00080

Mita Morgan and Sheila Bright peeked in from the outer office. Agent Samm instructed Security Agent Osmo Martin, "Cuff Mr. Clyden, please."

Gov. Bright told Agent Samm, "Can you believe it? Clyden burned my hand! See? He had that touchpad thing strapped to his palm, and said he wanted to shake hands to say good-bye."

Agent Samm went over to look at the hand-sized touchpad lying on the floor. He picked it up for a better view. "This will be examine- exam- eh- ah-- uh, uh, uhhh..." Samm, holding the touchpad rather carelessly, brushed his fingers against the surface of the pad's active side. His eyes widened but glazed over, and, with his eyes still wide open, he fell on his face, bouncing off the governor's desk on the way down.

Osmo Martin, holding Clyden's arms pinned behind him, gasped. Clyden, disgusted, complained, "Yeah, now it works!"

Agent Osmo Martin demanded, "What is that thing? What's happened to Agent Samm?" Reacting rather than thinking, Osmo Martin hurried to aid Samm, not finishing the job of binding Clyden's wrists.

Gov. Bright cautioned, "Osmo, don't touch that thing!"

Omso Martin checked the prostrate Samm. Still alive, at least. He helped Sam stand up again. Still alive and awake. But yet, not awake. Not alert. Like Samm wasn't there reacting or interacting anymore. As if Samm were gone, even though his body stayed!

Clyden observed Agent Samm and murmured, "Maybe I squeezed it too hard and broke it, and that's why it failed me!"

Gov. Bright had an inkling of what had happened to Samm. "This touchpad must somehow be an ID Wipe. Very clever. And you wanted to do this to me? It will be your identity that is erased, Clyden, when you become a miner!"

Clyden shook his head. "No, I don't think so." He decided to take advantage of the distraction caused by Samm. Clyden pushed aside the girls in the doorway and sprinted for the exit. He didn't get very far, however, for Mita Morgan stuck out her leg, tripping the fleeing criminal, who sprawled over the floor of the Governor’s outer office.

Agent Osmo Martin leaped on top of Clyden's back. The youth quickly clunked the back of his ex-boss' head with his blaster. That momentarily took some of the fight out of Clyden, for the Security Agent was not gentle with his whack.. Osmo Martin struggled to cuff him, for Clyden still had plenty of resistance left as he lay on the floor.

Clyden flipped over onto his back, knocking off the youth, and suddenly the former Security Agent Leader put something into his own mouth. In a moment a fizzing came from inside Clyden's oral cavity.

Gov. Bright, along with his niece Sheila and Mita Morgan, crowded around the two wrestling men. Xavier Bright shouted to Osmo Martin, "I think he's taken a suicide pill! He thinks to escape our justice!"

Agent Martin dragged Clyden to a siting position and pounded him on the back. "Spit it out! Spit it out!"

Clyden held his stomach in pain, groaning, unable to fight back, feeling the terrible effects of the pill.

The Governor sighed. "It is too late, Osmo. You can be sure, in a few minutes Clyden will be dead. Oh well, no big loss."

Clyden moaned, pinned under Osmo Martin. Everybody waited for the inevitable. Nothing more happened for a full minute, until Clyden convulsed and vomited out his breakfast. But the pill was not in the mess- it had already been absorbed.

Gov. Bright's eyes bulged. "Not on my good carpet!" He suddenly got on the callbox on Mrs. Kline's desk and ordered for maintenance to send someone for cleanup stat.

Clyden continued to moan in pain, but not nearly as much as before. Osmo Martin yanked him to his feet. "Well? Are you dying, or aren't you?"

Xavier Bright began to laugh at Clyden. "You are truly a joke. Your ID Wipe failed, and now not even your suicide pill works. Your little tricks are like you, Clyden- big failures! Agent Martin, take him away- get the trash out of my sight, please.”

“Yes, Sir. I'll put him in lockup, until we transport him to the mines."

Clyden glared at Mita Morgan while Osmo led him away. "You tripped me, you miserable witch!"

She smiled back at him. "Oops. Sorry. Accident!"

Osmo Martin kept his blaster aimed at Clyden, marching him out of the Governor's mansion and across the lawn to the Security Agency Administration building, which contained several holding rooms for perps, of which Clyden was now a major perp.

Clyden spit on a wall poster of Xavier Bright which they passed as they headed toward the entrance of the Security building.

Osmo Martin said, "I guess you'll be taken to the mines by tomorrow morning."

As he took his prisoner inside the foyer and through the glass double doors, Clyden laughed at Osmo. "You know, you crack me up, Punk."

"Yeah? It's mutual," countered Osmo Martin. "You expected to get away with smearing the name of a good man. As Gov. Bright says, You are a thug."

Osmo Martin brought Clyden up the corridor to the lock-up. Clyden, amused, chortled some more. "That's right, Punk, keep swallowing his lies- hook, line, and sinker. You think Gov. Xavier is a good man? Then I am a saint. And you think he is your friend? You are so naive, Punk."

Agent Osmo Martin kept the blaster at the ready as he nudged him into a cell. He undid Clyden's cuffs and closed the door.

“You realize I don't believe a word you say, don't you, former Security Leader Clyden? I consider the source."

"Oh? Then what about if that friend of yours is the source- Albert Zoeniga? What did he have to say about the Governor? Did you consider that source? Is Zoeniga a reliable person? Did he think Gov. Xavier was an honorable man? Is that why he and that illegal church he belonged to kept protesting, and risking trouble? What made them do that, if they didn't really have any substance behind their claims? Do you think their loved ones just vanished? If those churh people’s loved ones were stolen away in the middle of the night, don't you think a good Governor would have at least checked into the situation? Unless he was behind it. But, of course, I am merely a thug. Don't listen to me. But ask yourself, Why did the Governor want a thug working for him, unless it was because a thug could get done what the Governor wanted to be done."

“Well, um... No, no, stop,” Osmo Martin replied. “Quit trying to manipulate me. You fooled me enough, and the rest of us, as well. But I caught onto you."

"Oh, you will one day learn the truth about the Governor, my stupid, stupid, ignorant, former trainee. Yes, you will learn. My last warning to you- make of it what you will, Punk- Open your eyes, before it is too late for you."

Osmo Martin smirked, locking the cell door. "Thanks for your concern."

"One more thing," Clyden persisted, as Osmo turned to leave.

Osmo Martin wanted to pay him no heed, but he couldn't help himself. He turned back to Clyden. "Now what do you want to say? I thought that was already your last warning. How many last warnings are you going to have?”

“I just wanted to let you know, you were right. No. 317, the miner- he really is George McCleer."

Osmo Martin answered, "If No. 317 is indeed Mr. McCleer, then you must have found him in a pocket after the cave-in. You did that to Mr. McCleer, then, to make Gov. Bright look bad with the Earth authority."

Clyden's eyes filled with amazement. "Talk about convoluted thinking and denial. What a sheep you turned out to be. Baaa! Or were you always like this? Baaa baaa! Do you want to hear the truth?”

“This caught Osmo Martin’s attention. He wondered if Clyden was ready to confess to all his misdeeds. “Do tell."

"This is truth. Scout's honor. There was no cave-in. That never happened. No, the good Gov. Xavier knew George McCleer would be a problem for him, once he sent his report to Earth about what went on here, what really went on here, and which you don't have a clue about. And no doubt McCleer wanted Gov. Xavier replaced. Like most of his problems, he assigned it to me to solve the matter of McCleer. Like the house church, he wanted that problem solved, too, only it went bad, unfortunately. But Gov. Xavier had a direct hand in solving the problem this George McCleer presented. When McCleer went to check on how well the mines ran, we already knew he wasn't coming back. Oh, yeah, I see the skepticism on your face. I want to tell you, I saw it all, as Gov. Xavier had him strapped down to the table for the transformation. Yup, maybe one day, Punk, it'll be you put on the table."

“Oh? Because, let me guess- because I have no clue as to what really goes on here?”

“You are really dumb, Punk. The Governor considers these things necessities. Kickbacks, blackmarketeering, stuff like that. And, did you know, we even have a fuel ore processor hidden on our world? The Earth doesn't like that, no, because if they cut us off from our own ore that Earth processes for us, should we dare to refuse Earth when they decide how we should do things on our own world, then we will be ready for them. We can do our own ore. That is the real reason McCleer came, to see if he could find evidence of the suspicions some Leaders on Earth had about us having a secret ore processor."

"Yeah, I'm sure," scoffed Osmo Martin. "More lies."

"I can prove the illegal activities Gov. Xavier does,” Clyden declared. "Take me back to my office, and I'll get my secret file documenting all the dirty tricks Gov. Xavier wanted done, and also a log of the ore we skimmed, and how much we processed, and when. Of course, I was reluctant to resort to revealing all this before, because I didn't want to end up in jail for my part in helping his wonderful governorship, but I guess we're beyond that now."

Osmo Martin nodded, chuckling. "Okay, sure. That’s some crazy stuff. You’re really sticking with some of those tales? A secret ore processor that nobody knows of? Ha!”

He turned away and sauntered off, looking uninterested, as he said to Clyden, “Okay, sure, I will just let you out and take you to your office so you can get the report to show me, while also grabbing a hidden weapon in your office and blasting me."

"Don't be a dope, Punk. The file's hidden right under the water cooler!" Clyden called after him.

"Yeah, oh, okay. As if I care whatever you have to say. Nice try," Osmo Martin called back, continuing toward the exit. But if Clyden had only been able to see Osmo's face, he would have seen that, in truth, Agent Osmo Martin found these claims very interesting indeed.

(c) drk 2012