Free The Blue-Haired Bombshell by John Zakour Page B

deranged rodeo clown. ‘‘I have very little idea. I went for my scheduled potty break. Even superhuman mutant psi bodyguards need to relieve themselves on a regular basis. I came back just in time to see Sexy reduced to a pile of dust before my eyes. She had already killed all the others: Weathers, Tree, their personal security, their security back up, the guardbots . . .’’
    ‘‘I get the picture. You said ‘she.’ So you got a look at the killer?’’
    Shannon gazed at me, though I wasn’t really sure she saw me. ‘‘She was a tall wisp of a woman, like she was made of energy itself.’’ Shannon stopped for a moment, staring blankly into space. ‘‘I don’t know how she got in. I couldn’t stop her. Everything I did went right through her. It’s like she was a ghost meant to be seen only by me.’’ She stopped again, thinking about what all this meant. ‘‘She could have killed me. Easily. She wanted me alive to take the fall . . .’’
    If Shannon wasn’t lying or delusional (or both) what she said made sense. If some superassassin really had just murdered three of the twelve most influential politicians on Earth, she had herself a patsy in Shannon.
    ‘‘Surely security footage will verify what you say?’’
    Shannon shook her head. I checked. ‘‘All security in that room was short-circuited while I was out . . .’’ She took a deep breath. ‘‘That’s why I know they’ll be coming after me. I’m the only survivor, so in their eyes I have to be the killer. It doesn’t help my case that I have been known to generate blasts of energy from my body.’’
    ‘‘Yeah, I can see where that might count against you.’’
    She put her hand gently on mine. ‘‘You have to believe me, Zach. I would never do anything like this . . . Not to my charges.’’
    I looked at her. I didn’t know why, but I believed her.
    ‘‘HARV, how close are the police?’’ I asked.
    He replied, ‘‘Talk fast, real fast.’’
    ‘‘You said Sexy, Weathers, and Tree were preparing for a very important meeting. Who was it with?’’
    Shannon shook her head. ‘‘That’s top secret, classified, level XYZ-999. I could tell you but I’d have to kill you first.’’
    I looked out the window. Police heavy cruiser hovers were landing in full force.
    ‘‘Why did you come to me?’’
    ‘‘They are going to put me away. I need you to find the real killer, of course.’’ She put her other hand over mine as I watched scores of heavily armored police and guard bots pour out of the hovers. ‘‘You’ve got to trust me, Zach.’’
    I locked my eyes on hers. ‘‘Trust runs down a two-way street. If I’m going to help I need you to tell me who they were meeting with—without killing me.’’
    ‘‘HARV, put up the office’s defenses,’’ I ordered.
    ‘‘Zach, against the police?’’
    ‘‘Just put up the energy shields. I want to make sure they don’t shoot us before I’m even on the case.’’
    HARV sighed.
    ‘‘Who was the meeting with Shannon?’’
    ‘‘Boris Sputnik and his delegation,’’ she said.
    ‘‘Boris Sputnik, the Head Administrator from the Moon?’’ I asked.
    ‘‘How many other Boris Sputniks do you know?’’ Shannon asked.
    ‘‘You have to forgive Zach. He can be a bit slow sometimes,’’ HARV said, mere nanos before the police started blasting through one of my office walls.

Chapter 8
    Shannon shot up and threw her arms around me. She kissed me hard on the lips. ‘‘Don’t worry, Zach, they’ll never take us alive,’’ she said, squeezing me closer to her.
    I forced an arm free and pointed a finger up. ‘‘First, there is no us ,’’ I said.
    ‘‘I always thought we were kindred spirits, both fighting for what we believe is right,’’ Shannon said.
    I get that reaction a lot from crazy superhuman females. It must be my aftershave. We could hear the police banging and firing away at the force field guarding my office walls. It wouldn’t