Vatican Assassin by Mike Luoma

everyday I get orders from the Vatican! I’ve been practically bursting at the seams, not being able to tell anyone and all. Imagine that, best commission of my life, and I can’t tell anybody! And you,” Longeux laughs, “you already know, so I’m not telling you anything!” He laughs again, “You ready to go?”
    “Yes, yes I am, Mr. Longeux. It’s nice to meet you as well.”
    I like his laugh. A little over friendly, but what the heck. Could be worse.
    “They couldn’t tell me anything about this trip, said you’d fill me in on the details.”
    “Yes. I’ll do that once we set out. Can we board now?”
    “Sure!” Longeux turns and cycles the hatch behind him open. “Right this way, Father.”
    Longeux reaches for BC’s cases, but BC stops him.
    “Thanks, Mr. Longeux, but I’m fine to carry these myself. You’ve got a whole ship to handle, don’t worry about my luggage.”
    “Well, we’re pretty much all set, really. I’ve got clearance for us to take off in about an hour. The Paladin’s fueled and prepped for the flight. All we gotta do is get on board and go!”
    Longeux motions BC ahead of him through the hatch, then steps through himself and closes the hatch behind him. They’re in a small airlock, another hatch just ahead. Longeux reaches around BC and punches a code into the door panel in front of him.
    The hatch opens on a passageway extending down to the ship. BC steps through into the passageway. It’s square and accordion shaped on the sides to expand and contract in the distance between the outer wall of Lunar Prime and the hull of the ship, with a central walkway and handholds running down either side.
    Like being inside an accordion, complete with a handy walkway.
    Longeux steps through behind BC, closes the hatch and punches another code into the door panel on this side. He motions to BC to continue down to the ship. BC feels the gravity let go as they walk down the passageway. His stomach protests, but he manages to keep his breakfast down. He fumbles a little in the low G, but Longeux reaches out and steadies him.
    “It can be hard to adjust to the changing gravities, Father. I think you’ll find it better once we’re on the ship. She’s a good ship, Father. The Paladin's been fueled, and I just had the air recycling system recharged, so it should be good and fresh. I don’t have any cargo, nothing but yourself, like the Vatican asked. They paid me well. I’m not complaining, Father, don’t get me wrong. Here we are, the Paladin IV!”
    Longeux squeezes past BC to open the hatch to his ship, then steps aside to let BC enter. “Go ahead into the airlock, Father. Welcome aboard!”
    BC passes through the airlock and into the Paladin IV. He enters a corridor open to both sides. The Paladin IV’s colors appear to be green and gold. A green carpet lines the floor. Green and gold stripes run along about waist high on the gray wall in front of BC. And BC also notices there’s definitely more gravity than there was just outside the ship. BC takes it all in as Longeux enters behind him, still talking.
    “You know, Father, I go to mass a lot on the Moon and I don’t remember ever seeing you there.”
    “I work more behind the scenes, Mr. Longeux.”
    “Well, I hope you don’t mind me asking... if we’re gonna be traveling past Sunday, I was hoping you might say a Mass for us, at least on Sunday. I know you’re more casual than, say, the Cardinal. I like his masses. But even if you could just do the New United Reform Liturgy, even... could you, Father?”
    “Sure. If we travel past Sunday.”
    “That’d be great, Father. Thank you! Are we gonna travel past Sunday?”
    This should be interesting... never even been to a liturgy... suppose I can fake it. I’ve gotta wonder if the boys back home set me up with this guy on purpose. They’re probably getting a good chuckle right now at the thought of me saying a Mass. Ha ha fucking ha. Wonder if the trip’ll even take that