Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness Read online

  The Chairman thought he saw a glimmer of sadness. "Are you all..."

  Kim glared at him, stifling his question as her vexation returned. She knew she was getting too upset and let her training take over. Kim calmed herself and tried to treat him as if he was her employer. It worked for a few seconds. She glanced at the back of a picture frame sitting on his desk and her anger returned. "You didn’t call me in here because you suddenly have an interest in my life."

  The Chairman said, "Right, to business then." He handed her an envelope.

  Kim opened it and saw a brass key inside.

  "It’s to your mother’s hope chest." He picked up the picture frame. "How you look like her." The Chairman set it back down as happy memories flooded his mind. "I know she would want you to have the chest. I’ve set up delivery."

  "Why are you giving me the hope chest? Is it because it's close to the anniversary of when mom left?"

  "No."

  "So why now?"

  He didn't understand her meaning and questioned, "Why now?"

  "All these years since mom..." She paused, trying not to cry. "Since mom abandoned us, you've never wanted to talk about her. Her name became taboo around you. So, why now after two decades? Why give me her hope chest? What has changed?" Her eyes narrowed as she grew suspicious of his actions. "I know it isn’t our relationship. So, what is it? Are you going to talk about why she left us?"

  He replied, "I know I was wrong. When she left me... When she left us I was devastated. It hurt me so much I wanted to forget her. I never thought how it might affect you or that you needed me. For that, I’m sorry."

  "Sorry." She laughed. "Perfect, now everything’s fine." Kim stood and added sarcastically, "I’m glad I came." She started for the door.

  "Do you have to leave? I thought we might have a late dinner and talk."

  She walked half way to the door and turned. "I can’t. I have a Closing tomorrow and need to get some rest."

  "A Closing? Who?"

  "Topa."

  The Chairman stated, "Yes, I know him."

  "Thought you did." She started to turn toward the door and paused. "It’s kind of sad."

  "What is?"

  "Our relationship, my life, you name it, but most of all that you were the one who got me into–" The words slithered from her mouth. "–my profession." Kim fisted her hands. "What kind of father has his daughter trained to be an..." She glared at him too angry to finish.

  This time, he had nothing to say.

  Kim continued to the door.

  The Chairman stood. "You should take some time off. You’re looking a little tired. Maybe buy yourself a pet to keep you company. You can’t be happy living all alone."

  "So, you have been spying on me!" Kim paused at the door as if to say something more, decided against it, and left.

  He sat down and faced the picture. "How you look like your mother." He pushed his chair back and commanded, "Lights dim." The room darkened and the Chairman turned in his seat, staring out a window at Noir’s skyline. He gazed at the Dry Clouds as they loomed over the dark city. "I wish you were here, Theresa. Our daughter needs you."

  * * *

  "Sometimes..."

  Kim drove her red VX Corvette into the parking garage of the Nexus Apartments. The small forty story building sat on the corner of West 1000 Avenue and Knot Street in the Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage. Kim exited the vehicle and grabbed a bag of groceries from her trunk. She took an empty elevator to the thirty-first floor and walked down a deserted hall to Apartment H.

  "Sometimes I..." Kim thought and commanded, "Door, unlock."

  "Voice recognized as Kimberly Griffin," the Apartment Computer System stated. "Opening door."

  The apartment door slid sideways, Kim walked into the small entry, and commanded, "Door lock."

  The door slid shut and locked as she went into the kitchen. The lights automatically flickered on in each room she entered as the Apartment Computer System or A.C.S. detected her presence.

  "Welcome back, Ms. Griffin," A.C.S. stated in a female computer voice. "The apartment's temperature is set at seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit. Lights are set at eighty-five percent brightness. Would you like to make any adjustments at this time?"

  "Yes, A.C.S. It’s a bit warm. Drop the temperature to seventy-six. And I could use more lighting, so change the brightness to ninety-five percent."

  "Making changes now."

  The air conditioner kicked on, and the lights brightened. Kim set down the bag and laid the key chain beside it on the kitchen counter. She put both of her hands on the inky-black surface, leaned against it, and tilted her head down. "Sometimes I wish..." Her blonde hair fell forward, covering the side of her face as she peered at her reflection in the marble.

  "For Ares’ sake! My life’s so tedious." Kim leaned back. "All I have is routine." She started to unpack the bag and glanced around the dark lifeless room. It was quiet in a gloomy way. She looked to one of three windows in the apartment. Kim noticed a dead Transgenic Vine sitting on the kitchen window sill.

  "Great, just great! Forgot to ask the manager to water it while I was gone. It's too bad A.C.S. doesn’t have a watering system for plants." She walked over to the vine, picked up the pot, and several brown leaves fell to the floor. Kim moved to the trash can and pressed the step. It flipped up a stainless steel lid. The brittle brown plant fell out of its container as Kim dropped the pot in the waste. Dirt spilled, exposing the vine’s roots. She stared at the dead plant. "Can’t I keep one thing alive?" Kim released the lid and walked away from the trash. "Or are Closings all I’m good at?"

  She returned to her groceries. Kim put the eggs and milk in the refrigerator and put the dry goods in the pantry. She placed a stainless steel kettle full of water on the burner and turned it on high. She reached up into the cupboard, removed a white cup and saucer, and placed them on the counter. She walked to a drawer, opened it, and grabbed a spoon. "Is this really my life?" Kim noticed her reflection in the spoon’s curved surface. "It’s so mundane and lonely. Sometimes I wish..."

  Kim placed a single tea bag in the solitary cup and a slice of lemon on the saucer. "Sometimes I wish..." She glanced at the answering machine as the water started to boil. The number on the machine was zero messages. It was the number of her friends and the same number of her acquaintances. The kettle whistled, she removed it from the burner, poured hot water into the cup, and steam rolled up from the liquid. "Shouldn’t my life be different? Wasn’t I meant for more than this... this wretched life as a Closer? I wish..." Kim dared not think it. She dared not hope it.

  She grabbed a remote from the counter and aimed the device at the wall. She clicked on a 50 inch TV that hung over a fireplace and gazed at the picture from the open kitchen. The evening news was on, showing footage of a small office building on fire. Kim moved behind a black leather couch and watched the blaze. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the first door in the hallway, walked to the room, started to command it to unlock, but stopped. "Sometimes..." She pulled on her left earlobe. "I wish..."

  The spare bedroom remained locked since she first closed it. Kim stored her mother’s belongings in it. Her bedroom, the master bedroom, was down the hall. She returned to the kitchen, grabbed the remote, and looked to the TV. An anchorwoman, Linda Harvey with NBS (Noir Broadcasting Station) read a report.

  "The Corporate Senate will be meeting later this week to vote on the proposed bill for a sales tax increase. The quarter cent raise will bring in much needed money for the planet’s civil defense and continue funding Research Project Clean Air. Analysts are predicting the bill will be voted in." Linda Harvey paused. "In other news, Dr. Robert Seeker, the foremost expert on the Dry Clouds problem, will be heading out to Antarctica to..."

  Kim turned off the TV, plunging the room back into silence. "Enough with the news. My life's miserable enough without having to hear about someone else's." She picked up the saucer and cup, walked to a small round table
, and sat, staring out the window. The Dry Clouds entombed the starry sky, leaving the night dismal and bleak just like her life. Kim picked up a clear plastic container of honey that was in the shape of a bear. She popped open the yellow lid and squirted a smiley face on the spoon with the golden sugar. She whispered a phrase her mother used to say. "Fly... fly away, sad, sad, day."

  Kim stirred the honey in her Orange Pekoe, removed the tea bag, placed it on the saucer, and stared at the now warm brown liquid. "Used to, that phrase would cheer me up, but not anymore." She arched her head back, looking at the ceiling. "Hades... What a life I have."

  She opened her hand and gazed at a star burned into her right palm. "The only constant in my life seems to be you. You’ve been with me for nearly two decades. I don't remember where I got you." She made a fist and opened her hand again. "Oh for Ares' sake! Look at me! The only thing I have to look forward to is maybe, someday, discovering where I received this burn. Hades!" She slammed a fist on the table, and the tea cup rattled. "Sometimes I wish... I wish I wasn’t so alone. I wish I had more in this life and that there would be someone there for me."

  * * *

  October 13...

  Wednesday...

  5:49 A.M...

  A laptop sitting on a desk in Kim's bedroom screeched like a bird and alerted her to an incoming message. "No," she whined, placed a pillow on her face, and rolled over. "It can’t be morning."

  A screen saver of a flaming bird flew across the laptop. The fiery glow lit up the dark room. After a few minutes, she dragged herself out of bed. She put on a white housecoat and slippers, fixed a cup of hot chocolate, and sat down at the desk. She hit the space bar, woke up the computer, and clicked on the message.

  It read, "Have you accepted the Closing?"

  "So Voice, you’re up early this morning," Kim thought and took a sip of the hot chocolate. "Or maybe you’re up late, depending on where in the world you're sending this message from."

  She typed a reply. "Yes."

  "I’ll send an encrypted e-mail with directions," Voice typed back. "He should be in his office for most of the morning."

  "Standard operation?"

  "Yes."

  "Understood." Kim pushed her chair back, but the computer’s beep grabbed her attention.

  "You should take a break after this Closing," Voice wrote. "You have been working rather hard, and the Moscow Closing was rather difficult."

  "You sound like my father. Are you sure you don’t have children?"

  "Yes. In our line of business it isn’t wise to have them," Voice typed and a minute passed before writing, "As for your father, you should listen to us, we are your elders."

  "Since we’re getting a little personal, I was wondering why you’re called Voice? All these years I’ve worked for you, I’ve never heard you speak."

  "Long before you joined us, I made contact over the phone and received the tag, Voice."

  "How long ago was that?" Kim wondered.

  She typed, "I'm also curious as to why you wanted me to join the Assassins League. I do live on the planet’s Dark Half. I should be a part of the Assassins Union."

  "And let Thanatos have one of the best Closers. I think not. He would only waste your talents. Anyway, those of us on the Light Side still have work that must be done on the Dark Half. You aren't the only Closer there that belongs to the League."

  She stretched, yawned, and typed, "Will contact you this evening. Signing off."

  Kim went into the kitchen and thought, "Maybe I do need a break." She noticed the key chain on the counter, thought back to the Moscow assignment, and brooded. "The last Closing got to me." Kim grabbed the key chain, walked to the living room, and moved to a bookcase beside the fireplace. She placed the key chain in a wooden box sitting on a shelf and glanced at a picture frame with a photo of Theresa Griffin. Kim and her mother could have been twins. "Mom, if you were here, what would you think of me? What would you think of my pathetic life?"

  Chapter Four

  Topa’s Estate

  8:48 A.M...

  On the outskirts of the Hellenistic Sector...

  Topa’s estate stood in the midst of an apple orchard. Sunlamps lit up the imported trees as a gentle wind swept through the orchard’s green leaves. The lamps were on sixteen hours and off eight. The non-Transgenic trees would starve in the endless night without them.

  "You will pay," Kat thought, walking up a winding path from the darkness of the day. "I swear, you'll pay!"

  The path led to the square mile estate. The past year’s nonstop hunts, what the Council called tests, took their toll on Kat mentally and physically. Her pants and shoes (those she had on when she awoke in Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse) were worn. She removed a single strap backpack and unzipped a gray-black athletic jacket. It covered her dingy white t-shirt and protected her from the cool breezy air. She took off the jacket. Kat removed a black Ravlek Vest she had on the outside of the backpack and put it on. Ravlek was an experimental material like Kevlar, but generations ahead. Months ago, Kat acquired the body armor from an assassin who died from a fall. She set the backpack and the jacket beside a dead gnarled oak. The tree was a remnant from the sun era.

  She continued up the path toward the objective. The constant struggle between her and the Un-Men seemed to persist for ages. She was always the prey. Kat was always running and hiding, but not this time. Her foes (the Council, who sent human assassins and the Factory, who sent the Un-Men after her) remained in the shadows and beyond her reach.

  "Today is different," Kat thought. "I know one of their names. I know one of their places of safety." She gripped the Beretta, and in her left hand she carried a white Bible smeared with blood. "Topa, you will pay!" Rage fueled her exhausted body, revenge fixated her mind, and anguish ripped at her soul. "You'll die this day! I swear it! You took the most precious thing in the world from me!" She stared at the Bible as she slowly died inside. "For Preacher, I'll kill you!!"

  Behind an iron gate, four men, armed with hand guns, stood beside a brick guardhouse. The gate was the eastern of four entrances. A fifteen foot wall of stone surrounded the estate. Three of the men wore a Winnow Mask type B or WM-B. The air filters covered their mouths and noses. The masks permitted those not used to the Dark Half of the planet to work outside in the Dry Clouds’ pollution.

  The lead guard pressed a button on the side of his WM-B and shouted through the mask’s intercom, "Halt! State your name and business here!"

  Kat didn’t respond, consumed with a murderous grief and continued her war march toward the gate.

  The four men aimed their weapons at her as the lead guard shouted, "She’s wearing a vest. Switch to A.P.Rs."

  The four men ejected their 9 mm clips and replaced them with the Armor Piercing Rounds.

  The lead guard declared, "We'll open fire if you don’t state your name and business here!"

  "My name?!" Kat questioned. "My name?! I'm Sorrow! I'm Emptiness!"

  "She has a gun!" the lead guard shouted. "Take her out!"

  The four men shot at her, hitting her in the chest. She lurched back with the impacts, cried out in pain, and fell face down to the path. Fireflies danced about her and the surrounding area, paying no heed it was morning.

  The lead guard ordered, “You two, go check on her.”

  They stepped out of the gate, scanned the surrounding darkness, and approached her. The second guard rolled her over, and she moaned. Blood covered her shirt underneath the vest.

  "She’s as good as gone." The second guard reached down, took her weapon, and tucked it in the front waistband of his pants. He grabbed the Bible. "This book could be valuable." He searched her pockets then scanned the area again. "She isn't a Closer. She must be a nut job. See anyone else?"

  "No,” the third guard replied. “Take her arms. The orchard could use more fertilizer."

  The two guards dragged her inside the gate and dropped her on the dirt path.

  "What’s that?" the fourth guard asked. H
e wore no Winnow Mask since he was a native of Noir.

  The second examined the Bible he held. "A book covered in blood."

  "A book you say. Is it legal?" the maskless guard asked.

  The second opened the cover and peered at a paper tucked in a clear plastic pocket. "Yeah, it’s legal. Here’s its registration." He read the top. "The Bible’s registered to one Norman Odin."

  "A Bible?" The maskless guard walked over, grabbed the book, and flipped through it. He handed it back to the second and walked over to Kat. "Throw that archaic thing away before you get some disease." He snarled his nose up at her. "She looks like she’s from Wayfaring Lane." He spat on her. "Bums, the lot of ‘em."

  "I thought I might get some money for the book off the black market," the second said.

  The maskless guard folded his arms and shook his head. "Not from that thing you won’t. It’s trash." He threw his thumb over his shoulder. "Toss it!"

  The second nodded then went and dropped the book on top of the garbage that sat in a trash can outside the guardhouse.

  "Better let the boss know about this." The maskless guard started to bring a radio up to his mouth.

  "I wouldn’t do that just yet," Kat said to get his attention as she grabbed a hand full of dirt. She quickly stood and threw the dirt into his face.

  The maskless guard cried out, covering his eyes with his hands. "I can’t see!"

  "How's she standing?" the lead guard shouted as he drew his gun. "The A.P.Rs. should have killed her!"

  "I thought she was dead!" The third aimed his weapon. "She’s covered in blood!"

  Kat held her chest in pain from the four earlier bullet impacts that struck her Ravlek Vest. "It’s not my blood." She leaped up, spin kicked the third guard in the temple, and yelled, "Why do you think I’m here?!"

  The third guard fell to the ground out cold as the lead and second guard shot at her. She rolled with extraordinary speed, evaded their fire, and raced to the lead guard as he shot again. The bullet nicked her earlobe. Kat grabbed his wavy hair, whacked the side of his head into the brick guardhouse, and side kicked the second guard in the stomach. The lead guard slid down the brick wall, landing in a heap. Blood covered his forehead. The second guard bent over in pain after she had kicked him. Kat calmly approached the second guard. She took her gun from his waistband, pulled his mask down, and punched him in the face. He started to choke without the mask.