. One as smooth and deadly as poisoned wine. Mulciber waited until they had passed by him into the building before slipping down among the sky-street’s shadows next to the railing. At an opportune moment he merged with the traffic and followed his former employer. He tracked the wandering couple about the city for several hours, and felt confident that they had never suspected his presence. He joined them as a silent partner, a spare shadow trailing behind, always there but never seen.

It was near the end of the evening. The three of them had visited each of Suzy’s favorite nightclubs and bars. Mulciber watched Suzy’s consort discuss something with her in a dark corner of a rooftop restaurant. Suzy disagreed at first and then finally let herself be persuaded. Suzy’s new killer hailed an air-taxi that hovered near the crowded restaurant. He joked condescendingly with the hack’s pilot and put a wad of credits into his hand. The night was over and Suzy’s new consort was taking her home with him. Mulciber watched the scene intently, his face a deathmask of stone. Nearby merry-makers, noting his mood, lowered their voices and averted their eyes from him. As the couple boarded the air-taxi Mulciber made his decision. There were no other hacks hanging in space around the restaurant, which left only one way to follow them.

Scattering a startled flock of patrons with the speed of his movements, Mulciber leapt to his feet and sprinted for the hack. He followed Suzy into the backseat and pulled the door shut behind him. “Mind if I share your fare?” he asked. Suzy looked stunned. Her consort looked enraged. As Mulciber had never owned anything with a water-shedding field on it, he was soaking. Water ran across the hack’s plastic seats and quickly invaded the couple’s dry clothes. Before more could be said, all of them were pushed back in their seats as the taxi lifted on boosters and the rooftop restaurant fell away below.

Everyone’s shoulders battled over the limited space. Suzy was forced to sit low and turn sideways to fit between the two large men.

“Get out of this car!” snarled Suzy’s consort. “You’re getting us both wet!” When Mulciber made no reply, the man reached across to the hand release on Mulciber’s door. Mulciber put his own hand on the door’s armrest, gripping it firmly. The man pulled up the release and shoved powerfully. He was strong, very strong, he pushed against the door with what had to be artificially enhanced muscles. Mulciber gauged that he had probably had a skeletal reconstruction as well, otherwise his bones would have snapped under the stress.

The door didn’t budge.

“It’s all right, Kars!” Suzy exclaimed. She squirmed in her seat, her soft body half-crushed between the two straining men. “You don’t have to throw him out! Kars, you’re bruising me!”

Mulciber continued to hold the door firmly shut. Kars shifted for leverage and pushed harder. A drop of sweat rolled down into his eye, making him blink. Mulciber sat silently, gazing straight ahead, as impassive as carven stone. The handle broke off in Kars’s hand. Kars sat back slowly, looking at the twisted piece of metal in his palm. Mulciber had observed him all night, but this was the first time he had see a glimmer of uncertainty in the man’s face.

Mulciber spoke next. “Could you tell me where we are headed?”

“Listen, you streeter bastard-”

“Kars!” Suzy interrupted. “Mulciber is not a streeter-”

“You know him?”

“Yes,” answered Suzy in a softer voice. She picked up his white felt hat and straightened the violet plume. Then she ran her hand up and down Kars’s leg as if calming an excited pet. “He’s an associate of mine.”

She turned to Mulciber. She continued to rub Kars’s leg, but gave Mulciber her warmest, happy-to-see-you smile. “We are on our way to the spaceport to watch the next starship leaving for the Tau planets. Naturally, you’re invited.”

Kars stiffened. Mulciber accepted the invitation with a nod. For the rest of the trip the men sat in tense silence while Suzy talked in an incessant, bubbling fashion. Outside the cab the city swept by them with dizzying speed. The driver swung the taxi around the corners of buildings, cutting hazardously close to the concrete walls. The lights of windows and passing air-traffic gleamed and flashed at them then fell away behind. The rooftop restaurant faded to a pinprick glow in the rear window. When they arrived at the spaceport, Kars quickly led Suzy away from the landed cab without looking back toward Mulciber. Clearly, he did not want a third party along. Mulciber made no effort to catch up, but rather followed them into the crowds a discreet distance behind.

The crowds of colonists trying to board the starship surged and ebbed, their thousands of united voices merging together into a dull roar. Walking among them was like wading through a dark, warm-smelling sea. Kars and Suzy were easy to follow. They stood out from the countless common, unaltered faces of laborers and vagrant street-people. Mulciber watched as a young man dressed in the drab grays of a worker grabbed at Kars’s clothing as he passed by. The man plied Kars with shouted questions concerning the flight, having apparently mistaken him for an official. Kars answered him with a quick backhanded blow to the mouth. The young man collapsed to the concrete in Kars’s wake, spilling blood on his grays, his jaw broken.