Chapter 1 and 2: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14567

Chapter 3: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14577

Chapter 4: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14593

*****

Chapter 5

“Good evening, Dr. Fitzgerald.” The Operative said, stepping out of the shadows the way he did best. Doctor was a purely figurative title from when Fitzgerald had the intention of doing something productive, like healing. Now he was only a man of politics with a very shiny title.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on me, it makes me uncomfortable.” Ambrose Fitzgerald did not look up from the book that had currently held his attention: Untimely Meditations, from some earth-that-was author named Nietzsche. Damn, Dr. Fitzgerald thought to himself, they had some funny names on earth-that-was.

“You’re not supposed to be comfortable. You’re not supposed to be stealing.”

This got Dr. Fitzgerald’s attention.

“Yes, we know about that, and it’s more than a little bit bothersome.”

Dr. Fitzgerald put the book down and stood up. “You know there are three guards outside, and with the push of a button they’ll be in here.”

“They’re dead. I killed them on the way in.”

Fitzgerald did his best not to look afraid, but he knew that he wasn’t fooling the operative. He just let the pause between them hang. It wasn’t because he had nothing to say, he had plenty of last words. He didn’t speak because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get the words of his tongue.

“Do you know what your sin is, Doctor?”

He didn’t answer this.

“It’s gluttony.” The Operative looked at him, stone-faced. “You had the opportunity to be a king, but you couldn’t resist taking some for now.”

Still, Dr. Fitzgerald stood silent.

In a moment, Dr. Fitzgerald’s body was frozen and falling. He landed on the sword, the blade passed cleanly through his sternum and out through his spinal column.

The Operative removed his sword and walked out, carefully stepping over the bodies of the three guards he had killed on the way in.

*****