Now we were sitting in a hidden room, while looking at our captured target who was placed on a nearby bed. She had already come to her mind, as the sleeping drug was precisely calculated to wear off in a one and a half hour. The receipts of psychotic drugs and such tools were researched and taught to extreme perfection among the ghosts. I could calculate and measure the dose of specific poisons to rech the desired effects.

All thanks to the special conditioning and teaching methods used on us. We were groomed to be the perfect assassins, agents, thieves, sabotours, all in a single person. 

Right now, this senator, however proved to be quite an unusual character if anything. After she woke up, and realized what had happened, instead of getting shocked and scared. As I initially expected from a senator in her position, it seemed, as if she even felt somewhat relaxed with the current outcome. That was making us quite nervous, so I looked over her whole body for anything that could resemble a signal emitter or something that could lead her guards to this location.

To my surprise there was no such thing to find, however her sense of peace, that she seemed to show us was extremely disturbed by my search... I didn't do anything outrageous, mind you... I just looked over her cloths, pockets hair ornaments and such things... maybe I forget to give the accessories back to her... That could explain her rage, somewhat, but meager trinkets shouldn't meant that much for someone with her status? 

I looked at her with a twinkling eye, as a sudden realization occured to me after I managed to catch her gaze looking at the ring I took off her finger... Was she married perchance? If so, it wasn't an official marriage, it was not stated in her file. I could be mistaken but that is, unlikely... I recognize that gaze, it is the gaze of a woman smitten with deathly love. 

It was not the kind of love, that would warm you up on a cold night, just enough to spend another twelve hours in your workplace. No, it was the type that would burn you from the inside out with desire. It was the love of the fools, the love of the idiots... The true love that only appears once in several lifetimes. The type of love, that is more of a curse, than a blessing. One that only ends, with death, which more often then not comes sooner then necessary in these cases. 

Poor, unfortunate fools... those people are, may they be women or men, who let themselves be the victims of such sensless desires. They may think now, that they found love, but they will eventually realize that the only thing they find, is a new depth of loneliness, coldness, and pain. Pain so unimaginable, that they will wish to forget everything about that feeling, about the taste of it, eventually. Knowing, that they never can keep it, yet never can forget it is a fate worse than not knowing of its existence at all.

There is a certain bliss in ignorance, without a doubt. Yet there is bliss in knowing too, the truth is, one cannot hold onto both at the same time, but how could our nature, that is essentially greedy among anything else, understand such concepts as no? 

I looked over her belongings once more, they were placed in front of me, over the table. I picked up her ring at the end, and saw her body go rigid in the corner. She was sitting against the wall over the bed, her hands bound tightly in front of her. 

I felt pity for the fool, she will suffer eventually more then I could make her. And it was not my goal in the first place, to torture her. 

I walked closer to her and looked into her eyes, she for the first time, stopped cursing at us, especially me since we took her things, well, since I took her ring, that is. She didn't even care about the other stuff. 

I grabbed onto her hands that were bound together at the wrist and pulled the ring over her ring finger. She seemed to not know where to place this action of mine. Her face had quickly turned a different shade of red, and she looked aside finally closing her mouth. 

I guess, she was happy with the results of her words, as he achieved her goal for now, therefore she decided to turn silent. Thank the gods, if there are such things in this word... she was seriously getting on my nerves. I may be an ex-ghost, but I ain't a masochist... That trait belongs to Su, if you hadn't realized it already seeing that she counts as a veteran viking pilot. Every time she comes back alive, some shit turns loose in her brain, I tell you, she wants everyone to speak in verses with her... It counts as one of the rare times I actually pity Stan. I mean, he is the captain, so he should bear such burden.  

Well... he was, as we don't have a funcional ship anymore... So probably it doesn't matter in that way, but old habits die hard, so it will stick to him, whatever he tries to do. 

Eh... what's with me today, it seems that I pity everyone... I must be depressed because of Lily... poor girl... and all of this is because of me... If I hadn't hesitated to act and captured this lovesick fool at the first opportunity... Lily would be still here, with us.

Curse this... All those training, all those conditioning, still didn't make me resolute enough, to spring to action on order... That was why I escaped, from the ghost academy... Always questioning orders, always wanting to know the reasons... it was not my job to know them, I was only expected to finish them. Without question... My conscience, however always wanted reasons... If there wasn't any reason given, my mind made them up for me... to make me feel justified for committing such heinous acts back then... It was like a game, before every mission, I imagined the reasons why I will kill these evil people. 

Making them disappear, from the surface of whatever planet I was sent to... It was a tool, to fool my conscience, but it didn't work forever... One time when I was sent to kill a child of a rival politician... I couldn't make up any reason, to kill that little girl... she was innocent. What reason could make me do it... there was nothing that could legitimate it... So I ran, but eventually was captured, and sent back to a reconditioning centrum. It wasn't the first time either. That was were I met Su... she was not my true sister, not in blood, however, she became someone I could cherish, and treat like a little sister. 

She was nuts of course... in a reconditioning ghost centrum, there was nobody, who didn't have some sort of mental problem. These were the people, who were deemed failures. Those who couldn't become complete psychopaths, senseless killers on order. Human shaped weapons of the government. This was nothing more than a high security prison, that tried to hide the proof of their true nature, the way they truly worked. It was just like the old nuclear reactors, before the invention of nuclear fusion technology. 

The by-products, the trash, nuclear waste that couldn't provide more energy was hidden, in deep concrete containers, often buried under ground or left in deep space, hidden from curious eyes. Except this time, the waste was in the shape of humans. The reconditioning centrum worked by a single idea. If the ghost was deemed to be mentally or physically damaged beyond possible repair in a certain amount of time and effort, they were considered "waste". These people, were eliminated, silently... If you showed signs and willingness to get back in service, they decided to spend some limited resources on you. 

In the hopes that they could squeeze out more value. It was never enough, even if you gave everything, your body, your mind, your soul. It will never be enough. They will even want your hopes, and your after life, if there is such things... everything you could think of they will want to take it from you, eventually. It is how they work.

There was no justice in this word, but for a fool, like this woman. Even if only for a while, I want her to believe, that this world is worthy of such feelings as the burning love her eyes mirrors towards someone, I couldn't care less to know... And who knows? Maybe she will be one of the rare exceptions. 

-Enjoy it, while it lasts, fool. 

I stated, and my translator repeated my words in her language. She looked at me with two large eyes blinking at me in confusion. She was ready to fight back if I tried anything else, she didn't liked me that was obvious, and understandable.

I decided to walk back to the table and wait for Lily to contact me...