Her Brother's Keeper - eARC (16 page)

The group of teens formed a semicircle to watch Carlos fight Victoria’s friend. The older man was bigger than Carlos, but he was inebriated and clumsy. The young gaucho grabbed him by his shirt and flung him into the boards of the stall, following up with a flurry of punches. Some of the teens fled, but others stayed and cheered. The bigger man shoved Carlos back and came at him once more.

Victoria was laughing uncontrollably the whole time, leaning on the stall door. Annie was on her handheld with emergency services, explaining that her horse had been poisoned. The call finished, she was about to throw Victoria out of the stall when Sparkles convulsed.

The horse, her breathing labored and slow, fell to her knees, then collapsed to the dirt floor of her stall. Annie watched helplessly as she convulsed, cried, and kicked, foam coming from her mouth and nostrils. Annie felt sick as Sparkles suffered, vomiting up a bloody mess before lying still.

“No…” she said, dropping down next to the animal. “Sparkles?” The fight going on right outside of her stall, Victoria, the drugged-up teens, all of it faded away as she placed her hands on her horse’s still form.

Sparkles’ ragged breathing slowed and then stopped. She died.

Tears streamed down Annie’s cheeks. She buried her face in her hands and wept. She was snapped back to reality when Carlos slammed the other man into the stall door again. Startled, she stood up to see what was going on.

The other teens scattered as a trio of utility robots rolled up to the scene of the disturbance, politely insisting that the two men stop fighting. The lead robot was knocked to the ground as Carlos threw his opponent into it, sending man and machine tumbling to the stable floor in a heap. The robot’s wheel spun helplessly, kicking up dirt, as it tried to right itself, but the weight of the unconscious man on top of it was too much.

Carlos, with a swollen face and blood leaking from his nose, stepped over to the stall door. “Are you okay?” he asked Annie, breathing heavily. “What…” his voice trailed off when he noticed Sparkles’ body on the floor of the stall. “Oh no. Victoria, how could you do this? What is wrong with you?”

Victoria seemingly ignored him as she tried to climb over the stall door. Before she could make it over on her own, Annie grabbed her legs and shoved her over the top. The rich girl fell facefirst to the dirt floor and struggled to get up.

Annie wasn’t about to give the bitch the chance. In a flash, she leapt over the door and came down on top of Victoria. She dragged the inebriated girl to her feet and threw her back to the ground as hard as she could. Before the robots could do anything, before Carlos could say anything, she came down on Victoria like an orbital strike. “How could you?” she said, so enraged that she was crying. “How could you?” She didn’t give Victoria the chance to answer; she sat on top of her and punched her in the face, then again, then again. “You fucking bitch!” she shrieked, hitting her over and over.

A mechanical claw clamped down onto Annie’s arm, snapping her out of her rage. The robot ground its wheel into the dirt, pulling her off of Victoria. “Get off of me!” she said, shaking free of the robot’s grasp.

Carlos was at her side then, and helped her to her feet. “Annie, you need to stop,” he said quietly.

Annie didn’t say anything. She looked down at Victoria, bloodied and bruised, and felt sick. Victoria’s eyes were swollen shut, blood leaked from her nose and mouth, and her breathing was ragged. Annie’s knuckles were bloody. Shaking her head, not knowing what to do, she turned to Carlos, buried her face into his shoulder, and cried.

* * *

Annie opened her eyes, squinting in the dazzling lighting of the holding cell. Despite how uncomfortable the bed was, she’d managed to sleep for a while. She’d been taken into custody by the Aterrizaje Police, but they were mostly nice. They bandaged her hands and didn’t restrain her when they drove her to the station. Once they got her there, though, they did a blood test and found a little bit of alcohol in her system. They promptly wrote her a ticket for underage drinking.

Still, they let her tell her side of the story, and said they would look at the logs from the security cameras and the robots. They said that the veterinarian had taken a blood sample from Sparkles and would be able to determine if there were any illegal substances in the horse’s system. Annie’s handheld had been broken in the scuffle, but the police said they’d notify her parents for her. This mortified Annie, but there was no way to hide this from her parents. She wasn’t under arrest, technically, but they wouldn’t release her without a legal guardian. They put her in a holding cell so they could monitor her until someone came to get her. It had been hours and hours. It had to be mid-morning already. She had no idea how long she’d been in there, or when anyone would arrive.

Annie sat up quickly when she heard the door unlock. It slid open and her father stepped into the room. Jumping off the bed, she ran to him and hugged him tightly, trying not to start crying again. “Daddy, Sparkles is dead! She killed her!” she sobbed.

Her father held her tightly for a long moment. “Come on now, baby girl,” he said. “Let’s sit down a moment.”

“We’re not leaving?” Annie asked, unable to hide the fear in her voice. Was he just going to leave her here?

“I need to talk to you about what’s going to happen,” he said. “Then we’ll go.” He seemed tired.

“Okay,” she sniffled, sitting back down on the bed. After her father sat next to her, she asked him what was going on.

He shook his head sadly. “I’m going to be straight with you, honey: this isn’t good. That girl you beat down, Victoria? She’s in the hospital with a fractured skull and a broken nose. You did a number on her.”

Despite the pit forming in her stomach, Annie was defiant. “She killed Sparkles! She poisoned her with Red Eye! Red Eye, Daddy!”

“I know, I know,” her father said reassuringly. “The city police have the video recordings from the cameras and the robots. Your friend Carlos corroborated your story, though the police told me both of you had alcohol in your system.”

“I just tried beer,” Annie pleaded. “I didn’t even finish it. I didn’t like it.”

“Ok, honey. Neither one of you was intoxicated. It certainly seems like Victoria was, but they’re not going to tell me the results of her blood test. They
did
find vials of Red Eye on her and that clown that Carlos whupped the shit out of, though.”

“
She
should be the one in jail!”

“You’re not in jail, Annie. Calm down. If she wasn’t in the hospital getting her face put back together she probably would be. Things being as they are, though, it’s not so cut and dry. Her father is an influential man with a lot of money. That son of a whore actually had the gall to call me, a peace officer, and offer me a shady deal.”

“What?” Annie asked. “What kind of deal?”

“He said he’d pay me a lot of money if I didn’t press charges for his daughter poisoning your horse. He said that if we didn’t press charges, then he wouldn’t either, and this would all go away.”

“But she
had
Red Eye!”

Her father shrugged. “He has enough clout to make sure she just gets sent to rehabilitation.”

Annie was scared now. “Why didn’t you take the deal?”

“Because it’s not right, Annabelle. Guys like that need to learn that sometimes, having money to throw around doesn’t mean you can do whatever the hell you want. If this thing just gets quashed, that girl won’t learn anything from this. Nothing will change, and she’ll grow up to be a horrible human being because she never had to live with the consequences of her actions.”

“She’s already a horrible human being.”

“I agree, honey, but she’s seventeen years old.
Nobody’s
life is over at seventeen. There’s always time to turn it around.”

“But she killed Sparkles!” Annie said angrily. “Why are you taking her side? Now I’m going to go to jail!”

“Annabelle Winchester, I am
not
taking her side, and you’re not going to jail. Calm down and let me finish. That girl’s daddy threatened me up and down. Threatened to sue, threatened to ruin our lives, threatened to get the book thrown at you, and threatened to have you tried as an adult. He made those threats and I have witnesses that saw him do it, like your Uncle Wade. I didn’t, uh, exactly tell him other people were listening, but it’s not a recording and their testimony will hold up in court if he tries anything.”

Annie looked down at her lap. “What’s going to happen now?”

“Right now? I’m going to take you back to your room so you can get cleaned up and get some rest. We’ll get something to eat on the way there if you’re hungry. Worst case scenario, you might be looking at a year in juvenile detention for assault.”

Annie looked up, eyes wide, feeling sick. “A year?” She couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. “It’s not fair. You said to always finish a fight. You said.”

“Hey now, baby girl,” her father said, putting his arm around her. “I didn’t mean you just beat the shit out of someone who wrongs you, even if they have it coming. This is the real world, honey. There are consequences for your actions, even if you thought they were justified. Juvy ain’t the end of the world. It won’t keep you out of most schools.”

“I don’t care about schools. I want to go to space.”

“I know. Don’t worry, some time in the pokey won’t keep you out of the Spaceflight Academy or the Defense Forces, either. You’re going to be okay.”

“But I don’t want to go to juvy,” Annie cried. “It’s not fair!”
How is he letting this happen?

Her father gently brushed the hair out of Annie’s eyes. “Come on, honey, no more tears for right now. I’m going to talk to the judge and see if there is another arrangement we can work out. You’re a minor, you’re under a lot of stress because your mom is pregnant and your father is leaving, it was your first time alone in the city, and a drugged-up hooplehead poisoned your horse. Those are some pretty extenuating circumstances. I called my lawyer and she’s pretty confident we’ll be able to make a deal.”

“But…” Annie protested.

“No ‘buts’ now,” her father said. “There’s nothing for it. Come on, let’s get you out of here. Captain Blackwood gave me a pass for two days, so I’m here for you.”

Annie sniffled as she stood up. She felt sick. It was all too much. “I wish I could just go with you, Daddy,” she said. “I just want to leave this stupid planet.”

Annie’s father stood up and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yes, well, one thing at a time. Let’s get you signed out.”

* * *

It had taken some legwork, and he’d had to call in some favors, but Marcus was able to get his daughter a court hearing the very next day. This was fortunate, because he was scheduled to lift off from New Austin shortly after that, and didn’t want to have to ask Captain Blackwood to delay for his sake.

Marcus had been afraid that Ellie would go ballistic when he told her what happened. Annie had tried beer and beaten a girl so badly that she’d been hospitalized. She was mad at Annie but she was furious at Victoria Alexander and her sleazy father. She considered him and his entire family a bunch of degenerates who were a blight on New Austin. Marcus happened to agree, but they were a blight with a lot of money and good lawyers. He had to take that into consideration.

Marcus’ lawyer, an old friend of his named Serendipity Kim, represented Annie during the hearing. The Alexander family lawyer, a well-known, high-priced celebrity attorney, made an appearance and demanded the hearing be dismissed. He insisted an adult criminal trial be scheduled, but the judge wasn’t having any of it. Especially, Marcus noted with a smile, when both Wade and Captain Blackwood herself testified to the judge that they’d overheard the conversation wherein Mr. Alexander threatened Marcus and his family. The judge had dismissed him from the courtroom, and made it clear that the Alexander family was to leave the Winchesters alone.

Upon the advice of Ms. Kim and her father, Annie pled guilty, as a minor, to an assault charge. It could have been a lot worse, but given the circumstances the judge didn’t want to throw the book at her. By old law going back to the founding of the colony, stealing or harming another colonist’s livestock was a serious offense on New Austin. Given that, Ms. Kim was able to convince the judge that Annie didn’t deserve to go through an adult criminal trial.

The question remained of what was to be done with her? Marcus knew there was no way the judge was going to let her be released into the custody of her mother, especially since Victoria wasn’t going to get off so easily either. In trying to calm Annie down, Marcus had downplayed juvenile detention somewhat. It wasn’t horrible, but he didn’t want his daughter out doing manual labor projects with a bunch of underage criminals, separated from both of her parents and far from home. She was distraught enough with everything going on, especially with her horse having been poisoned, and he feared juvy would make a bad situation for Annie a lot worse.

Not having many options, Marcus approached Captain Blackwood with a proposal: Annie would be released to her custody and would serve as a crewmember-in-training for the duration of the mission. Space was dangerous, yes, but at least he didn’t have to worry about her being all alone, or getting attacked by some crazy delinquent.

Captain Blackwood surprised Marcus by readily agreeing to the proposal. She had the bunk space, she explained, and such arrangements were quite common on her adopted homeworld of Heinlein. A shipboard environment offered discipline and structure that would straighten out a rowdy teenager. She’d be in a secure environment, and the mission to Zanzibar wasn’t as risky to the ship itself as, say, pirate hunting.

Annie, predictably, was thrilled at the proposition. Ellie, on the other hand, was adamantly against it. She wasn’t going to allow her daughter to leave her for up to two years, with no real way to communicate with home. “I’m losing my husband,” she’d said, “I’ll be damned if I’m losing my daughter too!” She especially wasn’t happy with some of the hazard clauses in the proposed contract, similar to the one Marcus had signed.