Fighting Dirty
20 Mar 2021Eddie Stone
"Whatever it is that you're planning," barked Tanya, "I don't want to know and I won't be a part of it!"Even as she spoke, her hand slid a data tab across the desk to Eddie who palmed and pocketed it. He met her gaze and grinned mirthlessly. The bruises on her face were almost gone now, and the cuts and grazes that had adorned his were healing fast. The data tab contained the contact details of a couple of people who 'might be able to help out'.
"Now get out of here and get to work," she said, stern expression betrayed by a wink. Eddie gave a mock salute and headed for the door.
Two days later, his footsteps echoed on the gantry that led to the primary sewage processing plant for the colony; one that just happened to serve the Company's offices and surrounding residential zones. A Company overall and false pass had got him in, and the airscrubber helmet concealed his face. Once inside the maintenance area, he located the master instrument panel. First job: quickly unplug the cable that led to the control room somewhere up above, put in a repeater and back in again. The repeater would record the outgoing signal from the plant's computer and loop it so that it would appear nothing was wrong to anyone watching the monitors upstairs. Next, a data tab into the slot, containing a program to subvert the plant's software. Once that was done, he disconnected the panel's power supply. Nothing he had done would permanently damage the plant and it was all reversible. But in an hour, at 0900, as the working day begun...everyone in the Company's offices would be getting a nasty surprise....as the pumps in the sewage plant began operating in reverse. When he had contemplated 'fighting dirty' he hadn't thought he would take the phrase quite so literally.
He chose to leave the machine room by climbing the steps and gantries that led to an exit overhead. He tried to proceed nonchalantly, hurrying would only draw attention. He passed an inspection bay, that had a single man working on the machinery. As Eddie passed, there was a flash of green; he halted, quietly retraced his steps and peered round the corner. Standard hi-vis Company overalls. Head shaved except for a green mohican...
...he swallowed. Wait. Be sure.
The figure turned and took something from a toolbox, and then Eddie knew. One of the thugs who had attacked Tanya.
The tool bag he carried wasn't his own, merely filled with a selection of implements, provided by one of Tanya's contacts along with the overall and helmet. One gloved hand slowly slid into the bag and grasped a old-fashioned screwdriver with a long shaft.
The man must have sensed someone behind him, a movement of air, perhaps. He turned and gaped at the anonymous figure right behind him. Who grabbed the man's crest of hair, yanking the head back and ramming the screwdriver up under the jaw, crunching into the brain.
Eddie watched the man's arms flop to his sides as the life left him. There was quite a bit of space inside the bay, more than enough to hide a body behind the machinery.
That done, he resumed his departure from the area, still at a casual pace. He disposed of the disguise at a pre-arranged place, a musty-smelling storeroom littered with junk and refuse. And finally home, locking the door behind him and gazing at the half-filled boxes that represented his progress in trying to sort his parent's possessions. Even though it was early, he spun the top off the bottle of 'shine, necked the first glass and refilled it. Ended up in the bathroom, staring at his face in the mirror. One eye dark brown, the other a golden amber. Heterochromia iridium, that was called. He had gotten used to it a long time ago, yet now the sight of his eyes hypnotised him.
Is this how you felt, after taking a life for the first time? There was no remorse or regret, neither a sense of pleasure or victory. He took a mouthful of liquor, reached out and dragged a finger diagonally across his reflection, leaving a smear on the glass.
"Here is something you can't understand," he breathed, "how I could just kill a man..."