All That Glitters Ch. 61

The older children would talk on a variety of subjects attempting to stump the two celebrities, from math, to politics, and of course music, questions of which the children were successfully replying. The older children had stumped them more than a few times earlier in this game not so long after the opening of the daycare but the children had impressive memories and were quickly starting to intellectually lead their pack of different age mates. It was getting much more difficult to stump them.

As they crossed the threshold at the entrance to the Food Court, Ikekiya glanced over to the nearby wall and stopped dead in her tracks, causing her sister to bump into her.

Zarreniya caught the fear in her sisters mind as she too looked over to the wall. It took her a moment to realize what it meant. Ikekiya had not always shared her dreams with her sister but when she did, they often speculated on the meanings found in those dreams. It helped Ikekiya that someone she trusted also knew about them and the interactions with her sister allowed her to formulate different interpretations.

Both children looked to their left, into the Food Court and the tunnel that they expected Raymond to appear at...and he did. Terror bloomed in Ikekiya's heart as she saw Raymond, Liea, Kim, and Gillaya moving into the court, talking animatedly just as they had in her dream.

Zarreniya pushed her sister. "Go, help Raymond!" she shouted over the din of noise in the open plaza. Her sister turned and ran in the direction of her family friends as fast as her little feet could carry her while Zarreniya turned and told Urano of the danger and told her to take the other children back to the daycare before she spun around and followed her sister, Urano frantically calling after both of them, the sounds of their names lost in the din of the Food Court.

Just before the point in her dream that she saw the man rise up and shoot at Raymond, Ikekiya saw the man in brown sitting at a table. She put on another burst of speed and drew her collapsible staff.

************

Fayad and Juliana were in the Director's office going over points for the next day when the first inkling that something was going on came from Takebayashi Urano as she opened a link to Fayad.

"Fayad, the Playhouse is going into lockdown. It's the man in brown scenario!" Urano screamed from his comp.

"The children ran to help Raymond in the Food Court. I couldn't stop them. Zarreniya told me to get the children out of there, then she ran after her sister. They are both in the center of this thing!" Urano finished.

Fayad was up and running immediately. Juliana rushed into Central Control and told them call up imagery from the Food Court. She opened a link to Security.

"We have a situation developing in the Food Court, possible assassination attempt. Secure the area!" she frantically ordered security.

"Comms, give me station wide, NOW!!" Juliana screamed.

"Ma'am, you have station wide," Comms replied.

"All personnel this is the Assistant Director, there is an ongoing security incident in the Food Court. All personnel are to avoid that area. People on the Concourse should evacuate immediately. Do not go through the Food Court to evacuate even if it is inconvenient," Juliana ordered.

"Embassy staff, lock down the Interspecies Embassy until further notice, Juliana Santos, out."

Immediately, her comp started buzzing with requests from worried platform workers and the embassy staff. She shunted it all over to the Comms O...

************

Dorman was focused on his target and did not see the little girl rushing toward him. He was waiting for his partner to step in front of the target with the float bed and have it 'fail' at a convenient time to briefly halt the target's forward momentum, giving Dorman the perfect shot.

The float came crashing down while Satrina swore as if she hadn't expected the 'failure' of the device. While the attention of the target was momentarily on the float, Dorman pressed on the spot on his forehead that released the drug that enhanced his physical abilities and left the distinctive mark of the Orin Sallé in its place.

Dorman rose up, his plasma pistol snapping up in front of him in the same manner that he had practice a gazillion times in his young life. His aiming picture was perfect, with the target square in his sights, he slowly squeezed the trigger in the approved fashion only to discovered he could not move!

Surprised by the sudden turn of events, he again tried to work the trigger. That was when something crashed into his wrist, knocking the pistol from his grip and sending it flying. The shot of pain in his wrist broke his concentration on his target...it also released him from his temporary paralysis.

He looked down to see a little girl with a big staff in her hand, swinging it around in an arc intending to hit him again. He sidestepped the swing and grabbed the staff as it went by, turning in a circle that tore the staff from the girl's grip. He was intending to turn back to the little girl and rap her roughly over the head with her own weapon when he felt extreme pain in his stomach, just above the joint of his hip.

The pain momentarily surprised and shocked him causing him to look down just as the little girl with the big knife thrust it back into his stomach one more time, this time hitting an artery and causing blood to spray everywhere. It wasn't enough for the little girl who was shouting "You not hurt Raymond," each word punctuated (literally) with another thrust of the knife.

Dorman looked back to the target but he was no longer there. How was it that he had not taken the shot? It was a perfect opportunity yet, after all his training, he had missed it. He looked down at the little girl who was looking up at him with fury in her eyes. Her eyes almost seemed to glow; her hair was spreading out in a hallo around her head. He suddenly realized she was an empath. His anger flared...

He wanted to kill this little girl for having taken his opportunity away from him but he realized that it was too late for that as he felt the life quickly draining from him.

Assassination was a dangerous business and few assassins ever got away alive. Dorman and Satrina had planned this attack meticulously. They knew what they were going to do down to the second.

After Dorman took the shot, he would then turn the weapon on the two bodyguards and on Liea Samson. He would continue to fire indiscriminately until there was no one left to shoot at and then he would take advantage of the panic to escape, removing his simple disguise of a fake nose, mustache, and the brown jumpsuit in an area devoid of security cameras. But now, that plan was gone, all because of a little girl.

Dorman had envisioned many ways to be killed during one of his contracts. He had never contemplated being killed by a tiny girl with a big knife.

His last thought was 'damn', as he slumped to the deck, hearing the screaming as people ran away from a dying man who had brandished a power weapon and the mad little child with the big knife.

Ikekiya saw the man fall and knew she had won. She was so focused on the man in brown that she almost missed his partner rushing at her, almost, but Kim's instructions were good. At the last possible moment, she sensed her assailant and ducked under a haymaker aimed at her little head. While she escaped the full impact of the blow she did not entirely escape from being hit but her movement did mean she was only knocked unconscious and not killed.

************

Raymond, Liea, Kim, and Gillaya, had all come into the Food Court, talking animatedly about the new projects they were involved with one way or another.

Just as they got partway into the court, one of the maintenance floats suddenly crashed to the floor while the operator cursed at the unexpected failure. The foursome all turned toward the crashed float together.

Raymond caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Ikekiya running across the court toward his right. He turned his head slightly and saw something that he had only seen in a nightmare, and not his own...

Standing there, holding a weapon pointed right at his head, was a man in a brown jumpsuit. What was worse, he had the symbol of the Orin Sallé on his forehead. The man was focused on Raymond but suddenly he looked surprise. A fraction of a second later, Ikekiya's staff crashed into the man's wrist and the weapon went flying.

Raymond felt himself being grabbed by two sets of hands as he was pulled down out of the way, Liea joining him on the floor less than a second later. Both bodyguards were up and running toward the assassin, however, they were surprised to see him on the floor bleeding heavily, Ikekiya standing over him.

A woman was now nearly on top of Ikekiya. Kim called out to warn her. She didn't know if Ikekiya heard her or simply sensed her assailant but she moved at the last moment. The blow to her head was meant to cause severe injury or even death but Ikekiya ducked under it at the last possible second. Even so, she caught some of it and went down heavily, unmoving. They saw the woman pull a blade but they were still several steps away from being able to help.

************

Satrina pulled a 15cm, needle point knife that she intended to use on the child when she suddenly found that she could not move. Her arm was locked up tight. Surprised, she fought against her sudden freeze and she felt herself begin to move again.

Like Dorman, she had pressed the spot on her forehead and now felt the enhancing effect of the drug the Orin Sallé had placed in her body. It took several seconds to fully activate but now that physical enhancement allowed her force her to move her hand against whatever was stopping her.

Zarreniya had been desperately chasing after her running sister and came up on her just as she was knocked down. She saw the lady who hit her sister pull something sharp with her left hand. Zarreniya screamed silently in her mind 'YOU NO MOVE!' and saw the woman freeze momentarily. She closed the last few meters to the woman just as she began to break through the freeze.

Satrina was about to stab the little girl who had killed Dorman when she saw movement to her left and turned to it.

Zarreniya pulled her staff from her leg pouch and snapped it open. She used a downward strike at the woman's hand intending to knock the weapon from her but the woman moved her hand out of the way, letting the staff rush by.

Surprised, Zarreniya rolled the staff left to right, crashing the free end of it against her opponent's shoulder causing the woman to jump back.

Satrina was surprised at the skill of what appeared to be a tiny little girl. The blow to her shoulder had not been damaging but it had stung! She shielded the hand with the knife under her right arm and pulled her right hand around reaching for the girl's staff only to find that it had been pulled back.

Zarreniya used the staff like a spear and jammed the end of it into Satrina's left hand, causing her to drop her blade and step back yet again.

Shit! That had really stung! she thought. The shock of the impact had run up her arm and Satrina realised that the girl had intentionally hit a nerve point. That angered her.

Satrina reached out again and this time successfully grabbed onto the staff. She spun to her right, taking the staff across her body, successfully pulling it away from the little girl.

Zarreniya, however, had the presence of mind to let go of the staff and pull her Damate, thrusting it hard into the woman's back as she turned. She was still a tiny girl so her blade struck low on her assailant's back.

The woman shouted as she suddenly lost all feelings in her legs. She fell to her right, pulling the Damate from Zarreniya's hand, or at least trying to as Zarreniya remembered her training and held onto the weapon which briefly came out of the woman's back. Afraid that the woman would run away, Zarreniya pushed it back in as the woman was still falling.

The Damate again slid into Satrina's back but this time it hit the main artery to the left kidney as she fell. The damage was such that she started bleeding severely internally. Zarreniya and the woman briefly locked eyes. Satrina looked at the face of little girl, seeing the anger and fear that were there.

Zarrenia looked down at the woman who was now laying in a growing pool of blood. She realized that she had caused that. She looked to her sister and saw her laying motionless in the blood. She could not mentally connect with her sister and fear bloomed inside her. She sat down in the growing pool of blood and wailed out her plight as hands grabbed her and pulled her away from the action. Zarreniya instantly knew she was in Gillaya's arms, her face squashed protectively into her breasts.

The assassin had fallen within easy reach of her needle knife. Kim was suddenly there. She looked down at the assassin and contemptuously kicked the needle knife away from the dying woman's hand. She locked eyes with the assassin.

"Children," the assassin muttered. "We've been killed by children! How?"

"You took on the wrong target," Kim snarled at the woman. "He is loved by many, including those children. When they saw what you intended to do, they moved to protect him, and us."

"Love?" the assassin said, feeling the taste of the word on her tongue. It was different this time. She looked to her partner's body and attempted to reach out to him as the life faded from her eyes. Her hand never quite made it to Dorman before it finally rested motionless on the deck.

Zarreniya heard screams of anguish that she recognized as both of her mothers calling out the respective names of her and her sister. She was snatched from Gillaya's protective embrace and smothered in the embrace of her tearful momma.

************

Junelliya had heard the mental cry of her children as they had engaged the man in brown. She grabbed Hanalei and rushed to the Food Court which, fortunately, was not far from their abode, with Violletiya and Sylvie running hard to catch up.

Junelliya and Hanalei saw the two dead assassins and Ikekiya lying in a large pool of blood. They screamed out the names of their children and rushed forward. Junelliya saw Zarreniya being held by Gillaya and pulled the child from her arms. She saw blood all over her child and quickly checked her for injuries.

"I good, momma," Zarreniya reassured her, causing a pain of anguish in Junelliya's heart as she looked over to Ikekiya. She called out her other child's name. Hearing the agony in her mother's voice, Zarreniya started crying once again.

People were rushing in. Security types were pulling people away from the crime scene as they attempted to keep control of the scene and the evidence, an attempt that was waisted as medical types rushed the scene. Doctors and nurses were quickly assessing the injured, including Zarreniya who they confirmed was uninjured.

The entire event had taken less than ten seconds, security swarming the Food Court less than thirty seconds later and hospital staff following with a minute.

************

In the hospital, Heyya too had heard the mental cry of the children and, calling her trauma team together, rushed to the site of the incident. When she saw Ikekiya laying in the blood, she feared the worst especially when she could not connect with her mentally. She snatched at her medical scanner and passed it over the girl and was relieved to find out she was only unconscious. She likely had a concussion from the bruise on the back of her head. The scan of the two others was not so good. Both were dead.

Fayad came in and found Hanalei, Junelliya, and Zarreniya crying together. Heyya came over to the family and informed them that Ikekiya had only been knocked out. She would likely have a concussion but that could be dealt with. The family stood up and was immediately surrounded by over a dozen bodyguards from different races from all over the station and the ships, with Kim and Gillaya directing them all.

They followed the rushing med techs who were screaming at people to get out of the way as they ran Ikekiya down the hall on the anti-grav bed. The family took a little longer to get to the trauma ward but they did so in a tight ring of security. They entered the hospital and were ushered into a larger private room where Ikekiya was being cleaned up.

Katanya came over and took Zarrenia from her mother. Sylvie had stopped at the apartment and retrieved cloths for Junelliya, Hanalei, Ikekiya, and Zarreniya as all were covered in blood.

The two ladies unashamedly stripped and stepped one at a time into the room's small shower while Ikekiya and Zarreniya were gently cleaned by hospital staff. Once everyone was dry and clothed again they felt better. In the meantime, two doctors had checked on Ikekiya and informed the family that she could be revived at anytime they wished. They got a nod from Fayad and the Katanya gave Ikekiya a stimulant to wake her.

Ikekiya's eyes blinked open and she gave a wane smile to Katanya then clutched her hands to her head.

"Ow, hurts," she whimpered.

"I know, Ikekiya, but we can't give you anything for the moment. There are people who want to ask you a couple of questions first," Katanya told her.

"Ikekiya!" she heard her mommy. Ikekiya raised her hands up and was gently pulled into her mother's embrace. She felt her momma and her sister behind her. She reached out a hand to touch her sister and the Pod-Drran med techs noticed that the two children seemed to glow for a brief moment then everyone started crying. In moments, the entire room was in tears, with the exception of the Pod-Drran, who didn't shed tears like humans did.

Zarreniya was crying loudly again when Ikekiya shushed at her. "No so loud, Zarry, hurts," Ikekiya said softly.

Zarreniya's crying hickuped to a shuddering stop as she reached out to touch her sister. "I no feel you, Ikeki. I so 'fraid," she whined.

"Shush, Zarry. I good. Need sleep," Ikekiya said as she faded out. Instantly half of the staff was at her bed, frightening Zarry to see them react that way.

************

Fiona came storming into the Food Court with Cynthia Stewart not far behind her less than five minutes after the event. She noted the two bodies laying in a large pool of blood with half-a-dozen security types taking images of everything.

"REPORT!!" she snapped as the head of security spun around to her voice.

"Ma'am, there was an assassination attempt here on the platform less than five minutes ago. The Piscium children engaged the assassins and apparently killed them," he reported.

"What do you mean 'apparently', Monsieur Perron?" Fiona snapped.

"Ma'am, we are talking about two children that are not even two years old!" Perron replied with a look of disbelief on his face. "We are going through the security recordings now but it will take a bit before we can put things together.

"However, there is another issue...apparently, someone got imagery of this event off the platform. It is all over the media on Liramor Prime and by now, on many other worlds as well," Perron informed her. "I ordered that the connection to the ICS be blocked for the moment.

"Merde!" Fiona cursed just as her comp bleeped an emergency code at her. It was Juliana.

"Fiona, Fayad has closed off his comp. I cannot raise him," Juliana stated. "We have people calling from everywhere, and I mean everywhere. We have inquiries from the President of Liramor Prime, the President of the Union, the heads of state of many of the Interspecies races, William Liramor from the Liramor Mining Company, and Antoine and Annette Liramor of Liramor Holdings calling us all at the same time! The embassy and the Wee One's Playhouse are both locked down."