Free Blade of the Lucan: A Memory of Anstractor by Greg Dragon Page A

killing him now that she was inside the city. When she heard footsteps approaching, this prompted her to slip out the window, grab her bag, and then meld into the crowd of people walking around. She saw a tall structure that lacked the domed rooftop of the rest of the buildings and she walked towards it, keeping to the shadows as much as possible.
    The whole exercise reminded her of a mark that she once had to stalk and kill on the streets of a city in Louine on Anstractor. The mark never stayed in one place long enough for her to kill him, so she’d had to follow him out onto the streets in broad daylight. She had worn the face of a Louine that she killed, and dressed in a way that was cloaked but still common for the area. It was the most disgusting assassination she had ever carried out, but the fact that it was on Louine—a planet rarely visited by the other races—had turned her into a legend.
    Wearing a person’s face that was cold, dead and inanimate does something to one’s psyche, but she was young and much more hardened at the time. She had merely put it out of her mind as she walked the four blocks it had taken to get close to him, call out his name, and then put a bullet in his head as soon as he turned around. She was no Phaser then, so escaping wasn’t as easy as dropping a crystal and blinking out. The man was a governor that people adored, so as soon as she shot him, she had to find a way to disappear.
    Louine is the most tropical area on Anstractor, so water was literally everywhere. When the crowd began to panic, she joined them, and tore off the borrowed face, clothes, and shoes as she ran to the city wall. She climbed it masterfully, and dove several feet down into one of the waterfalls that bordered the city. The memory of it came to her as she kept her leisurely pace, going inside the shadows of Veece.
    Earlier, when she’d sat on the hill watching the daily life of the Tyherans, she had looked through one of the windows of the tall building that she approached. She knew it was a fancy hotel, one where many alien visitors and people of power stayed. It would not be easy for a masked woman in all black to purchase a room, but the city seemed primitive. There were no scanners and droids like Anstractor, which could pick up on what it was she was about to do.
    A crackle in her ear stopped her short and she found a nearby bench and sat down quickly. The crackling gave way to what sounded like breathing, and then Marian’s voice broke through. “Marika, are you there?”
    “Yes, I’m here. Marian, where the hell are you?” she asked.
    “I’m so sorry I took this long to contact you, but things went all kinds of wrong. I’m in this abandoned city with a friend, hiding out from the Veece police,” Marian replied.
    “Well, I’m in Veece,” Marika began.
    “What! How in the worlds did you manage that?” Marian exclaimed.
    “Too long a story to explain from a compromised position, Rhee,” Marika replied. “Things are easy if you can be ‘just another Casanian’ when you’re on a mission, y’know? But here, I am ‘the alien’ since I don’t look anything like the people here, and I’m dressed like I’m going to a funeral, or en route to scare the life out of someone.”
    “Oh, Marika I’m so sorry. You’re being calm about it but I bet it’s been a rough day for you, with the Felitians being as cautious as they’ve been and all.” Marian sighed. “Look, it’s too dangerous for me to come and find you tonight, and I don’t want to leave my friend. If you can just post up somewhere out of sight for the night, we can rendezvous tomorrow. Blu says the day clerk at the largest hotel there is one of us. The name of the hotel is Palas Sun Toucher. I know you can’t read it but there will be a logo of a black tower within a large red circle. Go there after noon tomorrow and he will give you a room, a set of keys, and all the food you can eat.”
    Marika absorbed the information and