An Eye For An Eye
Chapter 10: "The Circle Of Retribution"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
Ves glanced out the window of the hospital room onto the street below. It was a typical evening in Sao Paulo, with the working class going to and from their jobs, the upper class going to and from their various means of entertainment, and the impoverished class trying to survive another day. All the view did was remind her of why she was glad she lived in Crystal Tokyo, despite the charms Sao Paulo still held for her. Turning away, Ves refocused on her friend, Sancha.
Sancha was being held overnight for observation. There were no apparent long term injuries, but she had endured a traumatic experience and the precaution was deemed best. Due to hospital rules and logistics, Martin was in another room and Jaime was in the children's ward. Ves could see it bothered Sancha, but she didn't protest.
"Vanessa," Sancha began, delicately stroking an intravenous tube up and down. "I don't know how I'm going to afford this room. And Jaime's care."
"Don't worry about it," Ves replied. She was using that bold, self-assured tone she'd always used to calm Sancha's fears when they were younger and in over their heads. "I'll take care of your bill."
"You? You strike it rich or something?"
"The Palace gives us a living allowance," Ves replied. "I don't use it much. Not like Cere. I'm used to doing without, so there's not a lot I really want. I can eat for free at the palace. And I'm not exactly the fashion plate."
"You never were the fashion plate," chuckled Sancha.
"So I've told the hospital to send the bill to me and I'll pay it."
"Vanessa," Sancha gasped. "That's . . .!"
"It's the least I could do. After all," and Ves looked down, chagrined, "you're here because of me. Marcelino came after you because he knew you were my friend. He knew he could get to me through you."
"Then that makes it his fault, doesn't it?" Sancha stated. Ves whipped her head up and stared menacingly at her friend. "Save your guilt trip, huh, Vanessa. Marcelino was always out for number one. He never cared about the law and he never cared about who he hurt."
"There was a time when we were like that," Ves cautioned her.
"Yeah, but we had something Marcelino never had: We had each other. And we had Rudolfo. We were - - not family, but a support system. We always had someone. We always leaned on each other, helped each other, looked out for each other. Nobody ever looked out for Marcelino. He was the runt - - the odd man out, and it made him bitter and angry. You found your sisters and your Princess and you found something to give your life direction. I found Martin. Marcelino never found anything except a way to profit off of other people's pain."
"I guess," Ves replied. Sancha could tell she was still feeling guilty.
"Are you and your sailors going after him?"
"Got to," Ves said resolutely. "As long as he's out there, you're not safe. Nobody close to me is safe." Ves seemed to silently consider something. "You know, the Queen of Crystal Tokyo is always saying how vengeance never solves anything - - it just keeps the circle going, you know? The circle of violence." Ves grew silent. "I never understood what she was talking about until now. But if I hadn't gone to that lab that night - - if I hadn't blinded Marcelino, just out of revenge for what he did to Rudolfo . . ."
"It's the past, Vanessa," Sancha told her. "What did you always say about the past?"
Ves smiled nostalgically. "The past never filled an empty stomach."
"Go get him, Vanessa," Sancha said. "But don't get yourself killed doing it. He's not worth it."
Ves nodded and headed for the door.
"Vanessa!" Sancha said suddenly. Ves turned back. "Thank your Princess for me - - for curing Jaime. She is pretty impressive."
"She's all right," Ves grinned and exited the hospital room.
Out in the hall, she found Usa and the others.
"You guys still here?" Ves asked.
"Just waiting for you," Jun smirked. Palla-Palla beamed at her with child-like innocence.
In the air car on the way to the hotel, Ves sat pensively. Everybody sensed her frustration at Acosta escaping.
"Do you think there's anything on those files you downloaded that can help us find Acosta?" Hotaru asked, one eye on Ves.
"Maybe," Usa replied. "Maybe the only thing we'll find is enough evidence to put him away for twelve hundred years once we catch him. We'll have to wait and see."
"How long will it take for you to decipher it?" Cere asked.
"By myself? Days," Usa responded. Then she smirked. "That's why I streamed a copy to Pop back home. He's going to put his computer to work on it, and he's also got a half-dozen of the best cryptographers in Crystal Tokyo working on it. They should have the whole thing deciphered by morning our time."
At the hotel, everybody disembarked from the air car and headed up to their floor. The senshi broke up and headed to their rooms. Ves started to leave, but stopped when she felt a hand on her arm.
"Ves," Usa said in a voice only Ves could hear. "We need to talk about a few things."
Ves knew this routine. It was the old "following rules" speech that she'd heard since she was six years old and first got into trouble in elementary school for fighting. Her initial urge was to tune out and become defiant if the Princess pressed the issue. But she thought better of it. As she followed Usa to the end of the hall, Ves remembered how Usa had helped Sancha's son, unbidden and out of the kindness of her heart. She remembered all the nice things she'd done over their years together and all of the times she'd taken up for her when Sensei Hino had wanted to give Ves the boot. Ves realized she owed Usa, that Usa had earned her loyalty and consideration.
"I thought we were a team," Usa put to her when they reached the end of the hall and could see no one else was listening.
"I had to face Marcelino alone," Ves piped up quickly. "If we'd gone in there in force, he would have killed Sancha and her family."
"But you took Pallas?"
"Pallas read my mind and knew what I was going to do," Ves explained. She characteristically wouldn't make eye contact with Usa. "I didn't have a choice."
"Lucky for you she was along," Usa judged.
"Yeah," Ves agreed. "Look, I wasn't disrespecting you or the team. It's just that I know Marcelino. I know what he's capable of. I knew it was a big risk, but I thought it was the safest way to go."
"Well you made a judgment call and I'm not going to slam you for it," Usa told her. "It's just that if one or more of us had been outside that building, keeping the place under surveillance while you made your play, we might have been able to catch Acosta when he fled - - and this would be over."
Ves ground her teeth. She wanted to argue, but Usa was right. Her lone wolf act had let Marcelino get away.
"Now," Usa continued, "about what happened in that produce warehouse."
Ves's head snapped up. She locked eyes with Usa, fearing what was coming next.
"You killed that one cyborg, didn't you?" Usa asked. There was no judgment in her voice, but Ves could tell she already knew the answer.
"It was him or me," Ves maintained. "We were in a fight to the death."
"OK," Usa nodded. "Unlike Mom, I understand that there are times when you have to kill someone to survive so you can perform a greater good. I don't like that fact, but I know some people just don't give you any other choice. If you make a judgment call that it's him or you, I'm down with it. I trust your judgment in these things."
Usa gripped Ves by the upper arm for emphasis.
"I just want to ask one thing of you, and please take this seriously: Don't let killing become the easy answer. The minute killing becomes a first response and not a last resort for you, you're off this team. Please don't let that happen, because we all need you."
"I understand," Ves said.
And Usa was gratified by the undertone of respect in Ves's voice. It wasn't something she heard very often from her.
A hover car pulled over to the side of a Sao Paulo street, in front of a tired ethnic Incan restaurant that had seen better days. The driver, a looming, broad-shouldered man with a dark, thin overcoat and dark glasses reached over to the control panel and engaged the video communicator that had been signaling him. The screen came to life and displayed the face of his current employer, Marcelino Acosta. From what little that could be seen behind Acosta, he was in one of the three safe houses he kept in different parts of the city. From the look of the decor, it was the one on Pacquan Street. It was a good choice: Close enough to both the Downtown district and The Bottoms to strike at both, and near enough to the private air field in the city where Acosta kept his short range air ship.
"Rosales," Acosta said, even though he could see the man through the communicator's two-way video stream. This was a bad sign to the man in the dark glasses. "Where are you?"
"Santa Rita Boulevard," the man commented calmly. "Near the Plaza."
"I have a job for you," Acosta told him - - practically ordered him. The man let it slide because Acosta paid and paid well until now, but it was another bad sign. "I need some people taken care of."
"Who?" he asked. The printer beneath the video terminal fired up and transmitted five pictures. He glanced at them. "This is that Japanese Princess and her crew. The ones with that woman you were after. Did you miss again?"
"Don't talk to me like that," Acosta snarled menacingly. "I want them put down. Then Vanessa won't have anyone to back her up. Once I've isolated her, I can deal with her once and for all."
"It's about time you started thinking and stopped dealing with these amateurs," he replied. "Just because somebody gets some mechanical limb sewn on his body, doesn't make him a pro. I've never needed cybernetics. Just a laser with a sight I can trust."
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard this before," grunted Acosta. "They're staying at the Grande. Take them out quick and clean. But leave Vanessa for me. Your usual price."
"For five?"
Acosta ground his teeth. "Each."
"You good for it?" he asked.
"Of course I am!"
"Because you've been taking a lot of losses recently," the man in the dark glasses continued. "I warned you about this whole vengeance kick. If you're not careful, you end up losing more than you gain."
"If I want a sermon, I'll look up Padre Iglesias," Acosta snapped. "Just do the job."
"As long as you're paying," he commented. Acosta terminated the communication. The man reached under his coat and brought out a 2987 Rombauer 12mm laser pistol with a computer enhanced sight. He checked the power pack to see if it was fully charged, then replaced it in the holster under his coat. Engaging the hover car, he pulled out into traffic.
Off to work.
Stretching as she walked from her bed to the bathroom, Usa glanced with a bleary eye at Hotaru in the other bed. Hotaru was just waking up.
"Morning, Hotaru," Usa said with a lazy smile.
Hotaru returned her smile at first. Then the girl grew embarrassed and looked away. Instantly Usa realized why. The Princess was wearing a very sheer, very sexy nighty over her very womanly body and Hotaru was still very self-conscious about the vast difference between what nature had endowed them both with.
"Good morning, Usa," Hotaru mumbled. As Usa made the bathroom, she made a mental note to try to find something less overtly sexy for when she traveled with Hotaru and save this little number for Helios.
"Do you want to go down to the restaurant and have breakfast?" Usa called out to her roommate. "Or maybe see if we can find something close by? I don't want to call room service. I've been cooped up in here enough."
"The restaurant will be fine," Hotaru replied. "We should be concentrating on finding Acosta and not sight-seeing."
"True," Usa answered. "Hey, Hotaru. Check my PDA and see if Pop sent anything on those files."
Complying, Hotaru climbed out of bed. Still in her conservative pastel blue pajamas, she went over to the night stand next to her friend's bed and examined the PDA.
"There's a message," Hotaru relayed.
After a quick shower, Usa came out. While Hotaru retired to the bathroom, Usa sat on the edge of her bed and skimmed the file her father had sent her. It was so engrossing that she was still reading when Hotaru emerged from the bathroom.
"Hotaru, this is great!" exclaimed Usa. "There's enough on these files to put Acosta away for forever!"
"Really?" Hotaru asked, avoiding looking at Usa.
"Yeah, production schedules, locations, clients and middle men, income figures, everything! Acosta was very organized. And very paranoid about not getting his cut of sales. There are also records of doctors who performed illegal prosthetic enhancement surgery on his men. There's so much here that anybody would convict him."
"Now all we have to do is find him," added Hotaru.
"Yeah," Usa deflated. "Unfortunately there's nothing on here about any safe houses or properties not used for drug production."
"Uh, Usa," Hotaru began uncomfortably, "could you get dressed please?"
"Huh?" Usa asked. Then she realized she was still in her nightie. "Oh! Sorry."
Out in the hall, Usa and Hotaru waited while the hotel room's environmental computer paged its occupants. Jun answered the door.
"We were going to go downstairs and have breakfast in the restaurant," Usa said. "Want to join us?"
"Sure," Jun grinned. "We were going to suggest the same thing."
She and Cere joined them in the hall. The four headed for the third room, but before they could reach the door, Palla-Palla came out to meet them.
"Palla-Palla heard you with her head," she said, in answer to the girls' unspoken question.
"Where's Ves?" Jun asked.
"Ves-Ves is still sleeping," Palla-Palla explained. "She's very tired. She didn't even wake up when Palla-Palla got out of bed."
"She IS tired," commented Cere. "Usually she's like a cat when she's sleeping."
"Ves has been through a lot," Usa assessed. "Let's let her sleep in. She could use it. I'll leave a message with the environmental control computer so she'll know where we are if she wakes up and wants to join us."
"Palla-Palla wants to have Sugar Bombs for breakfast," Palla-Palla announced as the five headed for the lift.
"There's a huge surprise," Cere scowled.
In the restaurant, Usa informed the others of what her father had sent her. While Palla-Palla inhaled her morning frosted cereal, the others listened with keen interest.
"It's too bad there wasn't anything that might lead us to where Acosta is," Jun mused. "Unless maybe he's hiding at one of those production facilities?"
"It's a possibility," Usa said. "Not a likely one, but I suppose we should check."
"I don't suppose we could just turn all of this over to the police and let them handle it?" Cere proposed.
"The longer Acosta is free, the more anyone connected with Ves is in danger," Usa argued.
"And the longer Ves is going to obsess with tracking him down," Jun added. "She won't leave it until he's caught and she's not going to trust the police to do it."
"Yeah, that's true," sighed Cere. "Ves and the police have never exactly gotten along. So how DO we track him down?"
"Wait for Ves," Usa concluded as she nibbled on some toast. "Ves knows him. She's going to know more than any of us where to look. Our job is to stick with her so she doesn't have to face him alone and make sure he doesn't get away."
Suddenly Palla-Palla stopped eating. Everyone noticed immediately. She was staring past them and everyone followed her line of sight. They all locked onto a tall, broad-shouldered rough-looking man in a long black overcoat and dark glasses. He was the picture of "did not belong" in the fancy hotel restaurant.
And that was before he drew the laser pistol.
"GUN!" shouted Jun. Three henshin sticks appeared in the hands of Jun, Cere and Hotaru, while Usa's hand flung into the air to transform. The other patrons in the restaurant began to shout in alarm. Chaos was just beginning to explode through the room.
The gun fired five times, cooly and expertly. Each one at the table was struck by the high intensity laser pulse before she could transform. Blood spattered all over the breakfast table as the five visitors from Crystal Tokyo fell.
Continued in Chapter 11