Session 11
DON'T FEAR THE REAPER
By jak981125
Author's note: This story is part of a series. It will make more sense if you
read the earlier sessions.
Two weeks had passed since the
events of "Call Me! Call Me!" Ed was extremely grateful to Sister
Clara for giving her that hologram of her father. It was just about all she had
left of him. She was readjusting fairly well to life on the Bebop.
At the moment, she and Faye
were making preparations. Faye stepped out of a dressing room in a bridal shop
on Tharsis. She had on about one of the most gorgeous dresses that you've ever
seen. She spent a moment admiring herself in the mirror. "Ed, get out here
and tell me what you think."
"Edward doesn't want to.
Edward looks silly in this thing," came a voice from one of the other
dressing rooms.
"Ed, this place is going
to close in a few minutes, now get your butt out here," replied Faye.
Ed walked out of the dressing
room in a pink bridesmaid dress. It looked good on her but apparently she
didn't think so. She kept squirming and scratching herself all over. "If a
boy sees Edward in this thing, he'll laugh," she whined.
"Ed, you look great in
that....STOP SCRATCHING! If you damage that dress we'll have to buy it!"
Ed immediately put her hands behind her back. "So, what do you think of
this dress, Ed?"
Ed walked around Faye in a
circle examining the dress from all sides. Finally she stopped, smiled, and
gave a thumbs-up. "Faye Faye pretty!" she said. Faye smiled and gave
Ed an affection pinch on the cheeks. "Where are Jet and Lau?" asked
Ed.
"I told them to go try on
tuxedos, so they're probably ignoring their instructions and hanging out at some
sports bar," replied Faye.
That's exactly what they were
doing. The two of them were having a game of darts. This game had a twist. You
had to spin yourself around on a bar stool ten times and then had to get up and
throw a dart within five seconds. The dizziness caused their darts to go all
over the place. What can I say? They were a little drunk and behaving
foolishly. On Jet's turn, one of the darts he threw missed and hit a rather
large man in the butt. He got mad and came after Jet, who was too dizzy to get
up. Lau saw him coming grabbed Jet, and dragged him out of there as fast as
possible. Jet tried to wobble after him as best he could. "Hey, you didn't
pay for your drinks!" yelled the bartender after them.
The bar they had been in was in
a mall. The tuxedo shop was a few stores down. Just as they approached it, Lau
suddenly turned around and faced the wall and signaled Jet to do so too. Three
large men came out of the store, one carrying a box containing a white tux he
had just bought. As soon as they were out of sight, Lau turned back around.
"Sorry, but those guys were with the White Tigers," explained Lau.
"If they had recognized me there would have been trouble."
"I would think that
syndicate guys would be getting their clothes at someplace better than a mall
tuxedo shop," replied Jet. The two walked in to get fitted. In the
meantime the syndicate guys headed to a sedan parked outside. As soon as they
started up the car, it exploded. Everyone in the mall heard the explosion. Jet
jumped out of the dressing room only half-dressed. "What the hell was
that?" he yelled. Nearby, a familiar looking young man in a black trench
coat smiled at the sight of the burning car and walked away. He thought no one
had seen him plant the bomb on the car. He was wrong. A mall security camera
caught the whole thing. And when the police saw the security footage, they
couldn't believe their eyes.
Back on the Bebop, the TV news
had details about the explosion. "It is believed that the Red Dragons, a
rival syndicate may be at the heart of this attack," said the TV anchor.
"The attack was unprovoked and occurred during a time of treaty between
the two syndicates. Many fear this act will mark the start of a war between the
White Tigers and Red Dragons. ISSP confirms that they have security footage of
the bombing, but oddly enough, they have not offered a bounty as of yet, nor
have they released the bomber's identity."
Jet turned off the TV.
"Come to think of it, that is a little odd," he said. "I would
think they would want to get this guy pretty badly if they want any peace on
Mars." Just then, the communicator started buzzing. Jet turned it on. It
was Donnelly. "Hey, Donnelly. You got anything for me on this
bombing?" asked Jet.
"Jet, can I meet with you
and your new partner tomorrow on the
"Sure thing, but why all
the secrecy?" asked Jet.
"Just be there tomorrow at
two and the two of you be sure to come alone," replied Donnelly who then
hung up.
"OK Lau, I want a full
report as soon as you get back," said Faye. "Something fishy is going
on here and I want to know all about it."
"Hey, Edward knows why all
the hush-hush! Maybe it was a ghost that put the bomb there and the police
don't want people to know that there's a big spooky ghost in town."
"Sure, Ed," replied
Lau. "I'll bet that's just what happened."
But the next morning... "A
ghost? Donnelly, I'm in no mood for jokes," said Jet.
"I'm not kidding. That's
why we didn't release any information. The guy who did this is someone who
supposedly died in 2071. And yet, there's no question that this is the guy
responsible. I asked you to bring your partner here to confirm what we've been
dreading here." He pulled out a photo. "Lau, do you recognize this
fella?"
Lau nearly fainted when he saw
the picture. "It's Lin! Or maybe Shin. It's one of them anyway, no doubt
about it. No wait, that's Lin. He had a different hairstyle. But he died on
Callisto."
"Now you know why we
didn't release any information," said Donnelly. "We have the guy's
death certificate on file at the office. But here's the strange thing, the body
was stolen before an autopsy could be performed. We figured the Dragons had
done it to hide something."
Back on the Bebop... "See,
Edward told you it was a ghost."
"There's no such thing as
a ghost, Ed," replied Jet. "The only possible explanation for this is
that the guy wasn't really dead. It wouldn't be the first time a person was
mistakenly declared dead."
"But the stolen
body?" asked Faye.
"Maybe he revived and
walked out without being seen," replied Jet.
"With a bullet in
him?" scoffed Lau.
"Or someone could have
stolen him, realized he wasn't dead and took him to a doctor. I don't know. Why
are you two interrogating me? I sure didn't do it!"
Edward jumped over and pointed
a lamp straight into Jet's face. "OK, where were you on the night of September
22, 2012?"
"I wasn't born yet."
"A likely story,"
said Ed.
"Lau, you knew that guy,
right?" asked Faye.
"I sure did. He was a
true-blue syndicate man to the core. He gave his life for the whole stupid
thing. At least I thought he did. It's a shame Spike's not here. He knew him
better than I do."
"I don't suppose you would
know where we could locate this fellow if he's not really dead, would
you?" asked Jet.
At that very moment, Lin was on
the west side of town at the graveyard. He was standing over Shin's grave.
Suddenly he sensed he was not alone.
"I took a million to one
guess as to where I'd find you," said Lau. "I never thought you'd
actually be here, though."
Lin didn't respond. He kept
looking at Shin's grave. Finally he spoke. "I heard Shin shot your hand
off, Lau."
"I had it coming,"
replied Lau. "Now let me tell you what I heard. I heard Gren killed you.
In fact, everyone heard that. What gives? What are you doing walking, talking,
and breathing?"
"I'm not really
alive," he replied. "This is just an illusion. I died on that
rooftop. You can go back and tell that to the syndicate."
"I quit the
syndicate," replied Lau.
"Smart move," said
Lin.
"This coming from the most
loyal of all the Red Dragons. What gives? You still going after enemies of the
Clan even now? They had a treaty with the Tigers, you know. This is going to
cause bloodshed."
"Not nearly enough,"
said Lin. "So you found out I left that bomb, eh? I say let them all kill
each other. Vicious left me for dead on that roof. My life didn't matter to him
any more than that of an insect. And as if that wasn't bad enough, my legacy
was a joke among you guys afterwards. Shin told me all about it. I was
betrayed, and now I'm getting my revenge. And the best part is that both those
groups will go to their graves believing the other side started this. No one
ever suspects the dead guy."
"How did you..."
"Shin came to identify
me," interrupted Lin. "He saw I was breathing and sneaked me out of
the morgue to a nearby clinic. He told me it would be better if the syndicate
thought I had perished. Now he went out like a true hero. He and Spike gave you
guys what you deserved. Now I have to finish the job. If you're out, then I
have no quarrel with you. Just stay out of my way, that's all."
"Look, these guys probably
do have it coming to them, but you don't have the right," replied Lau.
"Besides, innocent people are bound to get hurt."
"Lau, I'm warning you,
stay out of this," said Lin. He pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed
it at Lau.
Lau looked at the gun.
"Tranquilizer?"
Lin nodded and pulled the
trigger. He walked away leaving Lau lying on the ground. Hours later he woke up
on the Bebop. Faye leaned over him.
"You gave me one hell of a
scare," she said. "When you didn't come back, I went out looking for
you. I saw you lying motionless in the middle of a cemetery. Thank goodness I
saw your chest moving or I would have thought you were dead."
"Lin's alive,"
croaked Lau. "He's trying to start a gang war between the Dragons and the
Tigers."
Faye kissed him. "Don't
try to talk. We'll discuss it in the morning."
Lau couldn't help it. He just
couldn't stay awake. He closed his eyes and slept through the night without
dreaming.
The next morning, all of them
were at a loss as to what to do. "I don't suppose you could send a
telegram to Akira telling him what really happened and warning him not to go to
war?" asked Faye.
"I may have to try that if
we don't catch Lin," replied Lau. "In the meantime, I'm going nuts
here trying to figure out his next move. In fact, I don't even know if he'll
make another move. If he just left things the way they are right now, the two
gangs would waste no time destroying one another."
"He'll make another
move," said Jet. "He left you alive and he knows that you know the
truth. He's not going to rely on that plan completely. He'll start targeting
the Red Dragons because he hates them more. If we start following the syndicate
members around, we're bound to run into Lin."
"Um, excuse me Jet, but I
don't want to be a widow before I'm even married," replied Faye. "You
want to go following the syndicate? You think they won't notice? The last time
I got too close to the Dragons, I got snatched by Vicious. If they see Lau,
they'll kill him for sure."
"You have a better
idea?" asked Jet.
"If we could send someone
to spy on them that they might not recognize..." Faye stopped all of the
sudden and looked slyly at Edward.
"No!" growled Jet.
"No way are you getting Ed involved in this."
"Don't worry, Edward has a
plan," said Ed.
The next day Ed sent out some
remote controlled toy helicopters with mounted cameras. They were supposed to
keep an aerial watch over what went on around syndicate members no matter where
they went. After several hours, Ed had seen neither hide nor hair of Lin. Just
then some syndicate guys noticed one of the helicopters flying over their
headquarters and shot it down. So much for that plan.
But where was Lin? He was on
Ganymede. He was ready to set the next stage of his plan into motion. On the
street down below, the leader of the Blue Snake syndicate of Mars was leaving a
restaurant. You would think they would have been more cautious after recent
events. Lin fired at him with a sniper rifle, killing him instantly.
On the Bebop, the entire crew
watched the news that night with great dissatisfaction. "I could just kick
myself," complained Lau. "I should have seen this coming. The Blue
Snake is the biggest syndicate group in the solar system. All three groups
won't know who's doing what and won't wait around to ask questions."
"Have you noticed
something a little odd?" asked Faye. "He's targeted two competitors
of the Dragons, but he hasn't gone after any of the Dragons themselves
yet."
"Sure, because he wants
the Red Dragons to take the blame," said Lau. "Jet made a good guess
that he would target the Dragons next, but one man can't kill off an entire
syndicate. But if he turns two other syndicates against that one syndicate,
then he might get his wish. And if those two other groups lose lives, well
that's no skin off of Lin's nose."
"So then you're saying
that to find Lin, we ignore the Dragons, but keep an eye on the other
two?" asked Jet.
"Precisely," replied
Lau. "Akira will deny any involvement in what's going on. But when people
continue to die, the other syndicates won't believe him. They'll go after him.
Then he'll fight back which puts his people in more danger. Lin doesn't need to
worry about the Dragons coming out on top because they would be hopelessly
outnumbered. This is one of the most brilliant plans I've ever heard of. But
two isolated assassinations won't be enough to set it off. There's going to be
more coming."
"So even if you tell Akira
what's going on, the trust will be broken so much that they won't believe
him," replied Jet. "Damn that's sneaky. And if he does find out Lin's
responsible, it's like you said, no one suspects the dead guy and no one ever
will."
"I'm sure that it wouldn't
be too hard to figure out which members of those groups would be his next
targets" said Lau. "Prominent thugs always make better targets.
Still, there's only four of us and at least two potential targets I can think
of in the White Tigers and three in the Blue Snake. And Lin could strike at any
time, in any place."
"Jet, could we call
Donnelly?" asked Faye. "Maybe ISSP could follow the targets around
and keep an eye out for Lin. They have more resources and besides, this is
really their job. We're just aiding them out of the goodness of our
hearts."
"These guys are
professionals," replied Jet. "They can spot a tail from the police a
mile away. I'm still willing to suggest it to Donnelly, but I doubt it will
work."
The next day, everywhere a syndicate
member went, a police officer followed. Whether or not the syndicate people
noticed, I can't say. They all went about their affairs as usual. The police
noticed some of the Blue Snake members were sent out to spy on the Red Dragons.
It showed that they were starting to doubt Akira's disclaimers of
responsibility, as everyone had feared. Bloodshed would not by far behind if
more violence occurred. In the meantime, the Bebop crew had a target of their
own in mind, Lobo Jenkins.
Lobo was a top ranking man in
the Blue Snake. He had nothing to do with business operations. He was in charge
of the muscle end of things. He was more infamous than the fallen leader of the
group. Lobo was a big nasty dude who bore some resemblance to Vincent. To many people
on Mars, Lobo WAS the Blue Snake. Lau couldn't possibly think of a more likely
target.
Ed searched the computer
relentlessly, trying to see if she could hack into the syndicate. The security
for their computers was understandably tight. "What is Ed looking for when
she gets in?" she asked.
"Anything that looks like
a schedule," replied Lau. "Somehow, Lin knew ahead of time where
those syndicate guys were going to be. Maybe they keep schedules of their
activities on computer and Lin hacked in and found it. If that's not the case,
I don't know just what we're going to do. Hey, aren't you in yet?" Ed took
off her goggles and gave Lau a dirty look. "Sorry."
In the meantime, Jet kept an
eye out on the Blue Snake headquarters from a nearby rooftop. He figured that
as a former cop, if he got too close, they would recognize him. He was probably
right. Faye stayed at street level, keeping an eye on all activity from down
there. Hours went by, but nothing happened. Ed finally fainted out of
frustration when she couldn't decipher any of the information she had finally
pulled up. Where was Lin?
Lin had been there the whole
time. He was on yet another rooftop nearby. He had noticed Jet and Faye. He had
pretty much guessed as to why they were there and was hoping they would
eventually pack up and leave so he could get to it.
"That was very clever
Lin."
Lin turned around to see who
was speaking. It was none other than Akira. "How did you find me?" he
asked.
"A cop on the payroll saw
your photo and called me," replied Akira with a smirk. "Are you
trying to avenge the Van? Honestly, it was sickening to watch the way you used
to suck up to those old farts."
"I've just had it, that's
all," replied Lin. "You people sit all high and mighty, and you
control people's lives and destinies, and you never give a single thought to
what you're really doing. That's who I used to be. Not anymore. I won't be
remembered as some ridiculous lap dog."
"You would rather be
remembered as a traitor?"
"I'd rather be remembered
as a man," replied Lin. Both he and Akira went for their guns at once. Lin
missed, Akira shot Lin in the gut. Jet heard the noise and looked all around to
pinpoint its source. All of the sudden, he saw a syndicate zip craft taking off
from a roof down the street. He started to jump from rooftop to rooftop to see
where it had taken off from.
As Akira flew away, he heard
something behind him. Lin was still alive and was shooting at his ship.
"What's the matter with you?" yelled Akira out loud. "Why won't
you just DIE?" He flew back around to shoot Lin again with his ship's
guns. Just then, several more gunshots were fired from several different
directions. Jet fired at him from a nearby rooftop. Several Blue Snake people
fired at him from their building. Faye fired at him from the street. With his
ship badly damaged in the crossfire, Akira decided to take off. As he flew
away, Lin took one last shot which hit his one remaining thruster. The ship
went down. At the last minute, Akira bailed out by parachute. Lin lay back
down. The bullet had hit some major arteries. Jet jumped over several more
rooftops to finally reach him.
"Lin!" Lin looked
over to see who was speaking.
"Do I know you?" he
asked weakly.
"Not directly,"
replied Jet. "I've been partners with both Spike and Lau. And your brother
saved my life once."
"Well then I guess you're
not really a stranger," replied Lin. "Good. One shouldn't die alone
or in the company of strangers."
"Don't say that, we'll get
you a doctor."
"Doctors are for the
living," replied Lin. "I died on a Callisto rooftop over a year ago.
It just took a few more months for a bullet from Akira to finish the job. I had
no life anymore. My life was the syndicate. But when Vicious turned his back on
me and the coup happened, I knew my life had been no life at all. I had to
fight...I had to...fight...."
A bunch of Blue Snake members
started gathering on the street, wondering what all the fuss was about. Just
then, they saw Jet coming out of a building with a dead Lin in his arms. He set
him down in front of Lobo. "Here's your killer," he said to him.
"He was trying to turn all of you against the Dragons by making you think
they were behind the murders." He turned around and he and Faye left while
the syndicate guys registered a double-take.
Back on the Bebop, Faye sat by
herself deep in thought. Lau sat down next to her. "Penny for you thought,
madam?"
"It just occurred to me
how senseless it was. You know, I mean on Callisto."
"Sure, but what
specifically do you mean?" asked Lau.
"Lin and Gren ended up
trying to kill each other. But they weren't enemies. Not really. Vicious was
really the enemy. Both of them were stabbed in the back by him. The two of them
should have gone bowling together, considering what they had in common."
"Sometimes in life, it's
not easy to see who your real friends and your real enemies are," he
replied. "It took me a few years to come around, didn't it?"
SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner
jak981125@catholic.org
Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't. This is
just fanfiction