“You’re the only ones to blame. If you had paid democracy and God’s providence the respect they’re due, we would’ve been able to act more gentlemanly. We aren’t an occupying army. We’re a liberation army,” he added wistfully, as though speaking of some lost dream.
“We didn’t ask you to come. Surely you acknowledge that?”
“It’s such a shame, Inspector. I thought we’d come to understand one another.” Kyte’s eyes wandered around the scenery out the window. Then he pointed again. “Look over there...”
The city was in turmoil. The vast majority of the citizens had taken note of the Abhs’ return. They couldn’t help but doubt whether anything good would come of cooperating with the occupiers.
The larger part of the terrestrial citizens neither loved nor loathed the occupation forces, viewing them only as quirky guests that had paid Clasbule a momentary visit. Yes, the fact that important government figures had been taken away had wounded their pride. Yes, there were those who had been forced to shave their blue hair, and those whose family members had been sent to camps for “democracy reeducation.” But this series of events was taken as nothing more than a transient natural disaster, with many even enjoying it, albeit as seeds of hatred were shut away in their hearts.
Yet over the past half-hour, those seeds of hatred were budding, and growing rapidly. The army was blocking roads, barging into homes, performing violent patdowns, even opening fire upon trivial misunderstandings... There was now no shortage of reasons to hate them.
“Good citizens, the Abh is to blame for all of this momentary chaos. Search for the Abh. If you can capture the Abh, the peace will be restored.” The voice from above insisted, repeated this was the case, but the hatred of the people was firmly fixed on the green-brown army fatigues. After all, the soldiers with bloodshot eyes and guns at the ready weren’t wearing the black uniforms of the Abh.
They had neither the weapons nor the organized bodies to revolt, yet unlucky and inattentive soldiers were frequently getting ganged up on by mobs and their weapons stolen all throughout town. As for the citizens who lacked confidence in their muscle power, and those who were wiser and more prudent, they instead exchanged information, trying to return home through paths where they wouldn’t encounter any soldiers.
That was the course of events in which Jinto’s party was mired.
“Over there.”
Marca was one of the five among them who had a grasp of Guzonh’s geography. Their sense for the places where the enemy was likely to be was impressive. When they did encounter soldiers, they either blended in with the crowd or went down empty paths. They ran down stopped automated tracks, ascended to the surface, and wove their way through the alleys. They even crossed over the open squares by using the sky-corridors that linked adjacent city-trees. One might think they would be running at top speed, but in fact, they walked with deliberate composure.
In areas devoid of other people, they split into two groups, with each pretending not to know the other. Even when they did enter a plaza, Jinto was grouped with Marca and Daswani. Meanwhile, Lafier and the other three traversed the square one step ahead in their own group.
A coughing noise right above their heads — startled, Jinto looked up, to find two enemy soldiers wearing jetpacks. They landed right in front of Lafier.
“Take that hat off, woman!” one demanded imperiously.
Something was pressed against Jinto’s hand. Marca was handing him a paralyzer gun .
“What’re you two goin’ on abou’?” said Undertaker, playing the drunk act. “You take a shine ta my niece’s hat or somefin?”
“Well it ain’t yours ta take,” said Bill, feigning drunkenness alongside him. “I’s the one ‘at bought it for ‘er. You got a problem wizzat...”
“Aren’t you being a little too rude to them?” said Min, ‘enraged.’
Now all Lafier needed to do was look frightened, maybe even cling to Bill, and the ruse would be complete.
Needless to say, the Abh princess was far too prideful to put on such an act. All Jinto could see of her was her back, but he could only imagine her eyes screamed You’re not fit to spit on .
Jinto and his group briskly slipped off to the side, cloaked in the act that they were simply loath to get wrapped up in this altercation.
“Just take it off! Or do you refuse?” One of the soldiers tried to lift it off her head by pushing against the brim with the gun’s muzzle.
Marca and Daswani moved in tandem to either side. Jinto, too, wasted no time turning right around and thrusting a paralyzer gun at the nape of a soldier’s neck. His injured left shoulder throbbed with pain from the sudden exertion, but he endured it and pulled the trigger.
Lafier and the other three with her quickly hit the ground, causing her hat to dance in the air.
“Gwah!” the soldier groaned, emptying rounds fruitlessly into the sky. The other soldier collapsed without a single peep or shot. The band of seven ignored the weapons the soldiers had been wielding, since they would only make them stand out, and made haste to leave the scene.
“Remember that guy who jumped into a bed of thorns?” said Undertaker, upon reentering the underground from the plaza.
“You told us that story,” said Marca impatiently.
“Well, there’s more to it.” Undertaker’s voice grew vacant. “About a month after he left the hospital, he went and did it again. Obviously, he got hospitalized again. Then I went to see him again, and I asked him the same question. Then he said he couldn’t remember much, but he couldn’t think of it as having been a good idea.”
“Uh-huh,” she replied curtly. “We’re almost to the place.”
“We just have to hope no one is there,” said Min, needlessly.
“They’ve found her,” said Kyte, after reading the blinking signals with eyes entranced. “They’ve found the Abh.”
“They capture her?” Entryua thought about the time he had left. It was a short life. I never got to punch my daughter’s marriage partner’s lights out.
“Not yet. It appears the report came from a pair of wounded soldiers, that have now been admitted. They found a girl who looked like an Abh. One testified that they saw her spatio-sensory organ. I can’t imagine they’re mistaken.” Kyte’s smile was twisted like a revenant ghoul. “I’ll be the one to capture her...”
He instructed the ship’s pilot to do something. Then, the fire ship turned right around, heading for the northwest area of the city.
The group of spires appeared beyond the range of city-trees. “What are those?” said Kyte, puzzled.
Entryua immediately grasped the true identity of the spires, as well as what the Abh and the crowd working with her were up to.
“Beats me. I told you I’m not well acquainted with the geography of Guzonh,” he lied.
“I’ll find out easily enough just by looking it up.”
“Then that’s what you oughtta do. Don’t lean on me for everything.”
IN LIGHT OF A CONFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES, THE GUZONH MUNICIPAL FUNERAL MORTUARY WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.
Undertaker unlocked the lock with practiced hands; it opened without incident.
“When the occupiers touched down, the folks in the government got scared and closed the place off,” said Undertaker, guiding the rest from in front. “So the army probably doesn’t much care about it. They might not even know about it to begin with.”
“But why close it?” asked Jinto.
“They feared they might be mistaken for anti-orbital weaponry,” Min explained. “And if they got bombed, Guzonh wouldn’t come off unscathed.”
“Weaponry?” Jinto was more confused than ever.
When they exited the small building, the landscape opened up. Richly colored spires were lined up on a vast site. He remembered seeing them before, since he’d come to Guzonh while gazing askance at them.
“I’ve been wondering what they were ever since then,” said Jinto, viewing them once again as he quickly paced along the long corridor. “So they were giant graves, huh?”
“Don’t mistake a funeral home for a cemetery,” said Undertaker bitterly. “It’s an inexcusable mistake.”
“Sorry. But then, what are those?”
“They’re caskets.”
“They’re what now?”
“And the cemetery’s over there,” he continued, pointing up at the sky.
“WHAT!?”
“I swear, kids like you are so ignorant of tradition it’s scary.”
“Well I understand,” said Lafier, who gave Jinto a reproachful glare. “You lack in common sense. It’s a matter of course for the remains of the deceased to be set adrift into the vacuum of space .”
“What she said. Though the Abh must do it directly from their spaceships, while we’re forced to shoot them off because we’re at the bottom of a gravity well.”
“On my home planet, we either burn or bury our dead,” said Jinto feebly.
“When we touched down onto this planet, I thought it was rather riddled with dirt and dust, and surmised it was due to the war, but those are caskets, you say,” said Lafier, satisfied she understood.
“But if you wanna shoot someone into space , wouldn’t it be easier to do it from the orbital tower ?” asked Jinto.