“Not really.”
19-10 was clearly not expecting that answer and all four of his arms rose in frustration.
“What?”
“I mean, if you’re going to kill me, then kill me. I don’t feel the need to sit through some boring story if I’m just going to die anyway.”
“How the void do you think I could kill you? Am I going to throw you into a star? I’ve been trying to find a way to kill you for a year. All this will make sense if I explain it.”
“Fine,” I said. “But I need to pee.”
I started to get out of bed.
“Now?”
“Yes, I’m not going to be able to pay attention to your story if my bladder bursts.”
It took a while to get off the bed of course. 19-10 cautiously moved away, as if I could sleepily lunge at a teleporting battlesuit.
I was in the bathroom for a while when I heard from outside:
“How long are you going to be?”
“Until I’m done.”
“You haven’t even started.”
“I can’t pee with an assassin waiting outside the door staring at me. You’re apparently new to old men and their bathroom habits.”
“I’m not staring at you.”
“Stop talking.”
I was silent for a while longer when 19-10 added:
“Try running the water.”
“I’ve been peeing my whole life, thank you,” I muttered.
“Not successfully.”
I turned on the water and tried to relax.
When I was finally done, I crossed back into my bedroom and began to climb into bed.
“What are you doing?” 19-10 asked.
“Getting into bed, why?”
“That takes forever. Can’t you just stand and listen?”
“I’m sleepy. You woke me up.”
When I was finally settled, 19-10 began.
“So I am a shafeshifter—”
“How is that different than a shapechanger?” I asked, referencing the word that he first used.
“It’s not, stop interrupting. It’s just a mutation.”
“What level?”
“Five.”
I had originally been categorized as a level four. Though at this point, I wondered if I would be much higher.
“The Messahn battlesuit was simply a collector’s item when I found it. No one could put it on let alone use it. But I could morph my form to fit inside. It took quite a long time to learn, and it’s a confusing shape, but now it’s second nature. Inside here I have eight eyes, no mouth or nose, four arms, obviously, and various other changes.”
“But you’re saying you’re Valia?” I asked, skeptically.
“Valia is just a form. I don’t have a true me. I could change shapes for as long as I can remember. I’m not a man or a woman, tall or short, fat or skinny. I chose Valia’s shape because I thought it would get me a position on the Kommilaire, and it did.”
“Did you think I cared she’s a cute woman? I never touched her,” I said.
“I know quite a bit about you, Hank. It’s my job. I knew you wanted more Kommilaire and figured you wanted more women to round out your male-dominated force. And I knew you had a past relationship with Garm.”
“Maybe,” I said begrudgingly.
“I took the assignment when I was on the other side of the galaxy. I had heard of you even there. Hank of Belvaille.”
“Why would you want to kill me?”
“I’ve killed other ‘great heroes’ in the past. In every case they were just normal people who had good marketing.”
“Who hired you?”
“Garm. Or I thought it was Garm. But it turned out to be the Ank using her clone.”
“Why were you in the Kommilaire?”
“To find your weaknesses. Find out what you did. The longer I stayed, though, the more I saw you really were your legend. You were the same guy. Executing you would have made me the undisputed greatest assassin in the galaxy. But I wasn’t sure I was capable of killing you and I wasn’t sure I wanted to.”
“You saved my life a few times. Or maybe not my life, but my skin.”
“I couldn’t let anyone else kill you. I wouldn’t get credit for it. If some Totki killed you that would have meant this was a waste of time.”
“Nice.”
“In the meanwhile, Garm’s clone hired me to do other jobs. I assassinated more than a dozen people on the station. You only heard of the big ones. I hired feral kids. I worked with gangs. I shot the Ank—likely so they would be clear of any suspicion. I also told Garm’s clone everything you were doing.”
I exhaled.
“You suck.”
“But I started to realize that if I did, through some miracle, manage to kill you, I would be killing everyone on this station. Men, women, children, gas clouds, insects, robots.”
“What do you mean?”
“You keep this city together. I don’t know how you do it. It’s insanity here. This city is like the organic, traumatic center of a star, ready to explode outward at any second.”
“So I’m gravity? Why is everything a fat joke?” I complained.
“It’s not just that you’re big. You almost never beat people up. But I could see you really did love this city and it was fated to fall without you. I don’t just take any contract. Killing you was one thing, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do that now that I knew you, but I was certain I didn’t want to slay all of Belvaille. When you started unravelling what the Ank were up to, I wondered if I was also being manipulated.”
“Well, you were.”
“I know that now.”
“So why are you here tonight?” I asked.
“To say goodbye. My employer is gone and I was working under false pretenses. And even if I wanted to, I don’t know how to kill you. And trust me, I know a lot of ways to murder. I fed you like two pounds of poison and you didn’t even notice.”
“Yeah, poison doesn’t really work on me. It’s just food,” I said. “Don’t worry too much. I’m expecting a massive heart attack any day now.”
“I’d also like to say that as Valia, I learned a lot from you.”
“Glad to hear it. I haven’t been a perfect gentleman my whole existence, but I’ll just throw out there that assassin isn’t the best career. There’s not much worse than looking back on your life with regret. I can speak from experience.”
“We each have our own paths, but like I said, I did learn things.”
“So can you take off your helmet?” I asked. I think I was still a bit unsure it was really Valia.
“No. I have to change forms.”
“You done with the Kommilaire, then?”
“I’m done with Belvaille. Time to relocate. I go where the jobs are.”
“How do you know I won’t stop you?”
“I can be any form I want to be. Unless you stop every ship from ever leaving, I’ll get off.”
“Well, that’s got to be handy for an assassin,” I sulked.
“It is. Take care, Hank.”
“What’s your real name?”
“When I’m an assassin, I’m 19-10. But when I’m living my life normally I think of myself as Jia-Kard.”
19-10 vanished, taking his light with him. Or her.
“Show off,” I said.
CHAPTER 71
I woke up the next day, started to make the long journey off my bed, and found it was quite easy to navigate.
In fact, I spun and almost threw myself onto the floor. I landed on my feet, however.
My feet! I could see them. I looked at my hands, my nimble fingers, my arms that no longer resembled construction pillars.
A chill went up my spine. A chill I could actually feel.
I ran to the bathroom. Ran!
I turned on the light and looked in the mirror.
It was me. My grayish white hair hadn’t changed a bit. But everything else had.
I was small. Not small, but fit. It was my body from a hundred years ago. I flexed. I turned. I patted my chest. I could feel through my hands, through my skin.