Vatican Assassin by Mike Luoma

Let’s get going, then.”
    The First opens the door for Peter, and then follows him out as they leave the office for the shelter.
    In the now-empty Pope’s office a com unit’s incoming alert light pulses red. Where are they?
    BC had started for the door, had meant to go see Edwards, but decided at the last second to double back to try the Vatican again. The CCU is just sputtering, no connection.
    “Jove, this is Diana, are you there?”
    “Campion? I thought you were already on the way here?” That’s Edwards on the room’s intercom, not the office back on earth.
    Wrong answer.
    Not the one he’s been waiting for.
    What did Edwards hear over the com?
    “Please report to Lunar Operations immediately. Edwards out.”
    Shit.
    BC’s CCU isn’t working. He’s getting no response from the Vatican. He tries signaling them one more time.
    Something feels wrong, the air in the room shifts…
    The door is open.
    In the open doorway, looking at BC and the com unit, stands the LSC he’d knocked out earlier. The cute one, Nita something.
    She’s recording him! She has some kind of recording device focused on him and his com unit. Shit again!
    How long has she been there?!
    BC dives at her. She turns and runs and BC hits the door as it closes behind her. He gets up and tries to get out after her. The door won’t open.
    Great, she jammed it! I can get it open, but, damn, that’s getaway time. BC pulls out his handlaser, blasts the lock, and the door opens. He races out into the hallway, looks both ways.
    Muted thuds and echoing explosions sound around him, but the LSC isn’t in sight. He runs to his left, out toward the perimeter of this section of Reagan Station.
    She’ll probably head out, instead of in to the city center. It offers more routes to take and get lost in…
    She’s just ducking around another corner when BC spots her. She’s doubling back towards the center, towards the main atrium.
    Gotcha.
    BC runs after her down a long sloping corridor towards the main dome, then to the left, around the area’s environmental treatment center. She runs out into the main mall, into the atrium. When he turns the corner into the dome BC tucks away his handlaser and tries to look like a priest as he crosses through the crowd, moving as fast as he can without attracting undo attention, trying to keep the LSC always in sight.
    She bumps and dodges her way through the dome, crowded with panicky residents trying to figure out where to go to escape the UIN assault. Her uniform makes her rapid transit through the mall look natural.
    BOOM! BOOM-BAH-BOOM-DOOM!
    Several people scream, distraught, in blind panic, as distant blasts shake the foundation of the station. BC looks around as he dodges through the crowd, hoping he doesn’t look too out of place racing after her.
    If they even notice me, maybe they’ll think it’s a church emergency. Last Rites or something. Hey, that’s kinda funny… I’ll give her last rites... She’s ducking down one of the remote access tunnels!
    BC tries to casually edge up to the doorway to the access tunnel. He looks around. Good. No one seems to be paying me too much attention. She could be right inside that tunnel just waiting to blast me. Gotta be careful.
    He sneaks a peek around the tunnel door’s edge. The LSC is still running, down the tunnel. BC
    ducks into the tunnel, pulls his handlaser back out and blasts a shot towards her feet.
    “Hey! Stop!” BC yells.
    She looks back once at BC, then runs faster.
    BC follows her down the tunnel. At an airlock the tunnel branches off from the main buildings to run independently across the lunar surface.
    The airlock is closing, shutting off the tunnel as BC gets there. He manages to reverse the door function and opens the door back up. Before it’s even fully open he jumps through. He stops the airlock from cycling, opens the door on the airlock’s other side and runs on down the tunnel. The tunnel runs across the lunar surface to some