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Stories from the Verse
A Dozen Verses
Chapter 134: Kondor 302
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 294
Kondor and Zeke sat at the table where they usually had their meals, joined by Amanda. Kondor began.
“So, how are we going to stop this guy?”
“You could just kill him,” Amanda said. Kondor cringed. “What, you don’t kill people?”
“Not if I can help it. Obviously I do, but it’s the exception.”
“Why?”
He sat back. “Due to an accident, I’m immortal. However, I realized very early in my immortality that the people around me, being mortal, were fragile, and that the short lives they had were precious. I would rather sacrifice myself than kill someone else--my life will continue in another world, while for them, it’s over.”
“So, no afterlife then?”
“None, as far as I can see.”
Zeke cut in. “The Captain speaks for himself. All the other versers I’ve met believe that there’s a heaven, or something like it--one of them says she’s actually visited it briefly. But just because I believe the people we kill will live on in the spirit world doesn’t mean it’s fine to kill them. You need a good reason.”
“And you don’t think you have one here?”
“Oh, I didn’t say we didn’t,” Zeke objected. “Frankly, killing them might just be the best solution--but there’s another complication. Our boss says it can’t be traced back to us. If it appeared that the British or the Americans or some other Euro-American country was behind an assassination, no amount of evidence that the guy deserved it would keep it from being at least what they call an international incident.”
“Zeke’s right. There would probably be sanctions; there might be war. So,” he continued, “Is there a way to derail this guy without making him dead, and if not, what kind of options do we have to kill him without it looking like a NATO assassination?”
“The Middle East has a lot of militant factions and suicide bombers,” Amanda suggested. “You might get one of them to do it.”
“Or,” Zeke suggested, “make it appear that they did.”
Kondor nodded. “I don’t like the potential for collateral damage--a bomb is rather unpredictable in terms of how many, not to mention who, get killed, and a suicide bomber is pretty much automatically one of the victims. But it’s worth investigating. How would we do it?”
“Do you think you could infiltrate one of the factions that hate our guy, and give them the plan?”
“What, me pretend to be a religious fanatic?”
The look on Zeke’s face said he recognized the difficulties there.
“Besides, if they think I’m an American agent helping them overthrow someone we think is our enemy, it gives us two problems--one is that most of these radical factions hate Americans more than they hate each other, and the other is that it would mean there would be people out there claiming that the Americans were behind the attack. I don’t really see it working.”
“What about some kind of accident, like a car crash or something?” Amanda suggested.
“Possible, but not reliable; and the problem with accidents is that if the first one doesn’t work, a second one raises too many suspicions.”
“You guys really take this seriously, don’t you?”
“It’s our job. And honestly, we’ve never done something quite like this before, so we’re trying to create the strategy as we go.”
“I guess,” Zeke said, “we’re going to have to get down there and investigate, discover the possibilities.”
“I think you’re right. Well, we’d better pick our destination, and arrange transportation for two.”
“Three,” Amanda said, and they both looked at her. “What? Of course I’m going with you. I’m not a helpless girl, you know. I’m sure I can help in the field.”
Kondor reflected on that a moment and smiled, and said, “Three.”
As to the old stories that have long been here:
